posted: December 23, 2009

Some of you know that I draw in my sketchbook during church- here is the one from last week- 4th Sunday of Advent.
Hope everyone has a great holiday...

posted: December 18, 2009

Kenyon College called me to do a cover about Kenyon trivia for their Alumni Magazine. I used the chance to finally create an homage to the wonderful book collection of informational wheel charts 'Reinventing the Wheel' by Jessica Hefland. In many ways, these kind of projects really function as design much more than illustration. An example of how difficult it is in today's visual landscape to divide image-making from design thinking. Now I know what Jessica Hische does all day...
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posted: December 14, 2009

For Entertainment Weekly's end of the year wrap-up, I was asked to do the drawing for the Best Video Game of the Year- UNCHARTED 2! (I had never heard of it.)


For all the D&D I played as a kid, I haven't invested into the first-person shooter video games- though I have a kind of admiration for them. My video game of choice as a 12 year-old dork was "The Legend of Zelda." So, I had to do some extensive visual research, as this game bills itself as a kind of hyper-real Indiana Jones-esque shoot'em-up. (No, I wasn't able to convince them they should buy me a PS3 for authenticity.)

Not counting the thumbnail that I should have worked up in a larger format above, here are a few other ideas I sent, before I went to the final sketch. You might find this hard to believe, but they chose the most difficult idea from the set.

The final sketch took an unusually long time to resolve. In drawings of this kind, it is a lot like assembling a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle, and for hours it seemed I was missing all the center pieces, resnapping the edge pieces together again and again.

Probably 95% of my drawings are done on one sheet of board with minmal Photoshop surgery... but this piece was a bit different. It really wanted to approach it a bit more graphically - here are a collection of some of the parts of this image.



I even got my beautiful bride to pose with my son's Nerf gun. I really get so little chance to draw this kind of old fashioned '15 year-old's notebook' drawing with evil henchmen and Beretta hand guns, etc.- I tried to enjoy it!

One of my favorite passages, that gun was so much fun.

posted: November 6, 2009

It is my turn for the virtual studio tour. Sam Weber and Jillian Tamaki were in St. Louis last week (for a fabulous lecture at Washington University, where I teach) and stopped by my studio after a marathon crit. They reminded me I had a bunch of photos I took, and forgot to post, for the Drawger Studio Tour.

Yes, I actually have a giant light table in my attic. I bought it for $100 at one of St. Louis' "type houses" that are continually going out of business.

As many of you may know, working at your home when there are little children around during the day can be difficult. Working in my attic is a nice way to be around the house, but far enough away to get a few things done.

How many times do I hit my head on the ceiling? Every day.

In these images are a few of the trades I've made with some of my favorite illustrators over the years. I love being surrounded by great images. Generally, illustrators are generous and delightful people- and art trades are one of my favorite perks of our industry.

I love working in the studio (my son loves working up there with me even more. That typewriter is his favorite perch.) Despite how much time I spend there during any given day- I usually look forward to returning.

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