Illustration Challenge: Weeks 12 - 15

Hello again! My word, it's been a while since my last post! For those of you who don't know, we moved from Japan--Land of the Rising Sun--to Virginia, and it has been quite an ordeal for the last few months. But we are finally moved in to our cozy little 1920s house, and I'm ready to get back on track with my art endeavors! During our move, I still was working on artwork for the 52-Week Illustration Challenge (a weekly themed drawing challenge that you can find here on Facebook), but I still have some catching up to do. In the meantime, I'll be more diligent in uploading the fruits of my labor. Hopefully it will bring a smile and some inspiration to your week! : )

Cheers!-JessWeek 12: CostumeMeet Kyle, a character in an upcoming graphic novel of mine. He's a good kid--kind, studious, and looks out for others. He's majoring in astronomy and physics, and has a deep fascination for space. Did I mention that for his high school senior project he constructed this Apollo replica astronaut suit all by himself? It works, too. Sharp kid!(Ink and Ink Washes) Week 13: TransportSometimes the fastest way to get where you're going is on dragonback...(Ink and Ink Washes)Week 14: VietnamPho, anyone? : )(Easy Paint Tool Sai, Photoshop)  Week 15: WhimsyI think this one speaks for itself. ;)(Easy Paint Tool Sai, Photoshop)

Project DAVE (the Moon Man)

Hey folks!Just dropping in to give a quick update on what I’ve been working on. So lately (meaning the last few months) I’ve been thinking of ways to find a vector for my art. What I mean by that is that I want to have a clear direction of where I’m going with my art journey—not just doing random drawings here and there without any definable objective (although random pieces are good to do now and then). One of the biggest questions that I find myself facing (and consequently other young artists that I talk to), is where exactly am I going with this? This…art thing. What am I doing with it? What is my purpose with it? And for me specifically, how can I bring glory to God and show others how amazing he is through it? I believe I’ll be working through these questions for a while, and I believe that they will become clearer in time. But one thing I know is that it is good for me to work on a solid project. A project that has a beginning and an end, that carries more meaning and weight than a simple doodle or drawing done on a whim. And a story achieves that perfectly.So, I’ve been working on a short-story comic. Specifically one drawn to the lyrics of a song. There are several good things about this: A.) I don’t have to worry about writing the story, and instead can just focus on illustrating what I envision in my head B.) Continued practice in comic creation C.) Sense of accomplishment on something larger than just a stand-alone drawing.  Since the story is not my own, I won’t be able to sell the finished comic, but it’s really alright. In the end, it’s just nice to have what I envisioned for this song down on paper for others to enjoy.The song: Dave the Moon Man by LooperIt’s a good song that I’ve been listening to for a number of years now. It’s been one of those specially songs that you have childhood memories associated with, and it wasn’t until this past summer that I realized I wanted to give this narrative a visualized representation in the form of a graphic short story. If you have a chance, you should listen to the song. It’s a very interesting story, and I’m excited to share it with you soon visually.

Concept sketches of Dave--still working on nailing down what he looks like in my head; here, he still appears a little too boyish, but he's slowly coming together

I’m currently still drawing compositional thumbnails, but once I finish those, I plan to get feedback from  peers on the flow, imagery, and layout of the story before I commit those designs to the finalized pages. I’m still undecided if I want to traditionally ink it and color it on the computer, or do both the inks and colors digitally. I’ll do some practice pictures and see how they turn out.Sample of compositional Thumbnails (in no specific order); thumbnails are small, sketching drawings that grasp the basic feel for the page layout, flow, and feel of the story and will be redrawn and perfected later. Thumbnailing takes the most amount of brain power, because this is when I'm thinking about how I want everything to look and takes a lot of time, redrawing, and research to achieve the basic idea of what I want to see.

2013 Massive Catch-up (aka: I’m Not Dead Yet!)

Really, I’m not!

(get the reference, and you get a cookie)

 So one of the purposes of this blog was to practice the “professional” side of my craft—that is, keeping people informed on current projects and so nurturing the artist-audience relationship (not to mention keeping myself motivated and disciplined to work on new projects, so that I wouldn’t become complacent and fall off the end of the earth.) Yes, it’s been five months since I’ve made a sound—but I’d like to contest that I have in fact been busy and have lots with which to update you! I’ll be concise, and try to show more than tell. So here goes!

• Started off the year teaching art classes at the local art center. They’re simply beginner art classes, but I’ve really been enjoying it and have a whole new spread of classes coming out this summer. Take a peek at the Facebook page if you live locally (and are interested in participating!)

Fundamentals of Drawing

 When my mom came to visit, I got to teach her some art tricks. She caught on fast and is quite talented too! :)

She drew that apple! (and you can, too!)

• In February, we met up with some high school and college friends in South Korea to explore Seoul and to go skiing and snowboarding. Needless to say, we had a blast! Not only did we carve up the slopes, but we got to explore the beautiful and interesting culture of Korea. I admit to have a bit of a crush on Seoul--definitely need to go back some day!

Chibi Cat-Jess Explores Seoul...

• Also in February, I started working on a book children's book commission for a friend. When she was a kid, her dad would tell her and her siblings a cute story about a frog that disliked water, but eventually learned to love it. I'm still in the process of illustrating it, but I've been really enjoying it. It's nice to have a piece that you can just relax and have fun with, and I've really been learning to illustrate faster and looser. Here's teaser pic:

• As you may have noticed, things look different around Leaping Squirrel Studios. That's because--with the aid of both my wonderful husband and my amazing brother--we were able to consolidate my portfolio website with my blog. Now I no longer have to direct people to two separate sites. Whoo-hoo! So check out some of the spiffy new links (and sorry if it still takes a bit to load...we're working on that.)

• Also, in junction with the website update, I've been working on my in-progress children's story: Lily's Garden. I've done a lot of reworking of the manuscript (made it a lot shorter), and have been updating some of the drawings in the dummy. After submitting it to an editor for a critique, I received a lot of good feedback that I will be mulling over for a while. For right now, though, I'm putting the story on the backburner. I realized that I need to simply explore Lily as a character and simply practicing more cat drawings before moving forward with Lily's Garden. It'll come eventually, but just not yet. Here are some recent expression studies of Lily.

• Amidst all of this, I've started my first real garden! With the help of my mom, we built a raised garden bed and planted a number of vegetables: tomatoes, lettuce, onions, beans, peas, beets, strawberries, corn, and even a few pumpkin plants. My morning regiment now includes enjoying God's creation while watering my cute, little garden. Not a bad way to start the day, if I say so myself!

The garden box and fruits/spuds of our labor.

• During March and April (while simultaneously juggling much of the above), I was working on a personal piece for...well, just for fun! I got the inspiration one day when Rainy (our little black kitty) was sitting under my red Japanese parasol. That's all it took for inspiration to hit. Hence, Kimono Kitty was born!
• I really liked how this piece turned out and am considering doing a few more of cat-and-kimono pieces. Funny story...Rainy no longer likes to sit under the red parasol. In fact, she's rather scared of it now. Thinks it's some kind of evil red monster that spontaneously pops open. Silly cat.

• FINALLY! We come to the last update. I really used to be a huge fan of the old 1930s/40s Nancy Drew Mystery Stories. I decided to try rereading some and--now as an adult--had a good chuckle when I did so. Okay, so the writing is pretty...dated. Not to mention that the characters are all one-sided and we are constantly reminded how ABSOLUTELY PERFECT Nancy Drew is. Dream girl, really. Blonde, blue eyed, and beautiful Nancy is good at everything, "boasts" many friends, and is naturally talented at sports. She's considered attractive and is smart too. Oh yeah, she also doesn't need to work, as she has a housekeeper and a lovely house, with a charming attorney father. Perhaps the only flaw in her life is that fact that her mother passed away years ago. ............ *Ahem* SO. Now that we have that out of the way, let me move on to some reasons why I really enjoy reading these stories. First, these stories always bring up fond memories from childhood, and how I played "detective" with my friend Danielle. Also, there's something special about the prose in the original versions of these stories; the way they speak and call their friends "chums", or how they have "luncheon and tea"--it just takes me back to a by-gone era that I find intriguing. And that's the magic of a story--it transports you into a different world. Therefore, I can have a few laughs whenever the the story reminds the reader how flawless Nancy is (for the fiftieth time), and simply enjoy being immersed into a world of adventure and mystery. With this said, I bring you the illustration for "The Bungalow Mystery" by Carolyn Keene.

You know, I learned a lot doing this piece. Some things that I will make sure to do again, and some mistakes to avoid in the future. My first and foremost mistake: never use a billion ink washes on a flimsy piece of bristol paper. That sucker warped faster than Starship Enterprise. Not only that, but the quality of the paper absorbed the water so quickly that it left absolutely no room for correction of ink removal. To add on top the pile of OOPS, I realized that simply adding clear water on the paper darkened it (unlike watercolor paper, which preserves the natural hue of the paper when wet). This made predicting how much ink I accurately applied IMPOSSIBLE. I'd only know what it'd look like after the water dried. It took a ton of reworking to finally get it to its finished state. I also learned that in the future, I should apply a base layer of gray to the overall picture (except for the white areas, like in the lantern) to give the whole piece a cohesive look. The mistake I made was working each element to near-completion. I completed the tree, the silhouette forest in the background, and then it was Nancy's turn. When I started shading her skin, I nearly had a heart attack because against the stark white background, Nancy no longer looked like a lovely blonde with glowing skin, but instead like she just baked to a crisp under a tanning bed (I wish I got a picture of it...it was pretty horrid). Out of disgust and frustration, I ended up tossing the picture to some corner of my art room and left it to be for a few weeks, until I decided to come back and finish it a couple days ago. And wouldn't you believe it--as soon as I added a few ink washes to the rest of the picture, Nancy started to look more at home in her surroundings. MAGIC I tell you! And so I learned something important:Don't just give up on a project because it looks awful at the moment...push through that stage and work on it. With a little magic (and perseverance), it might actually become something you're quite proud of. :)

Well, everything is now updated! With that, I'll say...

 (for now ;))

Lost At Sea

So today for my lunch break, I decided that I'd crack open a book that my brother gave me as a gift. The book was Lost At Sea--a graphic novel by Bryan Lee O'Malley (the same guy who did Scott Pilgrim). I only intended to read a few pages before going back to work. I ended up reading the whole thing in one sitting.The thing is, stories are powerful.What I found in this book was what many a young adult--myself included--have struggled with at some point in his or her life. The story is centered on a girl named Raleigh, who finds herself quite unexpectedly on a road trip with a few others whom she distantly knew from high school. Much of the book is her inner monologue as she relates to the reader her mass of jumbled and confused thoughts on....well, life. She finds herself wandering through life aimlessly and is trying to make sense of it all--is it all meaningless, coincidence, or something else? Why does she feel empty--souless, even? Is it the loss of her past friend? Her parent's divorce? The cats that are magnetically drawn to her? (You just need to read it and find out for yourself!)Reading this for me was....well, gut wrenching. Because I can relate to times where I've felt wandering, searching, lost. Lost, confused, and scared. But I will tell you by the end of the book, there was a peaceful release, as if deep in my heart I sincerely believed "It's going to be alright. It really is going to be alright." That's also the power of hope for ya.It's a good read. Especially for you who've struggled with this thing--or still are, as many of us are--it's really nice to know that you're not alone and that it really is going to be alright.-J