sketching natural history
What a thrill when a box of new books lands on your doorstep! Yesterday was Publication Day for John Muir Wrestles a Waterfall by Julie Danneberg, my first book illustrated with colored pencils. Charlesbridge Art Director Whitney Leader-Picone had seen my Sketchbook Project postings, and wanted to mirror the pencil sketching Muir did in wilderness travels. You can read more about that meander here. I’m all for drawing directly from nature. Last week I brought Maine College of Art’s senior illustration majors to the Harvard Musuem of Natural History in Cambridge, MA. With over...
Read MoreOsher Map Library: to heaven and back
When Art History professor Sue Nutty invited Maine College of Art faculty to tour the nearby Osher Map Library, I jumped at the chance. I’ve had a thing for maps, always. They are fascinating documents and lovely to look at. Maps have served many a visual purpose in my work over the years. In a self-promo postcard during my collage phase, I showed how I playfully exercise my skills with deadlines, and on top of the world, to boot. This editorial illustration was for a business article about the European economy. Livin’ large, I guess. When I illustrated Stephanie Pearl McPhee...
Read MoreSnow Queen
What better way to battle the epic winter we’re having: working on a poster for The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen. All this ice is brilliant inspiration. I drew a jagged ice palace in my sketchbook after a walk backshore. These are 4 of the rough ideas I showed to Portland Stage Company. During one of many blizzards, I got carried away with the idea of a snowflake mask. With winter blues swirling outside, I worked on a color version for a web banner. Another version includes the roses that pop up in the play. In my over 2o years of island living, I’ve not seen Casco Bay...
Read MoreSweet ‘Art @ the PMA
Cabin fever from all these blizzards has left a pile of hand-made valentines, all red and pretty for this week’s First Friday Sweet Art @ the Portland Museum of Art. My first batch is 20 one-of-a-kind, signed on the back cards, made beside a crackling fire with love. After the storm, it was back to Maine College of Art, where the entire Illustration Department, students, alums, and faculty are also crafting feverishly towards this First Friday. But first, an island car must be dug out. What?!! The town car, too? A double whammy when there is no island garage or you had to park on the...
Read Morea short Long studio visit
I love visiting illustrators’ studios. After the frenzy of the Holiday Sale and the magic of Willow the Wonder Pony, I marched my class down to visit MECA alum Liz Long in her studio. Not that long ago she was working in the MECA Illustration studios, when she created a whimsical body of work for her thesis last spring. Remember this dreamy installation at Longfellow Books? Liz and her classmates visited my studio before graduation, and I found this portrait of me that Liz left behind. I drew a portrait of her for my Portland zine, which I brought to ICON8, held in Portland, OR this...
Read Morewarm wishes
Perhaps I worked at Hallmark in another life. I love greeting cards. Making them, buying them, sending them. With the advent of e-cards, I’m even more determined to snail mail something that is handsomely crafted and lovingly decorated. While still pondering what this year’s holiday greeting might look like, I re-purposed some old postcards, with a circle cutter, a glue stick, and some fun handmade papers I bought. Paired with colorful envelopes and scraps of old wrapping paper, off they went to the Peaks Island Post Office. The arctic fox illustration is from A Warmer World by...
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