BILL MAYER IN THE NEW YORK TIMES

 I've had some unkind things to say about illustration in the New York Times in recent years.  I felt that the Times had lost its taste for traditional drawing, and its replacements-- digital collages, naive scrawls, and postmodern mewlings-- were unworthy of the Times.  I suggested the Times had succumbed to the "I'm-so-smart-I don't-have-to-draw-well" attitude that infected too many other publications.  Some of its digital illustrations in recent years demonstrated a young medium with potential but even then, much of it substituted flash and gimmickry for genuine substance.  One step across a two-step ditch.

So perhaps I've been remiss in not commenting on a regular source of pure joy for me in the pages of the Times: Bill Mayer's regular contributions to the "NYT For Kids" section: 

Mayer's bold, colorful pictures are reproduced in a full broadsheet size (12" x 22") and transform the nature of the Sunday newspaper.  They'd transform your whole day if you stapled them to your wall as a poster.  

Mayer takes full advantage of the huge size of a full newspaper page, combined with the color printing capabilities of today's papers.  His pages are sufficient reason for getting the Times in hard copy.

Detail

Mayer works skillfully in both traditional and digital media.  His website demonstrates how he can create in a variety of styles for adults and children but his work for the NYT For Kids section mostly employs these plump, bug-eyed  creatures with wacky expressions.  

Note the skin textures

Artists have been drawing funny creatures with wacky expressions for millennia; the ground is well trodden and formulaic.  But it's a measure of Mayer's great ability that his creatures remain fresh and funny. 

Illustration for another client