Emperor in Stone, Ruler in Disguise

The Barn Owl, also known as the Ghost Owl, also known as the Death Owl, also known as the Hobgoblin Owl, also known as the Monkey-Faced Owl is such a strange, sublime-looking creature to me. It's one of those animals that I look at and feel almost has to be evidence of intelligent design, somehow.

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Class Presentation at Sauder Elementary

This week I did a presentation at Sauder Elementary's 1st grade class in Massillon, Ohio, about Cheeky's Security Blanket and what it's like to be an illustrator. This was my first time speaking to a classroom, and I'm happy to say that everything went great. The kids were all amazing, inquisitive, and very smart!

After reading through the book, I showed some slides of other illustrators to show examples of artists I've been influenced by and an example of how many diverse ways there are to illustrate picture books.

Like the paw prints hidden on every page of Cheeky's Security Blanket, Mercer Mayer's Little Critter books have a mouse and spider who appear in every illustration.

Sometimes I feel like the work of my favorite artists is weirdly dissimilar from my own. But maybe not...

I also showed some samples of my illustration work outside of picture books. One of the kids seemed flabbergasted that my work had been published in and on the cover of magazines, despite just having seen an entire book full of my work!

Because of their age, I wasn't sure if they'd know who this was, so I asked if anybody recognized him. A bunch of hands shot up. My favorite guess: "John McCain." Close, I told him. 2nd best: George Washington.

I showed a few samples of drawings I did when I was around their age, to try and make the point that drawing well is really just a matter of practice and work over long periods of time rather than something you're just born with. Hopefully they were inspired!

Sometimes you don't get things right the first time. Here's a bit of process work from Cheeky's Security Blanket that I walked them through:

Once they saw the thumbnail rough, they were immediately curious what the stairs were doing in the picture. I explained the concept of roughs and preliminary work, and how they allow you to change decisions and revise images with minimal effort in their early stages.

The first sketch looks a little different from the final. There were some concerns with the implication that Cheeky was wandering around the neighborhood unsupervised, so the background was changed from a front yard to a fenced-in back yard.

Finished inks. They were all fascinated with the idea of drawing on a computer using a tablet. Next time I'll have to take some pictures or a video of me working! One kid told me he has a Wii game where you draw on the screen with the controller, and a few asked if it was similar to the smartboard I was projecting the pictures onto, so I think everybody got the idea.

Finished illustration.

Where Children Sang, and Pilgrims Mourned

Visual interpretation of one of my favorite classical music pieces. This kind of work is extremely enjoyable for me!

Paisley

These Things Moved Me When I Turned my Back

I've lost interest in eyes, recently.

Caricature Roundup

Busy as a bee and haven't cleaned out my camera in a while. Here's some from July!

I used to draw people whiffing a big swing whenever somebody wanted to be a baseball player, but I felt like I was getting too many dirty looks over it...

I love plaid shirts.

One of the ones I'm more pleased about.

The elusive happy baby!

He mentioned that he liked World of Warcraft. Not thrilled with the drawing, but I think I just about made this kid's month. You should have seen his face when I surprised him with it.

Probably the cutest thing I've done all summer. Tons of passers-by stopped to gawk and aww over this.

I always wonder if people are worried that they'll forget which is supposed to be which when they ask me to write their names on it. These girls were fun.

This awesome kid had a face that was made for this (I mean that in a good way). I didn't even begin to do him the justice he deserved.

They fought the entire time. At the end when I asked them for their favorite colors (for the background) the boy watched and taunted her that there was more blue on her side than there was purple on his. Pretty funny.

Another one that I'm proud of.

"Draw me on the red carpet or something!" I think the face turned out good, but I need to work on my movie star bodies...

Childhood Drawings

Britt Spencer posted something on his blog a few weeks ago showcasing some works from his "early period," which I just thought was bundles of fun.  Since I apparently think I have time to spend on this kind of thing, I thought I'd do something similar.

It should probably come as no surprise to anyone that, much like any boy growing up in the late 80s and early 90s, I was pretty obsessed with the Ninja Turtles.  About half the drawings I found from when I was 5 or younger feature the Toitles in some way (or at least amorphous green shapes with colored stripes along their various extremities).

For those of you who shared my childhood love of the ninja turtles, I encourage you to never ever ever ever ever re-watch any episodes of the old television show.  Seeing them as an adult will break your heart and ruin your childhood.  Or maybe that was just me.

Around the age of 3 I was doing a lot of this kind of stuff.  Horrible giant monsters with gigantic mouths and various other sharp bits.  I can only assume that this was somehow dinosaur related.

Here's a more positive message.  Apparently the youthful Isaac Klunk felt that the best imagery to illustrate a message of world peace would be the characters from Street Fighter 2, a video game in which various characters fly around the globe in order to beat the living daylights out of one another.

I feel fortunate that I was exposed to digital art programs from an extremely young age.

This one is included sheerly because of how bizarre it is.  I'm not sure why the 2nd-grade me felt it was important to celebrate our former president's birthday.  Around that age my favorite place to celebrate special occasions was a local video arcade, and apparently it stood to reason that Mr. Clinton would have similar inclinations.  Note the nice set of heels that the former leader of the free world has had selected for him.

Interesting trivia:  Bill Clinton's birthday falls on the same day (and year) as my father.  In some ways I think this makes the above image even more incomprehensible.

More Street Fighter 2 stuff.  I really, really liked Street Fighter as a kid.  I still really like Street Fighter.  Mortal Kombat can go shove off.

I actually did a lot of observational drawing (that may be a generous use of words) back in the day.  Though I don't really have any idea where this location is, I kind of like the drawing.

My poor, long-suffering mother.  Birthed, fed, and clothed me and this is how I repaid her.

Phew.

Placemat Doodle

Moving right along...