the last day of ornithoblogical (almost)!

A little over a year ago, I created a project for myself that I wasn’t certain I could finish. 366 birds later, today’s image marks the last posting of Ornithoblogical on a daily basis. At noon, resolution (seen here at left) will go live along with a heartfelt missive to fans.
It has been a great journey, and a lot of fun for me. Until further tweetings, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

365 write up

The birds of Ornithoblogical got a nice mention yesterday in the blogosphere. Artist Noah Scalin, creator of his own 365 project Skull-A-Day, and author of “365: A Daily Creative Journal” posted a nice selection of my bird images. You can see his blog, and explore other projects by people as crazy as me here.

not quite 12 days of christmas

Followers of Ornithoblogical may have noticed a theme developing in these last few weeks of December. I never realized how much great bird fodder could be found in “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” However, since the official 12 days start on Christmas Day, and the daily aspect of Ornithoblogical ends on December 31st, I decided to include just a select few, scattered throughout the month. Pictured above is a subscriber favorite from last week, “Eleven Pipers Piping.” Happy Holidays!

a little process blogging...

With the latest Kiwi Magazine hitting newsstands this week, it seemed an ample time to describe a bit of my my illustration process for this issue’s essay piece:

In “My Special Boy,” a mother navigates a labyrinth of special needs education schools to help ease her socially-challenged son through nursery school. I was excited about the opportunity to illustrate this subject because it allowed me to explore a more serious tone in my drawing.

 

Primarily, the mother’s frustration lay in a system with limited resources that assumed the worst in her son. I submitted three sketches (two of which you see here). In the sketch on the right, the super-imposed words—those used to describe the boy—would loom ominously over an otherwise innocent looking child. Yet it seemed to me, the way to express the emotion of the piece was through gesture rather than expression. Luckily, the art director agreed, and we went with the idea on the left. Here is the finished piece—not far from the original sketch:

now available in ye olde etsy shoppe...

Just in time for Cyber Monday, I’ve added more prints to my Etsy shop. Newly available are Ornithoblogical favorites Flight, Jays Jaunt, Pluck, Birdcode, and Lift Off (right), along with my bestseller Mixer. These signed, high-quality, digital prints are ready for framing, and make great gifts. Click here for more.

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!

         

some “designy” stuff (on wheels)

The resumés of Vibrant Design principals Christopher Landy and Ellen Waggett—full of lighting and art direction assignments for TV shows and concerts—will make your head spin. These days, Ellen is the Production Designer for “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon,” while Chris recently finished work on several episodes of “The Marriage Ref.” So it was a great pleasure to design the identity for Vibrant a few years back.

This year they’ve created GreenGripGear.org, a leasing service for environmentally-friendly lighting equipment. Best of all, they acquired some wheels to make it mobile. Here is their “trucklette” in its nature environment of Dumbo, Brooklyn, sporting yet another one of my logos.