Chapter Seven:
IDEAS, HOLIDAYS, AND SPECIAL PROJECTS
Time Waiting, by Dominick Santise, pencil and ink and wash
DAY 36
Omphalos mood board, watercolor, charcoal, and colored pencil
“This is from a series of mood boards designed for a personal animated project called Omphalos. The word Omphalos, a symbol of the Earth and all birth, means “navel” in Greek. The people of Omphalos believe the world began with them and that they are the center of the Earth. They worship the god Omphalos, to whom they give credit for their existence. What they don’t know is that they are living under a façade created by another people, who use them to supply their own needs. This project is an embodiment of who I am, speaking to the things I love: good versus evil, love triumphing over hate, power beyond human understanding, the will to fight, honor, respect, the spirit, faith, hope, mistakes, life, and family. I have combined cultures and philosophies through graphics and icons that help me communicate these ideas, and worked with them through these mood boards.”—Eddie
EXERCISE 36
A mood board is something designers use to decide what kind of feeling they want a project to have. For this exercise, create a mood board that reflects a place that had a great emotional impact on you. It could be a favorite vacation destination, a place where you had a major experience, a place you visit frequently, even a home you used to live in. Think of symbols and iconic images that really represent the place for you. Explore the colors, pattern, textures, and marks that reflect your feelings. Perhaps you could indicate the dominant culture of the place, if it seems appropriate. This is really an exercise in abstraction and finding your own personal language.
Mood board, charcoal and pastel
DAY 37
Orchid, pencil, watercolor, and digital collage
“An annual visit to the orchid show at New York Botanical Garden is such a delight for the senses. The year I drew this, the show featured Old Havana and the Cuban countryside, designed by Jorge Sanchez. I can’t plead with you more: Mark it down for next spring and make the trip. The orchid show is truly incredible and is only there for a short time each year. Happy spring!”—Michele
Each spring, the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx is home to the annual orchid show. Prized for their delicate beauty, orchids made up the world’s most diverse plant family: There are estimated to be 30,000 to 40,000 species.
EXERCISE 37
Go to a flower show or make an arrangement of flowers at home. Choosing one flower in particular as your focus, create a mixed-media illustration using watercolor, pencil, pen, and digital collage. Use old botanical prints and ephemera purchased from your local thrift shop to add some old-fashioned flair to your design. Scan your thrift store finds along with your drawing into the computer and pull pieces from the collage elements to lay over the art. You’ll need a program such as Photoshop to do this. (If you don’t have computer access, glue and scissors work just as well!) Add some words if you like, as Michele has done here. Go beyond a simple flower drawing to create an update on the old botanical prints of years ago. The idea is to capture the emotional sensation of the flowers’ beauty and include a sense of history, too.
Maenad, colored pencil, watercolor, and oil crayon
TIPS
- You might look up the ancient symbolism of the flower to help you choose what external elements to collage into your picture. The mythology associated with the orchid alone can lead you down a dozen paths!
- The Studio 1482 members often use research on ancient mythologies to inform their illustrations. The drawing of a maenad from Greek mythology that I did, above, is an example of that. Here’s a hint: The maenads are related to the orchid’s mythological story!
DAY 38
Red cardinal, pencil, watercolor, and collage
“Happy Earth Day, everyone. I was doing a bit of reading on the subject and I came across the EPA’s ‘It’s My Environment’ promotion. And while I didn’t make a sign and a video as they suggested, the promotion did get me thinking about my environment and what I can do to care for it. Recently I’ve been considering some upgrades to my backyard, and it only took Google and me a few minutes to find countless ways to enhance my yard responsibly. Using ecofriendly driveway materials, harvesting rainwater, and using compost rather than chemicals are just a few [easy and cheap] alternatives to conventional methods. At this point there is simply no excuse for you not to do your part.
“Here is a cardinal that lives in my yard (and an actual piece of the yard, too). It’s one of the many reasons I’m trying to be more environmentally conscious.”—Greg
EXERCISE 38
Create your own Earth Day poster that illustrates one thing you can do to “go green.” Visit the library or do an online search to find some information about how to be environmentally responsible. The drawing for your poster can illustrate anything that represents going green—turning off the lights, composting, refusing to use plastic bags at the grocery store—whatever you can do that helps the environment. The key is that it should be personal, not something that needs to be done on a large scale. Then think about nature. What do you love the most about the environment? Go out to your backyard or visit a natural place that you love—a beach, park, and so forth—and find a symbol that you can add to your drawing. It could be a leaf, a blade of grass, or a small stone. Create the drawing and collage in the small piece of nature that represents what you love, using the actual piece, a computer scan, or a photograph that you take of it. Put it together by hand with glue or assemble it in the computer. Make it beautiful, like Earth!
Rock from Greg’s garden, photograph
Stick from Greg’s garden, photograph
TIP
- Choose pieces of nature that will work well with collage. If you want to represent the mountains, for example, you might choose a small pebble or two. Let the small represent the large, the same way that small things can make a large difference environmentally.
DAY 39
Visual notations from the Spain/ Gaudi exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, pencil and crayon
“Few things compare to the pleasure of going through a museum and drawing what catches your eye. I love browsing through museums and taking emotional notes with either my brain or my pen. Or, in this case, with my pencil and crayons.”—Kati
EXERCISE 39
Visit a local museum with a small sketchbook and a few portable materials, such as a pencil, fountain pen, and a few crayons. Walk through the museum and make drawings of whatever strikes your fancy. Jump from gallery to gallery and don’t overlook the decorative arts in favor of the paintings. There is no end result to this exercise other than a sketchbook full of visual notes that you can refer to again and again. If there is no museum near you, do this exercise at an antique or curio shop. Ask for the owner’s permission to draw there first, of course.
Vase, grape harvest, pencil and crayon
Museum visitors, pencil
DAY 40
Cornflower as energy, crayon drawing
August 10, International Biodiesel Day Biodiesel was discovered on August 10, 1893.
“So maybe you’ve noticed, most international holidays are just that: holy days. And some holidays commemorate a special political event or human achievement. I did some quick research and found some fascinating holidays that are going on almost every day of the year. I thought it would be a great project to come up with an illustration for the holiday each day. Since I often didn’t know what the holiday would be until the day it arrived, I was challenged to use my knowledge of drawing and graphics to solve it on the spot. I used mixed mediums, looked up the daily holiday online, and let my imagination run wild.”—Despina
Lotus temple in India, marker and colored pencil
July 9, Bahá’í faith holiday The mission of the Bahá’í is to spiritually unify all the people and all religions of the world. It may be painfully idealistic, but that’s something I truly believe in myself! If only the Bahá’í’s message of peace, justice, and unity would be heard!
EXERCISE 40
Walk over to your computer (or visit one in a library) and do some research to find a holiday that is being celebrated somewhere in the world today. It can be anything that creates an interesting visual in your mind, not just the holiday that seems as if it is the most important. Create a drawing that illustrates the holiday in some respect. Use any medium you choose or mix them for even greater graphic expression. Take no more than two hours to complete the drawing.
Fourth of July generations, marker, pastel, colored pencil
Fourth of July, generations past and future Grandma and grandson are watching the fireworks display together. We should all take this day to remember where the U.S.A. started and imagine the possibilities of where it could go. It’s not only about hot dogs and potato salad!
TIPS
- Let the culture that the holiday comes from affect the kind of drawing you do. It could be a color that is used a lot in the art of that country, a design style, or a symbol that you see that country employ. Or you might think about a visual explanation of the politics or information that the holiday celebrates. Can you understand what it is without words?
- That being said, don’t feel that you can’t add your own ideas to the illustration; after all, you are interpreting the holiday through your own artistic sense.
DAY 41
“On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me ... twelve charming elephants, eleven turtles makin’ groovy, ten skaters skating, nine mocko jumbies dancing, eight limbo dancers, seven swans a-swimming, six saguaro cacti, five peace roses, four angel drawings, three happy dancing doves, two Japanese dancers, and a partridge in a pear tree!
“When I was a kid, Christmas took forever to get here. I grew up in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, and my relatives sent packages down to us from the States. They were put under the Christmas tree and became ginormous—they emitted heat waves! By the time Christmas morning came I fell on top of the packages like a ravenous wolf ... I had waited so long for that moment! I miss those days of eternal yuletide yearning.”—Margaret
Partridge in a pear tree, pen and ink
EXERCISE 41
Illustrate your own holiday card. You could draw something traditional, as Margaret did with the image of the partridge in a pear tree, or do something all your own, as she did with the illustrations for the rest of that Christmas carol!
TIP
- Create a limited edition of the cards by printing them out from your digital printer and numbering them as they come out. Have fun with the symbols, colors, and images of the holiday season!
Five peace roses, pencil, crayon, and watercolor
Three happy dancing doves, pen and ink with digital collage
DAY 42
In response to the earthquake in Haiti in February 2010, the illustrators of Studio 1482 each donated art and limited-edition prints to be sold to raise money for the victims, with the proceeds going to the appeal for funds from CARE, a leading humanitarian relief organization.
Help Is a Verb, Michele, pencil and watercolor
EXERCISE 42
Choose a worthy fund that you would like to support and create a piece of art that shows some aspect of what the organization is about. Create a limited edition of prints with your home printer or by taking the art to a local print shop. Sell the prints and donate the proceeds to your charity of choice. An online store, like Etsy.com, makes it easy to set up shop!
Life, Eddie, ink, watercolor, and crayon
1791, Kati, ink
Aid for Haiti, Despina, pen and ink, colored pencil
Hispaniolan Trojan, Greg, pencil and paint
A Rose for Haiti, Margaret, pencil, watercolor, and crayon
Waiting for Help, Dominick, pen and ink, watercolor, crayon
TIP
- When pricing your prints to sell, there are a few things to consider. Price higher for larger prints on better paper and lower for small prints on more inexpensive stock. An original piece of art should always be priced higher than any prints.
Spirit, Veronica, pen and ink, watercolor, crayon, and cut paper