Re-Draw

In 1995 my friend Shon Schooler wrote a poem-like-thing titled 10 Reasons to Save a Drowning Fish (written 10 years before Amy Tan's "Saving A Fish From Drowning" was published), which I illustrated (as best as I could at the time) and we made 20 hand sewn copies. Now that I have a kid I thought I'd redraw them. Here's a sketch for the cover of the new one.

Alphabet Letterpress edition update

I just got word that Mark Wagner over at Bird Brain Press will be finished with the printing part of my alphabet letterpress edition. We will have 26 hand bound books available (online at x-ing books) - 26 pages (one page for each letter), in addition to individual prints of each letter. The editions for each letter are different - according to a crazy formula Mark devised involving doubling the letters included in Scrabble and a bunch of other stuff nutty stuff.  Sizes vary from of 41 (X's) up to of 50 (M's). If you're interested in learning more when they are finished - please sign up for my mailing list.

Please note - that the prints will be two color - not watercolor like the image above. The (remaining) watercolor originals are available at Adam Baumgold Gallery.

Weekly Sketch is back!

I'm feeling bad for not posting a weekly sketch after 10 years of doing so. Since I started a book project I have been under contract with McSweeney's to keep the images under wraps until the book comes out (I think in May 2010). So I broke out the old sketchbook this weekend and started doodling. Here's the first in what I hope to be a weekly thing again.

Pica Gun

My boss' boss retired and we put together a little mock newspaper for him, as is tradition at my job. I drew this for one of the articles.

Crash at Sunset 15 in. x 18 in.

Watercolor on paper. I used Lanaquarelle (instead of my favorite, Fabriano) this time and it was weird. It's much softer and requires more brushy-brushing to get the liquid into the crevasses. But I think the end result is nice - the edges are a bit softer. I initially intended to make this really red - but somehow peach won out. This is for a group show at Adam Baumgold Gallery in NYC called Story Lines which opens in May.

Press-ready

I went over the final specs for the small edition of my alphabet book today at Bird Brain Press in Brooklyn. Printing will begin next week. Here's the press, ready to go:

When finished - both single prints (edition number will be determined according to Scrabble set  letter counts) and handboud books will be available online via x-ing books.

Slow Down

I'm working on a children's book with McSweeney's right now - so I won't be posting much new stuff on the blog for a while. I'll likely scan in the occasional random sketch or something - but I'm not supposed to show the drawings for the book until it's published (hopefully this fall).