Food for Thought

Have you ever kept seeing an image in your mind's eye, and were compelled to find a way to honor it? That's how this series of drawings got started. I won't say much about them, other than it was fun to play with pastels, charcoal, and other mixed media. I'm curious about what you think.

"Haddock" - Mixed media on butcher paper

"Jumbo shrimp" - Mixed media on butcher paper

"Flounder" - Mixed media on butcher paper

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

Literary Landscape Logo

Recently, my daughter and I attended a Rosanne Cash concert at the Bard College Spiegeltent.  Her excellent performance was a benefit for the Red Hook Education Foundation (RHEF). Upon arriving at this event, I was surprised to find the logo I created for this organization emblazoned on a stage banner. It was a thrill to see my work displayed in this intimate setting.

The goal of RHEF is to support our local school system in ways that a typical budget may fall short of. One volunteer, Julia Crowley, remembered a logo I created in 1999, for a charter school we attempted to start in conjunction with Bard College. She asked me to update it to represent aspects of education they focus on; science, agriculture, arts, etc. Red Hook is nestled along the Hudson river, so I incorporated a stretch of water into the drawing. It was fun to give new life to an older image.

The original Bard Charter School logo I created in 1999.

You can learn more about RHEF at http://redhookeducationfoundation.com/

Thanks to Andy Wainwright, who's photo captured the singer and her guitarist-husband so beautifully. You can see more of Andy's work at http://www.andywainwright.com/

Rosanne Cash is well worth seeing in concert. She has a world-class voice, and really engages the audience with her warmth and wit. Along with songs from her catalog, she also covered Bob Dylan, The Beatles, and sang a few beautiful renditions of her father's classics.

Red Blazer Girls

I'm thrilled to own the newest Red Blazer Girls mystery, The Mistaken Masterpiece, just out in hardcover. In January 2010, Kate Gartner at Random House asked me to illustrate covers for this fabulous series. It was fun to collaborate on a project that's geared towards middle school readers. Each book is about a group of 7th graders who attend a Catholic girls school in Manhattan. When they're not doing homework, they run a detective agency, searching for missing items of great value. Every story is like a treasure hunt, where the brainy sleuths must solve literary, mathematical and visual puzzles to locate the missing artifact.

Each cover has a similar design. The coveted object in the title is highlighted in a colorful circular drawing. Mystery and intrigue are emphasized in a reverse black and white drawing below the arch.

Reading a 300 page manuscript can be a daunting task for an illustrator. But the author, Michael Beil, writes thoroughly engrossing books. My daughter Abigail and I are both big fans of The Red Blazer Girls series. Can't wait for the next installment!

It was fun to visualize the authors description of this mistaken masterpiece.

I used a parchment paper background for the Vanishing Violin artwork

I researched medieval-era Christian jewelry to design this ring.

Here's one design direction I explored for this series. I scanned the fabric from my own red blazer to create the background texture.

Kate liked the boldness of this reverse black and white style.

my very first audio book cover.

My daughter put this Red Blazer Girls book in its proper context!

Garlic Escapes

Robin Cherry is an excellent travel and food writer. She asked me to create a banner for her blog, Garlic Escapes. Its description reads "In Pursuit of Garlic Around the World, Around the Web, and Around the Corner". She writes fascinating stories relating to the history, uses, and varieties of garlic. A delicious recipe is included with each post.

 I found this to be a very tasty assignment. The unique shape of garlic came in handy when conveying  travel-related imagery. I used a drawing paper which has a texture and color reminiscent of this member of the onion genus. It was fun to create a mini-mythology combining travel and garlic. I hope you enjoy these banner ideas.

Robin travels far and wide to research garlic, so I thought a garlic balloon  would be a fun image
to convey her adventures.

Robin liked the day and night theme in this banner.

            

                                 

I tried to convey an old-world etching quality here.

         Robin loved this more literal interpretation of garlic escaping from the ground,
and sees it as a possible t-shirt design.  

Here's a more delicate approach.

Here's a cross-section of an 18" by 24" page of mixed-media sketches.

Please visit Robin's blog to see the banner that was ultimately chosen. 

More importantly, you'll learn a lot about garlic and find delicious recipes!

http://garlicescapes.wordpress.com/

All the News That's Fit to Draw

Have you seen the new documentary about The New York Times, Page One? I'm looking forward to getting a peek inside the newsroom of a truly iconic newspaper.  This inspired me to share some drawings from a branding campaign that's all about what this publication stands for. It ran form 1999 through 2003.

Art director Sharon Driscoll asked me to illustrate ads which would promote various features of the paper, as well as home delivery.  She'd seen samples of my work which combined line drawings with collaged text.  She asked me to incorporate New York Times text into each illustration. I loved the idea of using their famously recognizable copy as an element in my drawings.

I worked with a copywriter who was adept at simple yet clever word-play. The text elements I added to each drawing always matched the theme of the ad. For example, if the business section was being promoted, I would integrate copy from the business section directly into the image. I liked how the intellectual content of the paper became part of each drawing.  Words and phrases from stories would come into focus, adding an extra dimension to each image. Sharon's clean and simple design helped each drawing stand out.

Originally, this campaign was to feature six to ten images, and run for six months. But it quickly took on a life of it's own. Over the course of three years, I collaborated on over 100 promotional ads. Drawings were also used on t-shirts, direct mail cards, new year's cards,  joint promotions with Starbucks, and even on a cow (see below)!

Given the many aspects of this project, I found it challenging to curate this post. Hopefully you'll get a sense of the fun I had creating these images.

Thanks to Sharon, Jasmine Shumanov, and the promotions department for allowing me such a gratifying experience. I couldn't have asked for a more unique palette to work with.

 

The concept process began as stream of consciousness doodles in a sketchbook. The page on the left contains ideas for the headline "Perfect Pitch". Many baseball and musical metaphors came to mind.

This "Perfect Pitch" ad ran square or horizontal, depending on how far the newsworthy music ran across the page.

Photoshop offers amazing tools, but for this project I enjoyed copying, cutting, and pasting the old fashioned way!

Here's an example where I simply enlarged a sketchbook doodle to use as the final art.

I've often used pages from The New York Times to wrap gifts. It might make a nice wallpaper as well?

For most drawings, I made a xerox transparency of the line art, and would use it as an overlay of the text. This made it easy for me to change the weight and size of the typographic elements.

Some ads had unique space requirements. Just as a story unfolds, this illustration unfolds.

Five drawings were used in direct mail promotions as well. I can relate to this "Personal Trainer" metaphor. My brain gets an excellent workout with this paper's help.

I love the simplicity and directness of this ad.

In 2000, New York hosted the Cow Parade. Artists decorated thousands of life-size cement cows which were displayed on city sidewalks. Along with the talented artist, Bruce Henke, I was asked to design The New York Time's entry, which was titled "All the Moos That's Fit to Print". This colorful cow stood, where else, but Times Square! Thanks to Bruce and Finn Winterson for making this bovine beauty look so vibrant.

I contributed drawings to 'new years greetings' pages in 2000 and 2001. This image was also used on a holiday card sent to subscribers.

I really enjoyed creating these drawings in black and white. In the case of this project, I think the content of The New York Times added all the necessary color.

You can view my new illustration website here!

Historic Hemp

In honor of America's 235th birthday, here's a unique portrait of our most famous founding father. Nancy Stamatopoulos from Whole Health Magazine asked me to illustrate the following quote:

“Make the most you can of the Indian hemp seed and sow it everywhere.” - George Washington, 1794

Our nation's first president grew hemp on his Virginia farm. He presumably made this proclamation because it's fiber is useful for making rope, paper, and clothing. Of course, what made this assignment provocative is hemp's membership in the Cannabis genus, making it a close relative of marijuana. It was fun to place the father of our country in a counter-cultural context. I'm curious what today's tea party movement would make of this depiction? In any case, I hope you have fun today, celebrating the red, white, and blue (or is it green?).

Here are a few ideas I cooked up for this assignment:

Happy Birthday America!

You can view my new illustration website here!

Postcards from Lyon...

Vacation season has arrived. This inspired me to share some of my hand-drawn postcards. Every year I visit my daughters and their mother in Lyon, France. I love to explore the streets of this beautiful city. I sketch my observations onto blank postcards. Once I've compiled a variety of drawings, I send them to family, friends, and clients. This is one of my favorite rituals. It's gratifying to mail original artwork to the people in my life.  I hope your summer adventures are picture-perfect!

 the view from my bedroom window...

 Outdoor markets are an integral part of French culture.

This park has a nice view overlooking the city

 Notre-Dame de Fourvière is a minor basilica in Lyon.

Lunch hour traffic at Place Saint-Jean.

This man on the park bench perfectly echoed the sitting statue.

The Rhône region has beautiful rolling countryside.

You can see more fun sketchbook scenes here.