12/19/11 Almost the Holidays.

Well, this year went by really fast!  Wow.
I've been very busy in the studio, even though I've been quiet.  I've finished a large chunk of writing so now it's time to draw again. I have a lot of sketches to share but nothing finished. I'm working on the first chapter of my adaptation of "The Phantom of the Opera" and it's going really well!  I'm going to release it on my website when it's ready so I won't be posting TOO much process work about it.  But don't worry, I draw fast!
  Here's some sketches:

SO, of course, a huge part of getting this adaptation perfect is getting the look of the characters just right.  For me, this involves a lot of face drawings.  I'm definitely happy and comfortable with how the characters are looking and that can only come from having drawn those faces repeatedly.  I think the final sketches are always fun to look at, even the ones that aren't right.  So here's a bunch of faces:

Am I making holiday pictures for friends and family?  Funny you should ask that because yes, indeed I am.  I am working on some portraits for a family I know and one for my twin sister.  Of course, I don't want to spoil the surprise so I'm only going to post these sketches for now:

I've got a lot of choices.  It's a tough call but I think they will be pleased with whatever I choose.  

I have so much work ahead of me and the new year promises to be busy, which is good!  So I'm going to get back to work.  Thanks for visiting!

Happy Wintertime!

Beckarooo out.

11.09.11

Well, Hello there, friends!
It's been quite awhile since I last posted and for that I am so so sorry.  Lately I've been working on writing stuff: scripts, proposals, synopses, etc.  And so even though I have been quite busy and very productive, I haven't been working on anything I can really post.  I will be better about this from now on, though, I promise--so come back next week and there will be something fun for you to see.

Well for those of you who have been following my blog, you are probably aware that I am working on an adaptation of Gaston Leroux's "The Phantom of the Opera."  Currently my main focus has been the script, which is very nearly ready to start drawing up--I do stop to sketch during the writing process so here are some of those sketches.  They are sketchy!

So, yes, I'm having a TON of fun working on this book--I can hardly stop working on it--so I'm making really good progress each week on the writing end.  I will begin sketching out more scenes now that the script is so fleshed out. I will, of course post more of that soon, soon, soon!  But for now I have to get going.  My beloved twin sister is getting married and I'm off to be a bridesmaid!  YAY!
Here's a pic of us a wee ones:

As you can see, I'm drawing.  It's always been this way!

Thanks so much for visiting my little space here in the web-iverse!  Come back soon!

Beckaroooooo out.

09.05.11

Hello, out there!

I hope you are enjoying the end of summer.  I am looking forward to the fall!

Here, in the studio, I have been pretty productive.  I finished up the panels for Atalanta's Race so now I have just a few finishing touches and it's done!  Here's the last sequence of panels:

I am definitely planning on continuing this story later on but for now I think it's a good representation of the style of art and pacing I am going for.  I will post the final piece next week so be sure to check back!  For now I am off to the next sequence which will be a chase scene from "The Phantom of the Opera".  This one will give me a lot of opportunity to play with space and pacing as well as a chance to draw humans instead of sock monkeys and I have more fun with that!  Here is a sketch of the sequence, originally designed as a comic:

I am going to take these sketches and expand on them, just like I did with Atalanta's Race.  I'm excited to work with this subject and with this particular environment. Here's a link to info about Garnier's Opera house in Paris:
http://www.operadeparis.fr/cns11/live/onp/L_Opera/Palais_Garnier/PalaisGarnier.php?lang=en

Plus, I love opera.  Win, win.
 I've also been working on color and playing with familiar characters.  So far I've been using Disney characters but I decided my next image will be of The Lady Amalthea from The Last Unicorn, one of my favorite books and films.  here's a link to the wikipedia page for it:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Unicorn_(film)
   Here's what I've done this week:

Today I am working on the image of Briar Rose/Aurora from Disney's Sleeping Beauty.  I'm happy with how it's coming along.  I'm looking forward to coloring her because I like her gray and beige, communist-like color scheme.  You will have to check back here next week to see what I mean!  

I'm anxious to get started so I am going to close this post.  Here is an image of the Red Bull from the Last Unicorn. You should watch The Last Unicorn today, I think.  

Thanks for the visit, come back next week!

beckaroo out.

08.30.2011

Hi there, friends!  

Thanks for coming by the studio.

  It's been a  while since I posted because, tragically, my hard drive crashed, taking with it two weeks worth of work.  A tragedy but in the end an easy enough fix.  The worst part was losing the work!  I've been spending the last week re-doing a lot of stuff.  Now that I've finished all that I decided it was time to post again.  here is more story art for Atalanta's Race:

I also finished up my poster design for "The Wizard of Oz".  If you scroll down you will see that the last time I posted this image I had finished the colors, for the most part.  Since then, I've added a lot of detail, highlights and low-lights and I changed the black lines to color.  I also removed the titles because I wasn't totally happy with them.  I really am happy with how it turned out:

I've also been drawing more directly into PhotoShop with my Wacom pen.  I work a little bit on my sketch of Ondine, a character from my comic "Hero's Journey".  You can see the original post if you scroll down!

I really like how the leaves are turning into a pattern.  That is something I am going to push more as I start to add in color.  And speaking of color, here is a sketch of Disney's Cinderella I drew a long time ago but I redrew it in PS and  colored it.  I like how the digital image looks sitting next to the hand colored drawings.

I have a lot more I want to so with this one.  I will keep posting it as it evolves.

It's time to start closing up this post.  Here is a post of our new kitten, Napolean Octavian, sitting with his new buddy, Christopher Robbin.

Thanks for stopping by the studio.  Check in next week for more fun stuff.
Till then, enjoy the interwebs.

Love Beckaroo!

08.08.11

This week has been very quiet in the studio.  I've been spending more time working on story art for the myth of "Atalanta and the three Golden Apples."  If you have no idea what that story is check out this site:  http://www.paleothea.com/Myths/Atalanta.html
   I've been very inspired by all this story art I've been doing and I've decided to develop "Atalanta" into a longer, more in-depth story.  But for now I'm trying to tell the basics of the story with sock monkeys (from my series:  "Sock Monkey Theatre Presents") just to work with composition, color and other story-telling elements. 
   Here are a few panels from it:

Here are two panels that show the luminescent nature of the golden apples:

So the other thing I'm always working on is color.  And I'm also working creating posters for The Children's Theatre Company in Minneapolis.  This week I'm working on "The Wizard of Oz"--based on the film, of course!--Here's where I'm at with it (in process!)

So, the next step is to turn the lines from black into color and also to smooth them all out.  This is an image from the coloring book I made for them this year.  I really like how this one is going.  The colors are all working really well for me and I'm anxious to get to work on the lines.  (that's what I'm going to do when I'm done with this post, btw!)  AND speaking of OZ......I'm a huge fan of the musical "Wicked" and I've been playing around with it in my spare time.  Here's a sketch of Elphaba as a young student at Shiz:
 

  And I've been messing around with color on her but I'm not really into it.......maybe i need to play with it a little more:

I think the green of her skin is not quite right, yet.  What do you think?

Well, that's it for this week's blog.  thanks for stopping by and enjoy your internet travels, friends!
I will leave you all with this image

This is an image of Saturn's Rings, taken by NASA's Cassini!  The photos that Cassini has sent back to Earth are so mind-blowing!  Some of them are so incredible it's hard to believe they are actually photos.  If you have time today go to its official site, here:  http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/index.cfm     --you'll be so happy you did.  They will show you what Cassini is seeing RIGHT NOW!  it's so cool.  I love space.  I love NASA, too! 

SIGH. now that I've professed my love, I will get back to work.

Beckaroooo out!

07.30.11 Good-bye, Campana.

This was a sad week for me because I had to put my cat, Campana Azul to sleep.
She was one of my very favorite cats of all time and so I decided to dedicate this week to her.  She was a retired show cat, a Blue Mink Tonkinese, and the prettiest cat I've ever seen!  She was a perfect companion, too!  She would always be sitting quietly near me when I was working so often times I would sketch her if I was feeling blocked or uninspired.  Always did the trick!
 here's a few sketcheroos:

Also, she and my other cat Christopher-Robbin were always cuddling! They did some insanely cute things pretty much every day, all day.  Here's some drawings of a few of their cuddle-puddles:

The day I knew I had to put her to sleep I brought her home and she had a really nice afternoon.  She had a big bowl of yummy wet cat-food and took a long nap on her pillow in the sunlight.  I drew these of her that day and I think they are the best ones I ever drew of her.  She would curl her tail into a curly-cue sometimes and I was glad to get that in a drawing because I always loved that.

She was an amazing cat and I am really, really lucky I got to have her with me.  I wish I could have had more time but better this much than none, I say.  I will close by saying my next entry will be happier and to leave you with a photo of her:

Thanks for checking in at the studio! 
Beckaroo out.

Week Two! 07.11.2011

Hello there and welcome to week 2 of my blog!

This week I have been focusing on expanding the storyboard section of my work.  I decided to take scenes from some of my earlier comic work and make them into story boards.  I used a scene from "Hero's Journey" and "Sock Monkey Theatre Presents: Atalanta and the three Golden Apples."  You can read both here:  www.beckylaff.com   ..... in the Comics sections.
  
Here is the scene from "Hero's Journey":

 Some of the panels are colored, you may have noticed, that is because I am in the middle of coloring this scene.  I've been distracted by this next scene I'm working on.  "Atalanta and the 3 Golden Apples" is one of my very favorite greco-roman myths.  I decided to use it for my project, "Sock Monkey Theatre Presents:"  In it, I tell classic myths and literature using sock monkeys instead of people--it's fun times--if you don't believe me, you should go to my website and see for yourself!........in the Comics section. 
  This scene from Atalanta has lent itself well to being story boarded because I see it playing out very cinematically.  This is very early in process and so the drawings are very rough, just sketches, really, and some panels may be too scrawly to see clearly.  As I move along in the process, they will become much clearer so I encourage you to check back!

So, of course I want to show some work from my other projects, too!   This is one panel and one page from my adaptation of Gaston Leroux's "The Phantom of the Opera."

I am very happy with how this project is coming along.  Right now I'm spending more time developing the script and trying to get my color palette sorted out.  I mentioned last week I want a faded, old look to the color.  I'm going to be using this page, as well as four others, to play around with color combos.  I will, of course, post what I'm working on.

  I also love to draw just for fun.  Can you believe that?  here's a mermaid!

  This is another sketch I intend to color.

  Here is a card from the Tarot Deck I'm designing, "The Sock Monkey Tarot,"  This card is "The Devil" and that card is Trouble!  I enjoyed working with the color in this image.  I wanted to make an overall red composition that felt oppressive and claustrophobic.  I think I achieved that, so, of course!  I'm very pleased with it.  You can see all the cards I've finished thus far at my website, www.beckylaff.com  ......in the Sock Monkeys section....

So, that is it for my blog entry for this week. I will leave you with this incredible image from Chile's volcano. 

Crazy-cool, huh?
Have fun on the inter-webs, friends!
Beckaroooo!

Week One 7.04.2011

Happy Independence Day to all my American friends and everyone else, too!

This also is day one of my first blog. 
  I decided to start this blog because sometimes I disappear into my studio for days at a time and people wonder what I'm doing in there?  This is a way to share my work in progress with you.  I have a website for my main body of work here:  www.beckylaff.com  but this is where I can better share sketches, works in process, and other things.
  I've been working on adding more storyboards to my body of work and have really been focusing on digital painting and coloring.  I've been having a lot of fun playing with color and brushes and stuff.  Photoshop is fun.  I just finished this last night:

This is a colored version of an image from the coloring book For The Children's Theatre in Minneapolis, MN.  They are an amazing company and I love working on the coloring book every year.  This image is for Pippi Longstocking, which is one of their perennial favorites.  I always loved this play so I thought it was quite a treat to make illustrations for it!  If you want a copy of the coloring book you should check out their website:  www.childrenstheare.org or come to a show and buy one in the giftshop!

  Here's another image that I recently played around with.  It's just one panel from a comic I'm working on...slowly....an adaptation of Gaston Leroux's "The Phantom of the Opera":

This is a panel I'm using as a color guide for the rest of the book.  I like the grayish, faded-out look to it.  I want the book to have an old, long-ago feel to it, over all.  This project is coming along slowly for now but whenever I move a little forward on it, I will post it!  baby steps, right?

  Another project in the works is "Hero's Journey".  This is a drawing of "Ondine", who is a water nymph that has been locked forever in the trunk of a tree....so sad!

This image is half drawn by hand and half into Photoshop using a Wacom tablet.  I am having a lot of fun working on this one.  I'm really excited about how easy it is to adapt to drawing directly into the computer. 

Another exercise in color, two unicorns:

Well,  it's time for me to get some work done before the barbecues and fireworks start! 
I will leave you with this exciting and holiday-appropriate image:

Beckaroo out.