Homework #4

This was a great exercise. Back to the fundamentals in structure. I, as I think a lot of cartoonists do, tend to cheat on these details. So... I am definitely going to keep doing this. Especially noses which I found I had difficulty with. It's has just been a great mental switch to think about this as a discipline and not as an automatic thing I do when I want to. You get out of it what you put in to it. No more laziness if I want to succeed in doing cartoon Illustration as a career.

No one said it was gonna be easy...

This is the first part of assignment #3 from the Stephen Silver Class. First draw from reference. Then, put away your drawing and reference and use basic shapes to caricature the man in the bowler hat. This was frustrating and fun. I have trouble getting loose. I was trying to be perfect but the looser I got, the better the drawings so, I am going to start doing this a lot.

A Latte full of life

Another afternoon of joe and drawing joy.

IF "Extremes"

Illustraton Friday - "Extremes"

I went to my college reunion up at Syracuse this past weekend. There were 8 people out of 3,000 + from the class of 1992. BUT the class of 1957 was there in all of their geriatric glory. It was a wild weekend.. walker racing, Triple E cup bikini competitions...
I actually saw a very old guy stumble out of a frat. Ah, Glory days.

Anyway, Rutgers- the dome- all of the alumni were sat next to the Rutgers' section..good times. We got our orange ass whupped.

My husband and I met the first day of freshman orientation, 1988. It was great to stand on the fourth floor of the dorm we're we had our first kiss. I shall always be indebted to the big orange school on the hill, he's worth more than the 80,000 in tuition!

Just before the Buzzer...

11:48- due by 12. Can't get the G** Damn second file up! I'm a computer looser. If something goes wrong I'm lost.
I drew a lot, and didn't put it all up. I can't figure out how everyone gets multiple pages of sketches up on the site. If you are in the class and reading this-HELP!

Final idea below:

WHO: TV host of daytime show. A Guru of homemaking (a-la martha Stewart)

WHERE: NYC, US

WHEN: Now

PERSONALITY: Type "A" control freak

APPEARANCE: Perfect, cleanly upper class suburban

AGE: Forty-something

MANNERISMS: Prim, Proper, Perfect

ATTITUDE: Superior, demanding

PHYSICAL DETAILS: Blonde, cardigan sweater-khaki wearing, sensible shoe chic, pearls

STORY: Her show gets canceled ...in a fury she goes on a decoupage binge and inhales too many glue fumes and turns her into a glue gun toting monster. The monster is insane about decorating & crafting and goes on destructively beautiful rampages and wants to take revenge on the TV execs who cancelled her show. They will be "Glue Gunned"!!


This is what I went with- cause I COULD NOT decide, so I just did something. I still like my first drawings a lot of the 1950's idea but it was too "Nutty Professor"- with Jerry Lewis not Eddie Murphy. Off to bed.

Homework

I am finding this "Thinking in silhouettes" very challenging. I am off to my college reunion. Will have to draw while traveling. Hope I get this assignment done.

Acorns are falling on my head.

It is hard in life to avoid all of the nuts. Last night a particularly big one hit me when I wasn't expecting it. I was up with a headache til 2 am.

Nana

Another idea...I'd better choose. Nana as Jeckyll. Nice jewish Grandma,living in Boca in a retirement community. Drinks some tainted ensure...and transforms into NANAMONSTER! The terror of Florida. Her massive breasts knock over large objects and she emits tremendous guilt. - disclaimer: I love my husband's Nana.

Token Halloween image

Seth Hippen, major talent... http://flippinhippenstudios.blogspot.com/ created a great sexy witch. Long ago, I drew this. I think it was 1995. I was a huge Archie Comic nut as a girl. So, it was fun working on that license. Dan DeCarlo, the longest running artist for that series was fantastic. I still think of him when I draw womens' legs, shoes, curves, lips. He's worth checking out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_DeCarlo

PS- the broom was originally BETWEEN her legs- my bosses idea.... nasty. pps: This was done in marker- back in the day when we rode our brachiasaurus to work. PPPS...how the hell is she staying on that broom? She must have shelf butt.

Homework

Next assignment. To interpret Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde. Either literally or go nuts. It can be in the future,past,current time..I'm just doing mental spew right now.. I love the 1950's, so I had the thought of the nerdy girl who dreams of being glamorous. Much gratitude to Liz Taylor and Sophia Lauren... sorry for the scribble scrabble...must spew some more ideas...

Tuesday Doodles

Memory sketches. First Our Lady of the spray on tan from Starbucks. Second...Purple Lady from Pumpkin picking this weekend. She really had purple hair and all purple on...she was unsure if the picnic bench would hold her... It makes me wonder, what leads someone to do this? It certaily gets one noticed..but it is odd. One thing for sure, you could always spot her in the corn maze!

zoo day doodles again

Went to the Bronx Zoo yesterday, drew some ....

Zoo Day doodles

Doodles of the day

The first doodle is a memory doodle of a mother of another student at Mags' school. I walk my 8 mos old golden retriever, Jabba to school most mornings past her and her pug loving friend. They block the side walk. When Jabba was tiny, he endured butt sniffing galore by these two dogs whose owners encouraged them...."Oh look, they're letting him know who's boss..." So, this morning, the now 60+ lb Jabba happily wagged his tail and sniffed the poodle and pugs noses for a few moments when this treasure said"I think they've said hello long enough."- this drawing looks remarkably like her.

The next doodle was from a picture off of the American Girl Doll catalog. I was doodling, but it looks pretty good. Maybe I'll get to color it.

Lost (at Starbucks)

I love the show Lost..and am eagerly awaiting it's return. Today I gave myself 1 hour to sip a grande nonfat vanilla latte and draw...and think. As I sat in Oceanside Long Island...I started to draw parallel's between my being stuck in Long Island and those poor schmucks stuck on that island. I am totally for the theory that they are in "purgatory" and now am for the theory that living in Long Island is my metaphorical purgatory. And there may not be an huge polar bear running around...but have you encountered some of these charming individuals? And the invisible colossus killing people, well just read my post on all of the hummers around here.

The others: There was a woman who was brown. Not a woman of color. A woman of the spray on tan. She was like pantone 147 uncoated. (I guess she would be coated)...anyway, that has got to come back to haunt you some day. I HOPE it was spray on, and not pure tanning booth. My cells were terrified just looking at her.

Hurley: And then, this Mom who was wearing too tight clothes on a pudgy body. Oh, I wanted to take her shopping, since I couldn't, I drew her and her daughter who looked like she knew the deal.

Mr. Echo: And the big haired lady. The theory of big butt/big hair...I'm all for it. Being chubby myself, a little poof in the coif, well it doesn't hurt so you don't look like a pin head. But she talked soooo loudly on her cell phone...to Mike...who I now know has a hemmoroidal condition. Thanks Big Haired lady, I stopped sipping my latte about then....

Kate: I like the character of Kate, but the occasional unnecessary slow camera pans of her body in panties and a bra...not so much. T & A, it's at Starbucks too. This 20-something blondie walks in...looks at the table of men sitting together, then..poses. One hand in the hair, one hand on the hip, back arched, butt pushed out (ass crack pants) and gazes for about 12 minutes at the menu board.... until one of them notices. Then she orders , turns, sips her straw suggestively...and sashays out. Now if this is not some alternate reality.... then.. I might go insane.

Anyway, If this is my purgatory (which when I was young and catholic the church still taught)- I must try to learn from all of this. Perhaps tolerance, acceptance...to integrate better. I think it's supposed to be a transitional time for me. I am trying to better myself... maybe getting to "Heaven" or "Nirvana" is making a career in art again then moving to New England. Living in a victorian, it can have pearly gates...

IF "Blues"

The only thing better than listening to the Blues, is watching people listen to the blues.

You can take the girl out of animation...

But you can't take the animation out of the girl!
Yesterday I started my Character Design Course at Schoolism with STEPHEN SILVER. He's one of the best character artists (cartoonists) working today. Perhaps best known for designing Kim Possible. Anyway, I have been drawing since last night and all I can say is I'm clicking my chucky t heels and sayin' "There's no place like home...there's no place like home."

Our first assignment is to design this character from "The Long Voyage Home" by Eugene O'Neill. "The bar of a low dive on the London water front. At the far end of the bar stands Fat Joe, the proprietor, a gross bulk of a man with an enormous stomach. His face is red and bloated, his little piggish eyes being almost concealed by rolls of fat. The thick fingers of his big hands are loaded with cheap rings and a gold watch chain of cable-like proportions stretches across his checked waistcoat."

This is what I came up with.

Clarion books?...eat my eraser dust.