Other Challenges

fluevog creative: half-truth bronte

By in General, Other Challenges, Work

halftruth_bronte_lo

Sometimes I run out of time and it has to just be “good enough.” But I’ve been thinking about this one for a while and I thought the pun on the famous Fluevog slogan was too good to pass up. It would have been a shame not to do something for it. Besides, I really like these shoes! Even though I didn’t quite get the color right in my illustration. I think I finished this end-to-end in under 8 hours. I need to work on my “quick draw!”

For those familiar with Wuthering Heights, this one’s obvious. Here are some quotes from the book on which I based this. First, the setting. Second, the action:

The whole furniture consisted of a chair, a clothes-press, and a large oak case, with squares cut out near the top resembling coach windows. Having approached this structure, I looked inside, and perceived it to be a singular sort of old-fashioned couch, very conveniently designed to obviate the necessity for every member of the family having a room to himself. In fact, it formed a little closet, and the ledge of a window, which it enclosed, served as a table. I slid back the panelled sides, got in with my light, pulled them together again, and felt secure against the vigilance of Heathcliff, and every one else.

‘I must stop it, nevertheless!’ I muttered, knocking my knuckles through the glass, and stretching an arm out to seize the importunate branch; instead of which, my fingers closed on the fingers of a little, ice-cold hand! The intense horror of nightmare came over me: I tried to draw back my arm, but the hand clung to it, and a most melancholy voice sobbed, ‘Let me in—let me in!’ ‘Who are you?’ I asked, struggling, meanwhile, to disengage myself. ‘Catherine Linton,’ it replied, shiveringly (why did I think of Linton? I had read Earnshaw twenty times for Linton) ‘I’m come home: I’d lost my way on the moor!’

Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights, 1847

Of course I changed this to “I’ve lost my shoes on the moor.” Hopefully I’ll get into the finals this time around.

ENTERING THE TOMIE DEPAOLA AWARD 2014

By in General, Other Challenges, SCBWI, Work

The Best Day For Strawberries

Here we go again. My submission for the SCBWI Tomie DePaola Award. It’s a two-parter this year. 10 people will be picked at the end of July to go on to round 2. This was the challenge (I hope that labeling the month on the calendar doesn’t count as words):

The task is to create a six-panel sequence that has a beginning, middle and an end that is obvious, featuring a character of your own invention. It can be funny, sad, dramatic or ordinary, but interesting and with lots of invention and finesse.

I understand that there are computer programs that make “sequence” easier than good old-fashioned drawing. But, I don’t know any of them. I leave it to you.

SPECS:       4 to 6 panels – illustrator’s choice

SIZE:          8 ½” x 14” – horizontal or vertical *Please note–this is the size of the entire piece, not the individual panels.

COLOR:      B&W or Full Color – your choice

NO WORDS

Anyway, I guess I had strawberries on the brain last month. Jaegerling1 and I went picking up at Butler’s Orchard (I’ll need to illustrate the outfit she chose to wear at a later date. It was perfect!) and my submission for the BWI competition included strawberries. I tried really hard to come up with something  bigger and bolder with more eye-catching characters, and even tried to come up with a different story. But this is what happened. In fact, it insisted. Maybe it’s a reflection of the calm I am trying to attain in my life rather than a reflection of the chaos. Also, if you’ve never had a freshly-picked strawberry, you have never had a strawberry.

This was also, conveniently, one of my story ideas for PiBoIdMo 2012, which I called “The Most Perfect Day For Strawberries.” The idea (and, appologetically, the working title as well) was inspired by an editorial in Real Simple Magazine by James Ireland Baker that has absolutely nothing to do with children’s stories but is an excellent (though melancholoy) read. This simple section hidden in the essay told me a different story than was intended,

Or the joy of trolling Hoboken, New Jersey, markets looking for strawberries on what Philip called the Perfect Day for Strawberries. “There’s one day in June when all the strawberries are perfect in New Jersey,” he said. “The key is just to find it.”

Here, in Virginia, that day is really toward the end of May. And Philip was talking about finding the berries at a farmer’s market, not going to pick them. And let’s just say I have it completely out of context now.

I have learned that the best time of day to pick the berries is as early in the morning as possible to keep the berries firm and all the juice inside. Picking in the heat of the afternoon sun leads to slightly cooked, though still quite tasty berries. My boy (who, yes, is a depiction of Jaegerling2 at an older age), is looking for perfection. I haven’t fleshed out an entire story (yet) though it’s possible that all I’ll have is just this illustration. If there can be a “short story” in picture book literature, maybe this is it (at least until I find out if I advance and what the next task will be)! Hopefully, this speaks for itself as that is indeed the challenge!

Some notes on my process: I did all the panel sketches separately in my sketchbook, then scanned, seamed together and cleaned them up with Photoshop. I then printed out a draft and light-tabled it to do corrections. In fact, I changed the poses of both middle panels entirely. Here were my originals (after I altered panel #3, Bill pointed out that it was now too similar to panel #2 so I redrew that as well).

depaola_2014_strawberries_sketch1

Newish to my process is the addition of a watercolor wash for the background, suggested by my friend, fellow illustrator, and virtual studio-mate (because it seems we’re always on-line at the same time), Tami Traylor. I printed out the new version and then did the wash using the light table again, and on watercolor paper. Actually I did two washes and superimposed them with Photoshop, then used the “multiply” brush to bring out and recolor the sections. I used regular Photoshop brushes to paint guache-style, on top of the wash. I like the way it came out but ran out of time to do proper color-checking on the blues (life happened. As it does.). I realized that a bit late, so for now it will have to do.

And now, it’s almost July and the season has changed. We’re on to high summer blueberries and cherries, early peaches and watermelon. Welcome, summer!

a goddess for BWI

By in General, Other Challenges, Women, Work

babywearing_color_pencil_lo

 

That’s Babywearing International, not Baltimore Washington International…

If you’re a member of thebabywearer.com, please go to this thread to vote (“like” my post) if you love my submission.

I submitted this to an image contest to try and win some lending library items for our local babywearing chapter (this link will probably only work if you’re a member of the BWI website). They’ve been quite helpful and an all around bunch of great folks. I started wearing JaegerThing1 when she was about 4 months old and have somehow managed to stave off a woven wrap addiction (I currently only have two). I do have to stifle myself a little when I see other moms and dads babywearing. I can get a little over-exuberant about it. I like to help out folks who are new to wearing and don’t know a lot of their options. I always point people towards the local Babywearing International chapter.

Anyway, about this illustration… I had a bunch of ideas and not a lot of time so this is the one that came out. Maybe another time, I’ll do some of the other illo ideas I had. They were a bit more representational and less presentational (which is often a criticism I get of my illustration work).

This was a tough one, really, because the theme is so open-ended. And because babywearing is so much about everyone, I didn’t want to do an exclusive illo. However that is indeed what I’ve done. Another goddess. I am just drawn to drawing goddesses I guess, so apologies to the men right off the bat.

My sketchbooks of the last 20 years show me that I have always seen women as goddesses. I look to other women for guidance, inspiration, and often spirituality. When I became a mother, one of my goddess friends introduced me to our local babywearing group. I had inherited a mei tai and had been gifted a Moby, two Ergos and a Pikkolo and I needed help figuring out what to do with all these things.

Now, as a mother of two, I find that wearing my children is essential if I want to get anything done. All of the moms in our playgroup have now had their second children and even the ones who didn’t wear their first are now starting to wear their second. I am happy to be able to guide them.

I am blessed to be among these groups of mothers helping and supporting mothers. Even on our worst days when we haven’t slept at all and are covered in food or milk and whatever else our kids have wiped on us, trying to muddle through dinner time and feedings to bedtime, and we feel like complete crap, we have this wonderful network to insist to us that we are wonderful radiant goddesses and that we created these little lives and continue to nurture them, our partners, and if we can manage a little time to ourselves, ours as well. My image is one of those times, when you can just savor being in the moment. And the strawberries. They’re in season here now, too.

Also, at the suggestion of my husband, I tried color pencil for the first time in aeons… so long, in fact, that the only pencils I own are watercolor ones. I did not use water on this though I may go back and see what happens. I did screw up the color on the border oval pretty badly. I had to clean it up in Photoshop. I never can get 100% away from the computer anymore.

fluevog creative: soprano carey

By in General, Other Challenges

opera_carey_lo

6/26:
I didn’t even make the final four. So I kind of forgot to update this post. There’s another Fluevog contest starting now. Maybe I’ll try again.

5/21:

Ok here’s the update. Submitted for the latest Fluevog shoe ad contest. If I win, they use my ad and I get free shoes. But first, I have to make it into the final four. I’ll keep you posted! There are a few things I would have liked to fix, change, update, or do better (like maybe I should have had a “!” after “Sing”), but the deadline is midnight tonight. Best to just get it in. Amusingly, I wasn’t able to push the style at all, though I did try. Predictable. I guess I should just own it.

5/15:
lutist sketch

Yes, I’ll be updating this post… later. I just haven’t posted anything in a while and I wanted to share this little sketch with you. I like him. I think I’ll use him. But I just need to change the style kind of like changing a font. No matter how hard I try to force my style in a certain looser direction,  it keeps coming out the same way. I’m really not sure what to make of that. Do I resign myself to “this is the way it is” or do I push it a little? I’m going to try to push it and see what happens…

entering the tomie depaola award 2013

By in Children's, Other Challenges, SCBWI, Work

depaola_2013_sneeze3_lo

I just turned in my submission for the SCBWI Tomie DePaola Award).

As much as my final result looks to me like a bit of a scribble, this was actually a pretty hard challenge for me. I can only equate it to writing a short story or maybe logo design (which is not my strong suit). I’m glad I did this as it put me outside my comfort zone and pushed me a bit. Wow, I should do this more often. And yes, my brain hurts a little.

I really wanted to try out a few more iterations of design for this but I plum ran out of time as I have a lot of other things kicking around in my skull that need to be worked on. So here it is.

The challenge this year was to illustrate a poem for a book intended for babies up to two years old. I should be an expert on this target audience by now!

Media: Adobe Flash with a bit of help from Illustrator and Photoshop. Google Fonts’ “Oregano”.

Edit: 1/12/2014
Well… I didn’t even come CLOSE to winning the DePaola competition. In fact, I seem to have been in the group he specifically DIDN’T like. Hnh.

“The entries were all over the place. Here I am going to get a little critical. Some pictures were way too busy. Some bordered on the grotesque. I really worried that some images might have frightened little ones. There were a bunch of “up the nostrils” point of view. Really? But the thing that bothered me the most was the apparent need many of you had to illustrate an actual sneeze with all kinds of “stuff” flying out of noses. Hey, this is FLU season. Another note: Quite a few elephants – intriguing, maybe? Enough said.”

I’m not sure if I’m bristling or flattered considering I’ve been spending time with the target audience for a while now and dislike a lot of art in her board books. Why would a 2 year old be either frightened or grossed-out when most of them are digging about their own noses and some are eating their boogers at this age? Ah well, he did say to surprise him.

Like on Project Runway, you can please the judges and head for a commercial success, or you can please yourself and hope somebody “gets” it… or you can try and run the middle and somehow make what pleases you a commercial success. Somewhere, there’s a happy medium. This was a good thing for me to attempt.

Of the top picks, my personal favorite is Alice Ratterree‘s because I love her style of classic illustration.

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