Do You Sell Your Feathers for Worms?

Here is the preliminary drawing for a magazine illustration I am working on. In the article, the allegory is told of how a bird begins to sell his feathers for worms thinking that is easier than actually going out and catching worms. Besides, he has so many feathers. Well, on the day he realizes that he can no longer fly, it is too late. Comparison is made to choices in our lives and the question posed is whether or not we are selling our feathers for worms? Do we trade what is of most value to us for something less, simply because it is easier? Do we opt for the smoother path or maybe even give up our dreams because they seem too hard? I have made a few of those choices in the past including diet and exercise.  That's why I am currently undertaking a challenging climb back to better physical fitness, but I bet there is something in every one's life that equates to selling your feathers for worms. Regardless of where you are in life, I think it's a topic worthy of consideration. What have you sold your feathers for? How have you recognized or overcome this? I look at where I want to be in all aspects of my life and realize that it will take time to grow back a few of my feathers before I can soar again. I'd love to hear your stories!

Geronimo Finished Drawing

Here is the final drawing for one of the Boys' Life illustrations I am working on. I always take my thumbnail drawings and enlarge them to use as the basis for my final drawing, adding detail and making adjustments as I work. I recently purchased a portable light table that has been very helpful in this process. For years, I created my final drawings on tracing paper right over the top of my enlarged thumbnail drawing. This allows me to retain the shape relationships, proportions and overall arrangement of elements that I carefully established in my concept sketch.

Tracing paper is a terribly non-archival surface and these drawings will probably fall apart in short order. I always figured I had the physical painting though, so I didn't worry about it.  Since I am painting more digitally these days and there is no actual painting, I decided it might be nice to have some sort of artifact from the process other than a pile of pixels on a hard drive. I am now creating more finished full value drawings which I then scan and paint over digitally in Photoshop. I am really enjoying the drawing phase of the process and like having something physical left over as a result. This drawing is on 100 pound smooth finish Bristol which, by using the light box, I can see through well enough to get guidelines from the enlarged thumbnail drawing.

Geronimo Rough Sketch

This is the approved concept sketch for a project I am doing for Boys' Life Magazine. The story follows a boy in New Mexico whose best friend belongs to Geronimo's Apache tribe at the time when they were being forced onto the reservation. This scene depicts that final fireside chat before Geronimo surrenders and a separate small band of Indians escapes into the Mexico territory.

I want to create a dramatic lighting scenario as well as an interesting color palette. Frederic Remington did a whole series of these type of night paintings that I love and I hope to capture some of that same drama in this one. I am especially interested in the capturing the balance of the interesting cool greenish grays from the moonlight against the warm oranges that the firelight throws off. We'll see what happens, but I like where it's going so far. Just took photo reference, so now on to final drawings.

Get - Frederic Remington: The Color of Night

Rebirth of an Unused Concept Sketch

Heart Girl-  12" x 16" Mixed Media/Acrylic

In a post last week, Amy mentioned that the concept sketch for my Songs of Power book cover looked a lot like another one of my later paintings. She was correct. I used the drawing as the basis for a painting I did for Love Communications. They used it on their website and also printed a five foot tall version for their office lobby.

Concept sketch from the Songs of Power cover project

I thought I'd show you how that sketch eventually became another painting. That is one thing about doing numerous idea sketches.Even if you don't end up using an idea at the time, there is no telling where that idea or composition might turn up later.

Revised drawing that was used for the above painting

I keep a file of all my sketches and refer back to them from time to time to see if there is a gem in there that has gone unused. I may have posted this image before, but even if I have, it's worth a look alongside the sketch that inspired it.

Songs of Power Cover

Cover for Songs of Power by Hilari Bell, 14" x 9" acrylic

The cover for "Songs of Power" by Hilari Bell called for a mysterious feel. The protagonist in this YA science fiction/fantasy was a teenage girl of Inuit descent who had the telepathic power to communicate with whales.

First proposed concept sketch

My first concept was a rather straight forward depiction of the girl meditating on the talisman given to her by her grandfather that helped her talk to the whales. Through the porthole of the undersea city where she lived, the whales began to gather.

Final approved sketch. 

The art director Irene Gallo asked me to come up with a more ethereal and mysterious solution. After a fair bit of sketching, I settled on what became the cover image. It became a wraparound image covering both front and back covers. Note the lack of value on the back of  the cover. I would never submit a sketch today without some indication of value patterns. It's a mystery as to why I didn't always do that back in my early career, but I did. I guess I have learned a few things since then.  I went on to create three more cover paintings for Hilari Bell's novels.

Boys' Life Cover Concepts

Cover sketch/concept #1

I'm going through the concept and sketching phase for a Boys' Life magazine cover project I am working on. I usually have to do a couple of rounds if ideas to get things approved and here is how things have gone so far.The story is historical fiction about an orphaned young man, Matt, arriving to spend Christmas with an aunt and uncle in the Sierra Nevada area who have agreed to take him in. They are all caught in a blizzard and the boy has to rescue both of them when the uncle breaks an ankle out in the barnyard and the aunt gets caught in the storm as well. At this stage, I am drawing nearly everything out of my head. I will concern myself with all the details when a concept gets approved. I did look at some horses and cabins to get a better idea of where to start, but the figures and poses are drawn from my imagination. Concept #1 shows young Matt just arriving at the farm. Since this is for the December issue, I thought the lantern added a nice Holiday glow.

Cover sketch/concept #2

Editors wanted to show a little more of the action of the rescue, so I did another version with the Matt struggling to get his uncle into he cabin. This version, although very dramatic, seemed too graphic as the figure of the uncle was a bit lifeless.

Cover sketch/concept #3

I did another version, this time showing the rescue of the Matt's aunt. I usually prefer to show faces in my compositions since it seems to engage viewers easier, but this one seems to work. Editors decided maybe it showed too much of the story's conflict resolution, so I went back to the drawing board.

Cover concept/sketch #4

In this version, I show Matt as he struggles to pull the sled holding his uncle across the farmyard to the cabin. It seems like this composition is closer to what the editors were hoping for, so I think this one may end up being selected. I will have to make some compositional adjustments to allow for things like the bar code/address box in the lower left corner, but I am looking forward to painting this one. If not, I'll just figure out the next possible solution. That's just how it goes sometimes.

Opening spread sketch can be seen here

Like Father Like Son

Indian Ambush- sketch by Andrew Wyeth

Years ago I came upon a copy of the October 1965 issue of American Heritage that contained an essay and portfolio on the work of illustration giant N.C. Wyeth. On the last page, son Andrew who's fame and accomplishment as an artist would eventually eclipse that of his father recounted his informal art lectures at the feet of N.C..

Such instruction  was typically general such as describing "the quality of folds in a drapery and the way light comes across it. But once young Andy was drawing an Indian ambush (see above) and his father showed him what was wrong: the [natives] had taken over the entire picture, obscuring the mounted soldier whose danger was the point of the drawing. In a quick pencil sketch (see below) the elder Wyeth brought the imperilled rider more to the foreground and hid his attackers behind the trees.

Revised Indian Ambush sketch by N.C. Wyeth

Of his father N.C, Andrew said "we had a remarkable friendship, of course he was my only teacher, and he was a wonderful, remarkable person. When he died, I was just a clever watercolorist- lots of swish and swash. When he died- well- now I was really on the spot and had this terrific urge to prove that what he started in me was not in vain." 

It is evident in this rough sketch the level of skill N.C. possessed as he so easily corrected the flawed composition. The fact that the drawing survived is proof of this lesson's impact on his son. Andrew learned well and, I think through him and grandson Jamie, the Wyeth tradition turned out just fine .