Sneak Preview

Here's an advance look at one of the drawings I just finished for a new book with Feiwel and Friends. If all goes as planned, I think the book's supposed to be out sometime in '08. This is one of my faves from the group.

Unintentionally Sweet

I just finished up a bunch of interior drawings on a book I'm working on with Feiwel and Friends. Whenever I'm painting in watercolors on my stuff, I always keep scraps of watercolor paper handy to dab my brush on/test my color on. Oh, and I do the same for when I'm doing the line work (dip the nib, then test the flow on the scrap sheet before going straight to the final drawing). This is one of those sheets. I had a few of these test sheets by the time I finished the drawings for F and F. This, I thought, was the coolest. At the top of the sheet are some sketches I was doing, a while back, for a picture book idea. And in the center (turned sideways) is an outtake from a job I recently finished (final drawings found on my website here). Some of the best stuff happens unintentionally, right under the nose.

New on matthewcordell.com

In addition to the new blog, there are brand new additions to these sections of my website:

HISTORY-added images to go with all the books I've done, with easy access for Amazon purchasing. And updated (deleted stuff from) my bio.
CORDELL-swapped out some old drawings I originally had here (ugh) with these real deal photos of me and the fam. Could be entertaining. I had, in place, a photo I took of myself that I thought looked extra debonair, but showed to Julie and she gasped "TAKE IT OFF! You look like you have a 'Jay Leno' chin!" Do I still?
WORK-most importantly, new content in my work section. Four new subsections: highlighting a snowflake I illustrated for this year's Robert's Snow auction (an excellent cause, do check out all the snowflakes and mark your calendars for bidding dates); some illustrations I did for an ad for Chicago's Youth Campus; and two sections showcasing some work I've been doing for a graphic novel idea.

Back to the Robert's Snow auction, these guys are doing a great job of promoting the fund raiser, including setting up snowflake illustrator interviews with bloggers around the web. Here's a link to an interview I did with Linda Budzinski at her blog Just Like the Nut (scroll down to Sunday, October 21). She, as well as all the other bloggers participating, posts links to dates and places to find spotlights of all the other illustrators going up. Good stuff.

Blog Number One

Here starts my blog. For the past several months, I've been watching my partner, my love, my biggest inspiration, Julie Halpern, tap semi-regularly her thoughts, comments, and rants into her blog. So I thought it could be worthwhile for me to do the same. Recently, I was able to quit my full-time-job as a letterpress printer to go full-time-job as an illustrator. Pretty much, that's what this blog's gonna be about. Doing that. So please, stay tuned.