When in Rome, do as the Vandals do.
I’m taking a continuing education class at SVA. The subject is graphic novels. Doing comics is a full circle for me. Marvel superheroes are what got me interested in drawing in the first place.
This is a page from a class assignment. The prompt was “time” which led me to create a story opening combining an old man, a baby, ancient ruins, a vintage Fiat and futuristic invaders.
The future is sketchy.
Haven’t posted anything to Illustration Friday in a long time. When I saw this week’s prompt, I was motivated develop a promising sketch I had sitting on my desktop.
Not available in any store.
My son’s kindergarten class is nuts for the Mr. Men and Little Miss series of books. By now, they’ve read all of them so, when my wife volunteered to go to school and read to the kids, I decided to create a new one.
The story is typical of the series but with more jokes aimed at the parents. The protagonist is Mr. Read who likes to read, of course. Also in the story are Little Miss Evil, and Mr. Hip and Mr. Party. Little Miss Punctual was in a early draft but was edited out.
When the day came, both the kids and the parents listened and laughed. The teacher asked for a copy.
Most important, it demonstrated to me how quickly I can make a book like this. It felt like every time I start a book project, it would take a year to get it 3/4 done and even then it wouldn’t look as good as I thought it would. This book took about a day, all totaled, and it looks good.
I like to see step-by-step examples of how other illustrators work, to learn new methods of working and just to see how images come together, seeing the missteps and corrections along the way. I use a variety of methods in my own work. This example is me drawing and painting out of my head. The subject is the Crypt Keeper from the TV series, Tales from the Crypt.
July
Blackberry is sponsoring a promotion thru deviantArt, one best explained by the promotional text:
If you’ve always wanted to collaborate with Neil Gaiman on an artistic adventure, now’s your chance! Neil has teamed up with BlackBerry on the revolutionary Keep Moving Projects, which document some of the world’s most interesting and imaginative people as they take on their own special projects with the help of fans. And Neil wants you on his team!
Neil Gaiman has created “A Calendar of Tales,” 12 short stories each inspired by the months of the year that yearn for the accompaniment of beautiful illustrations. That’s where you come in!
Yes, that is where I came in. All twelve stories are quite good. May was the best read, but July was more suggestive of visuals.
What, MeTilley?
Every year the New Yorker holds the Eustace Tilley contest, a chance for readers to reimagine the magazine’s iconic dandy. Thinking about one magazine’s mascot got me thinking of another’s and there you have it…idiocy!
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 7,500 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 13 years to get that many views.
