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Illustrator John Hendrix draws in church.  Over the years, he has has compiled an impressive collection of church sketchbooks, many of which he has posted on his web site .  Writes Hendrix: I attend church every Sunday, and I draw during the sermon. All of these pages were done in a pew....  Simultaneous drawing and listening transforms familiar language into something new- a feedback loop of symbols, theology and wonder. Paul Klee said, "Drawing is taking a line for a walk."  In a sketchbook, sometimes the line takes you for a walk. When it does, it can take you to lands where client specifications rarely go.  Hendrix notes: Drawing in my sketchbook is the very best part of my work. I love it because it is linear improvisation. Much like jazz, it is unpredictable, exciting and unfiltered. But there's another reason I especially like Hendrix's sketchbooks.  Perhaps because of the soundtrack, his drawings often muse over great big subjects:   ...

My interview with the gang over at SiDEBAR has just been released. You can listen to it here and check out their many artist interviews at sidebarnation.com

This post is the last in a series on the artists featured in the exhibition at the Delaware Art Museum,  State of the Art: Illustration 100 Years After Howard Pyle.   Comic strips were still new when Howard Pyle passed away.  In the century that followed, comic strips evolved into a major part of modern illustration.  Comic books, graphic novels, webcomix and other forms of sequential art now attract serious art reviews and win cultural prizes. So when it came to selecting a living artist to represent sequential art in the Delaware Art Museum show, there was no shortage of artists to choose from.  There are sequential artists who are innovative designers or Pulitzer prize winners or web pioneers, there are sequential artists who have written poignant personal memoirs or witty observations of the human condition.  But ultimately, for me the choice became easy.  If we focus on the actual dr...

Class demo, gouache on illustration board. This painting is available on the Original Art for Sale page.

This post is one in a series on the artists featured in the exhibition at the Delaware Art Museum,  State of the Art: Illustration 100 Years After Howard Pyle.   One of the major themes of the Delaware Art Exhibition is that technological innovations of the past century have enhanced the expressive power of illustration.  Even museum visitors who loved traditional oil paintings by Howard Pyle or N.C. Wyeth stood transfixed in front of video screens where Finding Nemo , Wall-E and Ice Age movies played .  The sound, the movement, the changing facial expressions and the glowing colors from an LED screen had a gravitational pull that made it difficult for traditional pictures to compete. That's why it was important for the exhibit to demonstrate that even the simplest, most ancient media could still produce pictures as powerful as any in the show.  For this purpose, I chose the work of John Cuneo .  The newest annual from the Society of Illustrators ,...

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This post is one in a series on the artists featured in the exhibition at the Delaware Art Museum,  State of the Art: Illustration 100 Years After Howard Pyle.   Sterling Hundley built a strong following at a young age, winning multiple gold and silver medals from the Society of Illustrators for his work in magazines such as Rolling Stone , the New Yorker , The Atlantic , and Entertainment Weekly. Hundley likes to employ a creative friction between contrasting elements.  For example, he combines traditional, representational narrative illustration with conceptual design.  In this illustration he uses the rules of anatomy and perspective to create the illusion of three dimensional space... Illustration of the inaugural address of President Harrison who spoke too long in bad weather, caught pneumonia and died.   ... but he also uses the design to symbolize editorial content.  Viewed vertically, the above illustration of President Harrison is the ...

Compressed charcoal on Rives paper, 15"x 22".

 Sketchbook quicky from a while back.

This post is one in a series on the artists featured in the upcoming exhibition at the Delaware Art Museum,  State of the Art: Illustration 100 Years After Howard Pyle.   Digital animation is one of the most important aspects of modern illustration, but it was difficult to identify a single artist to represent this rich and burgeoning field in the Delaware show.  A feature animated film requires a group effort, combining the skills of hundreds of artists, sculptors, writers, computer scientists and electrical engineers, so it was a challenge to isolate an individual artist whose imprint made a conspicuous difference. Ralph Eggleston, production designer and art director for some of the greatest films from Pixar Animation Studios , didn't make my search any easier by insisting that his own work on films such as Toy Story, Finding Nemo and Wall-E was one small part of a team effort, combined with "many talented artists and film makers at Pixar who continually challenge and ...