Culinary Cartography

Here's a cover (above) and map I drew for this week's issue of Kansas City paper The Pitch. The article is a gourmet/local re-imagining of the Country Club Plaza -- currently known for it's chain restaurants, "Spanish" architecture, "Venetian" canal, and fountain full of weird rampaging horsemen -- by the paper's food critic. My starting point for the map:Google map I put together of the area in question:Some of the reference for replacement restaurants I gathered:Rough layouts:Pencil sketch:Lineart, vector background, watercolor wash:Finished map:Cover sketch:
Lineart, white water & clouds layer, watercolor wash:Alternate, more complex version, of the cover. I ended up losing the bacon, BBQ, lobster, wine glass and some other stuff, but it's probably for the better . Thanks Kansas City Pitch!

Redbird #2: 2006-7

Unfinished & unpublished pages from the ill-fated Redbird #2 I was working on in fits & starts a few years ago. Ink, white-out and homemade zip-a-tone on bristol board:Reference & thumbnails:

Birds on the Buttons

We're headed to our first game of the season, putting a new button-maker and old proofs from this print to good use. Let's go you redbirds!

Woot! April Fool's Mega-Post!

My pals over at Woot! have had me drawing lots of weird stuff lately. Here's a weird (and delicious) taste. Shown above is an old-fashioned papercraft gag you can download, print-out, and assemble yourself. Here's what the sketch looked like, and an alternate idea: If hi-tech gags are more your thing, check out this crazy Woot! Bag O' Crap video game I did a bunch of art for, also unveiled today:The idea is based on these shipping icons we developed a while back:And the levels of the game advance accordingly. I won't give EVERYTHING away but here are some sneak peeks at the levels and some of the goofy little animated snails and jittery obstacles I drew. Level 1 / Sidewalk / On "Foot":I love making animated .GIFs. Level 2 / Highway / On Wheels:Level 3 / Sky / Jet Plane:Flying Spaghetti-O's Monster:Level 4 / Space / Rocket Ship:

If that doesn't whet your apetite to play CRAPSHOOT! I don't know what will. Happy April Fool's Day, everyone!

In Search of Opening Day Jitters

Be sure to check out Leon's Opening Day Baseball and Beyond strips in this week's RFT...... and get a sneak peek into Leon's baseball card collection.Let's go you redbirds!

MY DAD! HOW DOES HE WORK?

I don't think I ever posted pictures of this magnetized birthday card I made for my WORLD'S #1 DAD a couple months ago. Here were all my little drawings that we printed on sheets of inkjet magnet paper......then cut out and affixed to this sheet of tin:Love you, Dad!