Hey all,
I REALLY appreciate all of the nice things said about me on this thread, but I have to leave it at that in regards to me.
What I really wanted to say is that if you haven't done so, Kadir Nelson's work is DEFINITELY worth seeing. He does some beautiful stuff.
I remember when I first got to art school, he was graduating from Pratt I think, as I saw one of his paintings in the annual Society of Illustrators student competition. Since then, he's just matured into an absolute monster. His book
We Are the Ship is also a absolute must for ALL baseball fans:
http://www.amazon.com/We-Are-Ship-Le.../dp/0786808322
I learned last year that one of his teachers at Pratt was one that I had (and still remain very close with) at the School of Visual Arts as well, so I think we tend to think about some aspects of our subjects pretty similarly. It's all VERY much about light.
Check out this Babe Ruth painting he did for Sports Illustrated a decade ago (sorry, I didn't have a proper JPEG):
The man's a mutant. Definitely look him up.
Graig