Been a very busy week/weekend so far. Over the weekend I had a rush job for the Jewish Monthly News out of Detroit. This was a portrait of the victim of an unsolved murder from back in the 70s. I seemed to think it called out for something a little different than I usually do, so I tried for some ‘Bernie Fuchs’-esque techniques using mixed medias and a heavy dose of bleach (this was a style that was heavily pushed during my art school days in the early eighties, which was already about 10 years out of date at that time). It was fun and refreshing to try something new and I was quite pleased with the end result (and still managed to go out and enjoy some of the beautiful weather we had this weekend here in Michigan). Click on the image above for a larger version.
On Monday, I finished up a book cover illustration which has been percolating around here for the past month. Unfortunately that one will have to remain under wraps for now.
On Tuesday, which is my usual day for driving over to Lansing to see my Dad, I goofed up and misunderstood a deadline for an old client. I had thought the illustration was due on Wednesday at noon, but I got a call around 3:45 from the designer who informed me that in fact the deadline was Tuesday at noon. I made a mad dash for the home office (and all the way home drawing the image in my head, and trying to figure out ways of getting it done as fast as possible), and once there, managed to get the thing done in about 45 minutes flat and shooting it out in an email by 5:30ish. (image pictured below)

On Wednesday, I now had a little more time for a River Styx fiction illustration, pictured below (and for several rough sketches planned for the afternoon for a wooden block project). A few more book project assignments also came in earlier this week (more ‘hush hush’ stuff that I won’t be able to share) that I’ll likely be occupying myself with over the remainder of the week, and I’m expecting the sketch approvals for another book to show up any day now. Meanwhile, we are in the final stages of recording our new CD, and I’ve started a new animation, so I probably shouldn’t be wasting any more time on this blog. See you next week sometime when I emerge again into the sunshine.