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.