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.