Well, for two weeks I’ve been studying Mr. Bean and it’s been so worthwhile. This week I took up a brush and some ink, and began the difficult but enjoyable task of working towards a style that might suit the illustrations for ”There Lives In A Little Wood”. I call this series of drawings JOY because that’s what I’ve tried to capture in these illustrations: the joyful, exuberant, sly, crazy, and stubborn nature of Dachshunds in general, and of Mr. Bean in particular. If there is a particular style that suits your fancy, let me know. Comments welcome and helpful!!!

Hang in there! It’s on the way!

Hey Everyone,

Here are my sketches for this week. I captured a little bit more action than last week . . . and made a few observations . . .

1. Dachshunds are “jacked-up” in the back like suped-up race cars… does this make them speedier?–see below . . .





2. Dachshunds are demanding–for example . . .






Mr. Bean has grown accustomed to me following him around and seems to enjoy the extra attention - shocking!

I’m definitely getting a handle on capturing all his weiner-doggy goodness . . . next week I’m going to go for action all the way!

Anita

This week’s installment is of Ben’s birds. Vesper’s head temporarily blew up and is in the shop this week.

The crane and gulls, phase one.

Close-up of one of the gulls.

A reworking of the crane’s head. We decided on doing the birds in a mostly white palette. That’ll get hard when we do the peacock. But that’s for another installment.

Week two is already here! I can’t believe it. Well, after mulling over the sketches that you weren’t supposed to make fun of—(Megan!)—I agree whole-heartedly with Joshua that Sketch B is the winner. This is going to be a fun dress. This week we are going to cut out the bodice and think about the skirt. Let’s go to the work table.

Here we have our size 6 basic bodice pattern. You normally start with a “block” which is a basic pattern and manipulate it to become exactly what you want. You should make a mock-up with your initial patterns in a muslin fabric. This process will continue until you perfect your pattern. I’m going to skip these steps because I have already done this to the size 6, so I know it’s perfect. Let’s cut! Fear my scissors!!!!

PAY ATTENTION!!! This fabric requires you to pay close attention to detail when you cut. The most important step to any garment is in the cutting. If you mess that up—you’ve got troubles, my friend. There is a prominent pattern with these bold flowers so you will want a row of flowers exactly centered down the front. Fold the fabric along the center of a row of flowers, then pin down your front pattern piece. Cut with confidence! Don’t let the size of the scissors scare you!

After you have your front pattern cut, you will want to keep the rows of flowers consistent in the back as well. Line them up with your back pattern and let the scissors do their work!

Now you can see we have our basic bodice cut and the flowers are well aligned around the entire bodice. This next week, let’s think about what we want our skirt to do. I’m going to post two sketches and we’ll need to pick one.

Sketch A shows a semi-full a-line skirt with a contrast panel (flat) in the front.
Sketch B shows a center front pleat with the contrast panel underneath — this will peek out when the child walks, twirls, and plays.

Share your comments and thoughts!!!

Love, Rachel

For this weeks installment of “Play of Shadows” I thought I’d do a drawing from the original photo and set it up in the backyard among branches and grass . . .

The drawing is a rather light pencil sketch . . . so I ran it though Photoshop and and played with it to bring out some dramatic contrast.

I then printed it on the printer, rubber cemented it to some cardboard, and cut out the resulting image. After darkening parts of the picture with pastel I took it outside to the backyard. I had great fun doing it.

Best to all!

Dan Z

Gear list:
From last week:
1920’s Supertone parlour guitar
egg shaker drenched in reverb
Fender Musicmaster shortscale bass recorded direct

Added this week!
Moroccan clay drum
old Supro with really high action for lap steel parts
Penco Les Paul thru zvex fuzz factory recorded direct





Enjoy!

By Leopulde (Ted Velykis)

1 & 2 3, 1 & 2 (3), 1 & 2 3, 1 & 2 (3) . . .

This rhythm will not leave me alone. I think it’s a mazurka, of all things! It’s been popping up all over the place: in songs I’ve been experimenting with, in my improvising . . . I’ve even been strutting down the street in 3/4 time. So, I decided to use it as the basis for its own song. The idea is to find a way to give it credit for its persistence while allowing other patterns to step forward.

I hope you enjoy this first draft. I’m hearing a lot more happening with it. We’ll see how it develops. Let’s hope it develops before the waltz goes out of style . . .

Gear list:
1920’s Supertone parlour guitar
egg shaker - drenched in reverb
Fender Musicmaster shortscale bass - recorded direct

Piggy-Back

by Leopulde (Anita Santiago)

My sister has written a book (”There Lives In A Little Wood”–working title), about her pet Dachshund (”Frank”–official title), that I will be illustrating. The story is about Frank, and the adventures (sleeping, eating, etc.) and misadventures (trash, mess, etc.) he experiences while his owners are away for the day and he is home alone. I am excited to illustrate this story. The only trouble is my lack of experience drawing Dachshunds.

Lucky for me, I have my own model right here at home. This month I’ll be doing a couple sketches a day of our beloved Mr. Bean, to prepare for illustrating the story.

This sounds great on paper, but it’s a little trickier in practice. My first go at it was met with a variable I wasn’t anticipating, namely, he moves. I’d start sketching, he’d move. I’d sketch, he’d move. There was a lot of time spent following him around, working as quickly as I could, and while I completed some good initial sketches, I also managed to induce a fair amount of anxiety in the poor thing. Creatures as small as Mr. Bean don’t do well with anxiety. He finally got so worried about what I was doing that he turned around, sat, and stared at me for a really long time with a very concerned look on his face, imploring me to stop (see the last sketch below). Hopefully I’ll get faster with practice, and keep Mr. Bean from racking up a bill at the psychiatrist’s office.

Check in next week to see how Mr. Bean and I are fairing…

Mom!! Come quick! Ben + Vesper are drawing on the walls again!

Before…the dark, echoing hallway…

Chopin Preludes, played by Géza Anda, for the inspiration of flying birds.

A seagull, by Ben.

A ‘zilla bird, by Boy, and about a million “banister twigs”.

Crane, by Ben.

Lovies, by Vesper.

The ‘zilla bird, by Boy.

A bank swallow, by Ben.

Vesper is drawing an egret perching on the livingroom door. Growing up in Staten Island allowed for a lot of wetland bird viewings.

Ben is drawing the bank swallow. The swallow is one of our favorite birds.

Vesper is drawing a blue heron.



Have fun! Stay tuned for installment #2 of our bird-mural . . .