Press Bits

Doomsday, thanks to its many awards, is getting reprinted in the new issue of The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, where if first appeared over a year ago. Many thanks to Joy Miller at The Bulletin. Here is the release online.



UPDATE: Here is the page from the new issue.



AND

The newly christened American Illustration 27 has just released the entire annual online. Check out the amazing work.

Drawing in Church - 6/1

Finally, a sermon where I get to draw the Rock of Ages!

Sketchbook Book

Some of my sketchbook work will be included in this upcoming book Sketchbooks from Designers, Illustrators & Creatives. I have 3 or 4 spreads including some sketchbook drawings dating back to 2002 and one of the drawing-in-church selections. The book was originally slated to come out this fall, but is being held till Jan. 2009. So I guess this is really advance notice.

Light Children

Kyle T. Webster, illustrator of the graphic novel Light Children, asked me to participate in a promotion for the release of the book. This is a drawing of Bruno, one of the protagonists.

Drawing in Church - 5/25

Op-Ed: Today ONLY

This one is running on the New York Times Op-Ed page today.
In hopes to save the earth from the millions of plastic water bottles used every year by city dwellers, New York is hoping to make their public fountains suitable for drinking.

Bearded

In February, at the IAM conference, I got to participate in photographer Wayne Adams' ongoing project called Jesus Portraits. By executive order, I've made this my official head-shot for all media inquiries. Wayne has got some other great work to enjoy on his site as well.

The Summer of John - (Brown, that is)

I'm going to be spending most of the summer working on the final art for the picture book I wrote about John Brown. The book is in pencil draft form now, and the final art is underway. I'll make sure to post some drawings as they become declassified.

Earlier in the month, I traveled to Kansas City, where I took in the world premiere of an original opera about John Brown. Nice review in the KC Star. It was quite moving. Even better was to experience the choices another artist made to tell the story of John Brown with honesty, clarity and poetry. I also had the honor of meeting John Brown's great great great granddaughter (who has posted on the blog a few times), Alice Mecoy.

Below, one of the first spreads I'm working on. John Brown smuggling escaped slaves on the Ohio branch of the Underground Railroad.

Drawing in Church - 5/18

Meeting Sketchbook 5/13

I'm going to color this today if I have time.

Manning (with mustache)

A portrait of Peyton Manning for an article discussing the disparity between his on-field personality and his advertising personality. For the New York Times Sports Magazine, PLAY.

Cross Clients

A drawing about managing angry members for Associations Now magazine.

S.A.T.C.- Update!

After a few edits on colors and likenesses, here is the final version that will appear in the next issue of Entertainment Weekly. Name all the characters and you win a prize! ( There is no prize.)

Images & Icons- 50 Years of Illustration

I've been extended the extreme honor of appearing in a new book curated by Society of Illustrators called Images & Icons: 50 Years of Illustration. The book is a roundup of the best images of the last 50 years of SI annuals. The committee chose 500 images from the 25,000 that have appeared in the annuals since 1958.

The image they selected. 

Sex and the City: ROLL CALL

I've spent the better part of the last three weeks working on this drawing. Entertainment Weekly is devoting an entire issue to Sex and the City, in conjunction with the upcoming movie. This is a collection of ALL the men the four ladies dated over the course of the show: 40 in all, most of them Carrie's.

Drawing in Church - 4/27

Why I love living in an old house

As I was fumbling around the basement, pretending to know what to do about my broken air conditioner, I saw the corner of this peeking out from the vent, resting comfortably for what must have been forty or fifty years.

Oz and Obama

A cover and interior spot for the June issue of Christianity Today. Should we be voting for Issues or Virtues? Dorothy's friends are wondering the same thing.

Drawing In Church- 4/13 & 4/20

The start of a series on the Glory of God- this spread is one drawing from the last two Sundays. Also, I've got one from three weeks ago I need to post after I finish a few passages.

Lecture Sketchbook

A collection of characters from my Visual Communication student's final presentations... topics including black holes, glass blowing, John Henry, the prison system, Al Capone, Hansel & Gretel, self-referential comics, esteemed faculty, etc.

New Books

The final jackets (along with the actual books) of Cicada Summer and The Reavers arrived at the studio this week. Thanks to Chad Beckerman at Abrams and Jason Booher at Knopf.

20 Years.

The ghost of Jacque Vaughn wanders the great plains no more.

WOE!

More disasters, this time on the home-front. A collection of contractor horror stories for This Old House Magazine. A long weekend, as I was working with some digital chicanery I haven't tried before.

Annuals

Great news from Communication Arts and American Illustration. Two images will be appearing in American Illustration 27, and one in CA Illustration 49. From the pair that got tapped for AI, one of the images selected is from my 'Drawing in Church' series, which is really wonderful. I'm excited that more people will get to see my pew-based work. 

It has been an unusual annual season for me. All 6 images selected by the three major shows are different- usually there is at least one drawing that gets multiple nods. It shows how unpredictable juries can be. Ultimately, it is 12 Angry Men (read universal 'men'), and you hope Henry Fonda has got your back this time. Two of these three were done for Christianity Today. They'll be getting roses later this afternoon.

American Illustration 27

Communication Arts 49

Subaqueous Sabotage

PC Magazine asks: Who is cutting giant underwater internet cables in the Pacific? Yep. Russians dressed up like Creatures from the Black Lagoon (a liberal interpretation). After weeks of constantly lecturing my juniors about the advantage of flat graphic shape in image-making, I decided to try it out. It works!

CLEARANCE SALE! Selections from the Vault

I updated my website proper this week with some new items on the For $ale page. Thanks to a connection with a great Giclee printer on the west coast, and so have a few new prints available for purchase. Also, I've posted some original art from the archives. Much of this is from previous shows and exhibitions- I'd love if it found a place on your wall. Let's make a deal.

Moon Mortgages

A drawing for Popular Mechanics. Countries are forbidden, due to a pre-Apollo interstellar treaty, from claiming lunar property. But, corporations are not bound to such treaties... 21st century LAND RUSH!

Logotype Nostalgia

A mark for my church, Grace & Peace fellowship, that I finished up a few weeks back. Thought it would be fun to post. I used to do this stuff all the time when I held the job title 'designer/coffee-getter' before my life as an illustrator. It's always enjoyable to flex this muscle every now and then.

Concept Pictionary

Lets play a game.
Can anyone suss out the meaning of this illustration? Now, it was done for a rather theology heavy article appearing in the June issue of Christianity Today- so the metaphor is a bit abstract. Pithy visuals for spiritual concepts aren't exactly dime-a-dozen. (Thus the need Jesus saw for his parables. As I stated once before, he would make a great illustrator. And clearly he had a penchant for mark-making: see John, Ch. 8. Or this rare photo... Attentive church go-ers may get a slight advantage on this one.

Drawing in Church - 3/16 & 2/24

I forgot to post this one from New York a few weeks back.
Also, the new one from Sunday.

Drawing In Church-3/9

A slight delay in posting this week's pew doodles- had a few crows and cowboys I had to clear out beforehand.

This drawing taken from one of the most bizarre, haunting and enchanting passages in all of the Old Testament (which is saying something), the Dry Bones Dance...

More Birds

Another one for Paste Magazine- an album review for the Counting Crows.

Eyewitness Video: The Billboard

Ok, this is the last post about the billboard.

If you go look here, you can enjoy a video of me seeing the giant drawing for the first time in NYC with my friends Kirk and Sarah.

Red River

I always love doing this job for the New Yorker. The drastic horizontal and tiny format is such a challenge. The image serves as a header that runs over a weekly movies and cultural events calendar in the Goings-On-About-Town section. This time, to highlight the 60th anniversary of John Wayne's western Red River, I had a great excuse to hit the town on a thursday night in search of a copy of the film.

Meeting Doodles- 3/5

IAM Conference Sketchbook

A selection of pages from last weekend. I attended the IAM Conference in New York, where there is much to learn and plenty to draw. Take a gander- I burnt up a full set of microns.