beetlegrass

Another Exciting Adventure starring Me, My Car, & Mapquest

Last night I went to a "special homecoming screening" of a feature film documentary, Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist.

Will Eisner (1917-2005) was a giant in the comic book world, and was the guy who coined the term "graphic novel" and "sequential art".

The documentary was directed/co-produced by Andrew D. Cooke, and written/co-produced by his brother, Jon B. Cooke (with whom I took a RISD CE comic book class).

They did a fantastic job with this film -- masterfully organizing drawings, photos, film clips, and audio- and videotaped interviews so that the story of a brilliant storyteller could shine through. Many other comic book greats were interviewed, which proved what an influential impact Eisner's career had on so many others.

This film not only paints a portrait of one man, but also gives as its contextual backdrop: the history of comics & comic books. So, can you tell? -- I liked it a lot!

Seeing this documentary is pretty timely, as the movie The Spirit (perhaps Eisner's best-known creation), is slated to hit the theaters Christmas Day. Frank Miller (Sin City), who is interviewed in the documentary, will be directing this major motion picture.

The documentary was screened at the Courthouse Center for the Arts (really nifty place) in West Kingston, RI. This should give you some indication of how passionate about graphic novels I've been of late: I traveled 1.5 hours (round-trip), to a place I've never been before, IN THE DARK, just to see this film.

And it sooooooo was worth it --  thanks for the invitation, Jon!

Rodeo Clown Drive

Here are Cowboy Cooper's best friends -- rodeo clowns who help him out when he's in bull-riding competitions. Or make that: "buffalo-riding" competitions.

BTW: The buffalo (whom I've named "George Tatonka"), was a flea market purchase for $3. He's flocked and picks up any bit of dust that happens to be flying by. I learned to use Photoshop's clone stamp on pimply-faced kids (that's what the teacher had us do!), but I have to say I prefer clone-stamping out dust&debris than pustules. Guess I'm funny that way.

Remember this flea market purchase? Well, that became Sgt. Glum's jacket.There is something so cool about rodeo clowns' costumes/make-up that inspired the need to create some additional characters for Cowboy Cooper's storyline. Like, for one thing: the bandannas that hang at their waist. I'm sure they're there to distract the bull, but what an opportunity for color & pattern! I stitched these bandannas at the top so they're able to swing a bit. Movement = good.

Both clowns' hats are craft store finds -- they come in packages of 4, in white and in black. Added the zebra patterning to Clem's hat (inspired by a real rodeo clown's) with a fine point Sharpie marker. The make-up behind their eyes was felt stitched on prior to adding eyeballs. Clem's shirt is made from vintage doll pants. Flower in hat is a scrapbooking flower, with a tiny pompom as the center.

 

Above is my initial sketch re: what characteristics I wanted my rodeo clown to include, based on image research. Originally, I was just going to do one clown, but after I drew a happy face clown and the e'er-popular "sad face clown", I knew I had to do two.

Actually, I should have made one more clown (and might still), as now I know that rodeo clowns travel in packs of three while in the ring protecting the bull rider. The third guy I make will be what's called the "barrel man", and I want this barrel, part of a group of rodeo toys by Schylling.

I purchased their fence, barrels & timers (for barrel racing), as a birthday present to myself from toyimpact.com. There's so many other things that I want, but maybe mortgage payments should take precedence. Maybe.

This week's posts were kinda clown-related, weren't they? Not planned, but hey...

The concept & design of these puppets and their stories are the property of Megan E. Jeffery.
These images are © Megan E. Jeffery.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Inspired by the Familiar: Li'l C

This little guy was inspired by my brother Craig. Growing up, he and my other brother were HUGE fans of the Cincinnati Reds, so they had "Rally 'Round the Reds!" bumper stickers and other Reds memorabilia in their room. Their love of this team is probably the ONLY reason I know that Pete Rose used to play for the Reds.

I did this drawing in colored pencils and oil pastels and scanned it into Photoshop, monkeyed around with the color a bit, then set it to 'Multiply'. There is also a layer in here that has a piece of scanned cardboard on it. My original drawing was done in my sketchbook which has white pages, and sometimes you want a little color & texture.

 

 
 

I thought it'd be fun to show the different Distort filters I made Li'l C endure:

1. Pinch Filter
2. Spherize Filter
3. Spherize Filter
4. Spherize Filter

They look like his reflections in a Fun House mirror.

These images are © Megan E. Jeffery, 2007, and may not be used without obtaining written consent FIRST.

RISD Reality Check

Participated in RISD's Reality Check- Illustration Portfolio Review for students today. SO MUCH FUN to see how talented these 'kids' are, to see all the media they're using; the subject matters that are floatin' their creative boats.

From RISD's website:

Open that portfolio; turn on that laptop; and show the world what you’ve been up to at RISD. This is your chance to connect with professionals outside of the studio and learn how to make the best presentation for jobs and internships. Many reviewers attending will be scouting for talent and looking to fill potential entry-level and internship positions. Even if your portfolio is in process, these reviews will help you improve your presentation, interview skills and networking savvy.
Nearly half the reviewers are alumni and understand the RISD  experience.

Reviewers include art directors, publishers, illustrators and designers from studios and companies involved in the production of magazines, books, comics, animation, surface design, game design and licensed products.  

Am gratified to see how many students want to take on the freelancing life and want to have their own business. Am impressed that some were thinking very practically: matters of health insurance and taxes were discussed. I like that realism mixed in with the idealism. :-)

Here are the other companies that were represented:

• Animation Collective - New York, NY
• Asset International - New York, NY
• Blue Sky Brands - Allston, MA
• Candlewick Press Inc. - Cambridge, MA
• Charlesbridge Publishing - Watertown, MA
• Citylights Television - New York, NY
• Curious Pictures - New York, NY
• Dartmouth Publishing - Sudbury, MA
• Duffy & Shanley Inc. - Providence, RI
• Harry N. Abrams Inc./ Amulet Books & Children's Books - New York, NY
• Hasbro - Pawtucket, RI
• HK Portfolio Inc. - New York, NY
• Kirchoff/Wohlberg - New York, NY & Madison, CT
• LIttle, Brown and Company - New York, NY
• Milky Elephant - Brooklyn, NY
• Reebok - Canton, MA
• Scholastic - New York, NY
• Soup2Nuts - Watertown, MA
• Turbine Games Entertainment Software - Westwood, MA

The day was very well-organized, everyone couldn't have been friendlier or more hospitable, PLUS: valuable prizes, a free lunch and CANDY! Thank you to the Career Services staff and to the students who came out. A real treat.

Never a Dull Moment

After a long day of driving home from another state, where it's still Winter (guess who's glad she thought to bring ONE sweater?), went to the RISD Auditorium tonight to view Tim Burton's The Corpse Bride, and then a session with the director Michael Johnson, a 1990 RISD FAV grad.

He showed "behind-the-scenes" glimpses at the animators working the stop-action puppets, as well as the test shots of how the puppets moved, as well as some early voice-over synching. Something really incredible that was shown was a time lapse sequence of three days-- you could see the animators' change of clothes, as the puppets (walking down a hall) moved maybe a total of a foot??? Maybe? Wow.

He also demonstrated how the puppets opened their mouths and some of their eyelid movement variations, and answered a ton of questions. He even signed an autograph for an adoring young fan. She kind of interrupted his talk for him to do it, but he handled the situation with grace and aplomb.

Getting back to my car was a bit of a hassle, as it seemed at least an entire block was aglow with police units' and fire trucks' red and blue flashing lights. Thanks to the tiger-like reflexes of my eleven-year-old car (its birthday is next month, in case you wanna buy it sumpin' purty), I was able to serpentine the madness and get home to look up what the issue was. What can I say? I have a nose for news. This came from projo.com:

Fire forces evacuation of Providence restaurant

Providence - A fire this evening at the New Rivers-American Bistro restaurant at 7 Steeple Street has forced patrons into the street as firefighters work on the blaze.

The restaurant occupies the first floor of a three-story building. Flames were shooting from a vent hood in the eatery, and smoke was seen coming from the second and third floors.

The second floor houses another restaurant, Cafe Pazzo, which is closed for the evening.

Firefighters, arriving in 14 vehicles, are venting the upper levels, and a fire hose can be seen snaking into the second floor.

Firefighters are also probing the upper level walls for signs of fire.

Puppets/Theaters

Some paper & fabric possibilities for the finger puppet theaters I'm planning...

Saturday was a puppet-y kind of day. After working all day on puppets no bigger than my finger (hence the term: finger. puppet.), I went to go see GIANT puppets at the RISD Auditiorium, put on by Big Nazo, an international performance group based right here in Providence. It is the brainchild of RISD alum, Erminio Pinque, the founder and director. This show, Creature Creations, was the culmination of a Wintersession semester offered to RISD Film & Video majors.

Was really intrigued with the way the creatures were created; how the human body was considered in that fabrication. For instance: in the way that an arm can bend, an eyeball was "revealed" at the elbow. Fascinating. And fun to see all these students perform: so excited beforehand & afterwards. Nice.

For my money, the best part of last night's Oscars were the performance pieces by the dance troupe, Pilobolus. They employed a shadow puppet theater technique when forming their human sculptures of 2006 movie logos. Really inventive and delightfully surprising.

Also for my money: Jennifer Lopez's whole look was just plain gorgeous-- the hair, the dress, the jewels that were a part of the dress: Pow! Nice going, JLo's stylist!

Hey There, Li'l Pilgrim...

Ahh, the first page of a new sketchbook, is there anything as lovely? Or as intimidating?

Drawn today, sketchbook purchased yesterday after a day of seeing the Wunderground: Providence, 1995 to the Present  exhibit at the RISD Museum. Some really fantastic pieces: silk-screened, xeroxed, hand-markered, etc., and to think that most of this art was the type that you see stapled to telephone poles.

This exhibit is at the museum until January 7th, 2007 (Sorry, wasn't allowed to take photos), so if you're in Providence and a fan of the music/art scene, you'll be happy you saw this show.

Went to have lunch downtown at The Cuban Revolution. Viva La Pressed Pork Sandwich! I wanna go back for a dinner with yellow rice.

Also went to a couple of stores downtown, The Bowl & Board, a housewares store, and DCI 275, that had fun, modern gifts.

Onto  risdworks, where we heard some music that I. MUST. OWN. (Max Raab and the Palast Orchestra, a sort of roarin' 20s band, doing covers of Britney Spears' Oops, I Did It Again, Prince's Kiss, ABBA's Super Trouper, etc., etc.) and then on to our sketchbook destination: the RISD Store. Where more Americans get their Sketchbooks than from any other source.

Click on the cowboy to see him larger.

Fun With Type

Is it time for another post about the Adobe Illustrator class I'm taking?
Why yes, yes, YES it is!

Working on type this past week: type-on-a-path, columns-n-rowz, make-with-warp (sounds like a threat), glyphs, etc.etc...
To sum up: all sorts of fun things!

Now my little Beetlegrass beetle will have a pal to talk to...

Dear Diary...

Monday night, went to the RISD Auditorium to see three documentaries by Les Blank: The Blues Accordin' to Lightin' Hopkins (1969), Sprout Wings and Fly (1983), and The Maestro: King of the Cowboy Artists (1994).  Really interesting and insightful Q & A sessions with the filmmaker-- you gotta love questions from actual film students!  Like, let's-cut-to-the-chase: "How do you divvy up the money?"; "Let's talk more about fund-raising"; "Do you ever have days where you don't feel like insinuating yourself into your subject's life?"; "What impact have your films had on the communities you shot in?"

Today, was an 'exhibitor' at the Attleboro (MA) Area Chamber of Commerce's WOMEN IN BUSINESS EXPO... Here is my  table-- I showed my 'kids' portfolio, my 'business' portfolio, a book, a few pillows, and had postcards and Picturebook reprints on hand to give away. (I was the lucky recipient of the floral display, as the 'special card' was under my coffee cup at lunch. Woo-hoo!)




Our keynote speaker at lunch was Shannon O'Brien, President & CEO of the Girl Scouts- Patriots' Trail Council. She was the former State Treasurer and Receiver General of Massachusetts, as well as an investigative and consumer reporter for the WB56 News. There was an award ceremony, too, with lotza clapping and certificate-reading.

My first foray into actually going to a Chamber event; met quite a few fun & friendly folks.  I might actually attend something else!  (Scandalous, I know!)

Evil Pen Tool

So this semester (RISD Continuing Education) I'm taking Illustrator I, and we've been learning the Pen Tool.  I've decided to get in some more practice using an old design of mine that used to be my business card.  It was originally drawn with a technical pen, and was just a flat black design on white cardstock. 

BUT NOW, after blowing up and scanning in the old image, I was able to use the Pen Tool to trace the shapes, then lay in a gradient. THIS IS BY NO MEANS A PERFECT RENDERING using the Pen Tool, but if I waited to post 'til I was perfect, I would never post!