The Job: I was hired to produce a football-themed charicature for a 40th birthday gift. The client found a similar image on my site and contacted me. The recipient is a Nebraska Corn Husker fan and Michigan-hater. I was asked to put his children in the picture, too. I made them very small to avoid additional likeness scrutiny. This was a great opportunity to pay tribute to Jack Davis’s fantastic Georgia Bulldog drawings.

This is for a story I’m currently illustrating for Scholastic. Why are they sad? I can’t reveal… but has something to do with a chicken. I very much enjoy doing this kind of cartoony animal illustration.

I had the privilege of attending the Highlights Illustrators Party last weekend in Honesdale, PA. It was a great opportunity to meet the editors and art directors of the magazine along with many, many talented and friendly artists and their families. We were all asked to fill out a questionnaire in relation to the theme of the annual costume party. This year’s theme was superheroes. Below is my questionnaire. Stay tuned for costume pics!

In the years that Julie has been a mom my cards have usually depicted Milo either incubating inside her or in the process of emerging from womb. This year, as Milo nears the age when he will regularly attend school (and as he becomes generally more independent) Julie and I will perhaps soon be able to resume a portion of our old life together. I see our love as for each other as having the potential to be reborn but forever changed by the process of having become parents.

In looking back at the illustrations for the previous books I felt that I had a tendency to create claustrophobic spaces. I think I’ve always had this inclination, in all the various styles and applications of my artwork, to both fill up all the space with stuff and also to not vary the tonal range as much as I could, resulting in a flattening of space despite my best attempts at dynamic perspective in my compositions. I really had to force myself to keep the background of this image as light as it ended up. The compulsion to darken the outlines was nearly impossible to resist but I’m really glad I did. Can I do this more often in the future? I hope so.

A spot illo of Fidget and Hagatha:

Just because I was on vacation didn’t mean that my neuroses were…