Speaking at RISD

This coming Saturday I'll be speaking at RISD's Art of Business Bootcamp with Justin Perricone. Our topic: Pricing Work as a Freelancer.

This is a new presentation that we've been putting together for the last few months and we're incredibly excited to pass on our experience to the attendees.

Along with the sharing the writing for our talk with Justin, I've been illustrating and hand lettering images and phrases to help convey some of our messages, and because I'm excited about how they came out, I decided to print up stickers to give away on Saturday.

The event is open to the public, and full of helpful information for those starting out or needing a little help with their freelance careers.

You can register here: Art of Business Bootcamp

Stickers are below: 

Cards for Kenya- A Mitzvah Project to support Health and Education in Kenya

For my son, Leo's Mitzvah project ahead of his upcoming Bar Mitzvah, he has decided to help raise money to support health and education in the Maasai Mara and Lewa, Kenya.

Leo, with the help of his mother and me, has created a deck of playing cards illustrated by him to sell, with the net proceeds going to two places.

The Lewa Wildlife Conservancy Main Clinic
The Lewa Wildlife Conservancy is a non-profit organization that supports sustainable biodiversity and conservation in Lewa, Kenya. As part of their mission, they offer subsidized medical clinics that are the only source of healthcare for tens of thousands of Lewans. You can find out more about them at lewa.org/impact/communities/healthcare.

Proceeds from my Mitzvah Project will help fund medicines, medical equipment, and outreach efforts of the clinics, contributing to the health and wellness of the people of Lewa.

The Africa Foundation in Maasai Mara
The Africa Foundation is a non-profit organization that supports sustainable socio-economic development in local communities near conservation areas. The foundation worked with &Beyond, owners of Bateleur Camp where we stayed, to build a school in the nearby Maasai village. They are now working to open boarding facilities there, so children won’t have to travel long distances every day for their education. You can learn more about The Africa Foundation at africafoundation.org/projects/education.


Proceeds from my Mitzvah Project will help fund the village school, contributing to education and socio-economic development for the Maasai people.

If you would like to support Leo's project and purchase a deck of cards, or if you would like more information, please send an email to leosbarmitzvah (at) bernat.net or you can pick them up on ETSY.

In the Maasai Mara:

At the Lewa clinic:

Thank you for your support!

Corporate Editorial Work for a Presentation

Illustrations and hand lettering for a presentation by the TriNetX CEO.

Scarves- Book Cover Illustration

Middle grade chapter book cover illustration

Work in progress:

ICON10: The Illustration Conference

ICON10: The Illustration Conference was held in Detroit this year. If you haven't heard of ICON: it's a conference that happens every 2 years in a different city in the USA (so far!). 

750 illustrators from around the world come together to share experiences, take workshops, hobnob and hand out beautifully illustrated postcards.

It would be impossible to try to encapsulate in a blog post how wonderful and enriching was the experience, so I won't even try. Instead, some pictures:

And many, many fascinating speakers and attendees:

Posing in the artsy alley called The Belt with Haydn Adams, who was representing the Graphic Artists Guild.

Monochromatic Boy Waving

Detail:

Backpack and Messenger Bag Cats

Everyone has a book bag preference...

Here's some of my work in progress:

Below is the (quick) sketch I started out with.

I redrew my sketched cat and made some improvements.

I knew the cat needed a friend, so I added in another one.

I began to add color...

And more color along with fur and some gradations...

Then I did the same for the other cat. After that I brought in a background to complete the piece!

Hate Has a Home Here. Unfortunately.

I love seeing the yard signs around my town espousing love for everyone, rather than the intolerance we see and hear from some of our leaders in Washington D.C. 

This editorial illustration is unfortunately just too real.

If you would like to support Hate Has NO Home Here, you can visit their website and purchase a yard sign, magnet or poster.

Bad Puppy!

Middle grade book illustration

As with all dogs and many children, this pup has NO idea he did anything wrong.

I kept things simple with this illustration- stingy with colors except for a few accents, and a simple composition.

Sometimes it's fun to hold back a little...

How to Pit an Avocado

Have you ever wondered how to pit an avocado? Neither have I.

Have you ever wondered how to pit the knife you used to pit the avocado?

Now we're talking...

That's the question I tried to tackle with my poster, using easy to follow directions, and a little bit of an homage to Chris Ware.

This poster is available at my Etsy store

Groundhog Day 2018!

Happy Groundhog Day!

What's Worse Than 6 More Weeks of Winter?

This is a little departure from my usual Kidlit and Kid's education work. Normally I don't go political with my yearly Groundhog Day illustration, but this time around it couldn't be helped.

.......................................

And here's an alternate version:

Thanks for looking and sharing- I appreciate it!

There are MANY more Groundhog Day illustrations on this blog.

I have a collection of my favorite Groundhog Day illustrations on Behance.

Groundhog Day 2018 preview

Check back tomorrow for the answer!
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There are MANY more Groundhog Day illustrations on this blog.

I have a collection of my favorite Groundhog Day illustrations on Behance.

Coming Soon: Groundhog Day

Anybody who knows me is well aware of my interest (Or obsession, really) in Groundhog Day. 

In the very early days of my career as an illustrator, I wanted to celebrate a lesser-appreciated holiday to promote my business, so every year, I drew a groundhog illustration, and sent it out into the world. 

In the early days, I simply printed the illustration or cartoon on a postcard and snail-mailed it. These days it gets posted on every social media platform known to man.

Every now and then I find a little extra time to do some one-off sketches leading up to the holiday, and below you'll find one of them. 

For this year's illustration- keep an eye out on February 2!

Thanks for reading and looking! If you want to see my Groundhog Day illustrations from years gone by, click HERE.

Challenges of a Student with Poor Time Management Skills

The first student I illustrated for Engaging Minds is physically and mentally disorganized.

The second student is stressed out and has trouble concentrating. 

The third student (below) has poor planning and time management skills. He has trouble following directions.

Attributes of student 3 include:

• Poor planning and time management skills
• Doesn’t use a planner (s/he says she can just remember things in her head or just find it online)
• S/he doesn’t even really know how to use a planner to begin with so s/he jettisons it
• Doesn’t know how to prioritize
• Doesn’t know how to make lists
• Doesn’t know how to break down tasks into manageable pieces
• Never learned how to effectively plan out long-term assignments
• Doesn’t know how to create an agenda and estimate time on task
• Poor self-monitoring
• Doesn’t read directions
• Doesn’t follow the rubric
• Doesn’t use an assignment book effectively
• Doesn’t follow through on goals and plans

Engaging Minds is a learning and tutoring center in Massachusetts that helps students to enhance their academic engagement, and strengthen executive function and learning skills.

Challenges of a Stressed Out Kid

The first student I illustrated for Engaging Minds is physically and mentally disorganized.

The second student (below) is stressed out and has trouble concentrating. 

The third student has poor planning and time management skills.

The top image was a lot of fun to put together. How often does one get to include a 'poop' emoji in one's art?

Attributes of student 2 include: 

• Stressed out!
• Procrastinates and struggles with task initiation
• Always leaves things for the last minute
• Constantly thinks s/he has more time
• Easily overwhelmed
• Doesn’t know where to begin
• Doesn’t know how to break assignments down into manageable pieces
• Doesn’t have a homework routine
• Can’t focus
• Has a really hard time sitting and doing work for more than 20 minutes at a time
• Constantly daydreaming while reading
• Easily distracted – even by the squirrel out in the front yard
• Inflexible
• Unwilling to try new approaches; stuck in a rut and can’t see another way out
• Has a hard time shifting from one activity to the next
• Doesn’t do well when things don’t go as planned

Trouble focusing:

Procrastinates and struggles with task initiation:

 Inflexible:

Engaging Minds is a learning and tutoring center in Massachusetts that helps students to enhance their academic engagement, and strengthen executive function and learning skills.