My day typically begins between 6 & 7am. On a good day, I'll start by going to the local “Y” and swimming for 30 minutes. Other days, if I oversleep and get up closer to 7am, I'll skip the swim and do it after deadlines. I am a coffee drinker,
so I have a pot of coffee on most of the day.
As part of my regular breakfast routine, I usually enjoy a bowl of cereal (Shredded Wheat, Life, Cheerios, Wheat Chex or Trix), juice, coffee and a couple of daily newspapers . I try to give myself about an hour to peruse the papers, before slipping up to my third floor studio.
I work from my third floor studio in our home in German Village, a downtown historic neighborhood in Columbus. Mornings are usually spent reading newspapers, online sites like Washington Post, Slate, Huffington Post, and many other online news outlets. As I read in my studio, I take notes and doodle on scratch pads, generally working on ideas for editorial cartoons. Many times, because of subject matter, I find that what doesn't make it into an editorial cartoon, can often be good material for a “Moderately Confused” gag. I submit ideas to editors by late morning and spend the afternoons inking finished cartoons.
I draw my sketches or thumbnail drawings with a Micron pen & use the light table to transfer them onto a “Border & Riley” bleed-proof bristol board for my finished drawings. I do my finish drawings with a Winsor Newton Series 7 #2 brush & Dr. Martin's Tech drawing ink. I do most lettering with a Micron pen. In a week's time, I produce four editorial cartoons for my newspaper clients & six “Moderately Confused” panels each week. I find it a very full week and I generally try to relax on the weekends by not spending as much time in the studio. There are some evenings where I do find myself in the studio working to meet deadlines. My editorial cartoons are always drawn for the next day’s papers and “Moderately Confused” is worked up 3 weeks ahead of time. We live across the street from a 23 acre city park, so I find it relaxing in the evenings or weekends to take walks around the park. In the summer, there are plays performed on an outside stage in the park. There's never a shortage of outside activities. Even in the winter, there's a sledding hill outside of our front window.