Roz Wound Up

Comics Sketchbooks—a Great Look inside Talented Minds

Left: cover of the book reviewed in this post.

I love looking at journals and sketchbooks of artists—love seeing how they work out creative approaches to a character or composition. If you enjoy this too you'll love Comics Sketchbooks: The Private World of Today's Most Creative Talents," edited by Steven Heller. 

I found this book while browsing at "Common Good Books" in St. Paul (just north of the corner of Snelling and Grand).

It's a large book—8 3/4 x 11 3/4 inches and the reproductions of sketchbook pages often run full page so you can see the various layers of sketching. 

"Comics" in the title blankets everything from comics to graphic novels, to animators and political illustrators to advertising artists and iconic illustrators. Some of my favorite artists are included here: Bill Plympton, Peter deSève, Drew Friedman, John Cuneo, Steve Brodner, and R. Crumb.

There are new favorites in the book—Russ Braun's exquisite pencil drawings make me want to run out and find the comics he's illustrated. 

The book is filled with a variety of styles and approaches from very rough doodles and concept scribbbles to more painterly approaches. There are stylized figures and realistically rendered figures. Some approaches use digital techniques, most approach drawing with a pencil, pen, a marker, and some watercolor.

In other words there is simply something for everyone who loves drawing in this book. I have had the book or a couple weeks and I still haven't made my way through it all.

This Is How Animated Gifs Should Work

So this morning while delaying the bike ride (I wanted it to be at least 50 degrees as the cooler temps came on suddenly and I'm not quite acclimatized—I know, I know, I love cold weather, but I'm just saying) I popped over to Urban Sketchers to see what people were up to and there was this wonderful animated gif by Bo Soremsky. You should go and watch it now and check out the other links in that post.

I'm just trying to get my animated gifs to switch between a before and after, but Soremsky has made little movies using the animated gif technology. I love what he is doing.

Here's a link to a short narrative made with his sketches and this technique: Passengers: A digital narrative.

Fun with Gifs and Some Recent Journal Sketches

Left: An animated gif of a bird sketch I made in my journal recently. Wait 8 seconds and the image will switch to the painted version, and 8 seconds more and it will switch back to the line work, etc. Or that's the theory. I've worked out that if I click on it so that it enlarges the screen changes, but I'll check when it goes live. If it still doesn't work scroll down to the end of the post to see the full spread which shows the finished painting. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

I was out and about in town the other day without my journal so I was sketching on little bits of paper and did the sketch of the woman you'll see in the full page spread image at the end of this post. 

Then when I pasted it in at home I wanted to do more sketching and painting so I got out some photos I'd taken of birds in an aviary at a nursing home. I threw them up on my computer screen (which is large) and started sketching. I was using a fresh, juicy .5 Staedtler Pigment Liner and you can see there is a variety of line thickness you can get with that pen.

I really loved the line drawing so I took a moment to photograph it before I went ahead with the painting. I wanted to paint it in part to help it stand out against the purple strip (stamp ink). I had deliberately started my sketch so a portion of the bird would extend onto the color strip, but it would have worked better if I had positioned the bird a little more either to the left or the right. I find the beak split right at the "forehead" too distracting.

I used gouache for the painting. I used dilute washes in most areas because I wanted to let the lines (which I was in love with) show through.

This is in a 7 x 9 inch journal I bound with Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media paper.

Below: The full page spread. Before arriving at this spread I had prepainted the spread with rubberstamp ink. I had taped off sections of the page to paint them purple. The large purple rectangle on the left page (which bleeds off the top, bottom and fore edge of that page) would have been perfect as the background of a sketch. (I use Brilliance Ink and it drys waterproof, or at least I have found it water resistant.) Instead, it became the perfect place to put one of my paper scraps that I've been sketching on (because I have a shoulder problem and am not carrying my journal right now). The tab in the gutter is from a pre-cut page. When I start a new journal I cut out pages throughout the journal. This makes room for any collage material I may add later. I often attach things to these tabs, or paint right across them. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

Mixed Media Play—and a Gif Animation Experiment—with Pigeons of Course

Above: An animated gif of the first and then the final stage of this journal page spread painting. Wait 5 seconds and the image will toggle to the final version from the first stage, or vice versa, depending on where the cycle starts. Every 5 seconds it will switch. (I forget what type of pigeon this is, but it is a large, blocky bird with a powerful chest, a smaller head, and shorter beak than street pigeons and other fancy pigeons. (My Fair journal is in the other room so I can't look it up.) This is not an exaggerated sketch. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

Update: Darn, after going live with this post it looks as if the animated gif doesn't work. It could be that I have something set up in my browser preventing it and it's fine on your screen, but if the first image in this post doesn't toggle every 5 seconds between the yellow paper version and the final painted version scroll down and see the final version at the bottom of this post. It's not as fun as seeing them merge one from the other, but you'll see both versions.

After multiple trips to the Minnesota State Fair and a whole lot of sketching pigeons from life I started making studies with my sketches for paintings.

For some reason I was working on yellow legal pad paper. It was handy. Then I got two sketches in a row that I really liked just the way they were.

I took the sketches and glued them inside my in-studio 9 x 12 inch Fabriano Venezia journal. I completed the sketches, extending the drawing lines onto the page spread. Then I applied various media and paints.

At first I thought I'd just paint the backgrounds of each spread and leave them that way. But I wanted to paint the figures too—so I compromised and painted one, shown above.   

Left: Detail of the painted version. You can see some of the texture of the different media and papers coming through the paint on the bird. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

Now I am lost in the planning of a lot of really large bird paintings done this way—with lined paper collaged down or not? I don't know. 

Dick suggested keeping the birds smaller, because while he isn't bothered by birds, my large bird paintings seem to frighten people. He also didn't care for the yellow paper (which I adore).

Then Dick started laughing, "That reminds me of the scene in 'Tin Cup,'" and he quoted from the movie (he also frequently quotes from "Last of the Mohicans").

Roy McAvoy (Kevin Costner): Hey you ever shoot par with a 7-iron?

David Sims (Don Johnson): Why hell Roy, it never even occurred to me to try.

So why did I take this approach Dick wanted to know? Frankly it never even occurred to me to not try. That's the fun of creative play.

I just love the tape, the paper color and lines, the way the different media changed the texture of the paper, the way the gouache still worked so well on the paper. 

Take materials you don't use together regularly and mix them up. Don't worry about the finished product, just concentrate on what you discover in the process.

Above: Final painted version, shown here because the animated gif didn't work. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

Note: If you'd like to learn the particular process I'm using in this series watch for an on-line class in 2013. I'm working on some tutorials that will contain some animated gifs (that will actually work!), and some videos.

Note: If you'd like to work with gouache but never have, don't miss an opportunity to buy the fabulous Schmincke gouache at a super discount in the limited edition set of Schmincke Gouache available at Wet Paint. There are still some available.

Mysteries of Vernacular

My friend Karen just sent me a link to a fun site Mysteries of Vernacular—short videos about words, done as animated altered books. There are several up on the site so far and they are clever and engaging. If you like book arts, animation, altered books, and such, you'll want to check out the site.

Felt, Embroidery, Book Covers, Stop Motion Animation, A Love Story: A Short Spike Jonze Film

A friend just sent me a link to Mourir auprès de Toi, a stop motion animation made by Spike Jonze using the felt and embroidered book cover creations of Olympia Le-Tan. If you haven't already seen it (the post appeared in October 2011) go check it out today. The Atlantic Wire piece I've given you a link to explains the project, includes the embedded video, and also has a very short "how it was made video." 

If you go to Olympia Le-Tan's website and check in the collections section you can see close ups of the book clutches and how they open, like this one of Doctor Zhivago.

A Bird and A Short Book Review: Drawn to Life

Above: Pentel Pocket Brush Pen sketch with Schmincke gouache, in my 9 x 12 inch Fabriano Venezia in-studio journal. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

The other day at the MCBA Visual Journal Collective a group of us stayed to chat and Tom Winterstein mentioned he really liked Walt Stanchfield's Drawn to Life books (there are two volumes—that I know of—in paperback from Focal Press).

I think I've written about these before, but my search engine isn't working for me again today (something in the way I set up my browser). It can never hurt to mention them again.

I picked up volume 1 when it came out in 2009 and have been reading it (and volume 2 when it came out) as time allows. The books are lecture notes—short little pieces on a specific drawing-related topic from curves to "Pose and Mood Plus Timing and Phrasing and Texture."

Each piece is a lovely little gem with great illustrations of the topic at hand. Stanchfield was the artist Disney asked to teach other Disney artists. These are the master classes.

I am constantly entertained and inspired by the topics he addresses. I see these as essential discussions for all artists, not just animators. The purpose of art is to communicate—who better to tell you how to communicate than someone lashed to the narrative tradition?

(I paid $30 for each book, but Tom mentioned he got them for $14 or so at Amazon—check around.)

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, is Back!

Note: If the embeded video doesn't play, check it out on Youtube.

You may recall that I loved the short little stop-motion video, "Marcel the Shell with Shoes On."

Well my friend Karen found Marcel the Shell with Shoes on, Two!

"Guess why I smile a lot—Cause it's worth it" (and because there's Marcel).

Dog Days—X: Reminder for "Paws on Grand" and Another Look at Painting on Stonehenge

Above: Another practice dog sketch, in a handmade 8 x 8 inch journal using white Stonehenge. Pentel Pocket Brush Pen and light washes of gouache. (Spread cropped because the text isn't important here: I just have to remember to wear my glasses.) Click on the image to view an enlargement.

Don't forget that Sunday, August 7, is "Paws on Grand." Join us at Wet Paint to celebrate. Artists will be on hand sketching free pet portraits from noon to 3 p.m. (rain or shine).

(Note: I am still undecided as to which medium I'll be using at "Paws on Grand," this Sunday. Due to established size and time constraints I will probably not be working in color or wet media. You'll just have to show up and see what happens!)

Right: Detail from the above pen and gouache sketch. I liked the colors so much and thought you could really see the overlapping of the paints on this page of Stonehenge, so here's a closer view. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

I've been experimenting with yellow ochre and cobalt blue and this page is one of the results. I've been using the Niji waterbrush so much that I'm having a bit of a learning curve adjusting to a regular brush that holds a lot of color. But it's fun, and not painful.

Stonehenge is a printmaking and drawing paper, but don't let that stop you from working with wet media on it, or mixed media. It's different from watercolor paper in that it doesn't have the same sort of sizing that floats your washes over the sheet for a bit. But if you're game you can play around with your water and pigment levels and adapt. I haven't experienced any bleed through, even when working a sheet with lots of layers but I do wait for my layers to be more dry than I would if it were watercolor paper. I do less wet-in-wet work.

Brett Bean: Check Out His Blog

I couldn't sleep last night so I went to look at the Drawing Club. I love the sketches they post there from the costumed model life-drawing nights!

I saw some sketches by Brett Bean and with a click on Google I was at his blog where there is a ton of cool stuff, but Bean also has this really fun animated gif of a dragon illustration that you really MUST SEE. Go check it out right now.

After you poke around his blog for a bit you can check out the list of "hugely talented art friends" and "inspirations." There's a lot to keep you busy.