Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast 2009
Jules has a retrospective of 2009; I’m among some pretty exalted talent. Seeing such impressive work makes me want to do better work myself. Here’s the interview from January.
Entries by johnmanders
Hannah
I did a caricature of our neighbor, Hannah. Here’s the sketch, and painting in progress.
Big Mama/Big Daddy
Two more characters from Stinker and the Onion Princess. Big Mama and Big Daddy are tired of seeing their son lay around the house—they want him hitched so they can hear the pitter-patter of their grandkiddy’s feet.
The Onion Princess
Some more character designs from Stinker & The Onion Princess, the book that never got past the sketch stage. Here’s the lovely Onion Princess, pictured here dressed for Big Daddy’s barbecue party. Big Daddy is hoping to get his son hitched. She’s the heiress to an onion fortune. Her dress is light green with dark […]
Stinker
Some time ago, I got a fabulous manuscript to work on: Stinker and the Onion Princess. Set in Texas, is was a retelling of the Grimm tale King Thrushbeard, but this time the proud and beautiful princess was replaced with a proud and handsome heir to an oil fortune. The hapless king-suitor became a hapless […]
The Soldiers’ Night Before Christmas
A few posts ago I zeroed in on a book cover from the fifties showing Santa Claus smoking tobacco from a hookah. Pretty unusual, right? Nothing like what you’d see Santa doing in a kids’ book nowadays. Well, not so long ago I illustrated A Soldiers’ Night Before Christmas by Trish Holland and Christine Ford […]
Interview
Head over to the Pittsburgh Society of Illustrators website, where you’ll find our newsletter, PSInside. Editor Anni Matsick interviews me.
An early Christmas gift
Our British friends, the Wallaces (John, Sarah, William & Sam) sent a delightful little children’s book about a British family who travel around the United States. It’s titled: Flight Three, U.S.A., A Ladybird Book of Travel Adventure. Story by David Scott Daniell, and what appear to be gouache illustrations by Jack Matthew—like the one of […]
A great old truck
My friend Tim is a landscaper in Mars, Pa, and owns this wonderful 1950s Ford truck. It still runs but needs a bit of, ah, cosmetic repair in one or two spots. Yes, that’s a fender in the bed. I confess: I covet it and would love to have one of my own someday. Tim’s […]
Chaos in Market Square
From Peter Spit A Seed At Sue, a painting in progress: I’ve set the scene in Pittsburgh’s Market Square. If you look closely you’ll see the location photos I shot. I used them to help me design a setting that would be recognizable from a variety of different vantage points. The pie-wielding mayor is a […]
