death dance

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

kala and tarzan finish

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

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

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!