Work in progress. Page 18 of "Gaijin- American Prisoner of War", a graphic novel written and illustrated by me, publ. by Disney, 2014. It's December 8th, 1941, the day after Koji's 13th birthday and, coincidentally the day after the raid on Pearl Harbor. Koji didn't sleep well the night before. His dad is still stuck in Japan and they haven't heard from him in months. Like so many other Japanese Americans, Koji was just the wrong color at the wrong time in the wrong place. And his U.S. citizenship didn't make a difference. Pencil, water color, gouache, 2012.

A color/character study done for my Academy of Art/San Francisco students. I focused on several water based material techniques- masking, lift off, dry brush, applying salt for texture etc.. Water color, gouache, pencil on 140 lb. Arches cold press, 2008. 

15 minute 9" x 12" water color study done for my Academy of Art Students/San Francisco.  The study is done with some dry brush but mostly wet on wet technique and was done to show them how to build a painting through warm/cool (raw umber/ultramarine blue) layering. Towards the end I also tossed in some cadmium red and viridian green. And, yup, it's supposed to be a self portrait.  There are some (and I won't name names but my bonus son Joe is standing nearby) who don't think it looks like me! I'm outwaged, I tell you! Outwaged!! ;) Water color, 2009.

2nd Thumbnail sketch for the cover of "You're On Your Way Teddy Roosevelt" by Judith St. George and illustrated by me, publ.d by Phylomel/Penguin&Putnam, 2003. Thumbnail sketching is a process which I rarely share with my editor or art director. At this stage I've already got an idea of what my characters look like so I'm mostly discovering the layout design of the illustration. Any applied tone or detail (clothing, hair, etc.) is very simplified. Once I've figured out the underlying theme and design in the thumbnail sketch, I'll make a bigger, more detailed drawing, which I call the intermediate sketch and shows much more detail and value application, and  this what I'll eventually show the publisher. Pencil, 2002.

Having a little difficulty remembering where I did this. Either I was in a chapel in Dublin listening to a lecture during a conference I attended at the Irish Reading Association of Ireland or I was in Chautauqua, NY at the Highlights summer picture book conference listening to a lecture in a lovely little church. Either way, I dug the big organ in the back and decided to add Mr. Handel to the sketch.
Pencil, white chalk on brown paper, Summer 2001.

Title page sketch for "The Return of Fletcher Leadbelly", a sequel to the first book I wrote and illustrated- "The Amazing Voyage of Jackie Grace", publ.d by Scholastic Inc. 1985. Pencil, 2006.

My fiftieth year had come and gone,

I sat, a solitary man,

In a crowded London shop,

An open book and empty cup

On the marble table-top.

While on the shop and street I gazed

My body of a sudden blazed;

And twenty minutes more or less

It seemed, so great my happiness,

That I was blessed and could bless.

W.B. Yeats

Pen&Ink, 2005 and 2012