The Hunter

For the final project in our Children's Book class at Pratt, we had to take the text from an existing book and then illustrate it in our own style.  After a whole day at the library, I decided to use The Hunter: A Chinese Folktale retold by Mary Casanova.  It was a great story, and my illustration style was so different from Ed Young's beautifully understated ink drawings, that I knew I wouldn't be tempted to copy anything he had done in the real book.

We started out by thumbnailing the entire book.  I then redrew these compositions at a slightly more detailed stage so that I could create a full-sized dummy of the book.  You can click the image below to see these images at a larger size:

Right during this assignment I saw a Pixar show at the Museum of Modern Art and I was really amazed by the color scripts that they created for each of their movies.  I loved the idea of being able to see the colors for each scene all on one page, so that you can make sure each setting feels unique.  I made a very simple color script using my thumbnails:

I then drew a cover and two interior illustrations.  Again, you can click on any of these to see larger versions.

I have been posting this old work to get it back online after I stopped using Flickr to display my illustration work.  Believe it or not, this is the last old image!  It'll all be new stuff from here on out!

Alice in Wonderland

The other children's book that we tackled as an assignment for my "Illustration IV" class at Pratt was Alice in Wonderland.  This has always been one of my favorite stories, so it was great to reread it and pick out some scenes to illustrate.  We had to draw a spot illustration, a full page illustration and a two-page spread.  Click on any of the images below to see larger versions of them.

I am posting this old work to get it back online after I stopped using Flickr to display my illustration work.

Snow White

During my last semester at Pratt, our "Illustration IV" class did a series of children's book illustrations, even though we also had a specific Children's Book Illustration class that semester.  I was pumped about this because I have always wanted to illustrate picture books.  Our first assignment was to create an illustration for Snow White.  This piece was a big turning point for me, because it was during the critique process for this piece that I really began to understand the importance of value.

I am posting this old work to get it back online after I stopped using Flickr to display my illustration work.

Egyptian Mummification Process

The class I was most excited to take at Pratt was the Children's Book Illustration class.  For our first assignment we had to do two illustrations to accompany some non-fiction text.  There were four or five texts to choose from, and I selected one about the Egyptian mummification process.  It was super interesting to research this process and I tried to cram in as many historically accurate details into each drawing.

Click either of these images to see them larger:

I am posting this old work to get it back online after I stopped using Flickr to display my illustration work.

Rejected New Yorker Cover

I moved to New York City and worked as an office temp for a year before I started attending Pratt Institute in the fall of 2005.  During that time I was trying to figure out how the illustration world worked.  Somehow I came up with the crazy scheme to send in an unsolicited cover idea to The New Yorker, fully illustrated!

I received an extremely nice, handwritten rejection notice from François Mouly which was very exciting to me at the time.  Looking back on all of this now, I am a little horrified, but I guess you have to admire my gung-ho attitude.  Anyway, the execution is overcomplicated, but I have always enjoyed this idea (click to enlarge):

I am posting this old work to get it back online after I stopped using Flickr to display my illustration work.

Joan of Arc Spot

I'm pretty sure this was my first ever published illustration.  It was drawn for The Zinester's Guide to Portland.  I was living in Portland at the time, and I remember I biked down to draw this sculpture in person.  I had a horrible bike wreck on my way there - flipped over my handlebars, bent my front wheel in half - so this was drawn while I was bloody and bruised.  That might be why it never occurred to me that Joan of Arc is supposed to be carrying a flag in this sculpture.  I guess it was being repaired or something on the day that I drew it.  Oh well, what you see here is what made it into the book!

I am posting this old work to get it back online after I stopped using Flickr to display my illustration work.

Fall of Autumn Clip Art

Back in 2006 I was asked to create some clip-art for the now defunct zine distributor Fall of Autumn.  I created a bunch of tiny spot illustrations trying to focus on various aspects of the zinester lifestyle.  There are a lot of little nods to some of my zinester friends hidden in these images.  Click on any of the images below to see a bigger version.

I am posting this old work to get it back online after I stopped using Flickr to display my illustration work.