Dogs + Cowboys = Happy.

This is part of a big sketch I just finished for Highlights for Children. I'm waiting to get approvals before showing you the whole thing, of course, but I just wanted to share this dog with you. It makes me laugh. Nothing makes me happier than drawing cowboys and dogs.

Illustration Friday: Hollow

I did this piece as a student at Hussian back in 1993 for my junior year Children's Book class. Each semester we had to pick an existing children's story and make it into a working dummy and complete the cover and a few of the illustrations. That year I choose the Grimm Brother's The Six Swans. I won't go into too much detail about the story but what you need to know for this illustration is that a girl's older brothers were all turned into swans and in order to turn them back she had to remain in silent seclusion in the hollow of a tree and sew shirts made of star flowers. This is why she has moss growing all over her clothes and her hair is a bit of a nest. Amazingly though, she always manages to have nice gigantic pink eyelashes. I made that last part up.

This piece was done on stretched 2 ply cold press Arches Watercolor paper with gouache, Doc Marten's Dyes and colored pencil.

144 Aliens.

It's a good bet this is by far the strangest project I will ever will work on.

Back in 1998 Temple University, Moss Rehabilitation (at Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia) and the University of Iowa were jointly conducting an aphasia study to determine why patients could remember certain aspects but completely forget others. The idea was to test them using variations in color and shape. Why they chose aliens I do not know, but it sounded like a pretty cool job to me.

I was given certain rules. They all had to be humanoid males, appear sentient, wear clothing, have two legs, and only have one head. Each battery had specific rules like having 4 arms, a tail, something growing off of the head, no tail, or a combination. The last 4 sets (98-144) were of the same alien species but of different shapes, sizes and clothing.

At first this sounds like a really easy job, but after your mind has been so heavily influenced by Movies (Star Wars, Star Trek, etc) and Comic Books (most notably Jim Lawson and Peter Laird's Planet Racers at this point in my life) it was quite tough to design this vast amount of characters and have them look totally unique, so my apologies if some look a little too familiar.

After some time I developed a fun process where I would close my eyes and haphazardly scribble. I would then open my eyes and turn that scribble into an alien face which would then help me design the rest of the body. It's funny how those random scribbles aliens turned out to be some of my favorites. I teach this process at Hussian for a Fantasy Art project and the students really have a lot of fun with it and do some great stuff.

All 144 aliens can be seen here.

All 144 aliens can be seen here.

Living with Lizards.

I just finished this piece for Highlights for Children 2 weeks ago. It was a fun story to illustrate. It's not too often that I get to do some night/moon lighting, which is one of my favorite things to color.

There is a lot more to this illustration that I didn't post, the open light blue area toward the bottom is just the beginning of the space needed for the story text. There will also be skinks (the lizards) all around the text and hiding under some of the photos throughout the two pages. It will published in the December 2009 issue.

The sketch is below. You should immediately notice the change in the walls and the removal of the man's facial hair and some of the skinks, most notably the skink sleeping by his side which I was quite sad to see go.

I have never met a kid (or an adult) that didn't love Highlights for Children, you can click here to get a subscription.

Zoo Hidden Pictures.

I did these for the Philadelphia Zoo several years ago (2002?) for the kid's section of their website. I don't think there is anything I love to draw more than otters. Capybaras can be a lot of fun too being as they are such strange little animals.

The objects are listed below each image. Have fun!

Find the following: slice of pie, fish, penguin, toothbrush, heart, spatula, ladle, wishbone, glove, needle, umbrella, hawk, sailboat, candy corn, and a crown.

Find the following: pineapple, 8 fish, snake, paintbrush, glove, and a crown.

Find the following: candle, octopus, cat, apple, fish, flash light, ostrich, dinosaur, acorn, rat, duck, paintbrush, peach and a cup.

Sketching in Delaware.

I didn't draw much while on vacation in Delaware. I always have the intention to (I bring a lot of art supplies with me) but I find that I do more reading especially when I am at the beach. Honestly, I don't really like the beach. I am a mountain and trees person simply because there's something to look at other than a horizontal line all day (aka, the ocean). We did see several large pods (10 or more in each) of dolphins this year which was quite exciting and something I have never seen in the wild before.

Anyway on the 3rd day there Daisy needed to pick up some maternity shirts at the outlets (she is now 20 weeks pregnant) so I tagged along with sketchbook in hand since I usually do a lot of waiting around. However, I was surprised to discover that there was a new park behind the outlets with a long hiking trail so I went off while she went shopping.

I was entertained by a songbird for a few minutes before he flew off (above) and on the way back I discovered a snake skeleton on the side of the trail (below).

Vacation.

I'm going on vacation.

Meanwhile, you should read, The Road by Cormac McCarthy. It is depressingly good. I read it some time last year. I found it very difficult to read on the train since I would often well up with tears (Dad/son issues, you know). Usually as I read a book I draw several images from it in my sketchbook, but this is the only one that I was able to since it had hit me so hard.

I will be reading Epileptic and probably drawing heavy set people in their swim suits on the beach.

Illustration Friday: Drifting

I illustrated this in 2005 for the Philadelphia Zoo. It is now in the Zoo's Treehouse covering an pretty large old leaky Aquarium. I still have yet to see it up. It measures 6 x 3 feet. Done in pen and ink with Digital coloring.

I miss doing work for the zoo. It was a lot of fun to research and learn about all of God's amazing creations.

The rest of my blog can be read by clicking on the masthead above.

store30x30.

I got a couple requests to have these made into t-shirts so here you go.

They can be purchased at my fully secure site, store30x30. They are available in men's and women's sizes and come in 31 different colors. Here's are some samples...

Sketchbook Stories.

This is an 8 year old sketchbook story but it still makes me laugh. I'll try to dig up some more if I can find them. Here it is for you- spelling mistakes and all...

Which Student are You?

I know 10 years is not a long time, but by this time in my teaching career (at the Hussian School of Art in Philadelphia) I think I have had just about every type of student. Earlier this year to relieve my stress I started categorizingand sketching out each student type. Comic artist Daniel Clowes already touched on this categorization in his great comic, Art School Confidential. Plus, I want to give credit to Dave Valeza for his Draw Yourself as a Teen, make sure to check that out! (I apologize for not posting this sooner, I wasn't entirely sure where it originated from- thanks to Charley from linesandcolors.com for the info). What I wound up with are these 21 types. Over time, I may discover that there are more types or new names for them (ie:goth is now something called emo). Originally I had excluded the average/good students because average/good is not very funny but with much pleading and begging I added it in.

Listen, I know some people will become fairly ticked off by this. Prior to making these public I ran them by a lot of my students and they seemed to think they were funny and fine to post. Please practice your sense of humor when looking at them.

Anyway, enjoy them and let me know which one you think you are or were...

T-shirts and hoodies are available at store30x30.

The rest of my blog can be seen here.

Philadelphia Zoo Annual Report Comic Strip

I honestly can't remember when I did these strips (2000?). I do remember that they were done for the Zoo's annual report. The idea was that one strip would be at the bottom of each page of the report telling the story of a typical family visiting the zoo. For the most part I was directed as to what to place in each panel, but some of the humor was left up to me. Well, as you can see the strip never went to a finish because some bureaucrat down the line decided it was "inappropriate for the zoo." Thankfully, I was still paid but I was saddened to hear that no one would see this since I had spent so much time on it.

So here it is, in all of its rough-unfinished-misspelled-sloppily-lettered-splendor...

Illustration Friday: Adapt

I'll let the theme of this comic speak for itself.

The Inside Dirt was a weekly comic strip I made for the Philadelphia Daily News from 1992-1995. It followed the exploits of a typical Philadelphian teenager named Bucky in his struggle through high school. Father Judge alumni will recognize the teacher as Mr. McKee, one of my favorite teachers and whose classes I throughly enjoyed. This particular comic strip has always been one of my favorites and I thought it might fit nicely into the Illustration Friday theme of Adapt.

Highlights "What's Wrong?" and an Interview.

This is a back cover I had the privilege of doing for Highlights for Children (click to get a subscription!). I've never illustrated a "What's Wrong" for them so this was very exciting for me. I was asked by the Art Director to deliberately pull back so we could see more people and things going on, that way the viewer has more things to search for. I have to say this was much easier than making hidden pictures since I felt that I could kind of let loose and show my humor a bit more.

The only difficult part about this one was the odd layout of the back cover that you can see below. It's just a matter of making sure everything fit comfortably but it really wasn't too hard to deal with.

Gratefully I am currently working on another "What's Wrong?" I think this one will be published on the October 2009 back cover but I am not entirely sure. Meanwhile, here's something completely different...

My sister-in-law, Kelsey, interviewed me a few years ago for a school paper about art in elementary school:

1. What do you do?(what is your "art")

I consider myself a cartoonist and an illustrator. I mainly work in ink and color most of my work with watercolors or Photoshop. I am also an instructor at my alma mater the Hussian School of Art in Philadelphia. I teach the computer programs Photoshop and Quark as well as the more traditional classes like Figure Construction and Introduction to Fantasy Art as well as Experimental Workshop.

2. What is your educational background?

The answer you're probably looking for is that I have an Associates Degree in "Specialized Technology" but that sounds about as boring as Al Gore. I attended 4 years of intensive commercial art training at the Hussian School of Art. I studied mainly illustration but cartooning and design were always entwined in my work. In this field it doesn't matter what degree you have so long as you can do the work. One of my favorite Children's book illustrators, Stephen Gammel, never had an art lesson in his entire life and he produces some of the most wonderful illustrations I have ever seen.

3. Why do you do your art, i.e. what kind of enjoyment or fulfillment do you get out of it. First, why do I do it?

Honestly, because I have to, I want to, and I need to. I can't imagine living my life doing something other than drawing. I know beyond a question of a doubt that I was born to draw, as to what specific genre can change but I know that I will always be drawing. Even when there isn't a pencil in my hand I am almost always mentally drawing. It can be distracting at times. As for enjoyment, it really depends on what I'm working on or who I'm creating it for. All artists are affirmation junkies. We live on it. Not that we need a, "job well done" all the time, we just need to know someone sees it and more importantly understands it. The enjoyment I find is when someone sees a specific detail that I went out of my way to include. The only real fulfillment I get in creating my work is when I'm doing it solely for God. I firmly believe God is the creator, and I feel closest to him when I'm trying to reflect what he has already created. There are times, and I mean this in the most humble way, when I can honestly say it feels like an act of worship. I wish everything I did put me into this state of heart, but like any job there are also days when it just feels like a job that just has to get done.

4. Define creativity?

Each of us has seen or experienced something for which we have no words, creativity is our response. I think creativity is also a problem solving process.

5. What were your creative outlets as a child?

My Mother would occasionally bring home a small ream of copier paper for us to draw on. My brothers and I would draw for hours.

6. Who encouraged you most in your early years?

I think the best part about my upbringing was that I was neither encouraged nor discouraged. After my parents separation, my Mother had to go right to work so there wasn't much time for her to spend with us each day. She just kept supplying the paper and we kept drawing. My brothers were always drawing so I figured that's just what you do when Mom is working. It wasn't really until 8th grade that my family started to take my interest in art seriously.

7. How were they encouraging to you? (e.g.words, exposing you to art, taking you places?)

Everyone had their way of encouraging me but I don't know if it was intentional all of the time. My neighbors were always the ones who insisted I'd be an artist when I grew up. Occasionally my brothers brought home comic books and we always had the newspaper lying around were I would get my daily dose of comic strips. Whenever I was out with my Dad he would often make me draw on cocktail napkins that he would show off to his friends. That always made me feel special. Aside from that the most encouraging thing my parents did was buy me an art table for my 12th birthday which gave me a place to focus my energies. I still use that table to this day.

8. How important was it for you to have support?

As a kid, I never realized that I needed any kind of support so much as more paper to draw on. I just drew and that was what I did. I had a great group of friends that shared my love of drawing which challenged me to strive harder. As an adult I now realize just how important support and community are as an artist. Being an illustrator is an extremely lonely job. You spend the majority of your time alone with a scary intimidating blank piece of paper and your thoughts. To have someone to bounce ideas off of or just talk to about what you're trying to accomplish is extremely comforting.

9. What is your inspiration?

My inspiration is nothing in-particular as much as it is a combination of things. It can depend upon where I am, who I'm with or what mood I'm in. As a young artist inspiration was something that I depended on. After years of training inspiration is something that I have learned to control. Simply put if I've got a tight deadline I don't have the luxury of waiting for inspiration to strike, I've just to to get drawing. Still, there are those times when I see something so lovely that demands to be drawn. Other artists work is also an inspiration, which is one of the benefits of teaching aspiring artists.

10. Who discouraged you the most?

I can't recall anyone in particular being overly negative toward me on a consistent basis. I've always been very hard on myself because I always wanted to be better than I was, which is probably why I am where I am. Van Gogh once said that he could only get better if he surpassed himself. Even as a professional I still strive to be better than I was a year ago. One of the hardest things to deal with in the art field is rejection. You try not to take it personally, but since your art is so much a part of you it's hard to make that separation. Fortunately at Hussian I had honest and straight forward teachers who taught me to take that rejected art and improve on it. If you think it can only get better, than there's hope.

11. When did you discover you were an "artist"?

One day at nursery school we had a project in which we had to glue a leaf to a piece of construction paper and draw on a face, arms, and legs. Later, when my Mother arrived to pick me up, the teacher excitedly showed her what I had done. Apparently I had drawn more than the face, arms and legs. I drew the private parts. All of them. The teacher thought it was amazing because I was noticing things that the others were not. She insisted that I was going to grow up to be an artist. For the rest of the year that perverted leaf man hung on her locker for all to see. I wish I could see that again.

12. Did you ever want to do anything else?

I've always wanted to be an astronaut and I still do.

13. What was the influence of elementary schooling on you as an artist?

Being a small Catholic school in Philadelphia we didn't have much in the areas of an art program. Because of this our art classes were never consistent, but when I got word that we were having one I looked forward to it more than Christmas. I loved and did the best I possibly could with each project. Most of the time the projects would challenge me enough to go home and try it again and again. It's a funny thing with art, just when you think you've got something nailed down, along comes someone who shows you something that alters your thinking and it opens up another avenue you never imagine existed. Suddenly you look at something as routine as pencils and paints like you never have before.

14. Did you encounter problems (e.g. how you were received/treated by teachers)?

For the most part I was appreciated for my talent and even at a young age my teachers often times asked me to create art for the school or the teacher's classrooms. There's only one teacher I can think of that discouraged me and I wasn't even in his class. I was waiting in the Deans of students office because my Mother and the Principal were having a meeting in another office. The Dean was having a meeting with another parent and the student's teacher, Mr. Franchino. I was minding my own business sitting in the corner drawing away as usual. For no reason what so ever, Mr. Franchino walked up to me and inquired about what I was doing. I told him I was just drawing. He scoffed and proceeded to yell that I should, "do something useful with my life, like homework." Everyone in the room got a good laugh and I felt humiliated.

15. What is your opinion about the teaching of art in elementary school?

I think art is the most important subject in school today. With all of the distractions that kids have (TV, video games, internet,etc.) it's a wonder that they have time at all to do their homework let alone discover the joys of being creative. A structured art class can allow children to try and imagine things they never have before. Part of the problem with adults is that most of them have lost that kind of imagination at about the age of 12 and easily forget how important art is. The more I teach the more I observe how art is literally everywhere. Our society depends on it. When most people think of art they automatically think of paintings or illustrations but a creative person is responsible for nearly everything we use everyday. From lightbulbs to buildings to clothes to our own written language, a creative person first had to imagine it before it became reality for us all.

16. What suggestions do you you have for...

a) a budding artist

(The following has some quotes from Michael Card's Scribbling in the Sand of which I agree wholeheartedly)

First, fill your day and your mind with curiosity. Always remain teachable; ask questions of everyone and don't hide your ignorance. Second, your art skills will only improve with practice. Your talent is not a license to be lazy. I know it is difficult at first, but in time you will see results. Draw as much as you possibly can. Draw everything you see and experience. Search for the beauty in the ordinary and interpret it for those who cannot. Third, on a spiritual level, please remember that only God can imagine and make something out of nothing. He is the only one who deserves the title of creator. We are merely creative. Be simple and straightforward about your art. Don't mysticize your relation to it. Love it, yes, just as God loves a zebra. But don't outstep him by saying that you are your art when he can't say that he is a zebra. Remember that the greatest work of art is infinitely less worth in God's eyes than the person who made it. Your growth as an artist is not in being able to impress others, but rather it comes by understand how limited you are. Humble yourself before God and the talents he has blessed you with and use them to respond to his beauty and the love he has for you.

b) a future elementary school teacher

I firmly believe that the best way to teach is visually. Whenever possible do everything in your power to teach visually. If you need to take the extra time to make models or props to teach a lesson please do so. Visual aids transcend any language and provide images for a child to remember which will last longer than any words spoken. A child's mind is immeasurably imaginative and as teachers I believe it is your responsibility to respond to it's beauty and not quiet it with mere words.

Illustration Friday: Cracked

This one needs some explanation but I'll keep it simple. When I was 4 years old I was hit by a car. I still have a large scar and crack in my forehead. The following two panels are from a story I am putting together about just not only the crack in my forehead but my theory on why I continue to hit my head...

If you'd like to follow my cracked head exploits feel free to stop by my "Head Injury" log on facebook. Here's a photo of the scar on my head (please note that the tiny cut pictured was recently acquired when I hit my head on my desk, the scar is below). Don't laugh, it's not funny.

My crazy process.

I haven't done what I call a "big and busy" illustration in a while, especially one that required color. I always try to make my hidden pictures fairly busy, that way I have more places to hide objects, but this was kind of a new territory for me. This piece was done for Highlight's High Five, which is a magazine centered around early childhood kids. The illustration is very much in the vain of the "What's Wrong" back covers of Highlights for Children but this is an interior double page spread and goes by the name of, "That's Silly." Since the magazine is aimed at younger kids I had to make sure that everything was clearly visible and easy to discern.

If you're interested, here was my process making this piece...

It all started with some thumbnail sketches, of course. With the excellent help of the Art Director I had a clear idea as to what I wanted right off the bat and I was given some great examples of what other artists had done for past "Silly Things", so that helped me a lot with the overall tone and composition.

After doing some extensive research about which type of brownstones (aka row homes/town homes) I was going to model them after, I decided to take the easy route with my perspective. I drew the buildings straight on and duplicated the windows with Photoshop (PS) to save some time. The hardest part of making the windows was that brownstones typically have long thin windows, so I had to purposely make them much wider if I was going to fit some silly things within.

After taking the scans into PS and adding all of the needed windows, I used the perspective and distort transform tool to get my perspective right and added the details of the roof and the steps. The trick was to keep all of the windows (which would house most of the silly things) at least a half inch away from the gutter and the margins which was proving to be most difficult.

So I played with it- making the buildings smaller, adding another building, removing windows, etc. I also realized that the Ice Cream shop needed to be more of a part of the composition.

Finally everything fit seamlessly outside the gutter and the margins. The original concept I had was starting to take form. I was finally starting to feel like I was looking at a city street like in my hometown of Philadelphia.

I started to polish it up as more details were added...

The next logical step was to add the trees. I originally thought I'd have smaller trees (as you can see by the thumbnails), but part of what makes the older city neighborhoods so enchanting is the beautiful large Sycamore (a neighborhood without tress is just a group of ugly buildings). My poor planning had wasted time drawing the tops of the buildings since they would now be almost completely covered up by the leaves.

Roughly sixteen hours later and my stage was set and I could add the characters! I was given a list of specific silly things to draw in the windows but I had some extras so I added an opera singer, a cowboy feeding his cow some eggs, and a gorilla reading a paper.

Next was the outside characters. Each was drawn individually so I could move them around and place where I needed them.

Lastly, I added some fallen leaves since this was going to be published in the October issue.

At this point I sent the sketch to the Art Director and was told to change and add a few things. The opera singer was changed to a leopard playing a violin, a robot was added to to give sense to the remote controlled broom, a tiny train was added to the top of the ice cream shop awning, the yarmulke was removed from the man in front of the ice cream shop (not pictured), an upside down address number 45 was placed in the window above the door in the middle and the goatee was removed from the man flipping the pancakes. Also, although it is not in this sketch, I had to add leaves to cover up the branches in the top left center because it was too busy for the "That's Silly" logo to lay on top off.

Finally I did all of the inking. The background and each character was done separately for easier placement. I did the inking 50% larger to ensure that I could get in all of the small details. Using Adobe Bridge I made several scans and pieced it all together.

Using PS and a good Wacom tablet I colored in the background and the trees first (I forgot to mention that the tree on the right was going to have blue leaves and a pink trunk with white polka dots). I made my own custom brushes for the coloring and textures.

Then I colored the interiors.

And then the outside sillies.

Lastly I added the shadows to give more depth. At this stage I also showed it to several friends to see what they thought of the colors. I made some adjustments (already shown) and was ready to send it off to High Five.

As I said this will be published in the October 2009 issue so keep an eye out for it. If you'd like a subscription to High Five or Highlights, just click here. Kids love it.

Barber Shop.

I recently finished this hidden picture for Highlights for Children. When I sketched this out I was very nervous about Highlights rejecting this one since having hair in your ice cream is considered a bit gross. To my surprise they loved it and only asked for a couple changes to the hidden objects. 

Look for the following in this one:

Worm, crescent moon, lollipop, screwdriver, putter, nail, saw, cane, top hat, candle, and a carrot.

Not that it looks much like them but the kids in this illustration are my siblings, Mike (in the chair), Dan (hair on the ice cream), and Jackie. They were a lot of fun to grow up with and as you can see by this photo below I think they contributed much to my sense of humor.

Now that I look at this, it looks like Mike is in desperate need of a haircut.

Through the Years (add on)

With Daisy pregnant I have been learning a lot more about the whole process so I guess it's only natural that I draw out Fetus Chuck to add to the Through the Years (Part 1 and Part 2).

Here are those ads I recently did for Bryn Mawr Collage through Leap Frog.

How Reality Shows Destroyed Humanity.

I have too much time on my hands right now because my wife has been traveling a lot and this is the result.

Illustration Friday: Hierarchy

I am the youngest of four which is why I am freakishly tolerant of physical pain.

Baby.

My wife is 3 months pregnant and we are overwhelmed with joy!

In the Studio.

If it isn't obvious from these photos my studio is not the biggest room in the house so making a panoramic of it was a little difficult but Bridge did the best job it could to put them altogether.

Busy, busy, busy...

I have been working on two pretty big sketches for Highlights recently and I have finally completed them. Here is a little piece from each until they are approved and the finish is completed.

Watch the Lamb.

In 1995 I illustrated the lyrics from the Ray Boltz song, "Watch the Lamb" for my comic strip, the Inside Dirt during the weeks leading up to Easter. This is a panel from a revision of that comic made for my church for Good Friday a couple of years ago. We showed it as a powerpoint while it was performed by one of our musicians. The entire comic and an attached music link (so you can listen and watch) is up for you to view here. I hope it brings more meaning to today as we remember that Friday long ago.

Bible.

04/21 Update: I'm posting this for Illustration Friday: Impossibility. I know there are a lot of folks out there who think the events are an impossibility so it kind of fits.

----------------------------------------------------

I can't believe these are 10 years old now.

It's Easter week so I thought I would post these. I also finally figured out how to use Adobe Bridge and Photoshop to photomerge multiple scans, so this is the first time I am able to upload these without looking fragmented.

Please click on the image to see the enlarged view:

The hebrew inscriptions on the above Old Testament illustration are:

1. Left side: the name of God, "Yahweh." The vowels are removed because some Jewish people believe you should not write the name of God since it is so holy, so it actually says, "YHWH."

2. Right side top: "Hear, O Israel: the Lord is our God, the Lord is One." Deuteronomy 6:4. This is the Shema, considered the most important prayer in Judaism, and its twice-daily recitation is a mitzvah (religious commandment).

3. Right side bottom: The disembodied fingers of a human hand appear and write on the wall of the royal palace the words Mene, Mene, Tekel u-Pharsin for King Belshazzar. Daniel translates: "And this is the writing that was inscribed: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, and PARSIN. This is the interpretation of the matter: MENE, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; TEKEL, you have been weighed on the scales and found wanting; PERES, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians." Daniel 5: 24-28.

The Hebrew in the center of the Gospel illustration above (which really should have been either Aramaic or Greek) is the summary of the entire Bible, "For God so loved the World that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life." This verse comes from the famous John 3:16 (I'm sure you've seen it in a football stadium somewhere). The old man pictured with Jesus is Nicodemus, one of the religious leaders who asked to meet with Jesus one night to better understand his teachings.

Now the story behind these (I always get asked lots of questions about them):

One night while I was watching the boring movie, the English Patient, I started drawing parts of the movie and as I drew I overlapped the sketches to form a collage. Months later when I had no work I decided to take this technique further and draw the entire Old Testament. I had no real plan, I used only ink and 9 days later I was complete.

The gospels took a much longer 2 months. Using what I had learned from the Old Testament illustration I planned ahead a bit more and took my time. It's funny, I have been to Israel since making these and now I look at them and think how different they would look if I had gone there first.

* A limited edition of 700 have been printed on vellum stock for sale. Size is approximately 17.375 x 23". It is $80 for the set (Old Testament and Gospels) or $50 for one. Shipping and handling is just $4. Just send me an email: chuckdillon@mac.com if you would like one.

Illustration Friday: Talisman

I honestly thought I wouldn't have anything for this one but then I remembered drawing this back in 1994 for my children's book class at Hussian. Each semester we were given the option of re visioning a classic so I choose The Rainbabies by Laura Krauss Melmed and Jim Lamarche, a very strange book.

The one below was the cover.

Through the Years (part 2)

Updated with Toddler Chuck:

Here is the rest. I was tempted to do an Early College years since I had changed so much from then until my later college years but I was pretty much still like the high school version. Oh, I can't really do late 30's until I'm 40, so just wait 4 years.

TMNT comic

Someone just reminded me of this little comic adventure so I went looking for it and was shocked to see that it has been 15 years since this was published in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Man, that makes my back hurt.

After visiting the New York Comic Con with my friend Billy, I had drawn up this comic to post at Hussian (I had been posting up weekly comics for the fun of it at school and this is what lead to me getting my comic strip, the Inside Dirt, published in the Philadelphia Daily News for 3 years). I still find it pretty funny, but I hate those over exaggerated expressions. Apparently I had been watching too much Ren n' Stimpy cartoons, I guess.

This is the issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles it was published in (which is Copyright © Mirage Studios 1993).

Through the years...

A while back I saw that some blogging illustrators took to drawing their teenage selves. It inspired me to do not only that but a few others as well.

I still have to draw College Chuck, 20's Chuck and Early 30's Chuck, so stay tuned.

Illustration Friday: Poise

I think I did this illustration for the Philadelphia Zoo about 8 or 9 years ago. It's still one of my favorites and thought it might fit well into this week's Illustration Friday theme of "Poise."

Bryn Mawr College

Obviously the text on this cartoon is incorrect but it gives an idea as to how the layout would work. The original concept (that accompanied this text) was to have a number of book shelves and to use the books to show the donation percentages for each college, but after looking at a few of the sketches the client decided it was not effective enough. Thankfully my wife is a brilliant Pharmaceutical scientist so when I was asked to take on this chemistry concept all I had to do was tell her I was looking for some cool chemistry set-ups that didn't look like a kit that a kid would get for his 12th birthday from his dorky Uncle. I had a pretty terrible school experience and never set foot in a chemistry lab so I was thankful for Daisy's assistance in showing me what to look for. Proper research can make or break an illustration, you know? Anyway I had fun with the bottles and all of that and I hope you enjoy it too. Once I get the version with the correct text I will repost it.

I did another cartoon for Bryn Mawr back here if you're interested in seeing it.

The Art Director behind both Bryn Mawr cartoons was by Nancy McDonald, the first person to give me my big break doing all of that Philadelphia Zoo work many years back.

Latest Hidden Pictures

I am completely overwhelmed with a large illustration that will probably be the death of me. If you don't hear from me for a while be sure to tell my Mom that I love her. Meanwhile, here are the two latest Hidden Pictures for Highlights for Children!

Find the following: paper clip, hammer, fish, magnifying glass, ballpoint pen, slice of pie, shark, nail, butter knife, fork, muffin, paintbrush, key, banana, and a toothbrush.

Find the Following: mitten, bird, lightbulb, feather, book, hockey stick, cowboy boot, wishbone, sock, pencil, heart, and a pennant.

Hidden Pictures are Copyright © Highlights for Children.

Illustration Friday: Legendary

Who is more legendary than Charlton Heston?

He has always been a hero of mine, not only because he was a great stage and film actor (and unknown to most, a wonderful "sketcher") but among the stupidity of most of hollywood, he remained happily married to the same woman for 63 years. In Hollywood today or any other day, that is a miracle.

I will always remember him as a man’s man, someone who was never afraid to speak the truth (even in the face of that hideous monster, Rosie O’Donnell). He had values and he acted on them without apology.

Five years ago Charlton Heston kindly wrote a forward for my sketchbook journal, Two Weeks Southwest and I would like to share it with you...

Yes, Charlton Heston’s forward was a joke and no, I was not a set art director in 1952.

Now go and watch Ben-Hur, the greatest movie ever made.

Philadelphia.

I did these back in 1995 I think. I can't remember what the street scene was for but the city scape of Philadelphia was for some kind of "mall guide" website. I never knew if it was used or not. Now that I look at this, Philadelphia has a new taller Skyscraper, the Comcast Tower, that I will have to squeeze in some day.

Feel free to use the city scape as a very confusing desktop wallpaper.

Opossums.

Recently I was given a job with Highlights to draw a small map for the Science Corner page. To make a long story short, I only needed to draw the map but I foolishly thought that I needed to draw a "opossum playing dead" for an additional panel. Since these will not be used for anything I figured I could post them here. I did two versions, one of which was a bit more humorous.

Trains, Planes and Boats.

I sketch people pretty much every time I am on a train, a plane or a boat (in this case on our cruise last December). I don't use any pencil and alternate between a brush pen (refillable Copic) and a 05 Micron. It's a great way to pass the time and if you're lucky you get some nice characters for future projects.

These last 4 were done on the last night of our cruise at the "American Idol" Karaoke contest. Ted, the guy in the black turtle neck doing the air guitar, stole the show.

Barber Shop.

Here is another little preview of a hidden picture sketch I am working on. 

Sketchbook.

As I have said before, I often sketch while in church and sometimes while watching movies at home. Occasionally these two themes collide like in the last three images here, which is kind of fun.

Ads.

Bunny Village

It's good to look through some old files every once in a while! 

I just found these scans of the Philadelphia Zoo's children's book called, Bunny Village. I have the original art but I was never able to scan them in since they were such a large size. This was the first real rush job I had ever done. It's a long story but they needed 16 illustrations completed in 7 days (basically a full children's book that a publisher would give at least 6 months to do). I remember I wanted to have a nice texture to the painting so I choose a cold press rough Arches watercolor paper to do the finishes, which is fine and good for watercolor but when it came time for inking it was very difficult. The inking pens quickly wore down and after each page I had to soak my hand/arm in hot water since it hurt so much. Thankfully I was completed in 6 days but the downside was that I dreamt about bunnies for about a month.

I wish the scans were larger but I'll take what I can get.

Zoo Signs.

These are some signs I did the illustrations for at the Philadelphia Zoo back in 2001. The last time I checked they were still up in the Rare Mammal House. I miss working for the Zoo, I did a lot of fun stuff with them. It always challenged me as an artist and I always had something to learn. I thought I had lost these files but they thankfully resurfaced. 

Dressing up.

Here's another part of a sketch I recently finished for Highlights Hidden Pictures. It's pretty hard to make clothes look like they don't fit.

Corner Store.

I'm currently working on a bunch of Hidden Pictures for Highlights. I don't want to show the full sketches until they're approved, but here's a piece of one. 

I've never drawn a Deli before so this was a lot of fun. Growing up in the city we had what we called, "corner stores," which were stores at the end of the block that had all the essentials, including all the typical Deli stuff. I wasted a lot of money in those, I remember stupidly spending a rare two dollar bill to buy a couple of water ices for my friends and I.

I finally replaced that two dollar bill. I found one in Israel of all places, in the valley of the Dead Sea, next to Masada.

Gifts.

Here are some illustrations I did for some friends of mine over the years. The descriptions are above the images.

This was done for a friend's wedding. Joe is a big fan of DC Comics and he introduced me to comics many years ago.

My friend Ramsie always joked that the only man she would ever marry was, well, just read the end.

As a wedding gift to my friend Michael I created his wedding cake topper which had a motorized back that I had made out of an old clock.

Sometimes I get requests. Dianna and Paul asked me to do a caricature of their entire wedding party so they could give it out as a gift.

This one was done for Jeff's birthday I think. At the time he was a security guard at a Movie Theater, so my secret caption for this one was, "Step away from the butter! You're using entirely too much!" Because what the heck is a movie security guard securing?

Tracie asked me to make this for her birthday. She didn't know what she wanted exactly, just a drawing of herself, so I made her rollerblading, since she often did so in the church parking lot on Sunday afternoons.

I honestly can't remember if this was done as a birthday gift for Rich Kirk or his daughter Brittany. I did the Monsters, Inc. parody simply because Brittany laughed just like the character Boo.

I still take requests by the way.

Seek and Find Finishes

I have finally finished these seek and finds for the Maiden Creek Watershed Association. These will be used to educate children on conservation and the environment. As I said before, these were harder than the Hidden Pictures I do for Highlights simply because I had to hide specific objects and illustrate specific flora and fawna as well having a cross section of the creek included in the illustrations. I also had to design the look of the page as well "extract" the hidden objects, something I am not entirely used to.

Philadelphia Christmas Card.

Last card, I promise. I meant to put this up sooner, but I got swamped with other stuff.

Back in 1995 my good friend Ramsie and I entered a contest for the city of Philadelphia's official Christmas Card. Students from all of the art schools in the Philadelphia area entered and Ramsie and I were chosen. We both developed the concept of using the Love statue but I have to be honest and tell you that Ramsie did most of the work. She did the bottom half since she was very good at drawing "small" people and I did the top half because I was more familiar with the buildings of the city. The funny part is that we never meant for this to be the finished art but Mayor Rendell (now the Governor of Pennsylvania) was so pleased with it that they ran with it as is. The print house that was sponsoring the contest (CR Waldmen) loved the card because they got to show off their new 5 color press since we had used Doc Marten's dyes which contain some fluorescents (they run into the fifth color area). Although you can't see it, they also put a UV coating over the Love statue which gave it a glossy look adding to the beauty of the card.

Unfortunately, Ramsie moved to Texas before she had the opportunity to meet the Mayor and have some promotional photos taken so I went alone. Below is one of those photos. Not everyone can say that they got be the Mayor for 52 seconds...

Christmas Card.

Daisy and I just returned from a wonderfully improved non-Italian 2nd honeymoon cruise and I still feel like I'm moving. Now that the Christmas Cards are officially out and about I can post it here. If you'd like one, just email me your address and I'll send one along to you asap.

Merry Christmas.

The inside:

Christmas Cards from Christmas Past

I have never received as much positive feedback from one of my cards as I had with the one above. After this one every card I make seems to feel pretty stupid and mundane.

As for the one below (pictured is the outside of the card and the inside is below it), I am at that age were everyone complains about their weight during the holiday season and I had gotten pretty tired of hearing about it.

There is a funny story behind the card below. I had blatantly used my friend Jeff as the character for the fourth wise-man simply because this is something he would say with his often inappropriate sarcasm. At the last minute I had second thoughts and changed the look of the character so no one would suspect it was him. Well, two days after mailing this card out I received emails from several people asking if the fourth wise man was in fact, Jeff.

I'll post this year's card soon, I just want to send them out first and not spoil the fun.

Gas crunch comics.

I made these sketches in the midst of the gas increase and swore I would take them to finish but I just haven't had the time so here you go.

Willamina and Theodora.

Daisy and I are moving back to PA. We have both had enough of the wonderfully inept NJ government (honestly, the only good thing about the NJ gov't is the DMV). We are in no hurry, so despite the housing market we are both trusting God to move in a favorable way for us. Since we will be showing our house off, we decided to pass my oldest cat, Willamina, off to my Mother for the time being. Our younger cat, Theodora, will be going to a non-kill shelter on Monday. It was a hard decision but one we had to make. Daisy and I are both allergic to cats and with winter upon us it only makes the allergens worse in the closed up house.

I drew the above ink drawing of Willamina when she was a mere 2 months old (back in 1996) and the photo below was taken of her on her favorite place to rest in the house, my light table, while I am working of course. Which reminds me, I need to start a photo blog. This photo just doesn't seem right sitting here. Hmm... blog 31x30? I'll get on it.

Seek and Find 1

I was recently commissioned to create this (as well as another that I am not finished) seek and find for the Maiden Creek Watershed Association of PA. I had to add specific floral and fauna as well the water table, which made this more difficult in composition than the average hidden picture I do for Highlights. I still like it though. That Raccoon makes my day.

Behind the Wedding

This is a small comic book I made for my wedding about how my wife and I met. We used them as the wedding favors for everyone at the reception. Please go to this link to see the entire book: Behind the Wedding.

It's several pages long so I didn't want to upload the entire thing here.

Logo Designs.

Every so often I get asked to make a logo which makes me happy that I paid attention in my design classes. A struggle I have with a lot of my students is that they think that as an illustrator they don't need to know design (or how to use a computer for that matter). Some of them often find out too late that it is essential. Even if you're not designing a logo per se, there is still a good amount design that goes into each illustration.

I recently finished this one below for His-n-Herbs and I've added some others that I have done over the years. I don't usually show these off.

Every year I get asked to design the logo for the Relay for Life in Medford, NJ. It is a 24 hour walk-a-thon that usually takes place at a local high school track. The logo has to be created keeping in mind that it will be used for a one color silkscreen for t-shirts, mugs, etc.

The logo for my church's youth group of which my wife and I help lead.

A hooded sweatshirt design. Typing Hebrew is not fun, since you have to do it backwards. Coming up with a method to make the design look weathered was also a challenge.

This one was done for Helping Hand, a concierge business. This design was for the 2 sided business card.

In connection with the Relay for Life stuff, this one was done for an after-treatment support group which was started by a good friend, Susan Jones, who has since gone home to be with the Lord.

And finally this was created for Lighthouse Tabernacle, a local church. I used the colors from their stained glass windows to construct the lighthouse.

Work in progress

This is part of a pair of hidden pictures- err, I mean, "seek and find"- being done for a nearby Conservation group. I'll post the finishes once I'm done.

Highlights Hidden Pictures Cover

Just received the copies of the 2009 hidden picture book in which I was picked for the cover.

Also, I am in this month's Highlights Magazine (November 2008). It is an older hidden picture piece I did back in 2001 that I think was reprinted for this issue, but I'm not entirely sure. It's kind of fun to look at how I have improved in just 7 years. I've learned since that removing the tone makes the hidden pictures harder to find and it takes much less time. I wish I had known they were going to reprint this, I would like to have re-inked it.

Short Cuts.

Two weeks ago I had to do a pretty quick turn-around job for Bryn Mawr College. The illustration was to be of 6 different crew boats with 30 people distributed between them. Since I didn't have the time to draw each individual, I drew 3 instead: one coxswain and one female and one male rower, plus the back and front of the boat. I then drew many different heads of different races (as shown below) and stuck them on the bodies.

I wish I had the time to vary the strokes each team was taking, but sometimes you just have to get the job done. I still think it turned out pretty nice.

Old Mac Donald.

I teach a sophomore class called Experimental Workshop at the Hussian School of Art. The whole point of the class is to make the students think outside the box. Most of the time we are creating 3 dimensional pieces but every so often I have them do an illustration. I start off by giving them a list of 58 animals/objects that Old MacDonald and his family are moving. The experimental side of this illustration is to draw everything that is on the list but to draw it using only INK. No pencil or research is allowed. They are given roughly 3 hours to complete.

Last year I decided to do one and here's what I was able to put together. I found that the hardest part of this was keeping the proportions right and just trying to plan ahead for what was coming next. There is some bad drawing here, and this piece is pretty big (6 x 22") that I had to take a photo of it, so please forgive the quality.

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Update: I found a away to scan it in using Adobe Bridge's Photo merge!

Washington's tomb

I drew this back in June when I visited the tomb in Mount Vernon, VA. I wish I had more time but I had to cut the visit short. It really is a beautiful place to visit.

More Psycholinguistic Technologies stuff.

I posted some of these earlier. You'll note the use of the same backgrounds used throughout these sets. I did this in order to cut down on production time and to make it easier for the viewer to quickly point out the differences in the scenarios when using the program.

I discovered in this first set that I really like to draw sad dogs, especially ones that have just gotten into trouble.

The design of this hideously ugly dress is actually based on one that a friend owns, but I won't tell.

I also love to draw grumpy cats.

Although I hate to draw hippies.

You can see Drew Phillips in the top right hand corner of this one. He helped me with the coloring on some of these.

Old fang.

Recently I noticed that some blogging illustrators took to drawing their, "teenage-selves." I went the other route...

Illiterate man.

I made this on the train coming home from teaching a few years ago...

Great Falls, VA.

My wife travels for a living and occasionally I accompany her on her trips. A few weeks ago I went with her to the DC area and visited Great Falls National Park on the Virginia/Maryland border. I sat in the gorge for a few hours and drew some of the dramatic scenery with my brush pens. The top drawing here is out of my comfort zone but I think it came out nice (for my benefit anyway).

1776.

This year the Hussian School of Art (where I teach) is moving into the Bourse building which is located right next to Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, and the Ben Franklin House (to name just a few of the Historic building in the Old City area of Philadelphia). I have always loved history and now I will be surrounded by it.

Having just finished 1776 by David Mc Collough, my appreciation for what those ragtag band of men accomplished knows no bounds. It really is remarkable.

See you in 4 years, London!

Here is more from the series of goofy Olympic drawings in my sketchbook. Most of these are nonsensical drawings that I do while not trying to think all that much.

I've got to tell you, if you missed the presentation of the Olympic flag to the Mayor of London during the closing ceremonies you missed the best part of the olympics. He was a mess.

I have no idea why I drew a winter sport, but here you go.

And I would really like to try out something like this...

For the Ladies...

The best thing this guy ever did was not clip his finger nails.

Olympics

My wife and I have been watching the Olympics since they started on Friday. As is my custom with sports of any kind, I get bored so I open my sketchbook and start drawing.

Sentence Shaper

These images will be featured in a new program for people with language disorders called "SentenceShaper® II" which will be released later this year by Psycholinguistic Technologies.

For the past 12 years I have had the privilege of completing roughly 1300 illustrations for the Sentence Shaper program as well as the design of the program's look (buttons, etc.). Overall my cartooning has had to remain the same which has been difficult considering my artistic growth. However, the biggest challenge has been that each illustration needed to easily and recognizably portray an action or entire scenario without the use of words. You'll note that motion lines are emphasized. This was to help draw the patient's eye and bring attention to an action or variation.

This latest batch of scenarios were "point-and-click" colored (due to time and budget constraints) with the help of Drew Phillips. I'll post more as time allows, God knows I have plenty to show.

Charles Schulz

Okay, I'm ready to talk about it.

If you know me, you know how much of a fan I am of Charles Schulz and Peanuts. Recently I finished the newest biography by David Michaelis, Schulz and Peanuts. While I enjoyed the book I found that some parts were extremely hard to read since it felt so close to home. However, as I read I found that it helped heal me of many of the struggles that I have been dealing with my entire life, but the most important of all was this:

1. Never put your work before your family or your God.

Shepherd.

Forgive me, but sometimes I get bored at church. Don't get me wrong, I'm listening, I just need to do something other than listen. The sketches I do usually tie in with our pastor's message.

The story behind this sketch:

Sheep are considered to be the dumbest animals on the planet. If a sheep continued to wander, shepherds would break one of the sheep's legs making the sheep more dependent on the shepherd. That way, the shepherd could keep track of his flock, keep it safe and guide it in the right direction. Sometimes it's good to have your leg broken.

Daguerreotype

I've been pretty busy with creating the sets for our Vacation Bible School, but I wanted to get something up here for everyone to see. Here's another hidden picture created for Highlights Magazine. This one is based on early Daguerreotype photography with French artist and chemist Louis J.M. Daguerre.

Try to find the following in this one:

Umbrella, spoon, knife, candle, fishhook, bendy straw, banana, bell, flag, flashlight, paintbrush, muffin, and a pencil.

Rock Climbing

The latest hidden picture for Highlights Magazine.

There are 16 hidden objects to find:

Mitten, diamond ring, fish, fishhook, apple, turtle, shell, mug, acorn, sock, candy corn, boomerang, ladybug, magnifying glass, wishbone, and the proverbial sailboat.

We are all dumb tourists.

A recent conversation I had with a friend reminded me of these dumb tourists Daisy and I ran into while in Italy. You really should do everything you can to blend in, God knows we did but they still knew we were Americans. Others, on the other hand, don't get it at all and act as if everything should be catering to their needs. 

10 hours.

Last summer my wife, Daisy, and I went to Charlotte, North Carolina for an extremely restful vacation. Daisy drove the entire 10 hours home to our home in Mount Laurel, New Jersey and I took the opportunity to sketch all of the fun stuff we encountered on the ride. I have become quite accustomed to drawing on trains (three days a week during the school year) but drawing while she drove at 70+ miles per hour in a small SUV was a hoot. Here are the sketchbook pages from the trip. I did have to clean up some of the lettering.

Paper Sculpture

I promise to keep on top of this blog more frequently. If time will allow it I hope to do weekly postings.

June 2 was our first wedding anniversary. Unsure of what I was going to get Daisy I did a little research and was tickled to find out that the traditional first wedding anniversary gift is paper. Rather ambitiously I decided that I was going to a create a paper sculpture for Daisy of a scene from our honeymoon on the island of Capri in Italy. Considering it had been 15 years since I made a paper sculpture it took me much longer than I had planned. Thankfully it was completed on our anniversary and Daisy loved it.

It's amazing how much the lighting effects the look of it. Here's a few photos of it as well some of the scenery that it is based on.

While hiking down Monte Solaro, Daisy and I stumbled upon the shrine to Santuario Santa Maria a Centrella. I'm not entirely sure who Saint Marie was or what event the shrine is associated with. Ancient stone ruins surrounded the mountain side as well as snakes, lizards and flowers. To add to the beauty of it all low flying clouds continuously collided into the mountain.

You'll note that I removed the stone "cap" on top of the shrine for the sculpture.

One of the many lizards on the island. Daisy was fascinated by them so I added one into the sculpture.

Christmas Card 2007

I'll be honest with you, coming up with a concept for my Christmas card has become increasingly difficult each year. I struggle to maintain the truth of Christmas but make it funny at the same time. Other years I feel like I have been successful in this, but this year I just felt like doing a generic "holiday" card. Cowgirl Pearl and Ranger Kent star in this year's card. I wanted to include my cute wife Daisy in the card so it seemed like the best option.