Grandma Sylvia, 2010

One project that I recently finished and am able to share is the above painting that I created for my Grandmother.   She lived with my family from when I was two to when I was fifteen, and she had a big hand in my childhood and my upbringing.  She is the mother of my father and yesterday, together with my uncle’s family, we celebrated her 92nd birthday.  It was a wonderful day where we all cooked dinner together, and shared stories of Sylvia’s life and family over good food and good drinks – and  boy does she have some stories!  This is a lady who lived in Afghanistan for five years when my dad was in college.  She traveled all over the world, from India to Iran to Guatemala, collecting goods for an imports store that she ran, all while raising three kids – two of which were rambunctious boys who were very into mischief making (speaking of great stories, my Dad and Uncle have them… but those are for a different post).  She was a “Badger Beauty” as a college student in Green Bay Wisconsin, and when asked what her secret to reaching 92 years is, she responded “milk,” like a true Wisconsin girl.  At 92 she is incredibly sweet, and has a serenity to her that is hard to find in others her age – to me, my Grandma is the epitome of graceful aging, and the picture of a life well lived.

A few months ago she requested a painting of herself gazing at the moon and a star from her bed, and the completed piece was my gift to her for her birthday yesterday – in the interim time, I got to spend the weeks painting this thinking of my Grandmother’s life, and remembering the memories we have shared.  In that way, although I don’t think she knows it, her request for a painting was a gift to me.

I have just returned from ringing in the beginning of our new decade with family and friends, and I thought this might be the appropriate time to post one of the last pieces of 2009.  Fittingly, the subject of this illustration is a party scene.

This illustration was commissioned by Saint Mary’s College of California, and art directed by Bob Ciano, who was a pleasure to work with once again.  A couple of months ago Bob contacted me to create a theatre poster for a Word For Word production of three short stories by Virginia Woolf at Saint Mary’s.  Each story takes place at a party, and they were presented together on the stage as selected moments from the famous fictional party of Mrs. Dalloway.

Being that I am a literary-minded person with a great interest in theatre, this project was exciting to me on multiple levels. It was my first chance to read any of Virginia Woolf’s work, and I was entranced by her use of language, particularly by her repeated references to water.  Each of the three stories center around a different woman’s experience at the party, and each of the women is at some point caught in a struggle, swept away in a social situation that rises out of their control, and left struggling – almost drowning – in a sea of necessary propriety and social expectations.

The entire story created a wonderful opportunity to play with watery colors and an aqueous environment, and I really enjoyed exploring all of the possible concepts in the sketch process.  Sometime in the future I may come back and edit this post to share some of the thumbnails.  The final piece was well received, and ran as a theatre poster advertising the show’s run during the end of November.

The first of these commissions was a logo design project for a new toy shop in Mill Valley, California.  The shop is called “Henry’s Toyshop” – Henry being a big friendly bear – and the store has a terrific old-fashioned flavor to it, with wooden and natural toys rather than modern gaming systems – this is my favorite kind of toy store.

This job was exciting on so many levels, and I absolutely loved having the opportunity to be truly playful and childlike when creating Henry.  Lastly, this job taught me one new thing about myself:  drawing sweet little animals, all dressed up and looking dapper, makes me seriously happy.  Meet Henry!

And here are a few early versions of Henry; these are the sketches where I played with facial shape, age, size, and gesture.  As you can see, the client and I had a pretty clear idea of what the logo would be (bear + wagon), and so the journey to the final was mostly character design.  What fun!

The Grand Opening for Henry’s Toyshop is on November 7th, and I’m so excited to go see Henry up in his natural environment!

A quick little partner piece to “Hoot.”

Some warm up sketches for an upcoming, very exciting assignment!  These are my “getting to know you” sketches – at the beginning of a project I usually like to draw anything that I can find relating to what the final subject will be, just for the sake of getting to know the shape, personality, and movement of the final character.  It had been a little while since I’d drawn animals (and I don’t think I’ve ever actually focused on bears before), which made the sketch process even more fun.

Bears really are a lot like humans, especially the wee little ones.

“Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition,” … and a penchant for inappropriate matchmaking.  Currently reading Jane Austen’s wonderful novel, and it is filling my mind with regency-themed thoughts.

Another taste of the sketchbook.  I’m now back from a weekend camping vacation to Santa Cruz.  It was truly a vacation, and for the first time in a long time I didn’t take some form of work with me on a getaway – two solid days of playing badminton under the redwoods, throwing a frisbee on the beach, and hiking through the forest.  Glorious!

The brain definitely benefitted from said excursion, and I came back with a few more ideas in my book, along with the realization that my creative mind works best when both completely relaxed and occupied at the same time.  The simple task of folding laundry today prompted a new idea for an illustration series, so the mental gears are turning once again –  it feels so good!

Just a quick little something from the sketchbook – experimenting with a water-soluble pencil for the first time (conclusion: super fun! How I managed to go so long without trying one, I have no idea).