At The Seattle Public Library Book Sale

I scored big time!!! I have to take a moment to brag. Last Sunday I found a very out-of-print edition of Andrew Loomis’ “Creative Illustration” on sale for only $7.50 at the library book sale!!! (It was on 1/2 price day too!!) This 1947 book is a classic for professional illustrators and I am totally thrilled to have it in my library. (Plus, the only ones currently available for sale on Amazon START at $96.00 and go up to $350.00!!)

I just can’t stop grinning about it! Ha-ha! :-D

Here are some pix from the book. Can’t you just tell that it’ll be a wonderful read? Yeah!! I can't wait to start reading it. :-)

Seattle University & the St. Ignatius Chapel

Back in my “Privateer Princess” days, I had to draw a Ciodali chapel and needed some photo reference for the location. After a web search I decided to use the ultra-modern St. Ignatius chapel at Seattle University as my model.

Privateer Princess page 71, Ciodali Chapel

St Ignatius is a beautiful place, very airy with wonderfully flowing lines. Last weekend Matt and I decided to go there and take a look in person. (A few years late, but it's never too late I say!) We found the chapel to be quite lovely and architecturally stunning.

Seattle University's St. Ignatius Chapel

While wandering around the Seattle University campus we were also enchanted by the beautiful landscaping. (Apparently Ciscoe Morris, of “Gardening with Ciscoe,” designed the gardens.) As we strolled around I took a lot a photos so that I could do some sketching from the pictures later on.

"Seattle University Garden"
Mixed media in a Stillman & Birn Delta sketchbook.

Here’s the sketch I did today. I am slowly realizing that I quite enjoy showing the wildness of growth in gardens. How the plants vie for your attention as their growth spreads out, almost stacking on top of one another visually. It’s orderly chaos and I love it!

Why comics?

For many years I have been a realistic artist, specializing in animal portraits and scientific subjects. For those of you who regularly follow my blog and Facebook pages, you might not even know that fact based on all the cartoon artwork that I have done recently.

So, why the big change?

For me, the answer goes back to my childhood. It’s a not-so-secret fact that I have always been a storyteller. Whether it’s writing or illustrating them, storytelling is very near and dear to my heart.

Right now, I am preparing to move into a new phase of my life where I plunge ahead into the world of storytelling head-first. When you dive into the deep end of a pool for the first time, you put all your swimming skills together in a new way. You get ready and just leap. That’s what I feel like I am preparing to do right now in my life. It’s important to me. It’s just plain important.

Creating characters that can adequately play their roles in a story is of tremendous value in storytelling, especially if you plan on doing an illustrated book. Thus my recent interest in studying masterful cartoonists.

Tasuki sketches

In that on-going exploration, here is my most recent page of character studies, also from “Fushigi Yugi,” by Yu Watase. This character is named “Tasuki.” (Pronounced “Taski” with the “a” sounding like the “o” in “Oscar.”) He was much easier for me to draw than the hero, Tamahome. Tasuki’s a secondary character and he’s a hot-head. Apparently, I “get” this guy pretty well. He was quite fun to draw. ;-)

Equestrienne Portrait of Mistress Cynthia de La Matchstick

Equestrienne Portrait of Mistress Cynthia de La Matchstick

When I sat down to draw yesterday I was contemplating my next Horse Life comic. When I put down my pens, I found that I’d drawn a rather wonderful cartoon version of a Diego Velazquez equestrian portrait. What a magical surprise! Proving once again that Art comes from the higher powers manifesting through the heart and hands of the artist. Had I had plans to draw this, I’m sure I would have botched it up. :-P

I’m thinking of selling prints of this one in my long, lost Etsy shop in case it strikes anyone’s fancy.

Ciao for today!

Rodney’s Saga Blog Illustrations - Massage

I am delighted to report that another of the illustrations I did for my friend Katherine Walcott’s blog, "Rodney’s Saga," went live today. You can see the post entitled, “Massage Masterclass,” here: http://rodneyssaga.wordpress.com/2012/06/18/massage-masterclass/

This illustration was particularly fun for me as it shows an equine massage in progress. This is a scene very near and dear to my heart. After all, I have been engaged in the practice of equine massage for nearly half my life now. It’s something I know REALLY well. To draw it I simply had to close my eyes and feel the scene already engraved upon my heart.

Thanks to Katherine for her inspiring post today!

Story Fragments

I created this character tonight while sketching. I don’t know too much about him except that his name is Finn and he’s talking to a girl named Eva. He has purple hair, blue eyes, and seems both intense and sincere.

I feel like he’s auditioning for me. Like he wants to become someone important later on.

I don’t know whether he will. He may just end up as one of those drawings that stays in my sketchbook and never appears again. Or, he might become a character in a new story.

One never knows…

But for tonight he gets the spotlight.

Besides, I like what he’s saying to Eva.

And after a brief pause we’re back to the Lekanis Lid

I’m back to some Archaeological Illustration today. Here is an update on the progress of my Lekanis lid.

Lekanis Lid, part 4
(Derwent Drawing pencils on Illustration board)

At this point it’s beginning to look pretty good. I’ve corrected some of my earlier drawing errors on the rim and have sketched in some shadow shapes to add later. At this stage, the pencils are doing what I’d hoped they’d do, giving me a flat, matte look which is a perfect match to the dull, ceramic surface of the original object. I can already tell that I’ll be adding a few touches of shiny Prismacolor near the end, as there are some bits of shiny, yellow paint on the original lid that can’t really be rendered adequately with these dull pencils.

As I look over at the piece on my easel, I’m rather pleased by it. It’s already got a good three-dimensional effect, even though and it’s only about 2/3 of the way completed. Although it has been some time since I did a piece of this type, it seems that I haven't forgotten how to do it. That makes me happy as Archaeological Illustration is one of my favorite subjects for illustration.