"I loved standing under the towers--choose any one, depending on the time of day--looking up and farther up, until the back of my head rested on my shoulders."

The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place by E.L. Konigsburg

[Portraits of People Who Aren't Real, the much belated #4]

Step by step

This is the SlydePress 2013 Redleg Annual, an eBook previewing the 2013 Cincinnati Reds.   I created the illustration for the cover, and lots of wonderful writers contributed articles.  It's available for purchase at redlegannual.com. 

Today I thought I'd do a post about my process, because, well... I've never really done that before.  We start with a thumbnail, a tiny quick sketch to just map things out:

At the thumbnail stage, the editor hadn't settled on exactly what image he ultimately wanted illustrated, so I also created a thumbnail at the same time for a drawing featuring hitters.  Even though we moved forward with the pitchers, I liked that hitter one enough that I went ahead and finished it for my own personal use.  Anyway, back to this illustration.  So after we settled on that thumbnail, I started working a little larger, and at the same time tightened up and refined the drawing a little bit:

At this point, we need some introductions for the non-baseball fan readers, as I'll be referring to these guys by name.  From left to right on the sketch above, that's Mat Latos, Aroldis Chapman, and Johnny Cueto.  So after seeing this sketch, the editor suggested switching Latos and Cueto, because Johnny Cueto is actually quite a bit shorter than the other two, and it would be awkward for him to be leaning on Chapman like that.  Hence, the next sketch:

I originally tried out smiling Cueto, because he really is quite smiley in real life, but it wasn't right for the intensity of this image.  So, goodbye smile, hello funky eyebrows: 

I should mention that I make liberal use of tracing paper throughout my drawing process, from thumbnail to final sketch, so I don't have to completely re-draw the image every time I make a small change.  

At this point the editor pointed out that we had another height issue:  Latos is actually taller than Chapman.  Instead of retracing the whole thing at this point, I just used some Photoshop trickery to stretch Mat a little bit:

I cleaned it up a little in the last drawing I did to get ready for color.  I transfer the drawing by completely covering the back of my last, best, neatest tracing paper drawing with pastels.  The color I choose is different every time depending on the colors I plan to use in the drawing and the color of the paper I'm using. This time I went with brown, which showed up quite well on the white paper. I then tape that on top of my drawing paper.  I use Colourfix coated pastel paper, which has quite a bit of tooth to it, almost a sandpaper-y feel.  It's able to hold up to several layers of pastels:

 Next, I trace over my own lines on the top shet with a pencil, and when I remove the tracing paper, voila! I now have lovely brown pastel outlines on the Colourfix paper to guide my drawing from here on out: 

At this point I'm working on my awesome turquoise drawing desk, which my parents found at the World's Longest Yard Sale several years ago and very kindly bought for me.  I'm pretty sure it was handmade by someone, so therefore I'm pretty sure it's one of a kind.  Which is awesome.  Anyway, I tape up a version of the drawing next to me for reference, in case I traced anything badly or lose any of my lines as I work:

One of the cool things about pastels is how easily they blend and smear together.  But that's also a challenge.  In other media, you can work all over the page at once, in whatever order you like.  With pastels, you want to avoid smudging the parts you've finished, so you have to be very intentional about moving across the page.  This doesn't mean you can't go back and make little changes here and there afterward, but you need to be very careful.  Since I'm right-handed, I always start on the left/top and work my way to the right/bottom:

I use a mix of chalk pastels sticks and pastel pencils.  The flat pastels are Prismacolor NuPastels.  The pastel pencils are an unholy assortment of brands, picked up in sets and as individuals over the years, including General's, Conté, Stabilo CarbOthello, and Faber Castell Pitt pastels.  I generally use the sticks for laying in large swathes of color and the pencils for details.

 So at this point, we're just trucking along, working left to right.  This piece actually came together quite easily, compared to others.  But not every illustration is this easy.  Lots of times, I reach at least one if not several points of abject frustration, completely ready to give up.  I don't understand people who can do live drawing demonstrations, who willingly invite an audience into the behind-the-scenes process of their art-making.  Because even when everything's going as planned, there are stages when everything looks utterly ridiculous and terrible.  For instance, especially when drawing people, I start by laying in an underpainting of sorts, to deepen and make richer the regular colors that will go on top:

After the above, I went over the whole face with a more appropriate skin color, blended everything, then used a lighter color (or two or three) to pull out highlights for a little depth.  

I also really love lines and tend to grow attached to them in the drawing stages.  I'd hate to discard some of those lines even after I have color that gives my image shape and form, so I always work with some kind of outline in the finished piece.  I also like to add depth with a little stray crosshatching or other pattern. The outline's not always as dark as this.  Often, I use lots of different colors from elsewhere in the image (examples here, here, and here).  

Anyway, we're almost done now.  Once I get to a point where I'm happy to step away (sometimes I have separation anxiety and want to keep working on it, perfecting the littlest details for way too long) I then scan the illustration and do a little color and value correction in Photoshop to make sure everything's good to go.  And there you have it!  Finished:

If you made it this far, congratulations!  You win a cookie.  And I hope you enjoyed your peek into my process.

The storm clouds are gathering.

Fine art prints available at Imagekind

Every year to mark the start of the Cincinnati Reds' spring training (noted by the day pitchers and catchers are required to report to camp) I do an original baseball-themed illustration.  This year I've re-imagined an old team photo using four of the 2013 team's top hitters.  It seemed appropriate since I've been doing portraits and focusing so much on the team's history this offseason.  Here's the original:

Image courtesy of ebay. I don't know who took the original photo
but let me know if you do, so I can credit a photographer!

For those not well versed in the Cincinnati Reds, introductions are in order:

• 1961 photo: Vada Pinson, Gus Bell, Jerry Lynch, Wally Post
• 2013 illustration: Shin-Soo Choo, Joey Votto, Brandon Phillips, Jay Bruce

So why do I celebrate this every year? Why do baseball fans get so excited about a day that's pretty meaningless? Why do we mark the start of over a month of practice and exhibition games?

There's a scene in an early episode of the late, great TV show Sports Night where new producer Jeremy is cutting his first highlight segment for the show, a routine review of a routine baseball game. Problem is, he can't bear to cut anything.  Every moment is important to him. So he ends up with an 8 minute highlight reel. Anchor Casey tries to help him out, and we get this scene:

Casey: Okay, this section here where the batter taps dirt off his shoe and spits four times...
Jeremy: We can't cut that!
Casey: Jeremy.
Jeremy: No! The storm clouds are gathering.
Casey: [sighs] All right.  Just out of curiosity, what voiceover would you have me write for this moment?
Jeremy: What's wrong with "the storm clouds are gathering"? 

That's spring training for me. The storm clouds are gathering. The pace of baseball is uneven. I know that. It's sometimes all about waiting. There's lots of getting ready, of settling into stances, of positioning yourself in the field, of winding up to throw.  But if you know the game, you know the value of those slow times.  You know who to watch, and what to expect, and what to wait for.  And then... something happens.

Yes, Opening Day isn't until April. But baseball is being talked about, and soon it'll be played, and then it'll be played and will count.  I'm so excited, I can't stop smiling. Happy pitchers and catchers report day, internet!

[Memory lane:  2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012]

Batting Average Joe, or Flying Pygmalion, or Choose Your Own Baseball Adventure

This guy started out as one of my Reds Hall of Famers (I'm up to 17 portraits over there, hey hey!) Somewhere along the way he stopped looking anything remotely like the intended player.  But I just like him too much to lose him to the giant Discarded Mistake Pile in the Internet Sky.  I like the drawing itself, for one (I've really come to love cross-hatching, haven't I? When did that happen?) Also, I think the man himself is quite handsome.  Definitely easy on the eyes.

So what tales can be told here? Anyone care to give our Player to be Named Later a name? A position? An OPS and/or WHIP? Just don't try to steal him for another team. The wishbone C is non-negotiable.

Side note: "Batting Average Joe" could be a decent nickname for Joey Votto. "On-Base Percentage Joe" might be more accurate, but it doesn't have the same poetry to it. That being said, not much could top "The Say Eh Kid" in the Votto nickname department. 

The drawing that wouldn't behave.

My latest post over at Every Reds Hall of Famer turned out all right in the end, but boy did it have a rocky beginning.

Anyone remember that tiny little side plot element in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, where Ron's special Spell-Check quill starts malfunctioning, and every time he tries to write "Ronald Weasley," the nonsensical "Roonil Wazlib" comes out instead?

Well, this was kind of like that.  Here's how it went down.  I'd stare and stare at this photo of Ival Goodman:

Photo credit:  theconloncollection.com

Not the hardest guy to draw, right?  He has a distinctive, even caricature-able, look.--that chin, those eyebrows, that lined face. Shouldn't be hard to nail.  But it seemed the closer I looked and the more attention I paid and the more carefully I drew and the longer I worked, the more I got it wrong.  And not just nonsensically wrong, but specifically wrong.  Imagine if instead of "Roonil Wazlib," that quill turned "Ronald Weasley" into, I don't know... "Abraham Lincoln."

Because no matter how hard I tried to draw Ival Goodman, my pencil insisted on drawing Roberto Clemente instead.

See it?

Photo credit:  wikipedia.org

I spent hours on that drawing.  And the thing is, it's a good drawing.  But it's a drawing of Roberto Clemente.  Roberto Clemente was pretty great:  excellent ballplayer, stand-up person, handsome man, tragic hero.  But not a Red, and so therefore not a Reds Hall of Famer.  And definitely, definitely not Ival Goodman.

So I set that failed drawing aside.  Stopped paying so much doggone attention, loosened up, worked quickly, powered through, and ended up with what's posted over there now.  But Ival Goodman, dear Ival Goodman, you were a challenge.  And a weird, mysterious one at that.

A new blog for a special project (& other internet things).

I've started a new blog!  Inspired by Summer Anne Burton's Every Hall of Famer project and spurred on by my need to warn up my drawing skills, I've decided to draw every member of the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame.  (That's 81 players, eep!  No deadlines, though, thank goodness.)  I've set up a new blog to track my progress and showcase my results on the project at http://everyredshalloffamer.wordpress.com.

I'll still use this blog for everything else I draw, as well as some occasional check-ins on that project and maybe even some behind-the-scenes stuff (I already have a post in mind about one particularly challenging drawing) but I definitely encourage you to bookmark that project as well.  Should be fun!

I'm also a few other places online that I'm not sure if I shared here yet:

Facebook | Pinterest | Twitter (I'm new there and scared and need friends!)

Follow me there to stay updated on all my artistic exploits, and probably also my thoughts on other things.  I do have thoughts!

A Hall of Famer

It's been almost 5 years since I first posted a version of this sketch of Cincinnati Reds shortstop Barry Larkin, in response to an Illustration Friday prompt of "Captain."  Tomorrow, Larkin will be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY, and so it seemed fitting to repost.

He was probably the most important baseball player of my childhood and my early years of being a fan.  He started his major league career when I was a toddler and finished just after I finished college.  And he played his whole career in our mutual hometown, an unusual thing in his era.

I was hoping to be able to go to the induction ceremony in person and am a bit bummed that I can't (what's with being so inaccessible by transit, Cooperstown?) but I'll be smiling big while watching the ceremony on TV.  I'm glad Barry's getting the recognition he deserves!

A Glimpse (or Klimt!) into the Past

My cousin Emma is almost exactly ten years younger than me and is now studying art at my alma mater (what up, University of Dayton!)  Ten years isn't all that long in the world of higher education, and so in a lot of ways, Emma is following in my artistic footsteps:  taking the same classes, often with the same instructors, and even sometimes doing the same projects.  Today, she was treated to these two preliminary paintings I did way back in my Painting I class my junior year of college:

The project, if I remember correctly, was to do a self-portrait in the style of a master portraitist from art history.  My choice:  Gustav Klimt.  In preparation, we created these two paintings:  a representation of one of our chosen artist's portraits, and a detail of our own portraits.  

Talk about a blast from the past!  I hadn't thought about these paintings in years.  I'm heading home to Cincinnati to visit my parents in a few weeks and now want to dig up and photograph the final painting I did for this project, a full-body portrait with lots of bright, smeary, patterny colors and only the face and hands in precise detail.  I also want to start doing more bright, smeary, patterny colors in my pastel drawings sometime soon.

Thanks to Emma for sharing this.  

"My middle name, Tree, comes from your basic tree, a thing of such beauty to my mother that she made it part of my name."

Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech

[Portraits of People Who Aren't Real #3] 

p.s. This week's illustration Friday topic is "imperfect."  I'd feel comfortable linking pretty much any illustration for that topic, as perfection is pretty much impossible to achieve--particularly when the illustrator is as rusty and off her game as I am!

"Ethan Feld was the least gifted ballplayer that Clam Island had ever seen."

Summerland by Michael Chabon

[Portraits of People Who Aren't Real #2]

"Fern loved Wilbur more than anything."

Charlotte's Web by E.B. White

[Portraits of People Who Aren't Real #1]

Portraits of People Who Aren't Real

Yesterday, I headed down to the National Gallery of Art, mostly to see the current exhibit on Paul Gauguin (who I've decided was a bit of an illustrator, actually!)  But on the way, I stepped into the Chester Dale Collection exhibit, and I couldn't stop looking at this painting by Picasso.  I loved how stark and simple it was while still being exquisitely executed.  I needed something to kick my artist butt back into gear, and I think this did it.  With this great painting as inspiration, I've decided to do a few simple portraits of (what else?) some  of my favorite children's book characters.  Sketches today, pastels... next! 

Ethan from Summerland

Fern from Charlotte's Web

Margaret Rose from The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place

Sal from Walk Two Moons

Illustration Friday: DUSTY

I've been working all afternoon on perfecting the sketch from my previous post in preparation for some pastel work.  That's why, when I clicked over to Illustration Friday and saw that this week's topic is "dusty," my mind went immediately to Reds manager Dusty Baker.  So I grabbed a pencil, a pen, and a post-it and went to town on a quick sketch of the runner-up to the 2010 NL Manager of the Year award.

24 days until pitchers and catchers (and managers) report!

Remembering Romero

Tomorrow, March 24, 2010, marks the 30th anniversary of the assassination of Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero.  Archbishop Romero spoke out on behalf of the poor of El Salvador in the midst of military repression, overwhelming poverty and shocking economic disparity, ultimately paying for his courage with his life.  Apparently, this extraordinary man is not as well known as he should be, so I thought I'd do my small part to right that wrong.  If you'd like to know more about Romero, start with this recent tribute.

Presente, Oscar Romero!

Goodbye, baseball! See you in the spring...

I've been collecting a few baseball-related images and thoughts over the last few weeks, intending to post them here. As I say a lingering farewell to the 2009 season, this seemed as good a time as any to scrap them together into a post...

1. CURRENT WORK: I spent some time today sketching the greatest baseball player of my childhood, as rumors of his retirement continue to swirl. I may do this in pastels eventually. With apologies to anyone in Seattle, I'll be doing it in red.


2. FLASHBACK #1: The recent 10-year anniversary of an incredibly exciting game (and the equally exciting but ultimately disappointing 1999 Reds season) sent me foraging in the attic for this old drawing.

It's my 16-year-old take on a photo of second baseman Pokey Reese that ran in the Cincinnati Enquirer at the time. I called it "Twelfth Inning Triumph." There are parts of it I still really like (the treatment of the uniform and the arm, the title) and others I cringe at (it doesn't look a thing like Pokey! And that red and yellow glow...hmmm. No comment.)

3. FLASHBACK #2: Seeing my flashback Reds art led my Dad to do some foraging in the attic of his own, and he came up with this grease pencil and watercolor portrait of the great Pete Rose.

This coincided nicely with the recent release of this fantastic book. And it also gives me a chance to show off my artistic genealogy! :)

4. I LOVE PUBLIC ART: One of my favorite things about Great American Ballpark is these two beautiful mosaics. They're the first thing you see when you walk into the stadium, which just makes me all kinds of happy. I mean, how could I not love the intersection of baseball and art?

The 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings, first professional baseball team.

The 1975-76 Big Red Machine, last National League team to win back to back World Series.

5. A LITTLE CRAFTING: I don't really have any craft skills--all my creative energy gets used up in art and, to a lesser extent, cooking--so this is about as crafty as I get. After years of absentmindedly using baseball ticket stubs for bookmarks, I decided to be more intentional about it. Ticket stub+contact paper+ribbon=voila!


6. HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL: 144 days until pitchers and catchers report. In the meantime, I can always watch this on a loop. Love that hint of a smile at the end. And love that team!

A current project

This is a half of a two-part commission I'm currently working on. Just thought I'd share!

Today was a wonderful, relaxing day despite the foundation-rocking, power-disrupting winds howling outside. I did some drawing, read some of The Secret Life of Bees, signed up for Kiva, drank some chai, and made falafel. If only every day were Sunday. Back to work tomorrow.
--------
"Stories have to be told or they die, and when they die, we can't remember who we are or why we're here." -The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd.

King

Martin Luther King, Jr.
January 15, 1929- April 4, 1968

An interesting examination of Dr. King's legacy and what it's perceived as today.

West Wing scribbles

If you're going to laze on the couch on a Thursday night, watching your favorite TV show on DVD, you might as well do it with a pencil and sketchbook in hand, right?
For the uninitiated, these are characters from The West Wing. I had particular fun, as you can see, with Toby (the floating scowl in the center of the page.) He has a wonderfully expressive face. Also, in case anyone's wondering-- that's Margaret next to Josh, not CJ. It's CJ's eye in the bottom corner. I hope the rest are identifiable to those who know the show (despite the fact that Sam looks like a woman). Cheers! Happy Friday!

Illustration Friday: BACKWARDS 2

Fred Astaire? "Sure, he was great, but remember, Ginger Rogers did everything he did, backwards... and in high heels." -Bob Thaves

I really didn't think I'd do any pastel work again before the holidays were over, yay! And, hey, speaking of which, here's to a beautiful Christmas, a lovely New Year, and fantastic days all around them.

Illustration Friday: SUPERSTITION

"I'm not superstitious. But maybe I'm just a little stitious." -Michael Scott, loosely quoted

It's a holiday week, so I'm being lazy and recycling an old sketch.