FrogFolio | The Storyteller

Illustration done for the FrogFolio calendar produced by Della Graphics. Every year, the calendar features some of the best illustrators working today. You can imagine how honored and shocked I was when the Art Director, Jim Burke, asked me to be a part of it. The only rule is that it involves frogs in some way.

After playing around with fables and fairy tales like the Frog Prince, I came across these wooden Frog masks from Bali. I've always had this weird obsession for older cultures around with world that have such different aesthetics from ours. I fell in love with the mask the second I laid eyes on it. From that mask, the idea began to grow into the person wearing it and eventually became just one piece in this traveler's wardrobe- picking up trinkets from each place they visit, carrying on stories from one destination to the next. 

There's items from China, Japan, Morocco, Africa, with others from as far as England and Ireland. 

Also, the characters on his robe are Anglo-Frisian runes for "Once Upon A Time. Or at least I think it is. It could be something like "Oncy Ipnh E Bime" or "My Feet Smell Bad"

Also, big news- I've started working on a comic book with a good friend of mine. 

Still in the writing stages but I'll be posting more later on. More coming soon. 

Linework

Thumbnails and Sketches

SI Happy Hour

 

With recent events coming up, Kate Feirtag, the Society of Illustrators Exhibition Director, wanted to incorporate more illustration into the event fliers. Makes sense, right? I got dibs on taking care of the poster for Happy Hour. First idea was to run with kind of an Art Deco approach- in particular, the Empire State Building in all of its glory. We later decided, however, that it was a bit too quiet for what we were looking for. Back to the drawing board. Going with something a little more literal, I came up with some new sketches and got the go ahead on the first. It's just like me to go with a flower as ridiculously detailed as chrysanthemums.  Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger, I guess.

Original Idea for Happy Hour Poster

Second run of sketches

New Poster Without Text

Linework

Happy Hour is happening at the Society of Illustrators on June 20th from 4-8. Every one should stop by to say hello! Along with my flier, Tara Jacoby illustrated the poster for the Society's Cabaret Night, which you can and should check out here. 

In other news, I've been trying to figure out what the difference between my blog and tumblr will be. I'm going to try my best to keep them different (with the exception of big finals, which I'll post on both) so be sure to follow each one. I figure I'll tend to write more about the work and my thought process here, while post more smaller things like my instagram sketches on tumblr. We'll see, it's still up in the air. More coming soon.