Alright, Alright

alrightmike.com [email protected] @alrightmike

[alrightmike]

I sent out the last weekly version of the @illustratedjukebox Guest List email this morning. Then I applied some hand lotion. The final illustration posts tomorrow! https://www.instagram.com/p/BqxHEbNDg5G/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1aov66po3b7wo

[alrightmike]

I spent the morning in reflection. And listening to Janet Jackson. https://www.instagram.com/p/BqucRJ3D7gk/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=101yxg4cygsj6

[alrightmike]

This week's @illustratedjukebox song is Annie Waits by @murkanpianist (Ben Folds), via request. From the requester: It’s a perfect encapsulation of that anticipation/dread of waiting for a crush to call, or respond to a text, or to see if they’re even interested. In particular, I love the verse “maybe he's been seriously hurt // would that be worse”. Because it captures that nervous energy and all the crazy possibilities that run through our heads. ----- I use watercolor, movement, and a sense of humor to tell stories and solve visual problems. I'd love to help you make your message sing. https://www.instagram.com/p/Bp9YeTIjdAq/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=vx06932uhoe8

[alrightmike]

Last week's Illustrated Jukebox song was High Horse by @spaceykacey Yeah, I think we've seen enough, seen enough To know that you ain't ever gonna come down So, why don't you giddy up, giddy up And ride straight out of this town I usually have some anecdote here to accompany the week's song choice, but I chose this one because I've been listening to it pretty much all year, and I just dig it. It's chock-full of back-handed compliments—my favorite kind. Plus, the chorus gallops. ----- I use watercolor, movement, and a sense of humor to tell stories and solve visual problems. I'd love to help you make your message sing. #illustration #illustrator #illustrate #illustrationart #art #artist #artistsoninstagram #drawing #instaart #instaartist #watercolor #listentothis #nowplaying #kaceymusgraves #horse #highhorse https://www.instagram.com/p/Bpy9x1-j7lf/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=u9eqfowhwhkb

[alrightmike]

Sketches for this week’s @illustratedjukebox drawing for Kacey Musgraves’ High Horse. https://www.instagram.com/p/BprMkOxD6za/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1s7gbk94cjjyg

[alrightmike]

This week’s @illustratedjukebox Guest List email is out! The illustration for Kacey Musgraves’ High Horse posts to Instagram tomorrow. https://www.instagram.com/p/BppAHYpDonK/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=5739bzslqi4

[alrightmike]

The @illustratedjukebox Guest List email goes out tomorrow. It’s not as bad as this guy thinks. https://www.instagram.com/p/BpmMZsODwii/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=qz2o0ekzlgzw

[alrightmike]

*Last* week's @illustratedjukebox song [was] The Next Storm by @frankturner, via request I'm not going to live the whole of my life indoors I'm going to step out, and face the next storm This request feels serendipitous, as I’ve been carrying a lot stress lately. Some roadblocks with the foster child in our house, day job anxiety, illustration career worries. Plus just obligations of life. I’ve been spread really thin these past few weeks. So I was glad when this song came through, and it’s really been a pleasure listening to it on repeat this past week. Frank Turner’s Be More Kind album is one of favorites of the entire year, and I even had a few Jukebox ideas for songs from that album that I ultimately decided to not pursue. The Next Storm comes from Positive Songs for Negative People, and it works as well as anything from Be More Kind. This song is filled with great visuals—the weatherman praying, the priest and scientist getting soaked. But that’s not what this song is about. It’s about perseverance and accepting that hard times will present themselves and pass. That’s what I felt was important to focus on here. So many of Frank Turner's songs are cathartic. With the help of The Next Storm on repeat and by accepting some help from others, I can honestly say I feel more positive as I type this right now than I did earlier this week. What songs or artists do you lean on to through a rough spot? https://www.instagram.com/p/Bpg9Gx8DXqx/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=j290h3w8t7m7

[alrightmike]

Progress shots of last week’s @illustratedjukebox piece for A Tribe Called Quest’s Can I Kick It. Spotify refers to this song as ‘a stone-cold hip hop classic’. What do you think? #illustration #illustrator #illustrate #illustrationart #art #artist #artistsoninstagram #drawing #instaart #instaartist #watercolor https://www.instagram.com/p/BpP3o0qjlSJ/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1jw1wmfkv1e3m

[alrightmike]

Tap, tap, tap, tap… https://www.instagram.com/p/BpEpZvmjN0l/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1dsmgfyqk8rju

[alrightmike]

Here’s the sketch for this week’s @illustratedjukebox song. It’s the only logical song to follow last week’s, Walk on the Wild Side. Can you guess? If you’re on the Guest List, you’ll see the finish tomorrow! #illustration #illustrator #illustrate #illustrationart #art #artist #artistsoninstagram #drawing #instaart #instaartist #sketch #wip https://www.instagram.com/p/BpB9ZlfjIJS/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=405spv7gwkzp

[alrightmike]

#Repost @illustratedjukebox with @get_repost ・・・ This week’s Illustrated Jukebox song is Walk on the Wild Side, via request. Hey babe, take a walk on the wild side My older brother played this song for me in the basement of our house in the suburbs and it opened up to me a world that went beyond what I knew from popular music. [This] song helped set my musical tastes for the rest of my life. Walk on the Wild Side was one of the most difficult songs I’ve drawn in this series. From what I’ve read, it was was pretty risqué when it came out. But all the sketches I did that focused on the characters Reed describes felt like I was making fun of them or their situations. When I realized he's talking about real people who hung out with Andy Warhol, I decided to focus on that. From my relatively cursory research, it seems that—right or wrong—people could do and be what they wanted at his parties. That hits on the requester's memory of Walk on the Wild Side being an eye-opening song. Plus I could draw someone playing that upright bass line from the song. When I finally came up with this sketch, it felt right. #illustration #illustrator #illustrate #illustrationart #art #artist #artistsoninstagram #drawing #instaart #instaartist #watercolor #listentothis #nowplaying #loureed #wildside #andywarhol https://www.instagram.com/p/Bo1xl6UDPJl/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1voq1vj4qx1et

[alrightmike]

Wednesday-in-progress https://www.instagram.com/p/BowDQddjO2L/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1ilrhnwtgarph

[alrightmike]

I got a hard copy of the latest @rowanuniversity Magazine this weekend. It has the illustration I shared here last week. Professor Richard Mitchell ran an underground grammar newsletter that eventually got the attention of Johnny Carson. Stories like Mitchell’s are the ones I most love to draw about. #illustration #illustrator #illustrate #illustrationart #art #artist #artistsoninstagram #drawing #instaart #instaartist #watercolor #editorial #editorialillustration #editorial https://www.instagram.com/p/BorjUA4jzxR/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=13pdavzec9meu

[alrightmike]

#Repost @illustratedjukebox with @get_repost ・・・ This week's Illustrated Jukebox is The Next Movement by @theroots. We got the hot-hot music, the hot music I recently finished Questlove’s 2013 autobiography, Mo' Meta Blues: The World According to Questlove. My sister-in-law insisted I read it and I’m so glad she did—it’s one of my favorite recent reads. He’s so good at contextualizing music and connecting dots through time that it’s astounding. He addresses authenticity, success, doubt, and tenacity so eloquently I often had to sit on a phrase for a minute to let it soak in. The book is funny, poignant, and sincere. I was sad to finish it, actually, because I didn’t want it to be over. When I first heard The Roots, it was from seeing them open for Dave Matthews Band at Veteran's Stadium in 1990-something, and I bought their Things Fall Apart album soon thereafter. I dug the album, but I played The Next Movement the most, by far—and I still get this hook in my head regularly. The video (in the link above) didn't hurt. I still love that video. The group really clicked for me with Phrenology, The Tipping Point, and Game Theory, and Mo' Meta Blues got me to go back and listen to their entire catalog. The progress is so much more fun with the insider knowledge of what was going on with the group at the time. This all says nothing of the fact that they're one of the best live shows you'll ever see. There was a stretch when I did not miss a show from The Roots. But The Next Movement is the first song by the group that I loved, and Mo' Meta Blues has cemented it as a classic. #illustration #illustrator #illustrate #illustrationart #art #artist #artistsoninstagram #drawing #instaart #instaartist #watercolor #listentothis #nowplaying #theroots https://www.instagram.com/p/BojsoJjBZak/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=6bdr0qrzhvjm

[alrightmike]

One for @rowanuniversity Magazine, about professor Richard Mitchell, who ran an underground newsletter called The Angry Grammarian. It became so popular in certain circles that even Johnny Carson was a fan. Here’s Mitchell talking to Carson on The Tonight Show on December 21, 1979. (Fred Astaire was the lead guest that night.) The Angry Grammarian, and all of Mitchell’s other writing, remains free online. #illustration #illustrator #illustrate #illustrationart #art #artist #artistsoninstagram #drawing #instaart #instaartist #watercolor #richardmitchell #undergroundgrammarian #grammar #johnnycarson #tonightshow https://www.instagram.com/p/Boec_2Lj7Zx/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=13cpilzxrs169

[alrightmike]

This week’s Illustrated Jukebox song is Takin’ Care of Business by Bachman-Turner Overdrive. Takin' care of business and working overtime, work out The anthem of suburban lawn-mowing dads all across this land, and the number one song in all of dad rock. House-for-house, I remember every single dad in my neighborhood dressing this exact same way as they did their weekly landscaping. And for the longest time, I thought all dads learned to shun other forms of dancing in favor of a slow, out-of-time fist pump while singing like Cookie Monster. Maybe something was in the water. How well did your dad match up? 1. Painter's cap with the brim flipped up 2. Aviator sunglasses 3. Puffy, golf ball-shaped headphones with flimsy connector piece, attached to a large silver Walkman 4. Ratty old t-shirt 5. Cutoff jean (dungaree) shorts, black or liiight blue, Wrangler brand 6. Striped knee socks to avoid bug bites 7. Grass-stained white Reeboks https://www.instagram.com/p/Bn_D72EjIKM/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=mhm78t33sw4b