I’ve been drawing Jimmy Jay for three years and I still can’t draw him from memory. This time he has a nose like Tony Bennett and he’s talking out of the side of his mouth like he’s some kind of wise guy. I’m going to have to go back to book one and review my character notes!
After a month spent rounding up my scattered thoughts, I’ve finally completed this image for the print book frontispiece. For the e-Book I’ll crop the image into a landscape layout.
What I’ve learned is that changing directions at the last minute, as I did when I decided to have a print versions of the book, can throw me seriously off track and behind schedule. What I envisioned as a simple process (converting the e-Book images for use in the print version) turned out to be a big mistake. I’m living and learning every day, inch by inch.
There was a full day of Arting around here today. It started with the Vitamin D sketch, which I do every sunny day it’s not freezing. In the Pacific Northwest we get short-changed on sunshine. Vitamin D deficiency is epidemic. While I’m catching rays and generating Vitamnd D, not to mention resetting my biological clock, I do these sketches in 15 minutes. With the short time limit I have to simplify. I like to do a pen and ink drawing when I’ve got just a few minutes.
Here’s the Vitamin D sketch. I used by Kuretake Sable Brush pen and a 5.5x8 in. Strathmore Visual Journal (140 lb. watercolor paper).
For the weekly meeting of the Al Fresco Art Club, we decided to do another one-hour challenge that forces us out of our comfort zone. We decided that trying to copy a masterpiece always pushes us to do some thinking. The bonus is that we learn something about humility, as I did today when I tried to copy Gaugin’s “Woman with a Mango”.
Here’s the Alfresco Art Club painting of Paul Gauguin’s “Woman with a Mango” done using Artrage on the iPad Pro. Really, you should check out the original here.
It’s been a long day. I started the day with my one-hour Tuesday walk. This walk gets me out of the house and exposes me to civilization. One of the advantages of the walk is that is helps keep my blood glucose levels under control. After lunch I did an hour of cardio on the elliptical workout machine. Cardio, for me at least, can normalize my BG (blood glucose). For example, yesterday, an hour after lunch, my BG was 180+. I did an hour of cardio and my BG was reduced to 75. Today was pretty much the same: 128 BG two hours after lunch, reduced to 88 with an hour of cardio. I realize that I simply have to do an hour of cardio every day. I’m not happy about it, but I’ll do it anyway.
Sometimes art takes a back seat to health, and that hour of cardio will confiscate some of my art time. Even so, art is still on the bus. Speaking of buses, here’s the finalized Magic Moustache Bus image. My inspiration for the Magic Moustache bus is the fabulous Green Tortoise Adventure bus. Back in the day (the late 70’s) this Green Tortoise Bus was a common sight in the Bay Area. I never rode the Green Tortoise, but several of my friends took the Tortoise all the way to Mexico.
I’ve mentioned the Frankentoon crayon color palette several times. Here’s what it looks like in Procreate.
Today was another chore day. On a chore day, laundry comes before art. Pruning the overgrown Oregon Berry bushes comes before art. Sitting quietly and watching massive cumulonimbus clouds form over the distant mountains comes before art. Playing with my dogs comes before art. Watching a documentary about Michelangelo for a few minutes comes before art. Chore day comes before art, and I like it that way.
I completed two paintings while doing the laundry. The picture on the left shows Jimmy embarrassed that he cannot bring himself to break his mother’s rules to please his rebellious friend. On the right we see Buddy Butterfly, the foolish friend, falling down the chimney to meet his fate. Just look at all those stylish red shoes. I’d love to have a friend who has two hands and four feet.
This is the Frankentoon Crayon color scheme I’m using for this project.
Yesterday, and today, I spent hours painting Buddy Butterfly’s many-segmented wings, all the while reminding myself that I should learn to create interesting characters that are easy to draw and paint, especially if I’m going to featuring the character on 20 to 30 pages. Buddy is my favorite character, but he’s a pain to draw and paint. All, the same, I love the guy.
Last night I awoke in the middle of the night with the fear that what I’m doing will be a flop. It took me a while to calm down. I had to remind myself that I’m doing this because I like what I’m doing. So, I’m moving ahead at full speed. In fact, I have five more books planned for Jimmy Jay and Buddy Butterfly.
Click on a thumbnail to see the full image.
One lesson I’ve learned, after drawing and painting Buddy Butterfly several dozen times is this: plan and simplify your detailed characters before you start drawing. Even though I did some character sketches at the beginning of this project, I didn’t anticipate that drawing a butterfly with a segmented body and delicately veined wings would create a major time management problem. When I look at my images with dozens of flowers, trees with variegated coloring, skies with lacy clouds, butterflies with exactly 44 segments for all four wings, I realize why cartoons do not have crazy details in them — they take too much time.
Lesson learned. I’m curious to see how well I apply my brilliantly obvious insight to my next picture book, which will be done with pen and ink! But I’m getting distracted with future thinking. I’m going back to work now. I’ve still got 20 more pictures to color this week!
After coloring three drawings today, I collapsed into a sweet coma on the Ikea Kivik. With each drawing the Apple pencil became heavier and heavier, until it felt as if I were curling a 20-lb dumbbell.
Buddy Butterfly is featured today. He seems to be an arrogant little guy. I don’t know what he’s trying to prove. You would think that he would be happy to be part of the Jay family, but it looks like his personal issues are surfacing. I think it’s always more interesting when there’s a mischievous character stirring up trouble.
Today was the first day of my one-week vacation. I managed to paint two pictures and start a third. I got to thinking that each picture takes about as much time as two hours of television or Youtube surfing. Now that I’ve stopped using Wi-fi, I don’t do Youtube. When I’m doing cardio, I read instead of compulsively checking the channels I subscribe to. When I’m eating a meal, I read. When I’m settling down for the night, I read. There’s a lot of reading going on now that Wi-fi isn’t an option, which is fine with me because I’m a real good reader.
As for television, I still watch it with the family for about 30 to 45 minutes at night. My shows are ANTM reruns, Project Runway, and Masterchef. I’m waiting for some new Letterkenny episodes, and of course, more Rick and Morty.
Today’s output: Jimmy trying to rescue Buddy and Jimmy hearing Buddy’s cry for help.
Today I started my new crusade to draw from life at least one hour, once a week. For the last 6 months I’ve been drawing from imagination — cartoon birds and butterflies for my children’s picture book. At the same time I’ve been simultaneously reading about Vincent van Gogh and Michelangelo. The more I learn about them, the more I understand the importance of drawing from life. I want to improve my draftsmanship, so I’ll be spending time every Sunday sketching living things.
My first goal is to overcome my fear of drawing foliage. I decided I should start my new regiment by sketching the garden shed. It’s half covered by a lush grapevine. An overgrown rosemary bush sits in front of the grapevine and the shed. I’m confronted with thousands of leaves. After a few minutes eye to eye with the grapevine, I realized that I should not try to draw every leaf. Instead, I decided to draw only a few of the tendrils and leaves. Here’s the result of one hour of sketching.
An HB pencil gave a low contrast result, so I cracked the Photoshop Linear Burn whip to adjust the values to equivalent of a 4B pencil.
On the other end of the art spectrum, here’s today’s digitally colored picture for page #11, in which Jimmy and Buddy are having lunch in the poppy patch. I suppose Buddy is looking for nectar, and Jimmy is might be looking for some disgusting bugs to eat. However, in the world of children’s books, bugs, like birds and butterflies, are really people, so you can’t them. I’d better put a burrito in Jimmy’s hand.
