R&B art
Art for the Renaissance & Baroque Society of Pittsburgh—two German military musicians. Soldiers really wore these fantastic costumes 500 years ago.
Bad moms
Character sketches of bad moms from a canceled project, The Mother Store.
See? I’m not the only one
Others who are better than me forget to return library books on time.
Umberto & Margherita
The improbably mustachioed King Umberto and Queen Margherita come to visit Nini in his caffè—
(By the way—yes, this is the Queen Margherita for whom the pizza is named.)
Dean Cornwell
The jacket for The Famous Nini, and Dean Cornwell‘s inspiring illustration of a Venetian night scene.
Jacket art for Famous Nini
Of all the images for a picture book, the jacket art gets the biggest going-over. I sent 4 rough thumbnail ideas to Kerry Martin, the senior design editor (in the olden days there was an art director and an editor; Kerry’s title reflects the melding of those 2 positions over the years). Number 2 was chosen—the silhouette of the gondola makes a nice graphic shape—and I worked up a tight sketch. You can see the painting in progress. I liked the idea of a nighttime scene, with Venice reflected in the canal. Next, the comprehensive layout—or ‘comp’—with the sketch and the type combined. Originally I was to hand-letter the title type, but the treatment Kerry came up with looks so good we all agreed not to mess with it. Finally, the finished illustration.
