Life With Girls - The Forest Sprites

The Forest Sprites are something that I created based on a discussion on what fairies are by JRR Tolkein. He felt like fairys were more like nature spirits than little people as we see in Disney movies. So I designed a handful of them based on plant forms.

The subversive nature of Fairy Tales is something that I've always been drawn to. What better way to highlight the good and evil in human nature than a story for children? In 2013, I decided to do something a little more ambitious...perhaps too ambitious. While I'd still be making a calendar featuring the characters from Life With Girls dressed as characters from fairy tales, and calling it my "poor man's portfolio, it was a way that I could offer 12 high quality illustrations for a very reasonable price. I also approached several friends who are writers to retell each of those stories, so that I could collect them in a book with concept drawings, title designs, and more traditional fairy tale illustrations included as well.

Life With Girls - Brave Little Tailor

The Brave Little Tailor is a classic story of the small and meek overcoming adversity with guile and dexterity.

The subversive nature of Fairy Tales is something that I've always been drawn to. What better way to highlight the good and evil in human nature than a story for children? In 2013, I decided to do something a little more ambitious...perhaps too ambitious. While I'd still be making a calendar featuring the characters from Life With Girls dressed as characters from fairy tales, and calling it my "poor man's portfolio, it was a way that I could offer 12 high quality illustrations for a very reasonable price. I also approached several friends who are writers to retell each of those stories, so that I could collect them in a book with concept drawings, title designs, and more traditional fairy tale illustrations included as well.

Life With Girls - Sesame Street

I've always loved puppetry, and when I was in high school and college I wanted nothing more than to be a muppeteer and work in the Henson Creature Shop. I joke now that I settled for second best when I became an illustrator instead.

In 2012, I created a calendar featuring the characters from Life With Girls dressed as characters from movies that I loved and still love. Calling it my "poor man's portfolio, it was a way that I could offer 12 high quality illustrations for a very reasonable price. The concept behind this personal project was that the kids would have super high quality, movie authentic costumes, and the parents would have the kind of crummy "mom and dad made these" costumes. Each scene had to make sense in a setting that we could reasonably be expected to set this up if we'd done it for real. It was a lot of fun researching the real costumes, as well as figuring out a way to make the parent's knock offs and settings. 

Daily Life 022: Washing Dishes

September 23, 2010 - Daily Life 022: Washing Dishes

Abby loves playing in the water. She will literally stand there for an hour "washing the dishes". I was struck by just how grown up she's getting. I know I say it a lot, and will probably keep saying it, but it always surprises me when I realize that my daughter is a kid now, and not a baby.

I started keeping track of my life with the girls in 2009, in a series of illustrated status updates called "Daily Life"...As I finish up collecting some of these stories for print books, and catch up on some freelance work, I thought it would be a good time to post some of these older stories, so that everything is collected here on the blog. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have. :)

August 2010

August 2010

I always look forward to summer with a bit of trepidation. Missouri winters are dry and cold, but our summers are hot and wet, with no wind to cool off the day. About half way through, I am just done with summer.

August is the armpit of my year. I am tired of always being hot and sticky. It's a time to stay inside with the fan blowing cool air. It's a time to play on the carpet with the kids, a time to pretend we're someplace else...I take it back, maybe August isn't so bad after all.


I started keeping track of my life with the girls in 2009, in a series of illustrated status updates called "Daily Life"...As I finish up collecting some of these stories for print books, and catch up on some freelance work, I thought it would be a good time to post some of these older stories, so that everything is collected here on the blog. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have. :)