I completed this illo of Ben Bernanke earlier today for a Wall Street Journal economic forecast interactive. The spooky atmosphere may be influenced by the Algernon Blackwood book I’ve been reading as of late.

Sketch drawn on the Brooklyn Heights Promenade days after September 11th, 2001.

If you pick up a copy of this week’s U.S. News & World Report you’ll find a few of my drawings inside. The illos are for the annual ‘Paying for College’ package, and the team at the magazine picked a fun “Texas Hold ’em” theme for this year’s section. Lots of great visuals to work from!
The image above is the opener for the package.
Click to see a larger version with the rest of the illos.
You can see more of my work for U.S. News & World Report here.

This is my first attempt at a mirror. It was inspired by all of the cloud photos I’ve been taking and the work of Hokusai.

I’m definitely drawn to natural forms built with unnatural materials. I’ve seen a few laser-cut mirrors around and they all seem to stick closely to a square format. I thought I’d give it a go and see what happens with other shapes.

Moving forward, I’m going to add other cloud formations to form a group. Small, medium and large clouds. This would most likely be the large. (5 x 34 inches)

I would really like to hear what people think of this piece. Please leave comments. Or, feel free to contact me if you’d like to purchase one 🙂

Apparently, I’m not the only fan of music and/or irony.

Growing up my family did lots of camping and the highlight of every trip was always the ghost story told by my father once the fire grew low. He was a master practitioner of the art. I made his always bone-chilling stories the theme of this pattern drawing I just completed. Click the image above for a larger version.

A pretty simple Illo for Publisher’s Weekly. A writer (Pete Croatto) working at a bookstore tells how he found peace in the simple job of selling books:
“I’ve been snapped at, lectured to and dismissed, all of which could happen in an hour”.
Even after being threatened with violence, and talked down to, he found helping readers rewarding.
I am doing more opaque color on my digital paintings now. I used to give color a much more watercolor type treatment, but I am feeling nostalgic for the satisfying opacity of oils. Time to go back into the lab with my neglected copy of Painter and see what develops.
You can see more of my work for Publisher’s Weekly here.