Bonotom Studio design samples book

Richard's freelancer employer Bono Mitchell hired him frequently for magazine illustrations for her Bonotom Studio, which she ran with Tom Specht. I scanned a booklet of their work today, although there's nothing by Richard in it. There is a Guy Billout illustration for Contingencies magazine.

Richard lifting his mother's Suitcases (updated)

One of Richard's earliest jobs, done in a style he never returned to, was illustrating his mother's autobiography, The Suitcases. His mother, Anne Hall Whitt, spent some time in an orphanage in Charlotte, NC. The book is touching and worth reading. 

 The first time we went to HeroesCon, Richard and I visited the site (pictures now included below), and he was very moved by it. Here's some images from Bono's copy of the book, along with some material from Mrs. Whitt-Thompson's funeral that was laid in.

 

 

 

Richard at the orphanage site, June 6, 2010 (updated3/10/23):

 

 

 

The following letter and photo layout are from Richard's father -

 

Richard Thompson, Chameleon

  

Richard wasn't really a chameleon - he was pretty much a WYSIWYG, except for a couple of minor things.

If he said, "Bless your heart," as a true Southerner's son, he may have either meant it, or "Damn you to Hell."

He was modest, but also he knew his value. He knew he was good, but didn't crow about it.

He also liked orange food, which may or may not be an attribute of chameleons.

Anyway, this is a project that he was part of in 1999. Can you tell what section he did?

He was the face. The other creators were Jeanne Turner, Annie Lunsford, Richard Steadham, Bono Mitchell, Dana Verkouteren, Ken Krafchek, and Patricia Cullen-Clark.

I know some of the group - Krafcheck teaches art at MICA, Verkouteren is a courtroom artist and caricaturist, and Mitchell and Lunsford have passed away. 

Here's Diane Rickenbaugh for HOW Nov/Dec 1999 on the project:

I'll put a pdf of the article and larger versions of the poster on the Internet Archive later tonight.

This year's Team Cul de Sac donation link

 https://give.michaeljfox.org/team/474477

Chatfield on Thompson by way of Searle

Artist Spotlight: Ronald Searle

Jason Chatfield

March 3, 2023

https://www.jasonchatfield.com/blog/artist-spotlight-ronald-searle

How to strengthen your real estate market illustration, and a TCDS piece

 I'm not sure what Richard did this illo for, but I bought the original from Bono Mitchell's estate -

 

 and this drawing by Chris Schweitzer was for the Team Cul de Sac book and fundraising auction -

Billions of billions of drawings - Richard draws Carl Sagan

Richard did hundreds, if not thousands, of caricatures throughout his career. Here's one of astronomer Carl Sagan (the Neil deGrasse Tyson of his day) from a Washington Post Magazine  April 23 2006 article by Joel Achenbach. Thanks to Anita Finklestein for keeping this and passing it along,

 

 

Illustration work for Electrical Contractor and Contingencies

 As any regular reader of this blog knows, Richard did a lot of work for Bono Mitchell, an art director at BonoTom Studios. Recently I got a few magazines from her estate featuring Richard's work. Of this, most of it shouldn't be familiar - I think only the little girl at the blackboard appeared in The Art of Richard Thompson.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tom Richmond also did some work for the studio, and gave his permission to repost one here, while saying about Bono, "I did several jobs with her as AD and she was a delight to work with. Funny, smart, and she knew her stuff. "