Month: November 2021

November Into December

River Styx

I’m currently spending most of my time finishing up a book for MacMillan on Climate Change, which I should have done later this week. It was one of those book projects that got snarled up in the Covid Year pandemonium, and I’m glad to see it finally getting nearer completion, and I’ll be sharing some illustrations from that project later this week. This morning I took a break from that project to finish off three fiction illustrations for River Styx magazine. I tried to loosen up my usual scratchboard style just to keep from getting stagnant.

Sketch Morning

River Styx

Spent the morning working on rough sketches for three short stories for an upcoming issue of River Styx. Forgotten how much fun this sort of conceptualizing could be. I think this is my favorite part of my job, visualizing images from fiction. Once I get to the finish stage, it tends to be more ‘assembly line process’, if you know what I mean. Wish I could keep the same spontaneity in the finish phase. Need to work on that.

Anyhow, roughly, the three stories were about: 1) a spur of the moment bit of revenge infidelity under the stars 2) a social worker dealing with children who were witnesses to domestic violence and 3) a father who jumps into a gravel pit swimming hole (to disastrous consequences) in front of his kids

Moving into December

Delaware Today

After a couple months of nothing but black and white, I had a portrait assignment from Delaware Today that I finished up this morning. Since finishing up the latest ‘Who Was’ book over the weekend, I’ve moved on to finishes for the “Saving Earth” book for MacMillan, a project that has been lingering on the docket for quite a while. I’ll post a few samples from this book in the coming weeks.

Who Was Series #24 & #25

Penguin

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been sharing a trio of samples from each of the 25 ‘Who Was’ books that I’ve been involved with over the past ten years. This past month, I completed the 24th & 25th of these books, “What Was The AIDS Crisis?” and “Who Is Jimmy Carter?” Here are a few samples from each of these books. It is too early yet for me to post all the illustrations, but stay tuned, as I’ll likely be posting a few posts of this type in the coming year. Here’s the links to each of the books to pre-order on Amazon: (AIDS Crisis – Jimmy Carter). I just received word this morning asking about my availability for my 26th title which I will be working on early next year.

Every time I find myself drawing a picture of Richard Nixon, (and the opportunity has come up on several occasions, oddly enough), I am reminded how this was my ambition when I was ten years old, watching the Watergate hearings, and reading the editorial cartoons, and dreaming of one day having a job where I got to draw Richard Nixon. Living the dream.