new stuff! the orangutan series

Well, it’s been a while! I haven’t been keeping up on writing entries here too well, but I have been working on my goal of getting one new illustration done a week– working on it, you’ll note, not accomplishing it! I’ve been putting in a lot of work on the Orangutan series, but I’ve been so excited about all the ideas that I haven’t focused on getting them done one at a time, just working on all of them at once. But last night I got three done at once, so now at least I have plenty to show for all the time! Here are the finished ones– The Coquette, The Gourmand, and The Sage: I’m really pleased with all three of these. The original plan for this series has kind of transformed from what I was thinking it was going to be when I did the Philosopher, though. I’d been intending on making all of them more simple and quick in the pen & ink part and then finishing them up with watercolor, to kind of move away from my super detailed, black and white fixation. But as I worked I just felt like they really wanted to be left in black and white, with a lot of focus on line and texture, rather than adding color and focusing more on that. I dunno, so they’ve definitely moved away from where the Philosopher was aiming–I prefer this, of course, as I always prefer my black and white, heavy-on-the-detail work to my paintings… I don’t know if I’m right to move away from my idea to do some more simple, quick small works, but this style just seems right for this series. Augh! Will I ever be able to force myself to do some works in color?! :) Oh well!

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“the philosopher”, all finished up (?)

Here’s the scan of The Philosopher in His Chambers, the finished version (Or at least close to finished–I’m not 100% sure there won’t be a bit more fiddling still):

I like him…looking forward to getting his friends and acquaintances finished up! In the meantime, I’m also going to scan in a few of the other sketches I’ve been doing…

new piece/new idea for a series

Well, I’ve done pretty well this last week– one of my goals I’d made, once it became clear that without deadlines for classes I was completely dorking out on getting any art done, was to get some sketching done every day. It helps a lot when you’re in a dry spell for ideas to have a sketchbook full of stuff– even if none of it is particularly brilliant or inspired, at least it gives you a jumping off point. So I’ve been doing pretty well with that since we got back from our trip to the Bay Area; I’ve done a lot of new sketches.

Another goal was to finish a drawing every week (which sounded crazy to me at the time; my big, detailed pen and ink drawings take weeks to do…but I figured what the heck? Better to aim high and push myself), and ta-da! I actually did accomplish that too.

I had found a site I really liked with these lovely little watercolor paintings, very simple and small but with such great lines and so much personality that I felt like, jeez, this guy packs more interest into these simple things than I do with all my fussy, obsessive little details that take forever to finish… So I tried to keep simplicity more in mind, and (using some of my new sketches, yay!) did this painting, which I think turned out kinda neat. Here’s the pen and ink version of it, almost finished:

I ended up changing it a little after this point; I decided it didn’t need the rafters I’d been planning on adding. So the finished painting just has the stone walls go up a little higher. I’ll scan the painting in soon…And the cool thing is that this has turned into an idea for a whole series of paintings. I already have sketches for a few more, and vague ideas for some others…In addition to the Philosopher here, I’m going to have a Wisewoman, an Artist (of course!), a Shaman, possibly an Orator, a Despot (maybe Dictator or Tyrant? not sure yet), and I’m sure there’lll be more. They’re really fun to think up!

And here’s the site I was looking at: scott-c.blogspot.com. Very cool! Funny blog, too. I’ll have to keep up with his stuff, I just love it.

another goal to keep in mind

Haven’t worked on this one yet, but I want to write it down so I’ll feel guilty every time I see this and think about not getting anything done on it… I’ve been reading about how to submit picture books, and I need to make a dummy for the Lettuce Rancher; now I know how to do it, and it’s going to be easy (have Kinko’s do it! Yay!), but I found out that the Lettuce Rancher as it is now is probably not in the best format for a picture book. Apparently, they are almost always 32 pages and if you differ from that, it gives publishers headaches. So I’ve reformatted it so that it’ll be the right length, but it’s gonna need a few more pictures. You only submit it with two or three finished illustrations, but you do need rough sketches of all of the pics for the dummy.

So, the next thing to do with the ol’ Rancher is to do sketches of all the illustrations, and then to do 2-3 finished drawings. It’s not that much to do, it’s just that I feel kind of “meh” about working on it more. I wish it was done. I’m still battling feelings of insecurity about even trying to submit things– must stop self-sabotaging!! That’s my mantra; I ought to start meditating on it every day…