The Best-Laid Plans - no Burning Man for me

How disappointing to learn that I will not be going to Burning Man after all.

Our camp guru, Mama Nicole, read the tea leaves and decided that the rejection of the initial art car drawing and the camp site request are a sign that she shouldn't go this year. Nicole's a 13-year veteran of Burning Man, and had never been rejected before, so I suppose I can understand how she would be turned off by being turned away. The only problem is, without her leading the group, all the planners decided to throw in the towel.

With something as trippy as Burning Man, perhaps one must take "signs" seriously as they could effect your entire experience, but let's look at the "signs" themselves. One rejection in 13 years? I don't think most people are as used to rejection as creative types like me are. Heck, Nicole herself even rejected my idea of distributing a mini-comic at the Burn, citing the "newbie over-gifting" issue, and I was still gung-ho to go!

Not to say that there weren't legitimate reasons for canceling the camp; I'm trying to put a writerly spin on this. So, to continue: I've experienced some form of rejection in most of my creative endeavors, but like an insane person, I keep trying and hoping for a different result. The trick is to adjust and improve. When we adjusted the "the product" - the design of the art car - to conform to "the marketplace" - the approval board - it was accepted. (I didn't post about it when it happened, but the revised concept was accepted and was mid-build when the camp site request was rejected). Supposedly, the camp planners only problem with the revised design was that then it wasn't their "pure idea" and they were in some way "selling out" and Burning Man had become too rigid and boundary-setting, yadda yadda. So the camp site rejection was the final straw. I wasn't in a position to argue, but if it had been up to me, I

would've resubmitted the camp site request, and I bet it would've been approved just like the art car was. Instead, the camp planners felt misunderstood and p.o.'d and dissolved the group.

But this is how artists starve, maaaan! *shakes fist at sky*

Eh. So, I lost out on a chance for a wacky life experience (well, I still have my ticket, but there's no way I'd try to go it alone without the infrastructure - that's crazy talk! - so I'll be scalping someone for sure, ha ha - any takers?), but hopefully I'll have learned something from this.

I'll let you know when I figure out what that something is. Until then, here's one of the sketches I did for the camp costumes. It was in the process of being made, so it too is in project purgatory:

Another post to file under "inspired by..."

inspired by the save-the-date...

All this talk about "the End, the End..." - I couldn't help myself. FYI: the guy on the right is my dad. He's fun to draw!

The front of the save-the-date postcard

So you can see the final product...

Illustration of the Week: Through Fires and Droughts

I'm not going to start listing the reasons why I haven't updated this blog. I will tell you, however, that I've written out about a dozen entries and then not posted them, simply because I'm not sure anyone is actually reading this, and if that's the case, then what's the point of typing out my "diary." See, the more I think about the fact that I, as an artist/writer, "need a platform," the more I chicken out about what to write. The blog needs to be deep and meaningful, and add fullness to other people's lives. The blog need to be interactive, offer choices to my audience for the development of future characters and storylines. The blog needs to even be fully customized to reflect and project my personal style consistently.

So instead of addressing that cliff of a load of challenges, I ignore it instead. And what does my blog turn into? A wasteland? Well, maybe not, but I was trying to make a connection between what I'm writing and the illustration I'm posting. Perhaps it's a bit of a stretch...

Anyway, the illustration above is part of an invitation I'm working on for a party. It starts out dark, (i.e. droughts, fires, floods, etc...), and then on the flip side there's a punchline. The text will be going in later, obviously. Just thought I'd post it to blow off a few cobwebs around here.

And now, back to work!

Cover Art for Class Book at Local School

That is the illustration I whipped up in response to this email I received:

"Michael, my 5 year old, is in Kindergarten and I am helping organize a project where the students are going to create a class book which is going to be hardbound. The title of the class book is "When I Grow Up..." Each student will have two pages in the book, one for illustrating and the other for writing a couple of sentences describing what they want to be when they grow up.

What I thought would be a great addition to this book (which all the parents are going to purchase) is if you did the illustration for the front cover. I thought of you right away because I figured you would come up with something clever for a children's class book that fits the theme. When I mentioned this idea to Michael's teachers, they were so excited. The theme, by the way, is "When I Grow Up...".

Your picture will be used for three class books as there are three kindergarten classes (60 kindergartners). The illustration should be done in marker according to the publisher because they scan these pages in and they say marker turns up best. It does not have to be anything fancy like when you submit to illustrator contests, etc. Just something cute to complement the children's work inside. We can also mention in the front pages of the book your name under illustrator. It could be your published work, technically."

I don't think it actually counts as published work, but I thought it would be a fun project, and the homeroom moms even came up with a small token payment, so I felt appreciated. I rarely, if ever, have used marker in my illustrations, so the challenge was to acquaint myself with the media, (and the particulars of its color distribution), before working on the final piece.

Art Car: Client Concept to Finished Drawing

Though perhaps Burning Man is not your cup of tea, in the spirit of the no-cash system, I helped design an Art Car in exchange for an entry ticket (BTW, oh wow, am I really going to Burning Man?!? For those readers who don't know me, this is an improbable occurance!)

This year's theme is "Rites of Passage." Here is the rough sketch the "client" gave me for the group's entry, dubbed 'Ride of Passage':After a short chat, I made some changes to the client sketch, and submitted first draft:
After I received feedback, (needs a removable platform, make the phoenix more phoenix-like, it's a limo, not a clown car, etc), I made changes:
This drawing was submitted to an Art Car mechanic/builder and approved through the initial screening, and is now working its way through the DMV for approval (in this case, they call it the Department of Mutant Vehicles, hah!)

I now have my ticket to Burning Man, and had fun on this little project. I can't wait to see if the "Ride of Passage" will actually get made!

Commission: "Texas Flags: After Jasper Johns"

Ok, so I know it's been about five million years since the last time I posted, but there are good reasons, I swear. First of all, I was out of the country for a month, driving from Guatemala down to the Panama Canal, on a small portion of my dad's big Panamerican Adventure (he's somewhere in Peru right now if you want to check out his blog). Second, I have been hard at work on a picture book, and the basic rule is not to post any of the content publicly. Third, now that I am nearing the end of the picture bookmaking process, I am writing a middle grade novel, and the same rule goes for writing, as well as imagery. And finally, fourth, I am lazy about updating my blog. (at least I'm admitting it!)

Anyway, here I am, so you all can take a deep sigh of relief: life goes on. I recently completed a painting for a couple from Texas. They were interested in a painting by me, but weren't sure exactly what they wanted. We talked about their interests and over the course of the conversation, I came up with a fun idea: do a play on Jasper John's "Three Flags" triptych while displaying their Texas pride. Here is the final product:

SCBWI Los Angeles Illustrator's Day Contest Entry - Zombunnies!

SCBWI Illustrator's Day is coming up, and I entered the contest. The challenge was to create an illustration to complete the sentence:

"IT WAS NIGHT, AND THE RAIN FELL; AND FALLING, IT WAS RAIN, BUT, HAVING FALLEN, IT WAS..."

My entry may not be entirely "kid-friendly," but I think it works for a middle grade (e.g. 8 to 12 years old) boy, especially around Halloween.

Pet Painting Commission - Pug in a Crib

I realize that I forgot to post a pic of the commission I finished awhile back. Actually, I'm not sure I ever mentioned it in a post here, but it is one of the factors that instigated my creation of the Alphapugs, anyway.

The pug needed to be in a crib with a mobile hanging over it. I was given details about the nursery and a photo reference for the costume, (and of course, the pug herself), but the rest was up to me!

It took a lot more work than I had anticipated, (composing it to include all the details was a challenge), but everyone was happy with the end result. In fact, I'm even considering including it in my illustration portfolio!

Illustration of the Week: Cyrk Cat

After "Cyrk - Red Elephant," by Mieczyslaw Wasilewski

Alphapugs!

Whoa, it’s been over a month since I last posted. The good news is I’ve been MAKING ART fairly continuously in the interim. Here's a little something about a mini-project I did for fun and love.

While I was on the plane to Ireland, I did a series of sketches of “Alphapugs” – Bug Pug (Love Pug) was only the beginning, people! You can see all 21 of my alphapugs at my Facebook fanpage, or by clicking here.

The initial idea was to include a little booklet in the wedding gift bags that I made the label for, but this ended up being a little too weird for the bride and groom. So I ended up using this sketch series as an excuse to teach myself a new coloring technique in Photoshop and get really fast.

I didn’t get REALLY fast, but I definitely got better. To give you an idea, Fug(ly) Pug was the first one I colored, and one of the last ones I did was Thug Pug.

I posted some of the pug designs on various products up at my Zazzle Store - if you're in the market for pug-related merchandise, please have a look!

Multi-Tasking

This has been a short week, having been bookended by post-conference zombiefication at the beginning, and now, packing for a trip to Ireland with my family. I'm still digesting the conference, riding the wave of post-RealLifeInteraction social network activity, and wanting to apply my notes to my art in the studio. But I've got a couple projects that have a DEFINITE deadline. This was my week to work on it all, since before the conference I was getting all my promo material, web presence, and portfolio together, and for the next two weeks, I'll be chasing leprechauns and rainbows.

The most pressing deadline is my friends' wedding next month. They are a supercool couple who don't mind a little levity in their lives, so I'm designing a few things to add some 'zazz' to their wedding, among them, gift bag labels and napkin rings. I swore to myself that by the end of this week, I'd get at least one image to the ready-to-print stage, and here it is:

It'll be a sticker on the gift bag. And there's even room for a handwritten note, if one were inclined, though not so obvious if it's left blank. So it's a starting-off point for the happy couple.

Sooo...while Ireland is a lovely place, and I'm definitely going to be doing lots of life drawing while I'm there, I'm a little nervous about the timing. I wanted to be able to send out all my mailers right after the conference, but then again, I don't want to be out of reach if anyone tried to contact me. It's not that I'm a total luddite, it's just: who wants to pay for international data charges or be chained to a sticky keyboard in an internet cafe? (Anyone reading this right now who's an art director - hi! I'm out honing my craft! I'll be back soon and delighted to look at all the contracts flooding in - ha ha) So I'll be sending out the mailers after the trip, even if it seems to them like I just sat on my hands a while.

So, are you wondering why I'm going to Ireland NOW? The Ireland trip was postponed back in April, when the volcano in Iceland exploded - we actually woke up the morning we were all packed, set to leave, to talk radio informing us that airspace was closed. This time in August was when everyone else could go, and I do have a very flexible schedule, after all, so who am I to complain?

I'm me, that's who, and I wouldn't be me if I didn't do a little complaining once in a while! *Stomp, stomp, stomp!*

Ok, I feel better.

We now returned to our regularly scheduled programming of all happiness and light, all the time.

Pre-Conference Jitters...

SCBWI's big summer conference starts in less than 9 hours, and I'm having trouble getting myself into bed. It reminds me of getting ready for the first day of school when I was a kid - bag perfectly packed, outfits picked out, room clean...yet, sleep eludes me. That's ok, though, since it gives me a chance to post a few more images before the post-conference uptick in views (hello, new friends!)

Tank Ewe (take 2, a redux of last year's)



When Pigs Fly (image from my WIP, used for my promo postcard)


The portfolio showcase is the evening of Saturday, July 31st. Here's to smoooooth sailing....

G'night!

Ripples in the Water...

Have you heard of Ripple Sketches?

Check out ripplesketches.blogspot.com if you want to make a donation to help the animal victims of the Deep Water Horizon Gulf Oil Spill, and pick up some cool art in the process.

I actually made a few quick'n'dirty ones myself. They've already been purchased (by total strangers, which is exciting!), but you can see them here, if you want.

As noted, until the end of September, I'll be donating to IMMS the proceeds of all greeting card sales from my seascape series as well as 75% of all other net sales until the end of September!