The Wiley Group

The Digital Revolution by Paul Mirocha

2011-09-15T20:00:00.000-07:00

ARTe: Digital and Art, is a half hour documentary produced by Sooyoen Lee of Arizona Public Media, a PBS station associated with the University of Arizona. The video interviews photographer Jack Dykinga, illustrator Paul Mirocha, two filmmakers, and a poet, asking them how the digital revolution has changed their media.

Sooyeon, with her cameraman and soundman, came to my studio in June 2009 and spent four hours there.

We talked about the factors affecting the evolution from traditional paints on paper to digital media for me and many other illustrators. I showed them some of my old traditional paintings, and compared them to how I work now on a 30 inch LCD screen. These guys are good at what they do, and I enjoyed our chat, even though I was hard-pressed at the time with meeting some deadlines and about to leave on a trip.

The program first aired on KUAT TV on Monday, September 1, 2009.

My Research Illustrator (Liz Grace)

2011-09-13T19:51:00.000-07:00

Liz Grace is an Illustrator with her BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. She started working in the editorial world immediately after graduating, and working in the editorial field for magazines and newspapers. She has worked for such clients as Lancome, as well as product design illustrations for Avon and Stemlit Orchards. Her work is very unique in style and transition. I love her color palette, it is very subtle with nice line work. I suggest that everyone checks her site out. http://www.thewileygroup.com/grace/gallery/grace_gallery.htm

New Muscle Milk Bars by Paul Mirocha

2011-09-13T14:57:00.000-07:00

Milk For Your Muscles!

When Cytosport, maker of "Muscle Milk®" protein bars, decided to launch a new series of bars, they tried photography first. But to represent their product in the most delicious way possible, they needed a blend of realism and fantasy. That was a job for illustration. It had to look as good as it tastes.

Cytosport called on me to do super-real illustrations of the new bars for their packaging, saying they liked the "balance of realism and fantasy" in my food work.

They sent me one prototype of each bar that I was to use for reference. I did take some of my own photos of these bars to start with, breaking, cutting, slicing, and distorting them to get a variety of effects. From there, it was time to venture into the more subtle areas of emotional and gustatory communication.

Yes, I tasted the prototype bars too.

The final art would be partly an image from the client's imagination, yet the goal was a very precise look. My job was to add substance to the image in their minds. They would know it when they saw it.

Paul's painting of vanilla toffee crunch

"Realistic", with an element of "fantasy", but not "cartoony". "We want deliciousness," said the Cytosport marketing manager.

We went back and forth with comments and new variations quite a few times, each one getting closer to the client's mark. "Appealing, moist, textured, yummy, more chocolatey, more caramel, smoother, less grainy interior". These are some of the terms we batted around while I made subtle variations until it looked just right.

The final product on the shelves.

The table-top box, from the cytosport web site.

Drucker Labs by Paul Mirocha

2011-09-13T14:54:00.000-07:00

Click image to enlarge

Drucker labs use a lot of high-tech science to produce their organic nutritional supplements. But laboratory glassware is just not appealing to the customer thinking about what's for dinner.

They had the science down, now for the organic part. To begin the redesign of their branding, Drucker started with the exhibit to be shown at their trade show last January.

Here is what they had from previous years:

Yea, it's cool, but it needed to change. People did not respond to it, unless the were doctors or organic chemists.

Here is where it all begins. A client's sketch, but it contains a lot:

Client's concept sketch.

Paul's first sketch was well liked, but didn't allow for the table of product samples to be in front of the display.

This second sketch by Paul was approved to go.

The new design featuring a layout and digital painting by Paul Mirocha, made everyone happy, both doctors and the cleaning lady, as the new year rolled in.

To quote the client's new years note,

I hope your New Year is getting off to a great start!

Just wanted to write you both and congratulate Paul and an AMAZING job with his artwork!!! I picked up the piece from the printer yesterday and they were completely blown away at the piece. I attached a picture so you can see it set up.

I could have not done this without your hard work and EXTREME patience!

Paul says, "This was one of the most challenging projects I have worked on. It was not only the intensive back and forth communication and production of sketches for each new version. That's fairly normal, although this one took a lot of talking.

The hard part is that the final painting was to be 7.5 x 12 feet. The largest painting I've ever worked on. And since it was happening over the holidays, I was in a little room at my relative's house in California working on a laptop for most of the holiday festivities! The working file was well over a gigabyte and it was so slow! My immediate family decided to celebrate Christmas on Three Kings Day, January 6, like they do in teh Eastern Ortodox Church. That may become a tradition. It's a much more relaxing time anyways.

Not wanting to repeat that process, I bought a new (semi-portable) top of the line 27 inch iMac in January, which served me well when I had to travel again in February and march, working in Lexington, Kentucky for seven weeks while my wife, Christina, went through a science study for a new stroke therapy.

It's an artist's dream to work on that machine. All I need now is a table, a chair, and a quiet place to work. My whole digital life's work in on that machine now.

Toss Your Cookies by Paul Mirocha

2011-09-13T14:50:00.001-07:00





Paul's llustrations for "Toss Your Cookies", a new award-winning game by Gamewright.

At TheDiceTower.com, where "real men play board games," game industry reviewer Tom Vasel had this to say about "Toss Your Cookies":

With wonderful drawings and terrific, sturdy components, Toss Your Cookies is a nice variant on the game idea introduced in the public domain “spoons”. Players are attempting to collect cookies that are of the same type, along with a glass of milk. While the game might bore adults (althoughthere’s some frenetic moments which are quite hilarious), I’ve found that kids enjoy it – as much for the simple, fun game play as well as the beautiful components. Although we really want to eat cookies when the game is over (the artwork is THAT good), it’s a good kid’s game that I enjoy playing with them, and it handles up to eight players...

Each of the cookies is a large round cardboard tile, showing a depiction of a different type of cookie. While the cookies are not actual pictures, they are certainly drawn well enough to evoke salivation from players and cries of hunger for cookies. The cookies are so realistic looking that I sadly have bite marks in one which one of my children thought was an enjoyable snack. The pleasant theme is one that will attract kids to the game, and anyone who still has the urging for the joy that is known as “cookie”...

—Tom Vasel

“Real men play board games”

Quaker Oats Ad by Paul Mirocha

2011-09-13T14:49:00.001-07:00

When Quaker Oats wanted to promote their new wild berry flavors, they first hired food photographers, but the photographs of the bowl of oatmeal just did not do the trick. The ad agency called on me to do a super-realistic digital painting of the oatmeal and montaged it with the more whimsical bicycle image by illustrator Katy Dockrill. Although I had never met Katy, it was a delicious collaboration.

South of the Border by Paul Mirocha

2011-09-13T14:47:00.000-07:00

What could be more all-American than the hot dog?

The Mexican hot dog? This recent import from south of the border may have improved upon that icon of American cuisine. There's even a new Spanish word for a street-vendor of the Mexican hot dog: hotdoguero. Hot dog historians argue, local chefs dispute how to make one, and the City of Los Angeles has made them illegal.
But the tourists only ask, "Where can I get one?"
When illustrator Paul Mirocha was asked to paint this Sonoran hot dog for a conference on borderlands food traditions, he researched the most popular hot dog stands in Tucson, Arizona for the secret recipe. Start with a steamed bun, then add pinto beans, a hot dog wrapped in mesquite-smoked bacon, fresh-chopped tomato and onion, mustard, mayonnaise, and finally jalapeño sauce—and don't forget a live jalapeño on the side.

New IT'S-IT! Sandwich by Paul Mirocha

2011-09-13T14:39:00.000-07:00

IT WAS ONE HOT DAY IN 1928 at San Francisco's Playland-at-the-Beach, and ice cream seller George Whitney had an idea. He put a scoop of vanilla ice cream between two oatmeal cookies, squashed it down, and dipped it all in dark chocolate. He didn't know what to call it, so he just said "It's it". But he had made food history with the first ice-cream sandwich.

Production to Perfection

The IT'S-IT is still sold locally in simple clear plastic wrappers. It had become so famous among local ice cream lovers that it almost needed no advertising. Until last year when the company decided to expand their market. They called illustrator Paul Mirocha to do their package art.

To start out, Paul got a case of IT'S-IT ice cream sandwiches in dry ice in the mail. The first thing he did was unwrap and eat one. Those IT'S-IT sandwiches were the best ice cream products he had ever tasted. But they didn't photograph well. It was going to be better than realistic--he was going to paint what it tasted like in the imagination of the customer biting into one.

Paul still has 23 versions of that digital painting. That's what it took to flesh out visually what the IT'S-IT tastes like. And whenever Paul needed inspiration, he just went to his freezer and unwrapped another IT'S-IT. Until finally, his art director friend said, "That's it!"

When it was all done, Paul could no longer fit into his pants. But he joined a gym and is now healthier than ever.