My friend Matt and I have a blog where we challenge each other to create art in response to each other's posts. Last week I created a piece based on the Red Riding Hood story, and I think it's one of the nicest things I've done in a while. Check out our blog by clicking
here.
I'm a huge fan of artists posting articles on how they made their stuff - I don't have a lot of formal training, and I always learn something new. So, here's how I made this thing.
I usually start with an idea floating around in my head. Sometimes it takes weeks or months or even years to actually sit down and force it onto a page - it's like being pregnant and finally giving birth, except I can choose when to give birth, so I usually put it off 'cause it can be kind of painful.
Sometimes I'll make an initial sketch, just to make the composition clear, but this time I knew exactly what I wanted, so I started by gathering imagery. I knew I wanted to make an image of a kind of devilish Red Riding Hood surrounded by wolves, her cape swirling all around her. Somewhere along the line I saw the cape as a big watercolor swirl, so I could draw the girl and the wolves and layer the red paint in underneath.
The images come from a variety of places. The wolf I found online (a while ago, actually - I used this photo as a reference for the Midsummer poster I did a few months ago), that's me posing for the girl's expression, the swirl of paint I made (one of three), and an image by
James Jean. I actually found the Jean picture after I had completed my own piece, but I include it because he uses techniques that I was consciously trying to put into practice.
James Jean starts his pieces with blue pencil sketches. I've been doing this more and more recently, and I find that though it adds another step (and thus extra time) it provides a kind of softer, less committed beginning - I can make mistakes and fix them more easily. Here's the blue pencil sketch:
I was originally going to make at least three wolves, but as I was drawing the second (the wolf at the top), I remembered there's only one wolf in the actual story, and having just the one makes the interaction between victim and hunter much more intimate. Also, the wolf at the lower corner came out looking kind of sad and submissive, and I liked that. My process is half purposeful skill and half discovery, being willing to flow with whatever comes out of my pencil.
I then use a graphite pencil to clarify the decisions I've made with the blue. You can see the second wolf has been voted off the island. This process is my least favorite part - the closer I get to permanence, the more uncomfortable I become. Using pen is a process I've almost completely dismissed lately. But pencil's a bit more forgiving. I'm also using this great paper that was given to me for Christmas - I have no idea what it is, but you can erase the HELL out of it, and it doesn't get worn out.
I listen to music or watch movies I don't need to pay a lot of attention to when I'm working, and when I'm looking at the piece later on, I get an echo of what was going on in the background. This piece reminds me of the movie Poltergeist, for no other reason than when I was coloring it in Photoshop, I was also watching that movie.
An interesting side-effect of modeling the girl on a picture of myself is that her general appearance is slightly more mannish than it should be, which adds to her predatory feel in an almost subconscious way.
Another technique that I got from Mr. Jean is masking the original black pencil lines with different colors, which is most evident in the pink lines around the ribbon; I also used it in some of the lines that make the cloak. It's a small detail, but I think it makes things look slightly more professional, though it was surprisingly hard to commit to; I usually leave the lines black.
The forest background was added at the last minute and I think it looks pretty sweet - now I know what that leaf-shaped paintbrush is for!
This design is available for purchase! (All your dreams are real!)
T-shirt available or you could even
get a poster! Go for it!!
Heather asked me to make the background brown and take out the white offset border, which she and her beautiful new son Thomas are modeling:
Heather's got a blog, too - she's a great writer trying to de-clutter her apartment/life. CLICK HERE to check that out. And thanks for the support, Heather!
For those not in the know, Matt's also an illustrator. We have a blog where we take turns creating pieces, a kind of conversation back and forth. We've recently recommitted to it, so 2012 should be pretty interesting over there. Check it out by clicking HERE.
This one stars my good friend Marianne and her super-talented kids, as well as a special cameo. There's also a new Morty, where the ancient thespian responds to some fan mail:
I haven't been posting much recently because I've been working on a few large projects that are either presents or commissions (or both), so I gotta keep 'em quiet for now. Above is a preview of one of them - more soon!
Every year I have the enormous honor of participating in the AIDS Lifecycle, a 580+ bike ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles. I rode it in 2006, and I've been a roadie for four of the years since. This past year I decided to bring my video camera along to document the work we as Rest Stop 2 roadies do for the seven days we all get to be together. (All right, we have a little bit of fun here and there as well.) Click here to see the preview for the forthcoming documentary.
There's a few big projects coming- stay tuned!
I then did a value painting for the top - I have no idea why painters do this, but I've seen it before, so...yes. I also knew that I wanted a light filtering through the roots, so I painted that in:
Then I went crazy with the paints and didn't really stop for the next few hours:
I was saved by the set of paint pens I'd bought for the project, they allowed me to get some nice-looking detail, as on the roots and the spray of gold lights coming through the roots:
I called it "A Tree Grows in Bako (Say Amen)". I thought about what to do with the tree - a redwood, looking up from below? A big oak tree?- but there wasn't a lot of space on the panels. When my friend sent me a picture of an uprooted tree and the complicated patterns therein, I decided to focus on the roots. If you've been to Bakersfield, you know there aren't a lot of trees- the ones that are there are mostly newly-planted saplings near strip malls- so this little guy made sense.
