Not only famous, but IN-Famous

A drawing of a few infamously angry people for Best Life. Christian Bale didn't make the short list.

Hope you can recognize everyone. 

Drawing In Church- 2/22

SILA Awards

I did well at the Society of Illustrators Los Angeles show this year. I got four images in and won two medals.

A Bronze Medal for this piece that was for PC Magazine, about tracking terrorists online.



And the Silver Medal train continues for Insurance Myths, a piece that many people have responded to this award season. This one was for USAA Magazine. I'm working with Laura Butler at USAA for the second time this week. Look for the next collaboration next friday.

A Huge Honor

The boys and girls of the Marguerite E. Peaslee School sent me a wonderful letter this week. If you can't read it, here is what it says:

Dear Mr. Hendrix-

Guess what! Your book, Abe Lincoln Crosses a Creek, won the Peasleecott Award in Mrs. Farrell/Mrs. Mara's class and is going into the final round! It is like the Caldecott Medal except it is picked by children instead of grown-ups. We chose your book as having the most distinguished illustrations in a children's book. Why not have kids pick the "Caldecott Medal"; it is a children's book. It is picked by children at Peaslee School. We liked your illustrations because you did something extra like painting your hand in the picture and adding signs.

Sincerely,
Your Friends


Truly, I've never received a better award in my entire life. After reading this giant letter in my living room, I realized that winning those big industry awards are totally meaningless unless these books get read by kids who love them. Forget the real Caldecott medals, if kids send me letters like this one, giant or not, I won't have any other aspirations for my work.

Thanks to Mrs. Farrell and Mrs. Mara's second grade class!

The Best of Times...

Art Director of PlanSponsor, Soojin Buzelli, called me for an assignment about investing in difficult times. It may look bad, but it may also be a perfect time to make a big play. The hard piece of visual communication for this concept is clearly showing that the small boat is going UP the waterfall, not going DOWN it BACKWARDS. Also, I left a small bit of smoke below the crop that could be included in the body copy.

Anatomy of a Jacket

Would you like to see how to design and illustrate a book jacket?



First, I start with rough thumbnails, searching for as much range as possible:


And from there, I select my best idea and create a final sketch:


Chad Beckerman, art director extraordinaire, echoed my own concern that the sketch was elegant but too stately, even a bit stuffy. Back to the drawing board:


This one came back as "Too Zeus" or "Neptune about to eat his children." Chad suggested thinking Superman crossed with Moses. Right on. First I gathered some reference.


The final sketch was approved, with the change of making the boy in his arms a girl.


Next, I needed to think about color. I looked over the entire book for its general color structure, and created two color studies.




The shield on the bottom of the art needed to be used on the title page as well, in different proportions, so I built all the elements of the cover individually and assembled them in photoshop.



Once the bottom was assembled in place with the flaps and spine, I could lay in the art for the top. Here is the full piece, unobscured by the shield.


I seamed all the pieces together with a bit of overlap and feathered selections so that they feel like they are drawn on one page. Here is the final cover, now with spine an flap elements in place. Viola!

Done.

Just finished the cover and jacket art for my John Brown book, and that means it is all done. This project has spanned many years, the first draft of the book written while I was still in graduate school, way back in 2003. I'm very proud of the work and hope it reaches a wide audience this fall. But, now the distinct feeling of loss is creeping onto my drawing board.



I'm in the very early stages of signing up for my next project which, hold onto your hats, is about the Civil War. It is an amazing true story of a young girl who dressed up as a man to fight for the Union, and ultimately dressed up as a slave to spy on the Confederates. So much for typecasting myself early on in my book career.

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.