Another spread from Two Bad Pilgrims. This is the big splashy first glimpse of the Mayflower.
Here is the thumbnail sketch:
Everything’s there that needs to be, but I was concerned that the direction of the drawing didn’t show the Billingtons being rowed toward the Mayflower in the background.
In the tight sketch, I turned the foreground boat around so we’re looking at its stern as it rows away from us. I had to scan this in two pieces—sorry.
When I drew the tight sketch, I worked half-size, so it was fairly easy to freehand the lines of the ship. When I inked the scene, I worked at 125%, which is pretty big. I don’t have enough control with a brush to competently ink in those lines at the larger size. I wound up ruling them with a rapidograph, and used a homemade french curve—I traced the ship’s line onto a piece of watercolor board and cut along the line with a razor blade. It gave me a nice smooth template to rule the lines with.
Here’s the inked and colorized image:
Colorization by Vince Dorse. Click on the picture to embiggen.
Update—Vince has some more on the colorization process over here.
Awhile back, Ann Mason—then-exec-director of the Renaissance & Baroque Society of Pittsburgh—and I thought it would be screamingly funny to create a promotional bobblehead of the august Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach. And, by George, we were right—it is funny!
Here’s what I envisioned:
One of the rbsp board members, Joy Troetschel, has some expertise in getting merchandise manufactured, and knew of a bobblehead factory in China who could produce our little statuette. What follows are some images from the correspondence I shared with the talented sculptors who created a brilliant little 3D clay caricature of Bach from the sketches I sent.
And here’s the prototype. They even airbrushed a nice 5 o’clock shadow onto JSB’s cheeks!
If you’d like one of these timeless treasures, visit the rbsp website—they’re modestly priced and benefit the Society.
https://www.johnmanders.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/JohnManderslogo300w1-300x58.jpg00johnmandershttps://www.johnmanders.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/JohnManderslogo300w1-300x58.jpgjohnmanders2009-11-11 02:11:142009-11-11 02:11:14Bring me the head of Johann Sebastian Bach
People do judge a book by its cover. Or at least, it’s the cover that gets people to pick up the book in the bookstore and see whether they like it. Here are rough cover ideas for Two Bad Pilgrims.
Art Director Jim Hoover liked Idea A I did tight sketches of the boys, the New Worlde mappe and the title type, which Jim put together as a comp.
The boys and the map are painted as a single image. One last request: show the boys having burst through the map. The compass rose is a separate piece of art. The type I inked in as separate black & white art. Jim Hoover combined these elements into one cover image and added the credits at the bottom.
The Mayflower
book promotion, illustration processAnother spread from Two Bad Pilgrims. This is the big splashy first glimpse of the Mayflower.
Here is the thumbnail sketch:
Everything’s there that needs to be, but I was concerned that the direction of the drawing didn’t show the Billingtons being rowed toward the Mayflower in the background.
In the tight sketch, I turned the foreground boat around so we’re looking at its stern as it rows away from us. I had to scan this in two pieces—sorry.
When I drew the tight sketch, I worked half-size, so it was fairly easy to freehand the lines of the ship. When I inked the scene, I worked at 125%, which is pretty big. I don’t have enough control with a brush to competently ink in those lines at the larger size. I wound up ruling them with a rapidograph, and used a homemade french curve—I traced the ship’s line onto a piece of watercolor board and cut along the line with a razor blade. It gave me a nice smooth template to rule the lines with.
Here’s the inked and colorized image:
Colorization by Vince Dorse. Click on the picture to embiggen.
Update—Vince has some more on the colorization process over here.
Bring me the head of Johann Sebastian Bach
illustration processAwhile back, Ann Mason—then-exec-director of the Renaissance & Baroque Society of Pittsburgh—and I thought it would be screamingly funny to create a promotional bobblehead of the august Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach. And, by George, we were right—it is funny!
Here’s what I envisioned:
One of the rbsp board members, Joy Troetschel, has some expertise in getting merchandise manufactured, and knew of a bobblehead factory in China who could produce our little statuette. What follows are some images from the correspondence I shared with the talented sculptors who created a brilliant little 3D clay caricature of Bach from the sketches I sent.
And here’s the prototype. They even airbrushed a nice 5 o’clock shadow onto JSB’s cheeks!
If you’d like one of these timeless treasures, visit the rbsp website—they’re modestly priced and benefit the Society.
Five not-too-bad cover ideas
book promotion, illustration processPeople do judge a book by its cover. Or at least, it’s the cover that gets people to pick up the book in the bookstore and see whether they like it. Here are rough cover ideas for Two Bad Pilgrims.
Art Director Jim Hoover liked Idea A I did tight sketches of the boys, the New Worlde mappe and the title type, which Jim put together as a comp.
The boys and the map are painted as a single image. One last request: show the boys having burst through the map. The compass rose is a separate piece of art. The type I inked in as separate black & white art. Jim Hoover combined these elements into one cover image and added the credits at the bottom.