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A while ago I did a series of illustrations about fuel efficient airplanes that appeared in the July 2010 international edition of Newsweek. You can read the article on their site.
The immense weight of an airplane is pretty much the main hurdle when trying to improve its fuel efficiency. I was fortunate to have the freedom to inject some humour into the project, and give the airplanes the same anxieties humans have about weight. Thanks for giving me fun commissions, Newsweek!
I recently did a commission for Hollands Diep, a magazine that's been described as the Vanity Fair of the Netherlands. It's a beautifully designed publication, art directed by Jaap Biemans (who was awesome to work with). I wish I could read Dutch!
Left: the cover. Right: my drawing of cutlery in the table of contents layout.
Here's the spread of the article, written by Ronald Giphart. The article is about a nasty customer in a restaurant:
Closeups of the drawings:
Singer/songwriter/musician/producer John McVey got in touch with me ages ago about licensing my kite drawing for his CD cover, and the final product is finally out.
It's still strange for me to see my drawings on products and in magazines, since I was not part of the process of putting it all together. I'm a graphic designer by trade, so I'm used to specifying and setting up all the nitpicky details. That being said, I'm really happy with how the drawing was reproduced on this.
Here are the liner notes:
John is a super nice guy, and gave me a generous shout out in the liner notes. You can listen to his album on his website, and also buy it on iTunes.
The good people at Newsweek got in touch with me a while ago to do an editorial illustration for an article about an eco-friendly restaurant. This was a great assignment, and I was really happy with the draft they chose. The final piece I made ended up being more about words than drawing, so it kind of felt like I was being paid to write for the first time. Read the full article.
I've also got 5 (five!) drawings about airplanes in last week's international edition of the Newsweek (available outside of the US and Canada), and I'll blog about those as soon as permitted.
Ages ago I was asked by Harper Perennial to illustrate the cover of Kirk Farber's first novel, Postcards From a Dead Girl. I absolutely loved working on this project. The people I worked with at Harper were fantastic. The book was released last week, and I just received a copy, so I can finally share it here.
I was thrilled to see that the designer put my fellow from the cover onto the spine. A lovely little surprise!
One of the cool things about working on a book cover is getting an advanced copy, and getting to read something before it is released. My wife and I both read it and we loved it. And lots of reviewers and regular folks seem to agree. You can preview the book online.
Buy the book: Amazon.ca
I did a drawing for Wired magazine about the vacuum of space. Tardigrades, in case you were wondering, are extremely tough little arthropod-like creatures that can somehow survive in the vacuum for up to 10 days. I learn so much from their assignments. It was in the December 2009 issue of Wired. You can read the article, Three Smart Things About the Vacuum of Space, online.
Holy crap! This Sunday, I will have three drawings in The New York Times Magazine. If you don't pick up the paper regularly, the Magazine is a supplement that comes with the (massive) Sunday edition of the New York Times newspaper. Needless to say, I am so excited about this! My father, who is an avid reader of the Times, is amazed, thrilled and proud (thanks Dad!). I don't normally blog about the appearance of my drawings in a publication before the publication comes out, but since it's a newspaper, you've only got one day to get it. So get it!
UPDATE: Twitter pal Austin Kleon (a real mensch, I must add) spotted my drawings on the NYT website. Here are some handy links:
Artificial Car Noise, Lunar Legalism, and Infant Sleep is Destiny.
I did another drawing for Wired magazine, this time for an article about hyperbaric chambers. (My magazine commissions are getting weirder and weirder.) It's in the September 2009 issue of Wired.
Read the article, 3 Smart Things About Hyperbaric Chambers, here.
I did a drawing for an article about referees in the August 2009 issue of Wired magazine. And yes, that's Brad Pitt on the cover. Me and Brad, printed on the same paper. Imagine that. We are close now. As @cmonstah pointed out, I am now only three degrees away from Angelina Jolie.
You can read the article here.
Lap the Lough is a non-profit fun cycling event outside of Belfast, Ireland. Participants bike around Lough Neagh, Ireland's largest lake (heck, it's the 3rd largest lake in Western Europe!).The organizers asked me to do a drawing for their t-shirt, and I said yes because they were so charming.
The original drawing is SOLD for sale in the shop. All proceeds from the sale of this drawing go to Lap the Lough and the charities it supports.
I did a series of drawings for Emery's latest CD, In Shallow Seas We Sail:
(click images to enlarge)
This was my second time working with the band; I had done the cover of Emery's previous release, an EP (While Broken Hearts Prevail). They've been terrific to work with. For the above CD packaging, the band had a specific storyline in mind, and asked me to illustrate it. I worked closely with their record label's designer -- a nice guy to collaborate with -- to put it all together. All in all a great experience. And look, they even put one of my lovely watercolour washes to good use. I love making those watercolour washes.
Go get this month's issue of Wired Magazine (July 2009), turn to page 24, and you will see the small drawing above that I made for an article about beer (UPDATE: you can also read the article online). Needless to say, I was super excited about this commission. Oh, and get next month's issue as well — I did a drawing for it too.