Cat portraiture (Or, "Capturing the Soul of the Soulless")

A friend got in touch a few months ago with a request for some commissioned art. He and his fiance have two exceptional cats, and they had long joked together about one day getting some classy, over-the-fireplace mantel-type portraits done of the felines. As Superman and Batman. Well, with a wedding on the way, Travis decided to make good on the long-running joke and asked me if I would take on the challenge of depicting Munch and Sam as "The Man of Steel" and "The Caped Crusader," respectively. Sounded like a fun project, and a hilarious gift for a groom to give his bride on their big day.     

A couple things:

First, I have basically no experience drawing/painting cats. 

Second, I don't really do superheroes....

LET'S DO THIS!!!

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LOL soo this is off to a weird start.

With the bones of the sketching eventually sorted out, the paintings actually came together pretty quickly. I started with Munch, the light-colored fellow, because it seemed like the easiest place to start:

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Supermunch

Sam, the black cat, was a little tougher. I had a couple different options for the costume (black or blue/gray), and I experimented with both. I was initially drawn to the idea of the all black costume because I thought there could be some interesting ways to combine black fur, black costume, and shadow. But, that proved to be too difficult to sort through, and in the end I figured it would actually make for a pretty boring composition. So, I went with the blue/gray costume and wound up with this: 

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Batsam

And here they are together:

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Evildoers beware

Each painting was done on 16"x20" watercolor block (140lbs., hot press). I used watercolor, colored pencil, Pigma pens (Graphic series), and a gold acrylic paint marker. Plenty of room for improvement, but I'm generally please with how these turned out :)

Kirkus Review for CRAVES

Rolled those pricey dice again and threw myself at the mercy of Kirkus Reviews. For those of you just joining us, they are the industry standard for book reviews, offering fair and (sometimes brutally) honest critiques. Here's what they had to say about CRAVES:   

“Readers who have felt that the things they want in life are like a pet—or monster—trailing them will see that concept depicted in this moral tale.
A young boy introduces a creature that looks like a dog saying, “This is my CRAVE.” The boy narrates, showing how all individuals have a CRAVE. CRAVES follow closely behind their humans in each image, looking like pets to all the schoolchildren. The boy explains that sometimes he feeds his CRAVE, but only a little, because after eating, it grows stronger and bigger. The joyful expressions on the well-fed CRAVES are delightful, but also sinister for adults, who should see where this story is going: the more people feed their desires and bad habits, the greater their presence in their lives. Johnston (Lelani and the Plastic Kingdom, 2014, etc.) illuminates this idea by depicting older kids whose CRAVES are no longer pet-sized but as tall as they are. He shows a range of adults: some have small CRAVES; some have bigger ones; some have CRAVES that follow farther behind; and others have CRAVES right on their heels. When a humongous CRAVE appears, the boy explains: “But some people have been feeding their CRAVES too much, for too long…and they are the biggest and strongest of all.” Those powerful CRAVES don’t follow but lead, with their humans lagging behind. The author’s beautiful, detailed black-and-white pictures with the cute, puppylike CRAVES are sure to have plenty of kid appeal, but adults will likely get the most out of this cautionary tale. Older elementary schoolers may be able to use this story in a critical reading discussion, considering what CRAVES really are and whether or not it’s healthy to feed them. The images offer a fairly diverse cast in terms of skin tone and a large assortment of ages and sizes for the humans (as well as their desires). The layered, hand-drawn, and painted illustrations suit the tone of the book perfectly.
This inventive story about the dangers of feeding desires should spark dynamic discussions with youngsters. —KIRKUS REVIEWS”

So, yeah! Pretty happy that they understood what I was aiming for with this book, and they seem to think I hit my mark. You know what the industry gurus have to say, now grab a copy and find out for yourself HERE.

Tattoo design...and it became an actual tattoo!

My aunt Amy commissioned a tattoo design last summer. Over the course of a dinner, she described her vision: sun with a face, mandala patterns, not overly complex, and about 2" diameter. I tinkered with it on and off during the summer and fall:

and sent her this design in December: 

She responded with: "Oh Robb!!! This is IT! <3 Yaay!!!" It's pretty awesome when you can take someone's idea and transform it into something they can actually see. She went to the tattoo shop recently and walked out with this:

Pretty cool! She combined some of the facial features of the earlier design with the simplicity of the second. I really like the addition of stippling (a specialty of the tattoo artist); I think it's awesome how our two styles combined so effectively to create this wonderful piece.   

1 month, 20 pages

All the illustrations for CRAVES are finished; I started the first page for my new book on March 5th and finished the final page on April 6th! Next on the to-do list: formatting and enhancing images. 

now the *real* work begins... :)

Tempus fugit

I did a time-lapse video of yesterday's work. Watch the short video to see how page 12 of CRAVES came together! 

10 to go!

Valentine coloring Page!

Happy February you guys! If you're looking for the perfect semi-NSFW, Adventure Time-inspired Valentine for that special someone, head to the ol' Dropbox and get your color on! File is HERE. Don't have the words to express your true feelings? Say it with Jake the Dog and Finn the Human.

<3<3<3

A nice note from Indiana.

I got a nice message the other day via Facebook from someone I met last summer:

“Hi there. We met at the Devil’s Lake Arts Festival last summer (2014) and you donated a copy of “The Woodcutter and the Most Beautiful Tree” to the library where I work (Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, IN). Anyways...I was just going though pictures from last year and came across this one of my kids holding your book after it was processed and put on the library’s shelf. Thought you might like to see it. We enjoy our personal copy of The Woodcutter... quite often. Thanks for making such a beautiful book!
Regards,
Mandy”

We like books. We LOVE Crocs.

Thanks for the wonderful message, Mandy! 

Merry Christmas coloring pages!!!

This Christmas, I'm thankful for all the blessings of another year gone by. I'm grateful for all the support family, friends, and strangers have shown to this humble artist/author/illustrator.  So, I'd like to offer a small gift to you in this season of giving.

If you're the sort that takes joy, peace, or relaxation from coloring, please feel free to download and print these pages for your chromatic enjoyment. Here's a link to the DROPBOX. I hope you enjoy my first dipping-of-the-toes into the coloring pages sphere. I would absolutely LOVE to see what these look like colored :) Have fun,  and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Snowed-in on a Saturday

This past Saturday, winter re-introduced itself to Michigan. As the snow piled-up outside the windows, I hunkered down over my table and (to the glorious sound of the radio broadcast of MSU's win over OSU) finished this piece, which will be in the May issue of a new children's magazine coming out next year. 

WIP

Finished

This concept has changed a LOT since I was first asked to contribute to the magazine. My direction boiled down to: Spring, nature. Beyond that, I had a lot of freedom, which is always both exciting and paralyzing. Once I'd settled on what would become the final design (after pages and pages of sketches and tinkerings), it came together pretty quickly. I haven't done too much with forestscapes...I find them a bit intimidating. I'm pleased with this one in terms of detail (never sure how much to include in the forest), and differentiating between fore-, middle-, and background (normally a struggle for me). 

Everything.

A week ago, I was at the Tecumseh United Methodist Church, peddling my wares at their second annual Arts & Crafts show. It was a fun event, during which I was invited to an arts & crafts bazaar at St. Elizabeth Catholic Church, also in Tecumseh (actually, like, a stone's throw from the UMC). I agreed to attend, mainly because I'd never had an event at St. Elizabeth and it seemed like a good opportunity to meet new people and possibly gain a new audience for the books.

Except, I was down to only 6 books. SURELY, I'd need a larger inventory if I hoped to satisfy the...Catholic masses.

So, I drove to Rockford after work on Friday, spent the night, and was on the road at 6am Saturday with a re-up of Woodcutters and Lelanis, and half of an apple pie, courtesy of mum. The show was mostly a mixed bag...lots of vendors, kinda light on visitors. I sold a few books* and met a bunch of nice people, vendors and visitors alike. I had basically chalked it up as a lukewarm success, when something happened that blasted the event into outer space. 

A photographer across the aisle, Deb, bought a copy of The Woodcutter at the start of the 6 hour event. As time was winding down and folks were thinking about packing up, Deb started crying. She had just read the book, and the tears were falling. She offered some beautiful words on the book, I blushed and thanked her, and just like that...my day, my week, are in the stratosphere. Being able to connect with people through my work - that's what makes 5 hours of driving and 5 hours of sleep all worthwhile. That moment, her reaction, was everything. 

* - Literally "a few books." As in, I sold 3 books. Six would've totally covered it. >.<