Studio566: Snowed In

The White Apocalypse
The start of Black History month was met with the white apocalypse 2011 . Today, the roads are all plowed and the only heartache is the mountains of dirty snow shoved to the side of each intersection downtown. I spent the night in the glorious downtown during this white apocalypse. It was snowing and sleeting -- and people were still meandering around outside. I was meandering inside.

STUDIO 566 Meanderings
I saw an artist work with graphite, charcoal and wax. The images were incredibly haunting. He would sketch his subject, melt candles and drip the wax all over the image. He explained to me he switched to melting blocks paraffin because it takes too long waiting for the candle. After the wax was dried over the image, he would take a fine grained sand paper and sand down the wax and then buff the wax with a cloth. So... I tried it. I should have put 911 on speed dial.

I started with a charcoal sketch and a candle. It was a regular seance. Be careful dripping the wax; if you drip from too high up, bubbles form that leave pits in the wax. Also, I discovered if you add a few drops of water to the melted wax before dripping, the water falls with the wax and will also leave bigger pits.
I scanned the image and worked on it in Photoshop. I added the two "gold leafed" backgrounds and drop shadow on the image. I call it "UNTITLED."

UNTITLED

Hello Nightmares...
I am using the original for another project now. I have burned my thumb 3 times, nearly set the house on fire and burned the bottom of my bathtub. You ought to see me with a glue gun... I really should have Googled all of this.

I had an illustration project to complete this week: create 3 female Tween characters in the style of MANGA. They were to be ethnically diverse. I was required to draw a Black girl, a Hispanic girl and an Asian girl. Now, this is more of my children's fare and not mine. But alas, I rose to the challenge. In the world of MANGA, I discovered, there seem to be only 2 races: Asian and American. And who has eyes that big? Except those big eyed children of the 60's, I mean.

My mom had those hideous children hanging on the wall of our hallway. No wonder I was afraid to get up and pee at night. We also had a velvet red-headed Jesus. One day I need to post how Jesus was an Irish Red Head... At least in my house he was.

This illustration (the one I did) is for a board game with the same demographic. I read in my research that next to Baby Boomers, Tweens have the largest expendable income. Which would be what? An allowance?

TWEENS

I hate Manga.

BUNNY FLOP
Bunny behavior is an interesting thing. I observe it often to help with my sketches. I ventured to the pet store today. I use "research" as an excuse but I go there to hold the bunnies. No, I am not joking. There was an older youngster in the pen just binkying like crazy. I held him and he was quite personable. He was put back in the pen and did a Bunny Flop. I have yet to capture either Lance or Sammy doing a flop on video.Here's a flop for you via Youtube -- you have to wait for it for a few.

Anyway, I think I am inspired for the JOKER card. This is the last hold-out in my deck. Stay tuned. In the meantime, here are more bunnies.

The first is a pencil doodle from my sketchbook. The second is the ink version, 3rd is live trace, 4th is the illustrator "Dutch" bunny, 5th Photoshop and the 6th and last bun is simply the live trace with a color. What? I was trapped in the snow. What did you expect?

WHAT TYPE ARE YOU?
This therapist will tell you. I am DOT MATRIX.

CLICK ME

DEAR GOD I CANNOT TAKE THIS EXCITEMENT.

TWO FAVORITES
Don Hertzfeldt's "Rejected" was a life changing experience for me. I viewed it and actually believed that I was witnessing the process of ILLUSTRATOR BURNOUT. And it was funny. And now, here is Hertzfeldt's animated gifs and icons for your amusement.