Editorial Grab-bag!

In between a few longer-term projects I've worked on recently, I've had a bundle of editorial pieces from various times this year that I've been slow in sharing. So here they are now!!!

Family Circle-- An illustration for a personal essay about a teachable moment that happened in a grocery store check-out lane.

Sketches

Final

Boston Globe-- For a personal essay about beer snobbery--craft beer enthusiasts are often labeled as snobs, but the people who exclusively drink Coors or Bud Light are just another kind of snob too!

Sketches

Final

The New York Times--A quick illustration for the Preoccupation column. The article was about the clash between older management and young college grads--the younger generation is having a hard time finding employment because many CEOs are skeptical of their workplace value.

Sketches

Final

Thanks to my ADs Amanda Kirk, Ryan Huddle, and Minh Uong!

Ivy League Confidential

Here's a quickie illustration for today's New York Times Letters section! (it's less than 2.5 in tall in print! Eee, so cute) You can find the letters & my piece online as well!

The letters are all in response to the Op-Ed article "The Secrets of Princeton", which argues that the social connections that happen in elite universities are far more important to the graduates' success and privileged standing than is generally acknowledged. "It's not what you know, but who you know"

My ivy-centric sketches:

Thanks to my AD Alexandra Zsigmond for the chance to draw some secrets!!

Domestic Etch-- and new prints!

Hey guys!
I wanted to post my cover illo/design for an upcoming issue of Domestic Etch magazine! The theme was “The Past”, and of course I wanted to draw a medieval alternate reality! It was a while back, but I’m very happy to report that my cover was featured in the Society of Illustrators editorial show this year (along with this piece, and this one!) Thanks to my AD, Elizabeth Godspeed!

Also, I updated my print store with a bunch of new pieces, including my Domestic Etch cover (minus the type), the rest of the images you see below, and more! Inprnt has seriously amazing print quality—the colors SUPER ACCURATE—so check ‘em out if you need to fill some wall space with lady space marines or floating donuts!

The Lost Property Office

Mitzi, an American girl attending international school in Tokyo, discovers the mysterious Lost Property Office while searching for her friend Maki's homework in the sprawling Tokyo subway system. Mitzi gets her own chance to become a Finder like Mr. Motomeru and his nephew Yuki, and she soon learns that there's more to Finding than traveling through space-time!

This is a two-part young adult short story by Marji Napper in the March and April issues of Cricket magazine. It was a lot of fun to illustrate and research (Tokyo subway tunnels! Japanese houses! Tokyo Station in the 1930's!) and I'm pleased with the results. I worked on both chunks of illustrations at different times, but I tried to keep the feel and colors relatively tied-together.
Thanks to my AD Karen Kohn--I met Karen way back when I was still in college and I interned at Carus Publishing for a summer. I subscribed to Cricket magazine when I was a kid, so it was wonderful to get a chance to contribute!

Looking at the images all together, what I remember most are the things I was listening to while I worked on these illustrations. For the last 3, I specifically remember listening to the Feast for Crows/Dance With Dragons audiobook mashup, Victo Ngai's interview on Your Dreams My Nightmares, and Stella live in Boston. This seems to happen with most of my illustrations....the strongest memories are what I was watching or listening to while drawing them. Go figure, brains!

Lady Knights//Women Warriors

My contribution to the Lady Knights//Women Warriors zine! I'm psyched to be in it with all the other awesome contributors, every piece i've seen for it looks RAD. Thanks to Abby, Julia, and Roxie for putting it all together--they'll be selling at MoCCA!

I've always had a thing for mysterious heroes, and I recently started a love affair with motorcycle ladies. (this one is a bosozoku bike!)
When I was asked to be in the zine, I was already considering making a book of my own warrior women...I'm even more excited now, so we'll see!

Anne Fontaine Holiday Postcard!

Before spring swings into full bloom, I wanted to share another postcard I created for french fashion designer Anne Fontaine! I had a great time working with them on a Bastille Day postcard and was happy to try my hand at it again for a holiday-season themed mailer!

I was provided with photos of one of their new winter coats & bags, gloves, belt, a neck ruff, and a pair of cute booties. They wanted a Karlie Kloss sort of look for the model, and the backdrop this time was to be another iconic french location like the Arc de Triomphe or the Pont Alexandre III bridge!

For my sketches, I actually spent a pretty long time looking for reference images of these locations that weren't your typical straight-on tourist views--I wanted to show a little more depth of space. (in the process I ended up looking through a lot of flickr accounts and french blogs!)

The Arc de Triomphe background was chosen, and we ended up changing the pose and the hair a bit. (it became sort of an inverse-pose of the previous Bastille Day postcard!)

When I was creating my color sketch, I couldn't decide between a purpley daytime background or a cool blue nighttime background (with or without snow!) so I left it up to the client. Before I finalize an image, I like to get the colors juuuust right, so I don't have to worry about changing them later! In the end, the snowy daytime background was chosen and I'm happy with the result! (but I still like the nighttime setting too!)

Thanks again to my contact Christina Ramirez-Madisson and Anne Fontaine for the lovely job!

The Secret of 50 Berkeley Square!

A fun one for MentalFloss magazine's Jan/Feb issue! No nuns this time, but there IS a haunted house! 50 Berkeley square is a townhouse believed to be haunted as far back as the mid 1800's--the reclusive owner at the time let the place fall apart, and there are tales of ghosts there that have actually frightened visitors to death!

The article is about whether the mysterious owner, Mr. Myers, was actually the inspiration for Dickens' Miss Havisham from Great Expectations. My AD wanted an image of a modern person exploring a decayed & spooky Georgian style townhouse, preferably with some nice blue/yellow colors. I thought it'd be nice to use a flashlight as the image's light source, and an interesting graphic element.

Sketches

Despite its dark past, if you visit 50 Berkeley Square today, you will find the Maggs Bros. Antiquarian Booksellers housed inside! It looks pretty cute to me.

Thanks again to my AD Winslow Taft for the fun & spooky assignment!