Fred Harper Illustration

Hermes windows

admin — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 07:27:17 +0000

I was fortunate enough to land a great gig with Twoseven Inc. They had a design job. The client, Hermes, wanted a comic book style for their store windows on Madison and 62nd St. Some people still remember me as a comic book artist… from the early 1990’s! Comics aren’t something you really ever forget how to do. So I gave it a shot and they really liked it.

An establishing shot. There was no story really. They just wanted the feeling there was. I tried to suggest more story and began to take some risks by injecting some critters in the panels.

Some panels were pretty large. Painted with latex paint using a range of different brushes. Sandpaper was my eraser!

Hello to the new and the not new!

admin — Tue, 11 May 2010 08:57:00 +0000

I just mailed a crap load of post cards out. I had 4 different cards in this mailing. Info is the same, the images where the only change. So if you are here because of my card, please drop me a line to say it worked! Or even better, lets make some art together!

Here are the cards I mailed, plus one image to look out for in the future.

Self Promo inspired by “Machete” trailer.

Detail

Dylan 2007

Dylan 1965-66

GW Bush recreating his image. Cover for The Week Magazine.

Obama as he was about to take office. Cover for The Week Magazine. Yes, it’s cropped. If you have my card, you have my e-mail and my number, so please use it frequently! Of course you aren’t waking me! I always sound like this… um, yeah.Thanks for staring!

Past Life…

admin — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 06:25:16 +0000

A letter by a person from my past.

I just wanted you to know that my wife and I cherish a caricature you did of us together at Cedar Point in the summer of 1986. We were married 6 weeks later and today we have three kids and are still happily married. I always thought your work was exceptional and marvel at how well you captured the two of us in that drawing. Not a single touch of the pen that was off or drawn over. I am looking at it now in my office. I am a commercial photographer and I work with every type of artist in the world. you are good. I looked at your web site and was very impressed with your work once again. Down the road if you get a slow streak and I get some additional funds, I would love to have you do an art piece of our family.

Glad to see you are doing well, thanks for your art!

Scott Bourdon

I thanked Scott personally and I thank him here. I think I stared at his e mail for a good 5 or 10 minutes not knowing how to react. Here was someone I knew for about 10 or 15 minutes during my summer job in 1986. I was suppose to do a face in 3 minutes or less. I was just figuring out how to make caricatures there in my first or four summers at Cedar Point Amusement park. During the slow periods between caricatures at the park, I’d contemplate my future. I wanted to go to LA to make my fortune in gallery art. Five years later, I found myself in New York City. I wasn’t good with directions.

I went to sleep feeling I should have made better decisions as I was going through my present career. I was down on myself for not working harder. The next morning, I wake to Scott’s letter and a flood of memories. Who would have thought this flakey college kid would have a 20 year career in art in New York City. Talk about a mood swing. I guess I wasn’t feeling that down after all.

That 19 year old kid that drew this young couple probably would have responded to all this with “cool!” He was a goof of few words.

The Pope has some problems.

admin — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 19:07:54 +0000

Hope he can swim. Cover for The Week Magazine.

My bio time. Please excuse the 3rd person.

admin — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 17:57:42 +0000

Fred Harper is a New York City illustrator who’s wielded his pen for the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal Sports Illustrated, … and soon enough, you.

Born in the wilds of Western PA, Fred began his career drawing caricatures in the carnival (traumatizing many a teenage girl in the process.) A few years later, he was drawing Spiderman, Conan and Dr. Strange for Marvel and DC Comics.

Fred now does caricatures and editorial illustrations for places like The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Village Voice, and Sports Illustrated. He also paints three out of four covers for The Week Magazine. Fred’s art has been published from Hong Kong to Honolulu. He’s visually mocked everything from pug dogs to motorcycles, landscapes to Angelina Jolie’s lips. Fred mostly works in gouache and Bristol (good for a fast turnaround!), but he’s also happy with oil paints, pencils, and Photoshop.

Sick of stock photography? Fred is too. So use the magic of his illustration to punch up annual reports, bedazzle your corporate communications, and polish your marketing brochures to a high sheen. Fred can even do a portrait of that special executive someone. And boy will investor relations improve when you give them something swank to look at!

So, use your sales collateral and hire Fred.

Another busy…

admin — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 18:23:55 +0000

Lecture at Fashion Institute of Art (FIT) tomorrow! Wed. March 24th 2010.

Come see me mumble my way through how I got my first job in illustration if you are in New York City! And maybe a beer afterword.

I’ll explain later.

Feb. posting!

admin — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 22:02:20 +0000

Home you like my latest effort, and I mean EFFORT! in the video intro. Please e-mail me what you think or to commission a job at… fred (at sign) fredharper dot com. Sorry for the code. I hate the spam bots!

First cover of 2010 for The Week.

The 2nd one.

The latest cover for The Week. Came out Fri. Feb 12.

I have to catch everyone up!

admin — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 06:28:19 +0000

Latest for The Week Magazine. The challenge was to make a visually boring idea more cover worthy. I tried to channel Jack Davis a little and give each person a little more personality.

Another one from The Week. A similar challenge with the crowd. This is my version. The final had some changes. The fellow in the front is very loosely based on my brother-in-law. I didn’t have a picture in front of me, or for anyone except the statue. The curious thing is after I stopped and the dust cleared the faces in the crowd started looking like famous people I’ve seen. Which makes sense I guess. Johnny Damon, John Goodman, David Koechner, to name a few. The rest are a stretch.

Cover for The Week. This took longer than I thought it would. I’m not a fan of drawing and painting architecture. I wish I had a few more days, but most of the deadlines for The Week tend to be 2 days or less. And I still have to fit grocery shopping in there!

The Week. I like this one.

Cover for The Week. Peace Prize winner. um, yeah.

Horses

admin — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 03:20:37 +0000

For Crain’s NY last week. Steve Wynn wants to buy Aquaduct race track in Queens, NY.

Deadlines while re-locating.

admin — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 04:40:16 +0000

I moved to Manhattan from Brooklyn last month. Still feeling like I was fresh out of college and grossly underestimating how much crap I had accumulated, it was a colossal pain in the arse. My friends came by and really helped out. In less than a month, I went to California twice. Opening at Copro Nason Gallery in LA where I had a piece in a group show. fharper.com for the type of work I show in galleries. (warning: it’s not work safe!) Spent a week in New York finishing the packing and doing a deadline. Then to San Diego for the Comic Con. Came back to NYC and finished moving what I couldn’t fit the previous week! Plus more deadlines. Not every piece I did fits what I focus on, but here is a few…

Cover for The Week Mag. Obama tries to bail out the sinking healthcare reform.

See, not what I usually do, but fun and challenging any way! Cover for The Week Mag.