Can we do it? Yes we can!

I came to Brian with an idea some time ago, “I want to draw a piece with you and your guitar in the middle of a circle of nymphs! ‘Good’ he said, not even batting an eye. Wait I’m not finished ~ I want them all to be Rubenesque! ‘Even better’, he said and then he smiled”

I posted last month that I wanted to concentrate on poster size art. This idea would fit in well with that, but as things go, my muse had other plans. I still owe Brian the circle of nymphs; fortunately they found their way into his coffee cups. The coffee can design would feature one of the girls prominently on it, after we put a wedding dress on her.

The coffee can is Brian's baby; he knew 90% of what he wanted when he brought it to me. The other 10% was a series of fortunate events. This design is the visual center piece for promotional posters and t shirts.

Thanks for all your input on this Scot.

More is More!

While in school working on my Bachelors several years ago I signed up for a life drawing class. The class had thirteen students gathered around nude male and female models. If you want to learn how to really draw a human body you have to be able to see what you’re drawing.

My kids are going through my backpack, and start looking at the text book for the class. “OHHH does MOM know you have this?” They had a lot of questions. As I remember it, I went through how my text book wasn’t a Playboy, and how Mom signed me up for the class, so yes she knew there was going to be a “naked” lady in the classroom.

Drawing the human body is fascinating. It’s the way the light falls on the muscles. It’s the lines and shape the skeleton forms. So fascinating that I even forgot the model was nude one time. I was talking to her about one of the kids being sick. She was studying nutrition, so the conversation went on and on about vitamins, and my son’s health history...
...until the teacher shut us up!

It was only then that I remembered I had been talking to a young woman with no cloths on!

It is one thing to draw thin-ish models, and quite another to draw someone like me. I have about one hundred pounds on those classroom models, which makes it harder to render a figure like that right. Now, women that weight that much are even more difficult to draw. I'm liking the idea of that challenge. These promotional pieces are drawn without models. I haven’t found a good way to approach a “big and beautiful woman” and asking her to let me draw her naked!

To be honest, I don't thing there is a right way. Here are the pieces.
I’ll fill you in more later about the things I've learned from this project.

Geek Quote of the Week

"Net boy, Net girl

Send your impulse 'round the world

Put your message in a modem

And throw it in the Cyber Sea" ~N.Peart

CafePress.com

Here are the first six pieces available on CafePress.com, the link is just right there. We can all talk about it later. This is the kind of project I've always wanted to do. "Thanks to Ian, for in his own way, he got this thing rolling." Thanks to all of you, for your support, and for buying the designs. If you buy something, take a picture of it! Give me a copy and tell me what you thing of cafepress's quality. Cheers!

Top Five - List No. 4 ~ Fav Album Covers

With all this reminiscing about album covers; I can’t help but post another Top five list of my favorite album art. Thinking about what gets the art in the list I think it’s as much about the spirit of the piece as it is the technique. I’m glad the memory of the Snow White album came up, because it has the essentials elements of great album art. It begins by pulling you in, you pick that one out of all the others, and you hold it and study it, and finally, weather you buy it or not, it has made a lasting impression. Here are my top five picks for favorite album art. Sorry each has its own story, so it’s going to have to do giving you the record store I associate with it.

No. 5 Love Gun ~ Kiss ~ Sears [Barstow, Ca]
No. 4 Sgt. Peppers ~ The Beatles ~ Barstow Music [Barstow, Ca]
No. 3 Physical Graffiti ~ Led Zeppelin ~ Barstow Music [Ca]
No. 2 Evolution ~ Journey ~ City One Stop [Los Angeles, Ca]
No. 1 Yessongs ~ Yes ~ The Record Exchange [Boise, Id]

Art of The State (Continued)

After my Snow White post the other day I got sent pictures of old SW album covers. Thanks for thinking of me. Here is the one I was talking about. I love the Internet. The album is as cool as I remember it. If you need more info read - Sunday, May 30, 2010 "Art of the State" I'll talk more in depth about this album.
By the way, Disney re-released SW in 1967; that is when my sister took me to the drive-in to see it.

Here is what was posted with the artwork:

ST-3906, 1962
Songs by L. Morey, F Churchill
Music from the soundtrack of the motion picture

This is the Magic Mirror storyteller LP, originally released in 1960. The first version was released in 1957 as the "round cover." It isn't a read-along, though the album cover does fold out to reveal a full-size storybook. I can't find it mentioned anywhere on the album or the cover, but the Golden Age of Walt Disney Records 1933-1988, a pricing guide, lists Annette Funicello as the narrator.