2023: Art School Workout Plan

Here’s the scenario: you have one, maybe two hours a day. You can either workout, draw, or clean the house. Your physical, mental, and emotional health are counting on all three of these to happen every day but you can only choose one.

For better or for worse, most days, I chose drawing. I wanted to get my portfolio back in shape. For much of 2023, I had a good routine going of drawing or painting for 20-40 minutes in the morning. It was a great way to start the day but in recent months, I’ve been unable to do so consistently. It’s a practice I need to reinstate for my sanity and productivity. Also for my sanity and productivity, getting back to consistently working out 4-6 days per week is going to have to happen too.

In college, we were often told that our performance during summer or winter breaks would be a good indicator of whether or not we’d make it in the illustration field. In other words, if you can maintain consistency in work habits and continue producing images when you aren’t being required to do so for a grade, you’ll likely have the stamina and drive that will be required to work in a freelance-based field. From an institutional standpoint, I’m a long way away from art school but my study and practice continue. Through continued examination of art history and the history of design, I’m trying to homogenize my interests and ideas into new, cohesive, meaningful work.

I’m realizing that in 2023, I sent myself back to art school, wherein I was both facilitator and student. The art history old masters and the giants of 20th century illustration were my instructors. Art directors and editors graded assignments on a published/rejected system (instead of pass/fail), though it’s unfair to say that rejected works were failures. This study will continue and intensify in 2024.

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Here’s the Cliff’s Notes version of 2023 in illustration:

• My wife and I made new cartoons that were either rejected or published in magazines.

• We started writing about old cartoons and sent them to people every week.

• Apparently our Christmas cards are a hit.

• I rebuilt my illustration portfolio.

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I produced five new color illustration in 2023 plus 20 spot illustrations. Nine of the spot images were for an illustrated piece I produced in February called Daycare Snow Day Workout Plan

In hindsight, I should have shopped it around to get it published. Maybe it would have been rejected everywhere but at least I would have tried. I regret putting it straight on Instagram because using Instagram only benefits the executives at Meta.

The image above is my favorite of those spot illustrations. These were done in ink washes with charcoal line and while they bare little resemblance to Curious George, the media selections were inspired by H.A. Rey, whose work I studied at length in the early portion of the year.

An additional eleven full-color spot illustrations were produced in support of a lengthy humor piece that my wife and I have been working on since 2021. It was rejected by The New Yorker in October but we did receive our first bit of personalized feedback from them on that one!

We’ve been getting boiler plate rejections from The New Yorker since 2017 so I can probably recite them from memory but to receive these six works in addition to the boiler plate… this was actually a big deal to us (not being sarcastic. It really was)! We’re still shopping that piece around.

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In February, Buddy and Romeo, the stars of my last newspaper comic strip Mates and Dates, were resurrected via a weekly Substack newsletter. It was started on somewhat of a whim after re-reading some of the cartoons that had been buried on an external hard drive. My wife and I figured no one would subscribe and then that would be it. We were surprised when people not only signed up but some were generous enough to do so as paid subscribers. The support and interest shown in the characters has lead to our forthcoming book Buddy and Romeo: Alone for the Holidays, which will include the first new Buddy and Romeo comic strips since 2018. A handmade stuffed Buddy doll is even in the works!

Join us! Subscribe to the Buddy and Romeo Cartoon Substack for weekly cartoons and commentaries!

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This year saw the creation of more Frega DiPerri single-panel cartoons and with them came a pile of rejection. Rejection is a steadfast part of working in that industry. For some publications, rejection is part of “paying your dues” but even once you’ve sold your first cartoon to that publication, you’ll still face a mountain of rejection. Rejection comes no matter how well established a cartoonist you are and it’s a game of odds. The more submissions you make, the more you increase your odds of publication. Amidst all of the rejection, there were several cartoon publications. In 2023, we made first-time sales to The American Bystander, The Funny Times, and Literary Review and continued contributing cartoons to magazines like Kappan and Weekly Humorist. Here are a few of my favorite cartoons that were published in 2023.

Published in Kappan

First published in Kappan; Later published in Frazzled

Published in After Happy Hour Review

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Frazzled published our first illustrated humor piece in May. It featured 10 Frega DiPerri cartoons on parenting and one of my favorite new illustrations, Hashtag Blessed (Ladonna and Her Sons in the Morning). The illustration was inspired by the Hellenistic Greek sculpture “Laocoon and His Sons” and modern graphic design (everything precisely positioned for flow and readability). With my new illustration work, I’m interested in pairing the old and the new (art history and geometric design) and producing work that is powerful (contrast, strong figures/poses), theatrical (positioning, expression, lighting, 1980s Colorforms), and playful (mixed media, contour drawings).

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Tomorrow, January 1, 2024, Mickey Mouse and Tigger (original 1928 designs) will join other artistic creations in entering the public domain. This past July, I completed what is not only my favorite of the new illustrations but also the product of all of the techniques and experimentation from other new work. Escape from the Public Domain celebrates mostly forgotten public domain characters in newspaper comic strips. Prior to this, my process was pretty much draw, paint, scan, edit. This time, elements were drawn, painted, cut out and assembled manually with tape, lit, and photographed. All of the cast shadows you see are real because the depth created by the cutout elements is real. As the digital age moves into the AI age, I think it’s doubly important to emphasize the handmade quality of my illustrations.

You can buy a giclee print of Escape from the Public Domain!

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Our Coffee Lovers’ Christmas greeting card/print/gift line had its best year since it was introduced in 2019. Each year has seen an increase in sales over the year prior but this year, oh my goodness. In 2023, we sold more cards than we did in 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022 combined.

For the first time, Coffee Lovers’ Christmas cards were sold in a coffee shop!

We continue to be amazed by the excitement, support, and interest that has been shown for the series and are humbled that each sales year has been bigger than the last. Four new illustrations were added to the “Second Crack” greeting card collection and two of the new designs (“City Date” and “Santa’s Nap”) became two of our overall best sellers. When Coffee Lovers’ Christmas returns for its sixth year in late 2024, we’ll have new designs , new products, and (hopefully) more stores carrying our cards!

You can get a jump on your 2024 Christmas shopping by checking out Coffee Lovers’ Christmas here.

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What follows is the best media I encountered this year (not all of what is listed came out in 2023. Rather, this is when I first encountered them).

TV SHOW: Loki: Season 2 (Marvel Studios, 2023)

MOVIE: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Sony Animation, 2023)

BOOK: The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck by Don Rosa

These are the songs that defined my year:

What Once Was - Her’s

Salt Lungs - Logan Bowden

Evangeline - Stephen Sanchez

Fireworks - Joseph

Dawn (from the Pride & Prejudice soundtrack) - Dario Marianelli

Let You Break My Heart Again - Laufey

and

I Can See You - Taylor Swift

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See you in the funny papers.

Nathan

Daycare Snow Day Workout Plan

A couple months ago, I episodically posted the Daycare Snow Day Workout Plan on Instagram. Here it is, in one place for you to…bookmark and save until you can actually do it next winter…

That said, here’s your medical disclaimer absolving me of responsibility for choices that you make entirely on your own: This is not a real workout and is meant to be slightly humorous. I’ve been training for 20 years and when I take my kids out in the snow, I entertain myself (and them) by incorporating something of a workout into the way we play. Their safety (and enjoyment) takes priority.

With that out of the way, let’s get right into it!

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The Daycare Snow Day Workout Plan

WARM-UP: SHOVELING

Time: TBD

Shovel the driveway and any necessary sidewalks, walkways, decks, and hydrants. Focus on breathing and patience on each rep. Rest whenever needed. Your warm up may take hours and is not finished until the job is finished. Once you have completed your warm-up, proceed to the first exercise.

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PRESCHOOL SLED CURLS

Weight: 25-45 lbs.
Sets and Reps: TBD

As you walk forward and curl the weight, focus on contracting the bicep and keep the motion smooth lest you hear crying or complaining from your passenger. Change arms when you reach failure and repeat until you can no longer curl. Continue walking and pulling the sled until you are able to curl again or until your preschooler (or toddler) loses interest (whichever comes first).

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PRESCHOOL SQUATS AND PUSHOUTS

Weight: 25-45 lbs.
Sets and Reps: TBD

Holding your preschooler securely under the arms, squat down at or below ninety degrees. Explode up to your toes and press your preschooler away from your chest at the top of the movement. Control the motion and fight the resistance as you bring the preschooler back toward your body and return to a squat position. [NOTE: Plyo push outs are not recommended for this exercise! ] Repeat until MECHANICAL FAILURE (ability to ensure proper form for safety). If preschooler requests more, rest for a second or two and resume, ensuring perfect form. When you can't safely do anymore or your preschooler loses interest, proceed to the next exercise.

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INFANT SLED CURLS

Weight: 15-25 lbs.
Sets and Reps: TBD

Ready for another round of sled curls? It's getting late in the workout so this time, drop the weight down. As you walk forward and curl the weight, focus on contracting the bicep and keep the motion smooth lest you hear crying from your passenger. Change arms when you reach failure and repeat until you can no longer curl. Continue walking and pulling the sled until you are able to curl again or until your infant doth protest too much (whichever comes first).

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INFANT SLED SPRINTS

Weight: 15-25 lbs.
Sets: TBD

This one's pretty self explanatory. Hold the sled and run. Alternate between running forward, looking over your shoulder, and running backward to ensure your passenger's safety. Pace yourself so that your cargo has a smooth ride... and so that you have the stamina to make the ride last longer than 15 seconds. Transition to walking as necessary but don't stop pulling the sled. Continue until you can no longer walk or until your infant has reached their threshold (whichever comes first).

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COOL DOWN: RESTING SNOW ANGELS

Sets: TBD

It's been an intense workout and now it's time for some well-deserved rest. Nobody will notice (hopefully) if you're just lying there while everyone else makes snow angels. If you are called out, do a snow angel for one rep. Say "Mommy's tired," or "Daddy's tired," for as many reps as needed for the kids to stop pressing you.
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If this is not where your workout ends and you're required (or wanting) another round of the complete circuit, by all means, repeat.

2022: Clarity

There’s a line in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2 (2004) where Peter Parker (played by Tobey Maguire) tries to focus on his priorities and who he wants to be after giving up being Spider-Man. “Strong focus on what I want…” he says.

And then he leaps off a building.

Fortunately, I didn’t leap off any buildings in 2022 but I did take some big leaps that were a long time coming. When my family finally got Covid in January after two years of sacrifices and futile precautions to keep us all safe (not to mention the palpable anxiety and dread), the isolation period (and sickness) afforded us the time and space required to reflect on our lives and the direction we were going. Changes were needed and changes were made.

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Here’s the Cliff’s Notes version of my year in illustration:

January: animation; February - April: magazine cartoons; May - July: spot illustrations; July - September: portfolio illustrations; October - November: Coffee Lovers’ Christmas illustrations; December: portfolio illustration.

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The first big leap came in January — when I applied to Walt Disney Feature Animation.

I know. It sounds absurd and it felt absurd at the time because what business do I — an entirely self-taught animator who is a hobbyist at best — have applying to Disney? Well, they announced they were starting a training program to bring hand-drawn animation back to Disney so I figured, why not take a chance and try? After all, it’s a training program. I had wanted to be a Disney animator since I first started drawing when I was four-years-old. In middle school, that dream gave way to becoming a syndicated comic strip creator and it wasn’t until my mid-20s that I rediscovered my passion for animation and began the process of teaching myself traditional hand-drawn animation in earnest. Though I’ve improved a lot over the years, I have no delusions about the quality of my work compared to that of the masters and professionals that I so admire. But the opportunity to apply to Disney’s animation training program and to learn directly from those masters doesn’t come around often and I knew I’d regret not trying. Here’s my animation reel. It’s not perfect but it’s the best of my journey as a self-taught animator.

Over 2000 other artists decided to “give it a shot “too. It came as no surprise that I was not among the SIX animators that were selected for the training program but I enjoyed the process of preparing new shorts and putting a demo reel together. As far as my future in animation, right now, it remains a hobby and a personal passion that I enjoy revisiting and studying at my leisure. I’ve got another Buddy and Romeo short that I’ve been picking up and putting down since 2019. I’m happy to know that it’s there for me to work on whenever the mood strikes and time permits.

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February marked 10 years since the stage debut of the first play I wrote, Miss Wallace Rhymes With William. To commemorate the anniversary, I re-edited the promotional trailer (linked below). Miss Wallace Rhymes With William was published by Heartland Plays, Inc. in March 2014 and has since been performed at several high schools in the U.S. and Canada.

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This year saw the creation of more Frega DiPerri cartoons and with them came a pile of rejection. Rejection is a steadfast part of working in that industry. For some publications, rejection is part of “paying your dues” but even once you’ve your first cartoon sold to that publication, you’ll still face a mountain of rejection. Rejection comes no matter how well established a cartoonist you are and it’s a game of odds. The more submissions you make, the more you increase your odds of publication. Amidst all of the rejection, there were several cartoon publications. From Maine Sportsman and Long Con Magazine to a few cartoons in both Phi Delta Kappan and Weekly Humorist, it’s always a pleasure to be published. In addition to those that were published in 2022, we also sold a handfull of cartoons this year that will be published in 2023. Here are a few cartoon highlights from Phi Delta Kappan and Weekly Humorist.

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In 2020, I produced 32 black and white spot illustrations for author Pete Lincoln’s short story memoir, Tales from the Cabin. I was delighted and honored to be asked back to draw 40 more illustrations for the follow up, Two Told Tales, which was co-authored by Mr. Lincoln’s wife Debbie. Illustrating this batch of tales was even more fun than the first batch of 32. If ever the phone call comes for a third book, I’ll be excited to get started on another batch of images. Great fun!

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Right around the time that I was wrapping up the work on Two Told Tales, I came to (what should have been) an obvious realization: “Oh yeah! I’m an illustrator.” I studied illustration in art school (with that came extensive training in fine art, art history, and graphic design) and, initially, had a good run at editorial illustration. My first professional illustration assignment was published during my senior year of college in a New Bedford, MA newspaper called The Standard Times — actually it was 16 years ago today on December 31, 2006. From there, I steadily grew my editorial illustration client list, the most frequent client being Cruising World magazine, with whom I began working in 2007. After I launched my daily newspaper comic strip in August 2011, I shifted my time and energy toward the comic strip (which demanded all of that time and energy anyway). My last personal portfolio piece was painted in 2012 and I stopped contacting art directors looking for work soon after. I did, however, still accept assignments from Cruising World, which I received steadily until 2014. That year marked the start of a one-year story arc in the comic strip, which was the most demanding (and fulfilling) work I ever did in comic strips (you can find those strips in My Guardian Grandpa Volume IV: In Their Day — click the “SHOP” tab on this website!). My focus remained on the comic strip until daily publication ceased in November 2018.

“I’m Spider-Man... no more.”

— Peter Parker in Spider-Man 2

A couple months before the comic strip ended, in August 2018, my wife and I dusted off a long dormant and gestating project we had dreamed up back in 2012: a series of coffee-themed Christmas cards called Coffee Lovers’ Christmas. I had painted one image of Santa Claus filling coffee mugs hung on the chimney in 2014 but quickly realized I didn’t have time for anything besides the comic strip (well… the comic strip and the plays I was also writing and directing at the time). To complete the first batch of 10 designs, I painted nine more images from July to December 2018 and they were essentially the first illustrations I’d done since stepping away from illustration in 2014.

“Strong focus on what I want...”

— Peter Parker in Spider-Man 2

This July, I decided to consciously re-enter the field and produced three new portfolio pieces: a triptych series of The Big Three in men’s tennis, each posed as one of art history’s famous David sculptures. Initially, I envisioned it as one painting that featured several tennis greats (male and female) in a Marvel’s Avengers-style comic book page. The idea soon evolved into something more firmly rooted in my art history training. The David Triptych: Roger, Rafael, and Novak was painted between July and September; one panel per month.

Julie and I have shared an Instagram account since 2017 upon which we post our collaborative work: Buddy and Romeo comics; Frega DiPerri cartoons and Coffee Lovers’ Christmas (follow @FregaDiPerri). In July, I set up an account to spotlight my solo illustration work. If you haven’t already done so, I hope you’ll join me on Instagram @NathanJDiPerri as I continue to develop new portfolio work. My latest illustration is days away; the final pencil drawing has been transferred to watercolor paper and awaits inking and painting. I’m getting excited about two additional illustrations that will follow soon thereafter and am looking forward to sharing new work with you in 2023!

“I’m back! I’m back!”

— Peter Parker in Spider-Man 2

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The fourth sales year of our Coffee Lovers’ Christmas greeting card/print/gift line was our best yet. Incredible! Julie and I continue to be amazed by the excitement, support, and interest that has been shown for the series and are humbled that each sales year has been bigger than the last. This year, Coffee Lover’s Christmas greeting cards were available for purchase at a brick and mortar store for the first time, which was a dream come true. Two new illustrations were produced this year but they weren’t quite ready for release. They made it all the way to “final” but upon reflection and a joint critique, we’re going to re-work them a little so that we’re both fully satisfied. When Coffee Lovers’ Christmas returns for its fifth year in late 2023, we’ll have new designs added to the “Second Crack” greeting card collection, new products, and (hopefully) more stores carrying our cards!

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What follows is the best media I encountered this year (not all of what is listed came out in 2022. Rather, this is when I first encountered them).

TV SHOW: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Nickelodean, 2012)

MOVIE: Spider-Man: No Way Home (Marvel Studios, 2021)

BOOK: The Great Zapfino by Mac Barnett; Illustrated by Marla Frazee

These are the songs that defined my year:

The Last Man On Earth (Lullaby Version) - Wolf Alice

New York City’s Killing Me - Ray LaMontagne with The Pariah Dogs

Outta My Head - Liz Longley

Uphill - Lori McKenna

Karma - Taylor Swift

The Joker and the Queen - Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift

and

Until I Found You - Stephen Sanchez and Em Beihold

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See you in the funny papers.

Nathan

2021: Seated Boxer

For anyone who doesn’t get the reference in this post’s title, please visit https://smarthistory.org/apollonius-boxer-at-rest/ for an art history lesson. Seated Boxer is one of my favorite sculptures. We see a man, experienced in his profession, resting briefly after a match before returning to the ring for another fight. He is battered and weary but he carries on to fight all the same even though he probably doesn’t want to anymore. Perhaps we we were all Seated Boxer in 2021.

And I think it’s safe to say we’re all sad to have lost Betty White today with just about two weeks until what would have been her 100th birthday. The Golden Girls premiered the year after I was born so Betty White was a big part of my childhood. Thank you for being a friend.

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Even though 2021 wasn’t the year we were hoping for, it’s the year we got. At least for me, part of my coping has been to focus on what I can control, like being attentive at home, personal fitness, and creativity. As far as projects go, it was a fairly simple year of magazine gag cartoons, animation, and Coffee Lovers’ Christmas.

2021 started off with a surprise cartoon publication in The Spectator. That kicked off a series of Frega DiPerri cartoon sales this year to several magazines including 2 Million Blossoms, Teachers of Vision, Phi Delta Kappan, and School Administrator. In February, we were honored to have a cartoon spotlighted in a newsletter and blog post by former New Yorker Cartoon Editor Bob Mankoff (a nice assist that lead to a sale for that cartoon too)!

This cartoon got a lot of attention on social media. Consequently, it has become our bestselling cartoon…

Meanwhile two of my favorite cartoons that we’ve done didn’t sell at all! They were both drawn in 2020 and we just couldn’t sell them (one editor emailed us to say the husband cartoon was “hilarious” … but had no interest in publishing it). I don’t get it. So I made mugs out of them. Kind of a sick twist on his and her mugs. His will be an everyday mug. It is for me!

Also in January, author Pete Lincoln’s short story memoir, Tales from the Cabin was published. The book features over thirty ink illustrations by yours truly. The book is wildly entertaining (and witty) so if you’re able to get your hands on a copy, you’re in for a treat.

In February 2019, I began work on a third Buddy and Romeo animated cartoon. After about a month of work, I stopped animating — for almost two years. I resumed work on that short in December 2020 but in March 2021, I put it aside again to work on a new one. Moving Piano! a Buddy and Romeo short jumped the line to become the third animated Buddy and Romeo short and premiered just this morning!

Our Coffee Lovers’ Christmas card, print, and product line had a great year. Julie and I were startled, in fact. And grateful! We introduced giclee prints this year and three new designs, one of which quickly became one of our best sellers. In addition to greeting card, postcard, print, ornament, mug, coasters, and pin sales (which was exciting enough) we were thrilled to have our first art show at a local coffee shop! Julie and I have several more designs in our sketchbook and we plan to introduce more of them in 2022.

Even though I can’t control whether any progress is made in this pandemic, at least I feel like I’m making progress with images. Julie and I sold more cartoons this year than we have in all previous years combined since we started out, Coffee Lovers’ Christmas had its best year, and (in this moment) I’m proud of the work I did this year in animation (getting better and looking forward to improving more next year and the year after that). I can’t control or predict what happens in 2022 but I’m getting back in the ring anyway.

What follows is the best media I encountered this year (not all of what is listed came out in 2021. Rather, this is when I first encountered them).

TV SHOW: Loki (Marvel Studios, 2021)

MOVIE: Rocky IV: Rocky Vs. Drago | The Ultimate Director’s Cut (MGM, 2021)*

BOOK: The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton (1942)

These are the songs that defined my year:

TVA First View - Natalie Holt

Bluey Theme - Bluey & Joff Bush

Quiet Town - Josh Rouse

yellow is the color of her eyes - Soccer Mommy

and

deja vu - Olivia Rodrigo

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Stay safe. See you in the funny papers.

Nathan

*Because I haven’t seen Spider-Man: No Way Home yet.

Our Cartoon Included in Bob Mankoff Blog Post

We are honored to have had our cartoon featured in a recent Cartoon Collections newsletter and blog post by former New Yorker cartoon editor / current Airmail cartoon editor / Cartoon Collections President Bob Mankoff.

Check out the blog post!

2020: Creativity in a Time of Crisis

Alright. Let’s get this over with.

The watermark is right on top of the punchline. Figures. The baby is wearing a mask that says “2021.”

I wrote my college thesis on generations. The farthest back I researched was The Awakening Generation, which was born in the late 1700s. The farthest forward projection was for a generation yet to be born to be called "Crisis of 2020."

That was in 2006.

For 14 years, I wondered what the forecasted crisis would be. Apparently it would be crises.

There has been enough introspective and outward analysis of 2020 online, on Zoom, in media, in homes, in our minds to last a lifetime. When we finally wake up from this dream/nightmare, I suspect we’ll continue to process this year for the rest of our lives. If you’re reading this, I hope you’re safe and in good health and spirits and have found moments of relief along the way in this difficult year.

As I always have in times of difficulty, I’ve channeled my stress and anxiety into creativity. Here were some of the projects on my drawing board in 2020.

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On January 2nd, our request to join CartoonStock was accepted. This enables our Frega DiPerri cartoons to be licensed by companies, organizations, publications, and individuals worldwide. A few months later, our cartoons were also made available on CartoonStock’s parent company site, Cartoon Collections, which is owned by legendary New Yorker cartoon editor Bob Mankoff. Mr. Mankoff is the current editor of the new Airmail magazine, which we were given permission to begin submitting cartoon ideas to in July.

We sold a few cartoons this year but they won’t be published until 2021. The first up will be a cartoon in the Winter 2021 issue of 2 Million Blossoms magazine.

Throughout the year, I was fortunate to be able to correspond with people in the industry who have been generous with their support and time. Their guidance and advice has been extremely helpful as Julie and I navigate this new-to-us industry.

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In February, I completed the web design and spot illustrations for The Sharpener. If you or anyone you know needs a virtual SAT tutor or college essay editor, she’s the best in the business. https://wwwSatSharpener.com

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Then March happened. The first project I tackled when we went into quarantine was finally completing the trailer for My Guardian Grandpa Volume IV: In Their Day, which I began animating in 2018. In the context of going into quarantine during a pandemic, the unsettling quality of the trailer and the entirety of the fourth book took on new meaning for me. You can find your copy of My Guardian Grandpa Volume IV: In Their Day in the My Guardian Grandpa tab here on this site.

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Also in the early quarantine weeks, I completed another long gestating project. I began writing a children’s book in late 2017 and finally achieved a final draft in March. In July, I finished a dummy book and sample illustration and am in the process of shopping the book around to literary agents. I’m keeping this close to the vest but if the book is ever published, some of those reading will recognize the characters. Though not my intention, when the sample paintings were done, I realized this book serves as prequel/origin story for an unpublished play I wrote. Here’s a close up teaser image of one of the illustrations. Hopefully I’ll be able to share the book with you someday.

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In August, I was contracted to produce 37 ink illustrations for a memoir collection of short stories, which will be published next year. The stories are beautifully crafted and immensely entertaining. The author has lead a truly exciting and cultured life! Looking forward to sharing more with you soon. For now, here is a drawing that didn’t make the cut.

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In the summer, a friend invited me to co-host a podcast with him. Maybe “co-host” isn’t so accurate. I’m really a sidekick. He’s Batman. We recorded five episodes and I had great fun though I’m not sure if the podcast will be released. I’ll let you know if it is.

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In its second year of sales, our Coffee Lovers’ Christmas greeting card line sold better than expected! Hopefully next year we’ll be able to get them into in-person shops. Here is a commercial for my favorite of the new products we introduced this year.

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Finally, Julie, a group of other artists, historians, and writers, and I might have invented something. We’ll know better by 2030 if it’s anything. In the meantime, we’ll keep working on it…

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I usually end here with stating the best movie I saw this year. Far better than any movie though, the best piece of story, character, performance, cinematography, writing, directing, set, and costuming was not a movie but a mini series. The Queen’s Gambit is a stunning achievement of quality craftsmanship of story and character. If you haven’t already seen The Queen’s Gambit, it is available on Netflix.

These are the songs that defined my year:

Everything I Wanted performed by Billie Eilish

Strangest Thing performed by The War on Drugs

C’Mon Everybody performed by Elvis

Epiphany performed by Taylor Swift

and

When Will My Life Begin (Reprise) performed by Mandy Moore

—

Stay safe. See you in the funny papers.

Nathan

We Have Joined CartoonStock Ltd.

News!

Julie and I have joined CartoonStock Ltd. (a subsidiary of former New Yorker cartoon editor Bob Mankoff’s Cartoon Collections) for worldwide licensing of our single panel cartoons!

Since we began submitting single panel cartoons in late 2017, as of the writing of this blog post, our cartoons have been published in The American Legion Magazine and Sentinel & Enterprise. Visit CartoonCollections.com to view all of our cartoons out under the listing Frega DiPerri!

The 2010s: Decade in Review

With the end of 2019 comes the arrival of the 20s and the conclusion of a decade of creative growth. What follows are the projects and comic strips that defined the 2010s here in the studio. As a bonus, a song and film of the year are also designated. The selected projects, comics, films, and songs for each year either epitomized my creative headspace for that year or had lasting ramifications for neighboring years or the decade in general. Here we go.

2010 Project of the Year: Election Day Cruising World assignments

This was the first time I received two illustration assignments in the same day: both of which were from Cruising World magazine. It was an invigorating 10 days.

2010 Comic of the Year: Levi’s Denial, My Guardian Grandpa

Before the newspaper and book publications, the target audience for My Guardian Grandpa was very small: my little sister. Aside from myself, she was really the only person I was drawing the series for and if you’ve read the first book, you already know how the series drew inspiration from our relationship. In 2010, I took my first meeting with the Sentinel & Enterprise about launching the strip (which wouldn’t happen for another year) but I also decided to forge ahead and produce enough comics to publish the first book collection. The strip above was the first time I remember my sister actually laughing out loud at and marveling over the punchline.

2010 SONG OF THE YEAR: The Only Exception - Paramore | 2010 FILM OF THE YEAR: (500) Days of Summer - 2009

2011 Project of the Year: My Guardian Grandpa publications

March saw the publication of the first book collection and a summer book tour concluded with the strip’s debut in a daily newspaper called Sentinel & Enterprise in August.

2011 Comic of the Year: Bad Coffee, My Guardian Grandpa

I drew this strip twice. The manufacturers changed the formula of the ink or bristol board (or both) that I’d been using for the previous 10 years and the ink bled all over. I ended up changing ink brands and never looked back. This was one of the first strips drawn for the second book and I think it represents one of the first times the characters were actually drawn well. Only took about 300 strips to get there.

2011 SONG OF THE YEAR: Pictures - Benjamin Francis Leftwich | 2011 FILM OF THE YEAR: The Iron Giant - 1999

2012 Project of the Year: Miss Wallace Rhymes With William

I never knew I’d write or direct a play. For whatever reason, someone thought I could and encouraged me to do so. I’ve written six plays since Miss Wallace Rhymes With William and while they all mean something special to me, this is the most magical. Life imitated art during the production process: three days after the cast table reading, I met the girl who’d become my wife and she was there with me opening night. The play was published in 2014 - one month before our wedding.

2012 Comic of the Year: Election Results, My Guardian Grandpa

2012 SONG OF THE YEAR: Nonfiction Love Song - Jillian Edwards | 2012 FILM OF THE YEAR: The Artist - 2011

This is the last strip in a three week storyline, which was drawn in only three days, six strips a day. That’s an insane pace (for me anyway). 2012 was probably the most confident year of my life and I think it shows in the second year/volume of My Guardian Grandpa. I only worked at this feverish pace once more a few months later for a storyline called “Fashion Disaster,” once again drawing a week’s worth of strips a day for three consecutive days. Both occasions were commemorated with massive migraines which put me out of commission for at least a day. I never did that again.

2013 Project of the Year: My Guardian Grandpa

As mentioned, the 2012 confidence burst resulted in a much more ambitious second year or season 2 of My Guardian Grandpa. Aside from the strip's final year, I still think some of the best strips in the series are in that second book, which was published in August 2013.

2013 Comic of the Year: Auditions, My Guardian Grandpa

At least in the early years, this was me in a nutshell as a high school theatre director. What an idiot. But, man, I treasure the memories of those auditions and rehearsals. Performances are for the audience; the rehearsals were ours.

2013 SONG OF THE YEAR: Brother - Swear and Shake | 2013 FILM OF THE YEAR: You’ve Got Mail- 1999

2014 Project of the Year: Nasoya Baked Tofu Guy

This was my first job with a national client. Rationalizing every decision behind this character’s design was a blast.

2014 Comic of the Year: Lost to History, My Guardian Grandpa

I love the story arc of Judy living in the past. I had wanted to do it for years but I had to earn the opportunity to do it from readers. It was worth the wait for all parties involved.

2014 SONG OF THE YEAR: Someone Like You - Van Morrison | 2014 FILM OF THE YEAR: Batman: Mask of the Phantasm - 1993

2015 Project of the Year: My Guardian Grandpa Volume IV: In Their Day

This is my best work in the series. It’s drawn the best, it’s the most emotional, and I final paid Judy’s character the attention she deserved. Production is a blur; Twice a week, I’d work on the strips from 7 or 9 at night until 3 in the morning to meet my deadline for the newspaper. I had to research the time period, I was drawing in a more detailed (and foreign) style, there was post-production grayscale involved. The storyline started in May and by October I was burnt out. Realizing this pace was unsustainable, I decided to end the strip once the storyline concluded…the following July. When I look back, I’m surprised by everything about this book. Including the fact that it was ever made in the first place.

2015 Comic of the Year: the Farewell Strip, My Guardian Grandpa

It was a tough goodbye. I love these characters and still think about revisiting them regularly. Readers were never shy about expressing their disappointment in my decision to retire the strip either. It’s shocking and humbling now in the last couple years that I’m being approached by people who read and loved the My Guardian Grandpa series as children. Astounding.

2015 SONG OF THE YEAR: Depreston - Courtney Barnett | 2015 FILM OF THE YEAR: Pride and Prejudice - 2005

2016 Project of the Year: Character References

Really, 2016 is only the year Character References was in the public’s eye but that material has cast a long shadow behind the scenes. This is the only time an idea has ever come to me in a dream (in February 2014) and I spent two years writing the script before its stage production in February 2016. It was another year before I’d finish an animated trailer, which was also in production since 2014. Of everything I’ve written, I think this world was the most fun to be in. I’ve been investigating ways to do more in it ever since.

2016 Comic of the Year: Childhood Betrayal, Mates and Dates

After My Guardian Grandpa, my wife an I started a new series together called Mates and Dates under a pseudonym. Each strip was an adventure of sorts to learn how to draw in a new way as it is in a drastically different visual style. I like the set up and pay off here.

2016 SONG OF THE YEAR: Always - Ella Fitzgerald | 2016 FILM OF THE YEAR: Captain America: Civil War - 2016

2017 Project of the Year: Single Panel Cartoons

Mates and Dates was a practice collaboration between my wife and I. She came up with the concept and characters, wrote a few strips, and served as editor, but by and large, I handled the day to day operations. Submitting single panel cartoons to magazines like The New Yorker was entirely her brain child and we tried to adhere more closely to designated writer and illustrator roles. This isn’t the best of our cartoons but it is the very first.

2017 Comic of the Year: Friendly Competition, Mates and Dates

These guys are such idiots. I love this strip because it shows how quickly they get carried away out of desperation.

2017 SONG OF THE YEAR: Emoji of a Wave - John Mayer | 2017 FILM OF THE YEAR: Captain America: The Winter Soldier - 2014

2018 Project of the Year: Understand THIS! A Buddy and Romeo Short

What an experience. My wife and I lived in Georgia for a month while she took a class at Emory University. She’d go off to class each day and I’d glue myself to my light table animating. At night when I’d be trying to fall asleep, I’d have mental rehearsals for how I wanted the characters to emote in the scene I’d be animating the next day. Animating and recording the sound effects and voices was so much fun and I’d love to do more with Buddy and Romeo in animation. Not long after this short was completed, I did story reels for three more shorts and have been animating one of them here and there in my spare time. Understand THIS! was a finalist in the GoComics Short Shorts animation contest and I am still in awe by the amount of support that I received from this experience.

2018 Comic of the Year: Father & Son, Mates and Dates

I was tossing and turning one night worrying about the future when this strip came along. I’m so proud of myself.

2018 SONG OF THE YEAR: Only Yesterday - Taken By Trees | 2018 FILM OF THE YEAR: Ingrid Goes West - 2017

2019 Project of the Year: Coffee Lovers’ Christmas

Speaking of pride, in all seriousness, Coffee Lovers’ Christmas is one of the projects of which I’m most proud. Mates and Dates and the single panel cartoons were trial runs for collaborating with Julie. We came up with this idea back in 2012 and I used several later projects - Buddy and Romeo, the single panel cartoons, and the Character References trailer - to teach myself a different drawing and painting style that would align with her vision. She wrote and designed all of these; I tried not to screw it up.

2019 Comic of the Year: Prom Committee

These are recurring characters in our single panel cartoons. I wrote and directed a play about them a couple years ago.

2019 SONG OF THE YEAR: Caterpillar Caterpillar - Kira Willey | 2019 FILM OF THE YEAR: Little Women - 2019

Project of the Decade: My Guardian Grandpa

Coffee Lovers’ Christmas, Miss Wallace Rhymes With William, and Character References were creative breakthroughs in their own ways, which impacted several years for me. But in considering the project that made the most profound, lasting impact on myself and others, there’s no contest. It’s My Guardian Grandpa.

Comic of the Decade: Friendly Competition, Mates and Dates

It’s not the best comic strip that I wrote or drew this decade but out of context and based on the playoff bracket that this blog post established, this is the winner. Not a very strong argument, is it? But as previously mentioned, out of context, you learn something about the characters and the visual style is such a radical departure from the way I was working at the start of the decade. It builds off of everything that came before it.

Year of the Decade: 2012

This was the year. My Guardian Grandpa, Miss Wallace Rhymes With William, Coffee Lovers’ Christmas. This year was more influential and had greater creative ramifications than any other in the last decade. 2011 had the roots of many things that paid off in 2012 and 2012 laid the ground work for projects that would capture my attention for the next eight years. Possibly beyond.

Purely by coincidence, I arrived at the following conclusion without realizing they two were 2012 selections.

SONG OF THE DECADE: Nonfiction Love Song - Jillian Edwards | FILM OF THE DECADE: The Artist - 2011

And that’s the decade. In the next 10 years, though the color will likely leave my hair, it will find its way into more characters and paintings. Not a bad trade off.

Onward to 2020!

See you in the funny papers.

Nathan

Coffee Lovers' Christmas from Nathan and Julie

After six years of visual development, we’re proud to share our latest creative endeavor with you. Coffee Lovers’ Christmas is a greeting card and gift/keepsake product line that is the perfect blend of warmth, charm, and magic.

It all started September 3, 2012. On that day, Julie and I planned to enjoy an afternoon of tennis. We stopped for coffee first and I couldn't help but remark on how cool the design on the barista's shirt was. By the time we left the shop, Julie was already brainstorming coffee design ideas to pitch to the bakery as shirt designs. By the time we finished our walk to the tennis courts, the ideas had shifted to a series of Christmas card concepts. Kneeling on the tennis court, we hovered over my handy sketchbook and filled three pages before we finally picked up our rackets.

One of the first things we decided was that, visually, we didn't want Coffee Lovers' Christmas to look like the rest of my portfolio. We talked a lot about we wanted and didn’t want the cards to look like and our research pointed us in the direction of a style we might call "Victorian Hipster."

At the time, I was drawing the daily comic strip My Guardian Grandpa and my drawings were all thoroughly constructed with attention to form, flow, and anatomy. In the first year of trying to capture the charm of Julie's sketchbook drawings, my translations always tightened up and lacked energy.

A few weeks after painting the first Coffee Lovers' Christmas illustration, Julie came up with the idea for Buddy and Romeo in August 2014 and I used drawing those characters as an opportunity to experiment with challenging the rules of perspective, simplifying, and even dispensing with anatomy altogether. Unlike My Guardian Grandpa, whose visual world mirrored the emotional and narrative complexity of the series, Buddy and Romeo's world was sparse,innocent/naive, and playful. Characters were designed using simple shapes, letters, or sometimes even numbers and the rules of perspective were challenged.

I used the animated Character References trailer as a training ground for painting. The character designs were influenced by Art Deco and 1920s cartoons. Ordinarily when approaching watercolor, he obsessed over lighting and form. Here, the challenge was to harness spontaneity and create texture through watercolor techniques and effects like colloidal dispersion and back run. The drawing and painting techniques and lessons learned from the Character References trailer highly informed the way the Coffee Lovers' Christmas illustrations were rendered.

It’s amazing to me to think about how many other projects have taken shape in the six years since Julie and I began working on Coffee Lovers’ Christmas. Miss Wallace Rhymes With William was published and I wrote six more plays after that; three My Guardian Grandpa books were published; Julie and I co-created Buddy and Romeo and they appeared in a daily comic strip and a couple animated shorts; we got into the single panel cartoon marker by submitting New Yorker-style cartoons to magazines. All of this in so many ways prepared me to paint Coffee Lovers’ Christmas in a manner, which hopefully matches and honors Julie's ideas and sketches.

We’re proud to share Coffee Lovers’ Christmas with you this holiday season as you fall in love with your soul mate or with a cup of coffee.

See you in the funny papers.

Nathan

2018: Longterm Conclusions and Beginnings

From 2006 until 2016, I kept a blog on Blogger (formerly Blogspot) called An Illustrative Journal, which always featured a summative annual report of sorts on New Year’s Eve. With your permission, I’d like to continue that tradition here, though in perhaps a less lengthy manner.

Regardless of what you might read about the year 2018 on social media, personally, I had a great year! It was a year that saw the conclusion of a number of longterm projects and, cherished though they were, with their completion is space for still more projects that have been on the back burner of my mind or sketchbook for years (in one instance - a decade).

Through my experience with high school theatre productions, I discovered that I have somewhat of an intense and consuming creative process. I directed my first play in 2010 and went on to direct 14 more productions in the ensuing eight years. It actually makes my head spin to think about it because 10 of those productions were within a three year period. Directing was a blast and not something that I had ever thought I’d do (let alone be good at) but it came at a considerable cost to my health and family so in 2016, I decided that I would retire from it — in two years. This year!

In February, I said farewell to high school theatre with a group of seniors with whom I had the good fortune of directing for four years with an original adaptation that I penned of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, which was set in a retirement home (high school seniors and a retiring director… not very subtle is it?) Though the script has a lot of comedy, it’s actually very sweet and heartbreaking. Even though the last year of the My Guardian Grandpa comic strip was emotionally devastating, a printed comic can never have the impact of live theatre. I’ve written six plays and with those plays, I’ve made a lot of people laugh but Old Pride & Prejudice is the only entertainment piece I’ve written that has made an audience actually cry.

Speaking of My Guardian Grandpa, the fourth and final book compilation of the comic strip series was finally published in March. My Guardian Grandpa Volume IV: In Their Day features strips that were published in the newspaper from May 2014 - July 2015 so this book has been a long time coming. Thanks to the intervening years, in the preparation of the book, I was able to experience the strips more as readers do since I had forgotten many of the strips and storylines. I also realized how much I miss those characters.

In January, I began work on an animated teaser trailer to promote the book. The animation is in the coloring phase of post production and has had to take a back seat to more urgent projects but it should be completed soon. Check out the pencil test below.

Last year, we began writing single panel cartoons and submitting them to magazines. Of the first 20 that we sent out, we sold our first cartoon to The American Legion Magazine and it ran in the November issue.

July was devoted entirely to producing a hand-drawn short called Understand THIS! featuring the characters Buddy and Romeo from the Mates and Dates comic series by Some Miracle. The short was a finalist in the inaugural GoComics Short Shorts Animation Contest in September.

Just before Thanksgiving, due to budgetary constraints, I was laid off from the newspaper at which I had been self-syndicating daily comic strips since August 2011. In that time, I was fortunate to entertain readers with three comic strips series: My Guardian Grandpa, which ran from August 2011 to July 2015; its spin off series Courting Kendall Parker which ran in August 2015 as an intermission or thematic transitional piece of sorts; and Mates and Dates from August 2015 to November 2018.

After seven years of unrelenting weekly deadlines, I’m now free to focus on other projects, which have been dormant in my sketchbook for years. This evening, I finally submitted a collection of greeting cards that Julie and I wrote back in 2012. I’m glad I learned how to draw and paint in the intervening years because they would not have turned out as good back then. In each of the annual year end blog posts at An Illustrative Journal I promised that the collection would be completed the following year. This time, I can safely say that the cards will be available for purchase next Christmas through a yet-to-be-determined outlet.

Finally, this afternoon, I went to the gym for one of my New Year’s resolutions. I tapped the counter and said “I’m here for my New Year’s resolution! This year I’m going to save $150!” As the desk clerk readied his clipboard, I said “No, no. I'm already a member. I’ve been a member since 2004. I’m canceling my membership!” Ha! I love that gym, but a 25 minute drive versus a four second walk into the cellar is a no brainer.

The best movie I saw this year was Ingrid Goes West and we started watching Riverdale, which is surprisingly awesome. Also, if you haven’t already watched The Great British Baking Show, do so.

These are the songs that defined my year:

Iguana Bird by Pete Yorn and Scarlett Johansson

Only Yesterday by Taken by Trees

Tell Your Mama by Scissor Sisters

Strange Boy by The Shacks

and

Hey Pretty Girl by Kip Moore

—

Let’s go, 2019.

See you in the funny papers.

Nathan

A Place for Process...

It’s been a number of years since I phased out the illustration blog in favor of other social media platforms, but I have missed the opportunity to share artistic process and philosophy in a longer — and more elegant — form right here on my website.

In a recent interview with GoComics, which you can find here, I was asked about my five-year-plan. The last plan I’d written was in 2015, so a re-evaluation was beneficial. It was interesting to note which of these predictions and goals have come to fruition, which were scrapped, and which are still works in progress.

As usual, I have a lot of irons in the fire, and sometimes projects are developed over the span of years by their nature or as other assignments with more urgent deadlines present themselves. While I’ll keep the specifics of my five-year-plan close to the vest, here are some of the projects that I’m currently working on…

• ANIMATION: My Guardian Grandpa Volume IV: In Their Day trailer post-production

• ANIMATION: Untitled Buddy and Romeo Short pre-production

• ANIMATION: Dinner! With Lloyd and His Voices pre-production

• WRITING: Untitled Satirical Children’s Book working draft/pre-vis

• WRITING: Untitled Children’s Book early drafts

Then there are, of course, always weekly deadlines for our daily comic strip and quarterly magazine cartoon submissions. That’s all for details now but I look forward to sharing more behind-the-scenes posts here again soon.

See you in the funny papers.

Nathan

UPDATE: August 17, 2020

• ANIMATION: My Guardian Grandpa Volume IV: In Their Day trailer completed

• ANIMATION: Untitled Buddy and Romeo Short in production

• WRITING: Untitled Satirical Children’s Book pre-vis

• WRITING: Untitled Children’s Book submitted