My Computer May Be Dying

I sat down at my computer desk the other day only to find my monitor flashing digital gibberish. I heard a woman's high-pitched screaming and, after a few moments, realized it was me. I tried to fix the problem but nothing worked. So I brought the computer to my tech guy who said it might be a faulty graphics card or, worse, a malfunctioning logic board.

I felt a pang of empathy. I know what it's like when your logic board goes haywire. It's happened far too many times in my life and usually results in emotional chaos or financial disaster. It'll mean a good, swift kick in the wallet if my computer's logic circuits are bad (goodbye french pedicures) so let's all hope it's just a minor glitch.

"But how did you draw this stupid cat picture?" you're asking. Well, ok, I used my other computer. "Two computers, Vince?! Are you some sort of billionaire time traveller from the future?" Maybe. The problem is my backup machine has a much smaller monitor and I barely ever use it so everything feels all clunky and weird. Even this clunky, weird cat misses my primary computer. Chances are, until that machine is fixed, I'll be working traditionally at my illustration desk-- if I remember how to hold a pencil. So you may be seeing the fruits of that labor on this blog sooner or later. And yeah, that's a threat. -v

Sifting Satellites From Stars

A friend of mine was recently downsized out of a job. You might know somebody in the same position, there are plenty of them out there. This particular friend of mine happens to be a pretty smart guy with an industrial-strength work ethic. For the last few months he's been topping off 10-hour work days by studying for an MBA. Glutton for punishment, I guess.

So, while the unexpected retirement may have long-term positive effects on his grades, he hasn't really slowed down. He started a daily blog to document his journey through unemployment, online education and, as it happens, poetry. And that's where this all ties together.

This illustration is based on a poem from his blog. I thought it might be a fun experiment to read those poems and use them as a springboard for illustrations. Challenging too...because half the time I don't know what the guy is talking about. Anyway, this is my own spin on his poem. Not sure what he had in mind when he wrote it.

If you feel like following along to see whether or not my friend eventually gets that MBA and lands the new, high-paying job he deserves (or ends up destitute and starving) feel free to follow his blog, Unemployment and Poetry. And if you just want to read the poem this illustration is based on, it's called crime scene. -v

Clap Slap Step Stomp - The Sad Tale of The Rhythm Kids

Always willing to lend a hand, I did a little favor for a friend of mine who teaches music to grade school kids. These are illustrations for a rhythm lesson she's teaching to a kindergarten class. The idea, as it was explained to me, is to get the kids to perform a series of different moves in rhythm with various songs. Clap, clap, stomp, step, slap, clap...you get it. Although it sounds like a good teaching tool and a fun game for the kids, I think the real goal of this exercise is to exhaust the children so they'll stop running around like sugar-addicted baboons.

And, though it wasn't necessarily a requirement of the project, I gave each of these characters a little back story to make it interesting for me. So...

This is Harvey Clapton. Once a promising child actor, Harvey grew into a sullen teen with a foul temper and even worse breath. At the age of 19, having been fired from a string of low-paying, menial jobs, he ultimately found employment at a puzzle factory where he lost his left hand in a bizarre jigsaw accident. He would never clap again.

This is Rebecca Slapski. She was a perfect little girl with perfect grades and perfect attendance at grade school. But stooping constantly to slap her thighs worsened an undiagnosed spinal condition. By the age of 15 she would be permanently bent at the waist, unable to straighten up. Never a quitter, Rebecca thrived in a series of jobs where her handicap would prove useful -- gardener, softball umpire, worm collector, etc. Today she lives in London where she makes a comfortable living cleaning baseboards for a wealthy clientele.

Meet Rhoda Jean Stepford. Despite her prim, girlish appearance, Rhoda Jean's tastes ran to the decidedly un-ladylike. Her favorite pastime? Squishing bugs. No beetle, ant, caterpillar or spider could escape her wrath. It's said that, in her neighborhood, even the worms refused to surface after a rainstorm. Ironically, Rhoda Jean was killed at the age of 25 when a giant loafer fell from a shoe store billboard and squashed her flat.

Finally, we have Stephen Stompowitz. Stephen was an outgoing boy with many friends. An avid hopscotch player, he made it to the state hopscotch finals in the fourth grade where he took second place. As an adult, Stephen moved into a high-rise condo in New York city where he continued his stomping. Though this often caused problems for his downstairs neighbors, Stephen refused to stop stomping. That is, until a 7-foot professional wrestler moved into the apartment below Stephen's. To this day, they have not been able to untie Stephen from the human pretzel Battling Bruno twisted him into.

So that's the story of four promising kids with great rhythm and how their lives turned out. I hope this helps those kindergarten kids learn rhythm. I'm sick of seeing five and six year olds walking around with no rhythm. As for the illustrations, there's not a lot of difference between the finished pieces and the original sketches, but I've included the work-in-progress steps if anyone's interested. -v

Sea Serpent Work-In-Progress

It's been a while since I posted here, so I thought I'd upload a lengthy work-in-progress to make up for lost time.

First step, pencils. This is how most of my illustrations start out. Pencil on paper. This one's based on a story I worked on a while ago. The age-old tale of a boy and his sea serpent.

Step two, I start blocking in the colors. Normally I'd have painted in the base colors of the grass, dock and house before doing any detail work, but I guess I got antsy and started messing with ripples on the water.

Step three, I finally get around to blocking in the grass and once again decide to detail it before working on the trees. I also threw some clouds in the sky. I think I even started adding texture to the sand. I realize now that, as an example of my usual workflow, this particular post is kind of atypical. So feel free to ignore everything I say.

Step four, the dock gets blocked in with a cool brown and the trees get their leaves. Also, the house gets color and as I play with the opacity of the pencil line I realize that, despite my intention to leave the linework in the final piece, I'm probably going to paint over it completely. So far this is a great example of how to not plan out an illustration.

Step five, the dock gets some texture and the main characters finally get their base colors. Now it's just a matter of texture and detail. And that's just brushing color on top of color, mixing as I go along.

Step six, final. Once again, deviating from what little blueprint I mentally sketched out for myself, I decide that the soft, pastel look I was planning is just a little too soft. So I intensify the contrast and brighten the colors just a little before calling it quits. You can click on any of the images in this post, but the final image is also viewable in my website gallery at a slightly larger size. Hope you like it. -v

Earning Points With Mom

These two bears are from a project I'm currently working on. But, handily enough, they'll work wonders as a mothers day card. And since it's only Monday night, I still have time to print this out, write something schmaltzy on the other side and mail it. Now....whose mother shall I send it to?

Again, experimenting with leaving in my pencil-drawn linework, you can see the original sketch and the computer-colored finish. -v