Political Circus Book

Dover


Throughout most of October and November I was working on a paperdoll book for Dover, a series of tongue in cheek caricatured dolls of most of the political figures involved in the coming election cycle. It has just gone to press, and I’ve received my sample copies from the publisher, so I suppose it is open season on finally posting a sampling of these illustrations here on this site. The ‘paper doll book’ consists of 54 dolls including Barack & Michelle Obama, members of the cabinet, Republican challengers and major news pundits, and then the same dolls were recycled again at a smaller size for a companion piece ‘sticker book’. Here is a sample of Obama’s and Newt’s doll & costumes from the book. The rest will eventually make it into my ‘portraits’ database here on the site later in the year, but for now, you’ll just have to go out and buy the book.

Also, for the sticker book, I needed to come up with a pair of scenes that the stickers could be used on, both a ‘circus tent’ scene and a ‘convention floor’ scene. The crowd was a tricky proposition, as they wanted the ‘pundits’ from the paperdoll book included in the crowd, and they would have looked odd among ‘regular looking’ people, so I ended up populating the rest of the crowd with distorted and disguised versions of the rest of the figures (some women becoming men, some men becoming women in the process). The publishers also wanted a series of ‘circus’ themed ‘props and characters’ that could also be included in the collection, so I also came up with a page of circus whatnots and gizmos. You can click on each of the illustrations below to see a larger version.


Book Cover

Baker Book House


Book cover for Baker that I’ve been working on over the past couple of months. I think it might be near the finish line, but I have a feeling I haven’t seen the last of it yet. I’ve still got twenty or so black and white interior illustrations to do on this project, and I’ve also been working on another paper doll project which I’ll probably have news regarding at the end of next month.
Took a break on both ongoing big projects this afternoon to work on 16 black and white curriculum diagrams for CRC.

Web Site Redesign

Self Promotion


I’m getting ready to send out some new mailers in the next month or so, and so in anticipation, have redesigned the website from the rather cluttered previous incarnation. As an experiment, I’ve done away with the ‘thumbnail & rollover’ style of navigation from websites of the past, and gone with a more linear exploratory site this time around. You can quickly go from samples of one style or another using the sidebar at any time, but otherwise, if you keep clicking ‘next’ or ‘previous’ you will be taken to different samples in a seemingly endless stream of illustrations (there’s about 150 samples on the site, which should keep browsers busy for some time). Click on the image above to be taken to the main website.

Political Circus Inaction Figures & Sticker Book

Dover


Well, the ‘big project’ I was working on during October, November & December is about to hit the stores. Above is a book of paper dolls featuring all the politicos and newsmen for the upcoming election season, along with goofy outfits and props, and as a companion piece, they are also releasing a ‘sticker book’ with the same figures, along with several ‘circus props’ and a couple big ‘scenes’ to place the stickers on. These are available for pre-order on amazon, and I’ll probably we waiting until the official release before posting any samples here, other than these cover images.

Wrapping Up the Week

Llewellyn, Red thread, US Catholic


Finished up a cover assignment for Red Thread magazine this morning. A little different style for me, trying to work in a ‘flat color’ environment, inspired by old travel posters.
I also had an assignment for US Catholic yesterday, and again, working in a different style, black pen and ink line with a color wash applied over the top (a style I’ll likely be doing more of in the near future for a book project I’m working on, so I thought it would give me a good chance to loosen up in preparation). Below that, are the last of the ‘witch’ illustrations for this year’s almanac assignment for Llewellyn.