Cooking Dirty

Jacket art for a so-called 'kitchen memoir' from Farrar, Strauss & Giroux. The stories this guy tells about what takes place during the making of your Denny's Grand Slam breakfast are exactly as horrific as one expects.

Holiday Film

Illustration is, technically, not illustration without text. In the case of this assignment, my text consisted of two words: Holiday Film.



The New York Times gave me this problem: Make a picture about a preview of the upcoming movie season that says nothing specifically about any of the films, nor speaks to one particular holiday. I sent them two sketches, and they went with the giant popcorn tub. Though I do love the idea of reindeer at a winter Drive-In. (Look for that on our family christmas card.) The final art... it should be in next Sunday's paper.

PRINT- Regional Design Annual

From the way-back machine: My PASTE "Can Rock&Roll Save the World?" cover will be featured in the Print Magazine Regional Design Annual this December. Thanks to art director Jose Reyes for his excellent work... and for entering the piece!

John Brown- Fall Update

Part of my absence from regular blog entries over the last three months has been due to my current labor of love, the children's book- John Brown: The Oath of Freedom.

In celebration of the 149th anniversary of Brown's Raid on Harpers Ferry (tomorrow actually), here's a preview of two interior spreads. Now, back to work- today I'm drawing Frederick Douglass!

...Will Shortz Calling

The New York Times contacted me with a fun challenge: design an icon for a new Crossword Blog, launching this month on their website.



This is a small sample of the sketches I did for the final icon. It was a process where I learned a lot about the various habits of the crossword obsessed. One example would be the proverbial Crossword Moment, reflected in some of the conjuring concepts. We settled on a kind of coat of arms. The final icon reflects one of the fundamental crossword litmus tests: Pen or Pencil?

Teapots Vs. Advertising Mascots

This monstrosity, a print ad for the british station iTV1, was my entire weekend. Apparently, in England the advertising runs in a single block every hour, called the "tea break." So, you can watch the silly adverts or go make tea, and internal conflict ensues.  My production skills are not the fastest in the world, and they were tested getting this art done on time, 3 days for the final art. I'm sleepy.