"Phonics" icons book

Finished another book for sale in Target stores, this time with the focus on phonics. This book didn't have as many characters to design; it was focused more on objects like trains and flags and fire and tree stumps and such. 120 icons in all, and here are some character-based favorites. As always somebody else will color the book as I move on to the next to draw.

"Sound" icons book

I'm back at the freelance again after an insane amount of change in my life over the last three months. New wife, new city, new job--no sleep!

This art is from another book in the series that are being sold at Target stores across the country. There's 116 icons in this book; above are 16 of the animals and below are 16 of the other icons. The theme of this book is "Sound," so I guess maybe it's supposed to reference how you say the words of these subjects? Anyway, just like the other books in the series, I've drawn the book and somebody else is coloring it.

This is the 10th book in the series I've done for them, and I'm about to start another. Someday I'll sleep again!

November 2011 calendar

One more project to finish in the next few days and then no more freelance for 6 weeks or so!

StinkyKids & other

I've been in the midst of a ton of huge life changes lately, but the work has still been getting done somehow. I finished the second StinkyKids book, and that's the cover above. I only pencilled & inked the book, while another artist colored it. According to Amazon.com, the book should be available September 16.

Also below are some simple illustrations, where there were supposed to be two to an 8 1/2 x 11" sheet of paper.

4 books

Last night waiting on my doorstep was a box with my artist copies of four children's books I worked on last year! They turned out great--I couldn't be happier. Looks like the nieces and nephews have presents coming! A note in the box said they'd be available at Target stores nationwide starting in July.

Here and here's the original blog posts for the ABC book seen above.



Here's the original blog post for the Bee book above.



Here's the original blog post for the Bunny book above.



Here's the original blog post for the Same and Different book above.

2012 Directory ad

Here's what I'll be putting in the 2012 Directory of Illustration.

Surf Heaven

Here's a self-promotion piece I did for my 2012 Directory of Illustration page. I wanted to do another piece in the lineless style I was doing for the Rudolph art, and one that complemented the Santa piece I did for Christmas this past year.

More Rudolph art

I'm loving doing this lineless art style like they do in Golden Books. I'm going to do more work like this on some upcoming personal stuff.

Baby icons

August 2011 calendar

August is grilling time!

Rudolph art

This was a fun project-I got to try a new illustration style and it gave me some more variety to add to the other licensing art I've done.

Magazine covers

Both of these covers were for the same tween-focused magazine; they were printed one on each side like a flip book.

The sketching process on this project was interesting since originally there were two totally different designs, seen below. After these the company decided to have me go in a different direction, and the result of that is seen in the covers above.

For the boy cover, I did the initial sketch and then was asked to age the boys up a bit, which you'll see in the second sketch.





For the girl cover, the sketches went through four phases of aging the girls upward. Pretty interesting exercise in taking the same characters and trying to make them older while retaining their same design and identity.

Vector dog

StinkyKids on TV

Yesterday CBS Atlanta did a story on Britt Menzies, the StinkyKids creator. I drew the first StinkyKids children's book for her, and am about to start on the second. Check it out HERE. (Can't embed the file on this site, sadly.)

Pinewood story test

Video last updated 2/21/11 5:20 pm

I've started working on a second story test with humans to balance out the previous Dipsy Dunkaroo one which was all animals. I got a lot of great notes from some buddies in the industry on the Dipsy test, which I'll go back and tweak according to their notes when I finish this Pinewood test. I've got a lot of work to do on this still, but I wanted to go ahead and post online this first little bit.

Again: I have no intention on becoming an editor. It's just easier to show a story rell that's all put together than posting still drawings.

Anyways, just wanted to get the little I've got done up to show!

Dipsy Dunkaroo storyboard test

Here's a project I've been wanting to do for a long time: a storyboard test. I finally found some time, so I wrote it, designed the characters, and drew the whole thing. I wrote material for a full 7-minute short, but I only boarded the first minute of it or so. If I were to finish this, the gags would build and get wilder until the very end.

I also created a story reel (movie) of the storyboards, which you can watch HERE. I have no desire to be an editor, but I thought it would be fun to see the boards in motion with music and some limited animation.





Below are the preliminary character turnarounds I made before starting on the test.

Interstate Battery banner ads

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In late October/early November I created all of the illustrated assets for a series of Interstate Battery animated banner ads. I created all of the art in Photoshop and then handed it off to a coding company to animate in Flash. The ads are currently live and should be in use for 6 months, I think. Check out some of the sites the ads are being placed on:

About.com, ABCnews.com, Billboard.com, Businessweek.com, Cbs.com, E! Online, ESPN, Fox Entertainment, Fox News, Hotwire.com, Oprah.com, Orbitz.com, Pandora, Ticketmaster.com, Time.com, Travelocity, USA Today sites, Verizon.com, Weather.com, Comedycentral.com, Foodnetwork.com, MLB.com, NBCsports.com, SI.com amongst others.



Above is a closer look at the art I made for this banner (click to embiggen). I probably put more detail into it than necessary, but I think it all turned out great!

Scroll down through the next 3 posts for the other 8 banner ads. By the time you get to them, they may have already cycled through, so I posted individual links below each one so you can watch them in a new window.

Battery Grab

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Thumbs Up

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Above is a closer look at the art (click to embiggen).



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Batteries Everywhere

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Above is a closer look at the original art (click to embiggen).

Jaybird turnarounds

Finally took advantage of the bright sunlight today and took turnaround pictures of Jay.