Monday, December 20, 2010

Wall Street Journal

Last week I did a quick illustration for the Wall Street Journal- Sunday Journal, for a column called "Yoder and Sons". I had a great time working on this job and was thrilled to get a call from WSJ! Thanks a bunch to Mark - such a nice guy and great to work with! Enjoy

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Holidays in NYC

I try to get to Rockefeller Center every year to draw the famous Christmas tree and Holiday festivities. I got off the train at Rockefeller Center and had all intentions of walking over to the tree, but decided to do a drawing of Radio City Music Hall. I had a blast drawing this corner. It was about 35 degrees with a "Feels like" of 24. Needless to say, it was cold, but I was able to bang out this drawing before my fingers went completely numb. Click to enlarge it a bit... Enjoy!

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Orange Coast monthly illustrations

For almost a year now, I've been doing a monthly illustration for a lovely column in Orange Coast Magazine, a lifestyle magazine for the Orange County, CA area. For some reason, I've never posted any of the illustrations, so I'll post a few of my favorites now. It's sometimes a tricky job because of the horizontal size restraints. But at the same time, it's a challenge and forces me to think a little differently. Thanks to Mindy for assigning these to me, and putting all of her trust in these illustrations. It's a pleasure to work with her. CLICK to enlarge these so you can get a better view!


for a story on the Orange County Fair


for a story on Prop 19 and educating your children about Marijuana


for a funny story on the Housewives of OC, and complaining of going broke, meanwhile living in style...

Thanks for stopping by! Enjoy!

Monday, November 8, 2010

Crime/murder illustration

I had gotten a lot of great feedback on a personal piece that I did last year of a Mafia Boss' first time contract killing. Below is another crime/murder piece that I wanted to do and finally found some time to do another personal piece. This one is inspired by the events that led to the killing of Albert Anastasia, the founder of Murder Inc. Anastasia was gunned down by two men wearing scarves as masks in a hotel Barber shop in 1957. Although many have had their theories on who the killers where, the gunmen were never caught. Enjoy and feel free to leave comments!



I have been watching a lot of ID (Investigation Discovery) channel, so maybe that's where I draw a lot of this inspiration from - but it also comes from my love for old style illustrators such as Bernie Fuchs, Joe Bowler, Robert Weaver, Robert Fawcett, Al Parker, Bob Peak, etc. These illustrators from the 50's, 60's and 70's had such an amazing ability to narrate a story. Whether it be stories of crime, love, murder, cinema, etc - they just had a way with composition, color, story telling, and DRAWING. I'd really love to do more professional work like this - not that it has to be murder and violence! I just love seeing illustrations in print - in a nice big spread or full page - telling a story!

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Cover for Vita.mn

This is a recent cover I illustrated for Vita.mn, an entertainment magazine for the Minneapolis area. The cover story was on James Murphy from LCD Soundsystem. It was really fun to play around with colors I normally am not used to using. Stepping out of my comfort zone was great and led to this illustration that I'm very happy with! Thanks to Leslie, who was wonderful to work with. Enjoy!

Monday, September 27, 2010

New portrait for Phoenix Magazine

New portrait for Phoenix Magazine of Sam Fox, a restaurant entrepreneur in the Phoenix area. Special thanks to Nicole for these fun portrait assignments!


Monday, September 20, 2010

Cover for The Deal

Last week I received a call from Larry at The Deal for a really quick deadline job that turned out to be a rush! He was looking for a drawing of the House Finance Committee - to be used as a full page. The total turnaround was less than 24 hours and that was a lot of fun because I only had time to draw and see what happens! Larry also asked if it was possible to throw some key politicians in the drawing - such as Barney Frank (top left), Bachus (middle top), Maxine Waters (bottom right) and a few others shown here.

The most exciting thing about this job is that Larry decided to use it for their cover! Such a nice surprise and I thank Larry for the great opportunity. Enjoy!

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Delta Sky Magazine illustrations!

I am very excited to finally post some illustrations I was commissioned to do for this month's Delta Sky Magazine! This was an extremely fun job for me because I was asked to do a bunch of illustrations for Delta Sky's issue on "Why We Love New York". It's nice to represent your hometown and get to do some fun drawings while you're at it. Thanks to Geoff and Ted for this project! If you're on a Delta flight this month, check it out - they did a great job putting this all together. Enjoy!



my illustration behind a really great photo of Robert De Niro for the cover. I thought this was a great idea, and ties the cover story in with the rest of the NY story really well.

The Neue Galerie, NYC



The five major NY stadiums. Madison Square Garden, Citi Field, The USTA National Tennis Center, Yankee Stadium, and the new Meadlowlands


The band, Interpol


actors Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Ryan


They decided to put a little blurb about me on their contributors page for this month!

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Harvard Business Review feature

I'm very excited to share this feature that I illustrated for Harvard Business Review (September '10 issue). Chandra, the art director on this feature, gave me a lot of freedom on the design of this full page, which resulted in one of my favorite pieces recently. She had asked to keep the colors toned down a bit and be more subtle, which worked out great for this one! Enjoy and more to come soon!


Monday, August 16, 2010

Boston Globe and Men's Health!

Last week my girlfriend, Ashley, and I took a last minute trip up to Boston for a day. I hadn't been there since I was very little, so I was really excited to finally make it up there again. We walked through Cambridge, Beacon Hill, and the North End in Boston. The North End was my favorite part, although everywhere we went was beautiful. I was able to do a drawing of the North End, which was described to me as the Little Italy in Boston. Pretty cool place! This drawing was done right outside of the Paul Revere House (seen on the far left).

So when I sent this drawing around as a little promo/update email last week... Heather from the Boston Globe asked if she could run it in this past weekend's Boston Globe for a story on giving directions! She asked me to add just a couple of little elements to make sure it made sense. Thanks for that Heather! Hope everyone in Boston liked it!



ALSO new out this month is some work I did for Men's Health (September 2010 issue). Art Director at MH, Dena, called me and asked if I'd like to do some how-to illustrations for them (which I have done in the past and really enjoy), and also some hand lettering and scribble-like handwriting for their BBQing section. I really commend Dena and and Brandon at Men's Health for having faith in me to do this for them, especially since there's not a whole lot of that kind of work in my portfolio. Thanks again to Dena and Brandon for this fun assignment. I hope to do more like this in the future!

Monday, August 9, 2010

Some new work!

I've been waiting for a bunch of illustrations to hit the stands before I throw them up on here, so here are a few that I've done recently! Excited to finally get to show some of them. I've also got a bunch of stuff coming out in the September issues, so check back here for some more work from Men's Health, Chicago Magazine, Delta Sky Magazine, and Harvard Business Review!

Spread (and two half page illustrations) in September's Car and Driver.



Art for the Op-Ed article on the recent WikiLeaks, for the Boston Globe.



















Portrait of ASU President Michael Crow for Phoenix Magazine!




















Portrait of Bryce Dallas Howard for Time Out NY

Monday, July 19, 2010

Portraits for Washingtonian Magazine

I was recently asked to do some portraits for Washingtonian's annual "Best of Washington" issue. This section was a bit on some local Chefs around the DC area. This was a really fun job and I'm happy with the outcome! Thanks to Mike for this project.


Monday, June 21, 2010

Recent illustrations for Phoenix Mag and Toronto Life

Here are a couple of recently illustrations I completed. I was asked to do a portrait of Jan Brewer, the Governor of Arizona for Phoenix Magazine, which was a blast. Also, a quarter page drawing for Toronto Life on a story about Money Marts in the Toronto area. Thanks to Nicole and John for the fun assignments! Enjoy!























Friday, June 11, 2010

Fashion drawing!

I really love old school fashion illustration. Every once in a while I have to do some fashion drawings! I wish there were more fashion illustrations out there - on magazine covers, ads, storefronts, etc. All you can do is hope that it catches on again! Enjoy!

Sunday, May 23, 2010

America's favorite past time taking up too much time?

Here is a recent illustration I completed on the length of Major League Baseball games. A couple of weeks ago, I had the Yankees game on in the background while I worked on a drawing for one of my monthly gigs. I realized that I ended up finishing up my illustration from start to finish, before the game was over! I am a huge fan of baseball (used to be obsessed), but I can't help but think about how long the games are now. The pitchers, batters, coaches, all of them take too much time! Anyway, that's my little rant - enjoy!


Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Car and Driver Feature!

A couple of months back, I got a call from Darin at Car and Driver to do a few illustrations for a feature story written by PJ O'Rourke. Darin wanted a series of drawings of PJ driving around his home town of Toledo, OH in a Jeep Rubicon. This job was amazing because I love drawing people, places, and telling a story while doing it. I get so excited when a client gives me the opportunity to do a full spread because I love to work with the designer to make the most interesting opener possible. Thanks to Darin for the great assignment! Enjoy!




























Thursday, April 29, 2010

Law and Order SVU!

Law and Order: Special Victims Unit is one of my favorite shows on TV right now (especially love those USA Marathons they have). This is a piece that I was able to do on the SVU cast. I have really been trying to push my color lately, using the opposite of my first instinct. I was really happy with how I was able to play around a bit, and thrilled with the outcome.

Keep your eyes open for some new work soon! I will post as soon as the new stuff hits print! Enjoy this for now...


Friday, April 16, 2010

American Illustration 29

So I am very excited to say that my Mafia Hit illustration has been "chosen" by American Illustration 29. It's great to have a personal piece get some good feedback like this. I did this illustration based on a book I was reading at the time on the mafia in Brooklyn in the 1950's - present. This particular part of the book was describing Mafia Boss Anthony Casso's first commissioned kill in a bar in Bensonhurst Brooklyn, 1970s.

Thanks to the judges! Enjoy

Monday, April 5, 2010

Beautiful illustrations from the 60's

Yesterday (Easter Sunday) my girlfriend and I went to her mother's house in New Egypt, NJ. A couple of doors down from the house is an amazing used book store that my girlfriend has been raving about. I figured it couldn't be better than the Strand in NYC, but boy was I wrong. In the back left corner were piles and piles of old Saturday Evening Posts, Boy's Life, Collier's, and Fortune Magazines from the 40's-70's. I rummaged through for over an hour, promising my girlfriend "one more, just one more" before calling it a day. I picked up a few that caught my eye with some great illustrations. Below are a couple of the beauties I was able to get my hands on. I chatted a bit with the owner, George, telling him that I am an illustrator and have been in the Saturday Evening Post and others. He told me next time I come in to bring him a print signed of my work, and he'll "take care" of me. I can't wait! This is a new hobby of mine - and I'm going to end up broke.... Until then - enjoy a couple of the beautiful oversized illustrations below!


Saturday Evening Post, April 1962














Boy's Life, January 1968

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Some new and unseen work

So I haven't posted in a while. First off - I am now on twitter! So follow me there to get more frequent updates on here and elsewhere! http://twitter.com/BrettAffrunti

Below are some new images and an oldie that I never posted. Here is a portrait of Jeff Bridges for the post-Oscar mania, a half page for Car and Driver, and an old one that I never posted for Guitar Center Center Channel Magazine. Thanks to Darin and Todd. Enjoy!













Tuesday, January 12, 2010

ARTS cover for the Hartford Courant

I always get excited when I get a call from the Hartford Courant because I love to work with them. One of the designers that I work with often, Elizabeth, called a few weeks back about doing an end of the year ARTS section cover, but unfortunately it was right before the holidays and I was on my way to the airport to visit family. Thankfully, she called back a couple of weeks later and asked me to do this cover for the Winter ARTS cover. The section would cover an overview of upcoming events, concerts, museum openins, etc. I had a blast with this job - especially drawing Lady GaGa. Thanks as always to Elizabeth, always a pleasure working with her. Enjoy!

Monday, January 4, 2010

2010 brings new work!

Happy New Year everyone! With the new year comes some new work! Below is a Cover and Spread illustration I worked on for Common Ground Magazine. This story is about how common it is for a new home buyer to purchase a home in a new development, and all of a sudden the developer runs out of money. The home buyers find themselves in a beautiful new home, but in the middle of nowhere - with suspended construction, overgrown landscape, etc.

Special thanks for Cori the great project and wonderful collaboration!