Children's Book Illustrator

Tanglewood Project Cancelled

Jeffrey — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 00:17:28 +0000

Unfortunately, I am no longer illustrating a children’s book for Tanglewood Press. The break was a somewhat unexpected and can only be ascribed, I suppose, to a difference of artistic vision. We parted ways after I had completed and submitted the final art for the cover. I was quite happy with the work, but the publisher felt it was not quite what they needed. Of course I am now anxious to see the book published and on the shelves just so I might see what sort of imagery they were shooting for.

Here I’ve posted what little I feel I can rightly reveal of the cover art work that I completed for Tanglewood Press. Yes, I know, it doesn’t show much, but to reveal anymore would not be quite fair to the author, I think.

And I must say that Tanglewood did pay me for my work and were very prompted in doing so. I can’t complain about that.

There were two blessings from this experience. The first is a new way of working which I am anxious to employ again. The second is that my schedule is now free to take up a new project which has come my way. But I will have more to say about that as things develop.

Illustrator: N.C. Wyeth

Jeffrey — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 18:34:29 +0000

Here is another short, but very captivating, video on N.C. Wyeth. It’s been ages since I last visited the Wyeth museum – I guess that’s the Brandywine Museum? Like I said, it’s been ages.

Oz Poster Update

Jeffrey — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 16:51:14 +0000

The Wizard of Oz

Tomorrow, Saturday September 11th, my Wizard of Oz poster will be auctioned at the Zachary Hebda Foundation gala. To say the least I’m excited and anxious to know how much money the poster will raise for cancer research. To recap, the Zachary Hebda Foundation is dedicated to the research and cure of childhood cancer. See their site HebdaFoundation.org.

Hopefully I’ll have an update on Monday.

Illustrator: Jerry Pinkney

Jeffrey — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 18:37:23 +0000

A short but insightful video featuring Jerry Pinkney speaking about his wordless picture book, The Lion and The Mouse, a fable of Aesop. In particular I appreciated his comments on how he determined the book would be wordless only after he had completed the thumbnail sketches. I would of course assumed he had set out to create such a book from the start.

MICA: Intro to Illustration

Jeffrey — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 19:26:47 +0000

My first class at MICA met last night. So far so good. The students were great at the very least for patiently awaiting my very long monologue to end. Oddly enough Labor Day wipes out next week’s class and so we won’t meet again for two weeks. Over those two weeks I’ve got them illustrating Aesop’s fable, The Fox and The Grapes. In the meantime I’ve got more sketches to do myself. I think I’ll go work on that now.

Illustrator: Greg Manchess

Jeffrey — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 19:19:46 +0000

Here’s a preview of what I’m sure is another awesome DVD by Massive Black. Greg Manchess has been illustrating for nearly 30 years, I think. He’s primarily been a fantasy and sci-fi illustrator. Anyway, I wish the preview was longer.

Illustration & Creativity

Jeffrey — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 13:29:59 +0000

It may be quite some time before I am able to post any new illustrations here on my site. For the next four months I will be busy teaching at MICA, working on contract at ADG Creative and creating illustrations for Tanglewood Press. I suppose I might create a thing or two as I teach Intro to Illustration, but the work I do for Tanglewood won’t be seen by the outside world until it is published in 2012. Of course if the movie is correct nothing will be published in 2012. And the work I create for ADG won’t be posted here, but instead I will be posting that on Cloverfish.com as it will all be web oriented – at least I think so.

Anyway, in the meantime I plan to post videos that encourage creativity and instruct in the art of illustration. So pretty soon I should have a good resource for myself if not for any visitors to the site.

Illustrator: Gary Kelley

Jeffrey — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 12:49:00 +0000

Apart from the fact that Gary Kelley is an amazing illustrator, he also loves to use pastel – so do I. This video is a preview for the full-length video which I purchased and downloaded yesterday from Massive Black. It’s a two-part video and each part is over 45 minutes long. The two parts together cost $30. To say the least it was well worth the money.

When I was in college you could only hope and pray for such an opportunity. Even then you might only get a glimpse of the guy over the shoulders of people much taller than you. Watching this video was like hanging out with Mr. Kelley as he offers his personal commentary on each step of his process. Massive Black is a great resource for all sorts of demos like this.

This next one is a full-length interview. The intro is pretty cheesy as it was created for a local news show in Iowa, but the rest is great.

John Cleese on Creativity

Jeffrey — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 03:37:32 +0000

I’ve always loved John Cleese and Monty Python and I particularly appreciated his thoughts on creativity and how to encourage it in your own life.

Wizard of Oz Poster

Jeffrey — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 13:52:21 +0000

The Wizard of Oz

ADG | Creative commissioned this poster as a part of a fund raiser for the Zachary Hebda Foundation which was established to increase awareness and research to cure childhood cancer. Zachary Hebda died of leukemia in 1999 - I believe he was six years old. The poster features the characters from the Wizard of Oz, because Zach was very fond of the movie. You may notice that the yellow brick road forms a Z – for Zach.

View the larger version here.

Picture Book for Tanglewood Press

Jeffrey — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 15:25:42 +0000

Tanglewood Books

Last week I agreed to illustrate a children’s book for Tanglewood Press and yesterday morning I signed and mailed the contract, so now it’s official!

Perhaps the most well known book in Tanglewood’s catalog is The Kissing Hand, by Audrey Penn. It’s always nice to know I’ll be in good company. Of course I can’t say much about the book I will be illustrating except that it will likely be published in fall 2012. However, I can say that upon my first reading of it I liked the story very much. I didn’t have to convince myself of that. Visually speaking, it is just the sort of story that I would like to illustrate. It will be a 32-page picture book – so there’s a lot of work to do between now and then. And while I’ve lately been experimenting digitally, I think it best if I use traditional pastel.

In other news, this past weekend I completed a Wizard of Oz poster for a charity. This morning I dropped it off and they were very pleased indeed. I will try to post it here on the site by the end of this week.

Mieradome Published!

Jeffrey — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 13:23:35 +0000

The Snow Queen

I happy to announce that Mieradome, written by my friend Kate O’Hegarty, has finally been published! You may recall that Kate commissioned me to create character portraits for the official Mieradome website. I do not believe the book is illustrated, apart from the cover of course.

You may order the book through AuthorHouse.com. Kate is keeping me posted on other sellers as she works out those deals. Please don’t overlook the Free Preview featured on AuthorHouse!

The Rhino Riders 2

Jeffrey — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 00:27:04 +0000

Rhino Riders 2

Ever since my first Rhino Riders illustration I have been meaning to do more. Of course now I’m rendering my storybook illustrations digitally. This one… well, I have mixed feelings. I was really excited about the line drawing, but the coloring, not so much. Maybe it’s too vibrant. I have leanings toward muted and monchromatic palettes sometimes. Well anyway, it’s done for now. Time to move on.

This image is a detail. You may view a larger image here, or you may view a much, much larger image here.

In The Works : New Rhino Illustration

Jeffrey — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 18:52:28 +0000

Today I have begun to the refining of a sketch for a new children’s book illustration. Mind you, Rhino Riders is not a book series. It’s simply what I’ve named what will eventually become a series of storybook illustrations revolving around children and rhinos. I do sort of have a story in mind that I will one day begin to illustrate. Right now my focus is on transforming the portfolio. There’s a lot of good stuff in my portfolio, I think, but I need to create a body of work that is more established in genre and style.

Anyway, this new illustration should be complete by the end of next week at the latest. The only thing holding my back is, well, my back. It’s been aching which makes sitting for long periods difficult.

Having Trouble Finding A Previous Post?

Jeffrey — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 15:26:21 +0000

Recently I’ve been making an effort to create a post for each illustration I’ve created. For some crazy reason I want my work to not only be archived in my galleries but also as posts. Don’t ask. Anyway, it came to mind that as I continue to post these older works they are gradually burying my newer work about which I’ve already posted. Most people probably wouldn’t care so much, but an art director who might consider hiring me would more likely want to know what I’ve created more recently.

So I what I’ve decided to do is back-date all my older work to my best guess as to the date of their creation. This way my home page will only display the latest work and hopefully avoid a lot of confusion. And so what you may have seen posted here yesterday may now be found under a different date. I realize this kinda of gives the false impression of having been blogging for years… but who really cares.

Editorial Illustration

Jeffrey — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 18:52:05 +0000

Amish Breakfast

Today I completed the very tedious process of creating a new gallery for my editorial illustration. Not fun. It’s not so much the creation of the gallery but it’s the addition of all the images. Each image must be resized – and sometimes cropped, and each image must have a corresponding thumbnail image. Then each image must be represented on the gallery page and properly linked to its individual page displaying the full-sized image. And finally, all the images need to be imported into the WordPress media gallery for good measure. sigh.

So glad it’s over. Anyway, you can view all these illustrations in the Editorial Gallery.

HoCo Open 2010

Jeffrey — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 16:01:27 +0000

Jenn

On Monday I dropped off my portrait of Jenn at the Howard County Center for the Arts. It is a non-juried exhibit and the entries are taken first-come, first-accepted basis. The show opens tomorrow at 10AM. Here are the directions:

Howard County Center for the Arts
8510 High Ridge Road
Ellicott City, Maryland 21043

Mouse Patriot – Finished

Jeffrey — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 03:40:27 +0000

Mouse Patriot

I drew this little guy months and months ago. Who knows what distracted me from finishing. This afternoon I finally took some time to put a nice shine on his shoes and brush out his coat. And as with everything I hope to find the time to draw more of these mice. As far as children’s books go, I should probably draw these fellows in action.

Here’s direct link to the full illustration in my Fantasy Gallery.