Earth Day 2020: Flora & Fauna

Happy 50th anniversary, Earth Day!

It's been a while!

I don't post here much anymore, but I'm still making art! Some catching up...

I did a few pieces in response to illustrator Lily Williams's #KidLitSummers illustration prompt. I drew some childhood summer memories, like running through the sprinkler:

And listening to baseball on the radio:

(And then I bought an iPad and an Apple pencil and did some experimenting in ProCreate to update this one in color!)

And soft serve ice cream, mmm: 

I was commissioned to illustrate a postcard for a Kickstarter campaign for a short film about baseball legend Jackie Mitchell: 

And had some fun with idioms:

This piece will be featured in my local SCBWI chapter's 2020 calendar:

And I channeled my inner Maurice Sendak for a family project:

Whew! That's a wrap on summer and fall 2019!

A random assortment of art I've been making since August...

#SCBWIDrawThis

The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (of which I am a member) recently launched a monthly prompt for illustrators. The prompt word for June is Bounce, and this is my entry. 

Redleg Annual (and Happy Opening Day!)

The last two years, I've illustrated the cover of an e-book called the Redleg Annual, which previewed in eloquent and entertaining fashion the Cincinnati Reds of 2013 and 2014.

For this year's zine, which is still available for purchase as any number of e-formats HERE (seriously, it's only $5...GO HERE!)... I did two interior illustrations instead and got to step into the weird and whimsical zone a little, and it was a ton of fun.  

For an article on Reds All-Star catcher Devin Mesoraco (titled "Devin Goshdang Mesoraco") I was tasked with envisioning a Lovecraftian creature that could appropriately accompany an article containing lines like this:  

Devin Mesoraco is feared. By pitchers, sure, but also by children, beloved family pets, and young Victorian-era adventurers unjustly denied their inheritance. There is a rumbling of the earth and a black skein over the sun when Devin Mesoraco digs in. (words by Asher Kohn)

Hence:

This one's a bit experimental for me, because I used a larger variety of media than usual.  This one included gouache, Colourfix primer, pencil, permanent marker, and pastels.

And for an article introducing new Reds players, I got a little punny welcoming Mr. Marlon Byrd, because sometimes I just can't help myself:

Today is Opening Day for my Reds and most of the baseball world, so happy 2015 season to all you baseball fans out there, and happy lovely spring day to everyone else!

Jabberwocky

Just scribbling around with pencil and colored pencil on a favorite poem...

A story in six panels, based on real life

A Day at the Zoo

Storybook feet

Rally caps!

Rally caps are more effective when everyone participates, right?

Worked on this one for a while this spring, but forgot to post when it was finished!  It's the first illustration that really let me play around with my Wacom tablet (though it's still mostly traditional hand-drawn pastel work).  My next promotional postcard:

Two Kites

Work in progress

Pets in progress

From the sketchbook

Picture Book Idea Month (checking in)

We're approaching the halfway point of Picture Book Idea Month, and I've been pleasantly surprised at the ideas that have presented themselves to me. I thought I'd be dealing with snippets-- a title here, a character there, a mildly amusing bit of wordplay there-- but several reasonably complete story ideas have come to me during this month.  Who knew?  

I won't be sharing the ideas here, because there's no better way to kill an underdeveloped idea than to share it too early, but I've been doing some exploratory sketches for some of them, and I'll share those. Happy November!

 

Congratulations, Red Sox! From your friend, the Reds Ox.

Wish it could've been my team to win the World Series last night, but I'll live vicariously with some visual wordplay and hope for good things in 2014. :)

Working on something.

Victory is hers.

Fine art print available.