What's Wrong, Easter Egg Hunt?

April's Highlights has my most recent What's Wrong? illustration. I loved Easter Egg hunts when I was a kid. One year my oldest brother, Mike, planned out a whole hunt for us. The eggs spelled out "happy easter."

Have a wonderful Spring and a Happy Easter everyone. 

Crazy Candidates.

I absolutely love making children's illustrations but once in a while it's nice to draw something more adult oriented. This week's Philadelphia Weekly features my cartoon take on the crazy candidates. Since I love drawing crazy people in general, this one was right up my alley.

Whether you're liberal, conservative or somewhere in between we all have to admit that most politicians are bonkers.

By the way, the Presidential seal is really hard to draw.

Another Diner Place Matt...

We're at the diner. It's a great NJ establishment.

What's Wrong? of the year for 2011!

Great news! I won the Highlights for Children Silver Plate award for What's Wrong? Illustration of the year for 2011! A special thank you to everyone at Highlights for this great honor. You really know how to make your illustrators feel appreciated by all of the wonderful things you do for us. Thank you.

The illustration was for Highlights' 65th Anniversary issue and featured many of the Highlights' characters. More info about the piece can be found here. 

Philadelphia Zoo's Trail of the Lorax!

I just finished a big project for the Philadelphia Zoo's spring exhibit, the Trail of the Lorax. In short, the exhibit will teach the importance of conservation in protecting Orangutans. A quote form the press kit: 

"In the 'Trail of the Lorax,' a live interactive exhibit at Philadelphia Zoo, Dr. Seuss' cautionary tale of The Lorax becomes a frame through which kids can experience and understand the very real correlation between human enterprise and destruction of animal habitat. The exhibit will focus on a real world similarity to the fictional Bar-ba-loots and Swomee-Swans—the endangered orangutans of Borneo and Sumatra."

The images below are  two of the 14 illustrations I completed over the past month or so. Six of the illustrations (not pictured) will be in old school 3D which will require 3D glasses for viewing. I saw some of the finished 3D images and they look really cool. Be sure to visit! More info on the Trail of the Lorax can be found here. The exhibit runs from March 31 to October 31, 2012.

It's been wonderful to work with the zoo again. I feel like it was where I got my first big break into the professional illustration field. Thanks to everyone at the zoo who worked closely with me on this project. I will never forget how to draw orangutans so long as I live. Ha ha!

Waiting...

I began carrying a tiny moleskin sketchbook about a year ago simply because I find that it is much more convenient to carry than a larger sketchbook. This way I can throw it in my pocket along with a pen and it will always be at the ready. I find I utilize it most when I am waiting in line, waiting for my wife (as was the case with the drawing here) when we are shopping, or waiting for the train. In this current sketchbook I decided to focus on drawing full figures. The first small sketchbook focused mostly on faces.

Weirdos in NJ too...