Tony DiTerlizzi » 2009

Spiderwick What if…

Thursday, February 26th, 2009

Angela found this cool post on designer, M.S. Corley’s blog. Here, along with Series of Unfortunate Events and Harry Potter, he re-imagines the Spiderwick series as it could have looked in the style of Penguin’s classics line from the 1950’s and 60’s. Here’s his take on Wrath of Mulgarath:

wrath

Pretty neat, huh? I LOVE seeing re-interpretations, I suppose that makes me a bit of an artsy-narcissist, but its such fun! In fact, you’ll be seeing more Spiderwick interpretations later this year…oooOOOO!

Posted in Blogroll, Musings, Spiderwick Stuff | 3 Comments »

Capt. Coloring Fantastic – Friday Fan Art!

Friday, February 20th, 2009

As I mentioned before, I have been posting fan art created by yours truly while we are here in Florida to avoid the chilly winter back home in Mass.

Feathered Elton

So, each and every day, I spend some time drawing, coloring and painting with my daughter, Sophia. I do this because:
1. I love spending time with her.
2. I learned how to create art by my mum doing the very same thing with me.
3. One day (hopefully) she can take over, and Ang and I can retire.

Every morning over coffee and sippy cups, I ask Soph what she wants me to draw and we color it. Sometimes its mommy and daddy. Sometimes its Mickey Mouse. Sometimes its Meno…or even a Gzonk or two…and sometimes its Elton John. 1970’s glam-rocking-piano-pounding Elton John. Crocodile Rock Elton John to be exact.

Jumping Elton

Since she saw him on The Muppet Show, she (like her dad) fell in love with the falsetto “la-la-la-la-laas” of my fav bespectacled pop-rocker. We’ve even made him out of Legos (which I will have to take a photo of). But, here now, our tribute to the Elton John of yesterday, as rendered in Sharpie, crayon, markers, paints, and Spongebob stickers…enjoy!

Singing Elton

Soul Train Elton

Posted in Blogroll, Friday Fan Art, Musings | 5 Comments »

Wordpress problems resolved!

Tuesday, February 17th, 2009

A quick note for all of my loyal blog readers,

I’ve been blogging with an older version of Wordpress which kept turning off the “leave a comment” feature. MY wonderful webmaster, Anthony, upgraded me this morning, so you should now be able to comment on any, and all, posts whenever you like:)

Heck, I even got the video embedded (with my cameo) from last week!
Yay!

Posted in Musings | 3 Comments »

TD Friday Fan Art

Saturday, February 14th, 2009

My personal, Tony D FFA-a-thon continues with a few caricatures I did over 20 years ago.

I LOVE good caricature, and I drew A LOT of them in high school and college. Anybody was fair game – teachers, friends, family…but mostly I focused my novice skills on musicians featured in our family’s LP collection. In fact, in the summer of 1984, I did a caricature a day until I had a three-ring binder full of them. I sent a few out to the subjects and got signed copies back! I thought this was THE COOLEST THING IN THE UNIVERSE!

So a year after I graduated high school, I did it again and got a few more sigs…as exhibited here.

Of course, these were heavily influenced by caricature rock stars like David Levine (with a hint of Ralph Steadman in Elton spec’s). Soon, I realized I was not cut out for this and was better suited at coming up with fanciful stories, creatures, and characters. After art school, I took Billy Joel’s advice (see below), but left the rock-n-roll caricatures behind and chalked it up as a chapter of my artistic development.

Posted in Blogroll, Friday Fan Art, Musings | 1 Comment »

NEW Picture Book Series: MENO!

Wednesday, February 11th, 2009

I’ve been terribly antsy to unveil my newest project, Adventure of Meno, which was created with my loverly wife, Angela!

The look and design is a departure from my usual style, but was inspired by all the little things that made Ang and I smile (including our kid):
Old Little Golden Books

Hello Kitty

KidRobot

Vintage cereal boxes

The first two titles, BIG FUN! and WET FRIEND! will debut this fall in bookstores everywhere, followed by two more next spring. I hope these little books put a smile on your face too:)

Posted in Blogroll, Meno!, Musings | 8 Comments »

A quick cameo

Tuesday, February 10th, 2009

My good pal and fellow kid’s-book-guy, Jarrett Krosoczka, has made several funny documentaries on the world of children’s books. His latest, The Making of a Monkey Man, done for a recent engagement at the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators features a very accurate behind-the-scenes portrayal of yours truly, enjoy:

PS – I couldn’t get the video to embed properly…grrr. So here’s a link.

PPS – okay, got it working:

BOOK BY BOOK: the making of a monkey man from Jarrett Krosoczka on Vimeo.

Posted in Blogroll, Musings | 2 Comments »

(A Different Sort of) Friday Fan Art

Friday, February 6th, 2009

Hi-ho all my friends and fam!

I apologize for not being as active as I’d like to be, but I have been unbelievably swamped with multiple projects. A good problem to have, for sure, and I am hoping I can go into detail about them next week…I am just waiting to hear back from my editor on what I can share and what will have to remain top-secret.

We’ve been in Florida for the winter. This allows Ang and Soph to go off and play for the day while I work. Its been quite an interesting experience for me – as I am surrounded by the world I grew up in, allowing me to tap into the boy-version of myself while I create.

Part of getting set up down here was emptying out an old storage unit which contained personal effects, some old LP records, some puppets I had made, A LOT of Star Wars toys (which I donated to charity this Christmas, sorry Joey B!) and A LOT of my old art – from grade school to college…whoa!

Since we are here for the remainder of February (and not able to get my mail in MA), I’ll post fan art that I have done over the years, starting with these proposed submission which I was thinking of sending to DC comics back in 1993.

I had just finished taking classes with the late Will Eisner and was serious about submitting to my favorite comic titles. But, I never felt I was up to snuff, so these images were tucked away in storage…until now.

Obviously, I was influenced by Tim Burton’s vision of Gotham. However, the Penguin’s outfit bears quite a resemblance to Mr. Spider from The Spider & The Fly.

So I guess this stuff never really goes to waste…in fact, the toying with these mediums (I think I was airbrushing FW inks) helped develop my style for the Planescape books which I started the same year…

Posted in Blogroll, Friday Fan Art, Musings | 4 Comments »

Archive for February, 2009

Spiderwick What if…

Capt. Coloring Fantastic – Friday Fan Art!

Wordpress problems resolved!

TD Friday Fan Art

NEW Picture Book Series: MENO!

A quick cameo

(A Different Sort of) Friday Fan Art

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