Lighting the Way...

Here's a recent illustration for American Educator Magazine. The story outlines five principles of reading  which are critical for elementary school students to learn.  The authors argue that teaching colleges need to be more rigorous at conveying these five principles to prospective school teachers. Creative director, Jennifer Chang suggested the idea of five lightning bugs symbolically lighting a path for students walking towards a teaching college. This was the perfect project to usher in the glow of summer.

This was the winner of three sketches I submitted for this story.

I take great pride in brainstorming visual solutions for challenging articles. But I'm always open to ideas which art directors or editors put forth.  This was a fun one to bring to life (and to light).

Thanks to Jennifer Chang for another enlightening assignment.

You can view my new illustration website here!

Happy summer reading!

Going Postal

A few months ago, I received a mysterious package in the mail; it was filled with postage stamps from around the world. It turns out they were sent by the talented artist, Polly Law, who thought I might find inspiration in these little pieces of art. Thank you Polly - for starting me on another journey around the world - via stamps.

Guatemala

Ode to Bruce Springsteen

Temuco, Chile

Fala

Fish, Portugal

Françoise Hardy, France

Amazon, Venezuela

Ponzi, Italy

Selma, Alabama (inspired by a Bruce Davidson photo)

Thanks for viewing.

Update: You can see the second installment of this series right here.

Update: You can see the third installment of this series here.

Beautiful prints of these pieces are available for purchase here.

You can view a big gallery of my personal projects here!

Touch of Evil

I recently held a contest on this blog, asking readers to solve a visual riddle. The first person to figure it out would win a custom drawing based of the subject of their choice (If you're curious, you can view the riddle here, and try to solve it yourself). The talented illustrator, Daniel Zalkus, was very sharp - and solved the riddle first. He's a serious filmophile, and requested a drawing based on the classic thriller, Touch of Evil, (written, directed, and costarring Orson Welles). This film noir masterpiece is so packed with memorable scenes, I faced conundrum on how to capture it on paper. In the end, I chose to depict some memorable stills in this montage. Thanks Dan, for the powerful source material. Hopefully this drawing captures a bit of the essence of Touch of Evil.

Charcoal on handmade drawing paper, about 11" by 14"

 Here are a few details from the drawing...

I'm bullish on Orson Welles

Janet Leigh and Charlton Heston cozy up...

A classic opening title

How did Dennis Weaver get up in that tree?

the phone call...

Follow this blog, or else!

You can view other interesting montage drawings here, here here and here.

I'm thinking about writing a film about the making of this drawing.

I'll call it There Will be Charcoal.

Red Hook Farmers Market Logo

Last week the mayor of my village, Ed Blundell, asked me to create artwork promoting our local farmers market. I came up with this graphic, which will go on posters, tee-shirts and other promotions. I had fun combining Red Hook's logo with elements of our farming community - along with placing it in the context of the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains. I've always been envious of musicians who write catchy pop songs. As a consolation,  I've composed an image that's got a really big hook.

Opening Day, Red Hook Village Farmers Market

Here are some sketches I whipped together for this rush assignment:

Live music, opening day of the farmers market

Here are a few color schemes I submitted:

This is the original color piece I envisioned.

I tested out a few alternate color schemes, one tying in to my town's name, Red Hook

Opening day at the farmers market

Thanks to Mayor Ed Blundell for getting me involved with this farmers market,
 which takes place right on my street:-)

Thanks to Heather Oslander Gibbons for a great poster design.