Happy Birthday Blog

Today marks two years since I started this blog. As the years continue, this time will always remind me of Hartford. I started it right after our first contact. It has almost been a second thesis since so much of it was devoted to the program. Watching new blogs start up, from this and other services, it seems I will stay with blogspot. It suits my needs very well and is so simple to post. I say this because I was going to switch to a different service, but decided to stay.

YouTube Slideshow

I have to say the assignments given out by the Hartford instructors are not only fun but, more importantly, are made to make us think in ways that will benefit us as illustrators. These last two weeks have really opened my eyes to social networking. Ill post up my twitter account soon.

Music by Ron Lytel ©2010

Week Two

Were in our second week in Hartford and things are happening one after another. The last crit for our class is over, marking the half way point of this trip. The critiques were something I always looked forward to and considered them to be a highlight of our contact periods. The work was great as usual.

Another painting of Mia. I paint Mia more than my son because he hates having his photo taken. He will occasionally help me out, but generally puts up his hand. I have a lot of photos of his palm. Their mom was a model working in NY and Europe when we were younger and I still use her a lot in my work. When I get back Ill have to get some shots of the boy.

Show is Up

We hung our thesis show on Sunday morning. The work by my fellow MFA classmates looks beautiful and Im impressed by what was produced. Ill have to get my camera in there this week and post some shots.

I wanted to get some figure drawing in before the weeks work gets going so Iv been working on this girl....

Swamped

Im sort of swamped with freelance in these last few days before Hartford so I pulled a detail from one of the figure sketches Iv been doing this summer. Im really glad I prepared everything for the trip earlier because there is such little time now. It came so fast, like so much does.

11 x 17 Give Away Print for HAS Thesis Show

It was fun drawing Mia the toad in this style. Black line art, colored in Photoshop.

Castle Green Part 3 - In PS

Here's how the Castle Green illustration finished up.

Castle Green Part 2 - In PS

The HAS assignment for Pasadena has been wrapped up. I kept thinking of the lobby and the adjoining room and how it was so inviting and intimate. Instead of placing in two standard figures, or a ghost in the building being seen by a living passerby, I went with two ghosts to relay intimacy and commonality. Not so much a coming home, but recognition of the passing of time between individuals, acquaintances, and strangers with shared experiences.

Castle Green Part 1 - In PS

We visited Castle Green in Los Angles last month. Before the presentations I walked around the lobby and tried to imagine it's hay day. Its very nice inside; they keep it up very well and I could picture quiet evenings by the fire and large scale dinner parties. Buildings have great memories. But it made me think of Buffalo and its history and how so much gets neglected or torn down. You can see the old grain elevators and Bethlehem Steel, formerly the second largest producer of steel in the US, which used to feed Lackawanna and neighboring towns. Anyway, this is the base. To go along with this thinking, there will be a figure passing along and looking at the building. Its a simple image but it satisfies my thoughts on time; good and bad.

Click image to enlarge

Be Back Later This Month

Time to go to Pasadena with the Hartford Art School group. We will be seeing some great illustrators as well as DreamWorks animation studios and the Getty.

The illustrators are:

Greg Spalenka

Jon Han

Gary Meyer

Jeff Smith

Bill Robles

Scott Anderson

Erik Sandberg

Lon Levin

Kenton Nelson (and his studio)

Paul Rogers

Ella Fitzgerald Revisited

I realized what I had before didn't work in the overall composition so I took a look at my reference shots and chose a gesture that would accommodate type in a better way.

Olmsted

Im leaving Hartford tomorrow with a definite thesis direction. Meeting with Bill Thompson, my adviser in the program, we narrowed it down to focus on the watercolor. Its better to direct full attention on one direction rather than to dilute that particular energy. I like to think of it in terms of a shark going after a group of fish. If the shark tries to get them all, it may get none. If it goes for one fish, it will surely catch it.

For the Olmsted poster, I did the underpainting in PS and the build up with the chalk brush in Painter. The script was done with a brush pen on tissue and traced in AI. The pattern was done in AI as well, repeating some of the foliage shapes to tie in.

Sketchbook

Still able to do a little painting in the evenings here at Hartford.

Day One

Its week one at Hartford. Three illustration presentations and two crits later, were preparing for a week of development with guidance from CF Payne and Gary Kelly, who are team teaching the second and third year students in the program. Also looking forward to some thesis feedback from Bill Thompson later in the week.

Be Back Soon

Its time to go to Hartford for summer session number two. Im leaving tomorrow for Rochester to finish up some work there and pick up Jay Lincoln on Saturday morning. So today is packing, cleaning and making lists. My little XA will get us there with hours of illustration discussion. Posts will be few for the next couple weeks, if any. The program offers so much from day to day that it will be difficult to sit down and do something thats not for the program. I will return no later than the 25th. of July.

Totem Pole Chicken Scratch

There are a few pages of this scribbling for the HAS crit coming up next month.  Iv asked a few of our classmates (the ones I talk to the most during the in between times) to contribute to a paper totem pole concept based on our SF experience.  There are a ton of things to do in the next month to prepare for our summer session and I hope we can all fit this thing in.  It should be interesting as they will all connect in a stack from a templet I made and sent them.  Its like having a little piece of candy before a grand supper.

SF Reaction Progress

Light mid tones established.  Its at a higher resolution and file size than my laptop likes so I cropped all the extra space for now.  I'm doing this in between idea time for another project.

Left shoe pinks and all whites....

SF Reaction Illio

As I wrap up my paper on Kazu Sano, I'm working on elements for the reaction illustration. Tomorrow afternoon I have my model scheduled for the bulk of the illio.  It will be in the same vein as the NYC reaction but moving away from the track jacket.  I wont be posting it here or on the portfolio site until after crit in the summer.  

Black Paper

Today, I sized all my prints for our contact in California next month.  Off to the printer tomorrow with one giclee for the NY assignment.  I don't need to print it that way, but now and then I make one so I have an accumulation of good prints I can choose from for shows.  

The moon migration patterns Iv done before this one weren't working.  This one is more in line with the current direction.  I will do as many as I have to to get it right.  I like the idea and its worth the exploration.  Not everything has to be done right the first few times.  Sometimes it takes a while.  It took 3 months to get approval on the fonts I made for the Cincinnati Bengals uniform number system.  No rush.

Figure Part Done(ish)

I liked what was happening with the blue in the bkg. but something is going there.  I don't feel like I wasted time painting it and then painting over it.  My deadline is way off and so I can afford the extra painting time, and enjoy the activity.  Plus, its digital so its there if I need it.

The hands will remain grey.