Notable is Nice

Though Deborah Hopkinson and I missed the medal stand at the Youth Media Awards on Monday, the ALA just announced its Notable Books of 2009, which comes with the very desirable gold-ish sticker, and included was Abe Lincoln Crosses a Creek! Very exciting to be a part of the conversation in regards to the industries highest awards. Now go show those librarians what they missed and buy 10 copies!

Seven Impossible Things...

The cool blog Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast ran a feature on me in association with the Cyblis and Caldecott Award nominations last week. She also gives a shout out to my amazing wife for our 10 pound baby girl!

Sequential Show: Opening

Many thanks to my East Coast Fan Club for accepting my silver medal in my absence! Check out the work of these amazing ladies... Yuko Shimizu, Katie Yamasaki, Aya Kaykeda, Sara Varon and Ai Tatebayashi.

Safety vs. Danger

A fascinating study in Popular Mechanics. It seems that when people feel "safe" driving (like on large highways with ample medians, signage, etc.) they drive much worse. Whereas, drivers who are on narrow or winding roads are much less likely to have accidents. The author proposes that we make our interstate highways slightly more 'dangerous', to induce needed awareness to the road.

Small Joys

Being a person who draws all the time, every single day, I can assume that I've drawn just about everything. Illustration may often be a kind of blue-collar art job on some days (art director have hole in layout, him need art to fill extra space so words look pretty) but it also has its small joys. Like today, I finished a spot for Money Magazine about making sure your will is in order. During my brainstorming, I realized I have no idea how to draw a hearse from my head. I had never drawn a hearse in my life. Even after my Ghostbusters Phase (between 10 and 14 years old when I watched the movie once a week)! Well, that visual library gap has been filled.

It ain't winning any awards, but I really loved drawing that hearse.

Drawing In Church- 1/11

John Brown: Harpers Ferry Attack

...This is the last of the interior art for the upcoming John Brown book, a love letter to N.C. Wyeth. Now, nothing left but the cover.

Drawing In Church- 12/21 + 12/28

I did this one over the course of two services... and my daughter Anneli was born in-between, so that affected the content as you might notice.

Do Over

In the day-to-day operations of an illustration studio, there is rarely (if ever) an opportunity to re-execute a piece of final art. I've often thought this is one of the real joys of illustration- there is no time for second guessing and the ever pressing deadline reduces over-thinking your choices. But, the book I am working on right now, called John Brown- His Fight For Freedom has given me a chance to revaluate this conclusion.

A few years back, when the book looked dead in the water and before the amazing folks at Abrams picked it up, I wanted to draw two of my favorite images from the sketch dummy. Mostly so the work I put in wouldn't get lost forever...



Here is one of those images, as drawn in March 2006. It later appeared in the show "Dear Old Kansas" at Signs of Life Gallery in Lawrence, Kansas. At the time when I finished it, I really thought it was one of the best images I had made in many years.

But, it turned out the book was not dead. Finally, two and a half years later, that image was slated for pg 14-15, and needed some changes. The editors thought it was best to tone down his anger from 'seething rage' to 'passionate conviction.' Also, actually showing the sword used to commit the murders at Pottawatomie was too strong an image for children.

Also, I had to address the problem that no one seemed to like this drawing.

You see, I had entered the image into a truckload of shows in the uncommissioned category, expecting a landslide of acceptance letters. It did not do very well. My conclusion, after looking at the image many months later, was that the basic communication had broken down. What I mean is that the idea that John Brown was an angry tornado was not immediately clear. The enjoyment of investigating this image was interrupted by the trouble of working too hard to solve the complex space. There were two issues: shape and value. Let me demonstrate.


First, the classic tornado shape was broken and too wide at the top. His upper torso hid the edges of the funnel and the scroll that wrapped around obstructed the form. I would have to make it more narrow at the top and remove the scroll.


Secondly, and more importantly, the value difference between the scroll and the sky are too similar. The net result being that the scroll creates an ambiguous figure/field relationship. Said differently, it appears that the sky can be seen through the middle of the tornado, interrupting it's shape recognition.

The new version that will appear in the book is much clearer and therefore a much stronger image. Many problems in image making cannot be solved ahead of time, with cognitive analysis. The way I learn is much, much easier. You put the pen to the paper, and make a bunch of mistakes.

Drawing In Church- 12/7

The children made ornaments and decorated a Jesse Tree during church today.
I wanted to decorate one too.



Want to step into the time machine? Here is a painting I did during my undergraduate years, on the same theme. For a time, I hoped to become the Chris Van Allsburg of drybrush acrylics. It didn't work out.

Drawing In Church- 11/30

"Not only did Jesus break out of prison, but on the way out, he stole the keys."

Drawing In Church- 11/23

I've been without a sketchbook in the pew for the last few weeks, giving my wrist a break during the current John Brown marathon. But, I cannot resist Trinity Sunday, the last sunday before Advent. How do you visualize the trinity (without falling into the heresy of modalism)? Kurt suggested the idea of water, in its three states; or a lit candle, composed of heat, light and flame. Holy Mystery!

Silver Medal!

Good news from New York today. The Society of Illustrators 51st Annual show has selected my Insurance Disasters drawing from USAA Magazine for a Silver Medal in the sequential category. The show will be opening in January at the SI gallery in New York.

Paint for Print: OPENING!

This Thursday a really interesting group show with my work will be opening at Columbia College in Chicago called Paint for Print: Contemporary Illustration, Traditional Media. I'll be speaking about my work and the future of illustration at 10:30 on Thursday, along with several other creative directors and artist representatives.

Check out their blog for some cool photos of the exhibition installation.

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.