of rats, sloths and other notable creatures...

In case you’ve been wondering why you’ve been seeing fewer birds and other such imagery up in my slice of the blogosphere of late, it’s because I’ve been hard at work on an exciting new project.

A few months ago, I was approached
by Candlewick Press to illustrate a collection of animal poems by the hilarious and prolific J. Patrick Lewis, the current U.S. Children’s Poet Laureate. As you might imagine, I jumped at the chance. The book, due to be released in Spring 2013, allows me to immerse myself into the minds of rats, bulldogs, sloths, and mata-mata turtles, to name just a few. While I can’t share much about the illustrations until publication, I will occasionally throw a little detail at you here and there...like here, in the sketch at left.

Meanwhile, I’ve also been working on two pieces for the November issue of the South African magazine Migrate. Since we’re almost halfway through October, I’ll be able to share those in just a few weeks. In the meantime, here’s a detail from one, titled Above. Happy Autumn!

MoCCA tees tease...

Here’s a sampling of my hand-painted t-shirts on sale at MoCCA this weekend (details below). Come see me at Table #i-13.

MoCCA Fest 2011 

(benefiting the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art)

Saturday, April 9th and Sunday, April 10th

11 AM – 6 PM

@ the Lexington Avenue Armory

between 25th & 26th Streets

New York City

a thanksgiving feast

There has been a virtual feast of Thanksgiving bird imagery over at Ornithoblogical this week, a few of which are pictured below. The convenience of a national holiday centered around a bird is certainly not lost on me. And I certainly will be giving thanks for all of the ornithological imagery opportunities that come with Christmas. Stay tuned as I wrap up my year-long marathon!

         

the bird call for entries!

In celebration of fast-approaching day 300 of my year-long daily bird illustration marathon, I’m holding a competition for the best title to accompany the image posted above.

HOW TO ENTER:
Go to the contest page here to read about rules and what you can win.

JURORS:
MATTEO BOLOGNA is the founder and principal of Mucca Design, a multidisciplinary branding and design firm based in New York City. He is a board member of the American Institute of Graphic Arts, and is the treasurer of the Type Salons for the Type Directors Club.

ALEX MATHERS is an illustrator and designer based in London, and regular contributor to Design Taxi, the 99%, and Mashable. He is also the creator of the contemporary illustration blog Ape on the Moon and the Red Lemon Club, a blog about online promotional methods for creatives.

MARTHA RAGO is Associate Creative Director of HarperCollins Children’s Books where she oversees the development and design of picture books, including those in the Rayo and Katherine Tegen imprints, the estate programs of C. S. Lewis and Shel Silverstein, and the Balzer & Bray imprint. Prior to her position at HarperCollins, which Martha has held for seven years, she was the Creative Director at Henry Holt.

STEPHEN SAVAGE is the award-winning illustrator of the New York Times Best Illustrated Book Polar Bear Night and The Fathers Are Coming Home. His editorial work regularly appears in The New York Times, Atlantic Monthly, and The New Republic among others. In 2008, he was the recipient of a Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators.

LARRY SMITH is founder and editor of the personal storytelling community SMITH Magazine (smithmag.net), creators of the Six-Word Memoir project and bestselling book series. He is a contributing editor of ESPN the Magazine, former executive editor of Yahoo Internet Life,and has written for numerous publications including Men's Journal, The New York Times, Popular Science, and Salon.

ornithoblogical news

The birds of Ornithoblogical are pleased to announce the publication of Ornithoblogical: Selections from the Showcase of 365 Birdies on My Brain. Featured in this 7" square paperback are 22 illustrations from the first part of this year (hence “volume one”) including such favorites as “Swami,” “Scribe,” and on the cover, “Dot the Chicken.” Take a look at a preview of the book by clicking here.

Also this week, birds-watchers have been flocking to the new Ornithoblogical Facebook page to share the love. If you are on Facebook, and would like to get highlights from the blog in your news feed, click here. Select the “Like” button next to the heading.

You can also subscribe to receive a bird each day by clicking the orange RSS feed button located on the upper left-hand corner of my bird blog home page.

I’ll be hatching more bird-related events in the coming weeks, including the “Bird Call for Entries,” a contest to celebrate the fast-approaching day 300 of this year-long project. And there will be prizes! Details coming soon...

ripple blog

Occasionally, I participate in IllustrationFriday, a website where illustrators share images on a given topic. This week is very special—we are doing our part to raise money to benefit wildlife effected by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The Ripple Blog was created by illustrator Kelly Light, as a place where artists can post images on the subject for sale as 2.5" x 3.5" “sketchcards.” Here’s what she says...

“[The sketchcards] will be made available for a small donation of $10.00 to either  The Institute for Marine Mammal Studies or The International Bird Rescue Research Center. I have no affiliation with them. Every penny will go. When the cards sell, We ask for a donation confirmation and [artists] will be asked to sign the back with a thank you...If we all do small acts together—we can cause a ripple—and it can grow. We can DO SOMETHING. Thank you, thank you for checking this out and thinking about it.”

I’m contributing one of my illustrations from “Ornithoblogical,” (titled, “Tastes Like Chicken”) that I posted the day before learning about Ripple.

think faest!

There’s more crowing going on amongst the birds at Ornithoblogical with their mention on the uber-hip Faesthetic blog yesterday. The nod comes from Dustin Hostetler curator/editor/ publisher of Faesthetic, “one of the best Art zines in the universe.” Just sayin’...

ornithoblogical: day 100 and counting

Speaking of Ornithoblogical, today marks the 100th day of my year-long, daily bird blog! You can see today’s posting, and catch up on any you’ve missed thus far by clicking here.

illustration friday: subterranean

This week’s subject for Illustration Friday is “subterranean” which made me wonder: if there weren’t so many rats beneath NYC, would galactic worms stand more of a chance? Hmmmm...it has been a long week.