Holes Cover Final

Here is the final for the HOLES book cover assignment. Susan Sherman at Charlesbridge Publishing spent two hours critiquing our work on Tuesday. It was my final day with Rebecca's mentorship. Susan felt my character should have a younger look, shorter neck and generally fuller body since Stanley is described as being overweight. She gave me a great idea with the swirls on the background, suggesting that I make them more onion ring shapes. I scanned in several images of sliced onions and made a texture layer and lowered it's opacity. I will miss this class so much but other tasks demand my attention for the next couple months.

"Fadeth Not Away"

Been internalizing this whole concept of the fall painting. I wanted to go deeper with this one. More personal. This is about how I feel at this point in my life. Also wanted to explore the flat pattern and texture juxtaposed with more rendered flesh. This is rough. Trying to place shape and value more abstractly. The palette is feeling right for the moment. I'll see what Rebecca says.

Next Tuesday is my last day with this mentorship. I have so enjoyed it and have gleaned so much from both Rebecca's expertise and her push to explore new directions with my art. I will truly miss it as well as the weekly contact with the other students. I'll post the last assignment next week after the critique.

Holes Book Cover - Color Application

Printed the sketch out on watercolor paper after making the critique changes. Mounted it on a panel using acrylic matte medium and then put a transparent gesso on top. Sanded once and then started with washes of gouache. Felt it needed the complement of violet in the sky. I let that dry and then lifted out the lighter areas. Trying out colored pencil on top to pull out highlights and deepen shadows. Experimenting.

Clary Fray

Study for a character from City of Bones by Cassandra Clare.

New Assignment: Book Cover for "Holes"

This month, our assignment came from Susan M. Sherman from Charlesbridge Publishing. We have been asked to design a book cover for Louis Sachar's Holes. It should be fresh and graphically strong. I thought it was interesting that she selected a book that was vastly popular as was its movie adaptation.She really challenged us to stretch and think about how to illustrate this story differently.

I began with the lizards because I'm a reptile lover but just couldn't get anything to work right. I tried it with the holes "raining" down on Stanley with a hot desert sun blazing down on him. Didn't read clearly. About 1:00 am,  I started doodling after looking at some of the artists that inspire me and came up with this sketch.

Played around with some filters in PS to make him look sort of mirage-like. As an after thought I added the lizard (which I need to redo).

Mentorship Continues- Autumn

Trying to catch up on blogging. I related that I've started an online mentorship with Rebecca Guay. I meet with her, along with two other students via Skype once a week for 2-2 1/2 hours. We've had assignments each month but we also try to sneak in personal projects that have been sitting around either in our studios or our heads, gathering dust (and cat hair, in my case). Here is one I have posted on before. And here is the typical process one of my amateur sketches goes through under Rebecca's  professional hand.

There are other aspects to this painting that have emerged for me since it's conception. It has taken on very personal expression that Rebecca will help me convey. But for now...here is where it started and where it's going.

Assignment for November

I am woefully behind on blogging. This mentorship has been keeping me very busy. And attending the workshop put me behind (no regrets and if you follow that link, Tara has given a great overview). I've been doing this online class for two months now. The assignment for November was from a guest professional,  Rubin Pfeffer. He asked us to produce a rough 32 page book dummy of a story written by Ann Whitford Paul and then develop one of the full page spreads as a sample. The story is titled, "In Animal CIty". I can't disclose any of  it since it's copyrighted but I can show you some of the roughs and my final color study for the sample page

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Mentorship Continued

 Final Sketch of Moonlight and Fireflies

Watercolor Applied

Been gone visiting our daughter and her family in Michigan. Weather was pretty dreary but we had a wonderful time. Continuing with the mentorship with Rebecca...the top image is the final sketch. I printed it out on Arches WC paper and applied watercolor in the second image (it's a photo so the colors are slightly skewed). I have now sealed it with acrylic matte medium and will start applying the oils on top of this.

Mentorship With Rebecca Guay

This month, I started a mentorship with Rebecca Guay, along with 5 other students. We meet online every Tuesday for a couple of hours and receive instruction from her on our assignments. I am taking advantage of her expertise by pulling out some projects that frankly have sat in my studio because I didn't know how to move forward on them. I was either lacking skill or confidence or both to take them to completion.

 Here is the first one on the pile. I won't go into the background on this one. It is beyond embarrassing how long it has taken. The study above is a combination of sketches I have drawn for it (notice the fairies from an earlier post).

 Rebecca took it and moved the moon, made it bigger, taking advantage of its strong design element and pop! For me, that made all the difference. The picture has taken on a more magical feeling already. She tilted the girl back so she doesn't look like she's going to slide down the branch.

She added wings but they were changed to look more subtle. Added some Spanish moss instead of my clunky leaves. Rearranged the fairies.

 This is the second week. Mine is above. Rebecca's below. I love how she treated the Spanish moss. Very Kay Nielsen-ish. I also really like how the moon comes through the branches behind her. Worked on value, trying to keep the focus on the girl's face. That's been a challenge with all the little lights and fairies and fireflies.

I'm almost ready to transfer it to the board. Next post.....PAINT! Scary. No, Kim....paint is your friend.