New Work: Happy Garden

I just finished this piece.  I’ve been trying to work more efficiently, not agonizing over initial pencil sketches. I think it was a success!

Jillian Tamaki for Penguin Threads

So I wasn’t going to post these, because everyone has already… but I’ve been trying since March and finally can’t resist.  (Besides, even if you have seen them already, don’t you want to look at them again?  I thought so.)

Jillian Tamaki’s finished covers for Penguin Threads Deluxe Classics:

Damn.

Yup, still awesome.

click for more info and to see them larger.

Theme for Aeolidia.com is up!

I mentioned a while ago that I was working on a site theme for the wonderful Aeolidia.com. I’m happy to announce that my under-water circus theme (featuring Ms. Aeolidia, the sea slug, herself) is up!

Visit Aeolidia and select my theme from the pull-down tab, on the upper left, or click here to check it out!   At some point it will be the default theme–I’ll let you know when that happens.

And in case you were wondering, Aeolidia is a great design company:

“We specialize in making standout shop websites for crafters and other small businesses, but we do about a billion other things, as well. Just ask us!”

I cannot recommend them highly enough!

Illustrations for TONY Kids

I got to do a bunch of illustrations for a Time Out New York Kids feature article on gardening.  Back when I was drawing, these sunny days, and anything green, seemed so far away.  But then we had an amazing weekend, and now it all seems right around the corner!

I also did some spot illustrations for the numbers, which they didn’t end up using.  I guess it was getting too crazy.  But they’re cute, right?

Featured Artist!

Yay, I’m a Featured Artist for the week over at Hire An Illustrator!  Whoo hoo.  You can check it out here.

Words of Wisdom

Here’s a clip of Saul Bass, one of my (ok, everyone’s,) all time favorite designers/image makers (hello amazing title sequences!) discussing making money vs. quality work.

Being in the business of drawing things for money, I think about this a lot.  The push and pull between creating beautiful things, while actually making a living.  Depending on the project and client there can be a lot of give and take.  The  goal is to do my best to consistently marry the two.  Any thoughts?

Video found through the wonderful illustrator Tim Gough’s site.

Time Out New York Magazine Illustration

Here’s the final illustration for that Time Out article about Salvation Army bell ringers.

I’m really happy with how it came out.  You can see the rough sketch here.  I think it’s kind of fun to see the “befores” and “afters”.

Cover of Time Out New York Kids!

It’s my first magazine cover!:

I actually didn’t realize those little guys we’re going to be on the cover, so it was a nice surprise! (I drew the birds, bees and flowers.)  Plus I have this full page illustration on the inside:

Quite fitting as I was a nanny myself for years.  Oh how I miss those girls in Brooklyn!

Thanks Time Out New York Kids!  What a fun job…

Busy and Bikes

I’ve been swamped around here. –Trying to finish up an online animation project, visiting New York last weekend! a few weekends ago and (still) getting the place in order.
Lately, I’ve gotten to do some lettering for various jobs. Its something I haven’t done much of in the past and its been really fun.

One of those projects was for t-shirt designs for the annual Lower East Side Kids’ Art Bike Parade.
Some first drafts:

Mostly, just fooling around with the lettering placement and different bikes.

The final design:

In the end they wanted ribbon lettering to go with the “2008” ribbon.  I think it came out really cute.  It was printed in black on yellow shirts. 

The parade was a few weekends ago and from the photos it looks like it was a huge hit:

Everyone looks great in their shirts!

Cookies!

I probably should have posted about these before the conventions…But…I didn’t.  Never-the-less: the drawings I did of the Presidential Candidates for Eleni’s bakery in New York, are now on sale as cookies!

          

For the last six Oscar seasons, I’ve done drawings of the Best Actor/Actress nominees for their “Conversation Series” cookies.  This is one of my favorite jobs to do every year, so it was really fun to get to do these as well!

I always send my grandmother a box of them, and I think she was excited to have these for the convention.  The cookies themselves, besides their obvious novelty factor, are quite tasty–perfect little sugar cookies, with the images printed on sugar paper, which melts in your mouth…

So head on over and pick out your favorite candidate, or maybe his rival?– Then you can really bite into them!  Yum!