Granta: Horror

Over the past year, I've had the opportunity to illustrate several short fiction pieces by Roberto Bolaño for the literary magazine Granta. A few weeks after working on the watercolor illustration (above) for the short Bolaño story, "The Colonel's Son," art director, Michael Salu, asked if I would be interested in collaborating on a motion comic he had in mind to tie the short story and issue in with their digital readership. Time was short, but having already read through and sequentially visualized much of the story, it sounded too interesting to pass up.

The animation is now live at nothingbutamovie.com, and here are some samples of the finished layered illustrations, which were all inked digitally using Manga Studio (which I've just recently begun using inspired by the amazing illustration work of Asaf Hanuka).

Many thanks to Jocabola, David Bonas, Sorgerune and the visionary Michael Salu for the collaboration.

Seattle Met: "Diary of a Deadly Year"

Last month, I had the opportunity to work on an illustration for the Seattle Met Magazine's November Issue on an article about a sudden spike in murder rates in Yakima County, Washington in 2010.  The illustration's job was to both narrate a specific attack as well as convey the tone of shock from the string of 29 killings in a population of only 89,000.

Below are sketches we worked through to develop the direction (the first couple thumbnails in this case were done on my phone) and the final artwork and headline treatment from the magazine by André Mora and Chris Skiles, which is on stands now.

Washington Post: September Medical Mystery

The September installment of the "Medical Mysteries" series is out in today's Washington Post, with an interesting story about a young boy's sudden, inexplicable development of anxiety and obsessive-compulsive tics.  As with the previous illustrations in the series, the design was to convey the symptoms as well as the culprit, which in this case interestingly enough was an autoimmune neuropsychological disorder's (PANDAS) response to to a bacterial strep infection.

Above are the thumbnails and finished sketches, attempting to convey fever symptoms from different angles as well as his symptoms of severe anxiety.  Art Direction by Brad Walters.

Saturday Evening Post: "Yesterday's Garbage"

Earlier in the summer I got a call to work on a short fiction piece for the Saturday Evening Post September/October issue.  The story by Jon Hassler is entitled "Yesterday's Garbage" and follows a garbage man through an unexpectedly macabre turn of events in suburban Minnesota.  Below is the smaller second illustration that accompanies the text, as well as some of the sketches for the full-page piece.  Art Direction by Brian Sanchez.
 

Washington Post: August Medical Mystery

For the past few months I've been illustrating an ongoing "Medical Mysteries" column by Sandra G. Boodman in the Washington Post's Health & Science section. This month's piece, follows a newborn whose unusual delays in development elude doctors and specialists for years until an unlikely genetic cause is discovered. Below are the thumbnails and sketches, the challenge being how to distill down both the symptoms and the culprit comfortably in the composition while still retaining the uncertainty of the story. Art Direction by Brad Walters.

Boston Globe: "This Beautiful Life"

Here is a small illustration I did for last weekend's Boston Globe Book Review of the novel "This Beautiful Life" by Helen Schulman.  The review traces the path of a family newly transplanted by the father's career into an affluent Manhattan lifestyle, and crisis that emerges against the unfamiliar upper-class backdrop.  Below are the rough ballpoint thumbnail ideas and then the more legible sketches that were submitted.  Art Direction by Jane Martin.

July Sketchbook

Above are some sketchbook pages from the past couple months.  Additionally the original 5"x7" painting below is for sale through Gallery Nucleus' "Power in Numbers" show with all proceeds going to UNICEF.

Ten Thousand Saints

Illustration and idea sketches for the LA Times book review of the novel "Ten Thousand Saints" by Elanor Henderson.  Art Direction by Judith Pryor.

American Trypanosoma

A series of illustrations from a side project that's been in the works.

Illustration Now! Portraits

Just got a copy of the new Taschen Illustration Now! Portraits book in the mail.  I have a couple pages in the book alongside an humbling collection of work by eighty illustrators and edited by Julius Wiedemann. The first section of the book is available to browse through on the Taschen site.  (Cover illustration by the always cool Raphael Vicenzi.)