Monthly Archives: March 2011

Monthly Drink & Draw

Posted on March 31, 2011 | Leave a comment

Yep, for April’s Drink & Draw event, there will be a special giveaway from Sakura, makers of one of our favorite drawing tools, the Micron Pen. Sakura was very kind enough to send Jake several samples of Microns and other pens, which we will be handing out to our fellow doodlers at the event.

The event is less than two weeks away, so mark your calendars. With a Micron, preferably.

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As my messy kitchen table indicates, I have many projects going on. However, I can’t show any of them to you (yet)!

So here’s a small sketchbook doodle for now.

That is officially the last page in this sketchbook. (SHOCK! AWE!) I had started it in late August last year. This is one for the history books, because I have countless other sketchbooks that are only halfway full from years ago. Hand.Book Journal : I think I’ve truly found my sketchbook soulmate.

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Posted in Sketchbook

Tagged Drink & Draw, Eagle + Wolf, Hand-lettered, Jake Hollomon, Little Wolf, Maryanna Hoggatt, Micron Pen, Sakura, Sketchbook

An 81-Year-Old Book

Posted on March 29, 2011 | 1 Comment

Jake’s grandmother has discovered my love of old children’s books, and was extremely gracious enough to give me one from her own collection.

Published in 1930, the book is fairly worn and is definitely showing it’s years. One day I may have it re-bound, but of course the wear and tear does nothing but pull on my heartstrings.

Inside, there are many plates of wonderful mono-tone and full color illustrations by Ben Kutcher.

“The Snow Queen”

“The Bell”

“The Nightingale”

Here are a couple of the full color plates:

“The Mermaid”

“The Girl Who Trod on a Loaf”

Many thanks goes out to Georgia for giving me this wonderful book. My collection happily groweth.

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Posted in Illustration, Inspiration

Tagged Andersen's Fairy Tales, Ben Kutcher, children's books, Little Wolf, Maryanna Hoggatt, Monotone, old-timey, Vintage Illustration

Inspiration: Anders Nilsen

Posted on March 27, 2011 | Leave a comment

I first took notice of comic book artist Anders Nilsen when he was featured in the 2006 edition of The Best American Comics:

The short comic inside is entitled The Gift.

Nilsen is able to instill a sense of uneasiness in his stories; I almost dreaded turning the page to find out what happens next. Common themes in his comics are lost pilots, crashed planes, and a disorienting sense of not knowing where you are or what happened (among other things, like…..random body parts). In The Gift, you are immediately thrust into one of these situations as the main character wakes underneath another body. Needless to say, I totally dug it.

Last year at the Stumptown Comics Fest, I picked up a copy of Big Questions #11.

I also admire Nilsen’s style of illustration: carefully rendered, fine lines, and stippling/hatching for shading. They are quiet, simple, and sparse, fitting the mood of his haunting stories perfectly.

To see some amazing sketchbook drawings and in-progress studio drawings, visit his blog.

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In other super rad news, my collaboration work with Jake as Eagle & Wolf has been published for the first time ever!

We received an email request from a small paper in Toledo, Ohio to use our Bukowski piece for their cover. And, just this week, we received a copy in the mail.

And here’s an online shot from the paper’s website:

Jake and I may be toiling away on our own projects, but Eagle & Wolf continues to pick up design jobs here and there. More on those projects coming soon!

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Posted in Eagle + Wolf, Inspiration

Tagged Maryanna Hoggatt, Jake Hollomon, Eagle + Wolf, Little Wolf, Anders Nilsen, Charles Bukowski, Big Questions

Brush vs. Tablet

Posted on March 23, 2011 | 1 Comment

It came as a surprise to me that Renata Liwska, illustrator of the well-received children’s book The Quiet Book, digitally colors her pencil drawings.

Perfectly suited with a muted palette, the pictures of this book are so soft and inviting that they immediately caught my attention when they were featured in Communication Art’s Illustration Annual (2010).

I have a Wacom Tablet that has been quietly collecting dust in a closet, and on a whim today I pulled it out for an experiment.

I had drawn this little guy:

Yes, on lined paper. Hey! I was doodling.

I quickly did some digital washes in Photoshop over the pencil work and erased some of the lines. Lastly, I applied a softly multiplied layer in the shade of Old-Timey.

And you know what? Meh. I really did not enjoy doing all the color on this digitally. I’ll even say I did it grudgingly.

So, I retraced the original sketch, and inked the lines in Micron pen. I gratefully picked up my trusty brushes and dabbed watercolor onto the drawing. A dash of charcoal, and voila!

Dudes, it was so, so much faster. Old school, forever and ever. And, my scanner did a good job of picking up the texture of the vellum paper.

So what the heck? I scanned in the painted sketch and did some digital magic on that, too:

For some interesting behind-the-scenes by Renata Liwska, Amazon.com has posted some process photos for her upcoming book, The Loud Book. Have a look-see!

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Posted in Character, Digital, Illustration, Process

Tagged Character, Charcoal, digital, Ink, Little Wolf, Maryanna Hoggatt, Sketches, watercolor

Seattle & Nick Cave

Posted on March 22, 2011 | Leave a comment

Eagle & Wolf successfully took Seattle by storm, hitting all the usual suspects: Pike Place, Starbucks, shopping districts, Queen Anne, Belltown, and Ballard. Seattle is big city compared to Portland, and it makes for a nice getaway. And, as I suspected, I didn’t touch my sketchbook. But I did drink some Manhattans!

We ended our trip with a visit to the Seattle Art Museum. Not knowing what the new exhibit was, we were stoked to see the costume works of Nick Cave on display. Nooooooo, not the Australian singer of the Bad Seeds, but the artist and choreographer.

(SAM promotional card for the exhibit, Meet Me at the Center of the Earth.)

(SAM promotional fold-out poster.)

Mostly consisting of reappropriated thrift-store junk, items like ceramic birds and old lady sparkly blouses are hoarded together into wearable art. Deemed “Soundsuits”, Cave’s costumes are stitched together with incredible detail. The exhibit was huge, with video installation and dozens of Soundsuits in a variety of materials.

A Soundsuit made of twigs.

Brightly colored hair Soundsuits.

After the exhibit, I couldn’t help but think of Bjork’s imagery used for her latest album, Volta.

To see the suits in action, check out this video.

And if you’re in the Seattle area, I highly recommend visiting SAM yourself and viewing Nick Cave’s exhibit.

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Posted in Inspiration

Tagged Jake Hollomon, Little Wolf, Maryanna Hoggatt, Meet Me at the Center of the Earth, Nick Cave, Seattle, Seattle Art Museum, Soundsuits

Getaway

Posted on March 18, 2011 | Leave a comment

I have christened my new sketchbook with the first drawing:

It reads, “If Andrew Wyeth were still alive, he’d see this house in Portland and paint every single shingle, window, and door“.

I had thought of this Wyeth painting, Weatherside:

In which he does just that.

I must have driven past this house a million times, but sometimes you don’t see something until you’re looking for it. I like the crazy colors, and how the oddly attached bookstore juts out in front. So I took a quick picture and drew from it.

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This time tomorrow I’ll be in Seattle, for a quick weekend getaway. I’ll be bringing my sketchbook, in the (somewhat futile) hope to document the city in a blend of drawings and photographs. But really, I’ll probably just be drinking lots of manhattans and doing nothing.

See ya next week!

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Posted in Illustration, Sketchbook

Tagged Andrew Wyeth, Ink, Little Wolf, Maryanna Hoggatt, Weatherside

A Study of Shoes

Posted on March 16, 2011 | 1 Comment

As I’ve said before, I went to community college in Scottsdale, Arizona. It’s the desert – hot & sunny almost all the time. So you can get away with, if you want, not wearing much clothing.

I was often mystified by the other students I saw walking around campus. It’s like some of the students there were in perpetual “clubbing” mode. I witnessed young ladies wearing the most impractical shoes imaginable! My late morning class allowed me to document some of the footwear girls chose to teeter around in. And I mean, the campus was big, too – I had to clock some serious miles. Total awe.

It’s really a different world down there. Check out this STUDENT MAGAZINE, for ASU students:

The covers were similar to this, every single month. Oh man – the back is even better:

Ha Ha. Hahahaaaaaaahhhhh! So good.

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Posted in Illustration

Tagged ASU, Charcoal, Impractical, Ink, Let's Go Clubbing, Little Wolf, Maryanna Hoggatt, Shoes

Rando’s

Posted on March 14, 2011 | Leave a comment

(terrifying, isn’t it?)

Last week the heater broke in my house. While the winters here are pretty mild, it still got downright chilly at times. I often found myself huddled next to our space heater like an electronic campfire. Being from the desert, I can be a real sucker for cold.

Today, oh glorious day, it has been fixed! And I expect to be churning out drawings at regular speed now.

And in other exciting sketchbook news, I have diligently plowed through my current sketchbook and have already purchased a new one.

This is my second hand.book journal co doodler, and I must say: TRUE LOVE. For fellow habitual sketchers, I highly recommend this sketchbook.

However, this time I sprung for the the landscape version. OOOH SPARKLY! A different orientation, a whole new life.

PEE ESS – the social media Monster continues to consume me. I have fallen to the dark side of Twitter. Follow me @LeetleWolf. The great thing about it already? I can follow some of my favorite illustrators.

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Posted in Illustration, Sketchbook

Tagged Hand-lettered, Hand.book Journal, Ink, Little Wolf, Maryanna Hoggatt, Sketchbook

Inspiration: David Wiesner

Posted on March 13, 2011 | Leave a comment

I like to follow my contemporaries in the children’s book world, and so last week I picked up 3 titles of picture book creator David Wiesner. Mr. Wiesner has won 2 Caldecott Honors and 3 Caldecott Medals, making him only the second person in the award’s history to do so.

ART & MAX

Art & Max is the most recent of Wiesner’s books. The story focuses on two desert lizards enjoying a day of outdoor painting. Art is the wiser, more experienced painter, while Max is a rambunctious trouble-maker who naively picks up a brush with nearly disastrous results.

The story is fun and colorful. Wiesner clearly enjoyed indulging in his artistic abilities, making use of watercolors, pastels, and pencils. I also liked the small bio at the end of the book, which featured a picture of Wiesner painting at the age of 11.

TUESDAY

Tuesday came out in 1991 and won Wiesner a Caldecott Medal. The picture book follows the journey of frogs floating on lily-pads through their neighborhood, on a late Tuesday evening. Strange concept, good pictures.

(My favorite image from the book). This one was good, and I liked the twist at the end, but my favorite one was -

FLOTSAM

Flotsam (2006) is a wildly imaginative book about a regular lad who finds an old waterproof camera washed up on the beach. He takes the camera in to get the film developed, and discovers pictures that reveal unknown secrets of the underwater world.

Flotsam was by far my favorite of the 3 books. It was the least predictable, and as the story went on, it was a delight to turn each page. It’s a juicy morsel of a story that lingers long after you close the book, and that, in my opinion, is evidence of a great story.

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Ever wonder about the structure of children’s books? No? Well, I do! And here’s the answer to Why 36 Pages?

And now, I leave you with this picture of flowers. You’re welcome.