Return of the Wizards

Way back when I was a student at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, a bunch of us got together and founded a society devoted to nothing more than throwing parties.  This was back before cable tv, gameboys, x-boxes, iPods—so we had to amuse…

Bad moms

Character sketches of bad moms from a canceled project, The Mother Store.

Umberto & Margherita

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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

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The jacket for The Famous Nini, and Dean Cornwell's inspiring illustration of a Venetian night scene.

Jacket art for Famous Nini

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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…

Giuseppe Verdi & Nonna

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Giuseppe Verdi makes his entrance in The Famous Nini. More research for Nonna's costume can be found here.

L’Imperatore d’Etiopia

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The Famous Nini is due out June 7, but Amazon.com already has copies available. A scene I particularly like: the Emperor of Ethiopia arrives in Venice to visit Nini the famous cat. Here's the thumbnail sketch— Here is the sketch, built…

Proofs and f&g’s!

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Kerry Martin—senior design editor over at Clarion—sent me all kinds of goodies from the print production of The Famous Nini! Here are proofs and f&gs. Proofs show all the spreads from a book.  A spread is two pages side-by-side…

Have a sense of proportion!

My friend Paul sent me the link to this fun time-waster called Balldroppings. It's simple: balls drop from a hole on the upper-left corner of your screen.  By clicking and dragging with your mouse you can draw lines on the screen—barriers…

…and more pirates