Playing around

Work has been slow due to the whole holiday thing. I've been drawing quite a bit in my sketchbook and experimenting with color/handmade textures in Photoshop. The process is pretty straight forward: I doodle in my sketchbook, scan the linework into the CPU, and add color/textures in Photoshop. Here are a few images I played with this week. I included the original doodle for the first image, so you can see where these started.

Have a happy, healthy, and creative 2009!

Jiggle Bells...Jiggle Bells

Have a happy and healthy holiday!

Harry House Head

At the end of each year, I look back through my sketchbooks for any interesting characters I created. This October amid the financial market collapse I created the one-and-only Harry House Head. Enjoy.

The Vault: Jingle Bell Rocks!

Three years ago, I whipped up this music video for a promotional DVD/reel I sent out. It was my first attempt at compositing Flash with After Effects. Looking at it now, the animation is minimal to say the least, but I'm still pretty surprised I was able to pull it off in a week (with a day job). Music by the very talented, Mr. Eric Schmider. This should spark some Yuletide cheer. Enjoy.

Monster Squad Continues

I've been puttering away on the Monster Squad Series for Penguin. Over the last week, I cleaned up the 3rd book cover and finished 20 interior concept sketches for the 2nd installment. Below are the fruits of my labor.

The layout for book 3...Design by Meagan Bennett:

The cleaned-up and colored cover image:

Samples of the Book 2 interior sketches:

Animated Lions!!!

I have been hired by Pileated Pictures to co-produce and direct two Between the Lions animated episodes. For the last month or so, I have been working with a great team of designers to create the look of the animated version of the show. Here is a quick style test:


The characters were designed by the mega-talented Steph Laberis and the background was crafted by Jon Renoni. The episodes have been written, storyboarded, and now we're in the thick of production! Moving along nicely...more updates to come.

Between the Lions is produced by WGBH Boston and Sirius Thinking.

One month later!

I haven't had much time in the last few weeks to do much of anything. I've been illustrating the Monster Squad books, directing animation for Between the Lions on behalf of Pileated Pictures, and working on a couple personal projects...one that has been sucking up most of my time (Yes, I'm being cryptic). Well, here's the latest cover sketch for The Monster Squad book series. I think it's called The Beast with 100 eyes or something like that.

Stuck in a Rut

I've been stuck in a creative rut lately and I'm trying to drag myself out of it. This is the best I could muster up during my lunch break today. Got to snap out of it.

Soul Music

I've been a huge fan of Soul music for years now...and what's better than soul music? Well, Zombies playing soul music in the month of October.

October is Awesome!!!

Happy October! October is by far my favorite month for a number of reason: falling leaves, cold air, candy corn, halloween...and my birthday! I've been super busy, but that shouldn't stop me from enjoying some fresh apples and playoff baseball.

I haven't had time to do much of anything outside of work lately. I've been juggling three or four projects for a while now and hopefully things should start slowing down. The chapter book illustration gig is moving along nicely, and I'm almost done with the first book! Here's one of the interior illustrations.

Monster Man

I have been drawing LOTS of monsters lately. Not only am I illustrating a children's book about monsters, but I also have been commissioned by American Greetings to produce a Halloween E-Card. Even though it's a little early for Halloween, here are some characters and a style test I made for the E Card.

Monster Squad

I have been juggling four or five projects in the last few weeks, so I haven't had too much time to post...or work on my own stuff. Bah! Anyways, I've been hard at work on my first children's publishing project...Monster Squad for Penguin. The first cover (of four) has been approved and is ready for layout.


Here is the what the cover will kind of look like once the text is added. Design by Meagan Bennett of the Penguin Group.


Here's my final illustration that will be added to the layout. Should be fun once it's all done!