07.31.13 Comics, process and posters!

Hi there!
Well, I've finally found some time to post and it was really hard because I am SOOOOO busy right now and I'm also moving tomorrow on top of all of it.  Exciting!!

This year I decided to submit a comic to the City Pages annual Comix issue.  I only heard about 3 days before the deadline so I had to come up with and execute this very quickly and I'm happy with what I did!  In fact, one of my former professors from MCAD--who was famous for being extra harsh and stingy with the A grades--he liked it!  What a compliment! SIGH.....So ..... I'm happy.  :-)))   Anyway, I approached this with the idea that this one-page comic would be exemplary of my storytelling style, a piece that just says what I'm about as an artist. And, yes, I met the deadline.  Because MCAD-ers ALWAYS meet or beat their deadlines.
  AND .... I kept track of the process for you:

Here is the sketch that I used for the layout for the final lines.

Here are the inked lines.  I will say this, even though a line drawing like this is very flat, there is no-where to hide bad drawing.  So feast your eyes on my totally naked and exposed skills!!

"The Swing" 2013

    Immediately, upon finishing this piece I realized how many pieces I've done lately that involve light, either looking up at, reaching toward it, flying toward it, etc.....I guess I will call this my period of "light" when I look back as an old, old artist, retired in the desert somewhere.  The landscape there is so gorgeous.

  As I was going through all my art stuff, packing for the move, I found my ever-growing stack of inked line drawings which is fun to rediscover.   Once I'm done with a drawing and I scan it, I just put it away immediately and forget it and I have now amassed quite a collection of really nice black and white line drawings....I think next week's post will be a line-drawing retrospective!  Which will be good b/c I have been working on the annual coloring book and set of posters for Columbia Children's Theatre in Columbia, SC.  Since I'm still in the ideate-ing part of the process I am only posting these three (of 15), all of them are going to be posters, eventually....

"Puss in Boots!"  One of my favorite fairy-tale characters!  I based him on my cat, Christopher-Robbin, who is my own puss-in-boots!

"Snow White!"  Character design challenge of the year:  The Seven Dwarves.  Success: achieved,

I love this image of Snow....I'm torn about which one should be the poster image....thoughts?

  Well, I'm overwhelmed and stressed out but most of all SUPER excited to move to my new apt tomorrow!  I have been saving a bottle of mead just for this occasion....Have you tried mead?  OMG, it's good and I don't even like wine, particularly.  Try it!  And come back next week b/c I promise, promise, promise I will post something!

  As you go along with the rest of your day, I will leave you with this pic of me sitting in a tree.  A tree-house, like The Swiss Family Robinson is where I'd REALLY love to move....but where I'm moving has a lot of leaves in the windows and I have an excellent imagination so.....it'll do....for now....(:

Thanks friends of mine on the internet!  It's always nice to have a visit.
Be well!
Love, Beckarooooo

07.16.13 Summer Days...

Hi there!
Although I am deep in the middle of a big project right now for the Columbia Children's Theatre Company in SC, I've managed to make a few illustrations that I can show you right now!
  Since I've started working more with dancers and drawing movement I decided to try something different with portraiture.  Okay, so, yes, inspired a little by Harry Potter, I thought if I used 3 images to show a few moments in time, the portrait would feel more real, more meaningful to the viewer.  A series of sequential moments in time as opposed to just one still image of a face or body is a much more effective way of conveying the subject's energy and personality, their presence, you know what I mean?
Here is the first one I did:

Caroline and the Dandelion, June 2013

 This is a series of images of the little girl I nanny for in my day job as a nanny.  (it's the best job in the world!)  She is such a treat.  Everyone says I'm biased but I swear she is the cutest and sweetest baby I've ever met!  She's going to day-care soon and our time together is coming to an end.  :-(  So I've been dealing with my sadness by making art about it!  Here's an image of one our favorite activities and our favorite songs!

Becky and Caroline by the Mississippi River, June 2013

Sigh, such a great job!  I can't believe I get paid for that!  So on to the next portrait.  This one is of my mom's dead dog, Patty.  I think with animals, this "motion-portrait" (I'm tentatively calling these) is most effective b/c they use body language primarily for communication.  My mom agreed.  She cried when she saw this, which is the best complement an artist can receive.  :-)
These three images effectively capture Patty's sweet charm as she wakes up from a nap:

Happy Birthday, Mom! Love you!!! :-)

So, even though I'm working on a big project, I'm still developing other stories and characters all the time.  For a comic artist/writer/creator, whatever you want to call what I do, it is crucial to keep developing other stories all the time--stagnation is your enemy!!  This is a character that has been on the back-burner for a long time but she's popped back into my head recently--she must want to come out!  I love her so much! She's always been called "Penguin Girl" and she has a winged duck-billed platypus as her side-kick.  But that isn't the best part about her--well, first off here's what they look like:

She has the coolest power of all super-heroes, ever, which is that she understands and can therefore manipulate the very fabric of reality.  This gives her a power that is limited only by her imagination.  Her powers are all based in math and she's SO good at math that she's taken it to a whole other level--a level that allows her manipulate the very world around her.  She likes to travel via wormhole and so do I, so we have that in common.  I really love this character, so I decided to resurrect her and begin working more on her story.

The last image I will share with you this week is a little assignment I gave myself.  Here it is:

Paris Opera House, Grand Escalier

The goal here is just to become comfortable with the lighting and color in this space.  I'm pretty happy with it--if it weren't just practice I would take it a little further but I'm saving that effort for the real art, which will come later.  This is in the evening so the light is very yellow but my next assignment is to color the same space but lit by daylight though the skylight, instead of gaslight.  This will make the space seem a lot more blue, overall, FYI.

Well!  I will end this post with a fun summer-time pic!  Too much work does not keep me stuck inside!  Summer fun time!

Dancing in a cemetery!  

Ahhh....being an artist and a nanny makes life seem like kindergarten all the time and I love it!  I hope you enjoy the work I'm making as much as I love making it. I'm excited to share the stuff I'm working on right now but I can't--I just can't until September!!  it's such a struggle. :-P
 Thanks for the visit, friends!
Love, Beckaroooo!!!