the year in pictures
What I did, and what I'm doing
This is the fifth issue of Random Orbit, and as intended, it’s been fairly random. I’m glad you’re here and, if you’ve been here since day one, thanks for sticking around. The previous posts were about my dog (RIP), a holiday road-trip, and a novel that I’m (not) writing. You’re probably here because of my illustration work so you might be happy to know that this issue of Random Orbit is about my illustration. Specifically, a year-end wrap-up of work I made in 2023 and work I plan to make in 2024.
A calendar year is an arbitrary delineation of time, as far as work goes. I don’t have a fiscal year, and my projects typically last long enough that they often carry over from one year to the next. A project I begin in September might still be in progress in February, and a book I complete in the summer one year won’t be published until the fall of the next. 2023 was unusual in that the beginning of the year was a start of something very new for me, and on the tail end I completed a book I’d been working on all year. There wasn’t much overlap on either side.
It’s also easy to beat oneself up about the work one didn’t do in a year. I didn’t write that novel. I didn’t design those children’s puzzles I’ve been thinking about. I won’t do that here, because looking back, I tackled quite a lot in 2023. I actually made more new work this year than probably any year I can remember. Not always published work, and only one new book came out in 2023, but work that explores new directions and materials, and with different media in mind.
Teaching and learning
First and foremost, the biggest change in my creative life in 2023 was that I’m teaching again.1
There is no actual illustration work I did that came from this, but I can’t overstate how important it has been to all of the work I did, all year. I’m teaching an illustration class at Tyler School of Art, which is part of Temple University. The school doesn’t have an illustration major (yet), so the class is an elective, which allows me to keep things loose and interesting. When I reached out to Tyler about teaching, in late 2022, I had spent the past thirteen years working alone in my studio, which wasn’t exactly collaborative. I felt like the world was passing me by at times, and it was really a mental health decision to get out and actually be among humans again. It’s a cliché that if done correctly, the teacher learns more than the students but it’s certainly true here, and was a terrific way to begin 2023.
Part of the being alone in my studio for thirteen years thing is that for the same amount of time, I’ve been working almost exclusively on children’s books. Previously, my client list was quite diverse and included newspapers, magazines, book covers, game companies, advertising, marketing, animation and you get the idea. I love books, I really do, and writing/drawing them is truly what I wanted to do when I grow up. But I miss drawing pictures for grown-ups and the different work and subject matter it involves. I have been working as a “children’s illustrator” and not “illustrator.” Magazine and advertising art directors had no reason to give me a second glance.
In February, I signed up for a class taught by Mike Lowery, called Getting Paid to Draw. On the surface, a class called Getting Paid to Draw didn’t seem like it would be for someone like me, who has been getting paid to draw for nearly thirty years. But digging a little deeper, I saw signs that it might actually be perfect for me and my particular situation. I took a chance and signed up.2
Unlike teaching, I have a lot of work I can show that directly came from taking this class. Sketchbook drawings, self-assigned portfolio work, and assignments for the class itself. And just like teaching, it influenced everything I did the rest of the year. Just as importantly, as I create this new stuff, I have a much better idea of how to go about getting it in front of art directors and finding the work I want to do in addition to my books.3
One of the assignments of Getting Paid to Draw was to choose what Mike called “dream clients” and aim work at these potential clients. Like almost every illustrator I know, one of these dream clients for me is The New Yorker. As part of the class, I jumped right to the chase and made this illustration as a cover submission. It wasn’t used,4 but it got me excited about my lofty aims and goals.
By the way, more of this kind of work can be found on my website.
Getting my hands dirty
The above illustrations were made mostly digitally5, with an iPad and Procreate. Which I love. But in order to love these digital tools, I also have to get away from them, and to that end i’ve been doing a lot of work with wood and paper and glue. I took a class to learn to build picture frames, and I’ve been making a lot of collages. This combination comes together as one might expect, in building frames for my work, but also less predictable ways. For example, I’ve been putting collages on electric guitars I rebuild and fix up as well.
This hasn’t led to anything published (yet), but I did get a chance to show a few pieces in a local group gallery show this past summer, and I’ve done a few commissions.
I’m planning a lot of new stuff with both collage and wood in 2024. My studio has suddenly become a woodshop!
Going for a ride
I do a lot of work that involves bikes and in 2023 this work really peaked. I made drawings for stickers, event posters, and prints to sell in my shop.
I did not expect this
Two really terrific surprises here: Back in 2020, inspired by the world closing up for the pandemic, I made about fifty drawings of boarded up houses and abandoned villages. A friend of mine in Zagreb, Darko Macan, liked these drawings enough to write some text and even go so far as to publish a book with our collaboration. I drew these only for myself, and I never really thought they would see any light outside of the Flickr album where they live. This was a delight.
One of my favorite publications, Contemporary Collage Magazine, published a feature about my collages in issue 19. As I mentioned above, I haven’t yet been asked to make a collage for publication or for a book, but I love making these things and it’s become an important part of my life. It’s just such a change from my drawings, and working with cut paper and wood forces me to be okay with mistakes and think about images differently. And, I was just so pleased that the editors of CC like what I do enough to dedicate sixteen pages to it.
Work for grown-ups!
Getting Paid to Draw success story! In late August I drew my first editorial piece in many years, a full-page for Bicycling Magazine. The story was about taking bicycling less seriously and remembering what made it fun. It was for their Fall ’23 issue, out this last October. Drawn entirely on the iPad in Procreate.
And, of course, books!
Only one new book was published in 2023: I’m a Garbage Truck, written by Dennis R. Shealy, was published on September 5. My fourth Little Golden Book.
I illustrated two new books in 2023:
Last year I began hearing about this mysterious project that my agent only knew of as “The Eyeball Book.” In April, the fog was finally lifted and I began work on what turned out to be a ten-page halloween-themed board book for Grosset & Dunlap that parodies that old tune “On Top of Spaghetti.” It involves a skeleton, a black cat, and a runaway eyeball. I really had a good time with this one. I finished it right before Halloween, and it will be out in August 2024. More to come.
The second book I illustrated is called Pigs Dig a Road, written by Carrie Finison. This manuscript was so fun on first read that I quickly signed on. But it turned out to be one of the most technically difficult projects I’ve worked on. The mechanics of the story and the page-turns created all sorts of problems for me in the spring, and the team at Putnam and I really had to regroup and come up with some ideas over the summer. Work resumed in August and I’ll write more about this as pub-day approaches in September 2024.
Coming in 2024
I’m beginning work on two new books right now. One is a picture book about a construction crew dealing with some pesky birds, and one is a sequel to a chapter book I illustrated a couple of years ago called The Famously Funny Parrott. They’re very different projects. One will be drawn on the iPad, and the other with pencil on paper. I like having this diversity in my schedule.
These two books will be followed by a picture book about an otter and a whale, and the next picture book that I’m writing myself will be about a stinkbug. It’s funny — I somehow went 70 books and 20+ years without drawing a book where animals are the main characters, and now that’s almost all I’m doing. I have some thoughts on the reasons behind this that i’ll post here in 2024.
And, as promised, I’ll be writing my novel. This book is about humans, but animals and the ecology as a whole play a large part. Writing is hard, but I bet you knew that.
I have a show of my collages and drawings at a local cafe and gallery in October. I plan to create several new pieces for this, with a science fiction theme. Obviously, I’ll be writing about this as work progresses.
I was asked to do some work for a newspaper in Quebec published by Mille Putois in collaboration with Brasserie Dunham. The theme is beer or cocktails, and it’s going to be fun.
I recently unearthed a short script for a comic about an accordion player and his band that I never wrote, from 2002. I’d forgotten about it, and I liked it, and I hope to give myself time to work on it.
The two books I illustrated this year will be out in the fall: On Top of Linguine (Grosset & Dunlap) in August and Pigs Dig a Road (Putnam) in September.
And, lastly, I’ll continue writing this newsletter. Not sure where that will lead me, but I hope you follow along. Thanks again, and please, have a happy new year.
I taught as a full-time illustration faculty member for four years at The University of the Arts from 2002-2006.
I wrote a lot about this last spring on my blog, which preceded this newsletter. You can read it here.
spoiler alert: it hasn’t changed much since 2009. This was a relief and I didn’t feel so old anymore.
Or, at least, I’ve yet to hear anything after six months. I really don’t know how that works.
the cheesesteak was drawn with an actual pen on an actual paper, but it was colored with an actual iPad.