Canary and Coal

My advertising reps,  Bernstein &Andriulli,  asked me to contribute to a new promotional directory which pairs images and famous quotations. This is a self directed drawing I did that will be appearing alongside the Tom Brunner quotation "Inspiration can come from anywhere, and usually when you least expect it."

Anytime you are working primarily as your own art director, it is tempting to be rather indulgent. My first sketched was an attempt to get a larger narrative to work with this drawing, but I found it ultimately distracting.

Final Sketch

Drawing in Progress. 

Final drawing without color. 

Color study/ Value study. 

Since the values of the ink were so rich, I used a very monotone/limited palate for the colors. I wanted the focus to be on the lighting effect and not the individual hues. 

If you'd like to know more about these two characters, stay tuned for an upcoming picture book about them! 

Coin-Op Cardinals

ESPN the Magazine asked me to do a drawing for their front-of-the-magazine package which only calls for illustrated type that says "Go Play." As long as you include that, the content is wide open.

I sent these four ideas for the art director to choose from, and I was positive they would go with D (the playground type) but was thrilled they let me draw these cardinals in a rocket. Look for it in next months issue.

Drawing in Church- 7/17

Free Buttons

Attention Shoppers: All orders from my webstore for the rest of the month will get a free button!

Harry Potter T-Shirts! New Store!

Breaking News: My new webstore is now live! Click the STORE tab on the left to start browsing now.

One item you might notice that is now for sale are my Hallows OR Horcruxes Harry Potter T-Shirts. A few images of the shirts are below.

As I tweeted about last week, my son Jack and I have been decorating our mantle with Harry Potter stuff, and of course, he is NOT allowed to play with any of these toys. They are for DISPLAY ONLY! 

Expecto Patronum

Gallery Nucleus asked me to participate in their Harry Potter tribute show, and it was an extreme pleasure to work on this image. The characters of J.K. Rowling's timeless stories have accompanied me on many late nights- a dear companion when I'm drawing in my dark attic.

Our house has gone a little Harry Potter crazy over the last few weeks- andrea, who is an astonishingly fast reader, is plowing through all the books again. Partially to refresh her memory for the upcoming movie, and partially to get me to stop pestering her with conversation about details of Harry-Potter-Lore-Minutia that she can't remember.  Jack and I have built a bunch of the HP Lego sets together, and set them up on our mantle piece to celebrate. He loves to play with the gear from Alivans, Master Wand Makers. Check them out if you'd like your own Elder Wand. Who wouldn't?

The opening for the show is this Saturday at Gallery Nucleus, 7pm. Wish I could be there! Also, make sure you look for my HP "Hallows or Horcruxes" t-shirt that will be debuting there as well. I'll be posting pictures of those on Friday, as well as a link for purchase.

A few images from my process below:

Some rough thumbnails, which lead to my final sketch: 

Some details of the final image, which has no digital trickery in it. So hard to make your images look right without the help of photoshop these days!