Recent Work:“Cashay” Book Jacket Sketches

The impoverished housing projects of Chicago provide the backdrop for this middle-grade novel about about a teenage girl struggling to overcome the violent death of her younger sister and her mother’s spiraling drug addiction. I tried experimenting with layers of urban textures I photographed to set the tone. I like these sketches, but I am currently working on revised versions which focus on the girl’s face.

CLIENT: HOUGHTON MIFFLIN
ART DIRECTOR: SHEILA SMALLWOOD

Recent Work: “The Adversary” Book Jacket

The latest episode in the “Inspector Nergui” crime-thriller series by Michael Walters, The Adversary, like its predecessor, The Shadow Walker, is set in modern day Mongolia. Hard-boiled, film-noir, and shadowy were all words that quickly came to mind while thinking about this book. I thought the idea of a sort of mystery figure facing the glare of oncoming headlights on a lonely road would set the mood, as well as reflect the content of the text.

For the finish, my idea was to photograph the figure (me) facing the headlights all in one take. I could not get the light I wanted on the figure, though, plus it was getting really cold that night. So I ended up shooting the figure in the studio and pasting it digitally into the scene. Though I did not use the photos, it was still useful to have actual photos of the figure in the scene for lighting reference when re-shooting the figure in the studio.

Above is the finish, and below are all of the original sketches presented.

CLIENT: BERKLEY BOOKS
ART DIRECTOR: RITA FRANGIE

Recent Work: Integrative Medicine Illustration

In addition to conventional western medical treatment, “Integrative Medicine” includes holistic practices, yoga, meditation, and traditional herbal Chinese medicine. I have tried to suggest this blending of east and west by intertwining western medical instruments with a medicinal herb plant. A pair of “healing hands” suggesting massage reaches up from below.

Client: Connecticut Magazine
Art Director: Joan Barrow

Recent Work: Cyber Terrorism illustration

With almost every sector of our government and the economy dependent on technology, many experts argue that an attack in cyberspace poses as great a threat to our national security as a military attack. In this illustration, I have used a hand holding a computer mouse with a lit fuse to make the point. The background portrays the “information”grid under threat.

Client: Military Officer Magazine
Art Director: Kitty Weiss

Recent Work: Dreamer At Work

For book jacket portfolio pieces, I often work backwards. I will start with an image, then make up a title to go with it. This image was montaged with elements from my archives. I think I had recently been looking at Joseph Cornell. I like the image, though it was a bit of a challenge to figure out how to center it. I was trying not to get too flowery with the type, but I am still undecided about it.

Recent Work: “Smoke” Book Jacket Finish

The art director, editor, and author all liked sketch A (minus the border), with the cat looking out over the landscape (see previous Smoke sketches entry of March 17). As luck would have it, the description of the cat in the book perfectly matched my cat, Smithers, so I had my model (of course, this has completely gone to his head, and he is absolutely impossible now).

The first step in creating the finished art was to make the background. I created this in Photoshop by blending some personal landscape photos and adjusting the color. Next, I made the fence with strips of balsa wood, “weathered” with acrylic paint. I then set up a small still-life in my homemade lighting box of the fence against a printout of the background, and photographed the scene. I try to do as much as I can of the piece before I get to Photoshop, so the scene looks as natural as possible. The silhouetted Smithers, texture layers, and colors were then added in Photoshop.

Recent Work: Five Million Lives

This assignment was for Nursing Management Magazine’s feature on the Institute For Healthcare Improvement's Five Million Lives Campaign, an ambitious effort to save five million hospital patient lives over a two-year period through improved health-care practices. The illustration was to focus on the daunting scope of this challenge, rather than on any particular medical practices. Here are the sketches I submitted, and the finish. It is often a bit of a struggle for me to brighten my palette for these “upbeat” pieces, and this is something I am really trying to work on lately. I feel pretty good about this one. Art Director: Michael Trinsey.