Tuesday, July 21, 2009





These are spreads from "Sophie Peterman Tells the Truth" by Sarah Weeks from Simon & Shuster due out in November. I love how the drawings came out and I especially love how Lauren Rille, my art director, did the type.

Saturday, July 18, 2009








No agenda today. I've been out planting with my wife. We carved a small lawn out of the woods just off our patio. Didn't cut any trees, just underbrush. Continuing work on Wow! Ocean! and a special project that I'm not talking about yet. Got my editor's and art directors comments back on "Too Many Monsters". Very helpful, but it's always a bit of a shock, since I don't always agree with them and have to process it for awhile- then decide what to incorporate and how to improve upon the suggestions that I don't think work. That's kind of the secret with working with all ad's and editors whether it's a book, an editorial assignment, an ad, a movie poster, whatever. Supply your own thinking first, always. Then take their ideas and make them better. I'm just going to post what's on the hard drive today, starting with a moose. We've been getting lots lately. Yesterday we had this female in the morning, a juvenile male in the evening (my wife, Ruth, said his little downy antlers were really "cute") and this morning we found tracks from a big mom and a baby that passed through last night. They're quite dangerous if you get close, by the way, especially a mother with young, so don't try petting one. We stay in the house when they come by. For the rest of today's post, here's a financial piece for Forbes about the states trying "Stupid Budget Tricks", a Slate piece on shock therapy for computer addiction in China, (homage to R. Crumb), and a sketch... R.

Monday, July 6, 2009







I got this beautiful link from a little fan, Vivian, so I had to update the blog and include it. It's been really busy since we got back from Costa Rica. It's my everyday illustration and editorial work for Slate that finances the books. Making a living just doing books is hard, and takes years to establish. I was a presenter at a recent writer's conference with Shannon Hale, and someone asked her what her life was like now after "Princess Academy" won the Newbery. She instantly said, "You mean before the helicopter? And the butler?" The joke is that life is pretty much as always....
Here's a drawing for Consumer reports and a president's dog from the L.A. Times. I'm including a few spreads from "Too Many Monsters", a board book from Little Simon. I took a short break from "Wow Ocean" to do the sketches for this and it's a good thing- tackling " Wow Whales" and "Wow Tidepools" is going to take energy and inspiration. With fans like Vivian, it'll be easy.