Philadelphia wants Poe

Over Thanksgiving break I completed my third assignment for Baltimore Magazine. It was for the "up front metro" section which is the same section I have done twice before, so I was familiar with the specifications. The illustrations for that page are always small, so that wasn't a surprise. The article was about Edgar Allen Poe and how Philadelphia feels he should be dug up and reburied in their city because he has more of a legacy there than in Baltimore. Actually, it was a Poe scholar who was arguing this, not necessarily the whole city of Philadelphia. The Poe scholar here in Baltimore who runs the Poe House is going to be having a debate with this scholar next month to argue his point. So the illustration had to show the struggle between these two men/cities wanting to have Poe. The idea I ending up doing was a variation on the one the art director had supplied me with, and I was fairly happy with the result. I had done a portrait of Poe before and I really wanted to draw him again, but the final illustration didn't really require that, so it was more focused on his grave, which is actually pretty ornate in itself. I did however get to sneak in a very tiny portrait of him on the gravestone, so I found some satisfaction in that.

The issue comes out in January so I will post it after Christmas.

Also, there will be a picture and blurb about me on the contributors page of the issue.

Baltimore Magazine April Issue

Here's a scan my illustration from the current issue of Baltimore Magazine. The article that accompanies it is about the fear and superstition surrounding the 13th floors of hotels. I also posted the sketches for the illustration as well.

Things have been busy around here lately. The past couple weeks I have been occupied doing illustration work for various publications. I was contacted by Baltimore Magazine to do a color spot for the April Issue. Then a few days later I was contacted by Pittsburgh City Paper to do a b&w spot, and then the following day I received another assignment (a 6"x6" color illustration) , this time from Hyphen Magazine who I had contacted earlier in January. I successfully finished all the work yesterday, although at one point it got slightly confusing about dates since the order in which I received the assignments was not the order in which they were due. Thank god for post-it notes.