Animals and Adjectives Challenge: Week 3

If you have been following my posts for the last couple of weeks, you know my wife Amy came up with a fun challenge  to keep me drawing each day. She wrote a list of about 30 adjectives on a piece of paper, and a list of animals on another; she put all the adjective slips in one cup, and all the animal slips in another. I pick an adjective slip and an animal slip at random from the cups each day and then draw whatever came up.
Here are my sketches for this week, 3 of the challenge.

The first one was "Hungry  Platypus". It's y very cartoon-ey rendition of a platypus with a cheeseburger. Who knew they were carnivores?


















Next was "Flexible Bear". I really like bears, so I did several versions of this one.

 Then came "Frustrated Field Mouse".

A"Grasping Dragon".

 

A"Proud Anteater".

 A"Nervous Fox".

 And finally, a "Jealous Duck".

 I still have more to go, but I am going to take a week off. I will post more when I return.

Animals and Adjectives Challenge: Week 2

If you read my post from last week, you know my wife Amy came up with a task to keep me drawing each day. She wrote a list of about 30 adjectives on a piece of paper, and a list of animals on another. then she cut up the paper so each of the adjectives and each of the animals names were on a separate slip of paper. Then she put all the adjective slips in one big coffee cup, and all the animal slips in another. I was to pick an adjective slip and an animal slip at random from the cups each day and then draw whatever came up.
Here are my sketches for this week, week 2 of the challenge.

The first one was "Excited Shark".

I liked this one so much I did several alternate versions.  

   Then "Creative Unicorn".

 
















"Tense Hummingbird."

"Timid Aardvark".

 "Loyal Elephant".

 

















"Infatuated Chicken".

 





















An "Infatuated Chicken" alternate version.

And finally "Ecstatic Sheep".

I still have a cup full to go, So I will post more over the next few weeks.

Above the Fold: Alumni Works in Design

I was recently selected by a jury to participate in the 3rd Biennial Juried Alumni Exhibition  
Above the Fold: Alumni Works in Design
in MassArt’s Bakalar Gallery from
June 11 - July 11, 2015.
The jury included Sam Aquillano, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Design Museum Boston; Valerie Fletcher, Executive Director of the Institute for Human Centered Design (IHCD); and Clifford Stoltze, Creative Director of Stoltze Design. The jury was very impressed with the submissions and commented on the overall excellence of the work. Over 80 designers submitted more than 160 pieces for consideration, representing the high-quality work of MassArt alumni. The jury selected 39 designers through a competitive process.
The final works selected were (3) logos designed as part of the western Massachusetts Byway project.
Here are the three selections:

Adjectives and Animals Challenge

Things have been a little slow for me work-wise, so my wife Amy came up with a scheme to keep me busy. She wrote a list of about 30 adjectives on a piece of paper, and a list of animals on another. then she cut up the paper so each of the adjectives and each of the animals names were on a separate slip of paper. Then she put all the adjective slips in one big coffee cup, and all the animal slips in another.
 Here are the two cups:

The task she set me was to pick an adjective slip and an animal slip at random from the cups each day and then draw whatever came up.

My first pick was "Scheming Turtle"
This is what I came up with.

 The point of these was to draw them quickly, without reference, to get into the habit of drawing things out of my head, and for fun, both things I have gotten out of the practice of doing.
These are all small, drawn in ink on a 4" x 3" pad, and then colored with watercolor.

 
My next was "Weepy Kitten".

 Then "Loving Donkey"

 "Scared Goat "

 
"Steadfast Pig"

 I liked "Happy Whale " so much that I did two versions.

 "Charming Sloth" made one week's worth.
I will post more next week. I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I enjoyed drawing them.

Henry Hudson and the Mermaid-FINAL

I finally finished this piece!

Starting Over

I recently attended the New England Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (NESCBWI) conference in Springfield, MA. One of the activities that I participated in at the conference was a portfolio critique. This is an opportunity to show your work to an agent, editor, or art director. You get 15 minutes of face to face time. My critique was with Martha Rago, a creative director at Random House/Golden Books. The critique seemed to go well. Martha was open, friendly and easy to talk to. She seemed to like my work, she said it was obvious that I knew how to draw and paint, but she seemed a little indifferent to it. It lacked that"special sauce", that extra ingredient that would take it from competent to really special. And than she came across this piece in my portfolio.

This is one page of a series of sketches I had done for my friend Sarah Riddle. She had taken a stab a writing a children's book titled "Bon Appetite" and asked if I would be interested in doing some sketches for her. Her story is about a little girl named Kate, who is having liver for dinner. She hates liver, so she escapes from her home and travels to the faraway land of Bon Appetite, where the only food served are ones that kids like, and anyone who prepares or serves anything like liver, is banished from the kingdom forever.  My sketch was inspired by Sarah's note in her text — (Illustration shows the people are all children wearing dress-up costumes and Bon Appetite is made up entirely of kitchen utensils and items).
Martha Rago really, really liked this piece. In fact she probably spent more time looking at this sketch that the entire rest of my portfolio. A sketch. One I almost didn't even include in my portfolio.
 Why did she like it so much? Good question. I asked her.
She said that she found it to be playful and imaginative . If you follow this blog at all, you know that most of my work is fairly tightly rendered...one might even say... a bit stiff. I have a certain working methodology that seems to work for most things, but children's books is apparently not one of them.
I always sketch a thumbnail of the idea, but then I use a lot on photo reference to compose the final piece. As could be expected, the reference sometimes takes over, and whatever life or energy it had, is blanched out of the final work. This was not easy to hear, but on some level I knew it was true. It confirmed something that I have suspected about my work for a long time, but was afraid to admit. So what to do about it?
Martha suggested having a glass of wine before I sit down to draw. I think she meant it half-jokingly, but the point was well taken. I need to loosen up a bit. Draw out of my head  and out of my heart more. Trust my instincts more. She said "You know enough, have enough experience to draw convincingly without relying on photo reference." 
So, I am starting again, going back to the beginning. I am learning to draw again, or really un-learn, everything that I think I know about illustration. Trying to make it fun again and draw naturally, like a child.
By the way, here are the rest of my sketches for the story, in order.