From the Sketchbook

Here are a few pages from the sketchbook from my visit to Nathan Fox and Becky Cloonan's lecture at the Society of Illustrators a few weeks back. First I tried my hand at capturing the likeness of Becky, Nathan and the moderator as they talked back and forth. Sometime after I ended up doodling the creepy dog and the strange cone-head man. I think this must have been post-Coraline.


Then I went upstairs to catch the last bit of life-drawing with some friends. This was my first taste of the SOI sketch/jazz night and I have to say, I liked it very much. Great models, great music and a stocked bar make for a pretty perfect evening if I do say so myself. And I do.

Richard and his Pet

Here is the preliminary drawing for a painting that will be in a massive group show in May. The curator is having about 25 artists paint him as an albino animal hybrid and is exhibiting them 19th century salon style so I thought a 19th century man was in order. I imagined Richard as a sort of Moreau-style professor with one of his creations. I thought the real question should be was Richard's unique condition a product of his own imagination or is it what inspires him to create similarly hybrid beings.

Two Heads are Better?

When given an assignment to illustrate a story about a two headed man, where both heads have completely different personalities and looks, I knew exactly who I wanted to use. Brennan and Griffin are a couple friends, really fun guys and step-brothers. I bribed them over with fried chicken, took photos of them and worked out this composition.




The background is still in flux. Initially I was thinking fire/smoke on one side turning into butterflies ( a significant image in the story) but the paint is telling me this may not work. Also Grif (the one on the right) will be a bit more sinister in the final.

Cats and Things

One of the paintings I'm working on has an animal that I'm not quite sure about yet. After hours of sketching and erasing, I realized that I was going about it all backwards and started doing sketches of some real animals I might want it to reference. So here are some cats, a bunny, and a thing I started developing after the sketches.

Storyteller

Here is a character sketch for a project I'm working on with some friends. He's a storyteller who's a little bit shaman, a little bit skald and a little bit mountain man.

Sketchbook Saturday

I'm a big fan of the Kalevala. Anyone who has let me ramble about the beautiful flowing poetry of the Friberg translation (and Gallen-Kallela's illustrations) has probably regretted it, as I will always do my best to quote the first paragraph from memory and usually fail miserably. There is also a great bit in Runo 19 about the smith Ilmarinen forging an iron eagle to battle a massive fish that has me itching to do an illustration of the scene. I mean come on! Big Iron eagle! Neat! The sketch below is not that scene. It is, instead, a funny little creature out of my sketchbook who really wants to be an iron eagle, so he makes a sort of eagle suit:



The faded drawing in the background is a Celtic version of an eagle. Someday I will actually illustrate Ilmarinen and his Iron Eagle. Just not today.

And because I can't resist, I'm going to share the first paragraph of the Kalevala which is, in my opinion, one of the most brilliant beginnings ever written:

I am wanting, I am thinking
To arise and go forth singing,
Sing my songs and say my sayings,
Hymns ancestral harmonizing,
Lore of kindred lyricking.
In my mouth the words are melting;
Utterances overflowing
To my tongue are hurrying,
Even against my teeth they burst.

You can read more here.

One of my fantasies is a week of campfires in the wilderness where Christopher Lee reads the entire Kalevala out loud.

Musicians

A couple musicians from the sketchbook. Doodled randomly on the subway.