Archive for April, 2010

Apr 21 2010

Odyssey Cover

Published by under odyssey

The final cover for The Odyssey has appeared in Candlewick’s fall catalog, so now I can finally post it in all its glory. The book is scheduled for release on October 12th.

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Apr 15 2010

I love it when my drawings end up on cool things

Published by under landscape,Uncategorized

A few months ago I got a call from Harvard’s Widener Library about using a drawing I did of Memorial Hall for a bookplate they were designing. This bookplate (if I understand correctly) is for books purchased by the Katherine B. Loker memorial fund.

I just got my samples of the finished bookplates. I think they’re quite elegant.

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Apr 12 2010

Dogs, dogs, dogs

Published by under animals,sketchbook

Alison and I love dogs. But there are lots of reasons why we can’t have one right now. So we were delighted to discover recently that Fresh Pond has not only a lovely walking path, but a little auxiliary pond in which dogs are allowed to swim. And boy do they! So now one of our favorite things to do on a sunny weekend is to go sit by the pond for an hour watching the dogs play, and occasionally making new friends (of either the two- or four-legged variety).

Here are some recent sketches, some from last week, some from yesterday.

Last week:

Yesterday:

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Apr 08 2010

Video Interview

Published by under appearances,video

Paul Falcone at Wellesley Public Access put together this nice interview, including a few clips of me doing aikido as well as discussing my work and my influences. 15 minutes long.

http://paulfalcone.blip.tv/file/3448565/

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Apr 02 2010

Manga Studio test #1

Published by under tools & tech

I’ve been playing around with Manga Studio, which is a drawing program specifically tailored to drawing comics. It’s got a lot of crazy features, and I’ve barely scratched the surface, but here’s a quick inking test I did. The pens have a nice feel to them, and this is drawn with vectors, so it’s resolution-independent and fairly easy to scale or manipulate line-by-line.

Hrothgar inking test

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Apr 01 2010

Othello

Published by under reviews,shakespeare,sketchbook

I just saw ASP’s Othello. Unfortunately I missed the dress rehearsal for this show, so it was just a regular performance. Well, actually, it was a daytime performance primarily for local schools. It was kind of neat seeing Shakespeare with a bunch of high school students. I could sense their confusion at times, but for the most part they got into it. They were most audibly impressed by the fight scenes (very well-done) and the kissing scenes.

This is an emotionally powerful performance. Jason Bowen has the title role, and he starts off as a very mild and genteel Othello, but once Iago turns his mind to jealousy, his wrath is palpable. At the intermission the audience already knows Othello has fallen wholly into Iago’s trap, and it becomes almost an exercise in masochism to return for the second half and experience the tragic conclusion, wherein dread and pathos for Desdemona’s fate is amped up higher and higher before — well, if you haven’t already seen or read it I guess I shouldn’t spoil the ending, but it’s a Shakespearian tragedy.

The set design is interesting, but odd.  There’s a weirdly-shaped backdrop that has lines radiating out like cracks, not just across its surface, but out across the whole theater space (above the actors’ heads — see first two sketches). One of the kids sitting near me asked “what are those lines for?”, so at least somebody was paying attention. Most of the platforms are pointy triangles, and have more triangles cut out of them. I read it as a cracked-mirror metaphor, the whole performance being enacted in the cracked reflection of Othello’s broken love/trust. (Not bad, for what I’m sure is a tight budget for set design.)

As usual for ASP, the acting is excellent across the board. Ken Cheeseman does a great job with the juicy role of Iago, and I especially enjoyed Doug Lockwood as the inept Roderigo. It’s somewhat long, at almost 3 hours, and the parking is kind of tough around there. But the show is worth it. It only runs through this weekend, though, so hurry if you want to see it.

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