Monthly Archives: July 2016

For Richard Thompson

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CulDeSac

I’m taking a week off from Jim and Ted’s adventures for something a little different…

I was saddened to read that the brilliant cartoonist Richard Thompson passed away a few days ago. I never met the man, but his brilliant comics and scratchy pen work have been a huge inspiration to me. If you’re unfamiliar, Richard Thompson created the comic strip Cul De Sac as well as a million other illustrations, magazine covers, and some brilliant caricatures. His book “The Art of Richard Thompson” was partly my inspiration for the Daily Drawing I did last year.

So I offer this sketch of Petey and Alice in memory of him. When I first discovered his work, I was disappointed by the deceptively simple characters and sketchy backgrounds. But the more I saw the more I realized how deliberate every line was. I was utterly amazed when I realized how utterly good he was. (My Petey and Alice tribute took far longer to draw than I anticipated, and Alice doesn’t look cute enough. She’s always cute, even when she’s annoying Petey.)

Jim and Ted 15: The picnic

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I figured that Jim and Ted needed a longer break from the insanity that has been their life. So here they are enjoying a nice happy, picnic.

 

Jim and Ted 14: Picnic Time

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JimTed14

After all the drama in the past few weeks of their lives, I felt that Jim and Ted needed a break. So they’ve landed their helicopter in this peaceful desert and are going to have a nice quiet picnic.

Will it stay quiet? Probably not. Tune in next week to find out.

King of Diamonds contest

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I drew this King of Diamonds was as part of a contest put on by Playing Arts. Artists from all across the globe illustrated playing cards and the winners of each card get made into a deck. Twelve artists, including myself, illustrated the King of Diamonds. I need your help to make sure my card illustration gets made.

You can help by clicking this link: http://playingarts.com/en/special/vote/king-diamonds and clicking the “like” underneath my name. (This is assuming you like my card the best, but why wouldn’t you?) Voting runs until July 24th. Thanks so much for your support.

Designing book cover for Just Let ‘Em Play

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Yesterday, the Kansas City Star had an article about the book Just Let ‘Em Play, which I had the pleasure of designing the book cover for. It’s a really good article but, sadly, my cover didn’t make it into the print edition of the paper (it is in the online version, thankfully.)

I thought it might be interesting to show off my process and how I designed the book cover. I’ve done quite a bit of book cover design but don’t mention it near enough here.

I was given the project before the manuscript was complete and going by the working title of  Let ‘Em Play.  I discussed the book with the publisher, Ascend Books, and got a handle on what they wanted to the cover to accomplish. The book is about a philosophy for youth sports (covering all sports and ages) with an emphasis on having fun rather than winning at all costs. With that in mind, I worked up a few cover mock-ups. I usually do 3 or 4 cover mockups at a time for the publisher to choose from. This particular cover was unusual in that none of my initial drafts were quite right and I went back to the drawing board a few times. Here’s a look at some of the cover drafts and a little commentary on each one. (Please remember that these are unfinished mock-ups and there would certainly have been elements changed or adjusted had any of these covers been used. The photos are mostly unpurchased stock photos and some are watermarked by the owners)

 

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