Art Sam-ples

Father/Daughter Basketball

2012-02-02T11:44:00.002-05:00

Work in Progress: the Evil Queen

2011-12-13T13:25:00.003-05:00

This one ties together the other two work-in-progress sketches. You guessed it, Snow White. Although anyone who's gone through this blog knows I don't need much incentive to do fairy tale art, the TV show Once Upon A Time inspired this one. Her outfit is an homage to the one on the show.

If you're into the fairy tale thing, I recommend the show. Highly. Really a lot of fun.

It appears to be Snow White's time to shine - there are two movies based on her coming out in the not-too-distant future. Mirror, Mirror looks pretty fluffy, but Snow White and the Huntsman is one I'll be at opening night given the chance. Now there's a villain who deserves the evil in her title. In the trailer, the Evil Queen is not just bad, she's Sauron! Gotta see that one.

Making Glad the Heart of a Small Child

2011-12-08T12:13:00.003-05:00

This is for my 4-year-old daughter, whose favorite book is Trina Schart Hyman's Saint George and the Dragon. And those who know me know I couldn't be happier about it – get the young dragonslayer started early. Besides, it's a great book with great art.

Anyway, the only downside is the book is a little long for a single night's reading (unless she starts going to bed waaaay early. Hold on a second, that doesn't sound so bad! Let me enjoy that thought for a moment... wait, where was I?). So she asked me to make her a knight bookmark. This is my rough sketch, but a tight one, so I printed these out for her so she could color it herself. And also for her brother and sister, because I know if I come home with one thing for one kid... well, those of you with children know where that one's going.

Work In Progress: Apple Tree

2011-12-04T12:58:00.002-05:00

Another part of the larger drawing, to go with the cauldron.

Work In Progress: Cauldron

2011-12-03T01:20:00.002-05:00

One part of what is turning out to be a much larger scene. More to come!

The Jungle Explorers - 3

2011-10-21T11:21:00.002-04:00

The next page – just a couple of the evil King's cronies.

Solar Compactor Graphic

2011-10-13T14:47:00.003-04:00

Whenever I walk around downtown, I always see BigBelly Solar Trash Compactors. They're a really great idea - they smush the trash and use their own energy to do it. The only thing that bugs me about them is the graphic on the sides, which looks like this:

Intellectually, I know that the cut-out is supposed to show the difference between the shirt and the pants. But even so, I can't help seeing it like this:

Maybe it's just me.

My Daughter's First Monster King (snif)

2011-10-11T10:40:00.004-04:00

Another one from my daughter's story. And I'm proud that she felt the need to include a Monster King, and even that she made it her own by calling him the "King of the Monsters." I've had two Monster Kings on this blog already, so I'm happy to see her keeping up the family tradition! I... I promised myself I wouldn't cry...

Some of the king's cronies can also be seen on the Dribbble post. They'll be showing up in later pages.

The Jungle Explorers - 2

2011-10-05T11:46:00.003-04:00

The first page of my daughter's book. I'm planning on doing all the pages like this - bright, flat colors, to make the characters pop.

When I started, I thought I would have all this wrapped up in a week. It seems she's quite the writer - to do it justice, there will be pages and pages of illustrations. Maybe I should encourage her to write haiku.

Medusa

2011-10-03T09:33:00.003-04:00

'Nother mythology pic.

Athena

2011-09-30T15:24:00.003-04:00

Here's a sample screen I did for a hypothetical educational game. The first one is the artwork alone, and the second is how it would look with the questions.

The Jungle Explorers - 1

2011-09-27T10:00:00.005-04:00

These are drawings that I'm doing for a story written by my 4-year old. Yes, 4. And writing probably isn't the right word; I was the scribe on this one. But she made it all up.

I had initially intended to illustrate a story I had written for her (it's about time for me to start on the kids' Christmas book, after all). But I was so taken with what she made up that I had to do this one first.

Part of this is also posted on dribbble.com - they like it when people re-link to them, so as more of these go up I'll put links to there as well.

You'll notice that the squirrels and acorns are happy together. My daughter seems to think that the two of them are friends. I don't have the heart to tell her it's more of a one-way relationship.

Rocket for Rocket

2011-07-28T10:52:00.004-04:00

My youngest daughter, who dubbed herself Rocket, just turned 4 yesterday. I painted her this as her present. I was afraid she wouldn't be as interested in a picture (compared to things like games), but when I gave it to her, she hugged it! So I guess she liked it.

Birthday Card

2011-07-18T13:34:00.003-04:00

Or rather, e-card, since I put this up on the screen for my wife to see when she opened the computer.

We went on a cruise this summer, and it was great. So great, in fact, that we all wish we were back on it. While I couldn't do that, at least I could draw it!

The Big Bad

2011-06-14T11:26:00.004-04:00

This is something I did for my daughter's Lunch Notes, but, like the snailephant, I wanted to put it up here as well.

Seems like there's always a Monster King around when I get to telling adventures. For the Piggie story, there was a fuzzy Monster King. For the mermaid story, there's this scaly insectoid one. But every rollicking yarn needs a good Bad Guy.

The Snailephant

2011-05-09T10:27:00.009-04:00

My daughter's teacher wanted me to read my lunch note story (well, part anyway – it's pretty long) for her class, and talk about what it's like working as an illustrator. That gave me an excuse to do a finished drawing of the characters, as well as the snailephant in all its glory (or repugnance, depending on your opinion of snails and/or elephants). The story arc for this part starts here.

It went over well in the class. The kids asked a lot of questions about drawing and writing, which is what the teacher was hoping for. Also, I made print-outs of this for the class to hand out, but the kids got so excited about it that the teacher asked if she could pass them out at the end of the day instead.

That's the kind of feedback illustrators love – my art will cause chaos! Totally made my day.

"The Magicians" by Lev Grossman - Again!

2011-04-20T12:14:00.008-04:00

A while ago, I read The Magicians by Lev Grossman, and liked the imagery so much that I did a drawing from it. I sent it off to the web site of the books, just to see what would happen, and put it out of my mind.

Later, much to my surprise, Lev Grossman emailed me. He said he liked the Pauline Baynes-inspired style of it, and asked if he could post it on his blog. Naturally, I said yes – I was more than happy for him to do so, especially since I had drawn it just for fun. I didn't think anyone (outside of the wonderful people who read my blog, that is) would ever see it. Here's the link to the page (although it's the exact same image. It's just cool for me to see it on the author's blog).

While you're there, check out the rest of his blog – he's got cover art up for his upcoming sequel The Magician King, both the US and the UK versions. Cool stuff – the art for each is really good.

The Battle of the Five Armies

2011-04-01T12:18:00.002-04:00

Heracles and the Sea Serpent: The Rescue of Hesione

2011-03-04T10:01:00.024-05:00

This is my second drawing for Mosaic Medley (the subject being anything to do with water this time). I almost didn't get it done in time, and in fact was planning on doing a different drawing. I thought I'd do my first final drawing of Cecilia the mermaid from my Lunch Note Project. But in doodling to come up with a composition, I ended up drawing Prince Jason battling a sea monster, which morphed into Heracles battling a sea serpent instead. Sooner or later my mind always ends up back at mythology.

For those who know about Heracles' Twelve Labors, this is a side story – or rather, a side story from that side story. Before Heracles could finish all his labors (which, incidentally, would make him a god when he finished), he heard about the Quest for the Golden Fleece, and decided there was no way he was passing this up. This was supposed to be lead by Jason, a favorite of the goddess Hera. The same Hera who was busy trying to kill Heracles with the Labors, for the completely understandable reason that he was her husband's son by another woman. So the last thing Hera wanted was Heracles joining her pet project.

Naturally, all the other heroes are delighted to have Heracles on board, and just as naturally Hera wants him dead even more than before. So en route she sabotages her own mission by having giant six-armed monsters come and attack the Argo (the very ship they need to get the Golden Fleece) simply because the rest of the Argonauts left Heracles to defend it.

This, of course, doesn't work – Heracles manages to take out all the giants and look even more amazing than he did before. This amazing streak continues even after Hera finally manages to get Heracles off the Fleece project and back to the regular way she was trying to destroy him.

What relates to this drawing is the fact that Hera's method never worked. Why? Because this is the side story to the Fleece side story. On the way, Heracles learns that Hesione, the daughter of Troy's tightwad King Laomedon, is to be sacrificed to a sea serpent for some particular bit of double-dealing by her father. So as a fun side project, he decides to take on the monster.

If that's his idea of fun, you can see why Hera was totally on the wrong track.

Another person on the wrong track was Laomedon, but more on that in a bit. The monster comes, and Heracles blasts it with arrows. This has absolutely no effect whatsoever. Just when it looks like Heracles is doomed, and the serpent darts in to swallow him whole, he picks up a giant rock and bashes the monster's head in. Just like that.

Where Laomedon goes wrong is by not learning his lesson and continuing to be a cheapskate. The rescue fee was to be some quality horses, to be picked up at a later date. Having been threatened with divine wrath once, and barely getting away with it, you'd think Laomedon would have the horses all packaged up with nice big bows. But no, he decides to cheat Heracles out of them, or, in other words, cheat the guy strong enough to divert divine wrath.

The outcome is hardly a surprise – Troy is sacked by Heracles and his 18 ships (or even, in earlier versions, 6), Laomedon is killed, and Priam is made king in the aftermath. The same Priam that is king during the big Trojan War. In fact, one of Agamemnon's captains is a son of Heracles, who can't help but point out that dear old dad managed to do with 6 ships what Agamemnon hasn't been able to accomplish with 1,000.

On a final note, Hesione stands out for me as one of the smartest people in all of Greek mythology. After her rescue, when asked if she wanted to go with Heracles or back to her family, she immediately opted for Heracles. Sure, she got saved this time, but if her own father is ready to sacrifice her every time he sees a chance to save some cash, she'd be better off high-tailing it out of Troy. And Heracles wed her to one of his heroes, so she got the happy ever after. Unlike just about everyone else in the city of Troy.

The Wholly Inaccurate Valentine

2011-02-15T10:33:00.003-05:00

So I discovered the perfect Valentine's Day gift for my wife. When I ordered it, though, the site indicated that I was way late to receive it in time for the holiday. Undaunted, I made that my idea for the holiday card. Inside, I wrote "Cupid: Great at inspiring men to lifelong love. Not so good at getting them to order mail on time."

However, by the time that was all finished, not only had the present come in the mail but she had opened it! Since I wasn't expecting it, I hadn't warned her off any packages. In other words, it not only got there on time, she saw it even earlier. Hence the completely wrong Valentine, without time to draw a different one!

New Sketchbook 3: the other daughter's request

2011-02-04T10:46:00.003-05:00

My oldest daughter wanted me to draw a picture of her. I like doing that – she's old enough to sit still, and I get practice doing faces.

With this one, it looks like her – three years ago. I guess parents really do think of their children as little, even when they're still little. Either that, or my ability to shave years off a subject when drawing them means I will have an incredibly lucrative portrait business.

New Sketchbook 2: a son's request

2011-02-01T12:07:00.008-05:00

The kids have pillow pets – if you don't have kids, you may not have heard of them. If you do, you've probably heard (like us) the theme song sung repeatedly: "It's a pillow! It's a pet! It's a PILLOW PET!" All three kids have one.

Gavin's is a bee, so he asked me to draw a picture of him as a bee. But then he said to add a beehive. Then honey pots. The guy knows what he wants in a drawing.

I offered to color it for him, but he said he wanted it as a coloring page. So I decided to not only oblige him, but see if I could make a downloadable coloring page for the site. Here it is, and maybe this will be the first in a series of coloring pages – especially if they keep giving me requests!

One other thing – after I drew it, I remembered from a while back that Bee Movie had the main character in a turtleneck. Just to make sure, I looked it up – he does wear one, but they look quite different. I thought about changing it anyway, except that we live in New England. I haven't seen Gavin without a turtleneck in months, so it was only natural to draw him that way.

Mosaic Medley - my entry

2011-01-31T12:02:00.003-05:00

A friend of mine is starting a themed illustration site. I'd explain it, but I'd only be reiterating what she already said, so click here to go there. It also has submission info, if anyone's interested!

The theme for this first one is snow. As a person who lives in New England, this is about what I feel the clouds are doing to us. Deliberately. With a smirk on their faces.

On the other hand, though, just driving around makes me feel like I'm in the first Star Wars movie. The plowed snow banks are so high that it looks like I'm flying in the channel to destroy the Death Star. All I need are some Tie Fighters (or, conversely, a better grasp of reality) and I'm all set.

A New Sketchbook, and a Daughter's Request

2011-01-28T12:16:00.006-05:00

Been off this blog for a while (although I've been keeping up with the lunch notes). The main reason is that I've been working on something, potentially for a publisher, so I can't post anything yet for copyright reasons – not a bad thing. But, in the meantime, I finally broke in the new sketchbook that Santa dropped off in my stocking this year. While I was sketching, my three-year-old asked me to do a drawing of a ghost. After I did that, she asked for a scared dog. How can you say no to a three-year-old? Well, in a case that doesn't involve running with scissors or playing with Mr. Wall Socket, that is.

After, she asked me to draw the "dog rectangles." It took me a while to figure out what she meant, but I eventually realized she was talking about the thick dashed motion lines from the Frog Prince book I did for her. So the second one is the dog running away, rectangle style.

WooHoo! It's posted!

2011-01-05T10:25:00.004-05:00

My Ginger Scallion fish recipe is up on They Draw and Cook! I'd post the image, but it's better to see it in situ. Click here to go there.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Fairy Tale Christmas

2010-12-12T22:54:00.008-05:00

Time for a Christmas illustration for the blog. Last year it was Viking Santa, this year Goldilocks.

This is a perfect example of how deadlines drive illustrators. I came up with this one as a birthday card ("Someone's been eating my cake!"), drew a rough sketch, and then promptly forgot about it. Then along comes Christmas and I realize I have no drawing. So (to quote my three-year-old) ta-da – POOF! It turns into a Christmas drawing, and I get it finished.

They Draw and Cook - the recipe half

2010-12-01T08:25:00.005-05:00

Good news and bad news with this. The good news is that they liked it over at the They Draw and Cook site. The bad news is that it doesn't qualify for their holiday contest. My mistake, really – I thought it was to get a recipe to them in time for the holidays, but what they meant was a recipe for the holidays. So, as much as I'd have liked to have gotten it in to the Food Network contest, even I have to admit that the fish swordsman doesn't really match the theme. Even reworking it with a santa hat instead of a samurai helmet probably isn't going to do the trick.

However, if the Food Network ever celebrates something like Ninja Month, I'm soooo sending it in.

On a side note, big big big thanks to my wife for the recipe!

They Draw and Cook – the contest

2010-11-24T10:22:00.007-05:00

There's a great site called They Draw and Cook, that has recipes as illustrated by a variety of different artists. Anyone is free to submit at any time, but this month has an added bonus – if you submit before November 30th, you're entered into a Food Network blog contest.

I've been meaning to submit something anyway, but art contests motivate me and finally made me come up with something. I was stuck for an idea (my wife is the chef – and an incredible one, I might add – of the family, so recipes didn't come easily to my mind) until I thought of a fish wielding a scallion like a samurai sword. Thus Ginger Scallion Fish was born, ready to take on Ninja chefs.

This is the left half – all their entries may be put in book form, so I decided to make a left and right page (also easier to scan in that way). The right page will have the recipe, along with some more illustration.

The Lunch Note Project

2010-11-18T10:55:00.004-05:00

Here's the beginning of something I've been writing for my daughter. She asked me if I would put notes in her lunch, so I tried to oblige. Now, I'm not the best letter writer, but I do like to tell stories, so the notes ended up as a daily installment.

Instead of putting them here all the time (since they occur daily), I made a separate blog for them called The Lunch Note Project. If anyone's interested in seeing where this goes, that's where they'll all be.

inspired by "The Magicians," by Lev Grossman

2010-11-12T11:19:00.016-05:00

First off, I want to say (for copyright reasons) that all the things in the picture are from Grossman's book "The Magicians." Just so no one comes breathing down my neck about his clock trees.

"The Magicians" is not a kid's novel – it would be, as it's a mix of Narnia- and Harry Potter-type fiction, except that it's also got "Less Than Zero" thrown in there as well. So the main characters are all party-hard, big-city-jaded slackers who happen to go to magic school and (more improbably) want to find a magic land of their childhood. It's a readable book, even if the three elements don't always mesh well together.

The best part for me, though, was the "Fillory and Further" series (his faux Narnia books) that his characters are supposed to have read. They sound really entertaining, which makes me wish he'd actually written those. He even has a fake first chapter of "The World in the Walls" on one of the book's websites.

In addition, there is a fake fan site for the fake books, which includes fake fan art. That's what I really wanted to draw this for – I sent it to them to see if I could have it put up as a fake fan. Alas, as of posting it has gone unregarded.

Since one of his inspirations was Narnia, I chose Pauline Baynes (the original Narnia illustrator) as my inspiration for the drawing. She's got some amazing stuff – I like her work. If nothing else, trying to do this gave me an excuse to look up her work just to check out the style.

The Mad King

2010-11-10T10:25:00.007-05:00

I was getting recycling ready to go out one day, and, as anyone's would, my thoughts wandered to crazy evil wizards. And, of course, if you have mad wizards there's also a mad king around somewhere, so this guy popped into my mind. He started out as a sketch on the border of a sudoku page, and ended up here.

Kiss the Cook... and you DIE!

2010-11-08T12:13:00.006-05:00

I just got a third story published over at Enchanted Conversation - it's a great site for re-imaginings of the classic fairy tales. They're on issue 4 at the moment – if it's a genre you're interested in, I highly recommend it.

My story is "Cooking Children! with Witch Wanda." If you read it, you can tell that there's a LOT of Cooking Channel being watched in our house (and okay, I'll say it, Crone Weekly is inspired by Us magazine. But it's my wife's, not mine, really!). In it I describe Witch Wanda's apron, and decided to draw up some possible versions of it. They're just comps, since I can't make up my mind which one I like better. Anybody have a preference?

Been off for a while...

2010-11-05T12:29:00.005-04:00

... to Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau. Great times! Even got some sketching done in art museums, as well as taking lots of pics, that will probably end up as paintings here on the blog.

But, before I went, I did one more drawing for my friend's wedding. It's for the Ketubah, a Jewish wedding contract, that he wanted to liven up a bit with an illustration. It's been printed at the same place as the bicycling rabbi, so that means it was made into a printing plate, old-school style. Love that.

Here's the drawing:

The Startling Conclusion!

2010-09-01T15:25:00.008-04:00

Startling to the greedy woodcutter, that is. Just about everyone else saw this coming.

My next big question – do I give the kids this book now, or hold off on it for a Christmas book? If I give it to them now, it might be a tad more age appropriate. But if I hold off until Christmas, I've got it all finished in September – WooHOO!

I get the feeling I'm going to break down and just give it to them. I've got some months before December, so I've got plenty of time to put something else together.

Wedding Invite

2010-09-01T12:41:00.004-04:00

Nope, not the other one - if it were, it would be a bit of a departure from the swans. This is a different one, for a buddy of mine at work (must be my year for wedding invitation drawings).

The best part about this invitation is that it was printed up on letterpress. That means that all the type was set in the old way, with each letter cast in lead and put together Gutenberg style. And what it also means is that the drawing was printed the same way. So they took the drawing, and sent it off to have it made into a metal plate for the press. Not just Illustrator pixels, not a paper printout, but cast in metal.

I feel like Albrecht Dürer.

If he drew bicycling rabbis, that is.

Tiger Icon

2010-08-30T09:01:00.005-04:00

Despite being a lifelong bibliophile, I'm really getting into the idea of the e-book. In particular, the style of art for the accompanying drawings. Here's a foray into the world of icon design.

The Return of the Mermaid

2010-08-27T10:41:00.003-04:00

The Woodcutter Story: Several Problems Resolved

2010-08-18T09:34:00.007-04:00

This isn't a post about new art per se, although some of that comes into it. It's more about composition and consistency.

In the Frog Prince book, one of the things I liked most about doing it were the split-screen pages, like this one:

But, because of the way the story went, I didn't really have an opportunity to use something similar for the Woodcutter story. But this kind of bugged me. All the pages seemed so... flat. Granted, all pages are, but it was especially noticeable in this one because of the style of art and how little action happens on some of the pages.

In particular, this page caused the most problems:

It doesn't seem like it would, but it did. Because it's just him standing there. So I got it to where I was happy enough with it, and decided to continue on with other ones. Then, as I was moving along, I got to page 17 (which I'll show in a bit).

On that page, I had to show the bad woodcutter throwing his axe in the water, while at the same time he was pretending to cry. In any other style, I could make this work in a square format. But since the (self-imposed) restraints on the style of this book means I can't use shading, perspective, etc., I was stuck with a composition that was hopelessly horizontal.

The problem was solved, of course, if I could break it up like the Frog Prince story. But I hadn't done anything like that so far, so it would look weird in the context of the book, even if I liked it by itself.

Then I remembered the problem page. If I broke that up, along with its companion page, I'd get this in earlier, and fix the page that was bugging me. Here are the two new versions:

And here's the new one that forced me to overcome the composition problem:

They all look similar here, but in the book they'll be separated by a number of pages, like the split-screen ones in the Frog Prince. The only thing I miss in the silver axe page is that I showed the tree he was standing under in the original version. I liked it, but it couldn't carry the whole page, so out it went.

Happiness for Some, Greed for Others

2010-08-16T15:22:00.002-04:00

Back to the woodcutter story. Nearing the end!

Wonder Mom!

2010-08-10T21:36:00.004-04:00

Just finished up the dream freelance job! I had to make up a mom superhero for a product launch at a blogging convention. The product was Aquaphor, and they wanted to show moms being, well, the superheroes they have to be all the time.

So I not only got to draw the character, I had to make her sidekick (the rocket-powered product), and a couple comics pages. I especially like The Irritation, but, then again, my wife says I have a knack for super-villains. I like to think that it's because of my writing ability, and not because I want to amass an army of giant spider robots with lasers.

Thanks to Beiersdorf (the parent company) for letting me post these images!

Big Doings

2010-07-27T10:23:00.004-04:00

In size, if nothing else. The kids' Vacation Bible School needed a couple murals for a backdrop, so I volunteered to pitch in. I wasn't the only one – a bunch of the older kids painted a lot of other murals. It's just that they could use an overhead projector to trace theirs, but I had to make these two up to fit a certain space. That being said, they did an amazing amount of work, very quickly.

This is me at home, working on our newly finished floor. I could only do that without fear because of what I'm painting on. It's some kind of weird plastic wrap/paper napkin hybrid that lets no liquid through at all. I have no idea what this stuff is normally used for, or why it's produced in such large sizes, but it works great for impromptu murals.

Alphabattle!

2010-07-23T11:55:00.004-04:00

Check out the alphabattle site – there is a lot of creativity going on there. In particular, the letter H – everyone seemed to pull out the stops on that one. I've been meaning to get into the game, and finally got to pull one together for the letter K, shown here (but also on the K page).

For people interested, you should see the submissions info. You can even put up past letters.

I have an idea in mind for L, which, if executed, will be in a completely different style. Fortunately, I'm not trying to construct a whole alphabet. On the other hand, though, it might be fun to have a whole karate set of letters.

Meanwhile, Back at the Other Lake...

2010-07-15T12:07:00.003-04:00

The one without swans (you'll be seeing more of the swans later, though, the closer I get to finishing it). Still making my way through this – I'd like to finish it soon, so I can move on to an animal story for the kids' annual Christmas book.

Wedding Invite: the pencil comp

2010-07-08T13:49:00.004-04:00

A friend is getting married in Hong Kong this year, and she asked Serena to do the invitation, and me to do the drawing. She said she wanted swans, so my first take on this was to do them like an Asian brush painting.

When she saw them, she said don't do that. Go full-out fairy-tale style.

For me, that's like saying to your puppy, "No, don't play with the rubber bone. Here, have some steak."

I mean, I love Chinese and Japanese brushwork, it's absolutely amazing. But even more than that, I'm the biggest fairy-tale geek, so I was all over this.

The final will be in full color, so I get to have even more fun.

The Story Continues

2010-06-07T12:11:00.002-04:00

Oh, those sneaky mermaids. Good thing our hero is so honest.

Complaint is Voiced and a Test Devised

2010-06-03T12:10:00.003-04:00

Wherein Woe is Expressed and a Mermaid Enters

2010-05-25T13:06:00.010-04:00

Back to the pages. This one is different than The Frog Prince for me. For some reason, it was easy to come up with Moy Moy's expressions on computer. But for Gavin, I need to sketch it out first, scan it in, and trace it on screen. Every page I do this, while for The Frog Prince I think I drew 2 rough sketches for the whole book. I'm not sure why; maybe without a floor-length dress, the main character shows more body language, which I can render best in pencil first.

Below is an example from an upcoming page:

I like the looseness of pencil. But the bright colors and shapes are better for a toddler book, when it comes down to a finish.

The Joy of Computer Art

2010-05-25T09:06:00.008-04:00

Ordinarily, I'm much more a fan of traditional art. I like getting in there and really working with the media, in a drawing sense even more than painting.

But sometimes, it's really great to have done something on computer.

The current story being a case in point. When I was in art school, David Macaulay spoke about the process of creating children's books. And what stuck with me the most was that the illustrator shouldn't draw the book from start to finish, because your facility with drawing the characters will improve as you go along. If you go from the beginning on, this change will be obvious to the reader. If you jump around so you've created the illustrations out of order, this isn't nearly as noticeable.

With my hand-drawn work, I've found this to be incredibly good advice.

Now to the computer part. I've definitely noticed that I'm doing this with the Woodcutter in this book. I've gotten into a way of drawing him that I really like. So when I went back to look at page one, I could see that the character was waaaay off. Features too small, head too round.

With traditional illustration, this would mean doing it all over again. On computer, I cut and pasted the head I liked, and now they all look consistent. Took all of five minutes. Glorious.

Here's a side-by-side comparison:

Out of the woods and back to the woodcutter

2010-05-24T11:28:00.004-04:00

A couple more pages, with art advice by Serena again. Thanks to her pointing it out, I saw that I got a bit off style with the original pages 2 and 3. So not only are those are gone, but changing it made the story move along a lot quicker as well. So another round of thanks are due to my lovely wife.

Someday, as my delusions of grandeur assure me, when my fairy tale books are studied by doctoral students, I'll release the first drafts so people can see my working process. But here in reality, I'll just post these.

Sorry, Were Those Yours?

2010-05-21T12:46:00.004-04:00

I was putting too much thought into this one, which made it seem like it would never get finished. So I just decided to do a little bit at a time. That way, I'd just play with it, instead of trying too hard. And then, after a couple weeks or so, when I went to work on it again, it looked finished. It just sort of happened, somehow.

Which seemed so highly improbable that I asked another artist I work with if he thought it looked finished, and he said yes as well.

So here it is. The picture of the little bird that caused Hansel and Gretel so much trouble. I'm going to start a witch picture in the same vein at some point, but I've really gotten going on "The Woodcutter and the Mermaid," so there will be a lot more pages of that up first.

The Woodcutter and the Mermaid – It Begins!

2010-05-07T12:12:00.004-04:00

With the Woodcutter, of course. This is actually my second attempt at this first page. In the first one, I was trying to draw a caricature of my son Gavin, while keeping it in the same style. I made sure I worked it over and over, to get it as carefully crafted as I could.

Then, when I showed it to my wife, she said it had no life to it.

Now, this might sound like she's being critical, but as soon as she said it, I knew she was completely right. So I went back to the drawing board, thought happy instead of clever, and ended up with this sprightly fellow.

To sum up: these things are a lot more fun, thanks to Serena. But then again, everything is a lot more fun for the same reason, so no surprise there.

The Things I Drew for Love

2010-04-26T12:17:00.003-04:00

Or rather, Looooove, but that’s another story.

So. My wife decided to make stuffed cabbage to share with the neighbors, and wanted a logo to go with it. We’re artists, it’s what we do. So she asked me to do a drawing of the two of us stuffing a whole cow, that was holding a bag of rice, into a cabbage.

I love these kinds of challenges.

The top version is the final, or rather, the final quick sketch (I had one lunchtime to do it, so it’s in the sketch phase at the moment). Below is my first version. I thought it would be funnier if we tried to get the cow into a tiny cabbage. But since the cabbage was the point, and, frankly, not the udders, she asked me to make the cabbage more prominent.

The final one looks a bit “Little Shop of Horrors,” which isn’t necessarily a bad thing either.

Sketches – Bellerophon

2010-04-08T13:28:00.020-04:00

I saw Clash of the Titans, and anything to do with Greek mythology (no matter how tangential, like the Clash) always unleashes this barely concealed mania in me to do nothing but draw, paint, and read about the gods and heroes. But there are those other things in life like, I don't know, kids, job, house renovations, that sort of thing, that just gets in the way of a 24/7 mythology-fest.

Hence the joy of the sketchbook, since you can get it all out without committing yourself to a major piece of art (while at the same time telling yourself, truthfully or un, that you're prepping for a major piece of art later). At the moment I've got my mind set on Bellerophon and the Chimera.

(There is a reason why I would opt for Bellerophon after seeing a movie about Perseus, although it's not the Pegasus connection. No, it's for a far more geeky reason which I'll explain after the main post, so only those interested – or equally geeky – need read it.)

So the lion head is for 1/3 of the Chimera, and the other is a rough sketch of Bellerophon flying on Pegasus to slay it. Darn skinny notebook - had I drawn in something a little more horizontal, I'd have had room for the monster.

As I said, my mind is never terribly far away from these sort of things, so here's an Illustrator Chimera I did several years back, as a computer sketch.

A little different take on the traditional monster, but I figure it's an insane mix of three animals (with three totally different digestive systems, among other things) so why not mix it up even more?

And now, the geek reason:

Because I wanted to re-read about the actual legend of Perseus after seeing Clash, I turned to my copy of The Library of Greek Mythology by Apollodorus. I'm a primary-source kind of guy that way (along those lines, I did try and find it in Diodorus of Sicily, but he has almost nothing about Perseus. In fact, he thought that Medusa was actually an Amazon warrior. Nothing against Amazon warriors – they're really interesting too – but for me, you just have to have snakes for hair to make it Medusa).

Anyway, in the Perseus section, for reasons beyond my knowledge, Apollodorus suddenly breaks off and goes into the story of Bellerophon, tells it all, and then picks up the Perseus story as if nothing happened. So the ideas for drawing must have snuck into my subconscious while I was really researching Perseus inspiration.

And They Lived Happily Ever After

2010-03-26T11:32:00.004-04:00

The last page of the Frog Prince! Now all I have to do is print up a copy for her. Or several, after seeing the fate of the Happy ABCs.

One thing I never mentioned. The reason I dressed Princess Moy Moy the way I did is because that's how Arianna likes to pretend to be a princess. She has a big pink bath towel that she wraps around herself, and sways back and forth saying "priiiincess." That's also why Moy Moy's dress has an empire waist - Arianna always holds it up high like that!

Or Maybe This

2010-03-24T22:02:00.004-04:00

Just in case the Prince looked like he should have a big gold chain to go with that open shirt, I changed his collar. Here's the new version. I figured I'd leave the old one up on the previous post, just for comparison. I'd welcome any input – anyone have a preference for one or the other?

Not Too Much More Frog Prince

2010-03-24T09:29:00.006-04:00

Not too much left to go, at any rate. Down to all but the last page!

Page 21 is a good example of something I would change if this were to move to an actual book format. Currently, it's 22 pages (which allows me another 2 for title page, or, in other words, a 24-page book. All books have to be in multiples of 4, because of the way they are printed). A typical picture book is 32 pages, so I'd need to add another 10 to fill it out. Which is why I'd change page 21 – I could easily break that into 2 pages, if I weren't concerned about finishing this before Arianna is too old to appreciate it (say, at 2 and 3/4 years old. Hey wait, she's narrowing in on that now!). The transformation could be one page, and his explanation the next.

Other places to split pages would be when she answers the door. If I weren't trying to keep the current page count down, I'd have made that it's own page. I could also make Princess Moy Moy's first appearance in the garden a two-page spread, as another example, as well as her running back with the golden ball. But all of that is just a future possibility, I've got a child to hurry up and read to!

P.S. On my screen, it looks like the Prince has a yellow front to his shirt (i.e. the same color as the frog's belly). On Serena's screen, it looks like his shirt has a neckline that goes all the way down to his waist (she said all he was missing was chest hair). How does this look for other people? Should I make it more decidedly different from his skin tone, or does it look okay?

More Frog Prince

2010-03-22T12:34:00.002-04:00

Up to page 18 – nearing the end! Only 4 pages to go.

The way I rendered her disgust with the frog sharing her pillow is a direct result of the previous comments. A little dramatic without breaking the style of the drawings. So all comments are welcome – they make a better book!

Salescake

2010-03-17T12:39:00.005-04:00

I was making up a story for the kids, to keep them entertained while we were driving. The story involved a salesperson who was actually a cake. So he's Bob the Salescake. This makes more sense when you realize the rest of the story involves vegetarian anteaters, rocket-powered bicycles, clouds in a school locker, and a bear (there's always a bear in the stories I make up for them. They seem to like bears).

The illustration style is vaguely Tenniel, the illustrator of Alice in Wonderland. Yep, I've been re-reading the Alice books again because the movie came out. Actually, the movie didn't really do much for me at all, so if I hadn't been reading them beforehand, I probably would be starting now to clear my head.

At any rate, I like the older style of the Alice illustrations. Since I don't really know how to do etchings, I decided to go instead for sepia on aged-looking paper. Yes, I know, actually quite unlike Tenniel's drawings, but still, I tried to go for something that could be an etching instead of being a painting or a watercolor. And Tenniel's illustrations were, in fact, engraved by the Dalziel Brothers, so I could always look at it like that. This is what I'll send off to the engraver for printing, I'll tell myself in my Victorian-illustrator-wannabe mind.

Totally loving this older-looking paper – it's the same one I used for the Valentine's Day/Chinese New Year card. More of this kind of drawing will inevitably show up again sooner or later.

Ew, Yucky!

2010-03-15T11:43:00.005-04:00

I got a comment on the last post, noting that Princess Moy Moy doesn't really show much disgust at the thought of the frog sharing her cup. And, for good or bad, that's true. I toned down everything, due to the art style and the age of my audience.

Which is not to say that it wouldn't be great fun to go all-out on the grossed-out expression, if this were in a different style. So, for my own amusement, I thought I'd do a more over-the-top version of the princess from page 15. It'll never make it into the book, but it was fun to draw!

Finally, More Frog Prince

2010-03-11T22:02:00.007-05:00

Been away from this one too long, but that's what major home renovation will do to you.

Page 15 was a collaborative effort with my wife. She liked the drawing, but the expression on the princess' face just didn't say "Ew, yucky" to her. I thought about changing the expression by adding eyebrows, but it just didn't work. Then we came up with just changing the shape of the whites of her eyes, which is such a fun solution I may revisit some of the older ones to see if it would apply to any of them.

More Frog Prince

2010-02-23T21:33:00.003-05:00

Arianna looks over my shoulder when I'm working on these, and from the sound of it she's likely to enjoy the book when it's finished. She recognizes herself and says "Princess Moy Moy!" over and over while I work. She also says she likes it! Good incentive to keep going.

Another good incentive is the feedback. Got a couple comments on the princess conceding to the frog on page 11, so I decided to change it (and update the picture) appropriately. Also, my wife reminded my that Arianna says "Ew, yucky!" a lot, and suggested that I add it to the princess' denials. So that made it into today's entry, as well as being backdated to the last one too.

More Frog Prince

2010-02-18T23:30:00.003-05:00

Interludes upon interludes

2010-02-14T21:46:00.005-05:00

And now, a short break from my short break from Hansel and Gretel. Valentine's Day and Chinese New Year (the year of the tiger) fall on the same day this year, so I just had to do a card that included both. I left it up on the computer so that my wife could find it this morning.

I would feel like I'm wasting the chance to market a perfectly good holiday card here, except for the tiny fact that the likelihood of the year of the tiger and Valentine's Day occurring together again is pretty small for the next century or so. But in 2110 or whenever, I'll be so ready with this card.

But I've been working on the Frog Prince as well, so I'll be back to interrupting Hansel and Gretel in no time.

More Frog Prince

2010-02-11T14:47:00.004-05:00

The Frog Prince continued

2010-02-08T12:03:00.005-05:00

The next three pages of the bedtime book. Working in this style has been really interesting for me. At first, it was maddening. I want shadows! I want dimension! I want perspective! But now that I'm half a dozen in, I'm getting into it. Especially as it's computer art, I can play with the composition more. I don't even bother to scan in sketches to draw from. I make each element, and then move them around, even more easily than if I'd used my sketchbook. Granted, for me at least, composing a picture in this way would only work with something rendered in this style. But it gives me a chance to make the compositions more creative, more so than if I had tried to paint it.

The other thing I've noticed helps with composition is saving it for the blog. As an icon, it's really small, so things like the composition, or flaws therein, stand out even more (in traditional art, I have to get this same effect by walking across the room from the painting, so I can see it at a distance).

This is working for my painting as well – since I've been scanning in the steps of the Hansel and Gretel piece, I get to see it in the same way. Ordinarily, it's would be too bothersome to scan in steps of a painting to check it out, but since I'm doing so anyway for the blog, it's just as helpful. In particular, when I posted the last version, I could see that the top leaf line of the trees is almost a straight line. I'll be adding more layers of foliage beneath it when I go back to working on it, but I'd never have noticed if I hadn't seen it in blog icon form.

Another (hopefully brief) Interlude

2010-02-04T12:15:00.011-05:00

Every night, Arianna likes me to read Byron Barton's The Three Bears to her, and it's easy to see why. It's colorful. It's pithy. And it has enough repetition for a 2-year old to follow along and say it with me while I'm reading it. So we do so. Every. Single. Night.

Notwithstanding, it is a fun book, and my only complaint is that there aren't more fairy tale books like it. Barton has other books, but they're mainly cars, trucks, and dinosaurs. But I was wishing that there were more story books like that one.

And then I thought, I can fix that.

So here are the first three pages of my take, toddler-art style, on the Frog Prince, one of my favorites as a child:

It'll end up being a 24-page book in the end, at least in this version. If I tried to take it to a publisher, it would probably have to be 32 pages, but I'm comfortable with the length now. After all, it is to help put a 2-year old to sleep – no need to write a novel.

Back into the Woods

2010-02-02T13:10:00.003-05:00

Progress! Nowhere near finished, of course, but a far cry from a doodle on lined notebook paper.

I've always pictured Hansel and Gretel being turned out of the house in Autumn. It seems like a particularly nasty time to abandon someone. Not a flat out death sentence like the middle of winter, true, but in late fall, after harvest time, when they have a tantalizing hope of finding food but they most likely can't or the stepmother wouldn't have turned them out of the house to begin with. Abandoned just at the right time to let them starve first and then have the cold finish them off.

Clearly I have strong opinions about how bad the stepmother is in this story.

But it does make for a nice fall palette in the painting.

We interrupt Hansel and Gretel...

2010-01-26T10:37:00.007-05:00

...for a quick contest entry. The New Yorker just recently wrapped up their third annual "Redraw Tilley" contest (Eustace Tilley is the New Yorker's logo guy – if you go to the contest site, you'll see what he looks like). I found out about it so close to the deadline that I was afraid I wouldn't be able to get an entry in under the wire, but fortunately I did. No word on the winners yet (they can pick up to 12). But check out the other entries – sure, there are some not-so-professional attempts, but there is also a lot of great art there as well. There's even some that weren't drawn so well, but were fantastic ideas. My favorite in that last category is the one of Tilley as Batman. If that had been rendered better, and the batsignal had been shining where the butterfly usually goes, I would have picked that one for a winner.

And now a quick rant about professionalism. The one thing that bugs me is how many pieces are entered multiple times, with tweaks or color changes or titles added later. In my opinion, you ought to get it to a complete finish first, and not swamp the contest pages with revisions or slightly different variations (in particular, the one hailing the cab, in I-lost-count-of-how-many-variations, really annoys me). I say, make it as good as you can, and just post it already. Overly cranky on my part, I know, but that's the illustrator in me. If you've got an illustration client, you don't hand them a dozen versions of the final and say, "I don't know, which of these do you think is okay?" That's comp stuff – not finals.

Enough ranting – back to my entry. This isn't totally off the Hansel and Gretel theme I've got going here. I came up with the idea as I was thumbing through my sketchbook, trying to find an unused page, and passed by my witch sketch for the story. I liked the idea of Tilley as a witch so much that I forget what I was going to sketch if I had found the blank page first.

Hansel and Gretel - in process

2010-01-14T20:58:00.004-05:00

I needed to get a new post put up – while I like my Santa image, in our house the Christmas decorations come down the day after the holiday, so it is way past time to put up something else.

While I don't have anything finished yet, I have been toying with illustrating Hansel and Gretel for a while. Not for any particular reason, it's just that the story conjures up a lot of imagery for me. And while randomly doodling (you can see it's on notebook paper) I came up with this drawing – Hansel and Gretel coming across the very stuffed and happy bird that ate up all their bread crumbs. The finished piece will be titled "Sorry, Were Those Yours?"

More on this to come, as I take it to a tight sketch and then a finished painting.

Viking Santa

2009-12-22T11:33:00.003-05:00

...for no reason whatsoever. I just doodled this Viking, and, when I went to take it to full color, I thought, "Y'know, you make his bearskin red, and this guy's Santa." So I did.

I'll just say that he's the one that brought Christmas joy to all the good little Norse boys and girls back in the tenth century. I imagine that it would be a bad idea to be on the naughty list.

And, despite his rather grim visage, I want to wish everyone Merry Christmas!

Newer, Slicker...

2009-12-21T09:33:00.004-05:00

...and something to put up, since the holiday season is upon us and I haven't had a chance to update the blog for a while. Up next, though, a Christmas picture! Of sorts. Coming soon.

The Sad Fate of the Happy ABCs

2009-12-15T11:53:00.005-05:00

Remember how I said that Arianna liked her book so much that she took it to the crib with her? Well, there was this one particularly sleepless naptime, with this resulting carnage:

However, perhaps there is a bright side. The ABCs are dead, long live the ABCs! I had such a good experience printing up Arianna's Baseball Catch that perhaps I'll do the same for the Happy ABC. Although this time it won't be watercolor comps, oh no. It'll be the newer, slicker computer illustration kind, as seen below:

Actually, the main benefit to doing it is the local printer binds books with spiral binding, and the book printer binds it like a real book. So maybe Arianna will be able to get her book back, and it'll be somewhat harder to destroy. Or maybe I should just print it on metal plates.

Arianna's Baseball Catch - the cover

2009-11-30T14:18:00.009-05:00

Got in the proof from the printer – looks even better than I was expecting. Usually when I do the kids' Christmas books, I just go down to the local print shop and have them staple it or at most spiral bind it. This is the first time I've gone with an actual printer (Walch Printing, to give them a shout out), and so these things look like actual books.

I'll be getting the batch of them in before long, so this post is also to let people know that I'll be selling them soon. Several people have already asked me to let them know when they're ready, and I'll be emailing them to let them know, but for anyone else, you could let me know via the comments section. The price will be $9.95 (which is also a testament for going with a good printer. The local place I usually use would have been about three times that). with an additional $2.50 for postage if you need me to mail it.

I have a paypal account set up, which hopefully will make things easier all around. Here's the link:

Thanks to all the people who have been keeping up with the progress of the book, from the first sketches to the finish!

Little Chef

2009-11-24T12:24:00.008-05:00

I don't usually do computer art when I'm doing illustration for myself, but this was so graphic that I couldn't resist.

It all started with a drawing by my four-year-old son, Gavin:

This is actually a drawing of Thomas the Tank Engine. The top is the funnel, the two circles under the face are the buffers, with the wheels below that. You can tell it's a train because of the tracks that come out from behind him.

But I thought it looked like a cute little chef. So I did my version:

And, because I can't leave well enough alone, I also had to do some action shots:

Up next – the cover! For real, this time. Mainly because if I do any artwork between now and when the book proof comes in, it means I'm not spending enough time eating holiday dinner. Happy Thanksgiving!

The Monster King

2009-11-23T12:44:00.004-05:00

Up in his treetop fortress, the evil Monster King taunts Piggie, sure that his mighty bulwarks will keep out all heroes. But is his security real or hubris?

The funky shape of the overall painting just came about all by itself. This was originally going to be a spot illustration, with just a hint of the wall. Then I got into making all the brickwork. And since it was that bottom heavy, I needed to add something on top. The Chinese-brushwork-inspired clouds just seemed to fit right in with the drawing style, rather than fluffy clouds. I like them so much, they'll be cropping up any other time that clouds figure into the picture.

Along the lines of illustration for books, I just sent off Arianna's Baseball Catch to the printer today. A couple of people have asked to buy copies, and I'll let them know when they come in. But this is my official pre-book notice that it's coming!

Up next: Arianna's Baseball Catch - the cover! (unless I manage to squeak another illustration out before the print run finishes)

Piggie

2009-11-13T12:33:00.003-05:00

Here Piggie confronts his nemesis, the Monster King, from beneath impregnable castle walls. Frustrated but undaunted, he considers his next move!

This is from a fairy tale I wrote for my children. I plan to submit the story for publication, so I wanted to do a finished painting to go with it. Up next – the Monster King!

Happy ABC - the Cover

2009-11-03T20:45:00.005-05:00

I had to do at least one painting of Arianna for her own book, so she made it onto the cover. With any luck I'll have it printed and bound tomorrow. I'll be interested to see her reaction!

Follow-up:

I gave her the book, and she loved it! And there was no guarantee of that (after all, if the kids hadn't reacted so indifferently to the last Christmas book, I'd never have tried to make the Gingerbread Policeman to make up for it). She did dub all of them "HAP-eeee!" but what she really liked were their tongues. Every time she turned a page to a letter with a tongue, she'd say "Tung!" and stick hers out.

And she does take the book to bed.

Happy ABC - the poster!

2009-10-31T12:56:00.009-04:00

I still plan to put the happy ABC's into book form, mainly because Arianna loves books so much. When I say she loves them, I mean she takes them to her crib with her to sleep, along with her stuffed animals. I've always loved books and I don't even do that! It has to be board books now, ever since she went to bed with Harold and the Purple Crayon and woke up with a page ripped out the next day, but still, she needs one with her to go to sleep.

While I'm getting the book ready (which also means a cover illustration), I thought I'd assemble them all as a poster to hang in her room. It was Serena's idea, actually. I tend to think in terms of books, so I appreciate good suggestions like that.

I think there's something about these figures that make people think of wall hangings. When another friend saw these, he said they'd look good as one of those long prints of the alphabet that hang over school chalkboards.

So Arianna will have this to look at until I make her book. Hopefully one strong enough to stand up to a night in the crib.

Halloween P.S.

I was carving Halloween pumpkins, and remembered that Arianna likes things to be happy. So I carved one that had a face like the alphabet letters. When Arianna saw it, she raised her hands and said "HAP-eeee!"

Success.

Catalog Cover

2009-10-27T09:03:00.003-04:00

Usually I create illustrations on the computer at my job, but this was a dream assignment from them. They were making a catalog of leveled readers, and, as all of the book covers have traditional illustration on them, they wanted the catalog cover to have one as well.

They really let me run with this one – at first they wanted me to match a style of one of the existing covers, but when they saw my rough sketch they said they liked it the way I had done it. There were changes, of course; for example, my first sketch had the teacher holding the book, and they wanted the students to have them. But that's all part of the illustration process so it was an incredibly fun painting to do.

(Just for the record, image is copyright Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Comic Redraw Contest – I Won!

2009-10-23T13:56:00.006-04:00

One of the webcomics that I like to read is Amazing Super Powers (which I think is the most awesome name for a comic ever. I wish I had thought of that first, even if I didn't have a comic to go with it). Every year they have a contest for people to recreate one of their comic strips. And I won! The comic strip and winning entries are here (you have to scroll down from the comic to see them), and the strip I was recreating is here.

I have to give some credit to Serena, however. When I first tried to redo the strip, I thought I would just do the strip exactly, but drawn differently. I showed Serena and she pointed out that it wasn't really creative at all. So I had to figure out something else to do, and that something else won. So art critiques really do help.

Here's the first panel of my original take on the comic, just to show you what I mean:

One last thing. They wrote a comment above my comic about the content, which I'm somewhat alarmed to realize never once occurred to me. I'll take some solace in the uncapitalized portion of the comment.

Arianna's Alphabet Book: Finished!

2009-10-19T16:40:00.006-04:00

The letter I – the final illustration! I still have to put them together with the text, but that'll be easy enough by Christmas to give it to the kids.

Some people had expressed interest in a copy of this when it's printed up. Instead of taking it to a printer myself, I'm planning to use some kind of print-on-demand company. Perhaps lulu.com, but some writer friends have said they've used other places as well, so I want to check out prices. If anyone is interested in it, drop me a line and I can let you know once I find a printer.

Happy ABC continued

2009-10-16T12:26:00.002-04:00

These keep coming, in random order – although it's the random order that makes me have to think about it a little more. I have to think in terms of what color the actual surrounding letters will be, not what they are on the page of four that I'm currently painting. So there's a lot of yellow letters today, but if I plan it right, they'll all be fairly spaced by color when I put the whole alphabet together.

Happy ABC

2009-10-15T12:25:00.006-04:00

"I have a sentimental weakness for my children and I spoil them, as you can see."

— Don Corleone, The Godfather Part I

Even though I'm one painting away from the original concept of the alphabet book, how can I say no to an adorable 2-year-old that wants everyone to be "HAP-eeee"? So here I go again, another 26 paintings. The things I do for my kids!

If I Had Only Known...

2009-10-13T14:45:00.003-04:00

I was writing out the alphabet for Arianna yesterday (because, well, she doesn't have her alphabet book yet), when she seemed to ask me to make the letters happy. Or, as she puts it, "HAP-eeee!" She says happy a lot, although whether it is to say she is, to hope we are, or to make someone so (or any combination of the three) it's not always easy to tell. But on the off chance she wanted the letters to be happy, I drew one with a big smile on it. She raised up her hands and said "Yay! HAP-eeee!" So I drew more and she loved them all.

I painted this one for her at lunch today – took less than an hour. Had I started this way, the whole thing would have been finished within a week.

I'm almost through with the letter I painting, but I'm tempted to give all the kids a copy of "Arianna's Baseball Catch" as their Christmas book, and give Arianna the "Happy ABC" book as her own alphabet book. I think she'd like it a lot more!

Arianna's Alphabet Book: I, sort of

2009-10-09T12:11:00.002-04:00

The last letter is still stalled, so as a nod toward some sort of progress I'm putting up the line drawing. What with the bookshelf and the vanity and the end tables and all, it's taking me some time.

This didn't start out this complex. I was going to have her fall through the hole in the ground and land on a pile of leaves. Then I thought a couch would be funnier, or at least more surreal to have under the ground. And, if you're going to have a couch, you would have end tables, and perhaps a bookshelf, and... you get the idea.

Went Apple Picking...

2009-10-08T12:48:00.004-04:00

...and ended up with pears as well. I don't even normally like pears, but these were so good we picked a bunch of them.

Painting a picture of one was actually Serena's idea. When a pear came off with the stem and leaves attached, she said that it would make a great subject for a painting. So I have to give her the credit for me deciding to do this one.

sketch: on the train

2009-10-01T12:04:00.002-04:00

Still working on the letter I. If it takes too much longer, I may post the line drawing, to show what I'm up against. But Arianna is already learning to sing the ABC song, so I have to hurry up!

In the meantime, though, another watercolor based on a train sketch.

sketch: on the train

2009-09-28T13:45:00.002-04:00

sketch: on the train

2009-09-25T12:30:00.002-04:00

I wasn't able to actually paint on the train (although that might be interesting to try some time), but I did the sketch for this one while riding on it. It was a perfect trifecta for drawing – she was asleep, listening to an ipod, and seated slightly in front of me. I had so much time to render the drawing that I thought it would be worth trying to do a painting from the rough, and this is the result.

I like it better than just the plain sketches, so if I can get good enough rough drawings I plan to do more of these.

Arianna's Alphabet Book: And this is the easy one

2009-09-24T11:29:00.007-04:00

The only one left is the letter I, which has even more going on in the illustration!

S for stairs was one of the first concepts I came up with, even though it's gone through a lot of revisions. I initially was going to do the classic straight but steep stairway up into a murky height. But when I began drawing it, a tall stairway didn't look as interesting as an endlessly meandering one. It seemed the sort of thing that an Evil Queen would build – if she must put a stairway in, she'll make it as inconvenient a way of access as possible.

Then I thought it would look even more daunting looking down.

The stairs won't daunt Arianna, but the shadows on the figures just might. She's incredibly intimidated by her own shadow. I think she doesn't like that it seems stuck to her feet. On sunny days, we have to pick her up, because she won't walk if she sees her shadow.

Maybe the figures are so far in the distance that she won't recognize that it's supposed to be her shadow. Or so I hope!

sketch: on the train

2009-09-22T10:38:00.003-04:00

Sitting slightly behind someone is another way of getting to draw them without being beaten up, er, noticed. Along those lines, I was noticed drawing someone on the train today, but not by the person I was sketching. The subject was a couple seats forward, asleep with his head back. But when people got off the train, someone walked past me and said, "Hey, is that the guy up there sleeping?" When I said yes, she said she'd have to watch out if she saw me on the train. Or you could pose, was my answer.

sketch: Serena

2009-09-21T10:57:00.007-04:00

Moving beyond faces to the whole figure. Although I can't help but feel there's something wrong here – Serena's the one sitting in front of the TV, drink in one hand and remote in the other. Perhaps if I watched more sports (i.e. didn't go to art school) I'd be the one on the couch.

Along those lines, the other day I had a dream that I was being stalked by a bear. When I told Serena she asked, "Was it polar, panda, or koala?" Koala?!? Sure, I'm an artist and all, but I hardly find koalas terrifying. At least she didn't add "teddy" to that list.

Arianna's Alphabet Book: Z

2009-09-18T11:04:00.005-04:00

Arianna and her new friend safe at home. Obviously Z is for "Zzzz," but I also put "snoozing" in the text so all the Z's aren't in the snoring sound.

Two more after this one, both full-page illustrations. The next one I'm going to tackle is S. I had done an initial rough sketch for it, but it didn't seem dramatic enough. So I'm going to try it at a different angle, or, in other words, make it even more difficult. That means that after this I'll probably be putting up train sketches for a bit, unless I get into a total painting frenzy and knock the next one out quickly.

sketch: woman on the train

2009-09-16T12:53:00.004-04:00

Remember how I said it would probably be a mistake to stare at someone while scribbling in a notebook? The significant exception to that rule is a person using a Blackberry. I was a couple seats away, but I could probably have sat right next to her and she wouldn't have paid me the least bit of attention.

Suddenly, I really like Blackberries. I encourage all public transportation users to get one.

Interlude: sick puppy

2009-09-15T08:58:00.004-04:00

A friend of mine, a self-described sick puppy, asked me to do a drawing for him so he could use it as his profile picture on Facebook. This is what I ended up with.

As he put it, "Sheesh, I wasn't expecting anything that elaborate (or downright cute)! I was expecting a quick pencil drawing of a puppy blowing chunks."

I, too, thought I'd do a quick pencil sketch. It was just one of those things that ran away with me.

Back to the Book: V

2009-09-14T08:56:00.005-04:00

This one was another one of those departures, one that would probably get sent back by an editor for not matching the other pictures in the book. But if I did it like the others, there would be an awful lot of gray in the background, so I decided to spruce it up with the yellow from the hanging lights. Also, the colors are a little less dark, but I liked it. As another artist I showed it to said, the rendering shows that the stairs recede, so I didn't need to go overboard in making the far background extra dark.

I had to show this one to someone else even though I considered it finished. It was one of those "Is this done? I think so. Or am I kidding myself, so I can move on to the next one?" So I was glad that someone else thought it looked complete too, and I could move onto the next drawing conscience-free.

V is for "Very soon, they saw a shovel."

sketch: Serena

2009-09-11T09:38:00.005-04:00

I mentioned a couple posts back that the only time Serena is still long enough to sketch is when she's asleep.

I had originally meant to sketch her mouth – I was on "The Mouth and Chin" chapter in Vanderpoel. But I enjoyed gazing upon my Beloved so much I that just kept on drawing.

Normally, I need about 20 hours a day more sleep than she does, so I'm not sure why I was still awake to even do this drawing.

sketch: more figure drawing

2009-09-10T14:16:00.006-04:00

Another quick one while I'm working on the next page of alphabet book.

Feet fascinate me artistically. They seem to me to be just as expressive as hands are.

In contrast, my wife thinks feet are gross (or maybe it's just my feet). Although she does like pudgy baby feet. Especially ones that are so plump that they're like little balls with toes. If I can catch the kids while they're asleep, or try Gabriella's patience again, I'll try drawing some hopefully cuter feet to accompany this one.

sketch: Gabriella

2009-09-08T12:09:00.004-04:00

Still working on the last four drawings for the alphabet book, but in the meantime I've been trying to continue with figure drawing as well. It all started with going to the museum and drawing the hand, and now I'm working my way through Vanderpoel's The Human Figure again.

The hard part, of course, is finding people to draw. Or at least, people that have the time to sit still long enough. Serena's modeled for me before, but with all that's been going on I don't think I've actually witnessed her sitting still recently (although I did do one quick sketch of her face when she was asleep).

I've tried drawing people on the train ride home, but you have to find the ones that are asleep. Otherwise, I imagine they'll get really angry if they find you staring at them intently while scribbling in a notebook.

So I was pleasantly surprised when my six-year-old asked if I would draw her. And even more surprised when, amazingly, she sat still. I mean, have you ever seen the energy a six-year old has? Once in a while she would move her head, but I'd ask her to move it back and she did. I just did the face quickly to start off with – I didn't want to push my luck. But she seemed to really enjoy it. She even asked if I would draw more portraits. So you may be seeing more drawings of my daughter up here, as well as the watercolor illustrations.

Arianna's Alphabet Book: K

2009-09-04T12:40:00.003-04:00

While it might not have the élan of battle penguins (but then again, what does?), here is the next drawing for the alphabet book. Getting ever nearer to the finish line, especially since I decided to keep the letter U picture as it's painted. Part of me wanted to revise it, or do the new version, but in reality I think that I just wanted to avoid the appearance of laziness. I realized that I actually like the first version. So I'll stick with that.

Only four more to go, then – as long as I'm in denial that I don't have to do a cover illustration.