I want a tattoo so badly but I think I’m too fickle to decide on just one thing I want for the rest of my life. I’ve been reading about mehndi henna painting lately and I even bought a henna kit but I haven’t worked up the courage to give it a try just yet. It has a sort of strong smell to it. Anyway, it gave me the idea for these watercolor hand studies. The hands are all from reference photos but I added the tattoo designs out of my noggin. They’re all about 9×12 or so.
Looking for something to practice painting I came across this hansom faux-bamboo nightstand on etsy. It looks like something out of one of those 60′s James Bond movies that haven’t actually seen. Here’s my straight up study in digital:
I decided to try panting the same subject in the style of a few of my favorite artists. First up is Anneka Tran. I started by looking through her blog and making notes on the way she builds her images. Anneka doesn’t use many lines, most of her forms are built from large patches of color. To give them depth and interest she uses subtle gradients, especially in the shadows and background so you get this sort of dynamic counterchange of hues. I also noticed she uses a particular brush with a sort of rough garbled edge to it that makes all of her images look a little fuzzy like plush toys.
Next up I tried for one of my favorite shows: Gravity Falls. If you are into Gravity fall artwork you’re in luck because a lot of the artists who work on the show also have active sketchblogs. I spent a lot of time looking through background art from the show. You can find a bunch of great examples from Sean Jimenez. Gravity Falls relies heavily on line work with a sort of oval shaped brush. Character lines are mostly black but the backgrounds and props sometimes use colored lines so that things will set back. For the fills they use subtle textures and a lot of light spills and glows around lit areas. I think my line work got a little too heavy but otherwise I’m pretty happy with this one.
I don’t know what you were doing on December 24th, 2012, but I was sitting in my favorite coffee shop with my favorite friend doodling. As far as I can tell the world didn’t really end, but I think if it had that was be a pretty good place to be.
One of the things I drew was the little black and white TV they have attached to the cereal bar that shows a continuous loop of old cartoons. It’s not a particularly interesting TV so I didn’t think much of it at the time, but a few days later I was flipping through my sketches and it struck me how TV’s used to be really beautifully designed pieces of furniture and how, over about 70 years, they’ve steadily reduced and streamlined and simplified until today they are hyperminimalist flat panels with no outward features other than the screen.
I won’t rant, I have no problem with this turn of events in industrial design. But it struck me as an interesting exercise to think about how the look of an everyday item says so much about when it was sold and the kind of people it was sold to. Here are a few things I came up with:
Can you tell there are lasers in this building? I mean big lasers. BIG LASERS. This is Malott Hall at the University of Kansas, home to the physics and chemistry departments. I had a number of classes and labs here when I was a student. It’s full of the sort of glassware labs and big hand-built science contraptions that are the reason you become a scientist. Even the roof is cool, it’s covered with all sorts of vents and steam hoods and weather equipment and important looking sticky-outy doodads. I used to wander around the building between classes sometimes to look at the equipment in the hallways but really I was mostly looking for an unlocked door to get up on the roof. I never managed to find one though.
I painted this from the sidewalk next to Budig hall. Watercolor and pencil, about 4 in. by 9 in.
I got a mention on twitter today from @MASKC_Komondor whom I had never heard of before. I’m always excited to have someone new tweet me. Turns out they are the Middle Atlantic States Komondor Club, and they posted a very nice note about The Misfits on their blog. How cool is that!
Rigby, one of the misfit animals, is a Komondor dog. Here’s a nice action shot of Rigby from the book:
The Komondor breed comes from Hungary where they’ve been used as sheepdogs for centuries. They have thick matted coats that gather into chords. This makes them look a bit like mops. I had a lot of fun designing Rigby for the book. He’s one of my favorite characters because he’s a blast to draw, and because he wants to be an artist. Here are a few sketches of Rigby from early on in the character design process:
Here’s another fun music find from the Scriptnotes podcast. This time it’s Robyn’s Tell Your Girlfriend covered a-capella and clappy cups style by a trio of Swedish singers called Erato. Here’s their fun blog full of cat pictures. Apparently the original is a very popular Pop hit but I hadn’t heard it before. You can hear it at the link above. It’s also good is a very anti-a-capella way.
I’ve been listening to this over and over for days. This is a group of North Korean musicians playing Take On Me by A-Ha on accordions.
If you’re wondering, by the way, how a bunch of North Korean teenagers ended up playing this, its part of a project by Norwegian Morten Traavik called THE PROMISED LAND (I think it’s supposed to be capitalized, also not to be confused with the Matt Damon movie), that is connecting with North Korean artists, which I am all for.
I really like strange cover versions of songs. And strange songs. And Strange Bands. This is what I live for, and I have to thank a new podcast I’ve been listening to for this and about a half dozen other great musical finds in the past week or so. The podcast is called Scriptnotes, and is a podcast about screenwriting by John August and Craig Mazin. The podcast has almost nothing to do with music, but every week they choose a different, usually youtube, piece of audio for their into and outro. Love it! The podcast is really good too.
The big day has finally arrived! The Daring Escape of the Misfit Menagerie is finally out. Visit your local book monger or purveyor of fine volumated manuscripts and procure yourself a genuine specimen.
It’s kitty cat approved!
Misfits is a grade school chapter book about a band of misfit animals who must escape the clutches of an evil circus master. The story was written by my super talented writer friend Jacqueline Resnick. I had the pleasure of making 30 illustrations for the story plus the cover image and titles.
I also can’t forget to thank my art director at Razorbill, Emily Osborne, for all of her hard work.
Super Extra Special Late-Breaking Update:
Amazon has selected Misfits as one of its December Editor’s Picks for Kids and Teens. Huzza!
OK, I admit it. I was vanity googling the title of my book (which comes out tomorrow, *so excited*). Anyway, when I put “Misfit Menagerie” in the search box, look what popped up:
Isn’t this adorable! Look at the stripes. Are you looking?!? I want it so badly. SOOOO BADLY!
This is a Faux Taxidermy Blue Hare by the obviously super talented Stephanie Gunning. You can see an ark full of her other work on her Etsy store. Go buy things from her so she will keep making objects of awesomeness like this one. Go now. I’ll wait.
I got back this week from my first ever trip to CTN Expo. Right up until last week I was feeling uneasy about the expense and nervousness of the whole thing. I’m kind of a shy person and the prospect of traveling so far by myself to meet people I didn’t know was unnerving. But guess what! I’m so glad I went. I had a fantastic time.
This picture is a sort of take off of my business card design. I gave away a metric ton of cards while I was in Burbank, and I got a similarly sizable stack to take back with me. I put this image together to send out to the e-mail addresses of all the friendly people I met as a kind of “keep in touch note”.
I thought this would be a good way to help keep me memorable in people’s minds. Which got me thinking of all the other things I did (and wish I had done) for the conference. So I thought I’d put together a brief list of advizos (is that a word?) for anyone planning their first trip to CTN (or any industry conference, really).
If you go with a friend you’ll send the whole time talking to them. Being alone forces you to meet people. And for some of us shy people, sometimes a little force is necessary.
Like any event with lots of people, you are going to find yourself standing in a lot of lines or squished next to someone in a long row of audience chairs. These are the people to strike up a conversation with. Ask them a polite questions like “what’s this line for?” or “when does this presentation start?” Then introduce yourself and make a new friend.
Make sure your name and e-mail are one there in a legible font. Don’t spend a lot on super crisp papers and rounded laser cut corners and embossed letter press printing. You make pictures. Make something pretty, print it cheaply.
Here’s what my cards look like. I’m not fond of the back image so I think it’s going to get a redesign one of these days.
On every card I got I made a little note to myself to help me remember where I met this person (Glen Keane line), a few of their personal details (works at ad company, storyboards, from Iowa), and maybe what we talked about (portfolio printing).
I have a very ordinary name so it’s important that when someone goes looking for Matthew Cook they can pick the kindly artist Matthew out from all the other Matthew.
This might also be a good time to change your avatar picture to an actual photo of yourself, at least for a few weeks. If your own photo frightens you like mine does, maybe have your profile picture match a picture on your business card.
I stuck to a strict budget at CTN because my travel costs were so expensive, but I wish I had budgeted just a little more to buy some stuff. There was a lot of neat stuff.
The fast food nearby got old really fast, and I didn’t have a car to go hunting for a grocery store. Next time I’ll try and bring some other options.
I wore my worn out old sneakers with a hole in the bottom, so my socks got a little wet.
Be brief and polite. Say it was nice to meet them, and comment on something you talked about to refresh their memory of who you are (now is when those notes on the business cards come in handy). Add a list of your web addresses or social network links and invite them to send you the same. Hopefully they will point you back at their web site or facebook page and you can keep up with what they’re doing. That way when you run into them next year its like you’re old friends.
Last Tuesday was election day here in the United States. Since I’ve been glued to my work table for the last few days I relished the chance to get out of the house and do something, so when I left for the polling place to go vote I brought my watercolors and my little travel watercolor sketchbook along.
I’ve been following James Gurney’s blog for a while and he regularly posts these charming little watercolor plein air sketches. If I were James Gurney I would be brave enough to talk to the poll-workers and ask if I could sit in the polling place and paint their portraits or those of the voters. Unfortunately I’m terrified to talk to strangers and even more terrifies that if they would agree they would want to see the finished painting. I know, I know, I’m working on it.
Anyway, instead I decided to take a walk after I voted and came upon these bulldosers. I went to vote in the late afternoon figuring that there would be fewer people, and so by the time I got to this spot the sun was on its way down and there were long cool shadows running across the road. It looked sufficiently Gurneyish so I gave it a try. It took about an hour.
I’ve had a few gouache palettes going but I recently got a new sealable palette that I can (hopefully) take with me to paint around town. I hate to throw out the paint in the old palettes because its so expensive so I spent a very frustrating few hours trying to rewet and then scoop the old gouache out of the old palettes and get it into the new one.
By the time I was done I don’t think much actually got transferred, and there was still a lot in the old palettes so I decided to try and use some of it up before I tossed it. I’ve been doing little gouache studies for the last few weeks. Here are some of the ones I’m not embarrassed to post. These are all about 2 to 3 inches on a side but I scanned them real big for your viewing pleasure.
A WWII bomber of some sort, a woman’s profile, and standing woman with a basket, and a crazy tribal looking bird thing. Pretty standard art stuff I would say.
Landscape study from my collection of “iPhone Photos Out the Car Window As I Drive On Kansas Highways and Should Probably Be Looking Where I’m Going and Not Taking iPhone Photos but This Particualr Thing Looked Pretty so I had to Take A Picture”.
This one is from a photo I snapped of downton Seattle. Did you know they have big trees in Downtown Seattle! Why doesn’t my downtown have big trees I wonder?
Iguana, he has no name, and also he may be a she. I don’t know, I’m not a herpetologist.
Someones really pretty glass bobble from Etsy.
One of Claes Oldenburg’s giant shuttlecocks from the lawn of the Nelson Atkins art museum in Kansas City. These are probably my favorite thing in the world.
And finally some pretty ceramic bowls because I wanted to study warm and cool bounce light.
Remember, when you are designing the uniforms for your personal guard, style and color counts! Stormtroopers may look cool in the movies but you’re going to have to look at these guards every day as they mill about your hollowed out volcano. So choose wisely.
These are the Beefeaters, or “The Yeomen Warders of Her Majesty’s Royal Palace and Fortress the Tower of London, and Members of the Sovereign’s Body Guard of the Yeoman Guard Extraordinary” *gasp*. Which is a ridiculously long name and probably why everyone just calles them “beefeaters”.
They guard the Tower of London and keep Her Majesty’s ravens. You know the guards belong to her because she writes her name on everything. “E II R” is Queen Elizabeth’s royal cypher and translates as “Elizabeth the Second, Regina“.
These are some watercolor and ink studies from last December. The first image is looking at the trees in my backyard, I think the other two were (losely) based on photos. These are about 5 x 7 from my little watercolor notebook.
Watercolor, ink and gouache portrait of Italian director Federico Fellini because why not.