Just in time for the Holidays!

 My latest, a new childrens' book for the fine folks from Deeds Publishing and author Rosalind Bunn.
A fun story about the imagination of a young boy and what he sees before he goes to sleep.
http://deedspublishing.goodsie.com/whose-shadow-do-i-see

Campfire Storytelling poster

HAPPY HALLOWEEN and a LESSON IN LESS

Recently I completed a commission from the fine folks at the Dawson Library in Georgia for their storytelling concert in October of this year. This annual event entails an evening spent outside by a campfire listening to a number of storytellers sharing spooky tales to a young audience. They requested an emphasis on "scary" as their previous years' posters were a bit too "friendly". This presented a wonderful opportunity. Scary, but for a young audience.

The client graciously gave me complete creative freedom to pursue any solution of my choice. In the initial sketches included woodland critters, scared kids, witches, pumpkins and other Halloween characters. All too busy.Finally, I focused on the character from a classic fireside story, the man with the hook hand.To complete the concept, a campfire, a book, and the outdoors were included. The essentials.

This is the initial rough sketch. And like most initial things,
I thought it would be "great" if the character would appear to be reading from a book to the audience (to emphasis the library connection). Too much, and off target. It was distracting the viewer from the fact the man with the hook hand was menacing, and more importantly, looking at you.
This decision was made during the reference photo session with the model. He just seemed more menacing looking directly at you with book by his side.

With some additional reference gathered for the fire, the trees and the moon I transferred the finished composition to the final working surface (Strathmore Bristol series 400 paper) using charcoal and a bit of workable fix to keep in in place to begin the color work. The type was very roughly placed to help with the placement of the moon, that was to be integrated into the final type solution. The final type was done separately and placed digitally into the final painting.

b/w charcoal underpainting

  

painting in progress

 
To address the issue that this event was for a young audience it seemed appropriate to create a more playful type solution.

This type was created using a black pastel and done separately from the painting and applied digitally to allow greater freedom in choosing the right colors and position for the final poster.

final art

Through the process of working on the poster, I departed from my reference and eliminated much of the information in the face and jacket of the character to help emphasize just how scary this guy was
and create a focal point around the eyes. Back to that "less is more" thing.

final poster with type in place

OUT IN SEPTEMBER

I've been tucked away illustrating a children's book the last few months for Deeds Publishing and can finally show a bit of what's to come. This is the cover. In the next few weeks, I'll post some the process work and the finished art.

Super Bowl Sunday!

Let the trash-talk begin

National vs. American, East coast vs.West coast, who's better, what ifs, and the recital of statistics all come down to this annual showdown for every football fan. A battle for bragging rights . . . until it all begins again next season. It's become an almost national holiday, in stature, tradition for get togethers. Here's to a great weekend for fun, excitement, food & drink for everyone.

All images from T is for Touchdown, a Football Alphabet, published by Sleeping Bear Press

FACEBOOK CHALLENGE Day 5

Throwback Thursday
In commemoration of this new weekly celebration of our past, it seemed appropriate to acknowledge some of those people in 1984 that gave me some of those first breaks to start my career as an illustrator. I'm very grateful to these people who took a gamble and gave the new kid (pictured here) some work. Dawn, Curt Chuvalas, Lloyd Brooks & Brian Miller. In keeping with the theme I chose Andrea Eberbach and hope she will join in on the fun of this challenge. She was the first illustrator in Indianapolis I met (a fun story in itself) and took me into the fold. Thanks again to Bethanne Hill, Tim Jessell, and Tina Cargill for this wonderful opportunity of the last five days.
Also managed to find a few additional from back then (had to go through slides. Remember them?)

FACEBOOK CHALLENGE, DAY 4

WaCkY WEDnEsDAy!

Day four I decided to post some images from my days teaching at the Creative Circus, an advertising school in Atlanta. These images were created for student creative teams for various advertising projects/assignments for their classes. They were a great opportunity to explore new directions, try some new things and work with some incredibly talented and new people in the advertising industry. Many of these people have gone on to do great things in the advertising community and it was a real treat to get to work with them!
In addition to the images posted on Facebook, here are some additional things as well.

FACEBOOK PAINTING CHALLENGE, Day 3

CRITTERS!

 

The first was for Sleeping Bear Press and their children's book, P is for Peach, a Georgia Alphabet. "O" is for Okefenokee Swamp.The duck was a calendar assignment from a printer in the midwest. The only parameters were that a bowl, the days of month, and some sort of reference to that month be included somewhere in the painting.The small bird was a commission from the Hal Riney agency out west for Saturn Car Company.
And . . . some others I didn't post on Facebook

 

FACEBOOK PAINTING CHALLENGE, Day 2

Recently, friend and fellow ex-Terre Hautean, the incredibly accomplished illustrator, Tim Jessell invited me to participate in the Facebook painting challenge. The challenge consists of posting three images on Facebook for five days and nominating a new artist each day. What a fun opportunity this has turned out to be. It's been fun to revisit some past images, an opportunity to show somethings that maybe a bit unexpected and acknowledge some people I am very grateful to (I already have all the images selected for the five days). All of the images for the second day were assignments that involved portraits of literary related folks.

Harry Potter, Edgar Allan Poe & Cyrano de Bergerac

And some others I didn't post on Facebook