A Month of Letters: A Letter from the Midwest (Delivered by Art)

Nothing beats getting a neat letter in the mail.  And as the "Month of Letters" (lettermo.com) comes to a close on this Leap Day, I thought I should share an exchange of mail.  Below is a letter typed on a Remington Mark II typewriter (yes, people still use them!  Cool people, at least) owned by my new friend Jackie from Illinois.

Very cool.  I included the clumsily torn open envelope also, because Jackie was kind enough to seal the envelope with a very cool little sticker.  It is enjoyable to see the variations in tone and texture that a mechanical typewriter makes on paper.  I have only typed on a mechanical typewriter a couple of times.  Too frustrating for me.  Let's just say that there was more Wite-Out on the typed page than actual typing.  I like retro things, and I understand the value of the mechanical typewriter in history, but I think I will stick with computers.

In return, I sent Jackie a postcard featuring those two unlikely heroes: Duke McMahon & O'Roark. Jackie randomly mentioned a squirrel in her letter, so I randomly included a squirrel in the comic.  I found that I liked using this 6"x8" watercolor paper as a kind of oversized postcard (requires first class stamp), and when I used a small envelope to trace a rectangle, it seemed to make for a nice 2-panel comic format.  Easily adaptable to a "before and after"  or setup and punchline format.

And I included an additional pen sketch of some of the tools I used to make the postcard.  Jealous You didn't get an original art postcard from me?  Well, there is always next February!  Or you could send me something, and maybe I will send you something in return.  E-mail me at inkpuddle@hotmail.com.

Architecture Drawing

It was in the first house I lived in that I wanted to be an architecture (which means I was 9 years old or younger).  I loved playing with legos and Lincoln Logs and making forts, and I loved drawing houses and floorplans, so being an architect seemed to fit.  Because I was young, I was seemingly turned away from architecture when I found out that it involved more than just drawing pictures of houses.  You had to know math and engineering and you had to work with contractors.  It lost its charm.  Knowing what I know now (including what I know about myself), I think I would have really enjoyed being an architect, because on top of the artistic design aspect of the job, there is clearly the need for problem solving, which I very much enjoy.

Pueblo House drawing done in 5th or 6th grade

When I was sixth grade, I encountered a substitute school teacher by the name of Ira Shander.  Since he was an artist, he would include art lessons when he substituted for the day.  I remember we were drawing the Kremlin, and he liked what I was doing.  He later gave me some postcard and greeting card examples of his work where he would essentially draw architecturally interesting homes for rich people.  Think rich people living in colonial houses from the colonial period throwing parties or just sending Christmas cards with their fancy rich houses drawn on the card via a commissioned illustration.  He also did historical buildings like those in Independence Mall as well as historic lighthouses.

Fast forward to now, and my girlfriend is what you might call a lifelong student of architecture, with a penchant for Victorian homes. Thus, my latest project.  I didn't want to draw a random Victorian house that I saw.  I don't mind drawing from life, but I much more enjoy creating myself.  So, instead I looked at Victorian architecture in pictures and in person, took notes, and got familiar drawing their forms.  So, I essentially made a Franken-house.  This is a made-up house, one that does not exist anywhere.  Perhaps that is for the best since I don't know much about structural integrity.  One thing was for sure--I had to make sure it had a mansard roof.  I also liked the idea of tower/turret addition.  I started off with a regular roof and changed it to an onion style roof.  Here are some of the preliminary sketches in my small sketchbook.

The basics and some of the details are right there in the thumbnail sketches, including my plan to show the front gate and surrounding flora.   Here is the first draft.  I have laid down pretty much most of the pencils or at least pencils for guidelines.

Now here is the top half of the house with mostly finalized pencils.  I like how this is progressing, and I am excited to see this thing inked.  On thing that I changed was how I detailed the roof.  I started off drawing an open, angled backwards "L" shape for the shingles.  I changed this to individually drawn and layered shingles, and I think this was a big improvement.

As you can see, the shrubberies I added were pretty much blobbish guidelines.  I inked in the leaves and shadowing freehand.  This is a piece that clearly could have gone on for much longer.  I don't like drawing clouds, so I didn't.  I could have inked in every pebble of every stone lining the path, but I also wanted to vague spaces so things like the footpath wouldn't be distracting.  Here is the almost final product.  I actually added gray ink shadow lines to the piece as a final touch and something that would make it unique and not what I have scanned or what I will turn into a print.

I plan on making this into a card product and posting it to an Etsy shop.  I will update this post when that happens.  I may also color it in and make a print out of it.

My Friend Lucy: A Month of Letters (Delivered by Art)

February 9, 2012:

I wanted to be sure to send something in the mail to my friend Lucy.  Some people have called Lucy a real bitch, but she is my friend and always will be.  She has always been nice to me.  I remember when I visited her and I took her photograph for her mom and dad.  She was great.  Anyway, I hope Lucy likes this.

Postcard sent to my friend Lucy

A Month of Letters: Dickens (Delivered by Art)

February 7, 2012:

Today is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Dickens, so I thought I would do a post and a "Month of Letters" post, and celebrate the author who brought us many a classic, including A Christmas Carol.  Below is an envelope featuring a portrait of Dickens himself.  The card inside features Scrooge peering out of his bed curtains.

ink on brown kraft paper card and envelope

Want to learn more about "A Month of Letters"?  Check out www.lettermo.com.

Charles Dickens and Book Illustration

Today celebrates the bicentennial of the birth of English novelist Charles Dickens.  Go anywhere on the web today, and you will see Charley show up.  He is even headlining the Google homepage (although why this doodle is not yet listed on their doodle page and why there is not credit given to the artist, I have no idea).

Thanks to @GaiaBordicchia, I now know this illustration by Mke Dutton.

In my opinion, Charles Dickens has a very interesting relationship with the visual arts.  Not only did he work with some of the most well-known illustrators of his day (George Cruikshank, John Leech), he inspired other incredible illustrators like Arthur Rackham as well as authors and illustrators to this day.  When we say something is "Dickensian," we don't just mean it is like something from his time period.  I don't think the terms Victorian and Dickensian are interchangeable.  With all things Dickens there is this wonderful combination of naive enthusiasm tempered with horrible and dark tragedy.  Draw someone in a top hat and stiff shirt collar and you might say he is a Victorian.  Place a slightly over-sized top hat on a bright-eyed youth and then in the background place a dark and disheveled man lurking and eyeing the youth, and now you have drawn something Dickensian.  Dickens evoked a feeling of narrative and you can picture it with your mind's eye.

"Mr. Fezziwig's Ball" from A Christmas Carol, by John Leech

With regards to book illustration, Dickens novels were episodic and lent themselves perfectly to illustrators who wanted to use a vignette to capture the mood and moment of a scene in his works. Try illustrating a moment in a James Joyce novel.  Good luck! Even fellow writers like Anthony Trollope and George Eliot could not quite come to the level of a captured moment in writing (in my opinion).  For a really wonderful resource and archive of Dickens' illustrators and illustrations, you can visit the link below.

I was trying to think of how Dickens had influences the visual arts and popular culture, and of course, it usually comes back to A Christmas Carol.  Would I have watched every single episode of Disney's Duck Tales if there weren't a Scrooge McDuck from A Christmas Carol?  I think there is something about the way Dickens wrote characters and character types, that when combined with our impressions and visual memory of things from the Victorian Era, create a motif and an imagery that is uniquely Dickensian and something that authors and illustrators have drawn from ever since.  There is plenty of Dickens writing that I do not like and consider supremely cheezy, but he is worth celebrating.  Literature, illustration, and cinema all owe him a debt of gratitude.  Happy Birthday, Charles Dickens!

Fighting a Losing Battle

Okay, so there is no way I am going to complete 10 daily cartoons for the cartoon contest I told you about earlier this week.  I waited way too long to start, didn't have 10 working scripts to flesh out in pencil and inks and I am not independently wealthy and need my 9-5 job, so there you go.  But I do encourage Ink Puddle readers to check out the competition and vote for your favorite.  Click on the graphic below to visit the contest site.

Click on the image above to visit the contest site.

As for me, here is what I started with as cartoon strip #1.  I wanted the strip (or at least one of them) to be timely in some fashion.  For me, this means a quick look on the calendar.  President's Day is coming up, and that can allow me to squeeze in some topical political humor as well.  I start off real basic with real basic and quick thumbnail sketches.  They just have to be coherent enough for me to decode which characters are which and if I am going for a particular look on their faces or displaying a specific emotion or are supposed to be talking.  Speech balloons are included but can always be moved (but sometimes the proportions and spacial design of a thumbnail works best, so never think of thumbnails as primitive or an early step to be disregarded).

The thing with thumbnails is this: NEVER ERASE!  Just keep going, get it down on paper, keep it simple.  Don't be afraid to add details, but the important part is to get a good sense of the image you see in your head down on paper.  As for writing: I am bad with being precise in my script. I will sometimes leave a final script until I have the cartoon scanned and I am ready to use the computer to add text.

Prelim thumbnails and rough outline of dialog.

I think I transferred and modified my ideas fairly successfully to the panels.  The placement pretty much stays the same.

non-reproducing blue pencil draft

And then I inked it in.  It's times like these that I wish I worked with a colorist.  Then I could commit to a kind of animated style of cartoon drawing, meaning lots of outlines, not much in terms of solid blacks and shadows.  My original concept of this strip was for Gandhi to be drawn in a more cross-hatched, stippple shadowed pen style, and The Devil to be inked in brush like a cartoon character.  You can see a better example of this in the older Devil and Mr. G strips I provide below.

If you click through to the full size image, you can see some the ink smudges (mistakes)

And then I added colors and text in Paint Shop Pro. I did not tailor these images for the blog, so if you want to clearly read the words, YOU SHOULD CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO SEE IT FULL-SIZE.

But the fact is, it is not enough.  I wasn't in love with the script (or the idea of the script), but I had to go with something to get the ball rolling.  I suppose if I had a team working for me, where I could do the art and someone else could scan and color and add the text and publish it, maybe I would have time to do a strip daily.  This reinforces my idea that I should work to do a "cut-and-paste" comic strip where I can add a character with a particular emotion that is already drawn, inked, scanned, and colored, and then just add the dialog.

I cheated on coloring with this as well.

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A Month of Letters: February 2, 2012 (Delivered by Art)

Today is James Joyce's birthday!  And it is Brent Spiner's birthday!  And it's Groundhog Day!  Hooray!  And it is Day 2 of "A Month of Letters" (see http://www.lettermo.com for more details).  I have waited too long to write to my two good friends (and their two adorable children), who moved to Texas late in 2011.

I added some faux treasure map features to the envelope, with some coloring and some disproportionate drawings of the states of NJ and TX.

A Month of Letters: February 1, 2012 (Delivered by Art)

February 1, 2012.

I am actually going to follow through with this, I swear!  Letter #1 on February 1 goes to the girlfriend.  2 pages, with cartoon sketch of Henry the Dog, with marker decorated envelope.

Decided to make this small enough so you can't read it easily.  Not that I am hiding anything, but it's my private mail and correspondence, you know?  I may be a blogger, but that doesn't mean the Internet needs to know everything I do.  Want to know more about "A Month of Letters"? Go to http://www.lettermo.com and check it out.

Want me to send you mail/art?  E-mail me at inkpuddle@hotmail.com.