The Alchemist

Jenny and I spent the day at Coney Island. It was a lovely day for hot dogs and sand and good times. We copped a squat next to a little girl who made me giggle with glee. She' is immortalised in my Moleskin in two dozen little sketches, the ones above are my choice pics. These were done with a ball point pen and a carefully rationed prismacolor marker. I love a prisma when it gets down to its last days of glory, somehow that's always when it does its best work.

Growing Up Keats

These illustrations are all for a little movie I'm working on right now about the life of Ezra Jack Keats. I'm waiting to hear back from the lawyers of his estate. There's only so much we're allowed to do. We're allowed to use his original book covers but none of his original artwork. We also want to be "sensitive" about the subject. That's a word being thrown around a lot at the office this week. It's just plain weird having to create art about an artist. They don't want me to in anyway use his style of illustration and they have all these rules about the difference between "homage" and "satire." Hopefully these pass the test and I can move on to animation soon. I really think these are fun to do. I like the bold lines and while they're different from my typical stuff they're a closer marriage between the way I draw and the way the company's work looks. They've been great about giving me creative license and allowing me to make these stand away from our typical style at the studio.