Stall Street

Here's a link to a BBC report about U.S. Republicans blocking a bill that would kick start financial reform in that country.

My illustration is an "Obama's eye view" you might say.

Obama's Inbox

Here's another Illustration I did for Obama's crusade to reform Wall Street.

The idea is pretty straight forward with the famous "Wall St." street sign sticking out of the President's inbox. The composition with its vertical layout is kind of unusual.

Cheers,
Paul

Can We Talk?: The Teen Edition

I read a story today about how texting has become teenagers prime communication tool. Apparently 72% of U.S. teens text regularly while 54% text daily. I can't really venture a guess as to how this effects teen socialization skills.

I do know this however, I hate cellphone technology. I do own a cellphone. It's the absolute cheapest one on the market. It doesn't have a camera, video recorder, MP3 player, or cheese grader. It's a phone and pretty much only a phone( I have to admit I do use the tip calculator on occasion). Basically it's for use in case of an emergency.

Here are a couple of reason's I dislike them.

Remember the old days when in queue for something, a doctor's appointment or waiting at a bus stop, and you actually struck up a conversation with fellow human being? Nowadays more often then not you wait in silence while the person beside you buries their face in a tiny little screen. Does this not have an impact on people's sense of community? Does it not further people's feelings of isolation and disconnect with other human beings? I think it does.


Here's another scenario. You're driving the highways and byways and you spot a car darting erratically in front of you. "Someone is in to the sauce a little early today" you think. But as you cautiously draw closer to pass, you see it isn't a bottle in their hand but a cellphone. I live in Ontario Canada where it is illegal to be operating a hand-held device while driving, but I still see it all the time.

I've ranted long enough. I'm sure you get it, I don't like the blasted things. Here is the Illustration I did regarding teen texting. I composed it to mimic a circuitry board on an electronic device. The ends encircle each teen in a bubble like fashion to signify the isolating nature of these technologies. Some would argue they connect people but I disagree. But I digress.


Back to the ol' drawing board.
Cheers,
Paul

Business Ethics Takes Another Kick to the Sachs

Wall Street's less then squeaky clean image takes another hit as the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission charges Goldman Sachs with defrauding investors in a sale of securities tied to subprime mortgages.

What they're alleged to have done is basically selling it's clients bonds secretly designed to fail, then raking it in when they did. Not unlike selling a lame horse to a stable, then betting against that horse in the race. Ka-ching!

This Illustration isn't specifically about Goldman Sachs but more generally about dirty dealings that do occur on occasion in the business world.

I tried to make the composition of this piece interesting by placing the perspective below the subjects. This gives the subject a distorted look which I hope communicates a feeling of corruption and greed. This view point also allows the Aces up the sleeve to cascade down upon the viewer which I think is effective. I also incorporated a fair bit of green into the colour scheme, again for greed.


Thanks for checking into my Illustration blog. I appreciate any comments you might have.

Back to the ol' drawing board.

Cheers,
Pual

Can We Talk?

This recent Illustration represents what I see a lot of "political discussion" has become. Loud voices trying to be louder then the opposing loud voices.

My absolute favourite Illustration ideas are always simple ones. This Illustration is about as simple of an idea that you can get. The simplicity of the idea, and more importantly the composition, gave me an opportunity to explore some different textures in the piece.

Obama: Wall Street Referee

With the US economy showing some signs of recovery, President Obama tries to keep his current winning streak alive by putting Wall Street firmly in his cross-hairs.

Looking at preventing another economic Chernobyl- he plans to introduce financial regulations that will hopefully prevent future taxpayer bailouts of folk whose business practices are modeled after the cast of MTV's Jackass.

As the president is looking at introducing new rules and regulations so that the boys and girls on Wall Street will play nicely, I have depicted the president as a sports referee.

This first image shows the artwork's transformation from a simple line drawing into a grayscale version, then finally a full colour Illustration.

Most of my Illustrations are drawn using a Steadtler pigment liner pen. I then scan the line -drawing into the computer and add the colour in Photoshop CS3. We are living in the digital age after all.

Final version of today's Illustration

If you have any comments regarding the topic or artwork I'd love to hear from you. Unless you're mean or overly critical in which case "love" might be overstating it. If you are prone to rant in a nut-like fashion, try to be entertaining as opposed to scary please.

Back to the ol' drawing board.

Cheers'
Paul

Headlines and Pen Lines

Most of the Illustration work I currently do is for newsprint. Therefore it's imperative that I keep up with the most recent happenings in the world. Some of the most disturbing news reports as of late, are the ongoing revelations of widespread sexual abuse and cover-up in the Catholic Church.

It's disturbing to me on so many levels that it's hard to get my head around it. I grew up in the Catholic Church. I was educated in the Catholic school system (In Ontario there are 2 publicly funded school systems). Although I'm not a regular attendee of mass, my Catholic upbringing has been of great value to me over the years. It instilled in me a strong sense of love, compassion and service to others.

I've had the great fortune of receiving guidance and friendship from priests and especially nuns over the years. To know that these unthinkable crimes and the subsequent handling of these predators by the Catholic hierarchy in Rome, also smears the reputations and names of these wonderful people is sad to me.

More tragic however are the hundreds if not thousands of children who have been sexually abused by these monsters. Anyone who lives in this area of Ontario knows very personally the devastation these predators can inflict. I went to school with and know several victims of sexual abuse by a local Catholic priest. It breaks my heart to pieces.

Now it is becoming known that the Church actively covered-up the abuses, and furthermore did nothing to prevent them from happening again. This angers me to my core.

So here are a few recent Illustrations that deal with this topic.

This first Illustration depicts a Cardinal, representing Church hierarchy, sweeping the dirt under the Vatican.


This second Illustration shows the predatory nature of the offending priests. The tarnished cross represents the battered image of the Church .


Finally the victims. The many children who were betrayed by the very ones they believed would guide and protect them.

If you have any comments regarding my artwork or the subject matter they deal with, please feel free to comment. I'd love to hear from you.

Paul

Welcome to Paul Lachine Illustrations: The Blog

As you've probably deduced by the title of this blog- that it will deal with topics relating to my work as an Illustrator.

It is my objective- through this blog- to give the reader a peek into the process and technique that I employ in the creation of my artwork. Hopefully you will find it interesting and insightful.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers,
Paul