Illuxcon 3 Short Review

Illuxcon 3

Holiday Card, 2010, "Bramble Jack's Repose"

Here is a piece I am working on for my holiday card, this year. I'm nearly done. I just need to clean it up a bit and add the text at the bottom. Working and finished size is 4.25"x6". The process is included here, along with one of my reference shots.

Secret Stone

   Hi everyone. My name is Adam. I've been following this blog for a while and recently decided I really can be considered an illustrator. ;)      These images are a sketch of Turtle and the first page of a story I have illustrated. Hopefully it will be published soon!  The book is called The Secret Stone, by Jeff Tally. I was hoping to get some feedback from the community. Y'know, let me know what you guys and gals think. I look forward to meeting some of you at the upcoming lunches as well!
        You can check out some more of my work at flyingtreehousestudio.com. It's also on Blogger.
 

Who's with me?

Communication Arts Illustration Competition website

I'm doing it this year! Last year they changed the deadline dramatically, and I wasn't prepared.....but this year I'll be ready! Who's with me??

Dawna Boehmer: American Art Collector Magazine

Local illustrator Dawna Boehmer has a couple pieces in the December issue of American Art Collector Magazine.

Also check out her website and blog which I really enjoyed looking through. (Especially her blog which is a cool look into how she does her work.)
http://www.dawnaboehmer.com/

Charles Schulz Exhibit at Downtown Library Branch

PEANUTS © United Feature Syndicate Inc.


"Inside Peanuts: The Life and Art of Charles M. Schulz" displays preliminary sketches, reproduced comic strips, collectables, and influences on Mr. Schulz.

The display is up until Jan. 9th - I haven't made it down there yet, but I shall.  

More info at: http://www.cincinnatilibrary.org/programs/exhibits.html

Online Portfolio Sites

I got a question recently about good portfolio sites. Anyone have any experiences to share? I am on http://www.childrensillustrators.com/ and http://picture-book.com/. I until recently was on  http://www.theispot.com/ but did not renew this year since the decline of the editorial market seems to have affected the traffic to the site and the calls I got did not seem to justify the expense.

Of course all the source books have online components as well these days.

I know there are a lot of free portfolio sites as well. I use Coroflot. What do other people use and what is their experience?  (Like Deviant Art, Carbon Made, etc.)

Gators and Tikis

This summer, I had the unique opportunity to design a trademark logo for a local restaurant. There were a lot of changes in direction along the way, and my earliest and kitsch-iest sketches weren't used, but I'm happy to say that I did take the project to completion and I hope to show the final logo in a future post. For now, I thought some of you might enjoy some of the sillier unused designs

there are a few more on my blog:

http://chuckrekow.blogspot.com/

More Signings: Julie Larson, Cartoonist of the Dinette Set

Saturday November 20
2:00 - 4:00 -- Julie Larson in person,
signing her newest Dinette Set book, A Penny for Your Thoughts
Add the newest and funniest Dinette Set book yet to your collection! Julie will be here to chat and to autograph your purchases of A Penny for Your Thoughts, starring the Crustwood gang of favorites!

http://collegehillcoffeeco.com/music.htm

Location: College Hill Coffee Company
6128 Hamilton Avenue at North Bend Road

Phone: 513-542-2739 (BREW)

Loren Long: Nice Article in the Cincinnati Enquirer about Of Thee I Sing

 Nice article about Loren's new book in the Cincinnati Enquirer by Lauren Bishop.

It looks like Loren will be signing the book at Joseph Beth on December 11th at 1PM.

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20101115/ENT07/11160303/1032/ENT/Long-adds-Obama-book-to-resume

Update: Loren will also have a signing at Blue Manatee on December 18th at 11am.

Did Daryll Pose for Chris??

This goldstar ad just popped up on my screen and even though I have seen it many times before, I just noticed a resemblance.

Galeriemartel-comic artists

Got to this site from the Daily Hellerman. Some videos and more of some of the great comic artists-R Crumb, Art Spiegelman, many more.


http://www.galeriemartel.com/index.html

C.F. Payne Illustration Workshop

When: Saturday, December 4 at 8:00am - December 5 at 6:00pm

Where: Evendale Cultural Arts Center 10500 Reading Rd. Evendale, OH

From the Evendale site:
Evendale, OH – The Evendale Cultural Arts Center is pleased to present a C.F. Payne Workshop on December 4 & 5, 2010. The workshop runs from 8 am until 11:30 am on Saturday and begins at 11 am and ends at 6 pm on Sunday. The workshop is designed to teach a mixed media technique used throughout Mr. Payne’s 30 year career as a working illus...trator. In his demonstration and later in the workshop, Mr. Payne will create an image using acrylics, watercolor, ink, oils and colored pencils to paint his landscape. Students will create their own image and will be encouraged and instructed by the artist as they learn his technique. Students will be required to bring their own supplies. The registration fee for the two day workshop is $200.

Mr. Payne’s artwork has been featured on the covers of the Readers Digest, Time Magazine, The New York Times Book Review, Sports Illustrated, US News and World Report, and MAD Magazine.
His work has exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, MA and in a one-man show at the Cincinnati Art Museum in Cincinnati, OH, to name a few.
C.F. Payne has illustrated numerous children’s books including “The Remarkable Farkle McBride” and “Micawber” written by actor John Lithgow. He also illustrated Earnest Thayer’s baseball classic “Casey at the Bat” in 2003.

The Evendale Cultural Arts Center is located at 10500 Reading Rd. in Evendale, Ohio. The center is located in the restored Civic Center.


To make a reservation and for more information, call the Evendale Cultural Arts Center at 513-563-1350 or the Evendale Recreation Center at 513-563-2247, email evendaleculturalarts@gmail.com or visit us online at www.evendaleohio.org
 
http://www.evendaleohio.org/Pages/EvendaleOH_Bcomm/LateFall2010ClassesforWeb.pdf
 
Looks like a great opportunity!

The Worst Sketch...

...you may ever see on this blog, is in this post.

It's taken every ounce of humility I've got to post it, but I wanted to respond to Christina's recent posting about the creative process.

The art above is something I did last week for my daughter's birthday. She asked me to make her a drawing with a unicorn and a hamster, and I immediately bristled at the thought of combining two animals so different in scale. Unfortunately, once you tell your 5-year old she can have whatever she wants for her birthday, you're pretty much stuck (In fact, I think that's how John the Baptist died, but I digress.)

Here's the eponymous sketch:

Most of my art starts with a really awful, but useful thumbnail. (Actually some aren't even useful —just awful.) In this case I couldn't stand to look at it long enough to finish it, but it was enough to tell me the concept was okay, and it stood as a rough guide for the work ahead.

After pulling a few images of horses in steeplechases, I got a more refined sketch. You can see that I'm still making decisions about the placement of the front legs. A lot of my rough sketches have three or more limbs.

One the sketch is scanned, I tear the elements apart in Photoshop and nudge them. It's nice to be able to make these refinements without re-tracing the image. I've always found that something gets lost with every iteration.

Here's a cleanup based on the sketch above:

In the final image, I've actually superimposed the cleanup over the early sketch.

I don't use this technique much for my commercial work, because it looks too sketchy for most clients, but I like it for personal stuff. My preliminary work almost always hits these stages though, and I keep most of the nicest sketches. (about 10% of the total)

Sad News: Joseph Beth Files for Bankrunptcy

I just heard about this. Joseph Beth is a great bookstore and it is sad to hear about their economic woe. Fortunately, their Rookwood Pavilion store will remain open for the moment.

It is a favorite illustrators lunch spot (Bronte's Cafe) and many have had signings of their books and posters at the store. Hopefully it will recover.

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20101111/BIZ01/311110069/Joseph-Beth-files-for-Ch-11-bankruptcy

By the way, when promoting books you have illustrated on your blog or website, below is a website that will generate a link to order your book from an independant local bookstore rather than Amazon so you can encourage people to buy locally and support these small businesses:

http://www.indiebound.org/

(Thanks Mary Kay for telling me about this!)

Cool Article on Caricature in the NYT Blog

Cool article in the New York Times blog section about creating caricatures. The writer had three artists discuss their approach to doing a caricature of Picasso.

My favorite is Pablo as a flounder (get the cubist joke?)

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/11/drawing-funny/

Since so many on this blog do caricatures, I would be interested in their take on this study.

By the way, in my opinion, Pablo Picasso is one of the most overrated artists ever. Just an aside since the article has little to do with him as an artist but as a subject... I suppose he was an artist that really cultivated himself as a "brand" as they say these days. Perhaps not the first but one of the most effective.

Cool Illustration Blogs and the Process of Making Illustrations

I do not know if anyone has checked this out yet, but it really is cool:

http://muddycolors.blogspot.com/

I know it has mostly fantasy art, but it is cool to see the process from thumb to finish. It is kind of a group version of James Gurney's blog.

I admit, I never really scan or post my thumbnails-I usually throw them away. My studio is a sea of paper as it is. Do you guys archive your whole process?

Here is a sketch from my earlier painting post:

And here are some unused cartoon concepts for an aspect to a book I am painting now (the rest of the art is realistic):

Final Sketch

Here is the final sketch before reference, transfer to Bristol, and inking it. My model is available tomorrow. So, this will be finished here, shortly. I positioned the darker areas next to areas of mostly white or white areas where they could contrast nicely. I also placed these in the background so they would recede and push the woman forward. There are alternating places of busy and simple, open shapes. I'm confident this will be one of my better pieces.

This Week's Illustrators Lunch: 11-10-2010 Slatt's

November 10th; lunch at 11:30:


Slatt's Pub

4858 Cooper Road
(513) 791-2223
If this is your first lunch, give me a heads up so we can look for you. Also ask the hostess where we (the illustrators lunch group) are seated.

Save the Date! Christmas Party

Bruce, Jennifer and Brennan look at art...

It is that time of year again! The Illustrators Lunch Christmas Party is tentatively scheduled for December 19th  probably again at Slatt's.

Not sure what the pictures in the
background were about. The owners of
the restaurant were having a party as well.

Details soon! Here are some pictures from last year. There is usually a gift and sketch exchange. In addition, everyone brings art they have done over the year to show off.

If anyone has any suggestions to make 2010's party even more fun, let me know!

Hope to see everyone there!



 

Cool post on Escape From Illustration Island

I assume most people already follow Escape From Illustration Island but I saw this article they posted on Facebook the other day:
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/notes/escape-from-illustration-island/3-things-your-about-page-might-be-missing/458301152009

It is called: 3 Things Your About Page Might be Missing

It is a good read about how art directors may perceive you from your "About Me" page.

John Winter Mini Review

For an awesome review of an awesome mini by John Winter, check this video out :) Watch the whole thing, if you have the time, but John's mini is at: 5:12-6:43. It definitely is the best mini in this set. Great job, John!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLY9qbAvam8

Sneak Peek!

Here are a couple spreads from the book I have coming out in the spring. It is why I have not been out much lately. It has been a fun project but the art took a while because each spread is totally different.

Anyway, it is already on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Habitat-Spy-Cynthia-Kieber-King/dp/1607181223/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1288295881&sr=8-1

Now I am working on my next big projects. Each book is different so at least there is never a dull moment! The other day I was talking to a guy at Harvard to get some materials for a biography I am illustrating.

Bev Funk: Show Opening

Bev is having an open house/sale of many of her works including: children's book Wool E. Woola that she wrote and illustrated, pressed flower works, hand cut and hand pressed serigraphs, hand made jewelry created with many original African trade beads, several pieces of antique and/or collectible jewelry and even a few small collectibles and antiques.


The Open House will be held Friday, November 5, 6:00 PM til? at 2225 State Route 222, 513-735-7967. Non-alcoholic punch and nibbles will be served. You are welcome to bring your own punch for the punch but since there may be some children here I cannot provide alcohol.

Bruce Erikson: "Gardens of Earthly Delights"

"Gardens of Earthly Delights"


Show opening: Friday, November 5 • 5:00pm - 8:00pm

225 East 6th Street
Cincinnati, OH 45202
(513)381-2128

Features nine Cincinnati Artists: Leslie Birckhead, Lynn Carden, Bruce Erikson, Deborah Morrissey-McGoff, Lynda Riddle, Frank Satogata, Barbara Selinck, Jim Wainscott and Will Wolter. All items can be viewed on Cincinnati Art Galleries:
http://www.cincyart.com/