Thursday, June 23, 2011

TIN HOUSE TEE

Sneak Peek of a limited edition Tee Shirt for the folks at Tin House. Looking forward to rocking one of these myself later on this summer. Yes Virgina, that is a martini drinking gorilla on top of the house!

Thursday, June 16, 2011

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

I was making a card for my Dad today, trying to get it done before the mailman stopped by.
Yeah, I know, kinda last minute, but that's the old man's style too.
 I was thinking about a moment in my childhood when I felt completely safe and loved, and it was when my Dad would tuck our feet in on a cold New Hampshire night.
 There was something soothing about having you feet bundled up in your blankets, even though you would move two minutes later and free them.
I find myself tucking Oskar's feet in at night, even when its not that cold.
I have a lot to be thankful as a Dad myself. Two beautiful little boys and an amazing wife. Or maybe its the other way around...
How did I get to be so lucky?

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

MISTER JANUARY

Even though we are half way through 2011 I still feel like it just started. But 2012 is coming, as evidenced by the fact that I just finished a piece for the NPR calendar for 2012.
The assignment was pretty wide open and I sent these two sketches.
To my delight, they chose the burnt eggs one. This is sort of based on my personal NPR "driveway moment". In the morning I make eggs sometimes for Teddy and Oskar. While I'm sipping my first coffee I'll tune into NPR and I've burned a lot of eggs because I was so engrossed. This happens a lot. And it doesn't help that I don't eat eggs myself (yuck!) and I only learned how to cook them properly a couple years ago.
For various reasons we decided to make the gorillas into bears and I came up with this.

They thought the smoke was a bit heavy so I added a little texture to it.
And lastly, it was decided that the bear could look like he is enjoying himself a little more, so I added extra enjoyment.
They chose it for January which seems fitting. I was super psyched to work with everyone at NPR, everyone I had contact with had a great sense of humor and good suggestions to turn this into a fun piece. 
And with all the flack that NPR has been getting from the Republicans, I was extra happy to contribute to their fund raising efforts.
For the record, ALL the funding that NPR receives from the Government would pay for 44 seconds of the Iraq war. But I digress....


Friday, June 3, 2011

Nilsson & Ameila

I was in New York a couple weeks ago and I am super pumped to announce that a new book deal was struck with Nancy Conescu over at Penguin Books. Meet Nilsson and Ameila!
Nilsson is a sweet, well meaning gorilla with a propensity for gorilla sized fits.
Amelia is a little girl with the panache to help Nilsson control his more wild animal-like urges.
Or is it the other way around?
Find out in Summer 2013!