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.