On the Digital Drawing Board

Happy Memorial Day! 

The annual Bolder Boulder 10K race just wrapped up, (after a two-year pandemic hiatus) attracting over 40,000 runners from around the globe. It was great to see the race resume and so many people enjoying the spectacle. We just watched the jets fly over the finish line at the University of Colorado's Folsom Stadium.

This is just a quick drop-in to share a few things that have been on the drawing board... 

 First, a caricature illustration of the current POTUS, for a book being published by Wiley and Sons later this summer.

 

 

 ------------

 

As always, I cover both sides of the aisle

 

Next, a cartoon of the previous POTUS, that I created a couple of years ago, which was

recently licensed by McGraw Hill Publishing, for a college political science textbook. 

-------------

 

I was recently commissioned by a San Francisco design firm to do 12 large format comic art pieces for their client, prominent Internet security firm, Zscaler. The pieces feature caricature-based illustrations of executives and elected officials of their top clients - for whom they wish to show appreciation.

 

MOst of the companies are Silicon Valley tech firms, and one of the illustrations depicts officials in the The City of Los Angeles Mayor's office.  These were created at 5" X 15", printed on high quality archival stock, and then matted, framed, and presented to each executive as a gift.

Here are the first two:

(Click to enlarge)

 

-----------------

 

A commissioned gift illustration created for a retiring English teacher at a high school in North Carolina. A group of his fellow teachers and friends hired me to draw this - and to show he's a poker-playing Elvis fan - who also loves reading Faulkner!
 

This was created at 11" X 18", sent digitally to the client, who then had it printed at local printer on special paper stock, (I always include instructions for that), then matted, and framed. It was presented to the gentleman at his retirement party.)

----------- 

 

 This is a commissioned illustration created for a racing team in Minneapolis. The owner of the team contacted me with an idea for an illustration like the old "CAR-toons and Rat Fink art from the 1970's. He wanted something wild and fun to use on posters, signs and shirts. I did some research to see how to integrate the styles with mine, but I have to say this was a great deal of fun. (Added note: I just received a box of t-shirts from the racing team as a thank you!)

---------

A large caricature illustration for doctor and his a group of friends, commemorating a vacation they are taking together in June. (It will appear on framed prints, as well as t-shirts. The doctor who commissioned this requested that I draw large heads, ala carnival caricatures, but with greater detail.

 

  (And in case you were wondering, I was asked to draw the mostly nude woman just like she was in a photo provided - with exaggeration of course. You've got to love folks with no inhibitions.)

 Click to embig

 

 ----------

I'm currently illustrating several books. Two are children's books; one for an author on London, and another for an author in Phoenix.

 There are two fascinating "non-children's books" on the board. The first is for a former executive of Dreamworks Inc., who has a unique philosophy for transforming organizations. He also has quite a following with his Ted Talks and at SXSW in Austin. I'm enjoying chatting with him and brainstorming on humor to introduce his concepts.

Another interesting project of note...a series of political cartoons commissioned to expose the actions of the Southern Baptist Convention. This has been a national news story over the past year, and was covered in the Washington Post last week. The 8 cartoons I am creating will accompany the writing of a prominent news columnist. Here's the first cartoon, just finished today:

Happy Memorial Day! May your summer months begin with zeal!