quiz drawing for National Geographic

I did another small drawing for National Geographic, for a quiz about female explorers. The drawing had to include all four possible answers to the multiple choice question, and fit into a weird-shaped space. It's in the current September 2013 issue.

(By the way, the cover article about rising seas and global warming is mind-blowing. There's a pull-out poster that shows what the world would look like if all the ice melted.)

drawings for Google Germany

I am super (mega!) excited to share this commission I did for Google Germany last November. It's a 24 page booklet about Google's services for small businesses, and it was created for markets in Germany, Switzerland and Austria.

Bernhard Hörlberger, Greta Boekhoff and Theresa Kneuer at Serviceplan, the agency leading this project, were terrific to work with. The art direction was solid, and I had lots of freedom to play around with the drawings.

Thank you Google and Serviceplan! This was a fun project and I was really honoured to take it on.

custom drawings of objects reading books

UPDATE: I'm not doing these anymore. It was super fun for a while, but it wasn't sustainable. I hope to develop another custom order format, so stay tuned!

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You pick the object and the book, and I'll draw it. That's right. I'll draw whatever object reading whatever book you want, and I'll paint it too, all on a nice 8x10 inch piece of acid-free watercolour paper.

Order one here.

After I made the original series of objects reading books, I started thinking about creating custom versions. Books are such a personal thing, and if you get to choose what the object and the book is, well, you end up with a bit of an interesting portrait. It could be a nice gift.

This is the first time I've offered to do personal commissions. I've stayed away from doing them in the past, mostly because I simply haven't had the time or I'm worried they don't work out as well as I'd like (I worry a lot). But making them in a format like this works for me.

More details about ordering custom drawings

See more drawings of objects reading books.

 

two page dating map drawing for National Geographic


(Click image to enlarge)

I drew this two-page spread of a 'dating' map for National Geographic, which you can now see in this month's issue (Feb. 2012). They combed profiles from dating websites all across the US, and pulled the most commonly used terms from each zip code and mapped them. What ends up surfacing are some regional stereotypes ('oil' in Texas, 'retired' in Florida), as well as some amusing terms (Cleopatra? Yodeling? Marshmellow, anyone?). This was a really, really fascinating project to work on.

Here's a closer look:

Here's the cover of the magazine, in case you're looking for it on the newsstand or in your local library:

Check for available drawings and signed prints in the shop.

koi fish drawing for National Geographic

I did this drawing for National Geographic, for a little article about a koi fish named Hanako that was reportedly over 200 years old. Now that I look at it, he sort of looks like Mordechai Richler. The drawing is small, but I'm super excited about it anyway. Oh, and don't tell anyone, but I've got another drawing in an upcoming issue that's going to be LARGE.

Hanoko even shows up in the table of contents! Check it out:

Read all about Hanako the Koi fish.

t-shirts for Say Media

This is a set of drawings I did for Say Media, to use internally on t-shirts. Friends of the company can even order one on their schwag page.

I need to say this: Say Media folks are nice people. I've gotten to know many of them over the years, including back in their Six Apart days (Six Apart is what they were before they merged with VideoEgg to become Say) and they're all super swell. They are the company behind Typepad, the blogging platform I use for this site, and I feel about good using it (and happy to pay for it) knowing that there are such great people behind it. And no, they didn't pay me to say that — just for the t-shirts :) I just think niceness needs to be recognized.

drawings for Tommy Hilfiger t-shirts

Gah! Super excited to share this. Last year I was approached by the fine folks at Tommy Hilfiger about creating some post-it note drawings for t-shirts. They're part of a much larger collection called 'Tommy', which is a younger, more playful line of clothing and accessories than what you'd expect from TH, so the idea was to take the preppy lifestyle and play around with it. What was amazing for me about this project was that I got to use my post-it note format, complete with highlighter pens for the colours, and use the exact same approach I use in my personal work. Super fun.

I don't know exactly where these are available, but if you have a Tommy shop in your area, stop in and have a look.

One more thing, my what to focus on drawing was also made into a t-shirt as part of the Tommy collection. @katherinecarney spotted it in Toronto:

drawings in Hollands Diep magazine - May 2011 issue

I did another commission for Hollands Diep, the ambitious and wonderfully designed arts and culture magazine from the Netherlands.

Clockwise from top left: cover; spot drawing in the table of contents; full spread.

The article was about a Mao-themed restaurant:

I don't usually draw or paint actual people, but I felt I needed to include a recognizable image of the iconic Mao for this. I found one of the more well-known images of the controversial Chinese leader (similar to the one Andy Warhol used), manipulated it in Photoshop until all colour was removed and all that was left were black and white areas, printed it out, traced the outlines on watercolour paper and got to work with a brush. See my painting of Mao uncropped.