Groundhog Day 2015

Happy Groundhog Day!
This year's theme (for the 3 people in the universe unfamiliar with a trend that has spanned 4 decades so far) is Star Wars and the Groundhog's shadowy nemesis is in the form of Darth Vader.

I've done a number of extra illustrations and sketches this year and you can see them on this blog.

If you'd like to see my Groundhog Day illustrations over the past many years I put together an album on Behance.

School Hallway

One of the automatic frog illustrations I created a couple of weeks ago went from character illustration to a full scene from the story using textures and overlays.

Spanish Text Book Illustrations

or How I Spent my December and January

I recently illustrated the revised edition of a college level Spanish language textbook for Yale University Press. The number of illustrations was approximately 147, ranging from 1/4 pagers to full scenes and even a campus view, and the deadline was EXTREMELY short! While it was taxing rendering such a large number of images in so short a time (can you say tennis elbow?), I'm very proud of every one of them.

Here are a few of my faves from the book:

The authors of the book were hoping that I could update the look of the book and bring consistency as the previous edition had a few different artists, one of whom they were extremely unhappy with. Some comments I received:

"I write to thank you and tell you how pleased I am with the work that you have done on our book. The final colorized art is really great....the content is complete and supports our exercises and other pedagogical needs, and in addition is so very appealing.  Excellent job!!!"

"It has been a real pleasure working with you." 

It's always so nice to know that my efforts are appreciated!

More illustrations to come...

My New Book- Dogopotamus

Resting after chasing a squirrel around the neighborhood.

I'm going to be visiting a local elementary school soon to talk about my new book Dogopotamus: The Most Awesomest Pet Ever. Maybe. and I thought I'd post a few more images from the book.

Petimals is a series of books written by Michael Andrew Fox wherein the main character is on a quest to find the perfect unique pet. In Dogopotamus, as you must have guessed by now, he chooses to meld a dog with a hippopotamus and, naturally, all heck breaks loose. Of course a lot of fun ensues as well, but suffice to say the neighborhood squirrels will not be climbing any trees anywhere near Coby's yard for years to come.

Below are some images from the book.

I also posted more works in progress at Behance where you can watch as the illustrations go from thumbnail sketch to slightly more refined sketch all the way through to the finished piece. 

You can see those works in progress here.

The book is available on Amazon here. It's a really fun read!

Coby tells his mom what kind of pet he wants and his brother's turtles quickly retreat into their shells.

Dogopotamuses should not be taking the stairs.

Coby draws his vision for the perfect pet.

Thanks for looking!

Recent Book Illustrations

I recently completed illustrations for a new book by a local (to Boston) author, Nancy Finn. The name of the book is e-Patients Live Longer and it is a book that describes how to be an e-Patient who uses the tools available in today's wired world to become empowered and knowledgeable about your health issues and take the proper actions and precautions that protect you from making critical mistakes. Yes, that's a long sentence but it describes the book so well!

I really enjoyed working directly with the author to work out what images would best describe the chapter and we went through a few rounds of sketches so I could refine the details before I created the final art.

What I've been working on

It's been a while since my last update because I've been working on finishing a vocabulary book for Flash Kids/Sterling. I thought I'd show off pieces of some of the illustrations for this very interesting book.

There's a dragon, Dubai's tallest building in the world (the Burj Khalifa), shoes, a sunset, the U.S. Capitol Building, Minnesota, a BLT sandwich, Albert Einstein and 134 other illustrations!

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Children's book scenes

Below is a copy of the email newsletter I just sent out to my list of book editors and publishers showing off some of my illustrations of kids doing activities in various parts of Israel.

Climbing Mt. Masada; Visiting the Western Wall, Walking along the wall surrounding the Old City; Floating and getting muddy at the Dead Sea.

What I'm working on

I thought I'd show some snippets of what I'm working on right now. Today it's mostly illustrations:

Above are a couple of illustrations from a book I'm working on for Sterling Publishing, and then a couple of illustrations I'm working on for fun (like the Hulk, drawn with just one line).

Here's another illustration for that book I'm working on. I started with a scanned sketch over which I drew my black line in Illustrator and then added the tones.

And that's been my day so far- how are you?

Following Instructions

This is an illustration of a group of people I created for Flash Kids/Barnes & Noble books. The instructions were much more complex than what I usually get (draw a tree with a squirrel running on a branch, for example) and it took a lot of rechecking to make sure I got everyone right. Here's the description from my client:

Assignment: illustration of a group photo of 3 older men, 1 with short hair, 1 with no hair and 1 with long hair, 1 with glasses, 1 with a hat; 2 older women with short hair; 1 middle-aged man with no hair and glasses; 2 middle-aged women: 1 with a hat and short hair and the other with long hair and glasses; 3 girls, 2 with long hair and 1 with short hair, 1 wearing glasses; 2 boys with short hair 1 with glasses and 1 with a hat; 4 large dogs, 1 spotted black and white, another just black, and 2 golden; 1 small white dog; and 1 small brown dog.

Are you dizzy yet?

What we read this week

In honor of Children's Book Week, here is a collage of most of the books my wife and I read with our 3 1/2 year old son this past week. By Leo's decree, some books must be read every night (until he gets a new favorite) while others make the occasional appearance, cycling in and out.

The Fish Who Cried Wolf is a favorite book, beautifully illustrated and very engagingly written, but with what is easily the worst name. The original story (The Boy Who Cried Wolf) behind the name doesn't even strictly connect to this story and makes the book seem like just another carbon copy, but it is actually very originally written.

My Truck is Stuck is also nicely written with rhymes you can't get out of your head. Leo is now able to 'read' this book by himself because it flows so cleanly. Lots to see in the artwork.

Free Comic Book Day this year got my son stuck on Pixar's Cars and The Incredibles (which was a back-up feature to Cars). Cars was good and somewhat easy to follow (although he didn't get any of the irony which was a bit too subtle) but The Incredibles (written by the VERY talented Mark Waid) was a little too dense for Leo's age. When we read this one, we basically have to paraphrase the character development pages to keep him interested until the action starts again. Once there's jumping and running again (not much hitting), he loves it!

The last one I want to mention (among all of these great books) is Robert Munsch's Purple, Green and Yellow. Last night was my first time reading this book and I loved it! Although the drawing style is a little dated, the use of color was very appealing and nice to look at. And the story! Munsch has a way of packing so much into one story without overwhelming the reader. This short story could be turned into a movie adaptation making use of the interesting twists/occurrences in the book.

Now, I have to get back to drawing my own children's books!

Snowman wants coffee. And no more winter.

Okay, I've had enough of this winter already. I'm not usually a cold weather complainer but enough is enough. I mean we're halfway through March and I should be able to leave my coat at home when I run to the store. Or leave a window open while I sleep without freezing the leg I habitually leave outside the covers. Sigh.

So I got to thinking I probably wasn't the only one- in fact I could probably name 127,354 others who feel the same way, but the snowman is a very poignant extreme and that's why I chose him for this book/editorial illustration... 'cause if HE'S sick of winter then there's a problem!

To Spring!

There's a Donkey in the Tree!

An illustration I just finished for a book that my agent is hocking. It's based on a story that my father loves to tell us (and his father told it to him and his siblings) about the Jewish holiday Tu B'Shevat. The holiday is the new year for the trees and as the story goes, all trees, bushes and plants bow down to God at midnight on Tu B'Shevat. Well, it's at this time that a traveler ties his donkey to a tree and goes to sleep at an Inn. He wakes to find his donkey is now at the top of the tree...

Math Map

Here's an interesting map I illustrated for a math book. In order to find the proper route from Start to End, you have to finish 10 math problems correctly and match the answers with the streets. Click on the picture to enlarge.

Sketch to finish

Here's an illustration I'm working on for a book. I thought I'd show the before (sketch) and after (finish) to give an idea of how a spot illustration starts.


As I worked on the finish, I decided that the boy's head needs to be larger to help balance him (then again- who wouldn't fall over with a head so big?). It also helps to keep him looking young (it's like an illustrator's beauty secret!).

HAPPY GROUNDHOG DAY 2009!

I've been creating these cards for years and years, took a break and now I'm restarting it. Here's a compilation of parts of past favorites:


You can check out a bunch more Groundhog Day illustrations on this blog by clicking HERE.

Map illustration

This is an illustration I was working on yesterday. It's for a very large 4th grade math book. I have a couple of other maps in this book which I may post another time...

Crocodile and Goldfish finished illustration

Here's the finished version of the sketch I uploaded a few days ago. I realize now that I have to change the name of this illustration since I colored the fish in a non-goldfishy way.

Crocodile and Goldfish

A quick sketch for a promo book illustration. I was really trying to show the care with which the crocodile is carrying the fishbowl.

And here's a picture I took in Tanzania of a decidedly less friendly crocodile trying to take a bite out of a wildebeest it had sneaked up on. Somehow, the wildebeest got away unscathed, but probably had a heart attack an hour later.

Bionic arm and test tube

Some sketches I did a little while ago of characters for a book. The publisher made changes to the manuscript so these got the kibosh, but I've been meaning to finish them just for myself...