Eurotrip Sketches

I've traveled in Europe throughout the last month, have visited friends, family, colleagues and clients. I especially enjoyed re-visiting London and Berlin. Here are some sketches, all done on location…
EDIT: American Illustration has done a feature about these, with some additional drawings

St Paul's as seen from the Tate Modern, London

View of Museumsinsel / Berliner Dom

View from the steps of the Altes Museum, Berlin

Markstrasse, Ravensburg

Friedrichshafen / Bodensee

Backyard of my friends in Karlsruhe

Talbots Window Display

Earlier this year I was approached by a friendly art buyer for the Talbots department store chain, they had seen a location drawing of mine on this very blog, and wanted to use it nationwide for their window displays. I supplied them with a vektorized version and this weekend I finally saw it "in person", here in Manhattan (and I assume in other stores across the country). It was a thrill seeing my work on such a scale! Many thanks to the friendly people at Talbots!

Spring Day at Union Square

Even though it was a beautiful day, I decided to change location after this drawing. Mostly because of a nasty stench in the air. Other people left as well, others stayed. It is New York, after all.

Home

I have just moved, I'm still surrounded with boxes, but I finally live in a building that's fun to draw!

If you need my new address, it's on my website, or drop me a line. For courier stuff, it'll be best to have it sent to my studio.

Here's to new beginnings!

Central Park Sketch

Inspired by the beautiful weather, I did a sketch in Central Park this week.

Syncopated Sightings

Here are some reviews for Syncopated– A Collection of Nonfiction Picto-Essays, to which I contributed a story about Coney Island:

Comics Journal
News-a-Rama
ComicMix
Another article on News-a-Rama,
"Best Shots" (scroll down for article)

When reviewing an anthology, of course every reviewer has different favorites and tastes. But the overall response has been very positive.

Get your copy today!

Eurotrip: Munich

Finally got around to scanning this, some sketches from Munich, from our big Eurotrip in September. The large drawing is in the courtyard of the Neues Rathaus and the people doodles are from the Oktoberfest. I didn't know that dirndls were considered ultrahip these days! Or maybe that was always the case at the Oktoberfest...

Eurotrip: Paris

Here are a few location sketches from our trip to Europe, these were done in Paris. From top to bottom: Notre Dame (we actually went onto the very top), Jardin des Tuileries (wonderfully relaxing park at the Louvre), random people, and Pont Alexandre III (a cool bridge that spans the Seine).

SYNCOPATED in stores

Syncopated is a beautifully edited Anthology of Non-Fiction Picto Essays featuring some really cool people, I'm very fortunate to be a part of this book. Editor Brendan Burford originally self-published 3 volumes, before it got picked up by Random House / Villard and this volume is sort of a relaunch, but also a seemless continuation. It is much thicker than all other previous issues though, and has a number of great new contributors. As you can see above and below, my humble contribution is about Coney Island.

The book has already received a *Starred Review from Booklist, and another great review from Publishers Weekly.

You can order Syncopated here and also read some of the reviews. Of course you can also ask for it at any book store, they should be able to order it if it's not in stock.

Website Update

I added images to the Editorial Color and Editorial b/w galleries on my website. Also, I created a brand-new image for the homepage. Hope you'll enjoy it!

Coney Island Yard

I was at a tour of the Coney Island Subway Yard this week, to do research for a project. It's a very impressive place, with a lot of cool machinery and an enormous overhaul shop. Thanks to the MTA Transit Museum for organizing the tour!

Bulle Rock, Maryland

While I'm doing research for a new children's book, I wanted to post some sketches I did on my recent vacation at Lauren's parents' residence in Marlyland, where Life Imitates Vacation, indeed! Thanks so much, Michael & Michele for the great time!

Coney Island for SYNCOPATED 4

I've just finished with my 8 page comic story about Coney Island, which I created for the latest volume of Brendan Burford's Comic Anthology SYNCOPATED. This forth volume will actually be published by Random House, so all the cool stuff in there will get even greater exposure! Thanks to Brendan for putting it all together, and thanks to all the Coney people who helped me with my research.

100 Posts!

I wanted to thank everybody who has been checking in since I started this blog last year. I hope it's moderately entertaining to read about my illustration adventures and that you'll stay tuned for the next 100 posts!

Coney Island

Here are some drawings I did last year at Coney Island's Astroland. I'm very interested in the ongoing changes over there and planning to go back very soon to work on a longer story about this topic.