Great, old advertising signage

This is the Bloch Brothers building in Dover, NJ. It's an interesting town, kind of caught between old and new. I like that they don't tear everything down there, but assimilate into the old. This lettering is gorgeous and most of these brick buildings with ad murals have been sandblasted or painted over. So glad they kept it!

Woolworths, etc.

I seem to be so nostalgic these days for five and dimes, automats and old restaurants from the mid-century. Places like Woolworths with their packed in window displays and red facades. I wasn't even alive in their heyday, but I am so drawn to places like them. I've read some good books lately that chronicle both Woolworth's and Horn and Harart. This is an illo I did using some vintage ephemera.

Pencil Sketches

When I first started out, I was very averse to doing sketches for assignments, feeling that my style was so loose, that something would be lost in the translation and the final art would suffer and seem too rigid. HA! I learned quickly that if you don't nail down the sketch, the client will have no idea of what you plan to do in final, no matter how wonderful you know inside (lol) it will! So, I put down my favored pen and surrendered to pencil sketches.
It's a good thing too. I now think everything out in this stage, saving LOTS of time in the end.

My Beloved Tortie

Miss Freckles, who turns 16 this summer, acts as studio supervisor. Here she is on my desk as I scramble to find a sketch across the room. So cute!

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new illustration

Here is a piece I recently did for self promotion. I figured Provence and Paris always got all the attention, so I gave Auvergne a plug. :)

No complainers!

The pages of the book are broken down into Summons and Complaints. It is a ledger from the Hirkimer County Sheriff's Office. (NY). The ledger was empty of any notations, but what fun it would have been to read them!

First, the end papers...

It all started with this...

Here is the ledger...HUGE! IT measures 14 inches wide by 16 inches tall and weighs about 8 pounds.