Santa's Big Helper iOS App & New Babies

I'm not the type to miss a deadline but it's tough not to when your first child arrives in the world two weeks early. Thankfully I had a very understanding client in Wet Nose Design.

I worked with them on Santa's Big Helper about a year ago under it's original title Elf Cam. The deadline for the artwork was the same day as my wifes due date and I figured the baby would likely be overdue (first children always are, everybody know that) so I had nothing to worry about. I had warned them though that if I was out of touch for a few days it was because we were in the hospital.

Needless to say finishing a large project with a newborn to take care of was nothing less than grueling but with a very understanding and flexible client it became manageable. Did I also mention that we had just moved across the country and hadn't yet to fully unpacked? I am pretty proud that even though I missed the deadline it was only by a couple days.

Our daughter is now 1 and it's been the best year of our lives. It's great to watch her grow up and my memories of her first couple weeks will always be tied to this project.

If you have kids yourself please visit the app-store and download Santa's Big Helper, it's fantastically done. My favourite part is the Elf Update videos. That guy puts a smile on my face.

Halloween Puzzle Pages - Jack and Jill Magazine

Halloween is my favourite holiday, so I'm quite pleased that I had the opportunity to create the illustrations for Jack & Jill Magazine's Halloween themed Puzzle Pages spread. My favourite part was the Frankenstein which in truth was primarily added to balance out the colours.

I love that these puzzle pages pose such fun compositional challenges. Look out for the next one which will be posted soon.

First Flight for Baby - AAA Traveler Magazine

The characters were based on my own wife and daughter.

I had the pleasure of working with Pace Communications to create an illustration for this month's AAA Traveler Magazine. The article by Amity Moore is titled Hush Little Baby, Tips to make flying with young children as easy as 1-2-3.

This was a very interesting convergence since when I created this piece my wife and I had only recently returned from our very first flying experience with our 7 month old daughter. Our own experience wasn't quite as easy as 1-2-3, but we survived nonetheless.

Pictured above is an idealized account of how our trip was for the magazine piece, and pictured below is my actual wife and daughter whom the characters above are based on.

They're even more lovely in real life!

One additional note, the pattern that I used for the chairs comes courtesy of Adobe and Von Glitschka.

Cricket Lullaby for Turtle Magazine

Pick up the current issue of Turtle Magazine and you'll see this piece I did on the back cover. It accompanies the poem Cricket Lullaby by Jacqueline Schiff.

The first sketch I did (see below) had the cricket in a suit and fedora a la Sinatra but that idea was nixed. I was sad to loose that touch, but I think it helped the image in the end because the suit would have diminished the effect the green has against the monochrome background.

In related news I'll be working on the puzzle pages for Jack & Jill (which is Turtle's sister magazine) for September through to the end of 2012. Be sure to check out the first installment which is a Halloween themed spread.

Burning Celebrities for Keep the Heat

Alex Negrete of Keep the Heat fame asked me to make a background with a bunch of celebrities heads screaming and yelling and caught up in fire. Needless to say I said yes.

You can see the complete full sized background here.

Chef Able's Fables

Believing in the importance of healthy food for kids is something that Chefables and I have in common. So when they asked me to participate in their book Chef Able's Fabels I was more than happy to help out.

Below are the two spreads that I worked on for the Take Out Philosophy story, plus my concept sketches.

The Old Ball Game

Since I'm a big baseball geek I was thrilled when I landed this assignment from Humpty Dumpty Magazine. I was also thrilled when they didn't seem to mind me referencing my team the Toronto Blue Jays, and about to strike out the Red Sox no less! I also decided to make the second baseman a boy version of new Hall-of-Famer Roberto Alomar.

This piece is featured on the back cover and accompanies the poem The Old Ball Game by Lorna Johnson. It's on shelves now so get yours today!

Spring Cleaning

I think I promised that this would drop last week, but it's been quite busy of late which is always a nice problem to have.

This was created for a postcard promotion that went out last month. Below is the bonus accompanying wallpaper. Click it to download the hi res image.

Masthead Spread for Turtle Magazine

Hey, if you check out the March/April issue of Turtle Magazine then you can see the above illustration featured on the masthead spread. It accompanies a poem by Suzanne Wenk.

Stripping for Spring

To celebrate the coming spring I created this and another piece which will be debuted here next week (check back soon!). After living in Edmonton for 4 years and then moving back to Ontario, spring seems so early now! Man I hate winter.

 

You can see from the original sketch below that I made a few adjustments to the final piece. I eliminated the naked winter tree and gave the snowman a scarf to help the visual flow from left to right which is really important in this piece. The scarf also helps tie in the gold colour throughout the entire image. The tree was a case where something looks good in a sketch but is obviously out of place once seen in colour.

As an added bonus, this piece has also been made into a handy desktop wallpaper that you can download in full size here.

Sweater Be Gone!

It's been a while since I've had the chance to participate in an Illustration Friday topic, but I have a very slight lull for about a day and so I had the opportunity to do a sketch for this week's topic of "sweater". It was inspired by the fact that we've had a couple days of unseasonably warm weather, and I have the urge to run outside and shed clothing much like in the piece. Don't worry neighbors... I won't actually do it.

Once finished I'll be using this piece for a promotional email next month to celebrate spring, and as my new homepage header at The I Spot. Check back next month because I'll also post the finished product here.

Retro Pixel Background for Keep the Heat

To celebrate hitting 500,000 subscribes Alex of YouTube's Keep the Heat fame commissioned this fresh new background. It was a fun challenge since I had never created anything with this pixelated look before but I think it came out great.

Working with Alex is always a good time since he always has a fun new idea. I'm glad that I'm his go-to illustrator!

Toothless Illustration for Humpty Dumpty Magazine

If you check out the new issue of Humpty Dumpty Magazine you'll find my work on the back cover. The piece accompanies a poem by Jody Jensen Shaffer called "Toothless". Below you can see some of the concept sketches. The first attempt (far left) came out a bit too scary looking to be age appropriate so I created two more sketches as options and we went with the latter one.

2011 Winter Wallpaper

It took a while for me to get around to this with workload, Christmas holidays, and a new baby in the house, but here it is at last, a fresh new wallpaper for 2011. If all goes well I'll have 3 more this year - one for each season. So please check back in April for the next installment.

Since Blogger limits image sizes to 1600x1000 pixels, go here if you'd like to download the full size wallpaper.