Archive for August, 2009
a new kind of parrot fish
Sunday, August 30th, 2009
with bat-wings.
I made a painting today too, but I can’t seem to get it to work quite the way I want, so I’m not going to share it. Yet. This is what happens when you decide do something in a new way: the first attempt is, well… an attempt.
In the meantime, watch out for parrot fish.
A tribute to restaurant workers
Tuesday, August 25th, 2009
I love those spinning things that they put orders in. What are they called? Order wheels?
all new
Monday, August 24th, 2009
Every single VW van I’ve painted is parked within the same two or three city blocks. As I walk to the train station I see all their familiar faces. Here’s another one:
I can’t seem to avoid this ad
Tuesday, August 18th, 2009
The text trailing behind her says, “finally.” I guess the woman has just discovered that toilet paper is available? That might be exciting.
Welcome to my subconscious
Sunday, August 16th, 2009
I have really vividly colorful dreams, and sometimes I write them down or draw them if I can remember enough. For example, once I had a dream where I was in this space:
All of those things were conveyor belts, whirling in different directions, and if you made it to one of those black dome-creatures, the floor would open up inside and you’d go sliding off to a different room. This dream was a long time ago, but I think I’ll remember it for ever and ever because I made this drawing.
More recently (last night) I saw a remarkable theater performance with some interesting costuming. Here is the sketch from my notebook:
So there are five “facets” made between the man’s limbs and the fixed square on the floor. As he rolls from side to side and sits up or lifts his feet, the different fabric colors appear. In the dream the colors kept changing and changing as he rolled around. I think one could actually build a costume like this; it might be interesting.
At some other point in the night I passed by a scene like this. It was very quiet and I was on a boat.
Last but not least, a flight over “Colorado.” (It was awfully green to be Colorado…) I won’t bore you with the whole plot of this because it doesn’t make much sense, but let’s just say I was trying to figure out how a person can from the lake (at bottom) to longmont (off the top left) via roads. But the road turned south and I ended up in the (very tall) cedars, so I never found the answer.
I found this in an old sketchbook
Friday, August 14th, 2009
I had forgotten all about him. I decided to elaborate on his life.
For the entomologists out there (you know who you are), let it be known that I’m making no claims of biological accuracy here. I think he’s a grasshopper. That’s as specific as it’s getting…
Celestial Drawings of Étienne Léopold Trouvelot
Tuesday, August 11th, 2009
These drawings by French artist and astronomer Étienne Léopold Trouvelot are absolutely beautiful!
Found here: http://butdoesitfloat.com/56135 via my friend Rachel de Joode.
not-so-secret messages
Sunday, August 9th, 2009
This appeared on the wall of a nearby building yesterday. It speaks for itself:
And I noticed this the same day:
it says “Josi makes my life colorful!”
Goblin mountain, or something
Friday, August 7th, 2009
I’ve been reading what other illustrators recommend to include in one’s portfolio. These samples are necessary for showing publishers in person (or mailing copies to publishers to keep on file.) So far I have gleaned that I need to include:
a) At least one character drawing. This should be one page showing that I can draw the same character with personality and consistency in various situations.
b) A narrative sequence. This can be mounted on a single sheet if necessary, but needs to show that I can tell a story and create drama with a sequence of images.
c) A “dummy.” Granted, I haven’t figured out exactly how a dummy ought to be made because I’ve never seen one, but I know that it is a mock-up of sketches and text, a sort of storybook rough draft, which would show that I know how to put together a book (deciding where page turns go, how the text and formatting should look, etc.)
d) At least 10 other samples. These might depend on the publisher. Some publishers are very specialized. They only want “realistic nature scenes” or “historical fiction” or whatever. Some use only black-and-white images and color covers (for example, young adult or sci-fi publishers) while others make full picture books. Some only want realistic pictures of people, others want fantastic and creative things. Generally everyone seems rather sick of anthropomorphic animals.
e) A cover. Complete with text.
Generally I gather that you are best finding a publisher that is well-suited to your style and such, but you can make multiple portfolios if you work in multiple styles. And the best way to get jobs is to network, which means joining things like SCBWI and going to conferences. Or something.
So with this in mind, I decided to try something different from my little watercolors, attempting a two-page format.
Don’t ask me to explain what exactly is going on here. I don’t know about the goblin heads. I guess I’ve been thinking about Easter Island lately since I started reading “Guns, Germs and Steel.” But the whole scene is probably the result of my subconscious mind going crazy from a lack of mountains, wide open spaces, and camping.
Since it’s so very wide (two A3-sized sheets) here’s a detail:
and another one:
With this two-page thing, I’m baffled as to whether or not to include the gutter, and if so, how—just draw a line in the middle? Also, what to do for text? I assume I should write something, but what? Furthermore, would I print something like this on a single A4 sheet? It would be so small that most of the detail would disappear. It doesn’t help that most of the information I can find on submitting samples is for writers, not for illustrators.
