AK! a blog!

2011-02-17T14:04:00.000-08:00

It's time for a change! I've been looking for a fresh, cleaner layout for my blog and so I'll be saying goodbye to Blogger. Tumblr has won me over at last! From now on, you can keep up with my work, sketches, and ideas over at my new blog, Leaping Buffalo. There will be lots of new stuff to see, so be sure to check it out!

Star Map

2011-02-06T18:19:00.001-08:00

I did this cover for the March/April 2011 issue of Cicada all about Maps. I find map illustration difficult. Maintaining accuracy, and in this case, for a kids'-young adult magazine, infusing some liveliness into that can sometimes be a little tricky...But! this was a fun change of pace and I was given pretty much free reign. So, accuracy goes out the window as the constellations are definitely not in their places, but this was fun and I'm happy with the result! Orion is my favorite.

And here's a detail:

burrow

2011-01-09T19:12:00.000-08:00

Muse Magazine

2011-01-08T09:07:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple pieces from a handful that I did recently for Muse Magazine on an article about the deceptive nature, or rather the deceptive use of numbers. The first image is about the strange idea a few years ago that the blond gene was going to die out in the future, which was believed mainly because of the number of years tagged on it. It was an interesting article! And you can read all about it in the Feb 11 issue of Muse. Thank you to my very wonderful AD, John Sandford!

painted robe

2010-12-14T17:51:00.000-08:00

I painted this from that sci fi sketch down there for a gouache demo surrounded by a bunch of deathly quiet high schoolers. Demoing is a little scary! so afraid I was boring them, but they were very nice.

alien arcade

2010-10-04T06:09:00.000-07:00

lemon racer!

Oh! Tintin!

2010-09-24T18:18:00.000-07:00

My brother Marty was in China recently, and, due to the fact that we're a family of Tintin-lovers and knowing how excited I get about it, he brought back this bizarre-o box of Tintin-themed matches for me. I love them because they're so strange! First of all, Tintin as matches? I guess! And Red Sea Sharks is apparently also "Coke en Stock"? I LOVE IT

So now I have this odd new box of objects I'll likely never use, but I'll always admire and show off. I decided to do some quick Tintin doodles! They're from the first Tintin book Marty and I ever read (or had read to us), The Seven Crystal Balls. I should do more of these!

etsy favorites

2010-09-12T16:42:00.001-07:00

One of the things I've realized I do a lot is procrastinate by browsing through all the lovely things a lot of people make on Etsy. This can mean sifting through some, uh, not-so-lovely things...so I actually have a pretty extensive list of favorites. I decided to make some thumbnails of a few of them one day.

peruvian spice gourd

2010-09-12T16:36:00.000-07:00

I have this hanging in my kitchen. You put aromatic spices or something in there and it makes the whole room smell nice! At least in theory..

face and fox

2010-09-12T16:30:00.000-07:00

I keep drawing this girl. I like her silent-film eyes and weird teeth. I don't know, I'm thinking of making an animation of her.

Also I found this fox and I like him:

glove guy

2010-09-03T13:42:00.000-07:00

I forgot about this! Drew it one day and then left it in my sketchbook. I like him!

objects + face

2010-09-03T13:40:00.001-07:00

It's been awhile! I need to update more. Here are some sketches of nothing in particular.

Aim for the head!

2010-08-05T15:58:00.001-07:00

Yess! I can finally show you this one! I did this odd little painting for an incredibly sweet guy, one Pete Graham, who's curating a mash-up of fairly "indy" artists all doing apocalyptic tennis-themed pieces. Mine depicts a zombie Bjorn Borg getting ended cheese-grater style...with what we'd hope is his own racket, right? I enjoy his eggy goop eye.

You can see more of the artists's apocalyptic tennis art, including Hellen Jo, a particular favorite of mine, and hysterically foul Johnny Ryan, a particular favorite of Jimmy's, at Pete's blog for the collection: Tennis Versus Apocalypse.

goodbye Ponyo

2010-07-31T19:14:00.000-07:00

This was my fish Ponyo who died a couple days ago. She grew to be 7 inches long, was really pretty, and often mistook pebbles for food and would spit them out like bullets. Goodbye Ponyo!

new prints

2010-07-31T12:46:00.000-07:00

There are some new prints available on my Etsy store, including a large-format borderless print of my Howl postcard. Check it out!

pirates!

2010-07-24T18:02:00.000-07:00

Alright! This is my favorite Tarzan piece so far! Check out the Picture Book Report blog for more details on the story in this scene. You can click on the image to enlarge.

Also. A couple potential Janes, plus an idea for her outfit. I'm leaning towards the Jane on the right, the younger one. She's 19 afterall, and I think the left one looks too 1920's....even though that is the time period for the book. But still. A little too dated.

sickie

2010-07-24T15:43:00.000-07:00

So this was me for the past couple of days. When migraines plague me you can pretty much count me out of life for the duration. It was bad news. But now that I'm recovering, bear with me, because Tarzan 5 is just so so so close!

Oh yeah and my hair is normally pin straight, but this is actually a pretty accurate portrayal of what it looked like!

sometimes I make other things too!

2010-07-11T11:29:00.001-07:00

pom poms!

Jimmy's folks gave me this great little sewing machine for my birthday last year and I had some fun making a flag bunting for my room! It's actually really long. I think it may be a pretty shoddy sewing job really, but it's hard to mess up flags and string, right?

I also rescued this big chalkboard (really hard to see in our tiny hallway, but i will post better pictures later...someday when we move) from the coffee shop where I pretend to be a functioning member of society and painted it up in mint green. It was meant to help us schedule ourselves but we just doodle stupid things on it now.

some sci fi show

2010-07-01T22:08:00.001-07:00

death dance

2010-05-02T11:32:00.000-07:00

The final version of my belated Tarzan piece went up on the Picture Book Report blog today, and you can see the entire piece there! I'm pretty happy with it, although this is the first time I've limited my colors quite this much, so...hope it works!

tarzan up in that tree

2010-04-19T17:50:00.000-07:00

This is my latest Tarzan piece that went up on the Picture Book Report blog. I got a little tired of working on the last one and so I just went on to the next! Sometimes that's necessary I think. I really like how this came out. So much so, I think I'm going to go back into the earlier Tarzan piece and change up the background a bit. maybe.

jungle

2010-04-11T23:15:00.000-07:00

I'm sorta dreadfully behind on my last Tarzan update for the Picture Book Report, so I thought well maybe I can prove that it's getting there! This is the finished jungle background, which turned out to involve a really a new process and color palette for me, and I'm pretty into it! Tarzan, who's 12 there (hopefully looks that way), is going to be inhabiting that space real real soon, but I liked him so much that I wanted to give him a little spotlight.

Howl postcard

2010-03-22T14:07:00.001-07:00

I just finished this postcard for Howl, a great independent pet store here in Hampden, and I'm really happy with how it came out. Robin McDonald, the owner, gave me complete freedom with it and it was such a fun job. Who wouldn't love drawing a mess of dogs and cats?
I absolutely love airedales, by the way!

heads for haiti

2010-03-05T12:18:00.000-08:00

Spur Design in Hampden has created an event for 100 artists to make heads/portraits/busts that will be sold to benefit Haiti. 100 Heads for Haiti will take place on April 10th from 6pm to 8:30 so if you're a Baltimorean or will be in the area, stop by Spur and check out some beautiful work or, even better, buy (original art for only $100) and support a good cause!

them birds!

2010-03-03T13:22:00.000-08:00

My lovely friend and incredibly talented illustrator Judith Uzcategui let me know the other day that my Alphabirds were featured on Share Some Candy, which is super super exciting! There are a lot of great examples of creative alphabets up there as well so its definitely worth a look!

i love him

2010-02-24T14:21:00.000-08:00

I don't remember, but he has puppies on his mind.

kala and tarzan finish

2010-02-20T17:26:00.000-08:00

This was my final image for the first Tarzan illustration that went up on Picture Book Report on the 15th. I'm mostly happy with it, but...I'm not really a fan of interiors when I have a whole jungle to work with. Still, this is an important part of the book and one of my favorites because it's so touching.

some tarzans

2010-02-20T16:46:00.000-08:00

Some very initial sketches for Tarzan. He's definitely not there yet, but I let myself have a little fun with these and so I like them, though they won't be what I stick with. I'm struggling a little with his age right now. He accomplishes a lot as a teenager and, it's a little foggy, but he becomes King of the Jungle and then meets Jane when he's in his late teens-around twenty, so that's where I want to hit him, but he's not there in more ways than age right now. Going to keep working on it.

ape feet

2010-02-20T14:59:00.001-08:00

I'm taking part (along with a solid group of other really talented illustrators) in a pretty new blog started by the sweet Meg Hunt called Picture Book Report. There you'll find each of us posting monthly (or bi-monthly?) illustrations from our favorite books and I'M doing Burroughs' Tarzan of the Apes. It's a great opportunity for me to draw pretty foliage, hairy hairy apes, and nakedness! Right now I'm loving ape feet and hands.
Stop by the Picture Book Report blog to see the beautiful work by Meg Hunt, Sam Bosma, S. Britt, Israel Sanchez, Daniel Krall, Kali Ciesemier, John Martz, Jeremy Sorese, Julia Sonmi Heglund, Laura Park, Lizzy Stewart, Phil McAndrew, PMurphy, and Will Bryant. It's only going to get better every week!

It's alive!

2010-02-19T20:47:00.000-08:00

At long last, I've finished my new portfolio site! Please check it out! Critiques? Comments? I'd love to know what you think!

2008-04-20T12:33:00.000-07:00

Changes are coming! After an absence that has gone on way too long, I will be back soon with a brand new website full of plenty of new work. Check back again soon for previews!