color me october

Color is such a powerful force, yet we are so often unaware of it. I love the colors of October. Recently, my illo students worked on a 10 color palette of their personal favorites, to become better acquainted with their tendencies. It was a fun exercise, and I created the one above with bits of my favorite pastel papers, as I rarely do color on a white background.

Thomas made one with paint, got frustrated, and made a collage version that better captured his taste.

Part of the exercise was to guess whose palettes were whose.  Juliana stumped us all. Her work is delicate and detailed, but this was her palette. Who knew?

Students also had to name their colors, and that was the lyrical piece: Juliana had names like "OMG coral" and "typhonic red."

Cyndi swiped her favorites from the Photoshop palettes. Hey! But, she had some of the best names, like "Connecticut Pink" and "Rubber Red."

The whole thing gave me a new eye as I set out for the next day. Thank you, ninjas! I saw a catchy color palette in this neighbor's collection of buoys...

Then, these funky mushrooms, growing in Ted's dirt side yard on the way to the beach..

And my favorite red, seen on a very weathered ferry bench at the edge of the beach wall...

You can see my red fixation in these flower boxes outside my studio window:

All this color vibration was just enough to buoy me to begin my Sketchbook Project, at last! I was having major performance anxiety, with this blank sketchbook destined for a showing in 6 cities.
Jeez, the pressure. I broke the ice on my "boys and girls" topic with one of my favorite subjects, seen here before heading out the door to middle school. Normally, I like to use smudgy materials, like charcoal or pastel, but give the nature of the handling, I opted for colored pencil.

Time to keep drawing. More sketches to come. Meanwhile, I'll drink the autumn colors with abandon.

here, there, everywhere

It's official! I'm getting postcards printed so the long held intention of celebrating Nest, Nook & Cranny is now gonna happen. At last. Author Susan Blackaby is coming east, and we'll meet for the first time. Can't wait! We'll do a school visit to Peaks Island Elementary and also a visit to the Portland Public Library at 3 PM on October 14. We will write, draw, and be yappish.

In other news, I am jazzed about autumn. Tis my season, y'know. It promises to be hectic. I've been all over lately, soaking up inspiration. Made a jolly good jaunt down to Boston with the ever colorful Kirsten Cappy.

We stopped at the Art Institute of Boston to see the gut-wrenching exhibit of Sue Coe's work,
The Tragedies of War. Not for the squeamish. She was a big inspiration in the early days of my editorial illustration career. There was no matching her unequivocal approach to the brutalities of the world. These political bedfellows are vintage Coe.

From there we bopped to Charlesbridge Publishing, where I picked up galleys for my next book project. Yay! Then, we schmoozed with kid lit folks at Boston Pie Company, where Mitali Perkins held court.

I found myself in a crowd of librarians, bloggers, and authors exchanging Twitter handles. Uh, my only handle was that I illustrated Mitali's Rickshaw Girl. That seemed to do the trick. I'm forever grateful for that fine story, and the chance to bring my visuals to it.

Twitter, twitter, tweet: met groovy librarians like Kara Dean and Laura Koenig, fellow fans of graphic novel for kids.

In other realms of art and performance, I brought my MECA class of illo ninjas to a tech rehearsal of The 39 Steps at Portland Stage Company. It was a good exercise in observation of choreography, framing, and the very difficult task of capturing it all, with no one standing still.

A vintage phone played a role in the action. Students Elise and Bret get ready to draw.

Here's Alysa's sketch:

And Seumas's:

 Elise drew some of the other sketchers, since we were at least sitting still.

Erica captured the director's fashion:

Seumas had a different take on him:

I myself was riveted by the leading man's pencil-thin moustache. Here's my quicky sketch.

I handed in final art a few weeks ago for 2 Pianos 4 Hands. It doesn't open for a couple of months, but here's the sneak peek.

Meanwhile, though, I've got to see The 39 Steps, with a lovely poster by my island neighbor,
Doug Smith. Although the class only saw a couple of scenes, rehearsed a ton of times, it looks to be a madcap hit!

Bravo and thanks to Portland Stage for welcoming my students!

sketchbooky

Back in the classroom at Maine College of Art, the senior illustration majors are drawing up a storm. Each was given a blank sketchbook at the end of last year, and asked to fill it during the summer. My first project this semester was for them to find some seed in there, and create a new piece. Illustrations are usually done via a series of sketchy steps. I wanted to see where we'd begin.

Joe likes to create characters and imaginary places. He chose a purple guy named "Mikey" from his sketchbook.

  

He decided to make it 3D, and photograph it.

 

Joe's got a great tactile sense to his work, something always is oozing or bubbling. Here's another page from his sketchbook, dripping with color.

 

Lori had a fun watercolor piece in her sketchbook, that pairs well with this boat.

Lori has a whimsical style, and is hungry for children's book work. She chose this sketch to work with.

She really fleshed it out for the final project, adding more detail and attitude.

Thomas is into legends, folklore, and heroic struggles. He's the only one who included the classic studies of heads, noses, hands, and feet in his sketchbook.  These are obligatory exercises in first year foundation drawing, but should be done more often, at all levels.

 

He chose an epic encounter for his project. He began with this:

He's exploring new digital skills, so went perhaps a bit too far on the final, but learned a few things in the process.

We went to see a show of drawing at the UNE Art Gallery. There was a great range of approaches, and students found something to like, some things not to like, a new interest in a particular artist, and a chance to see how artists present their work.

Yesterday we drew at Portland Stage, during a rehearsal of The 39 Steps. That was a challenge, so much action, so little time to capture it. More on that in another post!

Meanwhile, my students get under my skin, inspire me, and keep me coming back to the classroom.

ice harbor news

I met the author of Ice Harbor Mittens, Robin Hansen, for the first time on Friday when we drove together to Down East publishing in Rockport. We headed for a meeting with the publisher and sales folks to discuss publicity for our book. And here it is!  On the backseat in Robin's car, strewn with her signature mittens...

I used my island neighbors as models, and am hoping to make an island tour of Casco Bay libraries.

This is Finn, who becomes Josie in the book, an 11 year-old who wants to be a sternman on his cousin's lobster boat.

I staged my reference photos back in February, with mittens sent by Robin. Now that the weather has cooled, I can recall how chilly it really was. It was relevant immersion to walk the dog on a frosty morning and then return to my studio to make winter scenes.

Here's a scene in the book:

Editor Michael Steere took this shot of us in front of Down East's headquarters.

I'm excited we'll be seeing each other soon, plugging our book and exchanging views on coastal community life from Bath to Peaks!

nature trail

 Woo hoo! The esteemed author, Susan Blackaby, of Nest, Nook & Cranny will be flying in from the other Portland in mid-October! It will be our first chance to meet before combining forces in a couple of book events. Meanwhile, I'm brainstorming with the brilliant Kirsten Cappy of Curious City to map out a nature walk in conjunction with an art show on Peaks Island. My island habitat has provided so much reference for that book, and my outlook in general, it seems only fair to share it!

Every day, I'm trekking through some woods with my mutt, always with eyes peeled and just letting my mind wander.

Spotted this Black Crowned Night Heron in a little marsh, completely unruffled by my presence.

Last week, Kirsten and I followed Garry Fox, president of the Peaks Island Land Preserve, into the woods to scout out a possible story walk. The organization will partner with us and benefit from a portion of sales of books, prints, and original art.

As we padded over the carpet of needles, Garry pointed out the tree species and a couple of man-made
elements.

Nice to see kids can still find refuge in a fern forest.

We got talking about island critters, since my daughter and a friend had recently encountered a dead star nose mole. Garry said cats will chase and kill them, but don't like their taste.

When I did this piece for the book, I could have used a better specimen for reference.

I was thinking about my love of Wind in the Willows while drawing this curious mole. But look how curious the star nose mole really is up-close!

Rest assured this fellow had a proper and ceremonial burial..

We spotted a field mouse like this on our walk, looking for a cranny.

And there was also a wee toad, who peed into lucky Kirsten's palm.

Here is a view of the Great Trout Pond near the back shore, home to herons, gulls, beavers, and deer.
Not sure about trout!

The beavers are pretty shy. This is how I picture them in Nest, Nook & Cranny.

They've been gnawing away, creating dams like this.

Garry pointed out this plant form, but I totally forget what he said it was. Anybody know?

Deer are shy, too, but inhabit the inner woods of the island during the day, and graze island gardens at night, those without sturdy deer-fencing.

I admit a soft spot for this fawn, from the book.

My challenge in illustrating Susan's lyrical poems was to leave white space for the words and images while creating drawings that shared some of the same rhythm and reverence for nature as her work.

I'm pleased at the result and eager to meet my better half. Stay tuned for details about YAP and my island celebration.

Happy trails, Suz! And thanks, Garry and Kirsten!