Thursday, March 31, 2011

Junk Yard Sculpture

*

*




I spent the last three weeks in my studio drawing and painting for countless hours. It was important for me to complete these three illustrations for a fellowship that I applied for.

These illustrations are based on the idea that I had a year earlier. You can see my earlier five sequential images here . Those first images were criticized as overpainted, muddy, and too complicated. The narrative wasn't extremely exciting either. I did love the melancholic quality of that series, but unfortunately, that's not what children's book publishers are looking for.

The idea of rusty animals was pretty interesting though, so I decided to give it another shot. I'm constantly trying to simplify my work and painting technique, as advised by many art directors. I especially try to simplify the backgrounds, and I actually think it works better this way. It allows the viewer to spend more time looking at the main characters.

I made the main character a little younger than in my character studies.

A deadline is the best inspiration for sure. You make decisions fast and leave the doubts for later, when you are already done with the project.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Commission: Shedding Light on Books





Client: Gerri Fegan, President of Massachusetts School Library Association, librarian at High Plain Elementary School in Andover, MA.

Thank you so much Gerri for this commission! Trying to show the light was a challenge, but I'm glad I was able to figure it out.

Several week ago Gerri invited me to the judging of the MSLA Bookmark Contest. You can see the winning entries here 2011 Bookmark Contest Winners . The kids are good!