LARRY ROIBAL

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The Senate Finance Committee rejected both public option proposals.

Look for Wall Street to have a good day.

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…and the beat goes on
…and the beat goes on…Stay tuned

Ball point pen on the morning newsprint

In a big situation, in a lineup with Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira, Jorge Posada, Johnny Damon, Nick Swisher, and Robinson Cano, bad wheels and all, there’s no batter I have more faith in than Hideki Matsui. Yesterday, big game pitcher Andy Pettitte got the win, certain hall of famer, Mariano Rivera got the save, but with the Yankees down by one in the sixth inning, it was Matsui that delivered the two run, game winning single to clinch the Yankees 1ooth victory as well as the American League East Championship and home field advantage through out the playoffs. With Matsui’s contract set to expire at the end of the season and his penchant for injuries, this may be his last season in pinstripes, but if I were Brian Cashman I’d want Hideki in my lineup.

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Federal authorities have Najibullah Zazi in custody and have charged him with masterminding a terrorist attack. Born in Afghanistan, authorities allege Zazi attended a Quaeda training camp in Pakistan, received training in bomb making, stored bomb making instructions on his laptop and proceeded to purchase large amounts of chemicals, needed to make bombs, from beauty supply stores.

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My liege, and madam, to expostulate
What majesty should be, what duty is,
What day is day, night night, and time is time,
Were nothing but to waste night, day, and time;
Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,
And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,
I will be brief. Your noble son is mad. . . .

Shakespeare

The UN should adopt a policy similar to the academy awards: after the speaker’s allotted time has elapsed, start playing music over them. Muammar al-Qaddafi was given 15 minutes for his UN debut speech and he rambled on for an hour and a half. He covered everything from wanting to relieve the US of it’s burden of hosting the United Nations, to the swine flu and the assassinations of JFK and Martin Luther King.

He is mad!

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Legendary Hall of Fame illustrator Bernie Fuchs passed away. An inspiration to generations of art students and professional illustrators. His contributions to publishing, art, culture and teaching will never be forgotten. He was 76.

For more on the great Bernie Fuchs please visit these sites .

David Apatoff’s Illustration Art
Leif Peng’s Today’s Inspiration
More from Today’s Inspiration
More TI
More TI
More TI

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In June the pajama clad president of Honduras was exiled in an early morning military coup. Yesterday, using a little Hollywood symbolism, Manuel Zelaya slipped back across the border into Honduras wearing a white hat. He took refuge at the Brazilian Embassy and hopes to refocus attention of world leaders meeting this week in New York.

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President Obama continues to be a president of firsts. Yesterday he appeared on CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, and Univision network to talk about his health care proposals. The five interviews marked the most talk show appearances on a single Sunday by a president. Conspicuously absent from the lineup was Fox News.

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The art direction asked to include a specific piece of architecture, a weathervane that hinted at the name of the winery, and a landscape of California hills and vineyards.

This was my first go at it.

First attempt

Okay, the designer liked it, the client liked it, but it wasn’t quite right for the label. They wanted less texture, less brush strokes, less saturated colors, made to look a little old, more atmosphere in the distance…and while you’re at it, loose the weathervane.

I started from scratch and painted this….

I am honored that Bridlewood Estate Winery has my work represent their Central Coast Syrah and Central Coast Chardonnay.

A shipment of a case of Sarah 2006…(to answer Bill’s question from yesterday: I paid for it.) Cool that they have an engraved version of my illustration on the box.

How cool is that?

Ask your local wine shop to order some for you, Bridlewood describes the Syrah as opening with aromas of smoke, cedar, and chocolate leading to bright cherry fruit framed with spicy oak. As it evolves, a nose of dark fruits and violets gives way to dark chocolate. On the palate, this wine shows rich flavors of blackberry, dark cherry and sweet brown spice with a hint of mocha. Full of soft, chewy tannins, this wine has a long, clean finish.

…and you get my illustration as a bonus.

Post Wine Week Note: I’ll be taking a sabbatical next week. I will resume Drawing On Observations Monday, September 21st with an all new portrait of the day doodle. Due to spam issues all comments will be held for moderation until then.

Cheers!

Other wine related musings

Wine label posts

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It’s not every day an art director calls and asks you to paint an ethereal California landscape in a red pallet.

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What could be more fun?

Finished Illustration

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Life can be serendipitous. It’s good to have a plan, but often what unfolds has no resemblance to your grand scheme. Continuing from yesterday, I’m going to take this short week to feature more wine label work and the serendipitous way it came to me.

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It wasn’t by design or hard work, but had it’s seeds in my seeking a little rest and relaxation.

We spent a weeks vacation in San Francisco and Napa Valley and I was floored by the beauty of the region. I had been busy with commissioned illustrations and hadn’t painted a landscape in far too long.

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This was before I had a weblog, so I thought I would do a few quick sketches for fun, post them on my illustration site, and tell family and friends what we did on our summer vacation with an email and a link…. more travel log than portfolio piece really. Within a month I got my first call to paint a landscape for a California wine label. Gotta love Google.

finished illustration

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A while back I was commissioned by Timothy Harris Design to paint this wine label for Livingston Cellars, an E&J Gallo Brand. I was honored to learn that it was selected in the Professional Illustration category of Creative Quarterly 16 as a runner up.

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I fell in love with painting landscapes as a young art student when I was fortunate enough to study abroad in the Parsons In Paris program.

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Six weeks of lugging my French easel around Paris and the South of France painting every day en plein air was an invaluable life experience.

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So, getting an assignment that basically calls on me to paint a landscape, with or without floating car, is a real pleasure, and having it recognized by Creative Quarterly is especially gratifying.

Finished illustration

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Al Ristori is an institution in New Jersey. He writes the fishing guide for The Star Ledger.

Yesterday was the last day of fluke fishing season in New Jersey. I took off a little early to spend the late afternoon, early evening on my brother Tom’s boat with my brothers Tom and Dan and my nephew Danny. We caught five fluke but none were keepers. Fluke need to be 18 inches long for non-commercial anglers. The biggest we caught was 17 inches, caught by Tom… Still, it was a nice start to the holiday weekend.

Happy Labor Day!

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On September 9th Viacom Inc will release the new video game “The Beatles: Rock Band.” They’re hoping the joint venture with Sony and Michael Jackson’s estate, (owner of the Beatles catalog) reverses a two year slump in the video game industry.

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CEO of The Walt Disney Company Robert Iger, announced yesterday that Disney had purchased Marvel Entertainment Inc for $4 billion, acquiring the rights to Marvel’s 5,000 characters including Spider-Man, Iron Man, X-Men, Hulk, Captain America, Fantastic Four and Thor. My spider senses didn’t see that coming.