Here are 3 of the 7 pieces i did for an art show i was just in. The show was in New York at Powerhouse Arena and was titled "Slighty Strange: Unusual personal artwork of 5 contemporary children's book illustrators". The other illustrators in the show were Michael Slack, Jim Pailot, Mike Moran and Wednesday Kirwan. It was tons of fun, i got to be there for the opening on Aug. 2nd. It was all conceived of and curated by Michael Slack, thanks for thinking of it, finding the space, doing all the work and answering the millions of emails to make it all happen!!!
Pieces will be on sale on Powerhouse's website until Sept. 3rd (grab your wallet and click here)

Here's the first pass on a cover for SKELETON CAT, the publisher ended up opting for the simpler image that's on the book now. I'm finding that's actually a pretty common thing in the publishing industry, to go for a "less is more" "iconic" image. I know it's all based on marketing and i have no doubt they know exactly what they're doing, but still i liked this better as an image and wanted to post it. Maybe i'll make some posters out of it and give them away at book readings or something.

SPOOKY CREEPY SKELETON CAT

IS ON IT'S WAY!!!

Coming July 1st, SKELETON CAT

written by Kristyn Crow

illustrated by Me

published by Scholastic

Check out this awesome trailer

made by Dave Woody of

Tigers Can Bite You

original music composed by Dave

just for the occasion!!

thanks a million Dave!!!

this happened today, be careful working in front of fans.

What 2 year olds dream of.
Mia was talking in her sleep last night, mumbling something about raccoons, when she woke up we asked her if she had a dream. "Raccoons jumping in the bouncy house."

I found this article about Mitt Romney so disturbing i had to do a drawing of it.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/mitt-romneys-prep-school-classmates-recall-pranks-but-also-troubling-incidents/2012/05/10/gIQA3WOKFU_story.html

Old Joe Clark

Black Eyed Susie

I've been picking up the banjo again which means I've been listening to a lot of old-timey banjo music, those songs are so rich with "colorful characters" and "depressing scenarios" i thought it might be fun to draw a few.

Monday morning.

Here's a story Mia told me this morning.

and then there's this.

A couple times a week.

Look!! 2 books this year!!
"OH, NUTS!"
written by Tammi Sauer
illustrated by Me
Available September 2012!

One of the sad things about illustrating children's books is when one of them gets held back a year as was the case with "Skeleton Cat" last year. It was supposed to come out for Halloween in 2011 but they had too many Halloween books that year so it got put on 2012's list. It takes soooo unbelievably, hard to describidly long to do a book, then once you turn it in with all the revisions, title pages, spine art etc. etc. it takes 2 or 3 more eternities for it to actually be printed, shipped halfway across the world, put in bookstores across the country and eventually be released into the wild so it seems like you're working working working your life away and nothing ever comes out, it's really very sad. BUT, the upside of that equation is that it does eventually come out and the upside to one be being held back a year is that you can have 2 come out in one year which for me is what 2012 is all about. So now, listed on Amazon's website and with an official ISBN# which as far as i'm concerned is proof that it will eventually be in the world is... "OH, NUTS!"
More to come closer to the release date on what it's all about and why you must have it and how it will change your life, but for now just know that it is alive and start saving up your $16.99
Thanks!!

I just started another audiobook that I'm already enjoying a lot right off the bat. It's called "The Witch's Boy" written by Michael Gruber and in the first 2:00 minutes of it a witch who lives in the woods stumbles on the world's ugliest baby in a basket left for her with a note saying "The devil's child for the devil's wife".

"Well well..." she said to herself. "Let us see what some rude person has left." She opened the basket and looked in "Gasp... Oh My!" she said aloud as she beheld the ugliest baby boy that she and perhaps anybody had ever seen. He had a piggish snout (i love those) and close set eyes of a peculiar yellowish color, his mouth wide and floppy was already full of square little grinders. He was covered in coarse dark hair resembling the bristles of a hog and his ears were huge and pointed like a bats. His body was also oddly shaped, like a sack of stones and his feet were far too large. Of all his features his hands alone might be called 'good' their long delicate fingers flexing as the stubby arms waved."

I really enjoy books that give good physical descriptions of the characters, so much fun to draw.

Here's the link to the "Yirdswine" piece up for auction through Drawing Dreams, the charity that provides art supplies for hospitalized children. give til it hurts!

Drawing Dreams.org

Grocery Store #2 of 5,000. gender confusion.

Going to the grocery store with Mia #1 of 5,000.

Frankenstein is my very favorite story and I just started listening to it once again on audiobook and all i can say is... it's still my very favorite story. Nice work 18 year old Mary Shelley.


It's one of those books where you're so familiar with the story from all of the movie versions that you think you know inside and out what it's all about, then you read it and see it couldn't be more completely different. For anyone who hasn't read it yet I won't ruin it by telling you what it's really like, but i will say he doesn't walk around slowly, grunting like a zombie.

Here's a shot from the very beginning where Dr. Frankenstein is pursuing his demon creation literally to the ends of the earth, up on the North Pole, where he is on death's door and happens upon a ship very coincidentally exploring the north pole. He's down to his last sled dog and almost frozen to death and the ship's captain asks him if he wants a ride but instead of saying "sure that would be great, i'm almost dead" he says "mmm, i dunno. it depends which way you're going. 'cause i made this demon creation and i'm really into catching and destroying him" but he says it in that old-timey eloquent way people used to talk back then that's super cool.

and that's just the beginning. I love this book.

And here's a little animated diddy i whipped up for the occasion.

LOOK OUT!! A CREEPY SPOOKY SKELETON CAT IS COMING IN JULY!!!

How many times have you been reading some lame picture book to your kid about green eggs and ham or a boy playing on an island with a bunch of monsters and thought "this is Ok, but what I'd really like to be reading is a story about a dead cat who is struck by lightning and comes back to life to pursue his unfulfilled ambition of being a famous drummer in a rock band. And oh yeah... I'd like it to rhyme"
Well... I can't tell you how many times I've thought that same thought, which is why when the opportunity to illustrate Kristyn Crow's delightful "Skeleton Cat" manuscript (published by Scholastic) came up I jumped at it!

So for those of you who have been walking around all this time with a sad, empty, hollow, miserable, dead kind of feeling inside because of your inability to read a story such as this, I have this to say to you. It's time for you to turn your life around and be happy again by clicking the link here and buying this book. And for those of you who have been wishing for the same kind of story except one that features a zombie hedgehog instead of a cat, you might as well go ahead and buy this one because that's kind of ridiculous and no one is ever going to put out a book like that and this is probably as close as you're going to get, plus there are a few hedgehogs in it too so it's almost the same thing.

I am now pleased to present to you, coming soon to book stores and book clubs, wittily written by Kristyn Crow, lovingly painted in Photoshop by yours truly and published in lush, flexi-plyable paperback by Scholastic. SKELETON CAT!!! available July 1st 2012.

I've been really enjoying this audiobook called "Skullduggery Pleasant", it's a kid's novel about a skeleton detective and a preteen girl who solve supernatural mysteries. It has kind of a zoot suit vibe to it which is a bit of a bummer for me, but if you aren't bothered by that kind of thing or can look past it, the dialogue and interaction between the girl and the skeleton has a very funny, dry wit to it and they go on a reasonably good adventure. It's also an Irish book and the audiobook is read in all Irish accents which is kind of fun.

This is just a re-post from CartoonBrew, but it's the coolest thing I've seen in a very long time.
The Hobbit by Gene Deitch
In fact i think it's the coolest thing since this
or this.

Here's a little gnome enjoying a good read and a puff on his pipe.

Here's a piece i did on actual paper with actual ink and actual gouache. it actually got my fingers a little dirty which kind of freaked me out because it's been a while but i think i'm ok now. It's for a charity auction for the Drawing Dreams Foundation and will be auctioned to off to the highest (or any) bidder on December 7th at the Society of Illustrator's space in New York. If it looks familiar it's because it's yet another depiction of that, my favorite mythological creature "The Yirdswine" who is known for rooting around in graveyards and eating corpses, but this one is kind of cute.

I really like Moomintroll.

I really saw this yesterday, I'm hoping because it's Halloween.

my newest passion: illustrating spam emails.

for all you other old parents out there.

After i heard this story i went home and fact checked it. The only part that wasn't true is that it was the men's room instead.

I had to make a late night run to Home Depot the other night. Everybody there, like the guy in front of me buying a hatchet, seemed like they were up to no good. Then i realized I was buying 5 rolls of plastic sheeting and some duct tape.

"JERK EAGLE"

This weekend we were at the Santa Barbara Zoo where something hysterical happened. Some Jerk Eagle was flying around and spotted the zoo and thought "buffet". He was camped out in a tree all day enjoying his Federally Protected Status, while leisurely deciding which exotic delicacy to eat first. The zoo animals and staff were palpably nervous and the zoo even sent out two volunteer ladies in folding chairs to sit by the flamingos and otters and "keep an eye on them". I'm not sure how it turned out but he was still up there when we left and probably wasn't getting any less hungry as time went on.

I saw the Smurf movie last night, it was very inspiring. The best joke in it was when the Smurfs, while trapped in New York City, were talking about the Smurfs they missed back home. "I miss Carpenter Smurf and Mailman Smurf etc." Then Smurfette said "You know who I don't miss?... Passive/Aggressive Smurf. You always feel bad after he leaves." So genius. This of course led to a long discussion about all the shitty Smurfs you've never heard of before of which this is my favorite.

a little down time today. a worm lives in his nose.

And now back to Bleak House. Another of my favorite characters, the overly dramatic, manipulative and somewhat flamboyant Old Mr. Turveydrop. Proprietor of the local dance school who can be seen here (starting at 4:10) in all his glory rebuking his son's announcement of engagement. In 30 seconds he covers the entire range of human emotion from outraged betrayal to selfless resignation. Disgustingly played by Matthew Kelly... bravo!!

Mia... is getting pretty good at climbing.

Here's another one from Bleak House. The crazy old bird lady Miss Flite (get it?) who's obsessed with Judgement Day and has a million birds named things like "Misery, Greed, Avarice and Death." She reminds me of Mrs. Garret from Facts of Life.

Here are some of my favorite characters from Bleak House. This one is Mr. Skimpole. Dickens is such a master of onomatopoeia character names. Even if the name isn't literally what the person is (like Mr. Krook to follow shortly) you know exactly how to feel about the character by the taste left in your mouth after saying their name. Mr. Skimpole... pole. rod... shaft. this guy is a total tool. The 19th century equivalent of "Mr. Douchebag".

Speaking of his "half dozen or so children" Mr. Skimpole says "Care for them? How could I? I have no aptitude for work of any kind." When asked "How then do they live?" He replies, "Why... I've no idea. But live they do."

Ordinarily i like to read the character description from the book and draw that, but the casting and acting in this movie is such perfection I cant imagine them as anyone other than who played the parts, in this case Nathaniel Parker. Well Done sir.

We've been obsessed with British costume dramas for the last couple of months, we've probably wacthed 15 or 20 of them. So many fantastic costumes, sets, compositions, lighting, really beautiful movies. And the sideburns... Good God the sideburns. Here's the first of a series of 5 minute sketches I'd like to do from some of my favorite parts. This one is from Bleak House.

I saw this guy on a documentary and liked the cut of his sail.

Here's a piece I did for an upcoming show at Q Pop. The theme is "The Hamburger Lifestyle"

I saw a great interview by this author Gabor Mate about his book "In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts". It's about addiciton, behavior, childhood development, politics, a lot of stuff. He says the title comes from a Buddhist concept of different realms of being, one of which is the "Hungry Ghost Realm".
In the interview he says "people in it are depicted with large empty bellies, small mouths and scrawny thin necks, they can never get enough satisfaction, they can never fill their bellies, they're always hungry, always empty. Always seeking it from the outside" Kind of a haunting image i felt compelled to draw.

Mia at 1.

Mia engaged in her favorite activity. Pulling all the books off the shelves and standing on a pile of them "reading".

This is a prime example of what any new Batman projects are very likely not to look like.

NEW BOOK!!!!NEW WEBSITE!!!

Hey Everyone, Today is the day my book "Absolutely Beastly Children" hits the shelves! It also is the day that my newly renovated website http://www.dankrall.com/  is up (courtesy of the very talented and patient Cindy Morrow and her website design company GoodwillByDesign and the equally talented and patient Jojo Ramos who did the Flash animation on the homepage, thanks Cindy and Jojo!!!) Please stop by and see all the artwork I have been making over the last 7 years since the last update. It's not ready yet, but very soon a store will be open to purchase many wonderful wares.

If you have been so kind as to pre-order my book it should be on it's way! if you have not been so kind, it's not too late to redeem yourself!! Go into a bookstore today and buy as many as you can, go ahead and put them on a credit card and pay it off later. If they don't carry it throw a fit and make a scene and demand that they do. Much appreciated.
Thanks!!!
Love,
Dan