KRAMPUS: Arts Market & Music Fest

I will be selling art at a Krampus Fest tonight. If you are in the area, Stop by!
These are some of the pieces I will have at the show.
Info here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1377960739107095/

I will also be in The Art of War Competition.

Sketching Cars, Cats and Findley Market

Miffy is always a star!

I have been super-swamped all week. Finally I had a break in the action to sketch.

I was inspired to do this sketch after seeing Simon Tofield (of Simon's Cat fame) speak at Joseph Beth Booksellers.

Also, I did this car sketch as a study for my next Ultimate Sinister comic. It is a little late for the time period by 30 years, but I love the design.

Finally, I got out in the field to sketch yesterday with my friend Amy. We went to a good indoor location at Findley Market.

Fortunately, I am not cooking a Thanksgiving dinner this year and was free to observe the frantic purchasing of comestibles.

We we comfortable seated in the eating area next to the taco stand.

Vine video: https://vine.co/v/hF3jmVhPrQF

Photo by Amy Bogard of me sketching

Sketch at the Cincinnati Observatory

I sketched the Cincinnati Observatory after lunch yesterday… Great buildings… It reminded me of the paintings I had to do of the old Harvard Observatory for the Annie Jump Cannon book I illustrated.

I hope to go inside and sketch sometime.

Waiting Sketch

Sketch done while waiting for friends to go to a show at the CAC Sunday. This is the recently revamped Nicholson’s complex next to the 21C Hotel. I got there early to sketch. It was a bit cold so I had to head inside and finish.

Going to need to start looking for inside locations...

NYC Sketches

Sitting on the west side of Central Park

Sitting on the east side of Central Park

Sitting in Union Square

We lucked out with the weather during out visit and I was able to get out several times to sketch.

Here are Vine videos of all three locations:
https://vine.co/v/hDKEtVUUhJi
https://vine.co/v/hpUthA0bP9g
https://vine.co/v/hpMWvEgJrYH

We also went to see the Society of Illustrators Original Art Show opening. I have always wanted to go to one and this was amazing! We also had dinner there.It is fun to imagine all of the famous illustrators that have had drinks in the bar there over the years.

We also went to Park Slope in Brooklyn to try a vegan restaurant owned by my second cousin Aimee called Sun in Bloom. The food was fantastic!

We also walked around the neighborhood. It is a lovely area.

Anyway, now madly playing catch up and atoning for my time off.

Aimee took this picture. We are towards the back where they were filming a reality show.

Spooky... Back From NYC

Two snakes discuss keeping cool is A Cool Summer Tail

I just got back from trip to visit my brother and his family in NYC.

I plan to post the sketches I did soon, but as usual, I come back to a pile of deadlines so I will atone properly for my time off.

Anyway, even if this image from A Cool Summer Tail is not Halloween-specific, many find snakes spooky. (No offense garter snakes...)

A day of sketching at Eagle Bend Alpaca Farm!

This one had great markings

Last weekend, Vanessa and I got out to sketch alpacas at the Eagle Bend Alpaca Farm in Burlington, KY as a birthday treat.

They are such beautiful animals with amazing variation in coat color. I love their pompadours.

Some gestures in ink...

A group feeding...

The tip of the alpaca iceberg

I also saw a furry alpaca hat I will have my eye on when I return...

It is a perfect place for a plein air set up with the old barns and rolling hills.

Next time...

Children's Book Illustration Art Show!!

Join us for the opening of the Children's Book Illustration Art Show at the Sharonville Fine Arts Center in The Westheimer Gallery on Friday October 4th from 6-8pm

Viki Woodworth, Tammie Lyon, Christina Wald, Jeffrey Ebbeler and Vanessa Sorensen will be displaying their illustrations that have been used in children’s books.

The show will be up until October 27th and each weekend there will be special events with the illustrators, including live drawings, crafts, story times, mazes and more!


RSVP on the Facebook event page:


https://www.facebook.com/events/601236876585460/


Come and bring your kids to our special events each Saturday at the gallery!


October 5th, 11 am: Tammie Lyon and Jeffrey Ebbeler will do a Live Drawing and Painting event, plus story-time!

October 12th, 11 am: Christina Wald will do a Live Drawing and Storytime event!

October 19th, 11 am: Viki Woodworth and Vanessa Sorensen will do a Jokes, Mazes and Storytime event!

Fort on Fourth Street Books Are Here!

A fort made out of Fort on Fourth Street books.

The book is out and available at any bookseller!

Wordsworth and the Dragon Update

The LAST illustration... More adventures soon? Of course the book ends with a game night!

All the art is done, the book is funded and now Scotti Cohn and I are at the CreateSpace "trial of fire" portion of our journey.

We will have an update once soon on when the book will be available.

The King's Guard... Maybe we will see them again?

Final cover design...

Westwood Library Annex Sketch

Westwood Library Annex

Detail from odd frieze over the door. We could spend days sketching this place.

I have had my eye on this building to sketch for a while(only a mile or so from my house), so Vanessa and I had a beautiful day to check it out.

It is cram packed with sculptural details. We call is the angry baby building due to the prevalence of the unhappy looking cherub faces.

Angry Cherub Exhibit A

Cherub Exhibit B

I hope this building is still being used. It looked pretty deserted. It could have been closed. There was a Mad Cap Puppet sign in the window, maybe they bought it?

If no one is using it,  I want to live there.

Vine video: https://vine.co/v/heFnAzljj63

Faun and cherub detail

Lovely non-cherub detail

Trip to the Cincinnati Zoo and Other Animal Sketches

We saw these llamas in Missouri...

 I have a couple books about animals coming up, so I have been going to the zoo and other animal places to take pictures and sketch.

Sorry this is not a wordier post, I am still beyond swamped pretty much through the end of the year.

Snow leopard sketch from the Cincinnati Zoo… These are such weird cats. This one would come to the fence, touch it with both paws and chew on her left paw, limping off on the other three. At the Bronx Zoo a couple years ago, one was staring at the toddlers looking in by the fence and chewed on her tail… They seem to be frustrated by close but inaccessible prey.

A selection of ink gesture sketches...

Starting to think about bison??!!

And owls...

Sketching at St. Mary's Basilica

Vanessa and I sketched a bit of flying buttress action at the St. Mary’s Basilica in Covington. It is like visiting a European cathedral in Kentucky.

It was a gorgeous day to be out. It felt like September rather than the usual 90s in August. Here is a vine video: https://vine.co/v/hbgZbr2MlvB

Also, there is a wonderful Duveneck mural inside the cathedral; definitely worth a visit.

This sign was outside the cathedral. It made me laugh for some reason, high and quaveringly...

I expected it to say "spiritual surveillance..."

Live Art and Steampunk

I realized today I totally forgot to post this on my blog even though it is hovering around in cyberspace in other parallel universes. I started this sketch at a live art event at The Drinkery with the Ghost Empire Collective several weeks ago after I did this goat painting.

 I really like the design of a lot of steampunk stuff although I have to admit that the portrayal of steampunk fandom in The Guild made me laugh.

Anyway, I am behind a little bit here compared to my other art spots, but that will be fixed soon. I have a lot of sketches and new art.

Our next Live Art session is on September 6th. I will post info here.

Memorial Hall from Washington Park and On the Radio

A lot has been going on lately, so a quickie post. Vanessa and I went to Washington Park a couple weeks ago to sketch. I did Memorial Hall and she sketched the renovated buildings next to it.

It was a hot day to sketch and we were mercilessly pestered by a bitey fly, but at least we missed the gigantic pop-up storm that hit as I drove home.

In other news, I participated in a Children's Book Illustration discussion with Will Hillenbrand, Loren Long, and Tara Calahan-King that will aired last Sunday, July 28, 2013 at 7:00 am on WKRQ-FM (101.9) & WYGY-FM (97.3) and at 6:00 am on WUBE (105.1) & WREW-FM (94.9) 

 The show is Sunday Morning Magazine with Rodney Lear.

I will post a link to the audio when I can. It was a good discussion and we were all chatty in a podcast way rather than a radio way so Rodney had to do a bit of trimming. It is so hard to be concise when answering questions and one always thinks of what one SHOULD have said later.

Sketching in Missouri

George and Ioana's adorable kitty Missy

 We went to visit our good friends in Springfield, MO mid-June. Did a bit of sketching and went to an amazing wildlife preserve where you feed animals for your car and get drooled on by them.

My friend Ioana plans to take a sabbatical in Romania next year. I hope to visit her there for a couple weeks to sketch. We have not seen the country since 1998 when we were in their wedding. I am sure Bucharest has really changed.

Leave it to me, I can find a castle anywhere... This one is in Fordland, MO

The Next Big Thing Is… Fort on Fourth on the 4th

I’ve been tagged by Shennen Bersani (an AMAZING illustrator, check out her work) on this blog tour.
It originated in Australia and has gone viral in a good way rather than a 28 Days Later/Contagion way.


What is the working title of your new book?

The Fort on Fourth Street written by Lois Spangler

What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?

A child builds a cool playhouse with Grandpa using the 6 simple machines along the way (and a LOT of pet help).

What genre does your book fall under?

It is a picture book for 4-8 year-olds aspiring to be architects and engineers.

Where did the idea come from for the book? 

Since I illustrated the book, I will talk about how I conceptualized the art after reading the manuscript.

It was a fun project to take on. My background is industrial design so it is always exciting to take on something that involves 3D skills. I also love drawing architecture.

I looked at many books on playhouses, forts, outdoor playsets, etc. to come up with a design that would work with the picture book narrative.

I then did a simple orthographic my building (which is a turnaround an object or building from all sides in a 2-D format).

Final design of the 'fort'

My husband Troy is an engineer who designs toys (Fun fact: He used to be on the Batman team at Hasbro.) so he made me a 3-D model of my design for me.

Screen cap of the 3-D PDF

It was decided early on to keep the POV the reader of the book until the very end.

UPDATE FROM THE AUTHOR, LOIS SPANGLER:

"The Fort on Fourth Street was inspired by my teaching experiences and the memory my love of science as a child. As a child, I would create fun science experiments that I would do at home with neighborhood friends. As a science teacher, the memory of those wonderful experiences guided me in creating engaging lessons. The Fort on Fourth Street is an outgrowth of problem-based inquiry science lessons and student generated research lessons that I created and taught to my elementary science students. I found that these teaching methods improved academic achievement and attitudes of all students, including girls, towards science -  including physical science. "

Which actors would you choose to play in your movie rendition?


Actually, I would see this more a s a reality TV show; maybe a new feature on HGTV Kids.

Who is publishing your book?

The Fort on Fourth Street will come out this fall from Sylvan Dell Publishing.

How long did it take you to put together the first round of sketches?

It took me a while to crack this one. I finally decided to make it almost like a journal kept by the protagonist. I also had to get together model reference both human and feline.

One of my husband's friends who is a real model builder (he builds prototypes for toys and also used to work at Hasbro) allowed me to take pictures of him working in his shop and posed as Grandpa.

Sketch

Final spread

My most challenging model was my cat Miffy. For one image, I wanted to have her licking her paw. Troy suggested putting a little butter on it and then taking pictures.

Rather than licking off the butter, she looked at her paw in horror, limped off on three legs and hobbled upstarts to hide. I caught up with her and got some good pictures before her demeanor changed from frantic fur clean up to a disapproving glare.

Finally, my friend Theresa's (also a great illustrator, check out her work!) daughter Gwen modeled for some of the illustrations. She has grown up through my books; first as a toddler in Do Dolphins Really Smile? Grosset and Dunlap/Penguin Young Readers





What other books would you compare this story to within your own genre

It is And to Think I Saw It on Mulberry Street by Dr. Seuss meets Curb Appeal by HGTV Books.

It is also a real maker book but for kids.


Who or what inspired you illustrating this book?

I love architecture and problem solving. 
What else about the book might pique the reader's interest?

Not only does it educate about the 6 simple machines, it show the magic of making from blueprint to building.

And what is next after the next big thing?

There is a lot in the works! I am just finishing illustrations for a book for Bloomsbury (details soon) and have another book for Sylvan Dell out in the spring. It is called A Cool Summer Tail (my first sequel!).

Also, Scotti Cohn and I have been working on a middle-grade book called Wordsworth and the Dragon. We just funded it on Indiegogo! (She wrote; I  illustrated)

Now it's time for me to tag two more people!  

Tag! You're it on July 11th!

Rebecca Dickinson who does some lovely old school illustration (a lady after my own heart)

http://www.rebeccadickinson.com/

She will be discussing Anybody Home? Published by Sylvan Dell.





Tag! You're it on July 18th!

Brian Rock author of some adorable books.


http://brianrock.net/index.html
He will be discussing Deductive Detective published by Sylvan Dell.