Lettering project

At the start of the year, I bought a very cool little 2009 daily planner--An Artful Agenda -- that I found on Etsy. It's filled with all kinds of fun handlettering and small b&w spot illos. I inquired about it when purchasing from the designer--and now am going to be doing some lettering and art for the 2010 planner! Plus, some other work for future projects the designer has in the works. I'll post some of my sketches as they come along.

N'Awlins

This is a small personal piece I did, inspired by my first trip to New Orleans last year. I based this off a photo I took-I loved how iconic the beads hanging over the lamp post are!


Here's the photo:

Look for on the shelves

Just wanted to post a few of my favorite recent covers. These will all be pub'd by various Penguin imprints in the next few months.

I got to work for the first time with very talented photographer, Michael Frost (www.michaelfrost.com), on the photo shoot for "Alis". Then I created my own background using found photos and textures and hand-distressed type.

"Jane In Bloom" is one of the best stories I have gotten to work on. It's a very touching, sensitive book about loss and growth. I got pretty emotionally connected to this one, and felt like it was a great chance to make a quiet image powerful through scale, cropping and color.

"Paris Pan Takes the Dare" was such a fantastic project-I was very lucky to work with 2 extremely talented illustrators. An Italian artist, Luisa Montalto (www.luisamontalto.net) and illustrator/hand-letterer Sarah J. Coleman (www.inkymole.com). It was really exciting to see the two artist's work come together to convey my concept. Plus, I happened to meet Sarah at ICON5, (who is so fantastic in person!) just as this project has been commissioned, which made it even more exciting for me to direct.

New assignment

I just got a commission for another large painting-and I can't wait to design this image. Here's the request I got:

...a monkey walking a pug...The kind of monkey I was thinking is the one from the sitcom "Friends" Ross's monkey. I'd like the monkey to be wearing a rounded red hat, almost like old style uniform for a movie worker from the twenties or even a elevator worker from the twenties. I'd like the pug to be a puppy and to be the fawn breed. Its tan colored with a black face. Just like my pug Tickle.
If its possible can the background be a beach setting on a nice sunny day?

Who WOULDN't be excited about this! So wierd and fun-it's going to be such a FUN image to paint!!

Ode to the Miser Brothers

Just having a little fun playing around with two of my all-time favorite Christmas characters! Happy holidays everyone!

finished!

So, I've finished the painting and ready to ship it down to Florida. Hoping that my friend's wife will like it! I had alot of fun working on this one, and tried to focus on some areas I often feel need more attention in my work. I also found that I really liked working on a Clayboard surface--first time I tried it and found it easy and versatile!

In Progress....