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.

Isaac Klunk: Drawn to Children's Illustrations

Toledo.com has a new feature article about my illustration and caricature work, written by Katie Warchol!

"Picture yourself in a stuffy classroom, the teacher droning on about photosynthesis or sub-atomic particles or Greek architecture. Watching the clock is a fruitless task. You turn instead to the margins of your notebook. First a few lines, then a circle. For many of us, our pen and ink universes never became more than a silent testament to extreme boredom. For Isaac Klunk, his drawings live on in the real world, turning his talent into a career on the verge."

Click here to read the full article.

Teatrio!

Six of my pieces have been accepted into Teatrio's 2009 show! The Associazione Culturale Teatrio holds and judges an annual international competition in children's book illustration.  Work by 30 artists worldwide is selected for a globe-trotting show that will be exhibited first in Italy, and then in other cities throughout the world including Addis Abeba, Mexico City, Atlanta, Guadalajara, and more.

Illustrator extraordinaire Yuko Shimizu was one of this year's judges.  Here is a picture I scrounged up of her standing over my entry during the judging!  Look!  She's almost touching it!  Just thinking about it makes me feel giddy as a schoolgirl in the front row of a Jonas Brothers concert.  Ok, I'm going to stop now.

Directly to the left of my prints and also enjoying Ms. Shimizu's aura are 6 pieces by Katrina Kopeloff, a fellow SCADster (I just coined that) who is also in the show.  Katrina does some really fun and intricate artwork with colored inks and crowquills.  Katrina is going to have carpal tunnel syndrome by the time she is 30.  Katrina's blog can be found here.

Post titles are so 2008

Two more for Red Cygnet.  I've been tweaking the website (the as-yet nonexistent portfolio site, not this blog) lately to try to get the design nailed down, and I think I made a few breakthroughs yesterday.  I should probably just plug my nose and take the leap just to get the dang thing online already... all in due time.

It has come to my attention very recently (very recently) that sea lions are natural predators of penguins.  Hmmmmmmm.

The very best to everyone in 2009!  I think my resolution will be to gain about 20 pounds.

Finally got to see Wall-E last night, which was absolutely amazing.  The Presto short alone is probably worth the price of the DVD.

Hope everyone enjoyed their holidays!  I received a wonderful book collecting 300+ of Gustave Dore's illustrations of various pieces of literature, and have been boggling my mind repeatedly trying to comprehend how it's possible for a person to have such ability.  Thus far I have boggled it twice this morning and suspect I will do quite a bit more of said boggling before the week is through!

But the Sanitation Workers Really Didn't Approve

I loved doing this! I'm really starting to think that children's books are something I'm very interested in. Football heads, four-fingered hands, bulbous shoes, rich colors... what's not to love?

I think the best part about this project was finally coming to grips with using digital textures in a semi-effective way. I'm going to try to start doing a lot more of that in the future.

Instead of Kisses, we get Kicked

For those of you in the Savannah area (or coming back into town soon) I strongly recommend making a stop at the Red Gallery to check out the MFA Experience show. There's a number of amazing pieces from Jason Kofke's heartbreakingly beautiful "Everything Will Be OK" series, as well as a few really haunting portraits by a very talented painter whose name is, I fear, escaping me at the moment. And other stuff, too. It makes me really regret that I'm not going to have the opportunity to just walk around town seeing all of this great stuff for free after the next week and a half. Lord knows I don't take advantage of it like I should.


Also, BIG update coming soon. OH BOY!

Kids

I'm working on a children's book project, an undertaking that I am finding to be just incredibly enjoyable. It's sort of a nice amalgam of sequential art and narrative illustration, combining visual storytelling with the chance to really lavish color, detail, and attention onto a single image. The best of both worlds! Plus, I just like drawing football heads.

In other news, Jaime's finally got her website up, and soon she'll be heading off to LA for the week to attend Siggraph and try to find work in the wonderful world of animation. Do me a favor and keep your fingers crossed for her?

If pleasure be happiness

Ink and Watercolor

From The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde, who is simultaneously the author of some of the most hilarious theater and of the most heartbreakingly beautiful children's stories I've ever read. I have as much of a man-crush on him as ever I have had on anyone.

I could probably die happy if I ever had the chance to illustrate a collection of Wilde's amazing stories, though it may be pointless anymore, considering that the inimitable Michael Hague has already taken his crack at it. Here's some of his lovely illustrations from the version of The Hobbit that I grew up with.

Incidentally, I just discovered that Hague has a graphic novel (!) that was just released a few days ago, so apparently I've got a trip to the bookstore in my near future...

This is One For the Good Days

For the cover of a short story comics collection (including the stories "Wake" "Hero" and "One Spring Day") that I finished recently.

I wish it looked like this in print!

The composition seems odd right now, but bear in mind that there is a title / byline overlay design over the finished image.