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.

Rapscallions and Vagabonds.

For the brother's senior recital. Those of you with long memories may recall that last year at about this time I made a promotional poster for his junior recital as well. Decided to stick with the Top Cat theme again this year. If it ain't broke!

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!

In the year of our Lord two thousand and nine

My brother, currently studying percussion at Bowling Green State University, is having a recital next week.  He asked for some help designing a flyer, so I whipped up this little thingamabobber.

God how we wanted to put an image of some sort on that base drum, but we couldn't decide between the Klingon symbol, the all-seeing free masonic eye, and Garfield's head, so we decided to just keep things economical.

My brother is the one on the far right.  Hahaha gotcha!  That's not really him.  He's actually the one at the top.

Business Card Sketches Part 3: Revenge of Business Card

The one.

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!