Sarah Edmonds Preview Copy

Got an exciting package in the mail yesterday, my very first copy of Nurse, Soldier, Spy! It is such a wonderful moment to see a years worth of work turn into a real live book. Of course, I'm wracked with anxiety over certain choices I made that seem silly when the book is seen all together, but over all I think it looks great. The cover is coated with a spot varnish, which doesn't translate in photos, but is very striking in person. So, the moral is, order your copy now!

On this note, two of these images will be seen in the Society of Illustrators 53rd Annual Book & Editorial Show, highlighting the best work over the last year in these categories. Both the cover and the spread below of Sarah being teased as "Our Little Woman" will be on display. The opening is February 4th, 6pm, at the American Museum of Illustration at Society of Illustrators in New York.

Hallows or Horcruxes?

With a new season of Harry Potter anticipation upon us, I've been working on a HP based t-shirt. For those of you who have no idea what this is about: 1.Unfriend me immediately 2. Read all seven Harry Potter books tonight (or this helpful wikipedia article on Horcruxes.) Will you buy one? They don't exist yet... but soon.

Merry Christmas

A new advent themed church drawing from my sketchbook about today's sermon on King David and his distant grandson, Jesus. Noel!

Bloody Turnip

Is this a phrase still in use for people under the age of 75? Hope so... this will be running in Men's Health in March. The full page design below... (I drew the silly faces too.)

There Will Be PR

My new book about Sarah Edmonds, Nurse, Soldier, Spy is slated to come March 1st... and here is my pub page in the newest Abrams Spring catalog. So, let the public relations machine begin.

From the description:
This fast-paced, high-energy picture book tells the true story of Sarah Emma Edmonds, who at age 19 disguised herself as a man in order to fight in the Civil War. She took the name Frank Thompson and joined a Michigan army regiment to battle to confederacy. Sarah excelled as a solider and a nurse on the battlefield. Because of her heroism, she was asked to become a spy. Her story comes to life through the signature illustration and design of John Hendrix and the exciting storytelling of Marissa Moss. 

Drawing in Church- 12/12

From an Advent series on King David... I've never had the pleasure of drawing Goliath, with or without stone lodged inside his forehead. (Apologies and thanks to my senior Kate Oberg for her Goliath drawing inspiration!)

Tall Tale- Denver Edition

Denver's city magazine 5280 called me with a fun project about famous Colorado facts and legends.
The opener was about a man in the 1930's who was officially titled the "State Liar" and paid a $1 salary after winning a tall-tale contest (his involving a cross-eyed wooden legged cat).

Both of my sketches focused on the various visual incarnations of lying...  and sort of liked both equally. Usually a good indication that neither will be chosen. But they went with sketch A and the big goofy cat marionette.

The spots were also Colorado related. There are more medical marijuana shops than Starbucks, Denver has a significantly dominant male population, and the Uber-Macho Buffalo mascot for the University of Colorado 1. Isn't a Buffalo, (a Bison) and 2. He is actually a she- horns and all.

AIGA 50/50 Opening

A few of my former students (if they are reading this, "my best students") sent me this picture from the AIGA 50 Books 50 Covers opening in New York on Wednesday. It is a huge honor to have my AI28 cover included in this show, wish I could have seen it in person. Thanks to Marissa Dessanti, Allegra Fisher and David Yanofsky.

School Portrait Fail

Drawing in Church- 11/22

A recent one from the pew... and yes, that IS a Yeti Crab. 

I'm making a concerted effort over the next few weeks to get these collected into book format, hope to have some exciting news to share soon. 

Post It Show 2010

Mark Todd kindly invited me to be a part of his epic Post-It show this year. The show is at Giant Robot in LA, Opening on December 11th. I always love doing this show! You can buy all the 3x3 post-its for only $20 each.

I know some artists submit dozens of these every year... but I've got 12. Enjoy.

Designing Ideas - Faculty Show

I had the pleasure of organizing and designing the Washington University Design Faculty Show, which highlights projects from the professional work of the Communication Design and Fashion Design faculty, that we called Designing Ideas.

Though I did the curating and designing of the show, it wouldn't have happened with the tireless work of the gallery director, Brandon Anschultz, who put in countless hours of painting, hanging and reprinting the typographic vinyl for the walls.

The show is up for the month of November at the Des Lee Gallery at 1627 Washington Avenue in downtown St. Louis. The show offers a quick navigation of the design field as well as individual projects, all while trying to give the viewer a short education about how to look at such works in context.

Ye Olde Money Spot

Men's health called me with a quick spot project for their upcoming issue on balanced budgets. Don't you wear a top hat and monocle when doing your bill paying?

Drawing the Internet

I was contacted by Scientific American a few weeks back to illustrate an article by the guy who invented the internet. No, not Al Gore, but Tim Berners-Lee.

The article is really about the future of the internet. He posits that for the web to remain as vital and vibrant as it is today, we need to protect it from the threats of corporation and government. My first idea started with describing the threats to the future of the web by using the metaphor of a well with magic water that everyone needed but was being corrupted and constrained.

This idea didn't quite work for them. So I tried two others, that used a city metaphor and, of all things, Jack in the Beanstalk reference- to illuminate the threats to these channels of information.

None of these were working. What the art director wanted the illustration to do was NOT summarize the entire thesis of the article in the form of a visual metaphor, but help describe the somewhat abstract components of the online universe that become key players in the article. Almost like an informational graphic or a visual dictionary about how the web is constructed. 

Do you know the different between the Web and the Internet? I certainly had used them interchangeably before this job- but they actually refer to different systems. Simply put, the internet is the tubes (hardware) and the web is the stuff that connects the tubes to other machines (the protocols).

The author states that the 'gremlins' live in the protocols- the hardware is in place and is multi-platformed and accessible but if the protocols change and websites can't be universally linked to each other without a special interface, the web could be in trouble. So we revisited the first composition and my final sketch illustrated these three levels- the internet below, the web on the surface and the protocols in between- with cities, gremlins and tubes.

The final art was a fun one to work on, with all those monsters and gremlins. We also added two spots to run with the package. A few details included below.

Meeting Doodles

I've got a few irons in the fire this week, so I'll be posting a few new editorial projects by end of the week. But, until then, one of the benefits of a teaching community is all the time to draw during meetings. We've had a series of long meetings recently, with exciting new results coming to our curriculum. Here are a few of the drawings that help me listen... (yes, they HELP me listen).

Some of the text has been blurred to protect the innocent.

Drawing in Church- 9/27