Tresorellas Online

This is a set of logos I did for an online company currently called Tresorellas Online. It is a site that sells accessories and such targeted primarily at tween to adult females. Unfortunately, there is to be a name change so these logos will not be used, but I will be designing their new logo as soon the name change takes place.

Seansonal Cards

Here are a few Halloween cards I've completed. My favorite is definitely the Babt Fankenstein card!

Exile Colored

Exile!

I'm not gonna go into detail about all the little crazy story elements I thought up while making these images...but I will tell you that I had A LOT of fun making each one. I hope it shows.

Spot Illustrations!

I know some of these are "reposted", but I wanted to include all the spot illustrations I've done recently. My favorite ones are the ones on the last page. I especially like the frog riding the wagon...not sure why.

Sketches

These are submissions to the SCBWI bulletin. For those of you who don't know what that is, the SCBWI is an organization for children's book writers and illustrations hence the acronym Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.

Logos Page 1

These are some logos that I have designed for a few of the local businesses in my town, save the connect cafe.

Airport Sketches!

These were some old men I saw while waiting at the Philadelphia Airport a few days ago. They all started to catch on towards the end that I was drawing them and so I played this stupid look away and then look back game...AWKWARD!

First of Two

BOOK COVERS!

James and the Giant Peach is probably my most favorite "early reader" of all time. When I was younger I LOVED Roald Dahl books. James and the Giant Peach was my absolute favorite, and so I felt it only natural to create a cover for the book.

These are two of the book covers I've been working on. Both stories were written and illustrated by myself. My favorite of the two..."Danny Did It." When I was younger, this phrase was used in almost every situation. My little brother Daniel was....very curious.

Bus Stop Music Cafe

On Tuesday nights I like to go to the Bus Stop Music Cafe in Pitman, NJ to play my guitar and sing. When I'm not on stage, I use the time to sketch the people that are....these are a few of my sketches from the night. Hope you like them, and I apologize if I ruined anyone's face...it was just a quick sketch.

Recent Digital Work

Take a Look.

Here are a few images from the ebook I am close to completing. They are not completely finished at this stage, but I like them at their current state. Tell me what you think.

Halt Frog!

These sketches are some more character studies. I really just like to spend a while, before I embark on illustrations for my stories, drawing the main characters in different poses and interactions. I know that these silhouettes are not super strong, but I do like the drawings. after the first one though, I decided that Stevie here needed a fanny pack to place all the proceeds from his fundraising endeavors. Oh, and "Happy belated Easter" to everybody. I hope you had a great holiday filled with family and friends.

Finally Something New!

Because my first ebook is coming to a close, at least in terms of the illustration part, I felt like I would go ahead and draw out some of the characters from my next ebook. This one I plan on sketching everything by hand, and maintaining a large portion of the line work created by this traditional approach, and then just painting behind the line work. I feel like this will produce a better end result, and save a LOT of time, not having to worry about precisely planning every single edge, and what not. I am really pumped about the sketches, and the story in general, and I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed making them.

Things got INTERESTING.

Just past the kitchen entrance, our refrigerator seemed to be waiting for this precise moment, for no longer was it against the wall, neatly aligned with the kitchen counters. We saw our refrigerator a good six feet out of place, exchanging glances with my television and car clock in some sort of silent universal appliance language. Motionless, we stood at the end of the hall because sis was frightened of our refrigerator.

After a moment or two, the brigade of badly behaved electronics wheeled and bounced, rolled and trounced right through our kitchen to the basement door. Our refrigerator quickly shoved the door ajar, and in one fell swoop the clock and the television hopped onto the fridge as it proceeded to slide down the stairs. CRAAAASH!

I was certain that somebody upstairs must have heard the ruckus, but the house remained still beyond the thumping of our spirited appliances. Once again, sis was too scared to follow right away, so we waited, calculating just the right time to sneak down the stairs unnoticed. Halfway down the stairs we sat and watched. I would have thought that things couldn't have gotten any stranger than the idea of our refrigerator teaming up with my clock and television to hurry down to our basement, but I would have most definitely have been wrong....

Down the Stairs...

Still believing I was suspended in some strange dream, I pinched myself as sis and I carefully slunk down the stairs. When we reached the bottom, there was little doubt, for at the end of the hall, we could see my car clock and my television still scurrying about, heading towards the kitchen. We paused. In all my five and a half years, nothing I had ever seen prepared me for what happened next...

Here's the update. I hope you enjoy the picture. Thanks for stopping by.

Intermission

For the time being, I am taking a break from the iphone game and pursuing an iPad/iPhone e-book. The work title is, My clock, My Toaster, and the Tango, and I have already finished the story board, however rough the sketches may be. I thought that I would share the first few pages right now...so enjoy.

A Break...Please!!

I sat at his hospital bed watching him motionless, the rhythmic blip of six different machines hooked up to his head, his chest, his finges, and beyond playing a me song unlike any other. As the minutes passed into half-hours, and half-hours into hours, hours into days, I sat and watched. I watched as he was wheeled to the testing room and then back up to his quarters in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), and then back to the testing room, and then back to the PICU. I watched as he was taken into the surgery prep room, and then back to the PICU. Through all the pain of a brain surgery I watched him suffer with headaches, backaches, dizziness, depression--hoping somehow that God would give me back my little brother. Hoping somehow that I could do more than just "watch". But even as the days jumbled into one horrific lump of pain and anguish, watching was all I had to offer.

I watched, I watched, I WATCHED!!

His pain persisted.

I WATCHED!

A month later and he was back in the same place he started? Back into a state of limbo? My little brother? Three months ago, I would never have believed it.

I sat in a different room of the PICU. This one was colder than the last, and again the machines blipped their song. Blip...Blip...Blip. I began to understand words like "shunt", and "hydrocephalus", and "ventricle", and "papilloma", for they were the only words my brain could think to remember. Blip...Blip...Blip...

A week later I got my little brother back.

I thank God for seeing my family and I through these tough times, and can only pray for all those experiencing something similar. When your world feels like it is falling down around you, that you hold fast to hope and faith and love. Cling to those that love you, and do all you can do to support them, even if all you can do is watch.

Conference Drawings

While enjoying the speakers at the SCBWI Conference, I felt compelled to doodle. Here's what I got...

Fingers Crossed

Today is the day.... Today is the day.... Today is the day, I exhibit my work in the SCBWI showcase at the Grand Central Hyatt. True, it is just one among hundreds of images being showcased, and true, 2009's portfolio displayed earned a whole lot of nothing, but for whatever reason, I feel hopeful about this year. It's hard, being lumped in with seemingly every illustrator on the eastern seaboard all at once, to not feel like just one of the crowd, but an opportunity is an opportunity, and so from 5-9pm this piece is being judged by a whole lot of people in the children's publishing industry....my fingers are crossed.