IF: Multiple

"What do I predict for my dad's record breaking jump attempt? Injuries...multiple injuries..."

Barratuna Header

After seeing so many great headers with images in them I thought I would give it a shot. This if for my barratuna site...Process was the typical...sketched the idea out...found a good reference of a tuna...redrew everything in my sketchbook to act as a template...went into Freehand and drew it all up...(as described elsewhere...Gradients are much better in Illustrator but being able to make good lines with the Bezigon tool and calligraphic strokes with the expand feature in conjunction with the Bezigon tool makes vector drawing about twenty times faster)...Imported it into Photoshop and did a couple of overlays. You can do lenses in Freehand that act as overlays, but unfortunately if you use too many you get the spinning wheel of death. One thing I noticed, as in real life...is the effect of water on color. My tuna actually has yellow eyes but the water layer tends to give a more realistic color blending.

Now let's see if I can get it to work!

NEW UPDATE: It seems that blogger and Mac's do not mix when it comes to posting headers! I moved to a (blahhh) PC and was able to post my header just fine!

IF: Theory

"Well that's my theory about what happened to the cake...if you've got something better I'd be happy to hear you out..."

IF: Choose

You'll probably have to click and enlarge to read it...

IF: Blanket

At 1:23 AM Florence made a blanket statement about their relationship...

IF: Old Wive's Tales and Legends: A cow's tail in the air means rain is coming!

"Well, at least part of it is true...A raised cow tail means something is coming..."

IF: Plain (w/bonus coverage)

Before she had put herself together in the morning Jane always felt kind of plain...


(click to enlarge)

Every year I do drawings for my kids' schools. This one I did for my daughter Sarah (yes, that's her in the corner with crazy glasses and underwear on her head). I'll detail the process later, but during the rendering I started throwing in IF folks whose work I enjoy...this made the composition a bit busy but such is life at times. Unfortunately I left some people out (actually a lot of people whose work I enjoy) because I couldn't find things in a short period of time that I felt would work okay in the scene.

Two less obvious ones are Amber, but she is super busy and never gets to participate in IF...although it would be great if she would...(aka Jane D'oh)...she's pretty awesome and has a keen wit about her which has always given me a good laugh...I couldn't incorporate the Monkey Peaches she grows in the can beside her microwave so I defaulted to the poi plant thing in the dog's flower box...I understand it is a felony to grow those things in Oregon so please keep her hydroponic lab under wraps.

I also started out to do this in color after planning on graphite, doing the linework and some of the painting, but knew it was going in the wrong direction and kept getting pulled to Detlef's site...who does pretty great graphite work. (check the barratuna site for links to these and others.)

So feel free to snoop around the pic and guess if you choose where some of the images come from...and I apologize for subtle issues due to the scanning and paneling of the work...

To ALL that contribute to IF, thanks for the inspiration and laughs!

LIST OF ITEMS (TO DATE):
Detlef-Rendering Medium
Jane D'Oh-Poi Plants
ValGal-Dog House
Pati-Godo Ball
Elizabeth Tofu Squirrel-Stuffed Animal
Steve Flying Turtle-Umm...The Flying Turtle
Ammon-Apple (from the apple project)
Amy Zaleski-Patterned Rug
Mac McRae-Hair Clips and T-shirt
Ms. Froggie-Seeing her wonderful work incorporating her kids I pushed mine in.

What is REAALLY Great About Being an 'Artist'

Every year about this time I get reminded of one of the greatest things about being able to draw and paint...I get to draw pics for my kids' schools...which is why my latest IF posts aren't the 'best rendered'...short on time and what time I do have goes mostly to them.

But there are moments when you run across another's kid and they ask you to draw them something when they see you doodling. I've been in hospitals in the emergency room waiting areas and had a long time to wait...and you see some poor sick kid or impatient one waiting and you can just doodle something and make their day. One of the defining moments in my life was when I was in 2nd or 3rd grade involving an elementary school teacher on cafeteria duty. I saw him doodling and I asked him if he could draw anything. He said he could draw most things. So immediately I threw out, "Can you draw Garfield? and a dragon? and a horse? and a soldier?" Of course I wasn't intending for him to draw those things but it was just a kid's way of thinking out loud. So he leaned over a cooler near us and I continued on a conversation with my friend not giving the other conversation another thought. Within a matter of 5 minutes Mr. Thomson slipped a piece of paper in front of me with Garfield, and a dragon, and a horse, and a soldier. It really blew my mind.

This drawing was done for a young lady that loved tigers. It didn't take that long and the smiles it got were great...I hope those of us that have such capabilities remember that...it NEVER takes that long...

IF: Stitch

Nurse...I seemed to have misplaced my hammer...

IF: Are you (100 Percent) sure?

"Well...it was kind of dark...and there were an awful lot of pies flying through the air..."

IF:Reading the (Horizon)...

"Reckon' it's gonna be a REAL scorcher today..."

IF: Backwards

I'll go with 'What is the proper way to walk into a proctologist's office?', Alex.

IF:Little Things

"You reckon you might have made those arm holes a little big???"

(In response to the competitive and sometimes catty underworld of child birthing...)

IF: Excess

"This is Bob Smith on location in Podunk, Oregon where young Timmy Tucker has fallen and scraped his knee...upon hearing the news, oil officials declared the event will cause gas prices to raise another 37 cents a gallon..."

I'm all for the free market...but when it is based on 'speculation' of events or raising prices for nonsense, I get a little miffed...

IF: Superstition

Bob's superstitious ways would prove to be his ultimate downfall...

Scale(s)

(click for larger view)

As of late (and that being the summer on to most of this year) I've viewed the IF topics and done thumbnails but never really got around to the finals. I should have the process for this posted shortly (and it now is). The entire piece was done in Prismacolor...I learned my lesson with watercolors on illustration board...too heavy and you get peeling illos if you aren't careful, so I just bit the bullet and ran with it...


First step was doing some sketches on the back of envelopes, napkins, bulletins...whatever was around trying to work out general design issues of angles and such...then I went to locate some skulls of the dinosaur I was wanting to use...Once I located the appropriate critter I did a sketch of the skull and started fleshing out and working on the composition...my first thought was to have two dinos fighting but I thought that if I did a slightly battle scarred dino (the white eye is meant to be blind and there is some tearing around it)facing off against a turtle defending his turf I might be able to have at least a touch of sarcasm...


After getting the basics lined out I started doing the detail work of the dinosaur. I had to do multiple drawings to get the pose correct. I then transferred the finished drawing onto illustration board. This was detailed in an earlier post and kept me from having to redraw the same elements over and over or overworking the image on the illustration board.



My first big traditional media dino was my Yuck! pic. I left off the background intentionally on that pic as I wanted to have a clean focus on the dinos. My next traditional media pic was Blue T-rex...at first I was going to leave the background blank but decided I needed to get back in the swing of working on the composition as a whole. So I used watercolors to fill in large areas...of course I forgot to leave it flat and weighted as it dried so I got a nicely curled illustration board that is now seperating (my framer loves having to fix my errors). During the summer Steve of Flying turtle fame posted an item about drawing outdoors and I knew it would be a good idea at that point to do some studies to use one day...well this was the time to work on my most ambitious full scene...I knew there was going to be water involved (and had messed with distortion some on the earlier Gravity post) and had already purposed to use nothing but Prismacolor. I drew all the other items using light blue (see the Thin Blue Line post for the coloring process). I finally did some study of reflections and started throwing in items to help lead the viewer through...included is a rather obvious turtle and perhaps less obvious lizard in the foreground. The hardest part was reminding myself not to get wild with heavy burnishing on the trees so that the tooth of the illustration board would show through...and not overworking the items as they headed to the back in dealing with a bit of atmospheric perspective.

IF: Grow

Always make sure to address personal issues before you grow up...otherwise you could be running around in tights at odd hours and needing lots of therapy...

IF: Extreme?

IF: Discovery

"We're having a hard time making a discovery as to what is causing your headaches...since nothing showed up on the x-ray we'll have to try an MRI...Now during the process we'll be injecting you with a dye made from shellfish...You don't have any adverse reactions to them do you?"

IF: (TWIST)...If Men Really DID Rule the World...

"Did you remember to leave the toilet seat UP?"

(Click Pic to Enlarge)

IF: Camouflage

Zippo the clown's attempt to infiltrate the adjacent Royal Mime Academy was going perfectly...until he made a fatal error...

Didn't papaw say something about not taking any wooden rhinos...or was that nickels...

A few years back I wanted to try my hand at woodworking. My mom's husband graciously allowed me to use his shop (and probably cleaned up a mess or two). I drew out templates for 'seperate plates' on plywood, then glued together the needed boards. I chose the outer wood for the grain as I knew I would be using a semi-transparent stain. I used the templates to cut out the shapes and did a lot of sanding to curve the edges. I finally cut out some leather ears and added wooden button eyes.

My initial plan was to add rockers to it for stability...since I went for real wood it weighs a bit (about 40 pounds or so)...but I haven't gotten around to it yet...didn't I write something about procrastination on here somewhere?

Anyway, it was another good 'experience' and introduced me to some new tools and techniques...A reference book I purchased dealing with Intarsia by Roberts and Booher shows some REALLY spectacular samples...one of the authors is a real big-wig in the field and shows some top-notch work...like everything, if you do a web search you can find some super (as well as bad) examples...

IF: Rejection

Looks like it's time to recalibrate the machine again...

IF: New Neighbor, The Dung Beetles

"That's gonna lower property values..."

IF: Polar

Schizoology Quarterly clearly states that Bi-Polar Bears are easily recognizable by their distinctive markings...namely a straight-jacket...

IF: Fortune

After baby Tyler swallowed the 10 carat diamond ring, the miner was assured the next load he dug would be worth a fortune...

Why folks don't survive....COLLEGE...

Today while listening to a guest speaker at school (who talked about several issues facing students today) it crossed my mind again to do this post. The reality of the situation (in this country at least) is if you are looking into starting in the commercial art field you are going to typically need a degree (if you check the job listings the vast majority require a BA or BFA). And what is the point of a degree? Besides learning stuff and growing as a person/artist...it gets your foot in the door for a portfolio review for a shot at a job. The degree is one type of 'filter' used by employers.

That being said, there tends to be a high drop-out rate in not only college in general, but commercial art fields. I heard the stats for a local art college that showed their rate at about 54%. The schools I have been involved with seemed to be around the 50% mark as well. So why aren't these students making it? There are multiple reasons, but I'm going to focus on some of the main ones...maybe there will be some that see this and realize they need to get their bums in gear.

1. Lack of passion, drive, lazy...It is good to be passionate about what you do and you can develop or lose a passion for something. This is definitely an area where you want to be passionate. Without passion, when you run in to an obstacle you tend to quit or pout. This is a very competitive field and you have to light a fire under your britches to push yourself to rise to the top (drive). And then there is a bad case of the 'lazy'. Sometimes students lose or refuse to 'get a passion' because they simply want to be given everything and not have to work for it. This is a field where there is constant refinement and work to get things done and get them done properly. In our microwave society we want instant results. When colleges come and show off their best work, students often lose track of the fact how much WORK went into creating these items.

2. Not willing to pay the piper...In college you have the expectation that you will typically spend 3 hours of work out of class for every hour in class. Sometimes the college environment gets a student side-tracked or procrastination sets in (and we as artists tend to procrastinate...and if you get sidetracked or procrastinate that means to get something done in a quality manner you are going to have to burn the midnight oil. There have been countless times during finals where even when there wasn't procrastination you would have to spend 3 or 4 days with little to no sleep to get something completed. The attitude of those that fall to the wayside is usually...'I'll get to it tomorrow' and when they run out of tomorrows they think...'too late to do anything about it now'...and too often today students think that they should have a personal babysitter holding their hand through everything. It even shocks me when parents get upset with COLLEGE profs and want a piece of them because they won't baby-sit their kids.

3. Thin-skinned and not able to handle critiques...I blame some of this on high school. Sometimes there are teachers that are not qualified to give honest critiques (no art background) and everything is wonderful...or just because they get something turned in on time they get an A...this doesn't help a student as they head off to college. When a teacher 'rips' into their work (a lot of learning in this area tends to come from the negative...as the student learns to self-critique and mature in their capabilities the negative gets less) they too often take it as a personal attack. Instead of taking what is said and growing they curl up into a ball and throw a tantrum. I'll not lie...I did it in college a time or two myself in the beginning. But then as I got better I looked back and said, "Wow, how could I have defended that piece of pooh..."

4. Low standard for self and thinking that everyone should be okay with junk...There are many different styles out there and many different tastes. But well done is well done. I often say doing something simple doesn't mean doing something poorly. Students waiting until the last minute and throwing junk together or taking no pride in their work turn in low quality items and then get to (and should) hear about it. As I have seen some of these things it boggles my mind...it is like a job calls for a certain color of green, the student enters the wrong swatch and sends it to the printer and it comes out neon pink...so what if it could cost someone $20,000??? Or you design something the wrong size because of not paying attention to certain measurements...hours or days of work can be lost because it isn't always a matter of just scaling up or down. Student reaction? "Well your standards are just too high."

5. Poor art skills...(discussed in a previous post). Fine art skills are foundational. The computer is just a tool. Bad work and poor concepts can't be helped with a make cool button.

Again, this isn't an all-encompassing list but it does hit a few main problem spots. To be successful in college students need to:

1. Learn to motivate themselves and push to grow in a very competitive field. You can't settle for standing where you are.
2. Plan properly. No one is saying you are supposed to not have free time or play time. If you don't have this you will burn out. BUT you have to make sure you plan for both work and play.
3. Learn to critique yourself and listen when others critique. Get upset if you like but LISTEN and grow from what is said...your 'upset spells' will be less frequent and shorter as you mature.
4. Pay attention to what is being asked. If someone wants a design for Pepsi and you design the world's best advertisement for blue jeans...that gets you what???
5. The more you can do the better off you are. If you stink in a certain area push yourself to get better.

Finally, in college you can work the system but remember, grades aren't everything. There will be some schools that let you play that game because they are getting your money. But if you come out with a 4.0 and a bad portfolio...congrats...you just purchased a $40,000 wall decoration.

IF: Green

"Well...you look just a little green around the gills..."

IF:SNAP

Sir Edmund Wimple had always enjoyed a quiet Saturday afternoon of teasing baby dragons...'had' being the key word...

ON A RELATED NOTE: Congrats to Kiley ($36,000), Jessica ($28,000), and Jared ($23,250) for their scholarship offers! Also congrats to former student Tyler for getting 3 illustrations selected for a show at Columbus College of Art and Design as a Freshman.

Please...Sit down...and make yourself uncomfortable...

I always encourage students to step up and try something new...even if
it isn't something that we are focusing on in class (although I do try
to throw them acurve ball from time to time). Sometimes I am asked "How
do you do (fill in the blank)?" There isn't always a
straight-down-the-line answer to this question as there are often
multiple ways to do things. I think the real question that they want to
ask is "I've never done (fill in the blank) and I want it to come out
looking like it is going to hang in a museum on my first attempt...how
do I do it without a sense of failure and having that fear over my
shoulder the entire time?" The best way to do something you've never
done is...well to just do it. I realize (and try to give) basic
instruction for some 'new' things. ..But the reality is it is difficult
to explain how certain media will react under certain circumstances and
to get it to look nice...Explanation can never take the place of
experience...As artists we tend to be 'hands-on' and no amount of
explaining is going to give you the 'personal' touch of having done
something. You just have to push yourself out of your comfort zone and
see what happens. Sometimes it is going to be a major mess and
sometimes it is going to turn out okay. Either way you can always learn
and garner another 'tool for the trade'. I always enjoy and encourage
my students to give something a try in different media. The first pangs
of frustration are generally overcome with time and practice.


I had always wanted to do a 'relief' type illustration where the image protrudes from the picture plane as well as wanting to work on claybord. While going through an art history book I have I ran across a rhino vessel from the late Eastern Zhou Period. I figured since I was on a bit of a break I would give it a try and start to get a feel for both. I started by drawing out an outline of the rhino to use for a separate illustration. The claybord didn't hold the graphite like I thought it would so I figured I would use the outline as my template. I had purchased a small block of Super Sculpy for $1.77 and started to mold it to the panel.

Typically when you do a form on a panel you want to have anchors present to help hold the Sculpy in place. I had a horrible time in the beginning because I didn't do
this (I lacked a drill and was afraid if I just screwed in screws it
would crack the panel) and the head kept sliding around all over the
place. Once I started adding in the body it held in place a lot better.
I used some plastic clay tools to help etch in cuts and to curve the
form, but a lot of smoothing I just used my finger (Sculpy is also easy to smooth without worrying so much about gobbing up).


After I got the form down I fired it in my oven. Super Sculpy
has the advantage over traditional clay because it can be fired at a
lower temp in your oven, it doesn't shrink when fired, and it is much
less prone to holding air bubbles or cracking. After the baking I used
sand paper to clean up some of the lines and edges. I then found a
design from the same period and drew it in the background. I started to
ink it in and found I wasn't happy with the way it laid on top of the
panel.


I finally decided to just use a flat color on the
back so painted it in with an acrylic ink. The real issue began when I
tried to paint the rhino. The original vessel was bronze,gilded with
gold and decorated with silver. I had some acrylic gold and silver ink
and thought it was going to be an easy job to finish up. And then chaos
had her reign. The Sculpy resisted the ink and the spray primer I had
wasn't a good match for the project...having previously used the primer
for another painting project I was afraid that I would go through all
of that work and then have to sand it down. The silver was left as a
watery grey schmoo so I tried to wipe it off with a rag and see how that
looked...bad. I ran the whole plate under water (which washed off all
of the ink...even the background) and spent the next bit drying and
repainting. Thanks to capillary action and not being able to get the
water molecules that remained in some of the cracks, the ink kept
'bleeding up' on to the piece. So a 5 minute job turned into a two-hour
battle of washing, sanding, drying and repainting. My final step will
be to add some design work and finish cleaning up the panel...although
I do like the contrast of the flat panel with the white form.

The important thing is that I tried something I had never done
before...wanted to scrap it 50 times while doing it...but completed it
enough that I LEARNED some things (good and bad) that can be used later
on down the road. It's not going to hang in a museum anywhere but I
think it can be touched up enough that I don't mind having my name
attached to it...

IF: I Spy...

My dad is retired CIA so we never get to play that game...as soon as someone gets out 'I Spy' he hangs them out the driver's side window and starts interrogating them at 65 mph...




"I spy...with my little eye...soooomethinnngggggg....WHITE!"

IF:Total

"It's not a total loss...you won't have to worry about making that appointment for your fungus anymore..."

IF: High (Wired)...Digital

IF: Wired2

High-wired...

IF: Wired

After moving from New York to Oregon, Todd asked one of the locals if they could help him get wired...he was more than happy to help out...

IF: Hide

Mother rabbit quickly realized she needed to switch from 'tan your hide' to 'spank your britches' when trying to get Melville to clean his room...

So...What's Your Story...

One of the best ways to approach any design problem
is to have a story. Why? Well, it helps with several potential design
problems and has the added benefit allowing you to 'talk' about your
work to a teach, professor, client or boss. The story you make up will
enable you to choose important visual elements as well as their
location. One needs to strike a balance of too much vs. too little
imagery. Too much can result in visual clutter and too little can lead
to 'dead spots' on the page (not to be confused with smartly used
negative space).

This was a college project that I enjoyed. Our instructor brought in a CD from one of his friend's bands called Basement Apartment. We listened to the music to get a taste for it (pretty mellow 'college' style music). The title of the single was
Learning to Fall. My story for this was two-fold. The first involved
the packaging...I played off of basement apartment by using a small
fridge to encase the cover. This took care of several areas because I
thought of theCD as parts of the appliance. The back showed the back
and allowed for nesting places for text. The front and inside (which is
the inside of the fridge) allowed for the logo to be placed as a
'product logo'...(if my memory serves correctly we had to design the
logo and I thought it turned out pretty well...but in my old age I
could just be making things up...)


The second part of the story involves the song
title. When I thought of 'learning to fall' I figured there was a kind
of irony to learning to ride a bike without training wheels. Because
there involves a lot of falling (in my case and every other child I've
watched) as opposed to riding in the beginning, I figured that was the
actual objective...learning to take the fall with as little damage as
possible. So I played up the idea of a financially poor little girl in
a city trying to do just that. There is a sense of feeling grown up
when the feat is accomplished (both the safe falling as well as the
actual riding) so I found a dress that is starting to be outgrown and
made a Polaroid image of the girl, bandaged knee, holding a wrench and
training wheel...and of course fridges make great places to
tape 'current' historical events... so it all played together...


The inside booklet was of a brick street (that was composited
together) that had bits of foliage shooting up through the cracks...and
as much as it seems ladies like to grow up and move off to the city
(maybe a bit of a stereotype but it fits the story)...every little girl
in the city would like to have a lot of nice grass to play on...and it
sure makes falling a lot easier...grass between the toes...etc...so
there are pictures that were laid out by the child on the alley street
and somehow she ends up in her make-believe place...so the original
picture is now empty and we see her shoes and where she has taken off
her training wheels lying in the grass photos.

Pretty much any type of design can benefit from such planning with a story. Even if the designer is the only person that knows the story, it can lead to a
'deeper' and more visuallyinteresting piece. When a viewer has an emotional reaction to a work they tend to enjoy it more and remember it longer.