The FED does not raise interest rates: Why break a nine-year streak?

On Digital Drawing Board: Recent work

Hope you had a terrific summer.  It was a fun and busy time here, with several trips to Chicago (for my Mom's birthday), Scottsdale, (business), the mountains (vacations/breaks).

Naturally, there were also lots of entertaining projects. (I thought I'd post just a handful of those, as I don't want to bore anyone.)

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First, a personal commission for a family in Los Angeles who recently had a baby with a difficult delivery. Their obstetrician was evidently quite heroic in his efforts and successfully delivered the baby. They wanted something that could be framed and given to him as a thank you gift. 

I thought I'd share a little of my process here...

A B&W first draft with the doctor in a scene at the hospital. The client liked it 

very much, but I wanted to add a little humor to the scenario, so...

 I wrote this new dialogue: 

They loved the addition, so I added color, emailed the finished art for final approval...and then shipped the artwork. 

I understand the OB (below) was extremely happy and it is now on his office wall.

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Another personal commission, this one for a client in New York who also wanted a framed cartoon to give to his brother for his birthday. (I don't know the significance of the Mexican gangster armadillos...I do know that the Porsche Boxster and Mercedes E350 are their cars. As a car nut and a casual fan of armadillos, it was a great deal of fun for me to draw.)

B&W drawing 

Color artwork 

(Click to enlarge)

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One of several illustrations created for a soon-to-be published book:

Link: An Elegy For the Lost City

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A couple of pieces for some ongoing book illustration projects:

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Some marketing pieces for long-term clients: 

(CGNet, Menlo Park California)

(Connect360, New York, NY.)

More Iran Nuclear Deal cartoons

More cartoons covering the upcoming Iran Nuclear Deal vote in Congress...(created for a group of east coast newspapers.)

The House vote on the Nuclear Deal is coming up soon...

Iran Nuclear Deal cartoon

It was just revealed (Thursday), that the Iran Nuclear Deal allows Iran to use its own inspectors to verify that they are not building nuclear weapons.

Lions, tigers, pigs -- and Trumps!

I thought I'd step in for a moment, (taking a break from a busy summer of work and travel and a lack of blog posts), to comment on the first Presidential election debate last night, featuring candidates from the GOP.

In talking with a few friends and clients today, the reactions are mixed. Most who saw it thought it was a bit of a spectacle, yet most were surprised more by the hosts than by the candidates themselves.

A friend who is a writer and columnist weighed in, wondering if she had missed anything by listening to the debate rather than watching it on TV. I think the only thing that anyone might have missed in listening to it was the preening and attention to the camera given by the Fox hosts. In fact, I was disappointed in the way that Fox and their hosts approached this debate, particularly the first half.

Based upon the reaction from people in the media today, and the tone over the past few months, there is clearly a country-wide distrust of Washington insiders and the doublespeak that comes from career politicians from either party.

...Which I think explains the mysterious appeal of someone as bombastic as Donald Trump.

A client swam with the sharks last night...

One of my my favorite shows, (and one of the few that I watch, albeit once or twice a month),
is ABC's, Shark Tank. I don't know if you're familiar with the show...Budding entrepreneurs 
get the chance to bring their dreams to fruition by presenting them to five angel investor
"sharks". 

One of my clients from a couple of years back, "Beneath the Ink", a start-up tech/media firm
here in Boulder, appeared on the show the last night. (It was a pleasant surprise.)

Their product provides a way to add a new dimension of content to digital text;
mainly books. CEO/founder Sherisse Hawkins is a former Vice President with Time Warner.
She and her company hired me to create illustrations and pop-up content for a model book.

They succeeded in securing $600,000 in investor funding initially, and were seeking 
additional investments on the show.

The show provided some drama but unfortunately, no sharks jumped into the tank with them
last night. I hope they are able to garner some interest from the publicity, (as many start-ups
who appear on the show do), since their product is a worthwhile way to boost the information 
and value of almost any book.

If you're interested, you can watch the episode: Shark Tank

On the Digital Drawing Board

I have not had the time to post here much, (work, skiing, family), but I thought I'd swing by with a sampling of a few things that have graced the drawing board recently.

It has been a long while since I've shared any work, (seems like I've gone from monthly to quarterly posts), so I will just touch upon a few recent projects.



First up is a political cartoon about European Central Bank's recent move to buy bonds. ECB president Mario Draghi launched a $1 trillion plan to help stimulate the European economy and markets. German Chancellor, Angela Merkel is not happy. --It looks like it has had its desired effect thus far, as the Japanese market was way up...and so far the same is true with the European markets. 

(The next two pieces were created for Axel Merk's column -- he is a regular contributor to CNBC's Financial report.)

(With a few dashes of color)

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Speaking of Angela Merkel, I was hired by a British media firm to create caricatures of her as well as several other European leaders for one of its publications. (I'll share more on that after it goes to press.) Here's a sample:

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Next up are a few examples of roughly 20 cartoons created for AT Internet, a French digital analytics company. They were created to illustrate a white paper, A Day in the Life of a Digital Analyst, a white-paper/for their clients.

I worked with several of their employees in Paris, discussing the concepts via conference call. My French is not so good, so fortunately, the writer was able to translate. The initial white paper is in English, but it will be translated into French, German and Spanish, along with any text that I paced into the illustrations.

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Below is a promotional illustration for an already published teen adventure novel, The Ancients: A Game. The author has been a great deal of fun to work with and has a few other books in the works that will require illustration.

                                                                               (Click to enlarge)

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Next is a whimsical piece for a very large company, Roche Pharmaceuticals. (Trust me, that's a unique combination, as most large firms don't think that way.) I was hired to create caricature and cartoon making fun of one of their executives. This scene was paralleling an old Warner Bros. Chuck Jones cartoon, "Duck Amok", involving Daffy Duck being the victim of the animator's tricks. --It was their idea and I was impressed that they knew of it. Completely wacky -- and lots of fun to draw!

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Below is artwork for an album cover for recording artist, Stephen Hall, a talented recording artist from Connecticut.

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Lastly, I've been working on a series of funny greeting cards for a new card greeting company in Chicago. Here are just a few golf-themed pieces of the stand alone artwork at this point, (the card concepts and humor can only be shared after they go to press and are ready to be marketed.)

April is shaping up to be quite busy, with several corporate advertising campaigns on the board and a few books to illustrate.

Until the next time...

Spring Break in the high country

I thought I'd share a few moments from our family Spring Break ski vacation. We had a fantastic time. Lots
of skiing, relaxing and gorging ourselves, (each day, in that order), was just what we all needed after a seemingly endless string of client projects and school work.

The sun was out, the temperatures were mild and we even got some fresh powder nearly every night. We also spent some time at Arapahoe Basin, which is a great choice in the Spring. It is the highest altitude ski resort in North America, right next to the Continental Divide...and up that high, it's a little cooler, so the snow stays powdery longer. (They have been known to have skiing well into June!)

We had plenty of great skiing, food, (and a few margaritas).

I'm refreshed, recharged and ready to 'get back to the drawing board'.

A few photos of our daughter Julia with me, starting a run on the Summit at Keystone. (That's Breckenridge visible behind us.)

I'm outta here. Off to greener pastures!

Well, it has been a good run...creating cartoons and illustrations for newspapers, magazines, books and various corporate clients.

But as of next week, I am accepting a position with a large entertainment and media company, as their main cartoonist.

Truth be told, it is an "adult publication", and I will be handling the humor and cartoons for their magazine and top rated entertainment website. What could be more fun than drawing naked people?

                    The cartoon above was a first effort -- and was deemed "too subtle" for their audience. 






This really will be a dream come true. Drawing doodles for a largely anonymous, private segment of society is gratifying work.

Wish me luck!




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Oops, look at the calendar. Happy April Fools Day. 

However, the idea for this did came from an actual offer: A few weeks ago I was approached by a media firm that runs, (according to them), the #1 adult site on the internet. They offered me the chance to become their humor editor and cartoonist. Lots of money and crazy good times could be had.  I politely declined.

Merry Christmas

Swon Brothers cartoons

The day before Thanksgiving I was asked to create a cartoon for a couple of singers....(or at least that was the description I heard over the phone.)

At the time, my family and I were in Chicago visiting my parents and my brother's family. It was a last-minute request with a short turnaround...and I was in the midst of arriving in Chicago, so I was not prepared to work.

The singers, Zach and Colton Swon are a country music duo known as "The Swon Brothers".

Truth be told, I had not heard of these guys before, but after mentioning it to my wife, and within earshot of several other women in the room, they all told me that they knew about them -- and that I had to do it. (Apparently the brothers were originally discovered on "The Voice". Since then, they have had a successful album.)

I called back their management team, agreed, and then went off into a quiet room for an hour to create the cartoon, and then emailed it to them.

It was part of an effort to publicize their new single "Pray for You". (Here they are performing it on the Today Show: The Swon Brothers). Despite not being a big country music fan, even I can tell that they are very talented.

The cartoon was featured on their Twitter/FB/LinkedIn pages...as well as the Arista Records website.

They received a good response on social media, so we are working in more cartoons for Christmas and New Years day. (B&W sketch on the bottom.)

On the Digital Drawing Board

Indian Summer descended upon the Rocky Mountains and it stayed longer than usual. It might be my imagination, but it did so with more than its usual beauty as well.

The temperatures were warm throughout October and most of November allowing an extended period of fall color throughout Colorado...until last week, when a storm system from the Alaskan hurricane caused a dramatic temperature drop, straight into what felt like deep winter. (It was part of the same system that has hit other parts of the country, and just ravaged Buffalo.) It was the most abrupt transition of seasons I have seen since living here...70 degrees and then frigid cold.

A telltale sign of that quick change remains; we're approaching Thanksgiving and most of the leaves are still on the trees in Boulder. They are nearly a month late in coming down.

The huge drop in mercury levels did more than trick the trees...it surprised our furnace. (We had to get a new one this week. I had repaired the old one a few times, installing new ignitors and flame sensors, etc...but it was getting long in the tooth.)

We managed to break away in October and spend some time in the Vail and Breckenridge areas; mountain biking, hiking, swimming and general unwinding. Lots of wildlife and glowing aspen trees were glimpsed.

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Well, it's time to share a few highlights from client work that has graced the studio in recent weeks:

First, an illustration created for a new book on evolution and archaeology, (from an author of of series of books on the subject.)

The illustration depicts an event which is somewhat notorious (in the world of archaeology). A noted archaeologist found a fossilized skeleton in the Sahara...and claimed that he had found one of our humanoid ancestors. Well, after lots of published papers, fanfare and media coverage, what he thought was a human collarbone turned out to be a dolphin's rib! The primitive human went up in a poof of smoke and was later jokingly named: "Flipperpithecus".  http://www.conservapedia.com/Flipperpithecus

It will be a follow- up to this book: amazon.com/Evolution-Grand-Experiment 

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A political cartoon for CNBC financial advisor, Axel Merk and his weekly column:

http://www.merkinvestments.com/insights/2014/2014-10-29.php

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A cartoon for an insurance company in California:

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One of two cartoons created for a financial advisor in Florida.

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A few of many political campaign posters and newspaper cartoons
 created prior to the November elections: 

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One of a few cartoons created for Connect 360, in NY, NY.

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Lastly, a few pieces from a large ongoing project for the John Morrel Food Group.

I have been working for them since July on a number of things, including redesigning the company mascot for Eckrich sausage and Armour Hot dogs. (Also Boar's Head meats.)

The image below is the original mascot created in the 1980's, and in this particular use, he is featured in a company safety poster from their facility in Chicago. I was asked to update him, and for the purpose of the safety posters, to include hearing protection, hair net and protective gloves.

Preliminary sketches...

The new character, "Sal the Salami":

Sal has appeared in some advertising thus far, (they sent me some promotional shirts, vests and hats with his image on them) ...and just recently in a series of safety posters to be located throughout some food processing plants:

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(Clicken to enlargen):

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Other current client work includes illustrating a few books, some work for Roche Pharmaceutical, and illustrating a publication for French analytics firm, AT Internet...but I think I've run past the redline on the boredom meter here.

I hope you have a fantastic Thanksgiving!