Neil Swaab's Blog, page 11
April 2, 2013
Illustration Mundo Q&A
I answered some illustration-related questions for Illustration Mundo!
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March 17, 2013
My Brother is a Big, Fat Liar Releases Today!
Hey, hey! That book, Middle School: My Brother is a Big, Fat Liar, that I illustrated releases TODAY! It’s the perfect book for the youngster in your family. What are you waiting for? Go get a copy!
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March 15, 2013
MICA Illustration Practice (MFA) Crit
I had a great opportunity yesterday to go to Baltimore and critique the second year students of MICA’s Illustration Practice MFA program. There was some really incredible work. Looking through their thesis projects and talking to them about their futures was both inspiring and relieving: inspiring to see great art by the next group of up-and-comers and relieving to know that I’ll never have to be a student in my 20′s again freaking out about my future. Dark days, indeed! I also gave a brief talk and presentation of my work and did a short Q&A. Thanks to Jaime Zollars and Whitney Sherman for having me down! Hope to be back again in the future!
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January 23, 2013
Somebody Up There Hates You and The Time Fetch
A couple new book covers I worked on for Algonquin Young Readers are making the rounds now that they’re publicly unveiled. I designed and illustrated Somebody Up There Hates You and art directed and designed The Time Fetch (illustrated by the amazing Brandon Dorman). Not shown here is another cover I worked on—If You Could Be Mine—which I creative directed and the incredibly talented Jennifer Heuer designed. Look for these awesome books in Fall 2013!
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January 18, 2013
Print Magazine Article “The Pencil Factory: An Oral History”
The new issue of Print features a big ol’ article about the Pencil Factory where my studio is located. It’s a fun oral history as told by all the illustrators and designers who have inhabited the space, written by Rob Walker. Give ‘er a read!
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December 19, 2012
Middle School: My Brother is a Big, Fat Liar
One of the coolest things I’ve gotten to do so far in my illustration career was to illustrate Middle School: My Brother is a Big, Fat Liar by the prolific and equally talented author James Patterson and Lisa Papademetriou. I spent six months of my life enveloped in the world of middle school, creating over 170 illustrations and comics for the lovely folk at Little, Brown and Company. It was, of course, a draining experience, but also incredible.
Like the other books in James Patterson’s Middle School series, the book is funny, poignant, and a darn good read. I’d highly recommend it for the younger girls in your household as well as the boys (she is in a rock band, after all). The book comes out on March 18, 2013, but you can preorder now on Amazon. All being well, I’ll hopefully get to illustrate another one!
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November 24, 2012
Whole Foods Illustration for Businessweek
I had the great fortune of being asked to illustrate a full spread for Businessweek about Whole Foods. The concept was to show the key components of the store as well as the people who shop there and then text bubbles would be placed on it highlighting the things the editors wanted to point out. I only had three days to do it, so, as you can imagine, there were some sleepless nights involved! Click on the image for a larger view!
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November 12, 2012
Il Messaggero Article
Nice write up/interview today from Il Messaggero about my work. At least I think it’s nice since I haven’t translated it yet, but I know we did have a nice conversation in regards to my comic and to the election last week so I’m trusting it was all good things. 
I was also interviewed for Rai TV as well, but never got to see it air. If anybody’s got it, send me a link and I’ll post it here!
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November 8, 2012
Society of Illustrators 55th Annual Exhibition
I had the honor of being asked to judge the editorial category this year for the Society of Illustrators 55th Annual Exhibition as a last-minute replacement. It was inspiring to see so many amazing illustrations by old and new faces alike. I even took a large list of names of illustrators that I hope to be able to work with one day as an art director for an appropriate project. Judging was an arduous task and there were certainly many deserving illustrations that didn’t make the cut, but the ones that did really excelled. Congrats to everyone who got in and to the gold and silver medal winners. I believe notifications will be sent in the next week or two. And to the ones who didn’t make the cut this year, better luck next time. It really was difficult!
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November 3, 2012
Love in the Time of Global Warming
Here’s a new cover I illustrated for Francesca Lia Bock’s Love in the Time of Global Warming for Henry Holt and Company. I was a big fan of Francesca’s books from back in the day when I designed them for HarperCollins so actually getting to have an illustration of mine on one of them was a big honor.
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