My latest contribution to the New Yorker mag:
I actually drew this one before the virus hit last spring, when schools were all on regular schedules. Now happily more and more schools are back to normal (and . . . so are parents).
For a year of ups & downs, this was a surprising Up to close the year with: a friend called to tell me he sees my first-ever published New Yorker cartoon is now part of the 2021 New Yorker Day-to-Day desk calendar!
I ordered a couple thru our delightful local Doylestown Bookshop and I think it’ll be fun to start every calendar day with a chuckle right through the year. My drawing’s chosen day is uncannily close to the birthday of my Dad, who got me started on the whole NYer kick . . . pulling strings again, Dad?
It’s always a kick when I see my cartoon in the magazine my Dad & I loved paging through together. This one will be on page 69 of this week’s issue, Nov. 23, 2020.
To see my other cartoons published either in the New Yorker or for their online daily cartoon, go to https://condenaststore.com/art/pat+achilles .
New Yorker cartoonist Michael Maslin writes interesting and wide-ranging articles all about the cartoonists past and present of that iconic magazine on his blog Ink Spill. I wrote a bit about Ink Spill on a previous post here.
Michael is currently running a feature on his blog, ‘Cartoons in the Time of Coronavirus,’ and he has kindly posted my drawing of last week. If you need a chuckle during these trying times or are a fan of the art of the New Yorker as I have always been, please take a look. Also note the link in the left column of the blog page, “New Yorker Cartoonists A-Z” which lists every single cartoonist ever in the magazine and has bios of all the greats.
Many thanks to Michael, for this awesome compendium of the wit and urbanity of the New Yorker – again, I invite you all to check it out here.
Just a note to my friends, I drew the Daily Cartoon on the New Yorker website today – you can see it here – https://www.newyorker.com/cartoons/daily-cartoon/tuesday-march-10th-school-fight
My cartoon below is not the one on the NYer site, but I add it in just for a chuckle.
As promised yesterday, if you click HERE you can see my “Daily” Cartoon on the New Yorker website.
We have family coming here for dinner today – so much to be thankful for! Here’s another seasonal cartoon of mine below, drawn for a business greeting card – wishing everyone a warm and happy Thanksgiving!
Update: HERE is the link to today’s cartoon – take a look!
In addition to the New Yorker’s weekly (yes, weekly) print magazine, in circulation since 1925, the iconic publication also posts a Daily Cartoon on the homepage of its website, https://www.newyorker.com/ under the heading The Latest.
I’m thrilled that a gag of mine was chosen to be the Daily Cartoon for tomorrow, Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 28, 2019. I apologize that I can’t post it until it’s live – but as soon as it pops up I’ll put a link here. I wrote about my other New Yorker cartoons here and here.
In the mean time, I’ll share this cartoon from my archives, which has been pretty popular with singers and choir directors. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
Every year the Philadelphia Sketch Club, historically the oldest club for artists in the country, holds a juried illustration exhibit, Phillustration. I am thrilled that one of mine was awarded second prize in the show this year.
The illustration I painted for Lodging Magazine, Office Churn, was among many other creative and colorful pieces in a show I highly recommend visiting. The exhibit runs thru November 24 and Sketch Club hours are Wed, Fri, Sat & Sun 1 PM – 5 PM and the venerable brick building that houses the Club is at 235 South Camac Street, Philadelphia PA. their website is http://sketchclub.org/ I also congratulate Joe Kulka, whose Smokey Bear art took top honors in the Advertising/ Institutional category. Sketch Club President Rich Harrington, a terrific illustrator in his own right, warmly welcomed the crowded room full of artists and emceed the reception with plenty of good humor.
My New Yorker cartoon was also accepted into the show, and I got to chat with John O’Brien, a creator of many many New Yorker cartoons and covers, at the reception, as well as Eric Fowler, the archivist at the Society of Illustrators in New York. A number of other Bucks County Illustrators Society members were accepted into this show, including Lauren Walsh, Joe DeVito, Joe Kulka, Piya and Christina Wannachaiwong (who also ‘exhibited’ their adorable new baby boy at the show), Mark Schaeffer and Dennis Wise. A few snapshots of our BCIS members’ work from the show:
I’ve always enjoyed the witty hand-drawn observations of cartoonist Michael Maslin, which have been published in the New Yorker since the late 1970s. His deceptively simple drawings often contain macguffins that pair hilariously with his caption writing, which can range from foible-y understated to pratfallen poetry. In July of last year I glimpsed Mr. Maslin in the background, snapping some photos during the opening of the exhibit Funny Ladies at the New Yorker: Cartoonists Then and Now at the Society of Illustrators in New York City. Mr. Maslin’s wife is Liza Donnelly, also a prominent and long-time New Yorker cartoonist, who moderated a very funny discussion at the opening, with a panel of current women cartoonists and the magazine’s cartoon editor, Emma Allen.
I looked up Mr. Maslin’s blog, Inkspill, and found it to be a running catalog of all the newly-published books, appearances and special projects of all the New Yorker cartoonists, in NYC and elsewhere. He has effectively aggregated the history of the magazine’s cartoonists with their bios, some dating to the publication’s beginnings in 1925, and regularly writes about the cartoons and illustrations in current issues. It’s a wonderful inside-baseball resource for fans of cartooning in general and the wit of iconic New Yorker cartoons in particular – and so I highly recommend Inkspill!
It’s not too early to think about the holidays – I’m already working on three clients’ holiday cards for their businesses
Because of this, I’ve recently added a Christmas card to my listings on Etsy – one I drew last year for my family, in the classic New Yorker black & white style, not long after my first cartoon appeared in the New Yorker. If you’ve ever seen this iconic tree you never forget its overwhelming presence!
I drew this cartoon in black prisma pencil and painted it in ink washes. (Closeups of the art are on my Etsy page) It shows the legendary tree at Rockefeller Center, which about 100 million people visit each year, teeming with lights but with one small dark area; a small child looking up comments, “They missed a spot.”
Inside the card is the message “May your Christmas be filled with Peace and Joy and a thousand twinkling lights!”
Single cards are available on my Etsy shop HERE and boxes of 8 cards are available on my website store HERE.If you’d like more than 8 cards, or would like to use this card for your company holiday card, email me and we’ll work out the details. And if you live near me in the Central Bucks area and want to avoid postage charges, simply email me what you’d like to order and you can pay when you pick up the cards from me.
AchillesPortfolio 