Delaware Press Association

Sorry, I have nothing new to post today. Last night I attended the Delaware Press Association's annual awards dinner, so I'm a day behind with my cartoons.

To wet your appetite, here are a couple of sketches for cartoons I'll finish tonight. See if you can figure out what they're even about, and check back tomorrow to see the finished toons.

101 Dalmatians Color Keys by Walt Peregoy

Over on Cartoon Modern, Amid Amidi has posted a collection of color keys by Walt Peregoy from Disney’s 101 Dalmatians. They are amazing, and you should definitely check them out. And make sure you link to Cartoon Modern; it's a treasue trove of character designs and sketches from the best era of Disney cartoons.

Hat tip to Cartoon Brew.

McGreevey just won't go away...

James McGreevey, the disgraced former of Governor of New Jersey, has been hired as an "executive in residence" at Kean University. One of the classes he will teach - ETHICS!!!!

No need to elaborate further.

Here's the sketch:

Speedy Corzine

Here's the sketch:

Wilderness Society illustration

This is an illustration in today's Philadelphia Inquirer that was part of the commentary by Thomas Gilbert about the eastern U.S. losing forests to development. Gilbert is the director of eastern forest conservation with the Wilderness Society. If you'd like to read the commentary, click here.

Smoking Ban Celebrates First Birthday

Here's an illustration I did for today's Philadelphia Inquirer that accompanied a commentary by Fred Jacobs, about the passing of the first year of New Jersey's smoking ban. Jacobs is the commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services. I would post a link to the story, but apparently it isn't on the Inquirer's website.

Here's the sketch:

What will come of it all?

Sometimes, there is no ignoring a story. With everything going on with Virginia Tech, I knew it was only a matter of time before one of the newspapers I do cartoons for asked for one covering the event. I was afraid, because I didn't want to do Hokie Birds or Uncle Sam crying, no bulletholes in the chalkboard or blood-stained bookbags. But at the same time, I didn't want to exploit the events for a cheap joke. So this is what I came up with.

Great Moments in Presidential History

Tax time

It goes a LONG way down...

From the New York Times:
Senators Push for Answers on Pension in New Jersey
From the Asbury Park Press:
Creative accounting blamed in pension system fiasco

What if Chris Rock had said "Nappy-headed Ho's"?

Would he have been fired? Would he had even been booed?

Here's the sketch:

Get Well Soon Governor

Governor Corzine is in stable condition this morning as he rests in the intensive care unit at Cooper University Hospital following a car crash last night on the Garden State Parkway.

Corzine was leaving Atlantic City last night around 6 p.m., traveling with his aide back to Princeton to the Governor's mansion, where Don Imus met with the Rutgers basketball team.

Pictures of the accident and more information can be found at the Star-Ledger by clicking here.

Here's the sketch:

Heeeeeerrrrrrrreeeeeeee's Jaaaacccckkk!

Did this quick sketch of Jack Nicholson at work, and wanted to get it up, so here it is.

Enjoy!

Banks are sprouting like flowers

I have to admit, between having to do my taxes, getting ready to go to Washington this weekend, getting my artwork ready for my Delaware Art Museum exhibit, and everything else, life's been pretty hectic. I haven't had much time to get up my cartoons.

Here's one for NJBiz, about the sudden increase in the number of banks popping up everywhere. I guess they aren't hurting too badly from all the faulty sub-prime mortgages they lent out to borrowers with little to no credit.

I'll have more cartoons to post in the next couple of days, so stay tuned!

Here's the sketch:

Illustration in today's Philadelphia Inquirer

Here's an illustration I did to accompany a commentary in today's Philadelphia Inquirer by John Haigis, who serves on the Darby Borough Historical Commission and is the webmaster of The Darby History website.

The article is about the lessons we can learn about slavery from an archeological dig going on at the President's House in Philadelphia. It discusses one of Washington's slaves, named Hercules, who was considered a well-off slave. He was allowed to sell leftover food, earning about $200 a year. With that money he bought clothing, a watch, buckles for his shoes and even a cane.

If you're interested in reading the article, then go check it out here.

Here are some additional ideas I came up with before my editor went with the final one. Thought you might find them interesting:

Philadelphia Inquirer illustration

Here's an illustration of mine that's running alongside an editorial by Jonathan Meade, the executive director of the Highlands Coalition, in today's Philadelphia Inquirer.

If you're interesed in reading the article, then go check it out here.

Here's the sketch:

Finally, a Tax Rebate for NJ Homeowners

2008 New Jersey Presidential Primary

Well, New Jersey has voted to move up with the pack and have their Presidential Primary on February 5, 2008. According to Wikipedia, there are 22 states that are either holding or considering to hold their primary on the same date. And Florida and Michigan are seeking to move up from there! So I'm not too sure what New Jersey is trying to accomplish by lumping itself with the pack.

Despite this, there are two people that will actually benefit from this move - Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Rudy Giuliani. They are New York-based candidates that emjoy a strong following in New Jersey (one of which has the Governor's endorsement), and knowing New Jersey is in their pocket while other states may be a bit more competitive means having to spend less money here to secure the vote.

Here's the sketch:

Photo Referencing: The Debate Continues

Over on Comic Book Resources, Stuart Immonen has recently written an article on the use of tool and reference material to help make the process of drawing comics as efficient as it can be. And in response to people who think he is "cheating," he says:

"Picasso (a macho artist if there ever was one) said, “Bad artists copy. Good artists steal.”"

Check out the article for yourself. Read it here.

Tip of the hat to Drawn.

Illustration for at the Shore

Sorry for the delay in posting. This week has been really busy for me. Between everything that's going on with the Delaware Art Museum, the Delaware Press Association, plus all of my normal free-lance stuff, I'm fortunate that my head hasn't exploded!

So I thought I'd post something different. I've had a lot of illustration work recently that I'll get around to posting one of these days. This particular one is a cover for At the Shore, a New Jersey magazine around Atlantic and Ocean City. They wanted me to come up with a "New Yorker" style cover for their Spring issue, so here are some of my initial sketches.

My initial thought was to have a funny cover to show spring, like a bear that has just woken up from hibernation just chilling on the beach. I also thought of a Robin, and how funny it might be to have a family of them on the beach, since they're not beach dwellers. This led to the intial sketch that the editor liked, an out-of-place Robin on the beach with a bunch of shorebirds

I finalized the idea, which ended up being the Robin sitting on a shovel to help out the composition. The editor liked it, so I did a color rough...

...and finished it up for him. Below is the final artwork with the logo for the magazine. Let me know what you think.