Illustrating Books

Currents

Feb 11

Written By

Pucker up! Valentine's Day is approaching. This pair of beauties was commissioned for the Quirk Publishing release, "Kiss & Tell" (A Trivial Study of Smooching). Here's how it looks in print:

You might consider the work an Amuse-Bouche of sorts.

This Valentine's Day, many romantic tables will be complimented by that venerable Gift of the Gods, Wine. I've been producing art work for the Shafer Vineyards over the years, and contributed to this small booklet, From the Ground Up, which describes the genesis of the winery.

Designed by Michael Kavish, it's an interesting read and covers the sometimes bumpy road experienced by the vintners of this fine Napa Valley wine. I'll show you an illustration from the book, and an actual spread...

In 1981, an arsonist planted three homemade incendiary devices in the bone-dry valley, and the hills were on fire! A wall of flame came within fifty feet of the winery, then stopped -- arrested by the green, irrigated vines.

Another historical book I worked on was for the Boston law firm, Palmer and Dodge, who were celebrating 100 years of practice.

For this project, I was given the challenge of reproducing the Boston skyline for the flyleaves...

Boston of over 100 years ago... and now:

To give you an idea of the detail-level, here's a portion of one of the illustrations...

Lastly, I'll share with you a neat little pocket-sized book from The Arrow Shirt Company. I did a number of distinct spot illustrations for this one. The diminutive hard-cover was a combination of history, how-tow, and style guide, also containing some of Arrows offerings for that year. Some pages of the booklet follow...