A few weeks ago I had a wonderful visit out to Buffalo, NY to visit Windom Elementary. I hadn’t been back to Buffalo in almost seventeen years, and it was comforting to see how many of my favorite sites were still just as I remembered them. It even snowed for me on the last day – just a little bit, but enough to remind me of the old days.

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Mrs. Pruneface! Diet Smith! Pearshape! Vitamin Flintheart! They’re all here.

Chester Gould was a maniac illustrator. What an imagination.

http://mikelynchcartoons…

Big Think has a terrific video interview with the legendary Jules Feiffer, author, political cartoonist, and children’s book illustrator.

In the children’s book world, Feiffer is probably best known for his work on Norton Juster’s classic The Phantom Tollbooth. Earlier in my career I got a job illustrating a version of Tollbooth for a textbook series, and working in Feiffer’s shadow was an impossible mission. Not only didn’t I have his talent, but I also didn’t know his secret of drawing with a pointed stick he got from the butcher. (Not that it would have helped.)

In his eighties now, Feiffer is still going strong, and it sounds like he and Juster have a new book out this fall. I’ll be the first in line to pick it up.

Drawing with a stick

Feiffer and Phantom Tollbooth

Full interview

Lately, I’ve been playing around with these two cool online drawing tools that have been wasting far too much of my time. Flame wins in terms of bells and whistles, but I think Harmony is still my favorite. There’s something about the way that it automatically sketches in the corners and darkens the lines that’s fascinating. I’d love to do a whole book in this style.

Flame

Harmony

Last week, while on the road, I had the chance to drop by and visit my friends Tedd and Carol Arnold. Tedd, of course, is the author of about a zillion books including the Green Wilma and award-winning Fly Guy series.

Tedd has a new exhibit of his work at the Arnot Art Museum in Elmira, NY, and he graciously gave me a sneak peak of the show last week. It’s phenomenal. If you find yourself anywhere in the neighborhood of New York’s Southern Tier in the next month or so, do yourself a favor and check it out. It’s a master class in illustration.

(As a bonus, the Arnot is also running a great show on fairy tale illustration upstairs. Two for one!)

Tedd’s website

The Arnot Museum