The Darkside Zodiac 2011 Wall Calendar

Now that the holiday season is officially upon us, it is time to start thinking about buying you and yours a wall calendar for next year.

The gist of the book this calendar was based on is that most astrological guides are far too kind to their subjects.  The Darkside is all about calling out the bad behaviors of the Zodiac, in a humorous (and, might I add, BEAUTIFULLY illustrated) way.  I had a blast working on this, and ever since the publisher sent me my copies, it has tended to come out at parties where we all have a good laugh (and occasional uncomfortable silence) about how close to home some of the descriptions hit.  A gift that keeps on giving, so...

Purchase here!

the power of myth!

Greek mythology: I just love it.  The fantastical creatures! The romance and heroism! The savage and bloody wrath of gods and mere mortals!  So you can imagine my excitement when Scholastic asked me to contribute to a classroom book on the subject.  Stories covered were King Midas, Prometheus & Pandora, and Oedipus & The Sphinx.

Of course, I would have loved to play up more of the sexual tension between the Sphinx and Oedipus, shown Prometheus in chains, having his liver torn out and eaten by an eagle, and drawn some really nasty demons coming out of Pandora's box, but, ya know, kids!  I had to keep it pretty clean.  Still, as jobs go, the funnest.

don't be a-skeered, he's just misunderstood

This was a sweet gig to land.  Penguin has asked me to do covers for some reprints of a few Eva Ibbotson novels.  If'n you are unfamiliar with her work, she is a British author of some witty and winsome fantasy tales for the young'uns.  This first cover is for a new book of hers called The Ogre Of Oglefort.

It's nice to get back to my roots and draw some good old-fashioned monsters again.

Update: Eva Ibbotson sadly passed away October 20th, making this her final novel.  She seemed a pretty awesome lady, as noted here, and I'm honored to be an illustrator to her fantastic writings.

jobby jobs

 

Haven't had much time to do any art for art's sake of late, as the fast-paced world of children's illustration has been keeping me on the edge of overwhelmed.  As such, I thought it was time to add some illustration onto this here blog.  It means I'll be updating more often, at least.

So, to begin, here's the cover image and a couple of spreads for a forthcoming "Musicians of Bremen Town" comic, published by Stone Arch Books.  I found that a surprising number of people had never heard of the story, a Grimm's fairy tale about a donkey, a dog, a cat, and a rooster just trying to find some happiness and peace in this wicked world.  Spoiler alert: it all works out nicely for them in the end.

water weight

la guerre

I actually drew this up a couple months back to my own surprise. It started with a dream about this elephant's battle cry and grew into a full scene from there.  I got really into giving that wolf in the foreground a very bad day.  When I showed my friend, Kelly, over at Happiness Island, she felt really sorry for him, so I have promised her vengeance in a future piece.