I’ve taken up embroidery in a very enthusiastic yet clumsy way. Here this my first completed project! It’s a small quilt with a monster theme. Fun with a LOT of missteps, but I’m learning.

It was pleasant to work in an unfamiliar medium with some real inherent limitations. And, oddly enough, it was kind of nice to produce something that must be seen in person to be fully appreciated. STILL! How to get a great photos of embroidered quilts… ?! It’s tough! If you have experience on such matters, let me know.

These are outtakes from a to-be-published editorial job, by the way. I’ve been experimenting with my process… doing a selection of finals to present to clients, versus “sketches” in a more traditional sense of the word. This only works with projects that are extremely straightforward, of course. In this case, what was need was “a cute dog!”.

‘Have a few jobs right now that are letting me use more traditional methods. Including pencil! Feels like cheating.

Oh my god my back hurts today. Is it from bad posture?

Easy to forget that you’re not only subject to the whims of creativity as an artist, but you need a measure of physical health as well. Ow.

An illustration for this weekend’s New York Times Book Review. For the book Death is Not and Option by Suzanne Rivecca.

AD Nicholas Blechman.

Just-released art for a YA book for Penguin/Viking: AKATA WITCH, by Nnedi Okorafor (April 2011). The story deals with an albino American-Nigerian girl who discovers a magical realm…

AD Jim Hoover.