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.

Mr. Morally Corrupt

Roger Hargreaves began creating his Mr. Men and Little Miss series in 1971 with characters whittled down to their most basic traits. 

There was Mr. Tickle (the first character created) and Little Miss Bossy, Mr. Good, Little Miss Helpful, Mr. Sneeze, Little Miss Curious, and so on.

If we were to whittle down our current president to his most basic trait, what would be the name of his character?

Portraits From the Second Debate

Tintin goes to Japan- Private Commission Poster

I just finished a new commission for a client that continues a series that we started in 2011. This is the third Tintin book cover inspired poster I've created starring my client, his wife, their dog and their new baby.

Not many Tintin books (by Hergé- real name Georges Prosper Remi) took place in Japan so it took a bit of imagining to work out how Hergé would have drawn and colored Mt. Fuji, a samurai and the clothes necessary for this scene based on my client's recent trip to Japan.

The poster/book cover has been framed and is hanging in their home.

Here are some work in progress images:

Using reference to keep the style as close as possible to Hergé's. 

Samurai outlined. Calm gardener in the background.

Almost finished. We did a bit of back and forth deciding on the colors of her yukata. Finally ended up in the blues. Also, my Mt. Fuji needed flattening.

Check out the other posters in this series.

Donald Trump's View of Himself

Well, it's just too much fun to play with Trump (see my Unwanted poster) so here is the beginning of a series I'm calling 

Donald Trump's View of Himself

THE JEDI

DREAD PIRATE ROBERTS

Others are in the works!

Floss

Don't forget to floss!

Groundhog Day 2014

Happy Groundhog Day! Well kinda: it seems Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow this morning, predicting 6 MORE weeks of winter.

It's been a merciless winter for so many in the central states and a bitter one for us in the northeast so we could have all done with an early release. 

Even the groundhog has had enough of the cold (apparently to no avail):

Thanks for joining me once again for Groundhog Day.

You can check out the last few years of Groundhog Day illustrations on this blog by clicking HERE.

Pink Monster

Another monster character illustration. Go ahead- I know you want to give him a hug...

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I’ve been doing a lot of character development lately and from time to time I show off new characters on my blog. Sometimes they’re black and white and sketchy and other times full color and finished. If you want to see more from this series, just click this “characters” tag. You can also see a collection of characters in my Behance portfolio or on my website.

Anthropomorphised Characters

What I love about advertising is that it often features anthropomorphised products that appear to be absolutely thrilled despite knowing that they will soon be used up and thrown away, or dropped, poked and prodded for their (usually short) lives.

...but it gives illustrators like me something cute and fun to draw!

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I’ve been doing a lot of character development lately and from time to time I show off new characters on my blog. Sometimes they’re black and white and sketchy and other times full color and finished. If you want to see more from this series, just click this “characters” tag. You can also see a collection of characters in my Behance portfolio or on my website.

Bug Juice

It's summer, the kids are in camp and bug juice is in abundance. But who really drinks the stuff?

Water Bottle Guy

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I’ve been doing a lot of character development lately and from time to time I show off new characters on my blog. Sometimes they’re black and white and sketchy and other times full color and finished. If you want to see more from this series, just click this “characters” tag. You can also see a collection of characters in my Behance portfolio or on my website.

Monster Face

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I’ve been doing a lot of character development lately and from time to time I show off new characters on my blog. Sometimes they’re black and white and sketchy and other times full color and finished. If you want to see more from this series, just click this “characters” tag. You can also see a collection of characters in my Behance portfolio or on my website.

What It's Like To Be An Illustrator

Just in case you were wondering.

Domesticated Dog

Tintin Poster Commission Hot Air Balloon over Africa

In November, I was hired to create a custom Tintin poster as a surprise Christmas gift by a man for his fiancée. He came to me with what he wanted represented in the image (which is meant to look like the cover of a Tintin book) along with some photos and I put together a few sketches.

It's important to give your client what they ask for but to find the right spin on it. Originally, he requested that the balloon (and fiancée) be on the ground but I found that the composition wasn't going to be dynamic enough and it would be hard for a viewer to know what to focus on. So I brought the balloon to the foreground.

He wanted zebras, an elephant, a giraffe, a leopard, a Great Dane, a bird and a Vervet monkey.

I poured through Tintin books at the library (and at my parents' house) to really understand how Hergé would have done these characters and the background. His style is so simple and each line is perfect and intentional; it can be a little daunting but I was able to work it out.

Below are some screenshots I took while I worked:

The progression for the balloon and basket. Although very little of the balloon shows in the final piece, I drew it in its entirety.

The various characters start coming together.

Mostly done. The photo at the bottom right is a portion of a shot I took in Africa in 2007 and I was using it to try to get the tall grass right. In the final piece you'll note that the zebras have been switched around (which meant thickening or thinning the line weights accordingly) and a few elements were moved to improve the flow.

My client's fiancée loved the gift and the poster/book cover is framed and hanging in their home.

Groundhog Day 2012

Happy Groundhog's Day! 

What did you get me?

Another installment of my yearly Groundhog Day celebration. I've been creating illustrations and cards for Groundhog Day since 1992 (I skipped a couple of years somewhere in there) and this time I show what it would be like for either outcome.

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

Excuse me- I have to go rent Groundhog Day, the movie, and watch it over and over and over...


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I’ve been doing a lot of character development lately and from time to time I show off new characters on my blog. Sometimes they’re black and white and sketchy and other times full color and finished. If you want to see more from this series, just click this “characters” tag. You can also see a collection of characters in my Behance portfolio or on my website.

French Fries

Supersized fries may be gone from McDonalds but there's still an expanding (pun intended!) need for supersized pants.

(And for a funny extra-large anecdote, check out this article on how a pair of over-sized pant(ie)s actually prevented a house fire. I guess there's some good in the bad.)

Step Carefully

When walking behind a slimy monster, be sure to carefully step over the tail. Don't do what Han Solo did to Jabba (54 second mark).

Groundhog Day 2011

It's that time of the year again when the Groundhog comes out of his den and looks for his shadow. That is, unless he can't get out of his home because the exit is plugged with icicles and covered with 4 feet of snow...

I live in Boston and we've been inundated with snow to the point where I'm running out of places to put the white (and sometimes yellow) stuff. And that's why I created this particular Groundhog Day cartoon this year. Enjoy!

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

By the way, you can check out the official website of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club here.

Monster Coffee

Pieces of my new promo postcard highlighting 

the character development and kid's book sections of my website. 

You have to look closely, but there's a tiny little monster 

licking up the spilled sugar in the last drawing.

And here's the final postcard.