Pontification Quantification.

Something fishy is going on during the Pope's visit to Philadelphia...

Fishing Hidden Picture

Inspiration for this hidden picture came from Philadelphia's Pennypack Creek. A park I spent many many days exploring and fishing at with friends (and once with my Dad who hated fishing there).

Can you find the following objects?
Pencil, Muffin, Tack, Chicken, Flag, Bell, Glove, Pen, Candy Corn, Banana, Slice of Pie, Carrot, Mitten, Slice of Pizza, and a Toothbrush.

My thoughts on Disney Princess Movies.

My Family was never what I would call a, "Disney family." Perhaps it was our somewhat rough upbringing or the fact that VCR's had not really been invented yet? Nothing Disney (especially the Princess movies) really appealed to us. Honestly, I'm kind of thankful it was that way. We grew up outside in a crowded neighborhood. If we did watch TV we watched the cartoons of Chuck Jones, Fritz Freleng and Walter Lantz which was fine by us. Now that I think about it, psychologically, it was more in step with our comically violent tendencies.

Birds Eye View

This busy piece appears in the May issue of Highlights High Five. The city is based on my hometown of Philadelphia. The original art can be seen below.

Locust Moon Comics Festival: Oct . 5

I'll be at the Locust Moon Comics Festival in Philadelphia this Saturday, October 5th from 10-6. Please stop by and say hello. My location in the Sanctuary S-33B. 

I'll have copies of my Which Art Student Are You? books, some prints and original art for sale.

More info here: http://locustmoonfest.com

What's Wrong, Italian Market?

When Highlights asked me to make a What's Wrong? of a City Market I could think of no other than Philadelphia's Italian Market. I've only been there once in my life, during the off peak time, but I did a lot of research (see below) to make it look authentic minus the trash and fire barrels. If you've ever been to the Italian Market in South Philadelphia, or saw the scene in Rocky when he is jogging through it  (starts at :23) one thing comes to mind, "this is so beautiful and yet, totally disgusting." Honestly, it smells, there's trash all over the place, and most of the merchants are rude. Ah, Philadelphia! City of Brotherly Love. That's what makes this city so great- everyone wears their hearts on their sleeve and we don't apologize for it or care if you're offended- much like you would speak to a close family member. Ha!

I finished this piece the week my Dad went into the hospital before he passed away. Good friend and designer, Drew Phillips, helped me out with doing some flat coloring for me. All I had to do was make some adjustments, then add textures and shadows. Thanks, Drew!

Things to look for in this piece: Adrian Balboa ironing a sock, myself, wife and daughter driving a row home, and my personal favorite, a girl mouse being serenaded with her concerned Father reacting in a nearby window.

The original sketch is below. One thing I was sad to see go was Adrian Balboa carrying Rocky's two turtles known as Cuff and Link.

The scene was based loosely on these photos:

Make sure to get a Highlights subscription for the kids in your life. It really is the greatest magazine on earth.

Thanks, Dad.

I made this in honor of my Dad for Father's Day back in 1994. At the time I had a weekly comic strip in the Philadelphia Daily News. I gave this as a gift to my Dad the following Father's Day. He had it hanging in his house for many years. Forgive the quality of the scan, I did my best to clean it up.

Working

I'm drawing Philadelphia's Italian market which is terribly fun to do.

Sketching with my students.

This afternoon I took my students down to the Bourse food court to draw some strangers. They were to focus on drawing realistic three quarter view heads. Drawing strangers also teaches them to be fast in order to get everything down before the character moves on or gets ticked off.

Philadelphia Weirdos part 379.

Yesterday I had 10 free minutes at 11th and Walnut so I sat and drew a couple of strange folks nearby. The last pic is what I call a sketchnote. Most of these people walk by pretty fast so I quickly take sketchnotes to help me remember for when I have time to finish up the sketch. For comparison, below is a photo of the guy who just stood around. See? I don't make this stuff up.

Priorities. Priorities.

I saw this guy about a month ago while making a right onto 5th street. I pulled over and took some quick "sketch notes" to finish it up later.

Conscious Collaboration.

I'm currently collaborating with author Brion J. Shreffler on a non-fiction travel/food blog called, "I'm Only Conscious of the Rush." The illustrations are way out of my norm in their looseness and painterly style so it is pretty fun for me. I hope you'll join Brion on his adventure to the South by Southwest (SXSW) Music Festival in Austin. A more detailed description is below.

In Brion's words:

"Based on my trip to Austin,TX for SXSW back in March, 'I'm conscious only of the rush' is an adventure story that blends together food & music narrative journalism.

Featuring illustrations by Philly artist Chuck Dillon, the project is ongoing, with me soon to return to Austin for an epilogue. I also plan to revisit several other cities along the route I took from Philadelphia, in addition to visiting new cities in order to catch up with musicians and artists I came into contact with at SXSW. The thing that keeps Austin weird (a self-applied badge of honor) is the same DIY mentality that turns a little Texas town into the center of the music universe for 1 week in March. Bands from Berlin, London, Tokyo, Portland, Sao Paolo, NYC, and Brisbane descend on Austin along with music fans the world over. It.is.[cussing].nuts. But the DIY mentality isn't just for music--it permeates Austin culture, with a robust food truck scene and entrepreneurial spirit (everything from designer t-shirts + clothing, craft goods, metal works, bicycles, and more) that's evident on every street thankfully devoid of a national chain presence (only in Austin will you find a shop that is a bike repair/dealer, coffee shop, and art dealer all in one). In a sense then, SXSW is an argument for culture, a statement about what America should be, about the beauty of art, of what we can make our world when we create--music, food, business, etc--rather than follow."

AJ's recital sketches

Daisy and I recently attended our friend AJ's masters in jazz piano recital at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Some of you may remember AJ as the one who sang (along with accompanying her Dad while playing the flute) at our wedding. During AJ's recital I drew folks in the audience and some of the musicians. 

Here is a clip of AJ singing a cappella with her fellow classmates, the Dolls. She is the one playing the spoons. Check out the other videos they have as well. They're quite amazing.

Tourists. Part Two.

Forgive me if this is a repeat:

More from my character design class: Due to the improved weather we were able to go outside. The Independence Hall area is a great place to draw tourists.

Character Design Class.

I teach a character design class at the Hussian School of Art. For today's assignment we sat in the Bourse building's cafe area secretly sketching some of the tourists that frequent the Independence Hall area. When I wasn't encouraging the students on different approaches or giving some teaching tips, I was drawing the tourists as well.

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.

Some summer sketches.

I did these sketches over the summer in Philadelphia, Portsmouth, NH, and Dewey Beach DE. Sorry, I don't have time to clean them up so I'm just going to post them as is.