I updated the first H illustration with a better one. Pretend the first one did not exist. Another lesson learned:
The importance of scale in the size of the illustration. Depending on the density of detail, making something interesting out of large areas of nothing generally is not going to work. I’ve run into this problem many times before, but every once in a while I make the mistake again.
Apparently the big auto warehouse out behind everybody’s favorite Korean produce superstore, Hanh Ah Reum, is on fire. Our neighbor called to let us know that Rt. 40 is blocked off and nobody’s getting past. Hopefully the grocery itself will be OK, because the Giant just charges too damn much for broccoli these days.
I’ve been working on a new illustration for the past few days (seriously, I have) and it’s not coming easy. I decided to switch up and do a woman for my next piece. This is harder than the men I’ve been doing so far because generally women have smoother features, and the small details that make up a portrait/caricature are harder to capture with less detail. Especially when my particular style lends itself to insane detail.
Last week, in going through the basement in preparation to paint and clean, I moved my four-drawer file cabinet out of the back corner. It’s held the majority of my output from college to the present day in neatly-filed hanging folders, tagged with client names. I weeded out a lot of stuff (reference photos, old corespondence, duplicate working files) and kept the guts of the folders: hundreds of drawings, scratchboard panels, cutouts, and other debris from the creative process. In reviewing a lot of my previous work, I noticed a few things that may (or may not) help guide me in the near future.
The importance of solid reference. For example, I did a bunch of work for Sylvan Learning Systems years ago (52 illustrations in total), and I’d say that 95% of them are shite. The other 5% are keepers—and one is still in my book. I’d say that 50% of that bad batch are due to bad reference.
The need for a solid pre-sketch. As much as I like the detail and texture of linework, I look at other artists and enjoy their use of black as much as a glass of expensive red wine—smooth, silky, intoxicating black, which often can provide more detail than actual detail can.
Taking more chances. Simply put: More risk, more reward. some of the best stuff I’ve done I never would have figured out if I hadn’t taken a chance.
Subtlety has been the hardest things to master so far—with some pieces I think I nailed the subject, and others I’m left unsatisfied. The subject of the current piece is well-photographed but almost sphinxlike in her range of facial expression. (Warning! egregious use of sound!) I decided to use reference that wasn’t her standard pose, and now I’m left with a piece that’s not working for me. I’ll post version one and re-group to work harder on version two today and tomorrow.
Meanwhile, the latest issue of the New Yorker hit our mailbox yesterday, and there’s a fantastic portrait of Rakim tucked away in the Events section by Coop, which totally humbled me over my baloney and cheese sandwich this afternoon.
I have much work to do.
In Praise Of Slow Design.
Beautifully written article on the good judgement not to redesign something for redesign’s sake. In light of several recent, surprising redesigns, a timely and challenging notion.
Check out this speech by Al Gore delivered this afternoon. Jen and I happened to catch the last 2/3 on C-Span before switching to the Golden Globes (a useless bit of pap if there ever was one). Gore stopped me in my tracks:
“A president who breaks the law is a threat to the very structure of our government. Our Founding Fathers were adamant that they had established a government of laws and not men. Indeed, they recognized that the structure of government they had enshrined in our Constitution – our system of checks and balances – was designed with a central purpose of ensuring that it would govern through the rule of law. As John Adams said: “The executive shall never exercise the legislative and judicial powers, or either of them, to the end that it may be a government of laws and not of men.”
“It is often the case that an Executive Branch beguiled by the pursuit of unchecked power responds to its own mistakes by reflexively proposing that it be given still more power. Often, the request itself it used to mask accountability for mistakes in the use of power it already has.”
“We have a duty as Americans to defend our citizens’ right not only to life but also to liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It is therefore vital in our current circumstances that immediate steps be taken to safeguard our Constitution against the present danger posed by the intrusive overreaching on the part of the Executive Branch and the President’s apparent belief that he need not live under the rule of law.”
Here’s a link to the C-Span Realplayer version of the speech. If you have a few minutes, check it out—even if you don’t like Al Gore. He makes a lot of very, very good points.
Oh, man, what a mackin’ car. I could be the biggest pimp on my block in this thing.
I could write here about viewing the Pianist on Saturday evening, and spending most of Sunday in an existential funk—watch the scene where Adrien Brody walks crying through the remains of the Warsaw Ghetto, amid broken furniture and blowing feathers, and then try to look at the Crate & Barrel catalog without slitting your wrists.
I could mention how I spent my Sunday in the basement painting the last of the walls Kilz white, but that would be boring. I could take pictures and post them, too, but that would be incredibly dull, and you really don’t give a shit about my basement. I could proudly mention that the basement is now somewhat organized, is about seven shades brighter, and has a pair of tables set up next to the only south-facing window under a grow lamp for our vegetable seed. I suppose that’s a good thing.
Honestly, it was a pretty quiet weekend, and now it’s Monday.
P.S. Lis– I get the Adrien Brody thing now. You’re on your own with Buscemi, but I get the Brody thing.
Canon Digital SLR breakdown chart
An excellent breakdown, for the day I buy Jen a pro digital SLR.
Maryland OKs Wal-Mart Health Care Bill.
Lately (read: the last two weeks) our Republican governor has been announcing all kinds of new money for education programs here in Maryland. Most people who know the Idiot King know that I don’t care much for our current Governor; those people should also understand that I held the last Governor, a Democrat who probably broke records for graft and mismanagement, somewhere below contempt. You could probably say I hate the player and the game. It’s not lost on me that the previous administration left a mess in their wake, and the current Gov had to clean it up before he could start spending money again.
However, the current Gov vetoed the so-called “Wal-Mart Bill” last year, a bit of legislation designed to force companies with more than 10,000 employees to take on at least 8% of healthcare costs for those people they employ. Predictably, Wal-Mart is upset about this; predictably the other large companies in Maryland are upset about this too. And, predictably, our Governor is upset, because he got the shit lobbied out of him, and put himself firmly in the corner of Big Business. (I’ll pause here to link to this page, which shows Wal-mart’s profit sheet for the last year. Those are billions with a capital “B”, by the way.) So pardon me if I don’t give a shit about Wal-Mart crying in its coffee this morning. Am I going to be upset if the cost of cat litter at the Sam’s Club goes up by a penny? No. Economies of scale for a company as large as Wal-Mart mean that I’ll probably never see more than a 5 or 10-cent increase in the cost of my goods, even if most other states follow Maryland’s lead and implement a similar bill—which, I’d guess, is going to happen in blue states but not red ones. (Full disclosure: We shop at Sam’s Club but not Wal-Mart; if there was a Costco or BJ’s closer to us, I’d switch.)
“We also find that 7% of the children of employees of large retailers are uninsured, compared to 19% reported by Wal-Mart. While 46% of the children of Wal-Mart workers are either uninsured or on Medicaid/SCHIP, the comparable figure for children of all large retail workers is 29%. Wal-Mart workers are less likely than workers in all large retail to have job based coverage (48% compared to 54%). Wal-Mart workers’ enrollment in Medicaid nationally is similar to large retail as a whole.” Source
As a self-employed individual who is shopping for health insurance to prepare for (hopefully) a family in the near future, I can testify here and to Congress just how fucking expensive it is to insure oneself. I can only imagine how hard it must be for a Wal-Mart employee, most of whom aren’t making much above the Federal poverty level (FYI, in 2004 it’s $18,850 for a family of four). Am I sad that large companies in this state are being forced to offer the minimum in health care benefits? No. I’d wager that most of these companies offer plans that are fair and comprehensive anyway. I have a problem with the huge ones, who are muscling their way into every community across the land and closing down smaller stores who most likely offered better benefits.
I am happy, though, that somebody realizes how difficult it is to keep up with the rising costs of living here in the middle class. And I’m happy my state is making a stand.
My first eight illustrations are live over on the portfolio site. I have to complete “H” this week, but from the look of things that might not happen too soon. Let me know what you think of the series so far.