I did this picture for a collection of stories or poems—I don’t remember—and this was for the cover. It’s a caricature of my dear old house in Pittsburgh. That house doesn’t have a tower, but what’s a haunted house without a tower, right?
A nice review of Where’s My Mummy? over at Mattie’s Madness blog.
Joanie asks: I work in gouache also and I would like to ask a question if you don’t mind. I have trouble working the background and characters at the same time. I usually end up painting the characters/foreground first and then paint the background around it after the fact. This method has not been working […]
“Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.” Macbeth (Act IV, Scene I). I did this painting as a self-promotion piece a few years ago. Promotion is critical to any business; it’s especially important to illustrators. We are, by and large, self-employed: we work for ourselves. We operate on small budgets, so we’ve […]
UPDATE! If you live in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area and like to hear really old classical music, mark your calendar Oct 24 to attend The Medieval Beasts concert. I’m told it’s a costume event, but didn’t see any info about that on the R&B website. Go—you’ll have an enjoyable evening and meet some fun people. […]
UPDATE! Ilene, Jerry & Drake discuss digital vs traditional illustration in the comments section below. I get quite a few historical projects to illustrate, and that suits me fine. I enjoy doing the research—which is crucial to making the costumes and settings authentic. Here are a few thumbnails, sketches and final paintings from Lewis & […]
Oh, boy. It looks like Spike Jonze is giving Where The Wild Things Are the same psychoanalytical grilling the Grinch got in his movie. Goodness knows I’m happy for Maurice Sendak—and I’d be the happiest boy in the world if the cinema gods smiled upon a book of mine. But I’m apprehensive when kids’ books […]
Apropos of nothing, some old sketches from Humphrey, Albert & the Flying Machine. This one was written by Kathryn Lasky, who also wrote Two Bad Pilgrims—coming this Fall! Humphrey is set within the Sleeping Beauty story, about two boys who attend Briar Rose’s 16th birthday party and succumb to the sleeping spell along with the […]
I like to listen to really old classical music, and have attended the wonderful concerts organized by the Renaissance & Baroque Society of Pittsburgh. I do illustrations for their season brochures. A couple of years ago they booked the group Hesperus, who had the clever idea to perform a renaissance/medieval soundtrack to Douglas Fairbanks’ silent […]
I’ll be away for a week, immersing my lily-white bod’ in the surf. Be well.
