Jon MacNair

Created this album cover for Canadian hardcore band, Usurper, and their 2014 release of Human Waste. The inspiration for the image was the idea of human mutation and also added the entrails as a nod to the album cover title. The hand-drawn brush lettering was pretty fun to do for this one.

A personal project just playing around with creating a wallpaper type composition, crammed with strange objects and slightly menacing flora and fauna in a stark, graphic style.

Album artwork created for U.K. hardcore band Sincerity and their 2014 release of The Authority. The image was inspired by the idea of listening to the voices inside your head, and the process of making a difficult life decision. The album title refers to the concept of these voices. 

I'd had a long-time itch to do a screen print of my work, and this poster was one of the first ideas that came to mind. A pictorial alphabet is not a new concept by any means, but the creating a very specific alphabet made up of my own characters was so much fun to do. Some of the letters proved to be very challenging to create, but that was part of the fun. The end result is a 6 color screen print measuring 18" x 24." The prints were pulled by master screen printer Rand Renfrow in Texas.

I was fortunate enough to be able to work with Portland-based company, Grove, on this fun iPhone case as part of their artist series of products. Grove used my This & That pattern as a design to adorn their beautiful bamboo iPhone cases in 2012.

An original drawing of a happy skeleton family, created as an illustration in celebration for Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead).

A black and white t-shirt design for New York-based skateboard company, Corpse Corps Boards. The lettering on this one was inspired by their own logo and branding style of skeleton arms.

Two color illustrations to accompany a piece of short fiction by Paul Kavanagh in the 8th issue of Annalemma Magazine. Annalemma is a literary arts journal, printed bi-annually and based in California.

Album artwork for Chicago-based, hardcore band, Harm's Way and their 2011 release of Isolation. At the request of the band, the design for the cover was based on a Hell's mouth, frequently depicted in Renaissance and medieval art. In this version, humanity and pestilence is being expelled from the mouth rather than descending into it.

Ink with digital coloring 

An illustration of Edgar Allan Poe's famous 1845 poem The Raven. I decided to change things up a bit and play around with scale for this one, making the raven a huge and imposing creature, seemingly unaware of it's own size.  

"Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,

Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—

While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,

As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.

"'Tis some visiter," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door—

Only this and nothing more."

Album artwork for German band Wolf Down and their 2013 release of Stray From the Path. They wanted a wrap-around design for the vinyl album sleeve, depicting a decaying labyrinth populated with various beasts and creatures. The maze was a bit tricky to do, but I was happy with the dark, story book quality of the end product. 

Hand-painted board for a show curated by Future Shock in Portland, Oregon. The design was painted in acrylic and coated with a high-gloss marine varnish.

SOLD

Ink with digital coloring

An illustration of one of my favorite silent films, the classic 1920 German Expressionist masterpiece, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. I took two pivotal parts of the film and combined them into one scene for this piece. It was a challenge attempting to capture the hypnotic expression on the face of Cesare, who is a somnambulist (or sleepwalker) in the story. The background was very fun to do, as it contains a plethora of eerily, jagged angles and high contrast shadows. 

In 2013 I was approached by TBD Advertising in Bend, Oregon to create illustrations for a client project involving 21st Amendment Brewery. Most of my art direction came from designer, Benjamin Kinzer, who I worked closely with over the course of 2 months. The beer packaging contained two types of pumpkin flavored beer for a fall release. The yin and yang concept was already mapped out before I came on board, but it was my job to capture a likeness of the two brewers of the beer and make the fall color scheme work. There were a lot of specifics and requirements that needed to be met and adhered to, which I think was the most challenging part. Another illustrator was brought on board to add the typography after my illustrations were completed.

You can read a detailed blog post of the entire process HERE.

I created this album artwork for New York-based hardcore band, When Tigers Fight, and their 2012 release of Death Songs. The concept (obviously in reference to the band's name) was passed on from the band who had a pretty clear idea of what they wanted, and I was happy to fill in the details. They decided to leave the front of the album cover free of any type whatsoever, in order to showcase the artwork.

Ink with digital coloring

I was asked to create a tutorial for U.K. based, Computer Arts Projects Magazine back in 2012. They wanted me to show my process in creating a monster illustration, going from traditional medium to using the computer to digitally color and complete the work. The most challenging thing about this was finding a way to verbalize the process, step-by-step (something I don't normally have to do). After some trial and error, I managed to find a condensed, yet explanatory way of doing so for the readers.

An ongoing personal project depicting the 12 zodiac signs (almost halfway there). The original drawings each measure 6 1/2" square and are executed in India ink and watercolor on paper.

I created this album artwork for Christian metal band, Haste the Day, and their 2010 release of "Attack of the Wolf King". The concept for the artwork was already pretty well formed by the time I came on board for this. If anything, I simplified the idea so it would read well on the small scale of a cd cover. I tried to keep the tone of the artwork kind of menacing and have a sense of danger. For the liner notes art, they wanted 2 animal portraits that would have a statuesque look about them. I drew all the art by hand and then added the color in photoshop. There were two releases of this album. One had a gatefold cd case, and the other was a book style cd case. The latter featured the original liner notes illustration of the wolf king as the cover.

A piece paying homage to the great tradition of sensational advertising employed by the sideshows of the early 1900's.