Alone in the Topiary Garden:

New #illustration. Peek at each stage in the process. Here you see #thumbnails of the #illustration idea.

I always say that no one can understand my thumbnails but me. That's OK because they're intended to help me work out my picture design and placement of elements. If an art director wants to see thumbnails, then I'll do cleaner, crisper thumbnails for him/her.

Next stage will be the under drawing. This will be an oil painting, so the drawing will be done to size (5.5"X8.5"—such as a book cover), then enlarged 200% in order to make painting it easier.

The narrative behind this is a girl briskly making her way out of a topiary garden full of odd characters and apparently also full of activity. I have some notes on my sketch in the upper right. While sketching, I had to decide what to include. What makes a good topiary? Flamingo, ostrich, urn, dolphin, dinosaur. I settled on the flamingo, ostrich, urn and way in the background, up high, will be an Egyptian, walking just like Egyptians always do.

Here's a help: the girl is in the lower right corner hustling out of the picture to the right. We, the viewers, are kind of low, looking up at her—that gives us a good underneath view of the topiaries. The ostrich (neck and head only) comes in from the left and is trying to nab her by the skirt.

That's all for now. Update on Old King Cole. I thought he'd be done and posted by tomorrow, but some of the small foreground detail is still wet, and it needs to dry so that I can finalize highlights and sharpen some edges.

Sorry for my cryptic opening and the pound signs (#). My blog is fed into my Twitter, and I want it to stay within 140 characters and contain good search term potential. The #s are supposed to help with that.

Java Programming and Duke

What does an illustrator know about Java Programming? Only that "Duke" this teardrop shaped dude is their mascot. And, I've done 5—I think—illustrations for Java book covers. Here are 5 sketches I did for this cover and the final. Here's the book cover. The art right now is from a previous title.

Illustrating Old King Cole

Old King Cole was not only a merry old soul, but he was also a toad…

   …in my world, at least. 

   His fiddlers? crickets and a grasshopper. A snail balances his bowl and a frog-in-waiting has brought a selection of his pipes--oh, and these aren't specifically p.c., non-smoking pipes. I found on Wikipedia, an interpretation that since OCK was so merry, that it stood to reason that "pipe" could have meant a recorder or flute, which he played along with his fiddlers three.

   These are the initial thumbnails.

Putting Rikki Into My Portfolio

I've loved Rikki-tikki-tavi (Rudyard Kipling) since I was a kid. I never read it or had it read to me but watched the animation on TV (1975, Directed by Chuck Jones).

   So, I've decided to do three black and white (charcoal) versions to put in my portfolio. Yes. Others have created art for this story, including Jerry Pinkney, but I'm going to do it too. Here, you see three thumbnails for my first frame. This part in the story takes place after the family in the bungalow has saved Rikki from the torrent and now he's sleeping (to his mother's horror), right on the pillow with little Teddy.

   I usually say that no one can understand my thumbnails but me. I call it, drawing ugly. I'm going with the one to the farthest left.

   Watch for progress updates.