2017 Highlights and Accomplishments

It’s been another exciting year of illustration adventures, full of thrills and chills!

ILLUSTRATION

  • An illustration I did for the Strottman Agency was published by Lowe’s in a Valentine’s Day kids’ activity kit.
  • Hasbro gave me permission to reveal some sticker illustrations I had done for a My Little Pony playset and a Fur Real poster for HASCON 2017. I also did a bit of illustration on a Star Wars playset that I hope to reveal soon.
  • Chuck E Cheese hired me to illustrate a music video on their YouTube channel.
  • I illustrated packaging for some new toys from Alex Brands (unfortunately I can’t reveal it yet).
  • I helped illustrate a bunch of fun cartoon monster characters for GoNoodle.
  • The Minneapolis Star Tribune hired me to illustrate ads for a local car dealership and a local credit union.
  • I illustrated a booklet for a nonprofit through the O’Design Group.
  • I helped local agency Create Play Connect with some concept art for a pitch to Allstate Insurance.

TOY DESIGN

  • I continued to help with toy design and concept art for multiple Hasbro projects (most of which I’ll never be able to show for legal/confidentiality reasons).
  • I was hired by the Strottman agency to help them pitch several toy ideas to Disney and Chick-Fil-A.
  • I was hired by a European company, Brand Loyalty Creative Lab, to design some Disney figurines (can’t show them yet unfortunately).
  • I was able to reveal some work I’d done helping out the Smiley company on a large toy concept pitch for Rubik’s Cube.
  • I helped design some plush toys for a new company (can’t say much about it yet).
  • I helped local agency Create Play Connect with some concept art for a pitch to Allstate Insurance.

CARTOONING

  • I’ve continued to post about one gag cartoon a week for most of the year.
  • I launched a Kickstarter for my first book of cartoons, Mostly Nonsense. Over 160 people backed the project! The book will ship in early January but you can pre-order it now, or buy the PDF version for immediate download.
  • My audience continues to grow. My cartoons were featured on the front page of sites like Imgur, 9gag, and Bored Panda. I gained over one thousand new followers on social media, I now have over 200 people subscribing to get new cartoons by email (it’s free!), and I gained some new backers on Patreon.

MISC

  • I was interviewed on the podcasts Origin: Stories of Creativity and Comics Coast to Coast.
  • I posted a few new videos on my YouTube channel.
  • I once again exhibited at both MSP Comic-Con’s.
  • I’ve posted some original art for sale in my studio store.
  • Although most of my work is very cartoony, I also do courtroom sketching from time to time. This year I sketched the trial for the Yanez-Castille police shooting (the one with the Facebook Live video that went viral). You can see some samples of my courtroom work on my other website, courtroomsketches.com.

Another productive year is in the books! Thanks to all of you who have supported me and shown interest in my work over the years. I wish you all a wonderful 2018!