The Ivory Trade

I have just wrapped up work on this new illustration based around articles like this from NPR that have been cropping up over the past year. I have something of a soft spot for pachyderms- having spent hours in my past sketching mammoths and mastodons, along with my known hobby of armchair politics. As such, it is frustrating to hear about the rebound in poaching the last several years.

Any one who has seen my work knows that I rely a great deal on humor. For this piece that avenue just didn't seem appropriate. Regardless, it was fun stretching in to more editorial work, and I hope to do much more of it in the future.

It's that time of year again....

Hi Everybody!

I am excited to announce that I will be at the CHEROKEE PRINT LEAGUE HOLIDAY SALE again this year! I will displaying and selling work at Apop Records down on Cherokee Street here in St. Louis. Animals, Politicians, buttons, cards, sailors, dinosaurs, Bunnies, Kings, and etc. will all be yours to purchase for friends and family. I may even be doing color sketches of animals/robots for folks. 

Many new prints will be available for sale, encompassing much of the work I have been doing this year. I am especially happy to announce that the following ROBOT print will be available starting tomorrow!

Looking forward to seeing you all there!

Things aren't always what they seem...

Hi everybody,

Wanted to share this recent image with you that I produced for the The Stranger in Washington. The story covered Democratic State Senators who have Republican leanings. It was a ton of fun- and since one of my hobbies is armchair politics anyway I got a kick out of it. Really happy with how the bodies turned out. Many thanks to AD Aaron for the gig!

The Needles Scare

Hey everybody,

Finished this spot illustration last week about the meningitis epidemic that has flared up thanks to tainted steroid shots. It's truly frightening to think that small bits of poison found their way in to these compound shots. Hopefully the industries involved learn from this.

Classic Revenge- New Paperback Cover

I have been sitting on pins and needles waiting to write about this, and now I can! I worked on this cover for Harlequin Books this summer, and it just got published! The Book is called "Classic Revenge" by author Mitzi Kelly. You can order the book and get more info on it here. The story follows three elderly woman trying to solve a crime in their neighborhood.

The process with art director Kathleen Oudit was great- we started with roughs, and then moved on to finals in the logical manner. I t was a great experience, and I look forward to working with Harlequin again soon.

New Illustration for New Jersey Monthly

Hello all,

I am happy to share this new illustration I completed that has been published in New Jersey Monthly. It's for this really interesting article about living a "barefoot" lifestyle. You can see the entire article here.

Many thanks to Greg and Donna for the job!

The Other Side of the Aisle this Election Year...

Since I have already produced a Mitt Romney Illustration this cycle, I thought it was high time I make a new Obama Illustration. It was a fun exercise- I decided to do a white background again for this one (I'm enjoying producing boundless spots lately). Producing all those Congressmen helped a lot in this endeavor. I like the idea of Obama using the clout of the Presidency as an offensive tool in the campaign, even if he might personally have doubts about it.

On a side note, those of you who have been following my career for awhile may remember my stint as the cover artist of the Washington University Political Review in 08-09. I drew President Obama a ton back then, and thought it would be fun to include some of those covers here. They are pretty embarrassing now, and show how inexperienced I was at the time. Still, it was an exciting time, with a thrilling campaign going on and my own career taking its first baby steps. Enjoy!

The Bee's Knees!

I'm channeling my inner Gary Larson here. 

I've enjoyed this saying, but I alway's thought it would be the most bizarre visual.

New Snapshots: City Garden

Just finished up this new piece for the St. Louis Beacon (link). I decided to depict the City Garden sculpture park near my office, which is home to both an eclectic group of sculptures and daily visits from food trucks from all over the city. Building a city back drop for this was a fun challenge, and I also got to experiment with sketching onsite with colored paper. I have included sketches and reference photos below the final.

Great Rivalries in History: Edison v.s. Tesla

Hi everyone,

I just finished up this illustration of Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla for my "Rivalries" series. This particular rivalry has sparked a lot of interest on the Internet lately. I'm not sure it was anything like what's been portrayed, but I couldn't resist the urge to draw two "mad" scientists fighting.

While my initial impulse was to treat this as a purely figurative subject, I decided it would be more fun to personify each inventor as his most famous invention. So, we have Edison as his famous light bulb, and Tesla as his famous coil. I had a ton of fun with this illo- and got to hone my skills on lighting and glow effects.

I have included sketches for you to peruse as well.

Cheers!

New Work for St. Louis Magazine- The Hill!

I have 5 spots in this month's St. Louis Magazine for a feature about "the Hill"- St. Louis's mecca of Italian food. I had a lot of fun with this- as it let me expand on the caricature style work I have been pursuing with my congress project.

Thanks to Rachel Harris for the gig!

ICON 7 Recap: Complete with Sketches!

Just got back from ICON 7 in Providence Rhode Island!
Once again, the conference was an epic gathering of talent and excitement. Three days of workshops and lectures helped update the whole community on the status of the industry and gave us all a general heads up of what everyone else was up to. I'm going to use this post to list some highlights, awesome new artists I met, and some of my own sketches from the event.

HIGHLIGHTS
The big buzz going in to ICON was the keynote speech Friday night by Lynda Barry with special "surprise" guest Matt Groening. It did not disappoint, and was an amazing talk, with the two of them having such a great conversation on stage that we were rolling in the aisles with laughter.
My other favorite talks were the ones by Kiel Johnson, Dan Santat and Adam Rex, Linda Joy Katwinkel, Idiot's Books, and the Sketchbook talk. Here is a brief outline of them, along with links:

Kiel Johnson: I was amazed I had never heard of this guy before, and his work blew my mind- suffice to say, I will never look at cardboard the same way again. Kiel does these amazing projects using the material, and he even had a short movie filled with cardboard robots at a prom (and no, that's not an embellishment).

Dan Santat and Adam Rex: These two had a really exciting presentation about the highs and lows of self-promotion and work in the children's book business. I'm ashamed to admit that I was unaware of who Dan Santat was, though I immediately recognized his work- and you will too once you've seen it. With a presentation loaded full of great imagery from books like "OH NO!" and "Psssst!" it didn't take long to grasp the audiences attention. Plus, I won a Santat print- which is pretty amazing.

Linda Joy Katwinkel: Best talk on copyright I've ever seen. Immensely helpful on a working level.

Idiots' Books: Robbi Behr and Matthew Swanson are this married couple who produce illustrated books that are available by description. That sentence doesn't really do them justice because their presentation on pursuing your passion was both epic in scope and realistic, which is a nice change of pace. I was lucky enough to be placed next to these folks at the Rhode Show, and I highly encourage you to visit their site.

Sketchbook Talk, with moderator John Hendrix: Marcellus Hall, Jillian Tamaki, & John Cuneo presented selections from their sketchbooks and talked about their process, which was awe-inspiring, especially in the case of Mr. Cuneo. As an avid sketcher myself, I really enjoyed this talk. You should DEFINITELY check out their sites.

RHODE SHOW and OLD/NEW FRIENDS 

I was at the Rhode Show again this year- sharing a table with the talented Mike Hirshon! I sold buttons, prints, and of course, Old Stormy!

The crowd was immense, and I had the double pleasure of both making some new friends and some  money (always a plus). Some great folks I met, or re-connected with, are listed below. I highly encourage you to check out their work:
Jeremy Leung, Dave Maupin (WU!), Laura Beckman (WU!), Alex Vitti (WU!), Lindsey Balbierz, Nigel Buchanan, Marc Scheff, Chris Philpot, Lauren Hess, Keith Negley, Claire Manning and Jenn Steffey.

IN CONCLUSION

ICON was amazing. If you are a student, or like me,  a relatively young illustrator still working to break in to this industry, I highly recommend it. There is no better place to make connections, get inspired, and get a good grasp of this industry. Hopefully I'll be seeing you all at ICON 8!

Getting Ready for ICON! + Finished Congressmen!

Hi Everybody,

It's that time again- time to get ready for the Illustration Conference! I'll be happily attending this year's conference, which is being held in Rhode Island. I will also be sharing a table with the illustrious Mike Hirshon at the "Rhode Show" Bazaar and sale. Below I have pictured a sampling of what I'll have- including Congressmen, prints, buttons, and ANIMALS in SUITS!

I'm also going to use this post to officially unveil the finished Congress Project. I'll continue to post these on the blog singularly, but if you want to own all of them in print form then you'll have to stop by ICON!

New Print for ICON! Old Stormalong!

I will have another post on this in a couple of days, but I wanted to share with you a new original piece that I will have for sale at ICON! Based on the New England tall-tale of Old Stormalong, I have produced this piece I refer to as "Old Stormy"!

Since octopi are always fun to draw, this was a great diversion for me in the past month. The story revolves around a burly sailor wrestling his ship's anchor from one of the sea's lowly denizens.

I am also happy to report that all the representatives are drawn, and will be up soon!

New Sam and Noah comic: Robots!

Hi everyone-

I should have posted this earlier, but now that it's been out for a couple weeks I figure I can post it in its entirety here. This is a new comic Noah and I did for the "On the House" Anthology put out by the Ink and Drink comics collective. We've done so many of these now that I really want to find time to go back and re-visit some of them, as well as colorize them. At any rate, hope you enjoy it, and you can see all the other stories online for FREE here.

Great Rivalries in History: The Bone Wars

Hi Everybody,

I just finished up this illustration about the "Bone Wars". The wars were between two of the first American Paleontologists, E.D. Cope (left) and O.C. Marsh (right), in the period after the Civil War. Their story is fascinating, as they went out of the way to destroy each other for decades. I highly suggest viewing the PBS special, which is available to view here.

Since I love imagery from the Victorian/ Gilded Age, and this illustration would surely involve dinosaurs, this project was a no-brainer for me. Drawing the dinosaur skeletons was particularly fun. I have included some rough work for you to peruse under the illo.

New Work for the Beacon: Wash U Bosses

Here is the latest work I  have produced for the Snapshot series for the St. Louis Beacon.

Hope you enjoy it! You can check the link here.

The Art of Illustration at the Edwardsville Art Center

Hello everyone,

I'm excited to announce that I was asked to provide some work for a new show at the Edwardsville Art Center in Illinois. It's always a pleasure to have my work on display, but this time is indeed unique, as I will be sharing space with the most diverse and talented group of illustrators that St. Louis and southern Illinois has to offer. I have included the full list below along with some links to show what I mean.

I will also be selling some prints of one of my pieces. You can get your own "MO-MO" from April 27th to May 25th! Full info can be found here.

Exhibiting Artists

John Blaire More

Jean Probert

Michael Halbert

Robert Matson

Edward Kinsella

Dan Martin

Kerry Smith

John Hendrix

Rj Shay

John Dyess

Glenn McCoy

Laura Linn

Gary McCoy

Michael Anderson

Rip Kastaris

Ted Wright

Lisa Ober

Brian Yap

Bryan Haynes

Mike Right

James Cook

Chuck Groth

Sam Washburn

Tony Leon

Lynn Alpert

Mark Wiseman

Arne Thrbjornson

Claire Thomas-Morgan

Roy Elma Smith

Joanne Kluba

John Shew

Kevin Belford

Get Your MITN Ninja Shirt today!

Hi everyone-
Wanted to let you know about this new shirt I just illustrated (in a marathon session this evening) for Made in the Now. MITN is an awesome t-shirt design studio/ retailer that produces shirts based on news stories from the same day.

I was fortunate enough to be asked by them to produce a shirt, and was given a story about female ninjas in Iran! I worked at break-neck speed to get a design out, and I'm pretty happy with the result. You can check out the design, or buy one for yourself here!

Gas Price Woes

Did a little spot this weekend after filling my gas tank- the summer price hikes are early this year. Really starting to enjoy this shape-based approach to work. Guess we'll see if it's gonna stick around.

ROM-COM! New Illustration on the Romney Competition!

Hi all,
Wanted to showcase this new illustration I finished yesterday. I'm trying out different things and some of these promotional pieces have been incredibly helpful.
As we get closer to the election this year, lots of my personal work will reflect my hobby of politics (so expect more pieces like this). I've also re-booted my Congress blog!

At any rate, hope you like the illo- and those of you who are not familiar with Gov. Romney, be aware that he has the distinctly Massachusetts aura of flip-floppiness about him (according to some critics anyway).

New Snap Shots! Pappy's BBQ

Hi everybody- I just finished this piece for the St. Louis Beacon! For those of you in the know (anyone within 100 miles of St. Louis), you are already aware of the popularity of this local smokehouse. Pappy's is known for ALWAYS having at least a half-hour wait to order (it's very good bbq) and for having hundreds of BBQ bottles on its wall. I chose to use both as inspiration in this illustration. I always played around with some new techniques- so I hope you enjoy! You can catch the Beacon here.

Zoo trip!

My fantastic Girl friend surprised me with a lunch-date to the zoo yesterday! It was great- nothing better then a picnic with the woman you love followed by a quick round of sketching at the primate house!

Next Ink and Drink: The Wild West

Here's a sneak peek!

New Spot for St. Louis Magazine

Here's a fun little piece I did for this month's St. Louis Magazine. It was quite fun- and now I can finally say I've drawn a jayhawk!

Round Robin Illo!

Hey Everybody,

I just finished up this illustration for a Round Robin project I'm doing with some friends. In a change of pace for me, this particular piece is all hand-done. I really like pattern and limiting my color choices lately. Guess we'll see how that goes.

Winter's Greetings

Howdy everyone-

I made these illos as part of my winter greetings card. I sent out quite a few of these, and if you're interested in one, feel free to contact me.

Cheers