Aunt Bertha to The Rescue! (For Nat Geo Kids!)

Aunt Bertha has been resurrected! Yes, my old character is back and driving across the country in a series of games and puzzles for National Geographic Kids and their book division. I missed ole' Bertie. The second image is a mock-up of the cover, but it's gonna have the finished illustration streaking across that cover. A Big Thanks to art director Eva Absher for making the executive decision to use me on this.

I promised to post this new postcard mailer image, so here's how it came out. Nice and colorful. Now, I just have to get this image out to a billion people and spread the word. BOO!!!!!

Halloween Mailer Rough Sketch Before Finish

I always enjoy seeing people's rough sketches before the final art is done, so maybe some of you will be interested in seeing this. I'm currently halfway through this color finish, which I'll post by the end of the week, but I thought I'd blog about the process. My initial concept was of a Drive-in Movie theatre with nothing but monsters watching the scary movie, which was "Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers", but then I worried that since this is for a normal-sized postcard, the image was too complex to be appreciated unless it was a larger size and that's too costly for my current budget. So, I did this compartmental layout to showcase images of Halloween. The finish is coming along great so far and I hope it really grabs the people I'm sending it to in this mass mailer and e-blast. Halloween is just a fun holiday and it's probably one of the most effective holidays to take advantage of in my business. Most people think that Christmas is a good time to promote, but I think that right after Thanksgiving art directors, editors, designers, and creative directors are all too distracted as they get ready for their Christmas/Winter break to care about a postcard coming at them and begging for their attention.

Come back by the end of the week and I will have a lush color finish to showcase. It'll be interesting to see them side-by-side and compare how much may have changed.

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Early morning illustration for Alleen Barber about Traffic Networking solutions with current technology in the NYC area. Thank you Miss Barber! Sometimes I like a real fast deadline because it forces me to use limited palettes and work with the time constraints to make my client happy. Of course, I'd rather have a couple of days to noodle on an image, but I enjoy a good double-rush sometimes and Newsday is always good to me.