Have you seen the Life With Girls webcomic yet? Mr. Handmade has been writing new strips for the old Daily Life cartoons since before Christmas, and has rebranded it as Life With Girls. Basically, it's stories about being a stay-at-home dad of two daughters. Right now, he's republishing all of the old Daily Life illustrations as he works on a new format, moving forward into a more ongoing story, instead of a series of anecdotal illustrated status messages.
He's pretty excited about the whole thing, and we are very proud of how the project is shaping up. You can find it at www.LifeWithGirls.com.
Watercolor Wednesday:
Spring is finally (maybe) here in Missouri, and when it's not raining, Mr Golden peeks his head from behind the clouds. Today is one of those glorious sunny days, and I thought I'd celebrate it by posting this sun painting in the Online shop.
As always, thanks for stopping in, take care, and be good!
Your friend,
Jeffrey
The last couple of months have been crazy busy. Between the start of show season at Green With Indie, then vacation to Arizona with Abby (who just turned five), followed by St. Louis ComicCon and the Small Press and Comic Expo in Columbus, Ohio, I haven't had much time for anything. Then, when you add in the Life With Girls web comic, finishing up Volume 1 of the Handmade Fairy Tales book, and client work...well, you get the picture. The thing is though, despite being exhausted and more than a little stressed out, this is still the best part of my life so far. :)
S.P.A.C.E. is the yearly Small Press and Comic Expo, held in
Columbus, Ohio. I shared a table this year with my friend Leighton Connor, the writer and illustrator of Laser Brigade, and creative director over at Hex Games. It was a lot of fun, we had a late nite adventure putting his comics together at Kinko's (which I chronicled over on the Life With Girls blog), the best barbeque I've ever had, and got to meet some really great creators. No matter how ready I seem to be leading up to a show, it seems like I'm always up until 2:00 in the morning the nite before, making "one last thing". For this show, it was bookmarks.
There have been a lot of late nites recently, as I've been working towards some major milestones on personal projects. I got the first volume of the Handmade Fairy Tales book done just in time to order have them for S.P.A.C.E...Actually, I was sweating their delivery a little bit, as they didn't arrive until after noon on the day I was leaving for the show. They came out fantastic, and all six stories are so good. We're really excited to finally be able to share this first volume with you in our online store. You can also check out the first story, "The Brave Little Tailor" by Brandon Graham as a free download, in the downloads section of the site.
Getting a good print run of the "Life With Girls" comic was another huge project for the show. We collected the first twenty-four strips of the 100 themes project (plus a couple of others) into a 5.5 x 8.5 book. The story of a stay-at-home dad of two daughters, the comic has both day to day "slice of life" type stories, as well as more fantasy stories, looking into the minds of the children, and the people they love. It's also available now in the shop, or you can read it for free on the Life With Girls blog.
One last shop update for the day. It's Watercolor Wednesday! Today, we have this handsome corgi pup, and cozy coupe. These are both original watercolor and ink drawings that are also available as part of the story starter chip set.
Thanks for stopping in! Until next time, take care and be good!
Your friend,
Jeffrey
When I started this years big personal project, I knew it was going to be a lot of work...and boy was I right. As I'm nearing completion though, I'm really pleased with how it's all coming out. It's been really rewarding on so many levels. The friend's I've made, collaborating with writers, not to mention I have a large new body of work rolling out for the winter shows. One of the things I really like about doing these special yearly projects though, is seeing how the work changes from year to year, thinking about how the family has grown, and all the new things we do and are capable of doing. I'm really lucky to be able to do the things we do, and am so happy to share it with you all.
Today, I have a large set of images to share for the first complete calendar image. Showcasing the climactic scene of "The Brave Little Tailor", the idea is that the kids and us are acting out each of the stories in a theater setting. As I've been designing these, I feel like our love of the muppets and puppetry are really showing, and I'm reminded of one of the reasons I began drawing in the first place. In high school, I wanted to be a puppeteer and work in the Henson Creature shop. At any rate, This is my basic process for creating an image. I hope you enjoy it!
I started off with the thumbnails at the right of the page (the full size version is at the top of the post), and then rough in the major forms. I'm working at about 9x12 on bristol board.
Next, I pencil in the details of the characters, and firm up some of my ideas for the background.
Then, I ink the main characters and scan them into the computer. Without the background.
I put the background together in illustrator, right on top of the original pencil drawing. I also paint in a base color for the characters to help isolate them and unify their color schemes.
Here I put the final calendar layout over everything to make sure it all fits. I add a texture to the page, as well as paper textures to the background elements. I lay down color on all the foreground elements quickly to give everything a base to start from.
The Characters are painted.
Here I added some details to the background like the stage floor, shadows cast by the set, and the theater spotlight.
And last I went in and added some detail to the set pieces, finished up the floor and added some sheep to fill in some dead spaces.
Thanks for stopping in. I hope this all made some kind of sense. I enjoy posting about process, so I hope you all enjoy reading about it. Ha-ha-ha! If you have any questions or comments, I'd love to hear from you.
Whenever I'm asked what Handmade Family makes I say stories...Actually, that's a lie. I just now thought of it, but it sounded so good, that I honestly want it to be true. Maybe I will start saying that for real. The real truth, is that we make back-to-basics gifts, toys, accessories and decor that promote education, problem solving and imagination. We're more than the products we make though, and we know that our customers are more than what they buy...we make things to be a part our families' lives. Stories are an important part of that, and we love telling them. When Abby was born, I knew that I wanted to collect these little experiences and illustrate them, so I started a little web comic called Daily Life. One panel cartoons with some accompanying text. I did several of them over the course of a year or two, and then decided to make a calendar collecting twelve stories about my first year as a stay-at-home dad my two little girls.
Looking for an idea for the second calendar was tough. I wanted to still tell stories about my family, but was looking for a way to stretch my abilities a little and offer something that people who didn't know me, and who didn't have that back story could relate to. Part of what inspired me as a kid, and made me want to follow a career in art was a love of movies and games. I remember being a member of the Rebel Alliance, or a Ghostbuster on the playground. Movies have become a part of our cultural dialog and there's such a rich source of material to play with there. One of the really fun aspects of that project was researching accurate costumes for the kids, while thinking of ways to make costumes for the adults that made sense but were obviously hand made.
I've enjoyed working on these projects so much, and have learned so much by doing them. This year though, I wasn't sure whether I was going to do one. I talked to Mrs Handmade about it and while we both agreed that the fan inspired work for 2012 was really cool and we love showing it, maybe we could do something more...So we decided to do a book. At first, I wanted to do just a "sketchbook" collection of drawings and illustrations. Sort of a best of the last couple years with some new work to tie it together. She thought (rightly) that it would be better to do a book of all new work, and to continue telling stories. So we decided to work on an illustrated book of Fairy Tales. As we talked out the idea, it grew. And grew...Into the most ambitious project we've done so far. The book will contain 12 fairy tales, written graciously (and incredibly) by our friends, with illustrations, layout and design by me. Along with this is the 2013 Handmade Family with us and the kids acting out the stories as illustrated theatre...
Brandon Graham, with The Brave Little Tailor
Justin Hunter, with Goldielocks, The Fox & The Crow, and The Frog Prince Josh Burnett with Hansel and Gretel Leighton Connor with The Princess and The Pea, and The Seven Ravens
Richard Smith with Jack and the Beanstalk, and an original story about my forest sprites Rob Lammle with Thumbelina Steve Johnson with The Emperors New Clothes, and Little Red Riding Hood
So would you like to see a little bit of what we've been working on? Here's a couple of the pencil drawings from the Brave Little Tailor, by Brandon Graham
“Seven,”
he said. He would have to swat them all at once. If he missed even one, he
would be stung for certain. Stings were not his favorite. He found his straw
broom and tested its heft. He aimed carefully. Then he let fly. SMACK. Seven
wasps curled harmlessly along the ground.
“Did
you see that?” he called to his sheep. The sheep were hard to impress.
He
was, however, truly miffed that no one had bothered to warn him the giant was
there. Meridee might have said something. Poor manners were inexcusable. He
turned on his heels to go back and give her a good talking to.
We're all really excited about this project and are looking forward to sharing the ideas and progress with
you over the next few weeks as we lead up to their release at the Strange Folk Festival in O'fallon IL, at the end of September. Until then, take care and be good.
All these pictures were taken on my iphone and processed with instagram. You can follow me if you want too! My user name is redherringjeff.
I love my kids, and I love being home with them. As any stay at home parent can tell you though, the hardest part of that job is that you never get a day off. For me, nap time is spent working or cleaning and there is very little time left for personal projects. I talked to Mrs Handmade about this the other day, and we hatched a plan for some time set aside for those things that I don't have time for, and also time to just be alone. On the Design Mom blog last week, Gabrielle Blair talked about being alone and included this wonderful little video about it.
So I've managed to get out to Bread Co, or the library and get some work done on the blogs, or in my sketch book. and it's been really great. My wife is pretty rad.
Speaking of rad, this past weekend Mrs Handmade had another idea...trade a day of babysitting each week with one of our friends. My head exploded. What a perfect, simple idea that would be great for everybody. Why hadn't we thought about it sooner? Six hours home alone. Six hours to get some work done...during the day. This week was my first "day off" and while it felt a little indulgent at times, I made an actual dent in my work load. And then we went to see "Brave" after picking up the girls. And it was great.
Here's a little peek at my six hours...
9:30. After dropping Amy off at work, and the kids off at the sitters I sat down to frame some calendar prints for the shop and watch the "new" Conan movie. The movie had just the right amount of fluff to make actually paying attention to what I was doing possible. Also, in case the R rating didn't warn you, this is not like the older Conan movies, and I wouldn't watch it with kids. There's a lot of boobs and blood.
11:00. I spent 20 minutes in my super messy studio looking for picture hanging hardware that I'm sure I have. I briefly considered both cleaning up the studio and going out to buy the hardware. Ultimately I decided to just let it go and work on sketches for the fairy tale book and calendar...
Eating lunch while listening to Neil Gaiman read "Stardust" and sketching ideas for "The Emperors New Clothes". I'm thinking that instead of going with the traditional Rococo inspired designs that I'll do Napoleonic empire clothes with 20th century Arts and Crafts sets.
1:30. After lunch, back down to the studio to rework some drawings for a barbecue competition team shirt I'm working on. One of my instagram followers said I need to post more of this type of stuff. What do you all think? More artwork? Is there anyghing in particular you'd like to see here on the blog?
3:00. I caved and went to buy hardware on my way to pick up the girls. I just know that in the next couple of days I'll find the stuff I already had...it's not like I wont use it all or anything, just frustrating that I wasted so much time looking for it. Ha-ha-ha!
4:00. I picked up the girls at the sitter. They were glad to see me, but sad that they had to leave their friends. Ha-ha-ha! Life's so hard when you're a kid. We went and picked up Mom, and then went and saw Brave. The movie was great, and I think it's unfortunate that Disney did such a terrible job marketing it, because it wasn't the movie they made it out to be.
And that was my "day off". Over all, a pretty good and productive day, and I hope you enjoyed spending it with me. Is this something you'd like to see as a regular feature? Are there things that you'd like to read about that I'm just not thinking of? Would you like to see more tutorials, reviews and shows? Let us know in the comments. We'd love to hear from you!
Until next time, take care and be good!
Your friend,
Jeffrey
Things I'm into right now:
Thundercats. I finally got to see some of the new Thundercats cartoon, and it's pretty cool. One thing that's interesting to me is that this is the second cartoon that I've seen recently that borrows a lot of it's themes from the A-team.
Neil Gaiman Books on tape: I'm listening to "Stardust" right now, and have "Coraline" to listen to while I work next. One of the cool things is that Neil reads his own books, and he has such a wonderful, English voice.
All these pictures were taken on my iphone and processed with instagram. You can follow me if you want too! My user name is redherringjeff.
We love the Muppets. When the Muppet movie came out on DVD we asked our followers on the Facebook who their favorite Muppet was, and then had the girls draw a winner out of hat for a marker sketch. Steve Johnson, Co-Creator of the Qags game system, produced by Hex Games, told us his favorite was Gonzo. So I did a drawing of Gonzo playing Qags to give to him this past weekend at Die Con in Collinsville, IL.
We ordered a couple of new dresses for Abby from Olive Juice Kids, and they are pretty awesome. They are high quality, really cute and have a European design sensibility that we really love. Abby was so funny, we opened the box which was packed with all these great details (check out my instagram feed to see some of them) and tried both dresses on. Here she's waving hi. Ha-ha-ha!
Abby and I went to the Homegrown Etsy Show at the Contemporary Art Museum in Saint Louis last week. She saw this Giraffe shirt by our friend Amanda of Sprouted Designs and just knew that Olive would LOVE it. Olivia has been really into Giraffes lately, she has four toy ones that she carries around and talks about. I love it that the first person Abby thought about at the show was her sister, and she really didn't suggest getting anything for herself until the end when I brought it up.
One of the things that's amazing about Abby turning 4 is the focus that she's developed. All of a sudden, she will sit and draw and color for long stretches of time. I love it that she's so into making things.
Check out those fingers and toes! Abby drew this person standing under a rainbow the other day in sunday school.
Working on story breakdowns and character designs for the 2013 Handmade family calendar and book of tales. The
idea is pretty ambitious, but I'm really excited about it. Are there any
fairy tales that you'd like to see included? Let us know in the
comments!
Thanks for stopping in! Until next time, take care and be good!
Your friend,
Jeffrey
Some things I'm into right now,
Olive Juice Kids:
Super cute clothes and accessories, made in love in the United States that have a wonderful European sensibility.
Doctor Who:
We're only two episodes away from the end of the current season. It's a really fun "Family oriented horror show." Exiting and often heartwarming, Amy and I have been watching an episode most nights for the last couple of months. Fortunately, there's about 30 years worth of episodes left to catch up on while we're waiting for the next season. :)
I have a great memory. Honestly, I do. Which is pretty awesome when I play trivial pursuit or Scene It. It's great when I'm gabbing with my friends. My memory comes in handy when I'm looking for some obscure thing I saw at the library, in my basement, or on the internet. There is one place that it always betrays me, though. Names. Not names of things, characters or people in general. I'm talking about the names of people I've just met. After meeting a bunch of people in a group "Hi Jeffrey, this is Danny, Amy, Ryan, Susie and Bob." I'll field the question about whether I go by Jeff or Jeffrey (incidentally, I wouldn't introduce myself as Jeffrey if that wasn't what I go by) and then promptly forget everybody's names.
Is there a cure for this? It's not like I mean to forget, I just Do!
Until next time, take care and be good!
Your friend,
Jeffrey
It's amazing to me how often this car-jacking scenario plays out in the backyard. One kid walks away from the car, and another gets in. Then the screaming begins...Ha-ha-ha! I'm a firm believer in the idea that if you walk away from it, you are done playing and it's somebody else's turn. I won't defend toys that have been walked away from except in special situations. The really funny thing about this though, is that I have two cars, and I still get to hear this.
As usual, the rest of the Daily Life illustrations have been archived on the Red Herring Illustration facebook page. Thanks for stopping in! Until next time, take care and be good!
Amy is usually the one who gives the girls a bath. Sometimes I read, sometimes I catch up on facebook, and sometimes I'm down in the basement lining up my work schedule for the night. One thing that I can pretty much count on though, is Olive running to see me as soon as she gets out of the tub, with her towel hanging by it's hood on her head...butt naked. Those little visits, and the joy on her face always crack me up, ha-ha-ha!
As usual, the rest of the Daily Life illustrations have been archived on the Red Herring Illustration facebook page. Thanks for stopping in! Until next time, take care and be good! Your friend, Jeffrey
The last couple of months have been crazy busy. Between the start of show season at Green With Indie, then vacation to Arizona with Abby (who just turned five), followed by St. Louis ComicCon and the Small Press and Comic Expo in Columbus, Ohio, I haven't had much time for anything. Then, when you add in the Life With Girls web comic, finishing up Volume 1 of the Handmade Fairy Tales book, and client work...well, you get the picture. The thing is though, despite being exhausted and more than a little stressed out, this is still the best part of my life so far. :)
S.P.A.C.E. is the yearly Small Press and Comic Expo, held in
There have been a lot of late nites recently, as I've been working towards some major milestones on personal projects. I got the first volume of the Handmade Fairy Tales book done just in time to order have them for S.P.A.C.E...Actually, I was sweating their delivery a little bit, as they didn't arrive until after noon on the day I was leaving for the show. They came out fantastic, and all six stories are so good. We're really excited to finally be able to share this first volume with you in our online store. You can also check out the first story, "The Brave Little Tailor" by Brandon Graham as a free download, in the downloads section of the site.
Getting a good print run of the "Life With Girls" comic was another huge project for the show. We collected the first twenty-four strips of the 100 themes project (plus a couple of others) into a 5.5 x 8.5 book. The story of a stay-at-home dad of two daughters, the comic has both day to day "slice of life" type stories, as well as more fantasy stories, looking into the minds of the children, and the people they love. It's also available now in the shop, or you can read it for free on the Life With Girls blog.
When I started this years big personal project, I knew it was going to be a lot of work...and boy was I right. As I'm nearing completion though, I'm really pleased with how it's all coming out. It's been really rewarding on so many levels. The friend's I've made, collaborating with writers, not to mention I have a large new body of work rolling out for the winter shows. One of the things I really like about doing these special yearly projects though, is seeing how the work changes from year to year, thinking about how the family has grown, and all the new things we do and are capable of doing. I'm really lucky to be able to do the things we do, and am so happy to share it with you all.
Whenever I'm asked what Handmade Family makes I say stories...Actually, that's a lie. I just now thought of it, but it sounded so good, that I honestly want it to be true. Maybe I will start saying that for real. The real truth, is that we make back-to-basics gifts, toys, accessories and decor that promote education, problem solving and imagination. We're more than the products we make though, and we know that our customers are more than what they buy...we make things to be a part our families' lives. Stories are an important part of that, and we love telling them. When Abby was born, I knew that I wanted to collect these little experiences and illustrate them, so I started a little web comic called Daily Life. One panel cartoons with some accompanying text. I did several of them over the course of a year or two, and then decided to make a calendar collecting twelve stories about my first year as a stay-at-home dad my two little girls.
Looking for an idea for the second calendar was tough. I wanted to still tell stories about my family, but was looking for a way to stretch my abilities a little and offer something that people who didn't know me, and who didn't have that back story could relate to. Part of what inspired me as a kid, and made me want to follow a career in art was a love of movies and games. I remember being a member of the Rebel Alliance, or a Ghostbuster on the playground. Movies have become a part of our cultural dialog and there's such a rich source of material to play with there. One of the really fun aspects of that project was researching accurate costumes for the kids, while thinking of ways to make costumes for the adults that made sense but were obviously hand made. 
Amy is usually the one who gives the girls a bath. Sometimes I read, sometimes I catch up on facebook, and sometimes I'm down in the basement lining up my work schedule for the night. One thing that I can pretty much count on though, is Olive running to see me as soon as she gets out of the tub, with her towel hanging by it's hood on her head...butt naked. Those little visits, and the joy on her face always crack me up, ha-ha-ha!