3 Musketeers Mini DONE

Finally.

"3 Musketeers Mini", © Paula Pertile
image is 8 inches wide (in real life the candy bar is 2 inches wide)
done with Polychromos and a pinch of Prismacolor red, on Stonehenge paper

I confess, there were times in the last stages when I got to thinking WHY am I doing this? Am I crazy? Could be.

But seriously. I think what I enjoy is the exercise of really "seeing". Drawing what's really there, as opposed to what you think you see. For example, when you look at an actual 3 Musketeers Mini candy bar, you see a shiny silver wrapper with red and blue lettering. It would be very tempting to just get out the Silver colored pencil and do the wrapper, then a single red and navy blue to do the lettering. Throw in some shadow and a highlight or two, and you'd be done.

But in reality, there is oh so much more to this. There are oodles of colors in the reflections - greens, reds, blues, of all shades. Then the shapes of the reflections and shadows are really complex. And there are warm and cool tones of greys throughout. When you take each 'sub-shape' and analyze it, its pretty crazy.

For example ~
This is the shiny bit top right, up close. Look at all those shapes.


And this is down left ~

I think they're really cool little compositions all by themselves. If I were an abstract painter I'd just do something like this REALLY BIG ~ and would also probably make a lot more money!
(Hmmm ... maybe I'm on to something here ... )

For a lot of my children's book work, I make stuff up. It helps to keep practicing 'really looking' at details of things to make the 'made up' things look real-er. Of course it also helps to get models or make maquettes, too. But sometimes you just have to rely on your 'making it up' abilities, and the more 'looking' you've done at things, the better chance you have of making something believable. (and I apologize for all the 'single quote marks' in that paragraph)

I will do a step-by-step to put on my site in the next day or two.

~~~~
In other news, the ALA has announced the Caldecott and Newbury, etc. award winners.
You can read the whole list here on their site.

Jerry Pinkney's The Lion and the Mouse won the coveted Caldecott. I've seen this book, and its bee-yoo-tee-ful.

This is the cover. YUM.

3 Musketeers Mini WIP #3

Its now officially at 'the ugly stage'.I skipped quite a few in between steps, and am showing you where it is now. Lots of red and the start of some blue, mostly. Now is where it gets really fussy (like it wasn't already), and I'll spend time with each little section, really fiddling. There's a lot of subtle nuancing that will happen in the next few steps. I'm leaving the red "3 Musketeers" type to the end, since that kind of red tends to smear easily. Also, its the icing on the cake.

So some of you have expressed an interest in my PLAN. I know, I know, you all just want to see what I do then copy off my paper. Well, I didn't say I could guarantee the plan would work or be successful - its just a plan, a roadmap of sorts, of where I want to go. I mean, we all have a sort of plan as we go when we schedule jobs, or if we're really good and do regular self promo mailings, that sort of thing. But I want to include some deadlines for myself outside of that for getting some more new art done, some picture book dummies actually done, some colored pencil art (like the above) done, some competitions entered, some galleries contacted, some publishers contacted, some art licensing people contacted - stuff like that. I just think that if I actually write it down and stare at it every day, and commit to it, I'll stand a much better chance of accomplishing something. I'm not saying I'm going to get to all of it in this first "semester" ~ but eventually.

I would also like to redo my website (which means learning a new program), maybe get and learn Painter, do more with my Wacom and try to be more digital, and finally figure out Illustrator. ha No, I'm not kidding. Illustrator has always scared me a little.

And that's my plan, in a nutshell. Nothing spectacular. Nothing that a lot of you probably aren't already doing. (did that make sense? those double negatives -)

One thing I've decided is to forget about ebay altogether, and CafePress and Zazzle, and maybe even Etsy. I still have my knitting shop and art prints shop on Etsy, but I'm not sure how long I'll keep them going. Its all a lot of work to do well, and if you don't have the time to commit to it, it ends up just being a drain, both financially and timewise. Just saying.

Its supposed to start raining cats and dogs this weekend, so I'm going to burrow in. We're stocked up on coffee and kitty treats, so we should be OK.

Ta ta ~

3 Musketeers Mini, WIP #2

I'm combining a few steps, and showing you where it is right now. I've added light ultramarine, grey green, caput mortuum violet and green yellowish. It has a long way to go! But its getting there. Amazing how much color is in "silver", isn't it?

I will do all the steps and put them on my website when I'm done. I don't expect anyone to actually try to copy this, but its fun to see it progress, step by step.

I'm working up a sort of "plan" for myself and my work. I guess we all do that, but I find that I just get caught up in doing it, and forget where I'd intended to go, and at some point find that I am usually way off course. I'm approaching it kind of like when you're in school, starting a new semester - you sign up for classes, and go the first week and get the syllabus and outline of what's going to be taught, when assignments are due, tests, midterms, etc. Then you know, week to week, what you have to get done, study for, etc.
So I'm going to do a 'semester' at a time, 3 or 4 months, and map it out, and just stick to it.
Really.
Maybe I should go buy myself a new binder or notebook as well - I used to looove those ones that had the divided up sections for each subject. *How old am I?* The kids probably type everything into their laptops or blackberry's or something now.

First thing is to go back to work on this drawing, then on to the PLAN. (funny word, plan - "plan plan plan plan plan plan").

See ya ~

More candy, WIP

I've started a new candy piece. Here's the reference I'm working from:

The actual candy bar itself is about 2 inches wide - it is a Mini, after all. But I'm doing the art at about 8 inches wide, like I did with the Twix.

I start with a drawing that I do on my lightbox. This is about 1,000 times darker than the actual drawing I made - I had to darken it up so it would show up here. I use a graphite pencil, H or F or B, and do a really really really light drawing of all the major shapes of type, shadows, etc.
Then I start the rendering. I'm using Polychromos on Stonehenge for this series. And no, I'm not using the "Silver" colored pencil in the box, ha ha, as tempting as that may be. I'm starting with greys - a Warm grey IV, and a Cool Grey III and VI. Here I'm just starting to establish some pattern and value, which will of course get developed way more as I go along.



This is all very slow and a little tedious. OK, no, very tedious. One's eyes can cross doing this, looking at all those little teeny tiny shapes. I'm also doing some editing as I go. I do make decisions about leaving out some of the teenier bits, or things that are just weird photographic hiccups, etc.

There is some nice reflected color in this - some reds and blues, which I'm looking forward to putting in. Also, I chose a 'silver' wrapper this time, since the Twix piece was gold. Kinda needed a change.

So that's it for now. More to come.

Also working on some little black and white children's book pieces. I'm doing them traditionally, but plan to scan them and fiddle with them on my Wacom. I'm trying to get more 'digital' with my work, at least some of the educational type stuff, as that seems to be the way to go. I will still do lush colored pencil pieces when its appropriate. Trying to wear as many hats as necessary to survive in this current shaky illustration world! Feeling like a one woman band.

Framed again

I love when people send me pics of my art, framed! Here's the most recent example - a print of my Twix Mini candy bar. Its an odd size, so it had to be custom framed. I'm touched when people go to the trouble. Its an ego boost, for sure!

And this reminds me that I've intended to do a whole series of these little candy bar pieces. I have the reference shot. Now "all I have to do" (those famous words) is actually DO them.

Since I blogged last I've been doing organize-y clean up kind of work around the house and yard. De-cluttering, organizing files and closets, pruning roses and cleaning the shed, etc. etc. etc.

I'm also working on some new children's book art. I would like to have a whole new portfolio, something that reflects a little more of my 'drawing' style, and that isn't quite as tight as the piece above.

This isn't by any means a finished piece - its just a doodle, but I like the 'drawing' quality of it. Its just done on printer paper with no tooth, and with a couple pencils. I had no idea what I was going to draw when I started, and this little guy just materialized.


And this is about a 5 second sketch, inspired by the color of pencil I had handy.

Its fun to sketch to get ideas. Sometimes I *think* too much before I start to draw, and get kind of paralyzed. Like, I can't start drawing until I know exactly what I want to draw (in the case of 'made up' children's book things). Sometimes just starting to doodle is a better way to dive in. It gets the creative juices flowing, and besides, its fun!

So I'm off to do more of all of the above, and will check back when I have something worthwhile to share. Hope everyone is having a good start to your new decade!

Life in the new year

Happy 2010! And let's hope it is. (happy)
Personally, I'm glad to see 2009 go, and the whole decade for that matter. Oh, there were good things, yes, but over all it wasn't the best 10 years of my life.
I'm liking that this new year is MMX in roman numerals. Has a nice solid look to it.
I also think its cool that there was a full moon (and a blue one at that!) on New Year's Eve - that has to mean something. I'm taking it as a good omen.

(click this for a larger view)

I did this "LIFE" piece a while ago. Its actually in color, but can I find the color digital file of it? Noooooo. So organizing some of my files and back ups are in order methinks for the new year.

But it seems appropriate. I've been doing a lot of looking back and looking ahead and thinking about the paths one's life takes, wrong turns, right turns, accidents, lucky breaks, 'what ifs?', where to go next, etc.



Whatever path you take, however well thought out, you're liable to hit a road block or something to test your metal here and there, and its anyone's guess as to which corner it will be hiding around. There are also wonderful unexpected surprises awaiting us all, which appear in just as random and unpredictable a way. The trick is to just keep going. Have faith, learn from the hard bits, and rejoice in the gifts.

I'm not making actual resolutions, but I am making some goals for myself. Most have to do with work and being creatively productive. I usually just make a kind of casual list of things I'd like to do or accomplish, then passively wait for the "good fortune fairy" to make them happen for me. Or I just run out of gas before I get all the way there. So this year I'm going to make some things happen. And no, I'm not going to tell you what they are - a girl has to have some secrets.



We were supposed to have a big storm move in today, but instead there was just a little light rain. I'm taking that as a good omen as well. Do I sound just a wee bit superstitious with all the 'good omen-ing'? Well, maybe. But why not. I was also happy to observe that despite the early frosts we had last month (which blackened a lot of my poor plants), the hydrangeas have strong green buds which have held up, and are promising to bloom come spring. Same for some irises and other leafy friends. I'm looking at everything through this kind of 'there is life after a dark time' lense, willing things to bloom and be green (literally and figuratively speaking) for us all.
So let's hope it comes to pass.

Didn't know I was going to get to philosophical when I started writing this. Oh well. Next time I'll probably be snarky about something just to even things out.

So here's wishing good health and happiness and peace and prosperity to all!