NAPTIME

Oskar doesn't really take naps anymore. But Teddy does, so now during "naptime" we do fun projects. Today was Old Wood Block sculpture day. And Oskar learned about Blue Cheese. He thinks Blue Cheese is about the funniest thing he's ever heard of.

Here he is hard at work, and its hard to tell from this picture but that "cheese shaped" wedge on the table is painted a light blue and that led to the discussion.

PHILLY FALL PREVIEW

The Philly Inquirer moved their HQ to a new location, the former Strawbridge & Clothier department store building. In a nod to their new home they wanted an illustration for the Fall Arts Preview that felt like a department store from back in the day.
I'm super pleased with how this came out. It was a nice way to start a Sunday.

They were even kind enough to include a bio.

And all the elements were broken out into little headers for the different features.

Thanks to Sterling Chen and everyone else for a fine design job.

And they also had me create some online elements so you could "shop the store" online.

You can check that out here.

TEDDY TURNS THREE

Teddy turned three last week. To celebrate we went to Franklin Square and rode a lion and this weekend we had a party in our backyard complete with a homemade Lion ball game.
It was made out of two lawn bags, one inverted, we cut a hole for the mouth and a little hole in the side on the bottom to retrieve the ping pong balls the kids threw in there. Also a brick to weight the whole thing.

                               But the real hit was the ninja cupcakes that Lydia made.

CAMERON AND THE GIRLS

This is a cover job I did over the summer for Clarion Books. The cover sketch they picked was the one I hoped they would and remained unchanged with the exception of some color changes to the type.
This is the first YA cover I've done and when they sent me the MS I was hooked and read the whole thing overnight. I forgot how much fun the genre is, I enjoyed reading books like this when I was a little too young and I enjoyed it being a lot too old.

It's the story of a kid who is schizophrenic and stops taking his meds.
He hears voices but a new one has emerged, a girl. Just as a real girl at school also starts to talk to him. Fascinating story by Edward Averett, looking forward to seeing this in person. Special thanks to SD Kerry Martin.

Below are the other sketches I sent in. Including a softer color palette version of the one they did pick.

                          And Lastly, the one wraparound idea with a little surprise/teaser.