Happy Valentine's Day!

Even if Valentine's Day is rotten, there's always the day after, when all the chocolate goes on sale....

Prints

Life's been crazy, what with writing an entire graphic novel script in three weeks (for grad school) and working full-time, but once the script was emailed out, I had a brief moment to do some artwork. Since it's almost valentine's day, I decided to work on some ideas for a rubber block print. I find rubber block prints to be very fast and fun for me to produce, yet there's still a sculptural aspect to making them that I really enjoy.

Here's the very rough sketchbook page with Valentine's day ideas:



Before I started carving the Valentine's image, I found this image that I'd drawn, but not finished carving. As a warm-up I finished carving and printed a proof. I really like this image. Someday, I'd like to have the time to develop both 3-d illustrated picturebooks and one done in prints. I use rubber because it carves easily (minimizing hand injuries). The only drawback is that it wears down quickly when you pint, and can print far fewer images than with linoleum.

Look for the Valentine's day image on Valentine's day!

Knight

I know it's been a while. The full-time work, full-time grad school has me writing and reading more than illustrating, but there may be some sketches this semester. The lighting in this piece is done with a small LED flashlight and a light box.

2011

Fables

In Mordicai Gerstein's Creating the Picturebook, we began the semester considering framing and spreads. Using nursery rhymes and then fables, we created short dummy books. Here are a few examples of the exercises.

The Tortoise and the Hare






The Frog and the Ox






The Fox and the Grapes

Nursery Rhymes

In Mordicai Gerstein's Creating the Picturebook, we began the semester considering framing and spreads. Using nursery rhymes and then fables, we created short dummy books. Here are a few examples of the exercises.

Little Boy Blue





Little Jack Horner





BaBa Black Sheep

Molly Bang & Picture This

The first book we looked at in Megan's Picturebook class was Molly Bang's Picture This, a book my mom has had around the house since it was published and a book she bought me in the eight grade. In Picture This, Bang explores how the color, shape, and size of various compositional elements directly affects the emotional response of the viewer. Her beginning example focus on the story of Little Red Riding Hood, while later images explore the differences between diagonals versus horizontals, and round versus geometric forms. For someone who has studied art and sat through critiques, the information in Bang's book is already second nature. What I found most interesting was how non-visual people related and processed the concepts in the book. Watching an adult move pieces of paper around, trying to understand the dynamics of a composition is incredible- even more so in that compositional elements may be something they've never before considered. As an illustrator and intrinsically visual person I find this rather astonishing.

Below is Hansel and Gretel told in 5 pages (and one title page) using the concepts and exercises outlined in Molly Bang's book (one of which is two colors plus black and white, hence the controlled palette).



Hansel and Gretel’s stepmother, tired of the sound of children playing, sent them into the woods with naught but a hunk of bread. Hansel and Gretel’s father had never let them play in the woods. Afraid they would become lost; they left a trail of bread crumbs behind them.

But the birds of the forest flocked to food and Hansel and Gretel were soon lost. Spying a house through the trees, they headed toward it and were soon welcomed inside. Though the cottage was sweet, there was something strange about the Old Woman who lived there.

That night the Old Woman grabbed Hansel, cackling, “I do love a good roast child!” Though terrified, Gretel would not see her brother condemned to the oven. As the Old Woman muttered to herself, Gretel reached out, pushing with all her strength, and shoved the Old Woman into the oven, pulling Hansel to safety as she did.

Hansel and Gretel fled the cottage, weaving and twisting through the trees. As dawn approached, they found the edge of the woods.

“Children! Were have you been?” Their father greeted them with hugs and admonishments; “You must never go into the forest alone again. Oh, I missed you so!” Their stepmother, however, was nowhere to be seen.