Hindsight

I saw ASP’s Timon of Athens on its opening night, and deeply regret that I don’t have time to scan the sketches right now. I’ll post them next weekend. In the meantime there are some nice reviews here and here.

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.

I can’t really post about the Natural History Museum without showing some drawings of the huge fabulous dinosaurs in the atrium.

You know that that Glyptodont I blogged about last week? I was trying to think where I had seen one before, and I came across this page in an old sketchbook. I think that’s him, right there between Centrosaurus and Moschops. This drawing is from New York’s fabulous Museum of Natural History (which, incidentally, is right by the New-York Historical Society, where my work was featured in the big Slavery exhibition a few years back). We went there to see the butterfy house — more pics below! Not sure why I didn’t post these at the time.

This is always a challenge. The movement is pretty constant and pretty fast.

If you’re reading this, then my website and blog have successfully moved to a new domain hosting service. Please let me know if you see anything broken or missing. Thanks!

I got a call out of the blue, from an art director, about illustrating a series of middle-grade novels by a famous author. It would have been a super-tight turnaround time, but man, that would have been a nice recurring gig! Unfortunately, I wasn’t the only one they called, and in the end they decided on one of the other illustrators. For posterity, here are my initial character sketches and a sample finish.

I’m not totally happy with the linework on the figures, but I like the seagull. By the way, I was specifically told they wanted ink with a spot color.

Alison has blogged previously about our (first) visit to the FANTASTIC toy & art museum that is the house of Ashley Bryan, famous children’s book illustrator and saint. Okay, he’s not literally a saint, but he should be. Recently we heard that Ashley was in town for a visit to the Cambridge Library, so we went out to say ‘hi’ and see him do his thing. Alison has already written expressively and at length about what an amazing man he is, so check out her original post here. I will merely add that he does a great presentation, and makes the whole audience feel like kids even though half of them are adults.

Here are my drawings from the event.

I got a bit behind schedule on The Odyssey, and I’ve had my nose to the grindstone slowly catching up, so I haven’t really had time for much sketchin’ or postin’. And I still don’t have anything for you today, though ASP’s dress rehearsals for Coriolanus are coming up soon, so I’ll post some sketches from that.

In the meantime, I’ve been thinking about merchandise, so let me ask anyone who’s got an opinion on this: what merchandise would you buy, related to any of my past or future books? Sky’s the limit. Apparel, posters, toys, games, backscratchers, what? Do you have any favorite comic merchandise from other creators?

Thanks!  -G

People often ask me which stage of the book creation process I enjoy the most. I have to answer that each stage has its own joys and difficulties. The design stage is the most creatively unfettered, but it’s very abstract, and sometimes I can’t nail down the designs I want until I get into the next stage, which is layout. Layout is where the comic medium really comes into play, as I make the million small decisions about which moments to show in each panel, how to compose those shots, how to arrange them on the page, and how they relate to the text.

When all that is done, it’s time to paint all the finished art. This is less creative, but more relaxing, as most of the big problems have been solved. This stage is the longest, and when I’m painting the verbal part of my brain is idle, so I often listen to audio books. All day. Five days a week. It’s when I get caught up on all the reading I haven’t been doing.

So here’s what I’ve been listening to in the last few months. You may notice that the list skews a bit YA, for which I blame/credit Alison.

Skin Hunger – Not too bad, but it has no ending, just cuts off in the middle of–

The Aeneid – Didn’t like it. Guess I can cross that off the list of classics to adapt.

Angela’s Ashes – Awesome. Depressing but funny.

The Glass Castle – Much like Angela’s ashes, but with quirkier characters who have less excuse for their predicament.

Airman – Didn’t like it.

Airborn – Story a bit lame, but great characters.

SlaughterHouse Five – Liked it a lot. Also interesting from a Zen perspective.

Little Brother – Cory Doctorow tells kids everything they need to know to be cool and subvert the Department of Homeland Security. Pretty good.

Sophie’s World – I already read this, and liked it enough to listen to it again, so obviously I think it’s good. It’s a novel which tells the history of philosophy (in a mostly fun and digestible way).

Cued up: Frankenstein, The Ranger’s Apprentice, The White Darkness, The Bell Jar.