this winter i was asked by Irene Gallo of TOR books to illustrate a gritty short story by Christopher Rowe called Jack of Coins.

when Irene described the story like this, i was hooked:

The story has a great atmosphere. (The writing is just odd enough to feel unfamiliar but not so much to be distracting or overly self conscious.) A urban dystopian setting. A group of young men without enough to do…And then an oddly dressed stranger comes in to give them some direction.

read the story here-> Jack of Coins

after reading the story i was obviously drawn to the stranger and his uniform. part band uniform, part military with a bit of face card thrown in. here are the sketches i narrowed it down to:

once Irene and i tossed the sketches around and talked about what we felt worked best, the building began.

here are shot of how the buttons for his jacket were created:

a collection of references for the uniform:

the ArtCraft Theater in Franklin, IN was my inspiration for the theater that needed to be constructed: 

here is the group of ‘kids’ that hang out under the marquee in the story: topping out at about 1″

the final:

thanks to Irene Gallo for thinking of my work for this project and to Christopher Rowe for the story

After illustrating for over 18 years i am pleased to announce that my work has landed into the NewYorker!

On the stands this week the Journey’s Issue of the NewYorker. If you happen to pick one up, get your postage stamp magnifying glass and see if you can find the series of Red Nose Studio images sprinkled throughout the issue.

Needless to say this is my first appearance in the NewYorker and i am beside myself. the scale of the images created a challenge compared to the vast real estate of a full page illustration, so i felt i needed to find a way to reduce the information so it could read at a postage stamp scale.

here are the sketches and initial tests i presented to the art director, looking for a way to capture the sense of adventure, exploration and an all around good time.

i was glad to hear that the Senior Designer Kathryn Long was as excited about this new approach as i was.

While sitting next to the bar inside the Society of Illustrators in New York, (i still get humbled and awed by the history of that place) i happened to be chatting with Greg Manchess, yeah, the Greg Manchess. The fella i have looked up to since i first met him in Ohio when i was an awkward student. The only difference now is that i am older but still just as awkward. Greg is involved with a fundraiser for the Society of Illustrators Student Scholarship. its a benefit auction called MicroVisions. When Greg asked if i would consider participating in it again (i had a piece in the 2007 MicroVisions) i said yes before i considered how busy the schedule was. But being in that place (the Society) makes you feel like you have to step it up if you want to stay in the game for any length of time.

when digging through my sketchbooks looking for a character to build for the auction i stumbled across a crusty post-it note, at least 4 years old,  that simply said SHACKLETON CREW – dark figures on white.

the Shackleton story has many layers and mysteries, but one thing that is clear to me is the stunning imagery of the adventure captured by Frank Hurley. Specifically the figures of the crew whose clothing  and features had turned black because of the seal oil that they burned for heat.

after spending a weekend revisiting all the sites and references i had bookmarked for years i had my subject:  

i will be sure to post a link to  the auction when it is announced.

for now you can see the other works in the exhibit here: http://www.tor.com/blogs/2013/04/microvisions-auction-happy-hour

Last August I was asked if I would consider collaborating on writing an original ballet as well as visually designing it. Being that the academy, Dance East Ballet Academy is local and 2 of my young kids were attending, how could I say no.

Dana Hart, who runs the academy, has a heart  of gold and can inspire kids to attempt things I can hardly pronounce i.e. – Croisé, Pirouette, Échappé etc.

The story revolves around the struggle between a young girl, Sophia, and her Mother.

Taking place at the eccentric Grandmother’s house on Christmas Eve, Sophia searches for a lost gift, she stumbles across a a magic door in Grandmother’s bookcase. The portal leads to the secret world that is inhabited by Gremlins, Spiderwebs, Evil Witchy Things their Queen and the Mastermind Stephen Von Breckenbocker. Sophia must summon her strength from the Christmas Angels, Faith, Wisdom, and Perserverance. They help Sophia see the qualities in which her Mother has struggled to instill. Will Sophia be able to wrangle from the dusty grasps of the Evil Queen and Brockenbecker? Or will her spirit be swallowed up by confusion and fear?

Pretty cool stuff for a Christmas Ballet don’t ya think?

here is a nice little documentary of the production, showing rehearsals, costuming, make up and a few highlights of the ballet. the documentary was filmed and produced by Rebecca Elayne Dixon

Little Things – A Christmas Ballet from Rebecca Elayne Dixon on Vimeo.

For me, the challenge was how to create characters that help tell the visual story without any dialogue. Designing costumes that enhance movement of the dancers and not hamper it proved to be the biggest challenge. Seeing a costume on paper and on a body was one thing, but if that character couldn’t move like they needed to, things had to be modified.

below are the plans and progress shots of the magic bookcase-

this is a rehearsal shot of the Gremlins (my favorite characters) streaming out of the bookcase and into Grandmother’s house.

I was recently asked by Kory Kennedy the Design Director at Entertainment Weekly to illustrate a page for a review of their #1 video game of the year.

Journey created by That Game Company.

I am about as far removed as one can be from video games, but when i watched some of the walk throughs of the game on youtube i was instantly drawn in by the visuals and the concept of the game. A game that is described as peaceful to play, what a unique concept…

The game speaks for itself, if you can, give it a go. I look forward to playing it one of these days.

here is a bit on the process:

the nondescript character’s eyes have a mysterious glow to them that i wanted to capture. I notched the back of the head and inserted two led lights, and wired them to a button and circut board from a discarded superhero greeting card.

the cloak was fashioned after the character in the game, trying to remain as faithful to the design as possible yet keeping a handmade feel to it.

20 pounds of sand on the set.

the swirling light that wraps the characer was created by drawing with a little light bulb on a wire while the camera took a 3 second exposer. it only took about 300 shots to get the light steakes to look right.

here is a sequence of some of those light tests:

RedNoseStudio_Journey-lighttests

and the final piece:

I was delighted to get the opportunity to work with the always cheerful and positive Art Director April Montgomery at Computerworld. This piece dealt with technological issues that travel eons beyond my technological limitation, so it was a good challenge to find a way to illustrate Holistic Virtualization. Keywords from the creative brief included meditation, manipulating virtual technology, all-inclusive, organizing and streamlining.

here are the roughs:

and being that the cover was going to run again on the interior, we thought it would be nice have the spectrum flow  across the gutter and above the text.

these were April’s initial rough layouts with the sketches

here is a progress shot of the figure

and my attempts at inking the spectrum lines…

there is something very meditative about the simplicity of pigment, water, bristles and paper.

the sound of the brush drawing over the paper, wonderful.

once the final shot was taken on set, the ink work was scanned in and then layered over the photo.

the backdrops were the backsides of an old roll of bathroom wallpaper, it had a beautiful, soft, off-white color.

and here is where April worked her magic and made everything ‘flow’.

Every now and then a job comes thru that allows all sorts of fun things to happen.

this piece was for the Feb 2011 issue of Deliver Magazine which is created for the USPS by the Agency Cambell-Ewald.

the article was a look into the madcap marketing of the outdoor apparel company Moosejaw.

i loved the idea of creating a piece based on nothing more than the theme of ‘crying tomato’

ketchup came to mind, salsa, (my wife said chopping onions) so i cant take credit for the onion, but that brought up onion breath, a bus stop, etc. etc. not sure why the bicycle, but i liked the wrecked bike, maybe its because my oldest son is learning to ‘ride’ a bike..

thanks to Grayson Cardinell for a fun project.

here is a fun project i did for the Feb cover of Angie’s List Magazine. The feature was on the controversial technique of ‘tree topping’ which hacks the tops off of trees as a way of pruning.

as i was sketching i could’nt help but think about an old barber i used to regularly visit about 15 yrs ago, i would sit in the dusty chair and he would proceed to give me a flattop cut. he had one his partner had one and the fellas hanging out in the shop had them as well, i didnt have the heart to tell him i preferred the ‘high and tight’ cut. so for the 3 years i lived in Lebanon Ohio i had a flat top, this was the time i got married to my wife, so my wedding day is forever marked by the flattop.

back on topic, as i sketched the lumberjack with a flattop i was smacked in the face with the idea that the tree should be cut the to the exact line of his hair cut. i liked how it reinforced the idea that this fella believes that if a flat top works for him it will work for the trees he cuts, sort of like the barber felt the same way about the hair he cut.

here is a close up of the chainsaw i built. all the while i was thinking of my friend and fellow illustrator Chris Buzelli who during my last trip to NY mentioned his love of using a chainsaw to tend to some of the lumber around his cabin. he is incidentally know to some as ‘Buzz’

i was happy to hear that the Blasted Church Vineyard wine labels that i worked on earlier this year with BrandEver are part of the current exhibit at SFMOMA

HOW WINE BECAME MODERN

Design + Wine 1976 to Now

which is touted … as the first exhibition to explore modern, global wine culture as a cultural phenomenon . …

sounds pretty fancy for my humble little characters. if you find yourself in the bay area, stop by the museum and drop in and see if you can find them.

from what i have read, they dont have any wine tasting in the exhibit, but there is a wine ‘smelling’ wall (probably not enough to get a red nose from, but hey, the holidays are upon us and red noses are everywhere)

here is a selection of the labels:

for those of you familiar with my recent post about the piece i created for HOW magazine’s current self-promotion issue, you might recall this little character who didnt make the cut for that particular project. i had a feeling he would make his way into an image one way or another. just didnt figure it would be quite this soon.

references that tie back to the days when i spent time at RISD in the nature lab, convinced  i was going to be a scientific illustrator.

it is backgrounds like this that allow me to scratch that need to paint that still creeps in the studio now and then.

looking at this final image i am sure that the scientific illustration community is pleased that i didnt make the cut into their field.