New U.S. Kids Illustrations

As always I had a great time working with U.S. Kids Magazines on this latest batch of illustrations. They're featured in the current Turtle and Jack and Jill magazines so please pick up your copies and check them out.

I especially had fun with Wee Willie Winkie which is on the back of this month's Turtle. It's always fun to do night scenes which make it easy to set a mood.

TRUCKS!

I had the great pleasure to create the visuals for the new Duck Duck Moose app Trucks. They're a really fun company and have a great team environment to work in. I'm very happy with the finished product and am very proud at the reception it's had. It's currently in the Top 10 in the iTunes AppStore and is featured on the AppStore homepage, Woot! Woot!

One of the great things about working on apps is that my daughter gets to play them. Though she's supposed to be a bit too young for this one (she's 1 1/2) she's mastered it already. She even seems to prefer the hardest game which is sorting trash. What can I say, she's a prodigy.

It really warms the cockles of my heart when we open up her folder of games on the iPad and she goes right to one I helped make.

A Naughty Wind - Humpty Dumpty Magazine

This is easily one of the most fun projects I've worked on recently. I recall a quote that I can't remember who to credit for, but to paraphrase, "Either do 1 thing or 1000 things." I think this is a really great concept. This would be an example of the 1000 things. Check out a previous piece I did for Humpty Dumpty for an example of 1 thing.

My natural instinct is always to land somewhere in the middle because 1 thing makes me feel like I'm being lazy and 1000 things is too time consuming. I'm getting better though!

Winter Night - Humpty Dumpty Magazine

I'm a bit late posting this since the issue this appeared in was the November/December Humpty Dumpty but better late than never.

I've been so crazy busy the last few months with a few large projects (which I'm very eager to share them but which must remain under wraps for now). I've also been on an extended working holiday from Christmas up until now. I'm finally getting back doing some promotion to hopefully keep things rolling throughout 2012.

This piece was for Humpty Dumpty's back cover. US Kids Magazines are always a pleasure to work with. I love that they give me quite a lot of freedom and don't usually have many revisions for me. For this piece they did have a revision though which was to add a cat or dog which I think was a good call (you can see my original sketch below). Being a cat person I of course chose a cat and I think it helped to friendly the scene up a lot.

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.