My Illustrations for a New How-to Book

There’s a room in most houses that is the lint filter of your family’s extraneous possessions. The end-of-the-line room, the place that stuff accumulates inside until you finally have to haul stuff outside, to the garage or to the garbage. If only that room could be cleaned as easily as a lint filter – but where do you even start?

I have such a room in my house and now that I’ve illustrated professional home organizer Christen Fackler’s new book How to Organize Everything, I no longer have an excuse. Her book enumerates clearly and succinctly just how she has successfully shaken down hundreds of clients’ messy spaces and come up with cool streamlined systems for keeping the really important stuff organized.

I’ll show a few of the drawings I did for the book, but to get her great organizing advice – and her insights on how it applies to getting your life in gear as well – you’ve got to read the book, available as an ebook here and soon to be in print.

I started with some very rough pencil sketches that illustrate tips for steps in her process –

Moving on to tighter drawings like this –

I drew some rough color sketches using colored pencils, keying the colors to those on Christen’s business card.

And finally I created the finished color artwork, which I drew on illustration board with prisma pencil, then painted with acrylic washes.

It was a pleasure working with Christen, and now I know how to tackle that room so I better hop to it!

Again, if you need advice on sorting out the junk, get the How to Organize Everything ebook (I designed the cover too) and sign up for Christen’s newsletter here as well.

Blaine’s Podcast

I was on Blaine Greenfield’s podcast last night – a delight all around, he’s the Ed Sullivan of the Asheville, NC area!

I fumbled a bit getting my artwork to screenshare, so I’m posting a pdf of some of my New Yorker published-and-rejected cartoons below, so you all can take the full tour I was going to give Blaine. Please scroll through – just place your cursor on the vertical bar at the right of the image and slide it down to scroll.

(If they appear too small to read, try clicking on the three horizontal lines at top left. All artwork is (c) Pat Achilles, but the first four are (c) The New Yorker.)

blaine_achilles_nyer_cartoonsDownload

Now below is the slideshow I was going to show Blaine of my children’s book illustration, and some illustrations for adult books too. Included are illustrations from The Upside-Down Gardener, Grand Slam Birthday and the Adventures of the Poodle Posse series by Chrysa Smith; Robbie to the Rescue by Laurie Nowlan; Let’s Visit New Hope, by Gayle Goodman and Roy Ziegler; The Book of Jims and Bills! Bills! Bills! by Jim Miller (they are fun books all about famous people thru history named Jim/James or William/Bill, fun to give as a gift to friends of those names), Leading Team Members with Super Powers by Thomas Edwards (a great informational book about working and training neurodiverse employees), and A Woman’s Book of Dirty Words by Mary Fran Bontempo. If you want to purchase any, I believe they are all available on Amazon. (All artwork is (c) Pat Achilles)

blaine_achilles_kids_adult_bookillustrationsDownload

This slideshow below shows some of my greeting cards for Eagle Scout events and for the holidays – some are available now on my Etsy shop (click HERE) and some I hope to post there soon. (All artwork is (c) Pat Achilles)

blaine_achilles_greetingcardsDownload

Below are some of the cards I’ve drawn, which Blaine enjoys so much, for Kohlhepp Investment Advisors. (All artwork is (c) Pat Achilles)

slideshow_kohlheppDownload

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And finally here are my illustrations for the Bucks County Gilbert & Sullivan Society, a wonderful group of devotees to some of the loveliest, and funniest, operettas ever written. (All artwork is (c) Pat Achilles)

blaine_achilles_gilbertsullivanDownload

Now you have seen all the things I meant to show Blaine – thanks so much for taking a look. Here’s the link to the half hour of me with Blaine: go to https://www.blainesworld.net/ and look for the podcast dated 11.8.2022 And thanks again to Blaine!

–Pat

My Illustration for a Business Birthday E-Card

I drew this car parade birthday illustration for Furia Rubel Communications last year. They originated the idea and needed me to make it into an image for them to send out with their best wishes to their clients. I think it’s a great way to make a touchpoint with each client – a beneficial marketing strategy – and remind their clients of the whole team of people working for their interests. I have often drawn the FRC team for projects in the past.

I started with a pencil sketch of the whole train of cars and caricatures of each FRC member.

When that was ok’d I printed out a copy and did a rough color sketch with markers and colored pencils. The great thing about sending out ecards is, there is no more expense in doing full color over black and white. On computer screens, color is free!

I decided to colorize this illustration using digital color, so the colors would match those in the FRC logo and other hues on their website. I drew each carload in black line, then filled it in with digital color.

After drawing and colorizing each piece of the picture this way I assembled them onto one page and added the banner, balloons and honking horns.

Another advantage of assembling this piece digitally is that if employees change from year to year, I can adjust the picture accordingly. And in fact, this year I was asked to add new team members and remove some who have moved on; so with some tweaks Furia Rubel will have an updated ecard showing their full team for 2022.

A few recent logos

In the last few months I’ve designed some logos for various events.

For TAFE (Theater Arts for Everyone) in York, PA, I created this logo for their stage show An Enchanted Bookshop Christmas, which involves characters from a number of children’s stories. First I started with a quick sketch with Tom Sawyer, Scrooge and Dorothy with Toto, and the fairy that brings them to life.

The director thought it might be better to show the bookshop itself, so I drew this graphic image.

The director suggested changing the boy in the doorway to the quirky bookshop owner, and making the fairy chubby, so with those refinements we finalized the logo to this:

I created a logo for the newly formed BuxMont Networking Group. I presented three ideas, below – can you guess which one they chose?

And finally I drew another graphic logo for TAFE, for their upcoming show Mystery at Senior Manor. This one involves some old folks who knit and play checkers at their retirement community, and what happens when one of them goes missing.

You can let me know in the comments which of the BNG logos you think is best, and I’ll answer it after a few guesses.

Free Coloring Book for Children

Last year I created some artwork for Mike DeSantis’ CPA website and in the process Mike introduced the idea of using a little cartoon of his dog as a friendly mascot for the business. Mike had used “Bart the dog” as a fun part of his business before, telling long-time clients that Bart helped around the office – he even gave Bart a phone extension on the menu!

After the pandemic hit, Mike searched for an idea that could honor the workers in healthcare and also help children through a worrisome time in their young lives. In thinking about the Bart cartoons on his website, he came up with the idea of a coloring book for youngsters that would teach safety tips on staying germ-free during flu season. The book, called “Keep the Germs Away,” is dedicated to all the doctors, nurses, hospital workers and first responders who risk their lives on the front lines to help others, and I drew the illustrations.

Mike has donated 100 copies of the book to Doylestown Hospital’s Children’s Village. Each coloring page has a simple suggestion supporting good hygiene for children, and features Bart the Dog, the friendly mascot of DeSantis & Co., P.C. The director of Children’s Village, Teri Windisch, said of the gift, “Our kids and families loved the “Keep Germs Away” coloring book from Mike. What a great way to reinforce what they have learned during this tough time!”  The coloring book is also available to anyone for free download from Mike’s website www.descpa.biz and he’s allowed me to put it on my site too, free on this page HERE. So get out your markers and sharpen up your pencils!

A Video Chat About my Cartoons

My friend Linda Crane, a charming and detail-oriented realtor with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Fox & Roach and the Trident Group, has a weekly chat with interesting people in the area, and whether they work in the real estate industry or not she brings along her knowledge and personality to make it a fun exchange.

Linda asked if I’d talk with her a bit about my cartooning, especially selling cartoons to the New Yorker magazine, so we pulled a couple chairs up to the old zoom box and had a conversation.

I tell Linda how I became interested in cartooning and what it’s like submitting sketches to the New Yorker in the video of our chat, below. Linda has more of these fun discussions on her Youtube channel – I invite you to check it out after you listen here.

At the end of our talk I mention the choral group Cantus Novus and their auction in which one of my framed, original New Yorker cartoon drawings will be sold. Cantus Novus’ concert We Rise Again is online today, Friday May 21 starting at 8:00 PM, on their Facebook page. Their online fundraising auction will start at the conclusion of the concert, at approximately 9 pm, and Pat’s New Yorker cartoon is available for bids HERE.  The auction will continue for 2 weeks after the concert, and all proceeds benefit this excellent non-profit choir.

Illustrated Logo for a Farmers Market

I recently worked with Chef Kelly Unger, Chair of the Doylestown Farmers Market, to design a new logo for this very popular weekly gathering of Bucks County area farmers and shoppers, which has been going on for 45 seasons.

Kelly mentioned it would be nice to have some element in the design that would tie it to our location here in Doylestown, and that there are often buckets of bright flowers at the entrance to the market, a parking lot in the middle of Doylestown; so it would be nice to include flowers along with fruits and vegetables. I suggested making the logo reminiscent of a Mercer tile, since Henry Mercer is historically speaking the town’s favorite son. I did some rough logo ideas to show her and others on the market board.

(The designs below are (c) Pat Achilles. Are you interested in purchasing any of them? Contact me at achillesportfolio@gmail.com and we can discuss.)

(The designs shown in this post are (c) Pat Achilles. Are you interested in purchasing any of them? Contact me at achillesportfolio@gmail.com and we can discuss.)

The tile theme was popular, and so we tried adding more elements logo –

but it was determined that it got too busy. The image of the bike stuck though, for its symbolism of sustainability and since many shoppers do bike to the market, so we simplified the design but kept the outer tile-like border. I drew this rough pencil sketch, trying to show just enough of the bike to make it recognizable, but trying to keep the basket full of food the center of interest.

I drew the items in color in a graphic style and deliberately made the handlebar and flowers break through the border a bit, to give it a more contemporary design. I was asked to change the typeface at the request of the board, who wanted to keep a similar look with the brand of the established Bucks County Foodshed Alliance, of which this farmers market is a part. The finished logo is below.

I’m looking forward to the Doylestown Farmers Market’s 46th season opening on Saturday April 17. They will have over 30 local vendors selling beautiful cut flowers, fresh produce and delicious baked goods from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. and you can meet some of the vendors as they are featured on the market’s Instagram at doylestownfarmersmarket.

Slim Harpo

Singer/musician Slim Harpo was a successful blues musician of the late 1950s and 60s, with a laid back singing style and a mastery of the blues harmonica, known in the industry as a “harp.” Evidently his hit song of 1957 “I’m a King Bee” was recently used in the series The Man in the High Castle.

I was thrilled a year ago when the British record label company Not Now Music asked to lease an illustration I’d created previously for the sleeve of a re-release of the music of Slim Harpo. And I just recently found out the label was re-issued this past August, and I’m pleased with the clean, punchy design using my art –

New Year’s Card for a Business

I draw a New Years card every year for Kohlhepp Investment Advisors, and we try to make it relevant to what’s going on in the news, whether economic or otherwise. Well, this year the prevailing feeling was that everyone wanted to be done with the year 2020, so that was the theme of this year’s card.

I thought of a mountain-climbing expedition where the staff members were happy to see 2021 in the distance, because I’d been told they wanted the characters to appear ‘socially distanced.’ That idea was approved, so I started with a pencil sketch –

We talked over a few changes, and I went on to tighten the characters in the sketch –

I had thought perhaps I could show full faces so I left the mouths in for the sketch, but was later asked to draw masks on everyone.

I did a rough color sketch with colored pencils, and tried making the mountain in the background a volcano – do you see the 2020? – because that idea was considered. But in the end we stuck with just distant mountains in back.

and finally did the finished art in acrylic paint washes, below. Inside the card the message read: “WE MADE IT! Looking forward to a bright new year ahead!” and some kind wishes to their clients. Kohhepp Investment sends several hundred of these cards out to clients and colleagues, and they get some really nice responses indicating that people appreciate them and enjoy the funny antics in which we often portray the staff. They also use it on their Facebook page and other social media – it’s an effective way to personalize a business to their customers.

Thanksgiving E-card Cartoon for a Business

Every year I draw a Thanksgiving-themed cartoon for Pro-Active Performance, a business that helps companies develop and train outstanding sales forces. They’ve picked the season of Thanksgiving over Christmas to send their greetings because it ties in so well with thanking their clients and colleagues for their business in the past year. This year to conserve paper Pro-Active decided to send an e-card instead of printing and mailing a physical card.

I was given some ideas to work with and started with rough pencil sketches – (art & text for all sketches are (c) Pat Achilles)

My client liked sketch 3 the best, showing a turkey on a zoom call with 6 other holiday characters – so I tightened it up –

and painted a color version – (note art & text are (c) Pat Achilles)

I designed the e-card as if you were seeing the front and inside of the card all together, so the final version was sent out like this –

And because Pro-Active clients in the US and in Canada, we designed a version that used Canada’s maple leaf mascot instead of Uncle Sam – they sent this out just before Canada’s Thanksgiving Day, which was October 12.