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.

Sans lines

Sometimes I like to turn off the "inks" layer in photoshop while I'm working on something. Looks kinda neat.

Cheeky's Tales: The Cover

Though the cover of Cheeky's Security Blanket is the first thing a reader will see, it was the last illustration I worked on for the book. Lindsay's suggestion was that the illustration show Cheeky trying her best to retrieve her collar from the mud room hook where it hangs. I wanted something with a dramatic, eye-catching perspective that would pull a viewer into the image, and also wanted to make sure that Cheeky was fully visible and looking toward the viewer.

Though I still like the design of this one, we eventually (and with some of the publisher's feedback) decided that the perspective might be too extreme or jarring for younger readers.

Lindsay suggested something from a more standard perspective, such as a view of Cheeky in the same position, just from behind her. I was still hoping for something more eye-catching that also managed to show Cheeky's face and help the viewer to connect with her--inherently a bit of a challenge when the character is facing toward a wall!

This thumbnail managed to retain all the essential information, while keeping a more conventional perspective. We were all happy with this one, but it was decided that Cheeky's expression should be less forlorn and more mischievous--a good change, as it fits better with the overall tone of the book and Cheeky's personality.

Along the way, it was decided that the trash can should be changed to Cheeky's supper dish. The palette also underwent a few revisions from this early state, and a number of adjustments were made to the display text to make it "pop" and look more pleasing.

Above is the final cover as it appears in print. Cheeky's Security Blanket is available from Amazon.com here!

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.

Really, Tremendous Guy

A sneak peak of a sneak peak into the life of yours truly.  Pictured is the studio in the west wing of the mansion in Madrid.  It's true that the Dubai palace is my normal residence around this time of year, but it's currently undergoing some remodeling while they add the bowling alley and movie theatre.

Warm Regards,

Baron Isaac Klunk III

Business Card Sketches Part 3: Revenge of Business Card

The one.

Wednesday Sketches

Business Card Sketches, Part Deux

Really feeling this one.  Information on the back (still working that out).

Blahblah Avenue

I'm playing with a number of ideas for a new business card at the moment, a rough color comp of one appearing above.  I envisioned this image being sort of cute and fun, but in practice it strikes me as sort of unnerving and creepy in a way.  Maybe I've just been working too late?

The composition on this one is going to need a bit of work (staring at it right now is immediately making me want to fix a couple million things), and I'm not crazy about the colors either, but all in due time.  I've got a few other ideas in production that I'm a bit happier about.

 

And say, if anybody's had good experiences with any card printers in the past, I'm all ears!

Working on a fairly big project right now--can't post more than this though.  Super top secret stuff.  This is some James Bond, Mission Impossible, Warrantless Wiretap, A Few Good Men-type business here, my friends.  See if you can guess!

I swear to god this fabled website of mine is real... on my computer, at least.  I'm (finally) more or less happy with the design, but I still think some new work is in order to round out the portfolios.

Which I will be hopping to forthwith, as it were.

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?

Songs Perverse, and Songs of Lament

For kicks and giggles I thought I'd do a sort of process rundown post, ala Matthew Woodson or James Jean, detailing how I went about creating a recent image. If anyone finds this post interesting or useful, let me know and maybe I'll do more in the future!

Here's the original drawing in pencil and ink (click on thumbnails for larger images):



I wasn't at all happy with how the small hand-lettering was going on the scrolls, so I decided about 5/6ths of the way through that I'd probably be far better off just trying to do it digitally.

Due to the size of the image--I was working at about 27.5" x 10"--I had to scan it in two pieces and digitally combine them into one image. Fortunately, Photoshop CS3 has an amazing feature that can do this automatically and (as far as I can tell, at least) flawlessly. After scanning, I lighten all of the blue and darken the blacks before using a threshold filter to switch it to straight black and white:



The digital lettering ends up being acceptable, after a whole lot of fiddling. I get rid of the hand-drawn circles, deciding I'd rather use perfect digital shapes. The plan is to put portraits (which I've already drawn) of each of the respective characters into those circles.



I set the linework as a multiply layer, and create a flat color layer beneath it to figure out a general color scheme. After a lot of experimentation, I decided on a triadic primary color scheme--primary colors have a vibrant, child-like appeal to them that I think is appropriately warped, given the subject matter.



I add a few layers of rendering to some of the objects to draw out the forms a bit.



Adding the color holds takes a long time, but it is always fun to see what a difference it makes. This time I push the background backward by lightening those lines, and decide to play around with colored linework on the text. I think it gives it a more frenzied, neon-sign type of effect that I like.



I mask off a bunch of the foreground and add a few gradient layers to the background to create some lighting and atmosphere. Things are starting to come together now.



I add another layer to put a few highlights on the characters, add some lighting effects to the main display text to give it a little more substance and unify it with the environment, and put some gradient layers over the characters.

I decided the display text was a bit *too* jarringly bright, so I tune it down a bit in an effort to keep things harmonious. Then I add some lighting effects to create some more atmosphere. Finally, I add an adjustment layer to give the whole image a very slight red tint--didn't plan that part, but everything was looking a little green to me, for some reason. This helps to unify the composition:



I'm happy with the advances I'm making as far as my drawing, though it's clear to me I've got some work to do if I plan to keep adding hand lettering to my work. I do like how the display text turned out, for the most part, though I have to remember just how time consuming it is to make that look decent and plan my days accordingly!