The idea funnel

Here is a sequence of ideas I sent to USAA Magazine for an article about where to find money when you're broke. The art director had suggested that the concept be more direct (actual places you would find money), but before I went that direction I sent two other more metaphorical ideas.





The art director loved them, but asked for a more literal approach for a backup. As you may guess, this is the idea they ultimately chose. But I knew going into the sketch that this was likely. So, the way I challenged myself was to make this sketch a pure formal exploration of pattern and color. No perspective, just squares and patterns.



I wasn't sure how this would work in the final, but went with the multicolored lines with a minimal palate. Using the white of the page as the top of the color heirarchy. The background and texture were added digitally.



I think I'm going to write a kids book about that broke genie from the first sketch. I love that idea!

John Brown Interview

My John Brown art director, Chad Beckerman, has posted an interview with me on his blog. We discuss my recent visual history and the development of this book idea in its many different stages.

A break from illustration for photography

What would I do without this kid?

SPD Awards

It has been a walk down memory lane this week, with several awards bringing old favorites up to the top of the blog.

This week I heard that both my segway lobster spread for SKI Magazine and the contractor disaster piece for This Old House won Society of Publication Design Awards of Merit.

SND Award of Excellence

Remember this fun page from the NYT Oped back in July?



It just won a Society of News Design Award of Excellence!

Always great to win an award, but even better to win in a competition you didn't enter! Many thanks to Art Director Brian Rea, Assitant Art Director Kim Bost and NYT Design Yoda Tom Bodkin. I take great pride in having a bit of tangible hardware to show from my days at the Grey Lady.

On the NYTimes.com Frontpage

The letters piece I did from yesterday is on the home page of The New York Times today. Check out the full story here.

(Bottom right corner, btw)

Twitter Malaise

I got my first chance to work with the new Op-Ed page art director Leanne Shapton on a piece for my old stomping grounds, The New York Times Letters to the Editors page. This was for a package on how twitter may simultaneously connect and isolate us. My rough ideas:



For this, I decided not to do a final sketch- I drew the figures directly into my sketchbook, hoping for something that felt a bit more gestural. After doodling for an hour I picked the best ones and configured them in photoshop.

Basketball Candyland

ESPN The Magazine called for a fun project last week. They are creating a board game that folds out of the magazine that you can play during March Madness. As with many sports related deadlines, you have to crash the whole thing over a weekend! The themes they gave me for each area were in a kind of D&D fantasy throwback. Wizard's Lair, for coaches. Forest of Theives, for ball stealers. Rainbow Falls, for three point shooters. Land of Giants, for the big men. Below you can see the final art with a boardgame comp in place on top. The final art will have some ball players photos as game pieces and a more detailed game play on the path. I haven't seen what it will look like all together, but this is a great example of illustrator/art director collaboration. We went back and forth with placement and ideas for content. The path of the game changed as well during the process, as editors tinker with their copy. The type and photo cut outs will be the art directors job, as well as tweaking the final color palate of the flat graphic areas.

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.