The Snow Queen

I love fairy tales - the gothic images they evoke have always fascinated me. So I was very excited when Heather Miller, Director of Content at a wonderful company called Wireless Generation asked me to illustrate Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen.

Heather's idea for this book totally hooked me, because, unlike most books, this one will be done using photo illustration. I'll be working with Mark Salinas, a very talented costume and prop designer, and together, using sculpture, costume, painted backdrops and fabricated props, we'll create sets - much like the type of sets used in stop-motion animation. Each set will then be photographed for the book.

I've never done this before. Which makes it very exciting.

Above is a first look at how I see our cover.

In the midst of winter, a breath of summer...wildflowers bought at the Union Square farmer's market this past summer.

Cast Glass Sculpture

While living in Miami many years ago, I had the good fortune to meet and work with a number of gifted artists from all over the world. We worked together in studios scattered throughout Lincoln Road Mall in South Beach. It was there that I learned the art of cast glass sculpture.

The process is long, difficult and dangerous - which makes it all the sweeter when done successfully.

First, a model is sculpted from wax - I loved this part of the process, the sculpting itself is a deeply meditative experience. When the wax is finished it's set into a plaster mold, and this is the dangerous part - because you want the plaster to adhere to every detail of the wax, you have to use a very fine-grained jeweler's plaster. Which, if inhaled in even small quantities, is highly damaging to the lungs. I worked wearing a heavy face mask and gloves, always a little bit terrified of the stuff.

Next the mold is placed in a special oven and the wax is burned off, leaving the empty plaster, which is then filled with crushed glass. We experimented with all sorts of glass, from fine store-bought sheets to broken beer bottles.

Finally the glass-filled mold is fired overnight in an oven that reaches thousands of degrees. This was the cool part - the next day you take out the mold, cool it and break away the plaster. I did a series of about two dozen small heads. It was always thrilling to take them out and see what had happened - the firing process is unpredictable and even the tiniest bubble can ruin an otherwise perfect surface - but there were also some that went beautifully wrong.

Sadly I've lost most of them over the years. But among those that are left, here is a favorite. The glass absorbs light in a way that gives it an ethereal, almost ghostly quality. I love that.

Larger-Than-Life Drawing

This past weekend I attended a life drawing session at The Slipper Room, a burlesque theater in the east village. As one might expect from such a venue, this was not your usual, academic life drawing experience.

I wasn't sure what to expect, and found myself walking from a sunny New York street into a dark theater that had the look and feel of a David Lynch set. It was noir and glam and seedy and very, very cool. I found a seat in front of a stage swathed in straight-from-the-bordello satin curtains. The model was a wonderful burlesque performer in full costume, complete with flowers, spangles, lucite heels and a pair of sparkly wings. Excellent.

It's been a long time since I've done any life drawing, so I was pretty rusty. The Slipper Room has a bar, so a glass of wine took care of that. Soon the music, the model and the wine worked their magic....three hours of drawing passed before I knew it.

Respect to the creators of Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School for making this amazing and inspiring experience possible. I'll definitely be going again.

Spinoffs

It's interesting to see what sometimes happens to art after you make it. Sometimes it's nothing; other times the art seems to take on a life of it's own. Often you have no control over that.


Generally speaking, anything that extends the life and appeal of a commercial project is good. In the case of my book Alpha Bettie, this came in the form of toys made of the main character and her dog.

Much less predictable was what happened as a result of a poster I created for a play this past Spring. I struggled with this project at first - the play was about monsters, the costume designer hadn't yet designed the monsters - so I had no idea what the main characters were actually going to look like, much less what the aesthetics of the play would be. I had to create a visual direction myself. Which was frustrating at first, but after numerous meetings with the director, producer and other designers, ultimately I was able to have some fun with it.

I was very happy with the poster.

....and the producer was, too. That's his arm in the picture.

Earth Yoga

My favorite UES hot yoga studio has been reincarnated as Earth Yoga. I'm so happy about this. I've always loved the space and have had many great moments of peace and reflection there...it has a beautiful bamboo floor and three large windows that fill the studio with light....


I had a wonderful class with my favorite teacher there tonight - Isauro Fernandez, whose Ki-Yoga style has everything that I love.....beautiful words, music, movement and meditation...in 100 degrees of heat.

Underpainting

A fellow illustrator, John Manders, has a great blog in which he demonstates his painting technique. John and I both work in gouache, an opaque watercolor that lends itself to a range of effects, from totally opaque to translucent.

John also utilizes underpainting, which is a first step in a layered painting style where a monotone color is used to establish the overall pattern of lights and darks. I particularly like this technique as it adds an important base to my usually haphazard way of working - underpainting creates cohesion and depth. This technique was widely used by Renaissance painters. For a more detailed look, check out John's blog.

Above is my underpainting and finished painting fom the book, "Abby's Asthma and the Big Race."

Autumn, NYC

The idea for this painting came to me one afternoon about 10 years ago, when I was sitting in a coffeeshop on Spring street. It was autumn. I'd been living in the desert and had only been in the city for a few months. It was my first taste of the season again - the rich colors, the dry, spicy scents and the way the leaves seemed to dance almost magically through the air...it was all so beautiful to me.

This is one of my favorite paintings.

I call it 'Autumn, New York City'.

Solstice

"Love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is done well." - Vincent Van Gogh

The first day of summer.

and my first post.

....it's been an interesting summer so far. These months usually allow time off from a somewhat insane schedule of commercial work, allowing me to try new things, like painting flowers....and blogging. I'm liking that.

I'm presently working on a flower series in gouache. The pale flower under 'paper/pencil/brush' was hand-selected by the awesome guy at the flower shop on my block. I didn't know what it was called, but described it to him. He went to the basement and returned with this one beautiful flower, pale as the moon in his hand.

This dark pink one came from my local corner deli - every New Yorker has one - that place where you can get green tea ice cream at 2 am; where they know your name and will front you if you've forgotten your money....I told the girl at the counter that I was going to paint this one. She told me about how she paints with ink on rice paper as she wrapped my flower.

The Peony is the floral symbol of China. Believed to embody romance and prosperity, it's regarded as an omen of good fortune in life and love.