Posted in ephemera, holiday, illustration, tagged faerie, holiday on October 31, 2015| 1 Comment »
Yes, things have been crazy busy here. I am squeaking in with a short but sweet halloween greeting to everyone out on the inter webs.
Love all those goolies appearing in the upper right!
Wishing lots of good things to eat and drink but not so much that you get sick. Ever the pragmatist, that’s me.
Posted in illustration, tagged animals on August 26, 2015| 2 Comments »
Oops! Sorry about that.
Well, not really as I had a very grand time indeed chatting the afternoon away talking with my bestest buddy Arlene. Hopefully you can all understand that sometimes you just need to talk about art and life and books and what a mess your workspace is and how you are just going to have to buckle down and clean it up. My workspace that is, Arlene has already made progress on hers.
So here’s a little artistic cat picture to cheer your day.
It’s a quite grey day here so I wanted to post something colorful and bright. So there.
Posted in book, illustration, inspiration, tagged book, design board, Muppet on August 12, 2015| Leave a Comment »
There are plenty of places out there on the inter-webs to look at design boards. Can you say Pinterest?
I like design boards, they’re fun to put together and are helpful in dialing in a focus on what you really want to accomplish in a given project.
Here is a collage of design boards that I found fascinating way back in the long-long ago.
They are the center gatefold images from a lovely little book about the Muppets.
This little book in fact:
Don’t you just love the muppets? Doesn’t Everybody just love the Muppets?
So go out and find some inspiration. Let’s all make something fun and wonderful.
Posted in book, illustration, tagged book, bug on July 22, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Today I have for you another image heavy post, this time about the joys and hazards of outdoor living.
The Giant Jam Sandwich came to me via the library book sale, it’s another book from the Weekly Reader Children’s Book Club. This book is from 1972 and I particularly like the sort of trippy illustration style. And the silly, silly story.
First all these wasps hit town.
Ruining everybody’s fun.
So the people have a meeting to discuss what to do.
They devise a silly plan involving . . .
a giant loaf of bread . . .
and a vast quantity of strawberry jam.
which attracts and traps the wasps.
Problem Solved! So they have a party.
Notice that in the upper right corner some birds are carrying away the giant jam/wasp sandwich wrapped in it’s giant picnic cloth for their dinner.
Posted in book, illustration, tagged animals, book, humor on July 8, 2015| Leave a Comment »
This book seemed like an appropriate choice for today. Don’t know about the rest of you but I’ve been sneezing up a storm ever since the green things started growing. I’ve heard all the science; the spring arriving late made the plants and trees all go overboard to catch up, but that doesn’t exactly make the sneezing stop. Or even slow down a bit, I mean, seriously!
So I’m guessing that I’m not the only one who can sort of identify with the poor old elephant. And empathize with everyone else who has to live through the onslaught.
like these monkeys,
and the panicked parrot,
and check out the way elly is strangling that little tree trying to suppress his sneeze.
and the scaredy-bear.
Hope you all got a chuckle out of this vintage children’s book
Posted in figurative art, illustration, tagged fae, faerie, figurative art, illustration on May 27, 2015| Leave a Comment »
That’s right, my friend Forest Rogers wins GOLD in dimensional illustration at Spectrum Live.
Go over to Muddy Colors and scroll down to see the list of winners. Go to Forest’s blog to see her amazing Venetian Harpy, she also has wip photos for this piece over to the right of the window under Current Work II.
Please join me in a joyous Happy Dance in honor of a great artist and a much deserved win!
Posted in illustration, inspiration, tagged fae, faerie, poem on May 20, 2015| Leave a Comment »
and to always be open to little silliness.
Trust yourself, believe in faeries, and remember that the bah-humbugs can all go jump in the lake.
Have some fun over this long overdue three day weekend!
Posted in illustration, tagged animals, anthropomorphic, bug, humor, illustration on April 29, 2015| Leave a Comment »
It seems like forever since it was warm here. But the violets have popped up and while it will take a few days of bright sun for them to go purple — it’s officially Spring. Yay!
Please enjoy these happy little creatures celebrating the return of pleasant weather.
Posted in book, illustration, tagged book, humor, illustration, steampunk on February 18, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Another childhood treasure recovered via the local library sale, Yay!
The 21 Balloons by William Pene du Bois was published in 1947 and won the Newbery Award in 1948. Which it totally deserved. I borrowed this from the library as a child and was enchanted by the rollicking adventure story therein. I spotted the spine at the library sale and yoink, it was mine! Rereading it reaffirmed my memory of it being fast-paced, wild, and just chock full of bizarre inventions and architectural wonders.
It is the story of a retired schoolteacher who resolves to spend a year aloft in a specially constructed airborne house. The house/balloon is where you start to see some definite steampunk influences.
Of course his trip does not go to plan, he ends up crashing in the ocean and shipwrecked on Krakatoa. Yes, Krakatoa, and not at all long before it exploded. Wow! The book is all about his adventures in ballooning and his interactions with the rather bizarre inhabitants of a secret colony on the isolated island.
The island is where steampunk meets surrealism in earnest. The above image is from the “electric house” with a living room full of bumper-car chairs and a couch that holds four children and goes the fastest of all the furniture. What a scream.
At night they sleep in elevator beds. And every single house has a different and often highly imaginative architectural style. What Fun!
Even their leisure activities are different. Check out the Balloon Merry Go Round. I just love the way this is depicted in a technical sort of diagram showing how it works.
And then as an illustration showing the children in it in mid air. The way in which this book is written is kind of unique. It’s a fascinating mixture of actual history and fantasy inventions. It has a dry wit that I found highly entertaining. My favorite line is a newspaper headline after the teacher is found in floating in his escape vehicle: “PROFESSOR SHERMAN IN WRONG OCEAN WITH TOO MANY BALLOONS, and the subheading: Refuses to Explain How or Why“.
Even the illustration style is perfect for this story. The above image is a vegetable stall decorated for the professor’s homecoming celebration. Love that watermelon and banana zeppelin.
From the many, many reasons to find this book worth reading I highly recommend that you choose one and seek out a copy. It’s still in print which I think is just dandy, and there are plenty of vintage copies available is you prefer that sort of thing.
Posted in illustration, inspiration, Uncategorized, tagged humor, illustration, inspiration on January 7, 2015| 1 Comment »
I know I’m supposed to say how inspired I am about the prospect of a brand spanky new year and all the wonderful things that I can/could possibility do with it.
However all I seem to be able to think about is how little I have achieved in recent years and how daunting the process of making any genuine progress can be.
Perhaps I am not alone in feeling somewhat frustrated by all this New Year’s Resolution crap.
Let’s all try to maintain a positive attitude and baby step our way to better things.
Posted in holiday, illustration, Uncategorized, tagged humor, illustration on December 24, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Wishing everyone a Very Happy Christmas and a Fabaroo New Year!
Dig those crazy elves; the sniffing, the recipe-reading, the bodacious little bum on the one closest to the oven. Fun, Fun, Fun!
And Yes Indeedy, I am fiiinaaaaalyy feeling a bit better — it’s been a terrible, horrible, very bad year (well, it’s been bloody difficult at the least). Here’s hoping the new year holds good things all around.
ps: I just updated my blogroll to fix addresses, delete really inactive blogs and add a few new favorites — enjoy!
Posted in book, illustration, tagged book, humor, illustration, vintage on May 28, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Frank Tashlin’s How to Create Cartoons.
I enjoyed the post James Gurney did on Frank Tashlin so much that I decided to share some more pages with all of you. Also to alert any of you who don’t read James’ wonderful art/illustration blog to this quite amusing book. Definitely check out the Gurney Journey post as it covers different pages than those shown here.
These faces show the SCOT method Tashlin demonstrates in this book. SCOT means square, circle, oval, triangle which are the basic units that all the pictures are composed of.
Notice how each figure has a little diagram next to it showing the arrangement of basic geometric shapes that comprise its composition.
I liked the pages others had posted so much that I dug around until I found a post that contained scans of the entire book. The style is a bit dated, it is from 1952 after all, but it’s got a lot of still valuable information and the authors treatment of the subject matter holds true. On the other hand you (like me) could choose to look at it through nostalgia goggles which render it entirely wonderful.
pamelavelner.blog 