Summer School

When you're working as an illustrator sometimes you are asked to create work pretty quickly. It's not unheard of to be get a call at noon and have to turn in work by 4 p.m. so it can be printed that evening morning.

Other times, the process moves along much slower.

Way back in the summer of ’09, I was contacted by Nicole Weinbrom from Fordham University. She was interested in seeing some additional samples of my work. I gathered some work together and fired it off. I didn't here from her and quickly forgot about our brief interaction. It was a strange summer. One in which I received many inquiries about my work, but only a fraction turned into actual commissions. The bottoming out economy might have had something to do with that.

Earlier this summer, while in Barcelona on my honeymoon, I was contacted by Nicole's boss Maggie Coyne. They were interested in having me create artwork to be used on the university's 2011 Summer Session course guide as well as some other promotional material. They gave me a great deal of freedom on this project. All they needed was something that said Summer, New York City and Education.

So after spending two weeks with my wife in Spain it was time to get reacquainted with my old friend, the drafting table. Here's what I came up with:

My first idea was to have a street scene with the NYC skyline in the background. The chracters in the background all would have been representative of various career paths related to the summer session's programs. This one had a little too much going on and lacked focus.

Next, I came up with this girl reading stretched out on the Brooklyn Bridge. This said summer and New York, but didn't really hint at any of Fordham's summer programs. There was something about the scale of the girl to the city though that I kind of liked.

This was a simpler idea that, unbeknownst to me, was too similar too art that had been used a few years earlier.

Who doesn't love a lazy river? This was an idea turning the East River into a lazy river. And really, who wouldn't want to float around reading in the East River or Hudson River on a 100º day? This idea was rejected, but the merging of the cityscape and objects from the classroom was well received.

Finally, I married up the two ideas that were working, the oversized figure and classroom objects mixed into the cityscape to create this sketch. This required some minor adjustments, like giving the girl a ponytail to make her look younger and making her sit Indian style, but as you can see became the final art.

And with that a job that started to take shape in June of 2009 was published in November 2010.

Rejected by The New Yorker

The holidays are rapidly approaching. I thought the image above might make a nice early December cover.

I was wrong. Rejected, once again.

If there is another New York-centric publication that needs a Christmas image or someone looking for a custom Christmas card, let me know, it's available.

UPDATE: I've got prints for sale here as well as iPod and iPhone cases here. Working on finding a place to make greeting cards available.

Australian For Beer

Back in the waning days of August, I was contacted by Ross Gales from Pollen Digital in Sydney, Australia. He was interestd in commissioning a series of illustrations for a redesign of Cascade Brewery's website. Cascade is the oldest brewer in Australia, so he was looking for artwork with a retro feel.

I created icons for the homepage that led to sections of the website highlighting Cascade's products, brewing process, brewery tour and homebrew options.

After completing those, I was asked to create art for a few banners that would promoted the company's iPhone app. Those can be seen below:

The new website, which debuted last week, can be seen here.

This was a fun project to work on, despite the late nights and early mornings necessitated by working with a client in a timezone 14 hours away. Now I need to find a place in Brooklyn that sells or serves any of Cascades beers so I can taste them. Unfortunately, I didn't get a free sample. I think that should be a requirement for alcohol- and/or food-related projects.

The Marathon

That's me in the center, in Central Park with about a mile and a half to go, and out of gas.

Yesterday, I ran my second marathon.

The first was four years ago. At the time, I knew I'd run another. I didn't think it would take four years to do it. Things didn't turn out the way I planned.

In 2007, I was training to run New York and injured my foot a month before the race and couldn't run.

In 2008, history repeated itself. I was planning on running the Providence Marathon with my friend (and eventual winner) Blaine. I re-injured my foot three weeks before the race.

I took some time off after the second injury. When I started running again, I felt really out of shape. The more I tried to run the worse I felt. Only after I started having vision problems did I go to the doctor. It turned out the lack of energy and vision problems were related. As it turned out, I had leukemia. Running was out of the question for the immediate future.

In March, I woke up one morning, felt good wanted to run. I hadn't felt that way in almost two years. I kept running. After a few weeks, I decided I wanted to run the marathon again. I signed up with Team In Training, which given my condition seemed appropriate.

This time, I made it back to the starting line. 2 hours, 57 minutes and 34 seconds later I reached the finish. 705th out of 44,829 finishers. Not too bad.

None of this would have been possible without the support of terrific friends and family, as well as the kindness of some strangers. Together we raised over $6,500 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Thank you!

For The Record, Kids Today Are Growing Up Too Fast

Here's a recent, quick-turnaround job for my old friends at The Record.

The story looks at girls reaching puberty earlier than ever before, some as young as eight- or nine-years-of-age. No one is entirely sure what has caused this shift in development. There is believed to be a link between obesity. Others suspect it might be from the hormones injected into livestock that eventually enters the food chain.

There are short- and long-term problems associated with maturing physically too soon. These girls are at often the targets of bullying (She's different, let's all make fun of her!) and misplaced expectations from their peers and teachers (Why isn't she acting as mature as she looks?). They also have a higher risk of cancer later in life.

The full story can be read here.

A thank you goes out to AME/Graphics and Design Jerry Luciani and Deputy Graphics Editor R.L. Rebach for thinking of me for this project.

Running For A Cure

This fall I will be participating in the New York City Marathon as a member of Team In Training. I'm hoping to run under 3 hours, a little over a year after being diagnosed with Chronic Myelogenus Leukemia.

All of us on Team In Training are raising funds to help stop leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma and myeloma from taking more lives. We need your support to cross the ultimate finish line - a cure.

This Thursday, August 19, my wife and I will be hosting a happy-hour, fundraising event.

Please join us from 6-9 p.m. at Affair on Eighth, 35 West 8th Street (between Sixth Ave. and MacDougal St.) New York, NY. $40 gets you unlimited happy hour specials and helps make a difference in the fight against blood cancers.

Lion in the Sun

A few months ago, I created a Brooklyn Bridge themed invitation for my wedding. I'm pleased to announce that image is now available for your invitations and stationary at Lion in the Sun.

Lion in the Sun is a full service paperie located in Park Slope, Brooklyn specializing in unique custom invitations for every occasion. They have a terrific selection on Brooklyn-centric and New York-themed designs. They have a wonderful staff that helps turn out some sophisticated and well-designed products.

Check them out if you find yourself in Brooklyn and/or are in need of invitations.