"And-a-one, and-a-two, and-a-three..."

It's time for:

As hosted by Jake Parker. 

I'm going to run the whole marathon and post a drawing daily until the 31st of this month. Let's start it out with this classy little number, which, confessedly, was not drawn today but several years ago on a cold winter evening in the attics of the Amanda Knight Hall of good ole BYU. It so happens I drew all day today, but not in ink. Maybe it's starting out the race on a gimpy leg, but between all that paper and graphite plus my commitment to participate in this awesome challenge, I'm letting it count. I'll make up for it with a post on the 32nd of the month.

Without further ado, 'The Sheik of the Hamper & the Holy-Roller Toaster Shrine:'

Handcar Chase!

Handcar chase with Navajo kid and ringtail cat in aviator hat in movie-land 'Texas,' [cough], which somehow always looks like Monument Valley...

Pennies From Heaven

Reposting for this week's Illustration Friday topic, money. 

Donuts!

Heffalump

For today's Twitter Sketch Dallies.

Sketches

We went to the Houston Symphony outdoor concert last Friday night, and there was quite the plethora of unsuspecting people to choose from for sketches during intermission:

Then these are just two little warm-up digital paint sketches from today. A crane that looks part duck, oops, and a lady selling 'Cocos Frios' like you often see on street corners around here in Houston:

Fan Art Friday!

I was looking through my sketches, and found this little fish insurance salesman chap:

So, I decided to make...this!

Happy Groundhog Day Friday everyone!

Two Projects from the Last Two Months

Did you know that the first microscope was invented by a Dutchman in the 17th century? It looked something like this:

Core Knowledge Foundation, an elementary school textbook/educational publisher, asked me do these two illustrations in pen and ink (+digital color) to accompany a section in one of their grade books on the human body.

Antony Van Leeuwenhoek designed and made all of the components himself and observed and drew out seemingly all that he could think of with his microscopes. Quite an impressive early scientist. The above illustration is to show a smattering of what he discovered.

***

The Highland Neighborhood Association in Austin asked me to redesign and paint their 'Good Neighbor' metal yard sign with full artistic license--so long as the end result wouldn't be confused with a 'for sale' sign:

Austin, TX has a thing for retro signage, so I did what I could to channel that a la Marti. Hopefully I landed a mix between "Hey! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" and "Good job on keeping the dandelions and fire ants down." It was my first time working on metal, but enamel paint is oil-based so it wasn't much different than regular oils--minus the consistency and fumes. Nothing like venting a room for several hours with a box fan in June in Houston.

Where the towels are oh-so-FLUFFY!

While on the epic road trip (see two posts below), I made this to send out to our friends from the magical place of Albuquerque:

If you are wondering why in the world would Weird Al, the Holiday Inn and a free box of weasels go together on the same postcard, this is why (be forewarned, it's 11min long):




The hubby and I made it a point to go buy donuts, (not just once but twice, and they were out of bear claws both times). We ate at the Sizzler (there's only one in town so it's certainly the Sizzler), and drove out to see the Holiday Inn in person. We have now officially done our duty to the city of Albuquerque and Weird Al.

ASC Challenge no. 14: Museum of Bad Art

Turquoise Sunrise

by Marti Major

6.125" x 6.125"

Acrylic and Glass Beads on Bristol Paper
[The Argyle Sock Club Challenge no. 14: The Museum of Bad Art Link]

This is a tributary companion piece to a glorious work titled "Silver Rain" that my sister and I saw 3 years ago at the Yavapai County Fair in Prescott, AZ. Unfortunately we didn't take a picture, but the sketch below is the best that I can remember:

(Envision loads of thick black/blue/purple/gray/yellow paint with black glass beads for the horse's eyes.)

Not purchasing the piece is one of the few regrets of my life, so here is my tribute to a masterwork, as painted with my right hand (I'm left handed).

While cleaning up my acrylics, I was also inspired to create this with the end of a paintbrush and the smudge of paint on my professional-grade yogurt container lid palette:

I call it, "Neville Thinking."
For purchase inquiries, please email.

Long TIme, No Post

First things first, let's start out with the 3rd movement of the Grand Canyon Suite to set the stage:



This last month the hubby and I were nomads for 3 weeks. We went to Albuquerque, where he promptly left for a geology conference in Pittsburgh for 3 days, and I headed north to Taos to plein air paint.

I brought along my three-legged camp chair and sat out in the sage brush and bugs alongside the Rio Grande Gorge.

Painting storm clouds is all fine and dandy until they come close and you think "Gee, I'm the tallest thing on a metal chair in a big flat place. Maybe the husband won't want to hear how his wife was found burnt crispy with a paintbrush in her hand..." (That's why the one above isn't finished.)

Gen-u-ine proof of me R.G. Gorge sketching (bugs not visible).

A bit of late sunset in Taos from a surprisingly nice vista at the Applebee's parking lot.

The hotel I stayed in was right next to the Fechin House. I can now say I've slept in NIcholais Fechin's backyard.

A Fechin drawing and portrait to give examples for those unfamiliar with him. To quote the museum site:

"The museum is housed in the studio and home that artist Nicolai Fechin built for his family between 1927 and 1933. Fechin, born in Kazan, Russia in 1881, carved and molded the adobe buildings into a fascinating, harmonic marriage of Russian, Native American, and Spanish motifs." 

Fechin's cardboard mock-up design for his house.

Upstairs sun room. I could definitely live here.

All of the woodwork, and there's a lot of it, was hand-carved by Fechin.

Studio with big north-facing windows.

There were only a few paintings by Fechin, I was hoping for more, but overall, it's worth the visit.

After Taos and Albuquerque, we headed to Lake Powell. Below is a brave attempt at a butte on the southeast corner of Gunsight Bay.

The last week of our nomadic trip, we were in Southern Utah at Green River which happens to be my husband's geology research field site. While he hiked up to find good shale outcrops, I drew and painted wildflowers.

It occurs to me that I haven't seen one of our nice Pyrex kitchen bowls since it's impromptu use to collect oil and water from a natural oil seep for a University of Texas microbiologist along the Green River... So it goes being married to a geologist.

Pearl Diver

In Progress

Detail of a promotional mailer piece that I've been working on this week.

Illo Friday: Urban

The Golden Goose

For this week's Illustration Friday challenge, 'egg.'

Ceci n'est pas un poisson.

 

For Poisson d'Avril (the French April Fools' Day), a la Renee Magritte.

Cat Ride: Close to Finish

In Progress: Cat Ride

What I've been working on this afternoon.

Illo Friday: Swim

Japanese pearl divers for this week's challenge.

Peter Rabbit: eBook Process

As I mentioned in the last post, Peter Rabbit was the very first ebook commissioned by myRead.com, so the production process was quite a bit different than the production process for The Tale of Benjamin Bunny and The Flopsy Bunnies, and all subsequent books created with other illustrators for the company. The change was for simplicity's sake and to shorten production time.

The difference between this process, and the simplified process, was that I created every single object that would be a part of the final book and animation separately, much like the scenery and props for a stage set. The animator then took them according to storyboards I drew and arranged everything in Adobe After Effects. It's like it sounds--fairly tedious for everyone. After Peter Rabbit, I just storyboarded, and created the images as they would be seen in the final book with only the characters and objects that would move, or be in the foreground, separately. With so many objects made for Peter Rabbit, we reused as many as possible for the two other books as well.

Process for Peter Rabbit

First things first--general research. Knowing that Beatrix Potter created her illustrations from a conglomeration of actual locations, I went looking for the 'real' Mr. McGregor's garden since The Tale of Benjamin Bunny uses the same garden. (I didn't use it quite as strictly for The Flopsy Bunnies since Beatrix Potter based her illustrations for that book off other locations, in Wales, and Scotland I believe.)

Lingholm Estate, Keswick Lake District 

The estate's garden, on the left side of the picture, was B. Potter's inspiration for the McGregor Garden. Found this image and the information from this article in The Sun.

Beatrix Potter's watercolor sketches from the Lingholm garden, from the Victoria & Albert Museum. According to The Sun article, she spent 9 summers at this estate. The greenhouse on the right is up against the far north-west wall of the garden, and you can still see it's there today in the aerial picture.

Before storyboarding, I made an aerial map of the garden based mostly off a Google satellite image and the aerial view of the estate above. I then planned out the storyboard, and the objects/elements that would be needed according to Peter's location during each particular scene. The map was important for the animator as well since he built the entire garden in After Effects.

 

 Part of the rough storyboard.

Sketches for individual objects for the rabbit house. I did a lot of research to keep some of the particular objects, such as the beds and the garden tools, as historically accurate as possible. Same for the household objects and vegetable varieties so that they would be properly British.

The sketches were then scanned into Photoshop and made into the final color versions. The sketch in the image below was the 'map' for the rabbit house to show where everything was to go as the interior of the house was built by the animator.

Any objects that required more than a straight-on view had to be drawn with the front, and side views so that they would look complete once pulled into After Effects. Otherwise, the potting shed, for example, would only be viewable from the front if no correlating sides existed. To make sure these objects had some believability to them, I made sure to add in smaller details, such as the side of the roof eaves, the foundation, etc. 

Garden and potting shed objects.

Three views of Peter's mother. All of the characters had at least a front and side view with all of their limbs and major joints on separate layers for animating. We tried to keep things as simple as possible, hence Mr. McGregor's floating head with the neutral expression which could be placed over his front view face like a mask.

Peter Rabbit, with and without shoes.


And there you have it! After everything was drawn out and finalized in Photoshop, the files were sent to the animator who did the rest. I personally enjoyed the simpler process we implemented after Peter Rabbit since I was able to fully compose and create the illustrations for each page.

If you would like to see the final Peter Rabbit, The Tale of Benjamin Bunny, or The Flopsy Bunnies,  all three are available as free downloads for the iPad here, through myRead.com.