The theme of this puzzle series is young animals playing games together. (Awwwwwww!!) Puzzle illustrations in this cute and somewhat realistic style have a been an ongoing thing around here for the past couple years. At first it seemed kind of an odd direction for me as my artistic tastes are mostly in the wild in wacky realm, but after a while I found myself really enjoying making these sweet innocent images. I'm actually really starting to love it.. Its hard to have a bad day when you're painting kittens and puppies.
"LIbraries Rock!" Posters and Spots
Every year I have the pleasure of creating a series of posters and spots for the Public Library system. One of the reasons this particular job is so much fun is that I get to work in a different style every time! This year's flavor was concocted from a combination of tattoo art influence and a bit of 60s rock album cover art. The nice thing is that this is basically how I doodle all the time anyway! Please take a moment to pop over to my site and check out all the styles I currently work in. I'm still cooking with a lot of pots, which is how I like it! I'd love to cook up something for you!
Which Two Are the Same?...
Also... for the same Highlights Puzzlemania issue, this was an additional game illustrated to go along with the "differences" puzzle. It was made for little kids, but how fast can YOU figure it out?...
Cover and Interior Illustration for Highlights Puzzlemania Book
So... every now and then the little kid in me gets all giddy because I get to work for one of the companies I grew up with. Many a dentist's office visit I spent searching for hidden pictures in a Highlights magazine. Here's a recent cover I got to create for an issue of a Highlights Puzzlemania book. The illustration also appears on the inside with a nearly identical version next to it with 20 differences to find. Check out the pics below in case you're stuck in a dentist's office with nothing to do.
Find twenty differences on the next picture...
Find 20 differences from the previous pic!
Here's the original sketch with cropped areas indicated for cover and interior activity pages.
"Scurry Up and Read" Illustrations
Well, I’ve always said it- Nothing encourages little kids to read more… than hamsters in sweatpants! I used to own a hamster or two and one thing I knew for sure is that you never store books you care about in an active hamster cage… nor do you try to dress them in work-out clothes. But hey- we’re living in the 21st century now and hamsters can do whatever the heck they want to. Anyway, these friendly little fur-balls were illustrated for an educational company who has kept me very busy for over 15 years now. Thanks to them, I find myself drawing lots of books and lots of animals in weird clothes.
Kitschy Vintage Style Cocktail Tray Illustrations
This one was a gas, Daddy-O!!! The scene was to create illustrations with a mock 1950s/60s barware vibe to be arranged and printed onto a old-style black metal cocktail tray. A combination of many things made this one a blast!... Whimsical character designs, mimicking an old retro look, the puzzle solving aspects of creating elements that could stand alone or in formation with each other, playing with lighting that works against a black background, and incorporating nostalgic text. The client is a cool connoisseur of cocktail concoctions who runs a site called “Mr. Booze”.com. I’ve done quite a bit of really fun work for him over the years- one of my favorites being the Mr. Booze logo itself. This tray was my kind of kitsch! Can’t wait to get my mitts on this baby!
Boardgame Design- Science Lab Series
Boardgame design has always gone down as one of my all-time favorites for illustration projects. In fact, just about any toy or game related assignment is pretty much guaranteed to rev up that kid in me. I love the process of designing and illustrating the different components that go into a working game and then to one day get to finally see the final product sitting on my doorstep. Here's a collection of art for three separate science-themed games I worked on a while back for the educational market. Everything began with very rough pencil sketches and color mock-ups. The final art was hand-inked, scanned in, and colored in photoshop.
Junior Ranger Activity Book
Over the past few months a slew of illustrations have been pumped out for the Junior Ranger Activity Book! This is a book of games, mazes, puzzles etc that The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission is handing out as a freebie for young visitors to their parks. As a child I used to love combing through Hi-lights magazine to do the picture searches, etc. Kind of funny that I'm drawing them now.
Spot Illustrations for a Children's Publication
Here are eight recent spot illustrations done for a children's magazine that won't be published for a few months... (so I can't say which one right now.) The theme of the article is about the origins of common games we all know and play.
Adobe illustrator is becoming more and more my program of choice these days. I don't know if it's because it produces such clean art, or the fact that it has unlimited "undos". All I know is that it takes the sloppy artist in me and cleans him right up... like having my own personal illustration robot to do my bidding.
The game of chess originated in India where the bishop was actually a camel or elephant.
Kite flying got it's start in China.
Checkers has 3000 year old roots in Iraq.
The game of marbles originated in Egypt.
The game of Jacks used to be called "knucklebones" and originated in Greece... and used real bones!
We have the Dutch to thank for our jump-ropes.
An ancient Greek vase was found with art depicting someone playing with a yo-yo.
A 3500 year old clay top was found in Iraq.