Thursday, July 27, 2006

 

Stippled Pears


Wednesday, July 26, 2006

 

Buzzing Bees


I took this at the Children's Adventure Garden at the New York Botanical Garden.

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

 

Pen & Ink Intensive: Day 2


Day two was lot more relaxing for me. Today we focused on hatching, cross-hatching, and stippling. I prefer hatching and cross-hatching to the contour line work we did yesterday. There's more freedom in the movement of the fingers when you hatch, as opposed to contour line that requires you to keep your fingers stationary, and only move your hand across the paper, pulling the crow quill pen. We also used a 104 nib on the pen, which had a thinner line.

After endless hatching exercises, we moved onto rocks. I got a little bored, so I worked on a little monkey too.


I worked on this section of a pine cone for a while.



Later in the afternoon, we started stippling. I haven't done this since high school, but I forgot how hard it can be.








The bottom image is an example of a two toned image/ no shading.





I also forgot how rewarding the results of stippling can be. This is probably the most clean, detailed work I've done. Each figure took about an hour and a half.

As an entire experience, this class was incredible. I'm sad that I can't take section 2 (work won't let me go that long). My teacher was Carol Ann Morley, and she was terrific. You can look at some of her stuff on the web- she doesn't have a website (she comes from a time before the www), but some of her exhibition work is on gallery sites.

Monday, July 24, 2006

 

Pen & Ink Intensive: Day 1

I'm taking a Pen & Ink Intensive session in the Botanical/ Science Illustration program at the New York Botanical Garden. It's solely a technique class, using nib pens (think calligraphy). We only used nib 102 today, but tomorrow we get use nib 104! The class was 5 hours today. The first 2 hours focused on drawing lines. I'm not including any of those sheets, but if you want to see them, just ask.




Once we mastered line, we played with outlines of simple leaves:











The afternoon was spent working on shading technique. We used a 16th century botanical print to work from, and then filled in the lines. This took 3 hours. I have a hard time making parallel lines with the nib. I think this is attributed to my familiarity with Micron inking pens, which have a consistent line. You can really see this in the top two right leaves. The more whimsical things in the picture were easier to do: the caterpillars and butterfly.









For homework we had to draw long blades of grass (no detail). Hank, my cat, ate most of the grass when I wasn't looking. Yes. My cat ate my homework. This was a challenging homework assignment due to the length of grass (This picture is 11"X14"). Keeping a constistent line proved difficult (you can see this with some of the darker areas in the picture). This was my second attempt; my first ruined by a single drop of ink that fell in the middle of the page. Alas, the life of an inker....

Sunday, July 23, 2006

 

CosAdventure Mission 3

army man Pub Crawl

 

Creative ways to battle a flood


My museum floods from time to time. We're sort of built in a hole, and when crazy storms happen, we get a huge deluge in our Rotunda (up to our ankles). These are some of the creative ways we bailed water:
1. Using mops to direct water back outside
2. Trash bins as water pails
3. Large rolling bins as water tanks
4. Pieces of large foam core to squeegee water outside
5. Lot's of teamwork

 

Supplies


I'm taking a Pen & Ink Illustration course in a few days. Here are all the supplies I needed to get.

 

Office Clock


I needed a clock for my office, so I made one.

 

Trouble in Paradise


I went to see this play with the Mims. This play is a farcical remake of the 1930's classic. She had to review it, and asked for some a quick critique:


Positive:
1. Costume design was stellar. The Red Buttons on Nina Hellman's second act skirt stole the show.
2. This production was charming, and would play well to a community theatre crowd outside of NY.
3. The Music was enchanting, especially the radio jingle, "Colet, Colet, Colet and Company, are the makers of the best perfume".
4. The actual script was delightful, full of zingers, like, "You like me, in fact you're crazy about me. I don't care, I don't like you."
5. All stage business with pickpocketing was excellently executed.

Negative:
1. This comedy was not funny, and at time incredibly BORING
2. Transitions between the funny script took away from exciting language
3. Too much dancing for a play that is not a musical
4. Director didn't understand that Camp and Inside Jokes are not the same thing
5. Beginning of the play was incredibly muddled- I didn't understand what was going for 20 minutes.

Extra Credit: The scene where the actors voices were overdubbed was incredibly funny. If the whole play were more like that, then it might work.

Monday, July 17, 2006

 

New Art Storage



I found this cabinet in my hall this morning, and thought that it would be perfect for all of my art supplies. I was right.

 

When water spills...


on my roommate, it forms a picture of a man.

Saturday, July 15, 2006

 

LD Bugg Lives



Performing today was a lot of fun. I think my staff at the museum had more fun watching me be a giant Lady Bug, then I had performing.


Looks like the Bee was bumped off...


If you'd like to see some live action, you can watch the spot I did for NY1's Parenting Report.

Don't blink- I'm on for 4 seconds.








Friday, July 14, 2006

 

I am LD BUGG


Tomorrow I have to play LD Bugg, Investigative Insect in the Mysterious Miss Squito. I spent about 30 minutes rehearsing today- I thought I should, I haven't done the show in 6 years. It was a little strange to be saying all of the lines again, but I think I'll be ok. If you're around- the shows are at 2 & 3. Marcos is a giant Ladybug costume is pretty funny....

 

Stevie Snail Song

This is a little duet that Stevie Snail and Sammy Slug sing at the end of the puppet play, Stevie Snail, Come Out Your Shell. This took me a looooong time to figure out- comments on this are appreciated. Please remember it is a song in which a slug and a snail are singing.

Sammy Slug:
When it's wet outside, Icome out and play
I don't like it much, when it's awfully dry like hay,
If you want to see what snails and slugs look like
Make sure to visit when the sun's outta sight!

Both:
I am Sammy Slug, and I am Stevie Snail
We look a like, and leave a slimy trail
I live underground, and I in my shell
And those are the only differences that you can tell.

Stevie Snail:
I met a beautiful sparrow who lives up in a nest
And a funny little ant who liked dry weather best
But now I have a friend who looks just like me

Sammy Slug:
Except for that shell, which must be really heav-y

Both:
I am Sammy Slug, and I am Stevie Snail
We look a like, and leave a slimy trail
I live underground, and I in my shell
And those are the only differences that you can tell.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

 

Cash and Circus Shannon


That Cash is a talented dog.

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

 

Rags


This is a drawing of Rags, the champion somersault dog of the world in 1892. Rags is a German Boarhound, which is a breed that does not exist nowadays, but it was similar to the Great Dane, although not as tall or long in the body. Rags was a performing dog in the Marvelle Dog Circus.

 

Snail Shell


Who makes Giant Snail Shells in his kitchen?

I do.

I'm working on puppets for a production called Stevie Snail, Come Out Your Shell!

This has a soft foam understructure, and then rigid wrap (sort of a plaster bandage) applied on top to give texture and stability.

Monday, July 10, 2006

 

CosAdventure

mission 2:
surviving CONEY ISLAND

CosAdventure.blogspot.com

Sunday, July 09, 2006

 

Birthday Discounts


Thursday, July 06, 2006

 

Man on Horse


quick sketch with prisma & sharpie

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

 

Manga Hank


If my cat were a manga cartoon character, I think this is what he'd look like- especially if "cat dancer" was dangled in front of him. !

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

 

Snail Cat





When you have to spend your 4th of July making a giant foam snail shell, you realize that it's all worth it when your cat crawls into it, and becomes SNAIL CAT!

 

Feeding a Praying Mantis


This is no easy task. I don't usually have to feed our little friends, but the person who normally tends to our baby mantis nursery is out this week. To do this, you have to move dwarf flies from one vile to the individual mantis vile. I had to be creative keeping the flies from flying away.

My favorite Mantis is Fritz.




Sunday, July 02, 2006

 

Introducing CosAdventure

It's time to get adventurous this summer. 8 weeks: 8 adventures!
Check it out: CosAdventure.blogspot.com

Mission 1: Walking Manhattan

Saturday, July 01, 2006

 

Corteo

Cirque du Soleil is my church. I go about two times a year, and instead of watching the same old bread and wine turned into body and blood, I get to watch a dwarf fly over an audience while being suspended by gigantic balloons. This was one of the finest Cirque shows I've ever seen, and I'm really glad I took the risk to venture to Randal's Island on my own. In celebration of going, I timed myself doing a handstand: 35 seconds (with some minor wall support).

 

Mambo For Cats


Vinyle Edition, Michellephant and I worked to compile more album covers for our special project. Mambo For Cats is my favorite album cover of all time. It may not make it very far on our list, but I'd just like to say that they're not just cats- they're cats with mustaches.

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