Freelance for the Forward

Hey there blog readers!

Exciting things. I recently did a job for the Forward (or פֿאָרווערטס , for the Yiddish speakers among you). Because it's the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, loads of news sources are running articles. The Jewish Daily Forward ran a bunch of interesting pieces, and one in particular about two passengers on the ship, Isidor and Ida Straus. Straus, a NY resident, was co-owner of Macy's department store. On the night the Titanic sank, both Isidor and his wife refused places in the lifeboats and were last seen sitting on the deck together. In addition to a place in Woodlawn cemetery, there's a memorial park dedicated to the couple on the Upper West.

My favorite part of the job was doing some outdoor sketching uptown at Straus Park. These are my two favorite sketches from the afternoon.

I also spent some of the afternoon following around older folks along Broadway.

Once I had some decent reference, I went home and started playing with possible compositions. These are five of the samples I sent in.

Once we settled on a sketch, I did a tightened version so the folks at the Forward had a place-holder as they worked out the section layout. 

Before starting in on the final illustration, I inked a small sample, just to play around and loosen up.

Ink!

And finally, color.

Exciting things, indeed.

You can check out the full article here.

Many thanks to Dan Friedman and Lil Swanson at the Forward and Liz Marcus for putting me in touch.

Bunnies!

Happy spring holidays everyone!

Sketchbook Thursday: Miscellaneous characters

Hey folks,

I have a couple of big posts in process. Soon soon!

In the meantime,  here's a bunch of silliness from the ole sketchbook.

Sketchbook Thursday: Owls!

Howdy folks,

Just posting a couple of owly warm-up sketches from earlier this week.

Have I mentioned that I LOVE owls?

Because they're pretty great.

Fun With Paper

Hallooo all,

Work life has been busy of late. I recently started freelancing in-house at HarperCollins a couple of days each week doing design work in the children's department. Awesome stuff. It's nice to add some variety to my work week. But it does mean less free time for updates and random projects. Much of my painting time these days is for freelance jobs.

I did, however, have a little time in the past few months to make a few birthday cards for a couple of friends who live across the country. My camera is behaving a bit wonky right now (it may, in fact, be time for a new one...), so I only have one of the cards documented. And some of the images that I do have are only so-so.

Anywho, for the holidays, N sent me an AMAZING paper-cut chicken (which will soon be hanging in my kitchen), and inspired me to play around a bit with paper. I had an idea of what I wanted, but I knew it was going to be fragile.

The first card I made was paper-cut text glued onto a solid piece of construction paper. For this second card, I decided to get fancy and do a couple of paper-cuts layered together. First, I cut out the main text.

And the different sets of secondary text.

birthday text in process

birthday!

instructions under construction 

instructions!

And because this one was a bit more fragile, I decided that it needed a case.

I'm a sucker for birds, and I just happened to have a bit of old wrapping paper lying around. It wasn't quite big enough, but with a few construction paper additions, I had myself a shmancy looking custom case.

Once I had the case and all of the text cut out, I got to gluing. I love the smell of proper paper paste - it reminds me of sunny, dusty libraries and old books. No photos of in-process gluing - I didn't want to get any glue on my poor, malfunctioning camera. It certainly didn't need anything else gumming up the works.

Ta da!

Leap year!

Naughty Cookies

Halloo there loyal blog readers,

February always seems to disappear. Yes, I know it's shorter than all of the other months, but only by a few days. And yet, somehow, it always seems to zip by me. (March, on the other hand, lasts forever.)

This year, February sped by faster than usual; it was entirely swallowed up by life and work things, and all of my plans got lost in the shuffle... including a wry, tongue-in-cheek, illustrated Valentine's Day post. Alas, instead of illustrated or wry or tongue-in-cheek, this year you're just getting cheeky.

In addition to a hand-illustrated something, Valentine's Day cookies have become an annual tradition for me. I always make an assortment of very silly, rather naughty treats. However, even the cookies were late this year, and so this blog post is a little less than timely. Regardless, enjoy:

The full assortment

Close-ups

Rainbows!

Stars and bows

 And don't forget the duckies

Sketchbook Thursday

Hey there blog readers.

It's been a while since I've done a sketchbook post, and it just so happens to be a lovely Thursday... so why not?

I've been playing around with a new manuscript, and as of Tuesday night, I have just finished my first thumbnail dummy and started character designs. While I like the images, the pacing, the compositions, and the page turns in the dummy, the manuscript (I am quickly realizing) needs a major overhaul. That being said, (as I dutifully open Word,) I'm still having a ton of good old fashioned sketchbook fun with a handful of new characters... and yes, one of them is an 8 ft tall alligator. Well... 8 ft tall when he doesn't slouch.

His name is Randall.

  

 

Tu BiShevat

Hey there blog readers,

I recently did an illustration for a Jewish children's magazine about Tu B'Shevat. Tu B'Shevat marks the beginning of spring in Israel, and the New Year for trees; more or less, it's the Jewish equivalent of Arbor Day.

Usually around this time of year, New York is quite chilly, and we planned a playful winter illustration about the holiday. Trees feature prominently in the background, and the snowman's basket contains all kinds of traditional foods - barley, wheat, grapes, pomegranates, olives, dates, and figs. 

Another Tu B'Shevat tradition includes planting trees, or if you live in a usually cold (though-currently-unseasonably-warm) place, donating to orgs that plant trees elsewhere.

Trees!
Jewish National Fund
Arbor Day Foundation

Paper cranes

I've been back from visiting my sister for not quite a week yet, and it's already been a bit of a rocky homecoming. Two days after I arrived, I received some incredibly sad news. A college friend had passed away.

I have been struggling with how to process it. Between the cancer diagnosis late last year, her death earlier this week, and the funeral yesterday in D.C., I feel all wrung out. Words fail me as I try to write this.

She was an extraordinary person bent on saving the planet and helping anyone and everyone. She had a smile that could light up a room, and today the world is just a little bit darker.

Kirby Capen

(1983-2012)

Up, up, and away

Hey there blog readers!

Today I'm headed out of Brooklyn, off into the wild blue yonder. My very talented, lovely sister is currently an art conservator at the Mauritshuis, and I'm off to pay her a long overdue visit.

And what better time than to post a recently-finished piece... it seems thematically appropriate, somehow. This piece is from a personal project I started a few weeks ago, and this particular painting is actually the third in the series. I have the other two images all sketched out and ready to paint, but I tackled this one first because it was my favorite. (More posts about the project when I return.)

Up, up, and away!

Next post from the Netherlands!

Gym inspired doodle

2012

New Years resolutions stress me out. I just don't like them. Whether it was trying to get organized, exercising more, or eliminating m&ms from my diet, January's well-intentioned resolution often became December's guilt trip. Rather than continuing to fall into an inevitable cycle of December angst, I decided not to make any more annual resolutions.

While I have stuck to my resolution against making resolutions, I do, however, think it's valuable to have goals and high hopes. So this year, I made a list of hopes for 2012. Rather than pressuring myself to be someone I'm not or do something that will make my stomach lurch with guilt come December, I did a little journal doodle about angst-free things for the new year.

And I can say with certainty that the year is looking like a happy and hope-filled one.

Auspicious beginnings

Happy New Year blogville!

I hope everyone had lovely celebrations. I rang in 2012 in Brooklyn with champagne, fireworks, and some of the folks I care for most in this world. I have a good feeling about this one... good things ahead.

Taken in Prospect Park at midnight.

In the meantime, I just wanted to share the view outside my studio window on this lovely, chilly evening.