Reject.

I was requested to draw a hidden picture for Highlights with a polar bear theme. For whatever reason I decided to go with a more realistic feel. Given the threatening overtones of this sketch I really wasn't sure if it would get approved but to my surprise they approved of the sketch and I went to a finish. It's now 3 years later and I'm still not sure if this ever went to print, perhaps the editors didn't like it after all!

Unfortunately I never scanned in the finished line art to this one so what you're seeing is the finished sketch.

You can get a set of Highlights Hidden Picture books right here.

More Scenarios.

These are part of a series of illustrations that I work on for Psycholinguistic Technologies' Sentence Shaper 2. What was nice about this run was the fact that I was asked to use a wide screen format. The characters needed to remain centralized in the composition and the backgrounds needed to be as simple as possible, but it was still refreshing.

Special Touch Ministries Banner

Two years ago I was asked to teach an art lesson at a special needs camp for Special Touch Ministries. Since we had limited time I wanted to make sure to do something that everyone could easily follow and complete. I drew this image of Jesus on 20 pieces of heavy stock and disassembled it before anyone could see what it was. Each camper then colored it using anything from pencils to paint. At the end of the night I reassembled it for the campers to see. To me this is a good allegory of the body of Christ: We are all different, bringing with us our strengths and weaknesses but God still uses them all to bring his love to the world.

Special Touch has since gone on to use this image as a banner at all of their events in New Jersey.

A day off in Pennypack Park.

I can't believe it has been 9 years since I did this sketchbook story but I guess it's just proof that I am getting older. This was back when I was still living in Philadelphia struggling to make it as an illustrator. Pennypack Park is still one of my favorite places to ride my bike and I try to make it there a couple times every year. (Fun Fact: Built in 1697, the King's Highway Bridge, which crosses over the Pennypack Creek on Frankford Avenue, is the oldest stone bridge in all of the Americas. Anyone that traveled north out of Philadelphia used this bridge including our Founding Fathers. I used to wait for the bus on this bridge everyday in high school.)

Usagi Yojimbo's 25th Anniversary.

As a fan of Stan Sakai's award winning Usagi Yojimbo I was asked to make an illustration for Usagi's 25th Anniversary by his online fan club. All the fan art and letters were assembled into a book and presented to Stan this past weekend at the San Diego Comic Con.

As indicated by the text attached Stan is a fan of Highlights for Children's Hidden Pictures so I thought I'd make his very own 25th Anniversary Hidden Picture. For those of you unfamiliar with Usagi's world, the characters depicted are 2 rather funny woodcutters that Usagi often runs into as he wanders around Japan. The lizard on top of the wood pile is Usagi's pet, Spot, and you can see Usagi walking away in the distance.

I have been consistently following Stan's work since 1987 (the year I discovered comic books) and it is pretty obvious to me how much of an influence he has had on my work. Most would remember Stan's Usagi Yojimbo as "that samurai rabbit on the Ninja Turtles cartoon," which is correct but most aren't even aware of the volumes of wonderful Usagi comics that Stan has put out there (23 collected books so far). Honestly, if you're not reading Usagi Yojimbo, you're missing out on one of the best comics out there. Pick a book up at your local book store (or give it a try at your library)- you won't be disappointed!

Illustration Friday: Idle

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4 Monks in a Civil War Battlefield.

...that's what I really didn't expect to see at my recent trip to the Bull Run battlefield in Virginia. There they were walking in the fields in their heavy cloaks and a stifling/humid 95 degrees.

The Most Annoying Human on Earth.

40th anniversary of the Moon Landing.

I still would give anything to be an astronaut.

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Illustration Friday: Tango

In 2001 the Philadelphia Zoo held a Bachelor Auction for the benefit of the Zoo's conservation program, One with Nature. I was asked to draw tasteful caricatures of every bachelor (20 or so) holding a rose for the interior of the booklet as well as an illustration for the cover and the back cover (the illustrations above).

I did the entire booklet for free in exchange for some free advertising. Well, wouldn't you know it, when I received the booklet the only ad that they had "problems" printing was mine, so my phone number and contact information was rendered completely illegible. I still to this day don't fully understand what happened since I had submitted the file with plenty of resolution, proper formatting, and I even went so far as to outline the text to prevent any font issues. Good grief. To top it all off, I was also asked to sit and draw caricatures at the event (quite a tempting offer for a young single bachelor like myself- ahem) prior to the bachelor cat walk. I sat for 1 hour and didn't draw a single caricature. The only women to approach me were two seventy year old women to kindly ask me what I was doing. I left feeling quite humiliated. I don't think I'll ever recover.

Anyway, it was a beautifully designed book and I had heard it won an award or two. I can't remember who was responsible for the deign or I would give them credit.