Spores

Autumn in Michigan is an incredible time of year, not least of all for the variety of fungi that start popping up as the temperatures cool and the rains fall. As an avid forager and mycophile, spore printing is an invaluable identification tool. As an artist, the designs they make inspire me to create.

Agaricus arvensis or "horse mushroom"

This year was an especially good one for me. Mushrooms of all sorts were in abundance, and I was even fortunate to discover a new favorite (pictured above). The horse mushroom is an edible species. It has a strong, sweet smell reminiscent of almond extract and dark brown spores that make incredible prints. All you need to do is remove the stalk, and place the cap with gills facing down on light colored paper (for a species with light-colored spores use dark paper). Leave the mushroom undisturbed for a couple hours before gently lifting it off the paper to reveal the spore print beneath. I am very excited to further experiment using the spores in my black walnut paintings.

It's winter now and the mycellium are dreaming softly under a thick blanket of snow. But I am looking forward to next season when I can grab my basket and my knife and start printing again.   

Wally

This good boy is Wally. He belongs to my coworker's dad, and she asked me to do a painting of this old fella as a Christmas present. I'd never painted a dog before, so this presented an exciting challenge.

  These were the two reference photos. I obviously relied very heavily on the first one, but used the second for some details. I did a couple sketches to work on proportions and form, then began the final piece on a 9x12in. hot press watercolor block. Here's what we ended-up with:

watercolor, colored pencil, and black walnut ink

I'm pretty pleased with how he turned-out. I think the proportions could be better, but I think the "loose" style works well. My coworker seemed happy with the work, and there were a few tears when she finally saw the finished piece. Just a quick glance at the photos will tell you that Wally is a gentle, kind soul. If you spend a few hours looking at every detail on his face as you try to capture it on paper, maybe you get a deeper insight into his personality. And if you've known the dog for a lifetime as his family has, you know that there isn't a photo or painting in the world that could even begin to capture his true warmth and character. But that's the task set before me, and I am always grateful for the privilege to try.

I'm in the process of lining-up commissions for the winter, so if you're interested, please get in touch through the contact page HERE.

A place to be, to make

I've never been fond of making art at a desk. Even as a young fellow with a perfectly acceptable little schoolhouse desk in my bedroom, I found it difficult to concentrate and stay focused if I was secluded and tucked away in a corner. Instead, I would carry my paper and crayons to the kitchen table and set about my work there. I prefered the ambient hustle and bustle of being in a open common area of the house, with lots of little distractions around, but nothing particularly distracting. The habit borne of this preference has pursued me into my adult life, as I schlep armloads of watercolor paraphernalia to and from the dining room, my drafting table more often serving as a broad, flat storage space rather than a working surface.

However, the most recent iteration of my "desk" has proven to be an excellent little corner in which to work. The desk and chair were Christmas presents from my girlfriend, and I've been making an effort to make proper use of the gifts. So far, I have some posters and artwork hanging on the white walls in my little corner, and my little trinkets on a shelf next to me. In addition to being creatively inspiring, I find the new space approximates a certain lively atmosphere and background "noise" that I need in order to do my best work.  

Also my iPad, w/ Netflix. 

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!!!

View fullsize

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:

View fullsize

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: 

View fullsize

Batsam

And here they are together:

View fullsize

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!