In March 2020 and ever since, I have devoted more time to learning illustration by practicing more regularly. I credit many of the invitational setups for this practice to Procreate on an iPad and to a crumpled paper background layer, which adds surprising and unconventional shading or hues. I tend to devote fewer hours to this practice in the summertime, more in the wintertime, and this pattern owes to evening light and to more outdoor projects and responsibilities in the summer months. I have a few drawings posted at Redbubble, where they are for sale (e.g., prints, note cards, stickers); if you would like to see something below available on Redbubble, please write to me at dereknmueller -at- gmail dot com, and I’ll post the drawing and respond as soon as I can.
Editorial Illustrations – OnlyPoems, April 2024 to ongoing
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Cirque du Felinity Series – October 2022 to April 2023
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Plaid Series – January to March, 2022
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One-Offs – Long running
Here ⤵️ I’ve collected a few unindexable one-offs, sketches, mock-ups of tattoos, maps, digressions.
Pandemic Bestiary Series – April to December, 2020
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After several months of learnerly playing around in Procreate, I developed a series of twelve drawings in between April 5 and April 24, SMSing one every other day or so to Ph. and Is. as a pandemic good-morninggram. Each drawing is named with a verb and its number in the series (e.g., Protect #1). The initial goal was to create a set of twelve. I continued beyond that though with no particularly clear exigence or goal. At the end of 2020, there are 30 in the set.
Poolside Series – Summer 2020
As Summer 2020 surrendered to ridiculous and unprecedented work demands, I began to miss time in the water. I remained in Virginia, away from Michigan’s lakes, and reduced significantly the number of swims I might’ve enjoyed otherwise. Made it to Claytor Lake twice. ? That’s it. The series carries over the bestiary into a pool view, aerially surveilled not unlike the pool at the Michigan condo made unavailable by the pandemic. This series is unfinished, on suspended float, contentedly and indefinitely.
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Fasciashed Mesh Series – September to December 2020
The masked-unmasked figures in this series conjured themselves as expressions of the everyday–work pressures, a shooting and standoff near to where I was staying in Michigan in September 2020, toggled themes exploring absurdities, grotesques, and (dis)symmetries. ? These continued throughout the the fall months. By year’s end, there were 20 pairs in the set.
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Institutional Service Tarot (IST) Deck
Institutional Service Tarot (IST) is a lampoon gift deck rendered from markerboard drawings I made in my Pray-Harrold Hall office at Eastern Michigan University between 2011-2013. They are meant as good humored reminders to pre-tenure and teaching faculty to let others carry a fair measure of the water, so to speak. They are available for purchase at https://www.makeplayingcards.com/sell/ewm.
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