Have A Doctor Who Year!

With the year drawing to a close, a lot of people are thinking about time. Thinking about time inevitably leads me to thinking about the Doctor. Doctor Who, you ask? Exactly! Ha-ha-ha!  One of the great things about being a freelance artist and crafter, is that sometimes people ask you to make really cool things. Towards the end of this year, I had the opportunity to make several cool Doctor Who Items, and now that Christmas is over I can finally share them with you!

My friend Carter was looking for something to give to his wife for Christmas other than the usual Jewelry, so he asked for the Tenth Doctor (Played by David Tennant) in an illustration acting as Hamlet giving the speech to the skull of Yorick.  I was familiar with the fact that Tennant had performed Hamlet before, but hadn't actually seen it before. So I looked it up on YouTube. I'm not sure whether the whole thing is available there or not, but I was able to watch several scenes, and it was a very good update on the classic play. This illustration was a lot of fun to do, and I look forward to doing some more like it in the new year.

I think, looking at my work, that it must be obvious that I'm a child of the eighties. The Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) will always be my doctor, when I think about the series. He's the one that I watched with my brother on Sunday afternoons, hanging over the side of my mom's bed. Over the summer, I'd made a few Doctor Who Peg People as I was trying out some new things for new products. In the fall, one of my friends bought the four that I'd made (Ten, a Cyberman, the Empty Child, and Rose Tyler) and asked me to make 9 more and three play houses to go with them. Her only stipulation was that they all had to be Doctor Who characters and buildings. WOW! It was a lot of fun picking the characters that I wanted to make into peg people, and an interesting challenge translating them and the buildings to this simplified play format. It also allowed me to come up with certain "rules" for the construction of the houses and the details of them, which I may not have ever done with just working from my head.

  

Amy's House

  

Martha Jones, Amy Pond, Eleven, and Rory Williams

 

The Tardis

 

 The Silence, Vashta Nerada, and a Weeping Angel

 

Dalek

We hope you all had a wonderful 2012, and that the worst day of the New Year is better than the best day of the last one. Until next time, take care and be good.

Your friend,

Jeffrey

I Say It Every Year...

Every year, I say I'm going to start my big personal projects earlier...I'm going to finish them earlier...Every. Year. Then, I spend most of September through November apologizing for having too much other work to get it done, and I feel like I look like a flake here on the blog. Enough of the apologizing for now, though. I want to show you all some of what I've been working on, and I also have a couple of progress shots (in varying stages of doneness) from the calendar to show you.

 

We do a lot of shows, and I spend part of the time there working on small commissions like these drawings and coloring in marker. They're quick(ish), fun, and something that I can do on the go. Most of these were done a couple of weeks ago at the Archon St Louis Sci-fi/Fantasy and gaming convention in Collinsville, IL.

 

One of my recent larger commissions was for a gift from a bride to her groom. Apparently, he'd proposed to her in a haunted house, so it was only fitting that they be chased by zombies on their wedding day. Ha-ha-ha!

The inked crow from the Fox and the Crow story.

 

And the fox, in ink and color. 

And the color "flats" for the calendar illustration. I thought this story would work really well as a shadow puppet style illustration.

And finally, the inked characters for the "Emperors New Clothes" illustration. Ha-ha-ha!

Well, it's been great stopping for a minute to chat, but I have a ton of work on my desk, and it's not going to do itself. Until next time, take care and be good!
Your friend,
Jeffrey

Little Houses on the Hillside...Crafting Strangefolk

Last year when were deciding what we wanted to be when we grew up, Mrs Handmade and I went to a lot of craft shows and festivals, testing the waters of the indie-craft scene. In late September, we went to the Strangefolk Festival in O'fallon Il. We were hooked. I wrote about the show afterwards, and remember how excited I was about it. Shows were definately something we wanted to do, and Strangefolk was at the top of our list. With the festival coming up this weekend, I've apparently decided to test the limits of "mind over matter" as I stay up doing client work, working on the Handmade Tales book, and getting new product ready for the show...Building a little neighborhood of little houses and people, in fact.

These little handmade playhouses started out life as a doodle on my desk blotter and have grown into these. There are two types, above are the Deluxe version where the face is painted, and the interior has a chalk board paint coating so that kids can customize their inner playhouse.

 

There's also the anywhere version with both faces painted with chalkboard paint to allow for maximum versatility in scenario location. I'm really excited to show these this weekend, and will be adding them to our online shop as well after the festival. 

 

In other news Brandon Graham, who I collaborated with on the Brave Little Tailor story in the Handmade Tales book has printed out the spreads of his story and my artwork to be included in a show in Chicago. How awesome is that? Next week, in conjunction with that I will post that layout here, as well as a downloadable pdf with the preorders for the book in our online shop...but more on that later. :)

Until next week then, take care and be good!

Your friend, 

Jeffrey

The Brave Little Tailor: Illustration Process

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. 

Until next time, take care and be good!

Your friend,

Jeffrey

A quick post about my process

Each month, either Mrs. Handmade or I work four shifts at Fusion, an art co-op we are members of here in St. Louis. One of the great things about working there is that after the dusting is done, and if there are no customers to help, all the time is ours. We're actually encouraged to bring our craft/artwork to do, because seeing us working helps draw people into our story. I spent this last Saturday working at the shop all day, and inking storybook drawings. It was great talking to people about what I was working on, telling them about the project and answering questions. One couple asked me about my process, which I love talking about because drawings seem like magic sometimes instead of a series of steps. I thought I'd take a minute and share some process drawings from Little Red Riding Hood with you today.

 

I started out by doodling in my sketch book, looking for who I thought the character of little red is, and what I wanted her to look like. This includes her reacting to things and doing things. This is a pretty well refined sketch of what I decided I was looking for.

 Next, I do very rough layout sketches for the drawings I'd like to include...Mostly these are just notes to myself, and I'm just looking at shapes and deciding where I want things to go.  I know I did one for the drawing I'm about to show, but it must've been on the back of an envelope or something, because I have no idea where it is now. Ha-ha-ha!

 

 Armed with the rough layout, I sit down with (in this case) cold press watercolor paper and a non-photo blue pencil. I use the blue pencil on these because it doesn't compete with the graphite when I do the final drawing, and it adds another layer of texture to the finished image when colored. Basically, I just like it. :) So, here I loosely and pretty quickly put down all the major shapes that I plan on being there when everything's finished.

 Next, I use a 2H graphite pencil to work out all the details, and to start figuring out the textures I'll need when I ink it. This is also where I start posting the images for the writers to see, so that we're all on the same page, and to give us all a chance to ask questions and comment.

  

Inking is probably my favorite part of the whole process. It's soothing, and probably the only part of the process where I don't always feel like I'm fighting it. I think this allows me to take more chances with it too.

Also, it's where everything sort of solidifies for me, as it approaches being finished. The trees were inspired in part by Charles Vess and his awesome artwork in the Dream Makers anthology. I got that book for Christmas when I was 13 or 14, and just pored over it. If you ever find it, definitely check it out.

I'm finishing up these spot interiors now, and starting the 12 main calendar images over the next week. At the same time, I'll start coloring the interiors...hopefully I don't mess them up, but nothing ventured, nothing gained, am I right? I'll leave you with one final image, the inked Tailor and Giant from last week. Brandon Graham did a really great little write up for the project over on his blog today. Go check it out!

 

Until next time, take care and be good!

Your friend,

Jeffrey

Some background and progress on Handmade Fairytales

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.

Your friend,
Jeffrey

Photo Round-up For The First Week Of July

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. :)

Photo Roundup For The First Week Of June

Busy, busy beginning of summer here getting the yard work done, summer craft shows, artwork, and of course playing with the girls. So here's this weeks photo roundup, 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.

One of our goals for Handmade Family this year was to do a show a month, in May we ended up doing three.  It was a hectic month for Mrs Handmade and me. Memorial day was Gypsy Caravan, an annual craftshow and flea market benefiting the Saint Louis Symphony. We were expecting heat and thunderstorms, but got a pretty mild, windy day. It was really pretty nice. This is our booth neighbor Melissa of Villa Design through the window formed by our displays. 

This book shelf, built inside of a door frame is awesome. One of the really awesome things I saw in the vendors stalls around the show. If only I was a little richer...and earlier. At 7:30 it had already sold.

 

This is my first "successful" attempt to braid Abby's hair. It's not the prettiest braid in the world, but if ponytails are any indication, it'll get better. 

We're always making things around here, and imaginative role-playing is a pretty big game with the kids. Really, we do a lot of back to basics stuff around here. Which isn't to say that we never watch TV or play computer games, there's plenty of that too, but we like to shoot for a balance.  Abby found this box the other day and wanted me to cut a robot face out of it. She was walking around saying "I am a robot...I talk like a robot..." for quite awhile. The other side has just one big square cut out of it, so she can be a talking TV head.  Ha-ha-ha!

So I'm sitting on the couch reading, and Abby decides to climb up on my shoulders and start wrigling around and dancing. The more I think about it, the more it seems like a good metaphor for our lives with children. I know I'll miss these days when they're gone.

 

The leeks I planted in our garden last summer bloomed this week.  They are huge and beautiful, Amy smelled them and was surprised to find that they smell like onions.  Ha-ha-ha! I said it made sense to me. This is one of the really cool things about having a garden. Even if (for what ever reason) not everything you plant gets eaten, there's nothing like seeing where things come from and where they go. Nature's pretty darn amazing.

 

The beginning stages of a Cthulhu peg-person. I've been having a lot of fun working on these guys a little bit at a time, lately.

 

A sketch I did for my friend Rob over at SpaceMonkeyX. He's a freelance writer, and all around pretty awesome guy.  You should go check him out!

Well, that's it for this week! Until next time then, take care and be good!

Your friend,

Jeffrey

Daily Life 100 Themes: 11 Memory

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