PHIL ASHWORTH

Posting some recent pen & ink work here to show what sort of techniques we'll be going over in my upcoming class at Touchstone Center for Crafts. I'll go over various mark making techniques so that we'll have the tools to build up texture, depth, value and dimension in our own pen & ink drawings.

The workshop runs from Sat, Aug 31st-Sun, Sept 1st. Registration is still open. Link below.

These 3 illustrations of mine will be on display at Touchstone Center for Crafts Instructor Exhibition from August 3rd-September 29th in the Bea Campbell Gallery. I will be teaching a pen & ink class on Labor Day weekend at Touchstone and while the class won't be dealing with the more expressive side of pen & ink, I will be going over the techniques that are good building blocks to pull from as you start to find your own comfort zone in the medium. Link to class details and sign-up is below.

I had quite an undertaking recently with this year's Sunday Soul Scream advertising project but my hand miraculously lived to tell the tale. This isn't the first time we've done 2 illustrations (one main poster and one calendar poster) to help promote Jonathan Toubin's summer residency at Our Wicked Lady but this calendar poster was definitely the most intense due to the amount of acts Jonathan got for this summer's events. We had been toying around with the idea of using King Kong imagery for a few years and we finally did the damn thing and I'm happy with how we pulled it off. I especially love that we used a narrative to connect the 2 images, which we have never really done before.

Sunday Soul Scream is every summer Sunday (Memorial Day to Labor Day).

Our Wicked Lady.

I'll be teaching a pen & ink class on Labor Day weekend at Touchstone Center for Crafts so I went out to the Laurel Highlands for their annual open house to do a little demo for guests while they were visiting the school. I had this old photo of Glenn Campbell that I really love and between the great light/dark contrast, he was bit older in the photo so I thought his wrinkles and folds in skin would be helpful for showing some different mark making techniques.

Always love to get out to this area of Pennsylvania to get some nature time with my friends out there. I've attached a link below to the class information and sign-up. We won't be working outside in my class but we'll still get to be in some beautiful surroundings while we work and the studio is looking pretty swanky these days. Did I mention it sits above a creek and you get to hear the sound of running water while you work? Sounds nice, doesn't it?

This is my third year in a row making the poster for Welcome to Jonestown and this time around we have thrown James in some Saturday Night Fever situation. Always a light-hearted project to work on, outside of the fact that every single one of these events has donated the proceeds to an ongoing humanitarian crisis. This year proceeds will be donated to aid in Ukraine and Palestine.

A big THANK YOU to everyone who came out to the Soul Clap Poster show opening. It was nice to meet so many people that have been looking at these posters for years and had such kind things to say about all of the work. It was also the first time I've been able to look at all 47 posters together and it was a wild feeling to see 10 years of my life on a wall. 

-10 YEARS OF SOUL CLAP & DANCE-OFF POSTERS

-Featuring the artwork of Phil Ashworth

-TV EYE - 1647 Weirfield St. Ridgewood, New York

-Friday, March 22nd. 7-9PM

The 17th anniversary bash for the Soul Clap & Dance-Off is upon us, folks! A big aspect of this project, outside of the party turning 17 this year, was that this also marks the 10th year that I have been doing this gig. It was a pretty wild feeling to wrap up the 47th poster in this series and think back to the first one I ever did; It's pretty weird and a little embarrassing for me. And you'll all get to see it up close and personal soon enough..wink wink.

The poster went through quite a few revisions and eventually it was decided that using a previous likeness that I put together for Joe Bataan's Elsewhere show in 2018 was worthy of a 2nd treatment, just with an updated setting and a redraw of Joe so I could see where I've maybe made some improvements.

Did a little poster surgery recently for a Sun Ra Arkestra show that took place at Ridgewood-based venue, TV EYE, back on January 19th. I had done a drawing of them for a Soul Clap & Dance-Off anniversary show back in 2018 and due to short notice I was unable to draw up an entirely brand new poster and had to pull from my old drawing. I initially traced out the band from the older poster and then created a brand new background with text and then just copy and pasted them on there in photoshop. 

The 15th annual NY Night Train New Years Ball is upon us and here is my new poster for it! You'll notice in some process pics there is already a poster with Kid Congo Powers that I am using for reference. Well, last year, Kid was scheduled to headline the party but had to back out last minute due to an injury. He's all healed up and back for the party this year so I created a new background with new information and just slapped the drawing of him from last year's poster onto this one. 

It was a bit tricky, color-wise, working on it without a central figure this time but I think I got it put together ok. I stuck with the pink and green elements that I pulled from the Gun Club classic, Fire of Love but wanted to add some elements that referenced another one of their albums: The 1984 classic, Las Vegas Story.

New poster I recently whipped up for Shayaya, a wild new comedy experience coming your way at Brooklyn's Bell House on January 5th. 

Back in 2022, the fine folks at Pizza Kat Pizza in Portland, OR reached out and asked if they could use the drawing I did of a street cat on an abandoned motorcycle in Athens, Greece for a small run of t-shirts for their shop staff and patrons. Well, after a change of address and some confusion, the shirt finally landed in my hands. 

I drew this back in 2016 and I love that people still reach out to me about it. It's probably one of my favorite drawings that I've done and it's pretty fun to see it on a t-shirt after just living on a page in a 7yr old sketchbook.

Drawing the Things I Want To (16-18)

16. Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. 4 x 7"

17. Paris, Texas. 4 x 7"

18. Tears for Fears "Everybody Wants To Rule the World" 4 x 7"