Sunday, October 31, 2010

Celebrate All Things Halloweeny

A house is never still in darkness to those who listen intently; there is a whispering in distant chambers, an unearthly hand presses the snib of the window, the latch rises.  Ghosts were created when the first man awoke in the night. 

~J.M. Barrie

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Celebrate All Things Halloweeny

Trick or treat, smell my feet.

I know you'll give us lots of treats.

Not to big, not to small,

Maybe the size of Montreal.






Friday, October 29, 2010

Celebrate All Things Halloweeny

Trick or treat, you're so neat.

Give me something good to eat.

Nuts and candy, fruit and gum.

I'll go away if you give me some.






Thursday, October 28, 2010

Celebrate All Things Halloweeny

Men are like pumpkins.
It seems like all the good ones are either taken or they've had everything scraped out of their heads with a spoon.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Celebrate All Things Halloweeny

'Tis now the very witching time of night,
When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out
Contagion to this world.

~William Shakespeare

Monday, October 25, 2010

Celebrate All Things Halloweeny

When witches go riding,
and black cats are seen,
the moon laughs and whispers,
‘tis near Halloween.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Celebrate All Things Halloweeny

There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls. 

~George Carlin

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Celebrate All Things Halloweeny

I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself than be crowded on a velvet cushion. 

~Henry David Thoreau

Friday, October 22, 2010

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Celebrate All Things Halloweeny


From ghoulies and ghosties
And long-leggedy beasties
And things that go bump in the night,
Good Lord, deliver us!
~Scottish Saying

I just had to share the comment from my last blog. This Skeleton illustration is similar to the Pumpkin picture from yesterday. I'm in love with the process - mixed media - and graphically is works - but it does not work as a "Children's Book Illustration".
Once again, I am decorative - nothing wrong with decorative if you are trying to get into the greeting card business. Paul was right on the money - where are the children? where is the story? what can they relate to?

Paul Kasmir said...



Works as a presentation but not as an illustration, does that make sense?
It has a quality to it that you would see on the end papers of a childrens book that would be decorative but for it to be more illustrative have a child carrying that pumpkin with maybe 2 or 3 bats flying over her as she is walking in the moonlight or with a glowing pumpkin.
Does that help some?
Sincerely
Paul



Monday, October 18, 2010

Portfolio Critque

I thought this was a fun Halloweeny picture - mixed media - I drew the pumpkin with colored pencils, and used the drawing as one of the collage elements. Just to see how it would be recieved in the "children's book" arena, I included it in my portfolio.

After lingering over it a while, they said it had a
nice graphic quality - then said nothing else. What did that mean? I guess it wouldn't work as a book illustration?

Friday, October 15, 2010

Portfolio Critque

This is an acrylic painting, with collage, of Amish Dolls. I am from Pennsylvania, very close to Lancaster where there is a large population of Amish. I am a little familiar with their culture, like the faceless dolls. It never occurred to me that the Art Directors from New York City did not know what they were. The critique of this illustration was – the bunny is great, very personable, but those dolls are disconcerting.




After I explained what they were, they thought there could be a story there – be still – the dolls were creeping them out!


Exodus 20:4 ESV
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.



Oct 15th 2010

Monday, October 11, 2010

Portfolio Critque

It is ok to include black and white illustrations – but you should also take the same illustration and translate it into color. Doing both shows your versatility.  Also, the market for Black and White is much smaller.


Oct 11th 2010

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Portfolio Critque

I have already illustrated a book for a non-profit organization and included two of those illustrations in the portfolio. They recommended next time to include a few pages from the book showing the text – this proves that you can handle text – that you not only can break the story down into the 32 pages but your illustrations enhance the text on that page.


Oct 5th 2010

Friday, October 1, 2010

Portfolio Critque

The portfolio must show that you can develop a character
– with expression and personality –
a character that is engaging and elicits a response from the viewer.



Most of my illustrations were posed characters – decorative –
more appropriate for the greeting card industry.

Oct 1st 2010

2022

   Merry Christmas