Leggo my Logos

Here are some logos I've done for my girlfriend's company and two herbal businesses.

Illustration Friday: Journey

Click image for full size version...

 

Special thanks to Marsha Riti for printing my B&W linework on watercolor paper and showing me how to photomerge a bunch of scans together!

Picturing a Forest

Practicing the setting of a new book I'm working on.

Cultivate

Cultivate

Thanks for the encouragement.

Cultivate

Ugly Old Doodles

I attend a monthly Illustration critique group with some fantastic Austin artists. Last meeting, our fearless leader, Marsha Riti, suggested we bring work which has influenced us and talk about why it's inspired us. It was a great idea. For my part I brought in Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein, and a book of illustrations by the amazing William Steig. I told everybody that I enjoy loose drawings with a sort of ugliness. I'm unsure why I like "ugly" drawings. Perhaps because they seem more real? Make you slightly uncomfortable? Or challenge the viewer to search for beauty behind the obvious? Damn, if I had only gone to art school I could come up with an even more pretentious and confusing analysis!!

Anyway, this is a recent doodle from my sketchbook. As strange and perhaps ugly as this old woman is, I love her.

Here are some drawings from William Steig. His loose portraits are downright crude -- and absolutely masterful. Rendering realistic hands are obviously not high on his agenda, but does it matter? With his unchained line these characters feel alive, their personality popping off the page.

I'm slowly learning to tune in to my body as I draw. When working on a drawing I perceive as difficult, my entire body tenses, afraid of making a mistake. Of course nothing good is born of fear.

1st Illustration Friday - "Swarm"

This is my interpretation for this week's Illustration Friday word: Swarm. I'd like to begin doing IF every week. It's fun and good practice!

Just Have Fun!

With so much information rattlin' around my noggin' since the conference, I've been stressed lately. There are so many things that must be done in order to become successful! I must begin social networking! Finish a story! Learn how to create Apps for the Apple and Android market! Improve my style! This morning I took a walk by town lake and meditated. While doing so, I realized that all this worry about calculating my moves and becoming successful is making my life miserable. If I'm not making art for the LOVE of it, why even bother? Who cares about success if you're miserable? You only get one life, wouldn't you rather spend it being happy?

At the conference I found myself comparing my work to others, judging my art for it's lack of anatomical correctness or general "sloppiness". Consequently when I returned home to draw I began tightening up my lines, trying to make the forms look "right". Nothing kills my creativity more than trying to make things look "right". Heck, trying at all is detrimental to my work!! It's when I let go of all preconceived notions and allow myself to have fun watching the lines spill onto the page - that's when I produce art that I'm happy with.

Although I do admire artwork that is tight and clean, I have to remember that that's simply not me. The strength of my style lies in it's looseness and immediacy. And who's gonna tell Quentin Blake or Shel Silverstein they can't draw? Only a fool, that's who! Today I drew this cityscape. And yeah, the perspective is inconsistent and the colors could be better, but you know what? I had a fun doing it. So all you voices in my head can GO TO HELL!

SCBWI... Conference... Yadda, yadda... whatever.

So the big Austin SCBWI conference was this weekend, and man did it suck. Not the conference itself - it was fine - but my experience of the conference, for which I had very high expectations. Let's go back a moment and revisit last year. 2010. My first professional conference. I walk in scared, timid, and green as the grass which waves in spring. My "portfolio" was scant, I had no expectations. About mid-day one of the guest speakers, Mr. Mark McVeigh (an agent in New York with extensive publishing experience), approches me and compliments my work. We briefly chat and he hands me his card. "Holy horse turds," I thought, "I've been discovered my very first try!"

The encounter was ultimately fruitless (for reasons I won't go into), but nonetheless had been tremendously encouraging, and perhaps set me up to expect a certain level or recognition at these events. This weekend that recognition did not come; I was not appreciated by industry professionals, nor did I win 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place in the portfolio contest. Overall I was disappointed since I feel my work has improved enormously over the past year.

But this is just my injured ego talking, and that's okay - I'm not going to pretend it doesn't exist. I'm gonna whine and sulk and throw my spaghetti at the wall. After that, I'm going to blog about all the GOOD which came from this conference, from which I did learn a lot. So stay tuned.

"Blue Period"
Unappreciated portfolio piece, consequently how I feel. 

Strong Women

During my stay at the Frog Farm I've gained a tremendous amount of respect for its owner, Deb Lukas. She's a tough gal. As a single mother she lived in a single room in a cabin high in the mountains. Raising her child, she didn't even have a car. Imagine having to bicycle over 10 miles to the nearest grocery store - with your baby! Since then, she's bought her own land, acquired an education in Herbalism, opened her own medical practice and herbal pharmacy, and with the help of her partner, Steve, is transforming a rather arid & rocky piece of property into a thriving permaculture farm. As if that weren't enough, she's also founded a non-profit whose goal is education, community building, and creating sustainability within the Illinois Valley. While many find her strong personality not-to-their-taste, she doesn't seem to care. She's on a mission and won't be stopped.

Deb's not the only one. I've begun noticing that Takilma is full of strong women. Women who have started their own businesses - growing gourmet garlic, raising Alpacas, baking! Women who sit on the boards of the Spiral Living Center and the Dome School. Women who ensure the children get a quality education and who put their energy into bringing healthy and affordable food into the community via the local food Co-Op. Meanwhile the men do their men stuff - tilling the soil, cutting wood, growing medical marijuana - all while benefiting tremendously from the efforts of the amazing women in this community. What lucky guys we are!

The other day I played The Girl Stands Up To Me Now for farmer Steve. After, I asked him what the benefits are to having a strong woman. In his humble imparting-great-wisdom-to-you-in-so-few-words way, he said, "It's nice having someone to help row the boat." Indeed.

As long as you're going the same direction!

The Girl Stands Up To Me Now

I decided to illustrate a few lyrics from Jonathan Richman's brilliant song The Girl Stands Up To Me Now (I can't find the song on YouTube, but I suggest you check it out). It was a fun project. I enjoyed coming up with images that tried to push the humor of the song further. Anyway, take a look and let me know what you think.

(click image to view)

The Artist Who Wouldn't Give His Heart Away

Click image to view online booklet.

New Blog Header

I've changed the 'ol Kid At Art header, as you can see. Click the image below to see it in more detail.

It represents me at my day job (valet parking for a restaurant), drawing and day-dreaming while customers hemorrhage their brains. The concept came as I was free-form doodling and I like it a lot.

The execution I'm not so happy with. The drawing came out pretty good, and the watercolor is nice, but perhaps I should have put a street scene in the background for context. Also, a lot of tinkering in Photoshop was done, which makes it look very stiff compared with the draft versions.

Preview: The Artist Who Wouldn't Give His Heart Away

3 Weeks Mulling
2 Days Drawing
2 Hours Coloring (yes, color!)
6 Hours Scanning & Cleaning Up
1 Day Left!

Yes tomorrow, if the print shop comes through, I'll have copies of my latest booklet, The Artist Who Wouldn't Give His Heart Away. At 15 pages it's not quite as long as its title, but there's a lot packed into this slim volume, and I believe it's my best entry into the silent-mini-book market to date! Yes, it won't be long now until the publishing world lies begging at my feet!! MWHAHA!

Ahem.

I'll be unveiling it tomorrow night at a Children's Illustration critique group I attend. I'm just hoping they'll overlook that the booklet is not intended for children (unless your children are into radical eco-socialist ideology, full frontal nudity, and obscure Woody Allen humor). After it's unveiling, I'll be presenting it to friends and family, and intend to post the whole thing online within a few weeks.

Sneak Peek at "Project X"

A few weeks ago, a little kernel of an idea came to me. As I explored the idea further it seemed like it could be developed into a fairly interesting story, one that has personal significance, yet hopefully others can find meaning in. So for the last couple weeks I've been doing character design and putting my creations in a variety of situations in hopes of getting to know them better. I've also been letting the amorphous story roll around in my head and sort itself out. Tonight I laid out the story page-by-page in rough thumbnail form. The process is unfolding and I'm happy with what I have so far. Hooray!

Here's a peak at some early conceptual art:

Rock Poster Art

Tonight a friend took me to see American Artifact, an inspiring film about the art of rock posters. Turns out there's a pretty large subculture which has formed around rock n' roll gig posters and it's easy to see why. They're amazing! Check out the trailer and you'll begin to see why.

Here are some of my favorite recent posters from GigPosters.com. The first one is simply beautiful, I adore the figure on the second, and the last one is just ridiculously funny. It's an ice cream cone peeing on your grave for cryin' out loud!

Children's book writers are allowed to have political opinions, right?

A few days ago, my friend Sarah questioned a drawing in my portfolio: the president marionette. "I thought you liked Obama," she said. And she's right, as far as presidents go, I do like Obama. However, if you believe Obama or any president holds any substantial power in this world (or even this country), I think you're mistaken.

But my friend is right. Perhaps the drawing misrepresents my politics. After all, there are more deserving people who could be drawn attached to puppet strings.

Updated Portfolio

I've added seven new images to my online portfolio, and not one of them took longer than five minutes to draw. Of course, if you asked me in person how long each of these took to draw, I'd give you the more cliche and pretentious answer: "five minutes and my whole life."

Unfortunately, it's also the most accurate answer. Behind each of these simple drawings are literally hundreds of amateurish drawings riddled with mistakes. And the mistakes don't start or end on the paper. It's taken a long time to discover my talent, and there have been many false starts and painful dead-ends along the way.

These drawings also reflect my beliefs and are a snapshot of my current perception of existence, which like everything else, constantly changes and evolves.

After viewing these new drawings you might ask, "What does a strange looking guy with three bodies, or a politically charged cityscape have to do with children's illustration?" Nothing, really. But these are the drawings which resonate with me, and the ones I've chosen to represent myself. The truth is, I draw what I draw, and I can hardly help it. If I end up doing anything for children, it will come out of the discovery process I'm in now. A natural progression. Refinement.

http://www.dallion.com

Children's book writers are allowed to cuss, right?

I was on my way to an a illustrator's critique group put on each month by a few guys from the Austin SCBWI. It would be my first time attending and I was excited. I got it my car, headed west down Ceasar Chavez, north up I-35, west on 38 1/2 Street, and BAM! Traffic at a standstill. "Must be construction," I thought as I cut my way down some side streets trying to find an alternate route. Detour signs littered the road. "Oh no! The Austin Marathon is on today!" I remembered, while cursing the chicken-legged men in their short shorts.

I spent a good 30 minutes trying to find a route to the critique group. I even went way north and tried to come down Lamar. No luck. The critique group was isolated, surrounded by a moat of runners.

"North Lamar... I don't get up here often," I mused. "Maybe I'll stop by Half Price Books." (the best used bookstore warehouse in the world, for you underprivileged non-Texans)

So that's what I did, and even though it wasn't my first choice, perhaps it was fate which brought me to cart away a pile of life changing books.

First up, The Complete Cartoons of the New Yorker. List, $60. HPB: $19. A huge book, weighing probably 15 pounds, it has every New Yorker cartoon published from 1925 to 2004. Many of the 68,000+ cartoons are actually printed in the book, the rest come on 2 CD's. Some of these cartoons are so brilliant they give me shivers. I guess I'm weird that way.

These two were published in 1937.

And since graphic novels seem to be all the rage these days, I picked up a few titles from a great publisher called Top Shelf Productions. These aren't your superhero comics, folks. These are amazing feats of visual art - and literature too!

My favorite so far is Dear Julia, by Brian Biggs. It has breathtaking artwork and a fascinating, suspenseful story which plays out like a foreign film (and not one of those crappy, hard to understand foreign films). I highly recommend this book.

Another Top Shelf book I found was an autographed copy of James Kochalka's The Sketchbook Diaries. Basically it's just a daily journal in cartoon form. Most of the entries I find pretty boring, the funny part is: I can't stop reading it!

The drawings are so simple and the situations so mundane, it actually inspired me to start a cartoon journal myself! I'm no Indiana Jones, but my life feels a heck of a lot more exciting than his!

And then today, I was walking near the river/nature area near my house, when I was struck with an idea for a middle grade chapter book (I blame Because of Winn-Dixie!). It was crazy, everything just came to me at once! Plot, characters, settings, everything! And while I suspect it's natural for a writer to fall in love with his own ideas, I really believe I have an objectively good book idea on my hands!

Cartoons, graphics novels, picture books, chapter books, short stories, long stories, dumb stories, smart stories.

I could go in any number of directions, but I still don't know what the fuck it is I'm doing.