A Little Bit of Process

As promised, here's a little bit of my working process. This isn't everything, because I'm not including my initial thumbnail sketches or any of the work on the logo, and I'm terrible about actually documenting what I do during the painting process...but it'll have to do for now. ha-ha-ha!

First I get the brief, and (usually) a copy of the current version of the text. Depending on who I'm working for, the brief can be more or less specific. Ian is usually pretty specific about his ideas, but is also pretty cool about letting me choose from his list of things. The cover brief for Edison force looked like this:

In the grand tradition of Fratboys, I like the idea of a host of evil rising up. Some things that might be good

In the midground

Luther Burbank with his vegetable minions

Marie Curie with her radium gun

J. Pierpont Morgan and his accountant henchmen

An X-ray image of a man

Nicholas Roerich seated crossed-legged in midair using the power of Shambala to levitate

An early tank

In the air maybe an evil black dirigible, pterodacyls—small, far off

In the background,

an ominous black figure, backlit by a sparking Tesla coil

In the foreground,

a ca. 1908 Thomas Edison backed by a team. Maybe a Roosevelt look-alike, an Annie Oakley, a guy in a leather flying helmet, a kid working a crystal set.

So as you can see, he gave me a lot of ideas to work with.

The first thing I do is start gathering reference. Mostly I'm looking for photos to cover the specific references, as well as poses, attitudes and inspiration. My reference files can get pretty big.
Like I said, I didn't scan the initial thumbnail sketches I did, exploring composition and content, and now I don't know where they are. This is my initial pencil drawing. Nothing too special, I use a 2h pencil for the initial lay in, and then go back over part of it with a 1 or 2b, to darken and finalize things.
After scanning in the pencils, I went ahead and did a composite using the graphic elements that I knew would be going into it. Basically, I wanted to make sure everything fit before putting too much work into the project.
Next I ink the pencil drawing. This defines all the major areas, as well as adding some textures and details to objects.
Finally, I color everything. Here's a detail of what the colors look like both with and without the inked lines.

One of these days I'll get more of a tutorial post together. The problem is that I'm still learning a lot with each new cover, so I don't always do it the same way. Hmmmm... Maybe that's the way it is with everybody though. I hope you all got at least some peak into the way I work through this.

Until next time, take care and be good!
Your friend,
Jeffrey

Edison Force!!!

Well, July is coming to an end, and with it will come the release of Edison Force from Hex Games!

This is probably my favorite cover to date...I guess that makes sense since it's the most recent, but I think there's more to it than that. I enjoyed the research and inspiration phase of it very much, and also the writer Ian gave me a lot of ideas to work with for what he wanted on it. So many ideas in fact, that I had to sift through them and unfortunately had to end up leaving a lot of them out.
I've been wanting to do a more in depth post talking a little bit about the way I work and develop my ideas lately. I'm not making any promises because I have a lot of other work to do to get ready for Archon, the holiday season at Fusion, and (hopefully) the Small Press Expo this fall, but I think I may put together something with this cover to kind of show it from start to finish.
The boy with the electric rifle was the first illustration that I did for this project. This is actually the second version of this drawing, as I felt that in my first go he was a little too old. The game is set in the turn of the 20th century, and revolves around a lot of electrical, steam/diesel punk technology. I felt (and I think this may have been Ian's intention) that there would be a lot of kids working for Mr. Edison's organization.
Diamond Jill and her Electric Handgun. I struggled with this one, wanting to do more of an "adventurer" design, until I realized that she really should be more subtle...like a member of the upper-class. Or at least a LADY, and not just some street urchin like the boy with the electric rifle. I imagine that she normally wouldn't use her electric handgun unless she was cornered, and that's why she's just a bit disheveled.
What game about turn of the century super-spies and mad scientists would be complete without a radio controlled monkey?

That's it for today. Until next time, take care and be good.
Your friend,
Jeffrey

What I've Been Up To This Summer

It's been a long month since I posted last... actually, it looks like it's been more like two. There's a tendency to want to either apologize for being away so long, or make grand promises and set a rigid schedule for the return. I don't think I'm going to do either of those things. Admittedly, it's hard to get back into the blogging mind frame after being away. I always want to come back with this incredible, thought provoking post. Something I haven't done before, that will inspire and amaze those of you who've managed to stick with me. Really though, the hardest part of starting again is... well... starting.

So, here we go. What I did over my summer break. Part 1 of 12. (Just kidding)

I've been super busy designing lapel pins for baseball, softball and soccer teams. What's sometimes great about that is getting a design back months later to be edited into a medal or coin. I opened one of those jobs the other day and didn't remember doing it. It's weird, saying to yourself "That's really cool! Did I design that?". For the record, I did, but maybe that's a sign that I need to trust myself more than I do. Ha-ha-ha!

Did some more work for Hex, went to hang out and play some games with them at Die-Con, and am working on more stuff for them. Needless to say, I'm still very excited about the work I do for them, and hope to be able to expand on that a little bit this fall.Title logo for Edison Force. I've been describing it at "Charlies Angles at the turn of the 20th century". Don't know how accurate that is, but there you go... I'll do a post just for this a little later, because I did 4 or five things for it.

Really Excited about Hobomancer. This is still just a work in progress, but like I said, I'm pretty excited about it.

We cleaned and reorganized the studio. I can finally get to my bookshelves again! Sorry about the horrible panorama...
There's a whole stack of drawings on my desk that I've been trying to get finished for a book I'm working on. Also a very exciting project with it's own share of new experiences and challenges. I'm nearly to the point with it where I'm starting to think about the next book... this is always a difficult place to be, because I have to keep my energy and enthusiasm up in the face of something new and shiny.

The microwave and tile back-splash are finally done. Yay! It's hard to put into words what a weight having that project done takes off my shoulders.
...and of course the kids just keep on getting bigger.

What You Talkin' About? Does It Disrespect God, or You?

The week before Easter, a young man and his mother were sitting in the pew in front of me at church. The young man sat, very sullenly, with his ball cap pulled down low over his eyes, and his arms folded across his chest. His mom, beside him stood and participated in the service. She was there to worship, and it seemed he wanted to make it clear that he was only there because she wanted him to be. I remember thinking that he was being disrespectful to his mother; that if nothing else he was reflecting poorly on her and the things she felt were important. It seemed like maybe I should lean forward and tell him that he needed to be mindful and at least act like he was participating. While I watched him though, I noticed that his eyes were open. If he wasn't sleeping, then he was at least hearing. His mother was quietly witnessing to him by making sure that he was there to hear the message. Maybe the important thing was that he was at least here, and he should be allowed to come to that message in his own way rather than to adhere to mine.

This week, I wore a hat to service. I made a conscious decision to do this because I'm letting my hair grow out, and it's in that in between stage where it starts looking bad because there's nothing to control it. It didn't seem like a big deal, because at least all my clothes were clean, and my appearance was between me and J.C. A man came up to me just before the beginning of service, and told me (told me) that it was disrespectful to wear a hat here, and asked that I remove it... This stirred up a few things inside of me, and I would like to talk about it a little bit.

First it made me feel unwelcome, which caused a downward domino effect. J.C. said to go out and make Christians. Not Methodists, not Catholics, not people who don't wear hats to church. Make Christians, and making anybody feel unwelcome goes a long way towards defeating that purpose. I didn't want to sigh the guest book. I didn't want to give my tithe. I didn't want to come back. I spent the entire service thinking about him, instead of being present, where I was. Spending time with God. He may as well have asked me to leave, because I wasn't there anyway.

I wanted to wear my hat to service again next week. To actively disrespect the man.

Maybe that's one of those instances where we ignore God's soft voice so that we can get our own way. Whether I wear a hat in church is between me and J.C., and not me and some guy. I actively decided to wear it. It's possible that this man telling me that it is disrespectful is Gods way of letting me know that he thinks it is too. Or...

He could be telling me through this experience that I did the right thing by not stepping in with that boy a couple of weeks ago. Maybe it was His way of saying that I should let Him speak to th this young man with out my being a distraction. It could be that the best way to witness for God is to step back, and to watch and witness.

Or maybe there's a better way... Sometimes the Big Guy can be difficult and makes us figure things out on our own. After the service, as Abby and I were getting in the car to come home, the guy came up to me in the parking lot. He told me that he was sorry if he offended me, and that it is just the way he was raised, and something that was further ingrained by military service. (For the record this is true for me as well, and 90% of the time this situation would never have presented itself.) I told him I understand, and I appreciate that he felt it was important to talk to me, but that kind of approach will always leave one person on the defensive and become a conflict. I told him my story of the boy from a couple of weeks ago, and commented that there had to be a better way to go about it.

I don't know how he could have asked me to take my hat off without me feeling like I didn't belong. I don't think that was the point that was being made though. Two weeks ago, instead of worrying that that young man was being sullen, or disrespectful, I should have made a point to say "Welcome" and "I'm glad to see you here today". This seems silly maybe, but sometimes it's the silly little things that make the biggest difference.

It's okay to get upset with the man for handling a situation that he thought was important badly. That doesn't make it the church's fault, and doesn't mean I'm not welcome. Every week we recite the Lords Prayer, and ask him to forgive us our trespasses, and he does. Part of the deal there though, is that we also need to forgive those who trespass against us.

Until next time, take care and be good.
Your friend,
Jeffrey

100 Themes: Break Away

Seriously, Barbie legs just don't bend like G.I. Joe legs did. Plus, I'm like twice as big as I was when I was playing with the G.I. Joes'.


The next theme is "Bliss". Until next time, take care and be good!
Your friend,
Jeffrey

100 Themes: Seeking Wisdom

If you had told me twenty-years ago that I would rarely play video games when I grew up, I'd have called you a liar. The thing is, games have changed over the years. There's still a couple a year that I pick up and enjoy playing, but rarely with the rabid fervor that I did when I was a kid. I'm just not that into driving and shooting games.

The last 4 game systems that I actually bought though, were for "The Legend of Zelda". The classic tale of the young man, facing impossible odds to save the princess and the world? Who couldn't love that? I don't remember what the wise woman that lived beyond the lost woods had to say to young Link anymore, but I do remember being frustrated with learning the pattern to get through them.

Next up is "Break Away". Until then, take care and be good!
Your friend,
Jeffrey

100 Themes: Dark

There are definitely mornings when I'm sleepier than I would like to be. Ha-ha-ha!

Next up is "Seeking Wisdom". Until then, take care and be good!

Your friend,
Jeffrey

100 Themes: Light

Trying something new with the eyes today... didn't quite hit it like I wanted, as they look a little like "crazy eyes" but maybe it's going in the direction I want. Also, moving forward with the hand lettering. It's better than yesterday, but I think I've still got a ways to go, ha-ha-ha!

Next up is "Dark". Until then, take care and be good!
Your friend,
Jeffrey

100 Themes: Love

Wow! Two in two days... I am on fire! I'm glad that love is one of the early themes, so that we can just get it out of the way. It's one of those that's both easy and hard... It's easy to make a drawing about love, but hard to make one that's not the same ol', same ol'. I spent a lot of the day thinking about what love is to me, and came up with a lot of ideas, but this is the one that stayed with me. The sheer joy on that girls face when I go to get her out of bed is simply heartwarming.

As a side note, I'm attempting to hand letter these, but so far my lettering is terrible. So I typed this one in photoshop.

The next theme is "light". Until then, take care and be good!
Your friend,
Jeffrey

100 Themes: Introduction

I've seen this meme floating around the interweb a bit lately, and it really caught my fancy. I know I've tried to do stuff like this before, with little success. 100 of anything just seems like such a commitment. I'm not setting a time line for this or a deadline, though. Maybe falling behind on the schedule in the past is what made me give up hope. We're just going to enjoy this, and see where it goes!

The first theme is "Introduction".

Until next time, take care and be good!
Your friend,
Jeffrey

Daily Life 025: Ice Skating

The other day, we watched the movie "Ice Princess" starring Joan Cusack and Michelle Trachtenberg. The movie is about a physics student who begins a project based on ice skating for a scholarship competition, and as she learns more about skating by applying what she learns, finds that she really loves skating.
About half-way through the movie as I'm making dinner in the kitchen, I check on the girls and Abby is spinning in the living room. She say's "Look daddy! I'm ice 'kating!" Ha-ha-ha! So I help her with some more spins, and then we pretend to do some other of the other tricks (is that the right word?) from the skating portions of the movie. Now, any time she's posing with one food behind her, she tells me to "look at her ice 'kating moves."

Awkward Super Heroes! Yay!

It's pretty super-hectic here, lately. Between work on my 'zine (which is due at the beginning of next month), work on lapel pins, work on covers for my friends at hex, and finally transitioning Abby into her 3's and Olive into her first year... like I said, hectic. Ha-ha-ha!

Still, I am getting stuff done, and there's developing a backlog of stuff to show you all. These guys are mostly just quick and dirty little drawings I did the other night, and then slapped some color on this afternoon. I kind of wanted them to look like awkward kids dressed up as super-heroes.
Abby is obsessed with Captain America, and we don't know why. She got a toy of him in a happy meal, last fall and just couldn't stop talking about him. Who knows why some things strike kids fancy.
I think pigeon-toed Wolverine is very funny.

Until next time, take care and be good!
Your friend,
Jeffrey

Influence Mapping

So there's this meme that's been going around the interweb in recent months, started by fox-orian on DeviantArt. I'm pretty late to the party, but it looked interesting to me, and I enjoy looking at art. Ha-ha-ha! I tried to stick to sizes as far as how big an impact these guys have had on me, but... honestly, there's only so much space, and it's hard to quantify that sort of thing.

So, here we go!
1. Arthur Adams: I have a giant-size issue of "The New Mutants", where the kids go to Asgard, and have some adventures. Wow. This guy is just awesome, I remember reading that issue over and over again, and copying the drawings out of it when I was a kid. His linework, and just sheer ability to put so much TEXTURE into his drawings has always just floored me.

2. Scott Fischer: I found Scott a couple of years ago on conceptart.org. I love his realistic-cartoon style. I think about his drawings a lot when I'm drawing cars especially.

3. Mobius: There was a time when I tried sooooo hard to draw like Mobius. The perfect balance of detail and simplicity. Noise and quiet. and his linework is beautiful. He is probably the single biggest influence on my drawing style.

4. Alan Lee: When I was a kid, this painting creeped me out. I checked out the fairies book by Lee and Froud from the library, and could hardly look at it, because I didn't want to see this painting of the pooka. Alan Lee's watercolor and pencil drawings are just beautiful, and they helped awaken a love of fantasy in my young mind.

5. Todd McFarlane: Todd seems to get a lot of crap these days from comic fans. One of the things that I learned from him is that comics are both about graphic design and drawing.

6. Lynn Johnston: One of the greatest cartoons still working... maybe the best. If there's only one cartoon that I read in the paper anymore, its "For Better Or For Worse". Fantastic design, compelling stories that we can relate to, and really excellent drawing. Wow.

7. Bernie Wrightson: When I was a kid, my parents got me the book "Dream Makers" which featured (among others) Bernie Wrightson, and Michael Kaluta. Seeing their work, and reading what they had to say about being professional artists is I think one of the big things that galvanized my career path.

8. Jamie Hewlett: I have loved Jamie's artwork since his work on "Tank Girl". Expressive, and not afraid to "go there"... He cracks me up. Also, I'm a big fan of the details he puts into his drawings, and how well the CHARACTERS show through the designs.

9. Katsuhiro Otomo: Akira was the first Japanimation movie I ever saw. It was in Japanese. Without subtitles. Not being able to understand the words didn't matter though. The pictures just reached out and grabbed me. I was hooked. In hindsight, it's good that I started out at the top, because that's a pretty high standard to hold everything else up to... there's a lot of junk out there too. Ha-ha-ha!

10. Brian Froud: "The Dark Crystal" and "Labyrinth" are two of my favorite movies. Brian Froud did most (if not all) of the concept design on them. Again, spending hours drawing goblins and fairies, and watercoloring them.

11. Michael Kaluta: One of the things I remember about Michael Kaluta is that he was talking about a painting he had done, and mentioned that the color on one part of it was actually tea. The idea that you didn't have to use just PAINT to color things was new to me at the time. Of course, tea isn't exactly archival, but when you illustrate for print, the longevity of the original isn't necessarily the primary concern.

When I think about all of these fantastic artists separately, they seem very different. Looking at them all arranged on the map though, I think they hang together nicely. Thanks for spending a few minutes walking down memory lane with me. Ha-ha-ha! Until next time, take care and be good!

Your friend,
Jeffrey

A Peek at My Sketchbook

I've noticed lately, that I have a few "go to" poses and expressions, and that to do anything different is a bit of a struggle. I read a lot of art blogs, and look at a lot of pictures, but reading and looking (while inspiring and all...) only take you so far. DOING is what allows us to learn, and to grow.
This first set of sketches are 30 second to 2 minute studies from photos. All of them were done at the Gesture Drawing Tools site, which features Male and Female figures (both clothed and not) as well as animals, and also a handy timer that changes the pictures when the time is up. No cheating, ha-ha-ha! The tree at the bottom, I found on Flickr, using their "Explore Interesting" feature. There's always at least one picture worth spending a few minutes drawing per page. I think I spent about 5 minutes on this one.
The second page are two twenty minute drawings I did at a figure drawing night at the St Louis Artist's Guild. I think I actually spent more like 30 minutes on the left one, refining it during the break between poses.

I was reading an article on Dresden Codak's blog "Indistinguishable From Magic" last nite about the importance of developing a visual vocabulary. Here is a link to the post, because he put it far better than I can. For those of you who only want to read one wordy blog post tonite, he talks about Draftsmanship, Clarity of expression, Style is Grounded in Realism, and Visual Flexibility = Mental Flexibility. The whole article is great, but something he said in the last section really hit home for me:

"Often, being able to draw new things presents us with ideas we’d otherwise never consider. Also, simply being comfortable with drawing more things means you’re instinctively more likely to try new things..."and then he goes on to say"... without an artist having the prerequisite drawing experience, he or she may not get the idea to set a scene in a 17th century pirate cove rather than a college dorm room. It’s not so much that a less well-rounded artist couldn’t draw these things, it’s that he or she is less likely to even consider it, as it’s outside the comfort zone."

So what does this mean to me as an illustrator and dreamer of dreams? Something I've known for a long time, but that I get lazy about. Nothing exists in a vacuum, and without new stuff coming in, new stuff can't go out.



I thought of this clip from the king of queens while I was writing, and the same principle applies. It also serves as a warning. Draw from life, or at least from photos. Trying to learn to draw from a cartoon limits us to just those forms, and without understanding why those forms work, we can't move forward and develop our own styles. Poop in, poop out. Ha-ha-ha!

Until next time, take care and be good!
Your friend,
Jeffrey

Daily Life: Super Hero Edition

We've had super heroes on the brain here lately...Last week, Handmade Family set up our space in the Fusion Art Co-op in the mall (you can check out the post here). Amy's making capes, and has started finishing up the hero costumes with masks and cuffs to go along with them. Abby is super-cute. She tried on the mask for the first time last night, and was running around in her jammies, pointing up and declaring, "To the rescue!!!". It's funny watching her costume combinations, too. This afternoon, she'd added a Halloween pumpkin lantern, and tonite when we were getting ready for bed, she said she need super-hero pajamas...NOT, her dog pajamas. Okay, Superman it is. Ha-ha-ha!

So, where am I going with this? My plan is to do a cross-over between here and the Handmade Family blog with illustrations and photos and downloadable goodies that will be available on my website, chronicling our daily, handmade lives. Activities, books and movies, snack-time and of course Daily Life illustrations and comics. All of this will be compiled into a small, themed book. If all goes as planned (and to be honest, I'm nervous about that part), then I will be able to release my little 'zine every two months. The theme for issue one is Super-Heroes, and I hope that you all will join me for a little fun.

That's it for now. Until next time, take care and be good!
Your friend,
Jeffrey