Best Piece of Advice Show

I made this image last summer for the Best Piece of Advice Ever Show, finally opening this weekend in New York, and in London later in June. It was in response to the advice "Inspiration can come from anywhere, and usually when you least expect it." - Tom Brunner

The full spread from the book with drawn type. 

Drawing In Church -5/27

Sorrow and The River of Life. I think I may do a series of pages on biblical paradoxes... or as Tim Keller calls them, apparent contradictions.

This Week in the Sketchbook

A new drawing from church - a few Sundays back, just finished it.

... and a drawing of two esteemed fellow illustration professors at Wash U. Meetings are amazing!

Nobel Pursuits

This package was for the amazing magazine, Scientific American, about the Nobel Prize winners in Physics. I've worked with them several times and have loved the abstract challenge of the assignments, in this case, how to draw quantum mechanics and astrophysics! 

Instead of focusing on the non visual concepts like the Higgs Boson Particle and other phrases I'd only use to sound smarter than other dummies, I turned to the idea of discovery or uncovering the hidden. "Seeing" is an easier visual concept than quantum chromodynamics. 

Each section header got a half page banner to introduce the categories of discovery. 

For this project, I built a shallow relief diorama and tried to shoot it with a camera, but couldn't get enough sharpness and the color correction was tough. I ended up scanning these and adjusting... though I do like the deeper shadows on the one I photographed, below. Will keep fooling around with this and call Red Nose Studio for advice. 

The first attempt with a camera... 

Sea to Shining Sea...

David Saylor, from Scholastic, contacted me to be a part of a collaborative children's book that follows the song America the Beautiful. 15 artists were asked to do one spread, each given a stanza of the song along with a famous presidential quotation. 

My image is the closing to the book and the final stanza, ...from sea to shining sea. Also on the page is George H.W. Bush's famous quote This is America, a brilliant diversity spread like stars, like a thousand points of light in a broad and peaceful sky.

Other artists in the book include Raul Colon, Mary GrandPre (of Harry Potter Fame) Jon J. Muth and many others. Really fun to be included in this round up. Won't be out till next year, but don't worry, I'll remind you to buy it in bulk when it comes out.

Detail of ladder kids...

...and Lady Liberty. 

My two sketches, using the imagery of seas and starry skies. 

Spot art of the Capitol Building

The final art in place on the page. 

Bad Unicorn Update

After some edits (the impaled squirrel is stuffed now) and final formatting, here is the full wrap of the BAD UNICORN book, without the flap copy/barcode on it yet. Can't wait to see the spot varnish on the cover! So happy with this. The full post is below.