New Barbie Series

I have finally begun work on my next set of Barbie portraits. These are all of the same blonde-ponytail Barbie from 1960 or 1961. I'm not a Barbie expert by any means but I know she isn't the first one from 1959. ( I'm saving her for a later set of portraits). I thought I'd choose one to show in all it's stages and then post all three when they are finished. There is something so appealing about approaching these in a classical way; building them up from a "grisaille" underpainting. It is so much fun!

Merry Christmas

I finally finished painting my Christmas card and am ready to send it out, miraculously ahead of time! I usually use a dog portrait or do a special Christmas themed painting of Bingo but this year I thought it was finally time to immortalize my courtyard squirrels. This is Daisy on the left and Pip on the right enjoying some holiday cheer!

Nancy Drew-role model

It is hard to believe that I haven't written since Halloween. I've been so busy with work not to mention the usual holiday madness but I wanted to take a moment and write on a subject that is close to my heart. I went to my Sister's for Thanksgiving weekend and found that my Brother-in-law had unearthed a box containing my old Nancy Drew books. Lifting the flaps of this old cardboard box felt like opening a cask of golden treasure. I immediately pulled them out and spread them on the bed to admire them. Such memories came flooding back to me. All the mystery and excitement that would fill me each time my Mother came home with a new story. My cousin Cindy and I were so obsessed that we spent many summers completely role playing and seeking out mysteries in our stubbornly uneventful town. I put my books in numerical order to find that many were missing, either lost or never even read so I began a quest on ebay to fill in the missing gaps. Naturally I had to have the ones with the covers from my era: not the original ones from the 1930's nor the mod ones from the 1970's but the ones in between from the late 1950's. Those are the covers that filled me with anticipation and even inspired me artistically. I've also gone on to research the history of Nancy Drew and Carolyn Keene the nom de plume of several authors. I am also eager to read the book Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the women who created her, Melanie Rehak which I just purchased. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised by all the criticism out there about the character being so perfect in every way etc. Having re-read a few of them recently though I feel obliged to defend her reputation. Yes, she was always mature, considerate, calm, compassionate. She was always striving to help others who were less fortunate than herself and never accepted money for her efforts. In other words she was perfect. But aren't they qualities we would want to take on ourselves? Isn't the character of Jessica Fletcher from Murder She Wrote  (another of my idols) a mature version of the same person? How many times have I faced a problem and asked myself "What would Jessica Fletcher do in this situation?" the same way  as a young person I would  put myself in Nancy Drew's mind. Of course I recognize that the stories are dated and often reflect some of the racist, sexist and classist beliefs of the day. Over all I admit that I still admire her and recognize what a positive influence she was on me and how she made me believe that as a woman I could be educated and independent; thoughts that were just taking hold in my generation growing up in the 1960's.     

It's always the right time for Ice Cream

  Pumpkin Pie Package Front

 

Pumpkin Pie Package Back

 

I am very happy to announce that Publix Supermarkets has premiered their new pumpkin-pie ice cream this month for which I did the package illustrations! I am a huge ice cream lover so when they offered me this job I jumped at it. The art director was pretty clear about what she wanted; a slice of pie for the front and a dish of ice cream for the back but she gave me lots of freedom to develop the overall look (within limitations of course). I do these in a combination of media beginning with a black and white sketch, followed by a color layout then and underpainting in gouache and finishing with layers of oil glazes (after sealing it with acrylic). Pie Slice sketch I like to present the client with all the stages of the image so they can make changes as it progress and not be surprised at the end. I know some artists don't like to have the client too involved in the process but I actually enjoy the interaction. I first began working for Publix a few years ago when they commissioned me to create a series of  Pie Slice sketch-colorillustrations for their tea packages. I loved that job as well. I am an enthusiastic tea drinker and tried to capture in these images the warm, cozy feeling a hot cup of tea offers. This collection of tea packaging won Publix a 2008 ADDY so I was extra happy to be a part of it! 

 

Green on box sml               Lullabye on box sml

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Earl Grey on Box sml          Decaf Green on Box sml

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chamomile on box sml

Pumpkin Men

Pumpkin Man Well, it's my favorite time of year again and I've been busy putting up all my vintage Halloween decorations from the 40's and 50's. Over the past few years I've been spending too much time on E-Bay trying to buy up all the decorations that I remember having as a child and I think I am nearly there. (I am waiting to hear about a Skeleton Pirate and an Owl Pirate that will complete a set of 4 of which I already have the Witch and Cat). After that I am cutting myself off as I simply have no more wall space in my tiny apartment! I just love them though, all those odd color combinations of orange and dark green. They fill me with warm memories of childhood and excitement about Halloween approaching. Last year I began a series of Pumpkin Man portraits inspired by these images and I thought it was appropriate to share them this week. They were in fact the inspiration for my Bubble-Head men! Pumpkin Man 2Pumpkin Man 3

Sleepless in Manhattan

I’ve had a sleepless week mostly due to athe presence of pesky mosquitoes in the apartment . I had the same problem strangely enough last October only then it was so bad it reached Amityville Horror proportions. I was hunting down and exterminating half a dozen mosquitoes a night. I was half crazed with lack of sleep to the extent that my friends were beginning to doubt me with questions like “Has anyone else actually seen these mosquitoes?”  It was a terrible time for me and just as suddenly as it had begun, it ended and all was forgotten. Until this past week that is when I started hearing that un-mistakable buzzing around my head. Even Bingo was annoyed by them and would quickly jump off the bed and sleep underneath where they don’t bother him. The biggest problem is that once I am awake and even killed the mosquito if I am lucky, I simply cannot fall back to sleep. I just lie there for hours with my head filled with thought until the sun comes up and I drift off for an hour or two before I have to really wake up. Strangely enough in those hours I’ve been dreaming about squirrels; my squirrels as a matter of fact, chewing through the screens and coming into my apartment which believe it or not has happened more than once. It is not a continuation of the  Mosquito Amityville Horror but a direct result of my own behaviour. I have a family of 4 squirrels in the courtyard that I feed off the fire escape.

DAISY

Daisy is the matriarch who has been coming around for about 3 years. Pip and Skippy are her children who were born last February or March and then there is the mysterious fourth squirrel who appears but is always greeted with hissing and squeaking from  Daisy who is very territorial. They are the jolliest of all creatures and watching their antics always brightens even the darkest of days. Daisy will actually come to the window sill of my studio to implore me through some sort of mind control to feed her. I can feel her beady little eyes boring into me from behind and I must obey. She is the only one I feed by hand as she knows the rules about chewing through the screen. A rule Pip seems to finally get after several successful attempts to enter the apartment. I hope my landlord never notices the patches upon patches on  all my screens, I will have a hard time explaining that away. Anyway it is most likely when I am  opening the screens to feed the squirrels and birds that the mosquitoes are getting in so you see it does all tie in together nicely at the end.

PIP

Planet Bubble-Head

 

PLANET BUBBLE HEAD

 

 

 

So back to the word Bubble Head... I’ve been busy working on a new series of lighthearted illustrations the past few weeks done exclusively with stock in mind. As an illustrator I’ve always had a love / hate relationship with stock illustration. I hated it for changing the industry as did everyone else but once I realized it was an evil that was here to stay I wanted to get in on it myself.  I have made several attempts over the years and even though I’ve made some money it never really took off as I would have liked.  I have a friend who does enormously well with it and he advised me to treat it as a business. He encouraged me to adopt a distinctive style and stick with it. A few weeks ago while I was walking my dog Bingo out along the river I was thinking about my pumpkin men paintings (which I will talk about later)  and had the idea to put that same innocent and friendly face on a human head instead of a pumpkin head and so the idea of the Bubble-Head men was born.

BUBBLE-HEAD FAMILY

I wanted them to be fun  and fairly quick to produce; 2 criteria that I think are essential for stock. I also wanted them to look hand painted to seperate them from the majority of stock that is computer generated and in my opinion somewhat stale. They are completely painted in goache which is a medium I am very comfortable with as I do all of my textile design work in it. I got busy straight away and in a frenzy of production finished the first series of 25 and sent them off to Images.com.  Since they are a completely different style then my other illustrations I decided to create a new portfolio for them called Planet Bubble-Head so they would stand on their own.

BUBBLE-HEAD WORLD

Radio Waves

Usually when I am working in the studio I listen to Coast to Coast Radio  through Streamlink (more on that later). Lately though I’ve been tuning into 70’s new wave music through iTunes. My favorite so far is Radio Nigel but Woxy is pretty good as well. I am finding it so inspiring. It brings me back to a time in my life when  I was so creative and despite working 9-5 at an art supply store I seemed to be painting all the time. It was a time where all I had ahead of me were possibilities. I’ve been free-lancing now for nearly 20 years and I always thought that a flexible schedule would allow me endless time to devote on my painting. However doing design and illustration for a living tends to be all consuming and so often I find I am just  too creatively spent at the end of a day to begin to work on my own ideas. Listening to this music has reminded me of the person I was when I first moved to NY and has inspired me to keep that thread of ideas going. I’ve even been keeping a wall (or rather closet door) of ideas and sketches right here in my studio so I am looking at them all the time. 

   

WALL OF IDEAS

 

 

 

Happy Birthday, Barbie

 

FIRST BARBIE PORTRAIT

 

 

 

Since Barbie and I both turned 50 this year I thought it would be appropriate to finally do the portraits of her I’ve been imagining for so long. The first portrait was of a 1960 Pony Tail Barbie done as a birthday gift for my friend Christopher who is an avid collector.  I liked it so much that when he gave me a beautiful 1963 Bubble Head for my birthday last month I decided to do a series. It was so much fun setting her up in different lighting and photographing her. I approached it in  a  semi classical way as I do most of my paintings beginning with a neutral ground color then an under-painting in burnt sienna acrylic and finally building the rest up in layers of oil color.  It was so interesting  painting the same object 3 times; they all look alike yet each one seems to have such a different personality.  It was especially fascinating painting an inanimate, plastic face as opposed to an actual human face. I just love how the mood changes depending on the angle and light source.  I’ve since borrowed a few Pony Tail Barbies to photograph for a new series. I can hardly wait to get them started.

 

THE BUBBLE HEAD SERIES