Happy Holidays!

Best Wishes to everyone for a happy and healthy 2011!

"Oooh! Tacos!"

Oooh! I heart tacos!
12"x 24" acrylic on canvas.

"Oooh! Tacos!" sketch

Coming soon...

Bunch of Flowers!

Here's a selection of black & white line art I did for the American Floral Marketing Council.

Snack Time Boston!

Look out City of Boston! It's Snack Time! Another Artomatic commission. Will the carnage ever cease?
16" x 20" acrylic on canvas.

Cartoons & Cocktails 2010

Here's a preview of two cartoons that I donated to the annual fundraiser Cartoons & Cocktails. It will be held Thursday night, October 28 at the National Press Club. I've been donating original cartoon art to this worthy cause for over ten years. It supports Young DC and gives scholarships and support to kids interested in journalism. Free booze too!

Release the Kraken!

Here's the latest commissioned portrait. It's of a wonderfully fun couple, Thomas and Edna. Edna's a talented graphic designer and Thomas is an equally talented photographer. I'm enjoying reading Thomas' informative photography blog!

Peanuts interview

Good Grief! I was misquoted. What I said was that I think everyone's a little insecure (not insincere, ugh) and I believe the Peanuts characters had an insecurity that people could relate to. Couldn't we all use Linus' security blanket!?!?!! ARRRRGH!
I also don't think they have a proofreader or spell-check at The Examiner.
For interview, click here .

Wedding Present

Latest commissioned painting which, I believe, will be a wedding present.

Musee Herge!

To me, it looks like a cathedral!
The highlight of my summer was the pilgrimage to the Musee Herge in Louvain-La-Neuve, a little bit outside Brussels. Georges Remi (Herge) was the creator/illustrator of the Adventures of Tintin books and I've been an admirer of Herge's "clear line" artwork and of Tintin my whole life and was so excited to learn of the opening last year of a museum dedicated to Herge's life and Tintin. He's one of the major influences in my artwork so a trip to cartoon-friendly Belgium and a visit to the new museum was a lifelong dream come true! The quaint 40 minute train ride from Brussels-Midi station ran through a couple of the towns and countryside areas I recognized as places Herge had lived or worked. Louvain-La-Neuve is a small, but nice university town with the shopping and eateries you'd expect. Signage to the Musee Herge is easy enough to follow although we found a very proud and helpful university worker who was more than happy to lead us to the musee right across from her Philosophy department. It appears ambitious university housing is going up around the area and there was a bit of construction leading up to the musee, but we were focused and arrived right at opening.

Inexpensive entry fee. Understandably no photography inside the exhibit rooms. Pleasant and helpful museum workers (erm, they speak English). I had pretty high expectations for the musee after reading so much about it and I have to admit, it was even better than I hoped for. Best museum ever. A near religious experience for me, to be honest! State of the art headsets and hand-held apparatus that not only informatively guides you through the musee, but also shows images and plays video clips throughout. Elevator takes you up to the top floor and you work your way down through room after room of breathtaking original artwork and displays. The artwork is changed out routinely for preservation purposes (making a return trip probable). You move chronologically along through Herge's career and through carefully designed rooms. I can't describe how pleased I was.
After a couple hours of slowly moving through the rooms and enjoying every little detail, we decided to eat in the Musee's restaurant, Le Petit Vingtieme. We sat outside at a nice table under a huge umbrella and tried to process what we had already seen. The food was great although the wait for it was longer than expected. The idea was to spend as much time "in" the musee and not lounging in the restaurant sipping ice cold Stellas. I would suggest bringing a snack or outside lunch from town. This fresh pasta and pesto was delicious, though!! (Note the Musee's logo on the plates)!We were delighted to find that there was an awesome temporary exhibit on the ground floor of the work of Joost Swarte! One of my favorite illustrators! I met Joost at one of the SPX lectures a couple years ago and was thrilled he was part of the planning and design of this museum. Unfortunately, we were pretty worn out from the previous 6 hours of mouth-dropping Herge artwork to do Mr. Swarte's art justice, but there were many wonderful things to see and a fantastic exhibit catalogue in the gift shop. Needless to say, the gift shop is another highlight and full of everything Tintin you can imagine! Plan on spending an hour in there too (and bringing home an extra suitcase)!
One of the many thoughtful and nice touches around the Musee is that the routes around the grounds are named after Herge characters or things from the books. This was one of Tintin's addresses. Superb!

Two reasons Brussels doesn't suck

One: Lots of Tintin books and merchandise!
(Bookshop in the Musee de la Bande Dessinee, Brussels) Two: Stella and Heineken in vending machines!!

The Adventures of Tintin

Just back from holiday in the UK and Brussels. Made a pilgrimage to the new Musee Herge in Louvain-la-Neuve to see all the Tintin original art and artifacts. Truly a fantastic museum dedicated to the art and life of Tintin creator Herge. Above, Tintin in the beautiful Brussels sky above the Editions Lombard building. More to come...

The Flying Carrots of Burlington, Ontario

I got a very complimentary email from the coach of a hockey team of 7 year olds from Burlington, Ontario (isn't the internet amazing?). They wear orange jerseys and have dubbed their team The Flying Carrots. Coach Paul asked me if they could use an image of mine he had found online on some special year-end pucks for the kids and I was thrilled! I asked for three things in return:
1. A scan of the printed puck.
2. A team photo of The Flying Carrots
3. And lastly, because of their proximity to Toronto and my proximity to Washington, DC...they have to root for the Capitals to beat the Maple Leafs at least once next season.
Deal!
Thanks again, Paul! GO FLYING CARROTS!

Shark Week

Last week was officially Shark Week when I painted this offering. Ba-dum, ba-dum, bum,bum,bum,bum,bum... Acrylic on canvas, 10"x 20"

Mr. & Mrs. Kong

Here's a painting I recently finished of the new couple. Now I'll resume looking for Jupiter's missing ring. Anyone seen it?
Acrylic on canvas, 16"x 20"

Fat Bat

This plus-sized bat-costumed super-hero painting is now hanging with five other of my paintings now through August on the first floor of Georgetown University's Lauinger Library Napolitano Gallery. The exhibit features prints, photographs, and paintings from the very talented Georgetown University Library super-hero staff!
Acrylic on canvas, 10" x 20"

Don't Panic!

Here's a new painting titled Don't Panic! that I just finished and will hang with a couple others this week in a staff art exhibit at Georgetown University. Just a friendly robot on a walk through the city. No need to panic. Everyone just calm down.
Acrylic on canvas, 16" x 20".

Hairball Tuesday!

It's always fun to wake up in the morning and walk barefoot downstairs in the dark and step in a gift offering from Itty or Twiglet Hagen.

Omni-Shoreham Ad

I'm in the process of scanning past illustration work to put up on my forthcoming website and found this DC map illustration I had done for the Omni-Shoreham hotel (upper left, on top of the hill). The client was thrilled with it, which is always a plus. I really think DC is a beautiful city (although it doesn't have the violet- colored streets depicted here). I used some artistic license to clear some of the traffic and office buildings, I hope you don't mind. Below, is the inside of the brochure. (city not to scale). color pencil, 11" x 17."

Chicago Cubs & St. Louis Cardinals

Here's an offering for fans of the Cubs and the Cardinals. I was really happy how all these mascots worked together and the project was a success. I see art as an adventure in problem-solving. You make do with your talent and are challenged by your art supplies and you set off to make something from nothing. This project was a lot of fun and that's just a bonus. Even better when it's something you're proud of.

Florida Marlin?

Ok, I know it looks more like a pointy-nosed dolphin than a marlin, but you try to draw one that's vertically challenged and holding a baseball bat! You have to admit that at least it's colorful and fish-like! Below is a rough mock-up of how these illustrations would match up with mixed-up heads, torsos, and legs. Hilarity!

Detroit Tigers

I thought I'd show one of my favorite projects that I illustrated for the Children's Learning Center at the Texas Rangers Baseball Stadium. I was asked to draw eight characters from different major league baseball teams to go on two four-sided, three part mix and match kiosk thingys. Follow? You know, where you can spin the head to match it up with a different torso and then match those with a different leg section for loads of laughs! Hehehe! A (Chicago) bear Cub with (St. Louis) Cardinal bird legs!
It sounded easy until I realized I had to draw a vertical tiger matching up with a vertical marlin, an astronaut matching up with a pirate, etc. Oh, and they all had to have the team's logo or hat and had to be holding a bat or ball. As long as I made the widths of the necks and waists match up, I was golden. Above, is the Detroit Tiger and the tick marks are where the drawing was cut to match with the other drawings that I'll post in additional entries. Below, is photographic evidence of one of the two kiosks that kids spun around at the major league stadium.

American Gothic

The very nice woman who bought my Mona Lisa painting that was exhibited at Artomatic last summer commissioned a portrait of her parents in the setting of Grant Wood's iconic American Gothic. Great fun!!
Acrylic on canvas, 16" x 20"

Full Moon

Here's a painting I recently did for my wife, Libby. I really liked the sage green color paint and wanted to do something with it. I'm not sure if I've ever seen a sage green sky or whether a full moon would be able to shine through one, but I like it here (and she does too). Acrylic on canvas, 4" x 8"

dinosaur photo

Here are some logo ideas I've worked up.
Anyone want to vote for a favorite?
From the top, #1, #2, #3, #4...

All in the Family

The pressure was on!
Family portrait for my sister's family. Aren't they adorable?!
Acrylic on canvas, 16"x20"Update: Another satisfied customer!

WRLC logo

Here's a logo I designed for the Washington Research Library Consortium. A group consisting of DC area university libraries (American University, Georgetown, GW, George Mason, Catholic, UDC, etc.). Bold and simple.