Better Sketch

I think the mountains look better. Also adds warmth to the picture.

More sketches

Trees and watercolor

After working on my comics straight for about two months, I finished the last batch thinking, "OK, what now?!" Being absorbed in my comics, I didn't think about other work. Now that the comics are out of the way for the mean time, I am kinda lost.

So this past week has been catching up on illustration gigs, political cartoons, and now emptiness. My PB critique group is meeting up this Monday. So I am asking myself, "Do I continue with my eat your greens idea? Start my boys love things idea? I admit that I am not inspired currently to work on either of those ideas. I think that they're brilliant ideas, but for some reason or another, I am tired or not inspired by any visual ideas.

However, the past couple weeks I have been thinking a lot more about design and laying out a drawing. Specifically, I've been thinking about landscapes. How did Edward Hopper lay out space (saw an exhibit on him recently)? How does Bill Watterson lay out space? Patrick McDonnell? Classic illustrators?

So I started inking landscapes. Looking at pictures from calenders that I have, thinking what's the positive/negative space. I started doing this in black ink using different strokes, brushes, ways to applicate the ink making it spontaneous. I like how a couple of the results came out.

Then I wanted to do a watercolor on the sketch, then asking myself, "How much of this drawing will translate into a watercolor?" Hence the results. I am undecided how it came out. I really like it, but it seems incomplete. I will admit that I do not know how to handle the mountain background. In the picture, the mountain molds into the water through a mist. I think that they either have to go or redraw the image somehow. The white space is a beautiful organic shape, but something is missing.

New Sketches

The mother one is done in pen and is looser which I like very much.

Another Sketch / more inspiration

I meant for the Steig image to be smaller. Oops. I have been looking at his watercolors and artwork. It's simple, but deceiving. The lines are well placed, the colors are spot on, and it's effortless.

I feel that I am in constant battle between spontaneity and control. I do feel myself being really tight in the drawing at times. Other times, it's effortless. I've always wondered, "how do you get that spontaneous drawing?" I feel when I work on a single drawing over and over, I tighten up. At the same time, I want it to be loose. How does someone like Quentin Blake do that? He does a drawing over and over sometimes, but he doesn't tighten up.

This is probably why I like my sketches more. I redrew this scene from a pb I am working on. I like my new approach. I don't know if it's exactly right yet though.

Character Studies

I didn't realize until I was about to post this that I redrew Jenny the exact same way I did my pen and ink study. I like it though. Anyhow.....

As I have been developing my comic strip, "Buttoned Up," I have been pushing myself to know my characters. I know who Buttons is, I know who Bev, and I believe their personalities communicate well through my comics. Jenny has been more of a difficult challenge to me though. There's a definite idea I want this character to be. A sweet, caring girl in her teenage years. Beyond that, I didn't know what drives her thinking. What her likes are and what not.

So I made this character study recently which was a lot of fun. Getting to know Jenny better is definitely helping me write my comics. The drawing I did in the top character study is so perfect. That's the idea of her I want.

Plus, I think it's important for me to make her not popular but stick out and be casted as weird or different. Not a goth or punk different, but she doesn't fit into any group specifically. It just seems that she would not be understood by many people. I hope that made sense.

Spot Illustrations

It's more a study. One of the two is done in pen. The other is with a brush. I heavily favor the brush. I use a tiny sable brush that can get me incredibly fine lines. Even though I use the brush a lot, I seem to mimic a lot of pen and ink too. I do like pen and ink a lot too. One thing I do not like though when I use the pen is that the line becomes almost brittle. I like the fluidity of brush work. It's always a balancing act. I like this drawing too.

Eat Your Greens! (Or Not)

Tomorrow is the 12th Annual SCBWI Winter conference right here in the city! Very excited! I cannot wait to meat some great artists whose work I admire including Mo Willems and Jules Feiffer! Yesh!

In addition to the conference, I've been working on my own picture book the past few months. Since October I'd say, I have been working on a new idea about a giant. Initially, I'd started with the idea of entrapment. By Christmas break, I had numerous sketches and a very loose idea about a giant stuck in a shoebox apartment. No actual story though. It just seemed like one good visual idea and nothing else.

Somehow or other though, it was suggested to me how did he get to be that large in an apartment? Then the lightbulb went off. A kid who thinks that if he eats his greens, he'll grow big and tall one day, to an extreme. The ideas and the story flowed then.

A couple drafts and special attention to these particular pages, here are some finished spreads for "Eat Your Greens." I love how they came out. One of them took about a week to get right, but well worth it. I hope by a couple weeks time, I can make my first book dummy with this story to get ready to send to some editors!

Little side note, I hate the title.

New Political Cartoon

Starting off the new year right! Lots of work on my plate! I liked how this new political cartoon came out too. Thought I'd share. Also, after MORE than a month of my website and comics being down, I have finally restored my comics online! http://ericsailer.com/buttonedup. Enjoy!

Ogre