Tom Everhart American Artist: The explosive, dazzling color, expressionistic imagination, and big-as-life proportions are Tom Everhart's signature elements...Everhart's artwork is the culmination of 20 years of close association with cartoonist Charles M. Schulz and the Peanuts phenomenon. The only fine artist authorized to artistically render the Peanuts characters, Everhart had been a successful painter of large-scale landscapes before being asked to render drawings of the ?Peanuts characters for a commercial project in 1980. With no background in cartooning, Tom Everhart prepared for the task by projecting Schulz's comic strips onto a 25-foot wall in his studio for closer examination. Everhart was stunned to discover that, blown up larger than life, Schulz's pen strokes closely connected to his own painting style. Tom Everhart's immediate fascination with Schulz's "line" and his remarkable ability to capture it with his own distinct interpretation impressed Schulz and launched a friendship and collaboration that continued until Schulz's death in February 2000.