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.

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.

IF: Snow

It has been a long time since I submitted anything to Illustration Friday so I thought I'd post these three Highlights illustrations for the snow theme this week. Have fun finding all of the Silly/Wrong things!

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.