Fall Colors

Here is a cover I did for this month's Ladybug magazine
explaining how leaves change color.

Switch Hitter

After a bad burn, I lost the use of my right hand and arm for awhile.

I'm right handed, and making things has always helped keep me going when life gets challenging.  Just putting pen to paper and filling a sketchbook page can be a distraction and relief.  I could put up with the clumsy eating and the free style toothbrushing, but with my right hand out of commission, I was worried that I'd lose my mind if I couldn't draw or write at all.

With immobility can come unique patience. Though my left hand shook a lot, trying to use it gave me something to focus on. After a few days I found that I had much better luck with a paintbrush than I did with a pencil, and playing with paint felt great.

These are a few left handed sketchbook pages from February.

Water Tower Rocket Mural!

Recently I got to join an enthusiastic crew to help paint a mural on the side of M.S. 131 Dr. Sun Yat Sen School, here in Chinatown. "Blast Off" was designed by my friend Shana Siegel, Eve Biddle, and Joshua Frankel for New York Cares.

For more information and superior pictures, here are Shana and Joshua's posts about the mural.
Here's a great time lapse film of the project:

Blast Off from Tom Starkweather on Vimeo.

In addition to being an excellent painter, designer, and photographer, Shana's talents also extend to creating fantastic tiny sofas for cats. Check out her Etsy store, The Upholstered Puss.

Time for Bed

Recently I've been working late into the night, which has reminded me of a moment I had while finishing the art for The Secret Plan.
I was up late working and didn't realize that I had used up all the sheets of paper on the pad that I'd been painting on. I went ahead and started another picture... on the white cardboard backing of the empty pad.

The texture seemed different and the painting kept looking funny but it still took me a little while to realize what I had done. And in the morning I found that I had left myself a note so I wouldn't forget the benefits of sleep.