I am writing and illustrating a children’s book and after about two weeks of sketching and tweaking I am about done with the “look” of the main character. I am giving myself about a year to complete the task, working on it in bits and pieces every day. No, I do not believe it will be the next big children’s book publishing phenomenon. (Is there such a thing?) I am hoping to fulfill a life list item. I have picked a topic close to my heart, looked over the vast ocean of work that I need to cross, and set out in my tiny rowboat to accomplish the goal. When I am finished, I will make 12 copies and then move on.

I think the character is lovable enough (she sort of looks like my wife.) I need to do some body studies next and then I can turn to face the task of fleshing out the visual aspects of the book. The writing is coming along as well. I am almost halfway there (I think?) but I will put info about that in my writing blog.

I run a mobile virtual office. I have a space in my home that is my “office” but I tend to float around the house with various laptop tables and WiFi devices. Normally in the Winter I move upstairs to make use of warmer temperatures and in the Summer I move downstairs (yep its cooler).

A couple of years ago I moved upstairs and stayed upstairs, leaving many little “office” piles of paper and sculpting supplies and client CDs and sketches etc. It just reached the breaking point and I decided that the mobile office is a great idea for occasional use but I needed a place apart to work full time. So back down into the dungeon I go. It has been the staging area for numerous pile reclamation projects and sorely needed cleaning, so I gathered everything together from throughout the house and moved back into my office, cleaning it and organizing it to do work. It was a huge chore, but now that it is done I am almost looking forward to working down there again.

The final part of project number 4 is to create a political or editorial cartoon using the students newly developed caricature skills. Of course there is more to it than just drawing. It is an amalgam and distillation of complex issues into a single and hopefully clearly communicated opinion. These opinions can be focused on political figures, public individuals, or issues surrounding one or the other of these people. By the use of cartoon and caricature we can create a scripted stage that exists outside of reality, that is possibly humorous, probably satirical and can be manipulated to communicate a unique perspective. Here are a few cartoons I have created over the years.

A client needed a concept drawing of a beast that is used in a mine on some forgotten planet. They wanted it cute and approachable, like a pet dog with a little more brains. This went pretty quick (1.5 hours). I worked a little different this time. Normally I would use Sketchbook Pro for the drawing and then move it to Painter to do the final rendering. This time however, I did the whole thing in SBP. I love painter and the natural media tools, but sometimes I just need to work quick, and access to all the options and features in Painter sometimes cause me to overwork the pieces I am working on. SBP however has a simple pallet of tools and paint that keeps me from losing myself in the painting, and kick the project out the door.

The first part of the caricature assignment was to create a caricature based on a photograph or series of photographs. The second part of the assignment is to take it one step further and morph the caricature into an animal (or object.) The trick of course is to keep asking yourself if you can stretch or distort it more and still look like the person on whom it is based.

This particular version of Mahmoud I think goes in the right direction, although … possibly more mouse-like and cute then sinister and rat-ish.

caricature-demo.pdf These are the visual class notes from my caricature lecture. It is a pdf file.

I am about to start a section on editorial cartooning in the illustration class I teach at North Idaho College. Last year I created an image of Tony Blair, which was good, but somewhat non-distinct. This year’s example of caricature was a lot easier. It always helps if the subject is a walking muppet to begin with. The winner of poke your political pundit for 2007 is: (In my best Jay Leno voice), “Mahmoud Ahmannutjob.”

Created in Sketchbook Pro, using a Wacom tablet.

Yet another blog. (Deep sigh.) I am hoping to simplify my life and create an adaptable workspace, portfolio page where I can rant and rave and post pictures of what I am currently working on. Having sorted through dozens of “portfolio” web engines and hating all of them, while also having created dozens of blogs for friends etc. and loving the flexibility of those, I have decided to try and fuse the best parts of blogging, and portfolios and see what happens. It can’t be any worse than what I have. Wish me luck!