tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10843540177931970662024-03-06T00:32:27.719-05:00illobits | an illustration blog by Marcus CutlerA blog by children's illustrator Marcus Cutler.marcus cutlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10784602473587219219noreply@blogger.comBlogger94125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1084354017793197066.post-11308490166207497452014-08-04T14:44:00.000-04:002014-08-11T12:56:08.812-04:00Blog Tour - My Illustration ProcessHey there, this post is part of a <a href="https://www.google.ca/search?q=Blog+Tour+-+My+Illustration+Process&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&channel=sb&gfe_rd=cr&ei=cZTaU8LJDqaC8QfmmIDIDg" target="_blank">blog tour</a>, each week a new artist writes about their process and then invites 2 more to participate next week (go to the bottom of the post for their links).<br />
<br />
A big thanks to my tweep <a href="http://amandaerb.com/" target="_blank">Amanda Erb</a> for inviting me. Her post is <a href="http://amandaerb.tumblr.com/" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
<h4>
What am I currently working on?</h4>
Mostly taking care of our new baby girl...<br />
<br />
...but other than that a lot of my work these days has been on some picture book dummies and building my portfolio. <a href="http://marcuscutler.blogspot.ca/2014/03/top-take-aways-from-scbwi-new-york-pt-2.html" target="_blank">I recently reached a crossroads a while back that has led me to work on broaden my range</a>.<br />
<br />
On top of that, I still do a lot of educational work, and work on apps that seems to be always ongoing.<br />
<br />
<b>How does my work differ from others of its genre?</b><br />
<br />
Wow, what a toughie...<br />
<br />
My style up to now was really defined by my process. Crisp edges, strong sense of shape, very limited use of line, and bold bright colours.<br />
<br />
Now that I'm developing a greater range of approaches, I'm finding that it all comes down to the underlying drawing. I strive for a strong sense of character and emotion. Anything on top of that is gravy.<br />
<br />
<b>Why do I illustrate what I do?</b><br />
<br />
I've always been mostly interested in drawing people. Animals are okay, and scenery is the worst! Since my kids were born, a lot of what I do is just to entertain them. If you're ever stuck for inspiration, hang around a kid. They're ridiculous.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<br />
<b>How does my illustration process work?</b><br />
<br />
The sole process that I've used for the past several years was to sketch digitally in photoshop, refine my sketch n a new layer, build my foundation in illustrator, and then add texture and shading in photoshop again.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7S8aQx_aCM5zx4pt1kMnFWHnFMhpLmHXoWFKQYtdNaokxv6iiAG4ZUHIiAx4YX6Qh7APxZt0lrKVuvzENEVdFz4bLW6H_4a7zzLMu34yGnPebII7gWpztBaRPLPxUy34NkR1-2S1jsPQ/s1600/Pet+Tiger+Process.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7S8aQx_aCM5zx4pt1kMnFWHnFMhpLmHXoWFKQYtdNaokxv6iiAG4ZUHIiAx4YX6Qh7APxZt0lrKVuvzENEVdFz4bLW6H_4a7zzLMu34yGnPebII7gWpztBaRPLPxUy34NkR1-2S1jsPQ/s1600/Pet+Tiger+Process.jpg" height="640" width="301" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Foundation is built up in Illustrator</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
While I'm not abandoning this technique, I am working to develop additional processes to achieve more of a hand drawn feel.<br />
<br />
I still always sketch exclusively digitally. I need the flexibility it provides. These sketches usually take 2 to 3 refinements which I build up to in different layers.<br />
<br />
Here are some recent examples where I build my base in photoshop. Sometimes I block in all the colour, and sometimes I block in using grey tones and add a colour layer on top (a technique I learned reading David Opies blog).<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUUMn7pwgb7tnMaphmwwgOIst4ps4csLMnbuktT7oIRtHKqoQ1gJgBG8umgu8dZB8qpXB-taYyS7-iB1UJsO0vDAI1_EkZR6u0P5wp0GRxmElWlPwCt9X1135lHs9Jobzplc8Dx0QgR2A/s1600/Dont+Help+Process.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUUMn7pwgb7tnMaphmwwgOIst4ps4csLMnbuktT7oIRtHKqoQ1gJgBG8umgu8dZB8qpXB-taYyS7-iB1UJsO0vDAI1_EkZR6u0P5wp0GRxmElWlPwCt9X1135lHs9Jobzplc8Dx0QgR2A/s1600/Dont+Help+Process.jpg" height="640" width="336" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Foundation built up of colour</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaQPbxvo7opquwU3VqCw3M0OGMOwpDqiRkiL9yakTfoDS3DVrKoxbfRVmTkV2atBiiGI44CvCYre75l5Rui0xNT2mF_YsFH-y02UNFqPDopOvOvc2uSMNhUhc5v9wa_sbEHEKqRhPhaqc/s1600/Batgirl+Process.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaQPbxvo7opquwU3VqCw3M0OGMOwpDqiRkiL9yakTfoDS3DVrKoxbfRVmTkV2atBiiGI44CvCYre75l5Rui0xNT2mF_YsFH-y02UNFqPDopOvOvc2uSMNhUhc5v9wa_sbEHEKqRhPhaqc/s1600/Batgirl+Process.jpg" height="640" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Foundation built up of tones with colour layer added on top</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
On top I add in more shadows, highlights, and details. But the crux is that you REALLY need a good drawing to start with. Otherwise the rest is just polishing the proverbial turd.<br />
<br />
Good photoshop brushes don't hurt either though. Here's the ones that I like:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://spacemandave.blogspot.ca/2014/04/dry-media-brushes.html" target="_blank">David Opie Dry</a><br />
<a href="http://spacemandave.blogspot.ca/2014/04/wet-media-custom-photoshop-brush-set.html" target="_blank">David Opie Wet</a><br />
<a href="http://chrisoatley.com/08brushes/" target="_blank">Chris Oatley Essentials</a><br />
<a href="http://kyletwebster.tumblr.com/" target="_blank">Kyle T. Webster Megapack</a><br />
<br />
To be honest, I myself only use about 6 or 7 brushes in total, otherwise my head starts to spin from the possibilities.<br />
<br />
Up next is:<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtAREaV-jwWZuBCWApCnIY6hhtUSZuf7maw0-zyU0yWcELpHyGgLjRaoSjF_vI1_WzMz_4Ju5lE7axR67yLrkNgOHttFbDaZvCJH1f-4GmTBvfLY_P-F91GelBr_yckxOqJipumcxcO34/s1600/David+Opie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtAREaV-jwWZuBCWApCnIY6hhtUSZuf7maw0-zyU0yWcELpHyGgLjRaoSjF_vI1_WzMz_4Ju5lE7axR67yLrkNgOHttFbDaZvCJH1f-4GmTBvfLY_P-F91GelBr_yckxOqJipumcxcO34/s1600/David+Opie.jpg" height="198" width="200" /></a></div>
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<div class="" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<a href="http://spacemandave.blogspot.ca/2014/08/blog-tour.html" target="_blank">David Opie</a> was born and raised in the beautiful rolling hills of Virginia's
Shenandoah Valley. After he "grew up," he headed to Providence, RI, so
that he could earn his BFA in illustration from the Rhode Island School
of Design. He went on to earn his master's degree from the MFA
"Illustration As Visual Essay" program at the School of Visual Arts in
Manhattan.</div>
<div class="" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
David illustrated <i class="">Dozer's Run</i>, a picture book published by Sleeping Bear Press (May 2014 release).</div>
<div class="" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
His
illustrations have appeared in such publications as Family PC,
Highlights High Five, Keyboard Magazine, The Little Lutheran, LA Times,
Providence Journal, Providence Phoenix, Publishers Weekly, Rhode Island
Monthly, Spider Magazine, Sports Illustrated for Kids, TimeOut Chicago
and Weekly Reader.</div>
<div class="" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
He
has worked for many educational publishers, including Celebration
Press, Heinemann, Houghton Mifflin, Macmillan, McGraw-Hill, National
Geographic School Publishing, Scholastic, and SoundPrints (for the
Smithsonian). David illustrated a series of trade chapter books for
Ladybird Books UK, and JD Publishing produced a children's picture book
that he illustrated.</div>
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He
has taught at the Illinois Institute of Art-Chicago and was a full-time
instructor in the illustration department of the American Academy of
Art in downtown Chicago.</div>
<br />
<br />
<br />marcus cutlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10784602473587219219noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1084354017793197066.post-27402088236123464702014-03-21T11:23:00.005-04:002014-03-21T11:32:00.558-04:00Top Take Aways from SCBWI New York, Pt. 2: The Style DilemmaIn my last <a href="http://marcuscutler.blogspot.ca/2014/02/my-take-aways-from-scbwi-new-york-pt-1.html" target="_blank">post</a> I wrote that the key point I came away with from the New York SCBWI conference was that character and emotional connection are of paramount importance when illustrating and writing for children. These points came up time and again during the illustration intensive, especially during the panel critique.<br />
<br />
Conspicuous in it's absence (at least to me) was the topic of style. Which is something I was looking for some input on. So I had to go looking for the input myself. But I'll get back to this later. First I need to give you some background so my style dilemma will become clear.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a>I've been illustrating full time for a while now. I got my start working in-house for a giftware company designing mostly gift bags. This gave me lots of opportunities to experiment with different techniques and approaches. Eventually I settled into a more basic version of the approach and style I use today. Once I started freelancing full time this approach became my signature style. Now, after several years I've refined my style fairly well.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNei3oR_GeE05TntYz-yn72AtFP9Q1kla3Ejs9cLsIksFkcuKNE0pAA5GBIMP-x3Vij7Kgy0pxfth0Blp64OEN1zB_eE9abUov4fim3pUxMhXJhBcNm0fTel_kmNAkn-Zq-1s8m1UNsBc/s1600/Antonio-BallSanta.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNei3oR_GeE05TntYz-yn72AtFP9Q1kla3Ejs9cLsIksFkcuKNE0pAA5GBIMP-x3Vij7Kgy0pxfth0Blp64OEN1zB_eE9abUov4fim3pUxMhXJhBcNm0fTel_kmNAkn-Zq-1s8m1UNsBc/s1600/Antonio-BallSanta.jpg" height="320" width="259" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of the earliest examples of what would become my standard style</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I've done pretty well working in this style. I've had a good deal of success with magazines, educational publishers, and even some corporate work. Where I haven't had success yet is in picture books. Now
don't get me wrong, I'm very happy doing educational and magazine work,
but creating children's books is the goal of any children's illustrator. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrYNNL5zM-6H8G9JxjOo9dA1f7QIKE7WcK27RlvKjm5F0UXn0-lQ6tvXglYAN8bc9cGkK5oeD77KGi6gbT1SbF2W7QMi8g2AQ6UOOk0ALKotSYsK4uKtUkJo2dDSfFkutci1a0PEWl_I0/s1600/Squirrelketeers-1500px.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrYNNL5zM-6H8G9JxjOo9dA1f7QIKE7WcK27RlvKjm5F0UXn0-lQ6tvXglYAN8bc9cGkK5oeD77KGi6gbT1SbF2W7QMi8g2AQ6UOOk0ALKotSYsK4uKtUkJo2dDSfFkutci1a0PEWl_I0/s1600/Squirrelketeers-1500px.jpg" height="192" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A very recent piece to show how my style has evolved</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Children's books are an incredibly tough market to crack. I feel like my work is only now approaching where it needs to be in order for me to be a viable option for book publishers. Picture books also have their own needs in terms of flow and pacing that I've done my best to research over the past couple years. I've also had some practical experience now since creating <a href="http://marcuscutler.blogspot.ca/2013/07/my-first-picture-book-dummy-part-1.html" target="_blank">my own picture book dummy</a>. But I've only now come to realize that my style may lean a much too commercial to be suitable for most picture books.<br />
<br />
This first came up in the feedback I got from <a href="https://twitter.com/childbookart" target="_blank">Anne Moore Armstrong</a> about my picture book dummy. She was giving dummy critiques in exchange for charitable donations so I jumped at the opportunity. Her input was really helpful and among her insights were some notes on style. She felt my style would only be appealing to a mass market publisher. If I wanted to reach a trade audience some adjustments may have to be made. She suggested softening shapes, and toning down the exaggerated eyes and mouths as first steps. I felt like these were good ideas, but on their own still wouldn't get me to where I needed to be.<br />
<br />
So I went to the New York SCBWI conference with one of my goals to get ideas about which direction I could take with my style. The first opportunity to address this came during the round table critique I had with the wonderful <a href="https://twitter.com/RebeccAgent" target="_blank">Rebecca Sherman</a>. Here's the piece that was reviewed:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij0-qx6BgVgsyL2Tes-s98Qzd53qkfFYu2QLEE1dCtR32g9pUbOp58BaxhAFd4LdeapQ0ESjICvaNvFtSpbkCtfZeJ_XJ-D0CkJ2A91sVlSaNYc1n4b2WyA5WRzNuuqGPr7DCLMCtj7U4/s1600/Snow+White-1000px.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij0-qx6BgVgsyL2Tes-s98Qzd53qkfFYu2QLEE1dCtR32g9pUbOp58BaxhAFd4LdeapQ0ESjICvaNvFtSpbkCtfZeJ_XJ-D0CkJ2A91sVlSaNYc1n4b2WyA5WRzNuuqGPr7DCLMCtj7U4/s1600/Snow+White-1000px.jpg" height="176" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My Snow White Assignment</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The assignment was to create a scene from Snow White. The input that Rebecca had was to pull it further away from the Disney version. My intention was to set the story in a gold rush type era, which Rebecca thought was a really interesting idea, but that it didn't fully come through in the image. She thought one way to address this would be to take the bright colours out of the dwarf costumes to make them look more dismal. I thought this was a brilliantly simple solution. It would also serve to distinguish between he character of the dwarfs and Snow White. After the initial points I asked her opinion on my style. She admitted she thought it was quite commercial looking, and likely contributed to her reading the image as Disneyesque.<br />
<br />
A big wake up call came later that night after the portfolio showcase. I retrieved my portfolio at the end and it looked like there were still a lot of my postcards that hadn't been taken! I should have listened to my new friend <a href="http://keithfrawley.com/" target="_blank">Keith Frawley</a> and counted them beforehand so I knew exactly how many had been taken. I think I left a really big pile so maybe a bunch were taken and I over reacted. Nevertheless it gave me pause and made me question my work all the more.<br />
<br />
The next day I went to a session by <a href="http://www.pippinproperties.com/about/" target="_blank">Holly McGhee</a>. She asked the artists she represents to talk about how to create your own style and brand, and gave us some of the responses. Most of it boiled down to doing lots of work, and lots of experimenting. This is an idea I liked and will get back to later in this post. After the session I took the time to talk to Holly and ask for her input. I showed her my postcard which she helped review at the panel critique the previous day.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzsq3XiefkTHQ0XLz3AhoZRwZrxlbM2cjHyBtXwt-fBXVyYwzb8PrnG_AJpsEeBXsC3VsrZlhFW-uZApNqxnSrGSMoz9nAuVN23-DC5dyQ5TWVQrFdPpz53NH0cas3vWFKxkcRICKdf8Y/s1600/Scouts-Postcard-800px.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzsq3XiefkTHQ0XLz3AhoZRwZrxlbM2cjHyBtXwt-fBXVyYwzb8PrnG_AJpsEeBXsC3VsrZlhFW-uZApNqxnSrGSMoz9nAuVN23-DC5dyQ5TWVQrFdPpz53NH0cas3vWFKxkcRICKdf8Y/s1600/Scouts-Postcard-800px.jpg" height="228" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My postcard image</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
She asked if I had an animation background, which I don't, but animation is a huge influence on my work since there's never been a time in my life that I haven't watched cartoons. Her overall feedback about my style was that is was commercial looking, but that if that's the way I work, then that's the way I work. I agree that as illustrators we shouldn't reach for a style just because we think it will appeal to art buyers. But we also shouldn't lock ourselves in too much and not evolve, which is where I was worried I was getting.<br />
<br />
I had a good conversation later that night with another new friend <a href="http://seerobdraw.com/" target="_blank">Rob McClurkan</a> at the illustration social. He also works digitally and has a fairly commercial vibe to his work, but he's been quite successful and has his <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Aw-Nuts-Rob-McClurkan/dp/0062317296/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395016034&sr=8-1&keywords=aw+nuts" target="_blank">first picture book is coming out later this summer</a>. It took until the next day to understand where his works succeeds a little better than mine.<br />
<br />
The big moment of clarity came thanks to <a href="https://twitter.com/aalbooks" target="_blank">Arthur Levine.</a> I approached him during the autograph party on the last day of the conference. After he signed my copy of <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15928395-the-very-beary-tooth-fairy" target="_blank">The Very Beary Tooth Fairy</a> I showed him my postcard in hopes of picking his brain a little. He was also one part of the panel that reviewed this same piece earlier.<br />
<br />
Arthur was incredibly pleasant and helpful. He said that to bring my work more into trade market territory it should look less crisp, more hand drawn, and less obviously digital. He pointed out the characters faces and how crisp they looked, and how digital the background looked. A great piece of insight that Arthur had was that the more the work looked like it could be a cartoon, the less appropriate is for trade picture books. The biggest take away from our conversation was that my work needed to have more evidence of the artists hand. This is why Rob McClurkan's work succeeds really well. His hand is very obvious even though he works digitally.<br />
<br />
I was so glad I put myself out there and spoke with Arthur, otherwise I might have ended up in fog as to which direction to take my artwork.<br />
<br />
So now the big drum roll moment... I've come to realize that I need to start experimenting more. I know, that should have been obvious from the beginning right? Remember how that was mentioned earlier? Sometimes it takes a lot of work to get to simple conclusions that you probably already knew.<br />
<br />
Below is my first crack at experimenting and I think it was marginally successful.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuO3dx3orQ-dahuBfooB5IN1Cb6gI5wBWtutWdbX9a7-EXaJkS8fRVIH-oTOongrjNd7Y9pZa08sJ-pMT8SDP5ql2WmVjQje1t-bnOHPFPR-_52CZW8FK-DVD-bLSP42Mu9RHH_LyL14U/s1600/Scouts2-800px.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuO3dx3orQ-dahuBfooB5IN1Cb6gI5wBWtutWdbX9a7-EXaJkS8fRVIH-oTOongrjNd7Y9pZa08sJ-pMT8SDP5ql2WmVjQje1t-bnOHPFPR-_52CZW8FK-DVD-bLSP42Mu9RHH_LyL14U/s1600/Scouts2-800px.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A new version of my postcard</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
As an exercise I took all the information I processed and attempted to roll it into a new version of my postcard image. My process was all the same except I used a brush to block in my shapes instead of using the pen tool. This was to give my shapes a more naturalistic edge. It's not a huge difference, but I think it helps. I also used line to give more texture to the background and gave the characters smaller pupils to make them less cartoonish. That was about all I played with stylistically but I think it helped make the image stronger.<br />
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I also incorporated the notes from the panel critique by making the monster more unique, distinguishing the uniforms more from the background, and giving the characters a wider variety of expressions. Inspired by <a href="http://www.tomie.com/" target="_blank">Tomie DePaola's</a> talk I also framed the characters with the trees a little.<br />
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So this is the first step in my experimentation, with many more to go. Who knows, I may even go so far as to actually use real paint! I'm thinking of giving myself some sort of challenge to try some sort of new technique or medium each week, but I haven't figured it out yet.<br />
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So... does my work still look too commercial? What do you think, any tips, tricks, or techniques that you'd suggest?marcus cutlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10784602473587219219noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1084354017793197066.post-30579052891397873372014-02-27T09:49:00.000-05:002014-02-27T11:50:46.735-05:00Top Take Aways from SCBWI New York, Pt. 1I just got back from the SCBWI New York conference and I wanted to share some of the insights I came home with. If you want a rundown on all the details of all the sessions it's probably best if you head over to the<a href="http://scbwiconference.blogspot.ca/" target="_blank"> official conference blog</a>. They did a great job tracking it all. I'll just be sharing my own insights.<br />
<h4>
Day 1: Illustrators Intensive - World Building</h4>
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This was easily my favourite day of the conference despite being terribly sleep deprived. Anxiousness and taxi horns had conspired to keep me up most of the preceding night, and then my daughter woke up at 5:30am. So I went into the intensive pretty tired. Luckily I had lots of coffee and even more anxiousness to get me through the day.</div>
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I loved the intensive because it had so much meat to it. The morning was all about the fundamentals of composition and character. The main points that I got were,</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><b>Use your tools to focus the viewer where they need to focus. </b>Tomie dePaola uses architecture and doorways to frame the main subject, Paul Zelinsky recommends highlighting the focus through value.Whatever you use, make sure the viewer knows where the focus is!</li>
<li><b>Character is key. </b>Reference for costume and facial types is everywhere, that's the easy part. Both dePaola and Brett Helquist go through many, many rounds before they settle on a character design. It takes a lot of trial and error. Helquist relies on the face for character, and dePaola says. That costume is key. The main point is that they have to feel <i>alive</i>, as if there is a mind within them. Contrasting your characters is also important. Skinny-fat, big-small, etc. A good exercise mentioned is to create 2 very different characters and then build a family around them so that they all share certain characteristics, but are also all unique.</li>
</ul>
The afternoon was even better. There was a panel crit, and then a round table crit. In the panel they selected 30 pieces to review and <b>mine was one of them!!!</b> How amazing is that? I felt very fortunate. First I'll share the recurring themes that came up, then I'll share the specific notes I got on my piece below.</div>
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The first main point is that the panel, Lily Malcom, Arthur Levine, and Holly McGhee were amazing. All of their critiques were spot on. Interestingly enough they never discussed style. They were mostly focused on character and composition. But even then, mostly just character. </div>
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They assessed each piece the way they would asses a promo postcard. <b>So if you're planning a promo postcard, listen up! </b>The most important thing is character and emotionality. If you don't have those, forget about it. Here's some of the basic take always for me,</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Don't make your character stereotypical, or generic, (especially grannies, there were lot of those).</li>
<li>Give your character idiosyncrasies to make them feel authentic.</li>
<li>Vary the expressions and reactions, don't have everyone just smiling.</li>
<li>Vary the characters too - age, race, gender, size, personality. Character contrast is great.</li>
<li>Have your characters interact with one another, and <i>vary the interactions.</i></li>
<li>Make sure there's an emotional pull, even if it's subtle.</li>
<li>Focus composition on the character, don't let the surroundings overwhelm them.</li>
<li>Have light and depth in the image.</li>
<li>The image should give part of a story to create tension and make you wonder what would happen next.</li>
</ul>
Here's my piece that they reviewed.<br />
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Arthur Levine actually said "I liked this one." So that was pretty damn amazing. Specific things that they liked were that my characters were distinctive from one another, and in particular that they weren't all white. They also liked that the characters had interesting expressions and that there was a sense of story.</div>
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They did have some really good ideas of how it could be approved though. They felt that the uniforms were blending with grass too much, and that the landscape could use more work. Holly McGhee pointed out that the monster was a bit too generic and could be made more interesting. The main point though was that it would create a lot more excitement and variety if one of the characters was reacting to the monster, which I think is very true.</div>
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As you can see, my crit reinforced the theme that character is key. They need to connect with the image on an emotional level for it to really grab them. For the future I'll be putting this list on my wall:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Character - personality, expression, idiosyncrasy</li>
<li>Variety - characters, actions, interaction, reactions, expressions</li>
<li>Story - Create some tension in the viewers mind about what happens next</li>
</ul>
The last part of the intensive was the round table crit with Rebecca Sherman which was also incredibly helpful. But I'll be writing more on that in next post when I discuss the crisis of style that I had over the weekend and how I (sorta) resolved it.<br />
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Cheers!</div>
marcus cutlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10784602473587219219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1084354017793197066.post-60853367529074045622013-12-14T15:47:00.001-05:002013-12-15T14:13:44.344-05:00#140characters140days - Half Way!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b><span id="goog_1943991154"></span><span id="goog_1943991155"></span>140 Days!?!?! </b><br />
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I'm so foolish. My goal of drawing <a href="http://marcuscutler.blogspot.ca/2013/08/the-140characters140days-initiative.html">140 different characters in 140 days</a> is a way bigger task than I planned, and I'm constantly falling behind. But will I give up? NO!<br />
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...well... probably not.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>I participated in <a href="http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CC0QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Ftaralazar.com%2Fpiboidmo%2F&ei=iL-sUtzxNcXhqAGQ74CQAg&usg=AFQjCNENz77xRG8rheAuwwHCoFcU2mWyQg&sig2=g9U7vZ05B4-yil6JcEkJWw&bvm=bv.57967247,d.aWM">PiBoIdMo</a> for the first time, and it was a really helpful exercise for my creativity and writing. It also taught me that one month is a great length for this kind of challenge. Mainly because it's easy to track. I have no idea how many days have passed since I started 140characters on October 1st. Not that I couldn't do the math, but what a bother! Also, one month passes pretty quickly, 140characters is taking f-o-r-e-v-e-r...<br />
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Now with all that said, I am definitely improving my drawing and creativity when it comes to creating new characters.<br />
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<b>What I've Learned So Far</b><br />
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The biggest benefit to this exercise has been the freedom to play more than I usually do. All of my drawing is usually specific for a client, and on a tight deadline. So I often fail to experiment and many of my characters end up less inspired than I would prefer. Drawing a character a day frees me up to experiment with it. This has leaked into my client work, and given some extra energy to pieces that they wouldn't have had otherwise.<br />
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So here are my tips for keeping your characters fresh:<br />
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<ol>
<li><b>Put the pencil on the paper!</b> You don't have to start with a preconceived notion of who or what this character is. I'll often just start with a shape and then start to build off of it. The head and face usually come first but not always.</li>
<li><b>Don't take too long.</b> Working quickly helps keep energy in your drawing. You can always redraw the crummy bits later.</li>
<li><b>Defy stereotypes.</b> Give a bully glasses and a nerd a sports jersey, it will make it more interesting and also give the character more depth.</li>
<li><b>Embrace stereotypes.</b> Not really stereotypes though, I guess archetype is a better word. It will make your character instantly readable as a nerd if you make scrawny and give him glasses. Sometimes these things can be your friends. Just don't get stuck on them.</li>
<li><b>Experiment.</b> Try not to fall into the pattern of giving everyone the the same body shape and features. Look at people in real life and they're all really different.</li>
<li><b>Look at people in real life.</b> Steal from life and other art. Throw celebrities, historical figures and people you know into your illustrations. This illustration is you're world and you (or the AD) are it's god! Now take that power and abuse it!</li>
</ol>
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<b>Keep On Truckin'</b><br />
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Although I've likely bitten off more than I can chew I'm continuing on, whether I make it inside the 140 days or not. I'll see if I can post more regularly about too!marcus cutlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10784602473587219219noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1084354017793197066.post-83079346295845361652013-10-18T09:21:00.001-04:002013-12-15T14:14:54.489-05:00#140characters140days Weeks 1 & 2Weeks 1 and 2 of my mission to create <a href="http://marcuscutler.blogspot.ca/2013/08/the-140characters140days-initiative.html">140 character designs in 140</a> days has gone okay, though I'm already falling behind due to a big deadline coming up.<br />
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I want to blog more about my discoveries during this process but that will have to wait until next month when I have more time. In the meantime here's what I've done so far,<br />
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<br />marcus cutlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10784602473587219219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1084354017793197066.post-70950032267986596702013-09-25T12:11:00.000-04:002013-12-14T19:24:01.771-05:00My First Picture Book Dummy Part 6 - Finals<a href="http://marcuscutler.blogspot.ca/2013/07/my-first-picture-book-dummy-part-1.html">Part 1 - Concept And Inspiration</a><br />
<a href="http://marcuscutler.blogspot.ca/2013/08/my-first-picture-book-dummy-part-2.html">Part 2 - Writing</a><br />
<a href="http://marcuscutler.blogspot.ca/2013/08/my-first-picture-book-dummy-part-3.html">Part 3 - Thumbnails</a><br />
<a href="http://marcuscutler.blogspot.ca/2013/08/my-first-picture-book-dummy-part-4.html">Part 4 - Character Design </a><br />
<a href="http://marcuscutler.blogspot.ca/2013/08/my-first-picture-book-dummy-part-5.html">Part 5 - Roughs </a><br />
<a href="http://marcuscutler.blogspot.ca/2013/09/my-first-picture-book-dummy-part-6.html">Part 6 - Finals</a> <br />
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I've lapsed in my writing of this series for a few weeks because I was on holiday and was trying to work as little as possible, but I suppose that's it's own blog post.<br />
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I mentioned in a previous post in this series that I still have a few roughs to finish before my book dummy will be complete. This hasn't stopped me from moving ahead to finish some of the final spreads. I was getting stuck on the last roughs and it was frustrating so I followed a piece of advice I got long ago that I often turn to. The advice is this, "Do what you know first, the rest will work itself out after". This is usually applied within one drawing, but can also be used in a bigger project.<br />
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In the case of my book dummy it's my hope that seeing a few finished pieces will help inspire me to push through those last problematic roughs, and help to inform them as well.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>Once I decided to move on to completing a few pieces I had to decide which to complete. I had two options as I saw it. I could do the first few in the book so that the viewer would read the rest of the book knowing to a fair degree how the roughs will look when done. Or I could do the spreads that I felt would best showcase the characters, colours, and settings. My decision was to do a little of both.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0frF68EMlzErNSmjESwvNs97Zo-pGEmcS0kzrMGMmK1TS1dhuyCMu9PtRY0vi3fDbMqJN6dK9zCNuA5fmvgknNLK1eMAonFhUMnaGf7g-fq4LlWxWBU6Hdu8oau4VRd6FcnnAOkudKLE/s1600/Pet+Tiger-Cover-500px.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0frF68EMlzErNSmjESwvNs97Zo-pGEmcS0kzrMGMmK1TS1dhuyCMu9PtRY0vi3fDbMqJN6dK9zCNuA5fmvgknNLK1eMAonFhUMnaGf7g-fq4LlWxWBU6Hdu8oau4VRd6FcnnAOkudKLE/s320/Pet+Tiger-Cover-500px.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cover that still needs a title etc.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAnwiF0Ts0Kv82l_PhcLbpzM0tJ2WeeR-R5b2KOKJArwMSa28WIMAM79orllhAHwWEny-TWtC6O7BjOHNTND5G7GsYTt7_udUcHQmY2iPMMkOy5JKgEdyic2yjPZjFNXBq_vfkfwlDUCw/s1600/Pet+Tiger-Rough-Pet+Store-500px.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAnwiF0Ts0Kv82l_PhcLbpzM0tJ2WeeR-R5b2KOKJArwMSa28WIMAM79orllhAHwWEny-TWtC6O7BjOHNTND5G7GsYTt7_udUcHQmY2iPMMkOy5JKgEdyic2yjPZjFNXBq_vfkfwlDUCw/s320/Pet+Tiger-Rough-Pet+Store-500px.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Title page, this image get reduced </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2VDjiV_nwiJAWkqvCmTMw5Jd9uIAzuD3Z0M72CLm3MRTOo70oZo-sbEcnDXL_pUyYRqAyAr4TzBPFqetijgWr1RDy3ot1yWaPNNC0POzvDWCrgcKQRepj8EaWboKKt6bzl2p1GtrzpvU/s1600/Pet+Tiger-Driving-500px.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2VDjiV_nwiJAWkqvCmTMw5Jd9uIAzuD3Z0M72CLm3MRTOo70oZo-sbEcnDXL_pUyYRqAyAr4TzBPFqetijgWr1RDy3ot1yWaPNNC0POzvDWCrgcKQRepj8EaWboKKt6bzl2p1GtrzpvU/s320/Pet+Tiger-Driving-500px.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">First spread of the story, text will go on left of the spread</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3tR1TILDNvePaamNqwFeMpuDsQH7lldzNJo_xlVIAQARu1BDKrvxilE7GEUWW3cMZ6_M5D9kAEXgfA2IErc0bTr-A-jfJx9kIMcQM60iChTTCVhPX6CMAhBlvrUuJuiPjYwO2JGdTM14/s1600/Pet+Tiger-Eating-700px.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3tR1TILDNvePaamNqwFeMpuDsQH7lldzNJo_xlVIAQARu1BDKrvxilE7GEUWW3cMZ6_M5D9kAEXgfA2IErc0bTr-A-jfJx9kIMcQM60iChTTCVhPX6CMAhBlvrUuJuiPjYwO2JGdTM14/s320/Pet+Tiger-Eating-700px.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Second spread of the story</td></tr>
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Beyond completing the cover which was an obvious decision I chose to finish two early spreads plus one in the middle that I was particularly jazzed about. I may also finish one at the end of the book to follow the portfolio principal of starting and ending strong, but I'm not sure how necessary it is. I'll show the middle piece that I finished in a later post about my promotional efforts since I'm using it as a mailer.<br />
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The cover was the first piece I finished because I wanted to nail down the main two characters, the girl and the tiger. Then I was also able to use it as a colour guide. I may revisit it though. My original idea was to have the girl riding the tiger and I may go back to that concept, what do you think? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/MarcusCutler">@marcuscutler.</a><br />
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Excelsior!marcus cutlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10784602473587219219noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1084354017793197066.post-27027935711934462492013-09-24T11:11:00.002-04:002013-09-24T11:13:01.026-04:00Textures My Kid MadeMy two year old daughter loves crafting, and when she's crafting she loves to cover the paper corner to corner. I can always tell at daycare which craft/painting/drawing is hers because there isn't a speck of space left. Unless you count the tears in the paper from paint overload.<br />
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So when she made these 3 crafts with my wife I saw them and thought that they would make potentially neat photoshop textures. Don't ask me how they were made, my wife is the master of the strange painterly concoctions.<br />
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Please download them, there's JPG's below or <a href="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5988990/KidTextures.zip">click here to download the TIFF's</a>, and let me know the results!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1SfUaU2-tAnSa63T35KKzpKCcY5wkc4C5dZZ-KY8wcbxYp9yAryZUkis5cDcITcvnbdD_b71_x8JquBwycNGE2lTkOlAzctC49B1q1Wl9K71kxp6Eko6Y3XsKXg9uJL9Ie89oDXaLM1Q/s1600/KidTexturePurple.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1SfUaU2-tAnSa63T35KKzpKCcY5wkc4C5dZZ-KY8wcbxYp9yAryZUkis5cDcITcvnbdD_b71_x8JquBwycNGE2lTkOlAzctC49B1q1Wl9K71kxp6Eko6Y3XsKXg9uJL9Ie89oDXaLM1Q/s320/KidTexturePurple.jpg" width="228" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOQ0GDmBzITqPgSYnVltqdNOsxRFVZjiuJA6_0PpbIsJAFgmX4HeghxcJ8PK7FReyTtcrs4TfThxtrL7l6ehuT1eBdpIDGebK1ccuY8_NXo_Szx8mO8GOg2376ZOz62xZuus9qSXwvTeQ/s1600/KidTextureOrange.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOQ0GDmBzITqPgSYnVltqdNOsxRFVZjiuJA6_0PpbIsJAFgmX4HeghxcJ8PK7FReyTtcrs4TfThxtrL7l6ehuT1eBdpIDGebK1ccuY8_NXo_Szx8mO8GOg2376ZOz62xZuus9qSXwvTeQ/s320/KidTextureOrange.jpg" width="230" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggg9AWV78mVh68kjs6Z_MU-jHoCOujYk5R2XT9YrNOXQJCcCDRbBj5VfH9gCh1ocEDVCaoHuolFY7xpKFougURUiwBWOwCFRyxeIJRKWMz9ydIBSpRN24Ub5YHQFS3SbsClCJf6SZ6H4M/s1600/KidTextureBlack.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggg9AWV78mVh68kjs6Z_MU-jHoCOujYk5R2XT9YrNOXQJCcCDRbBj5VfH9gCh1ocEDVCaoHuolFY7xpKFougURUiwBWOwCFRyxeIJRKWMz9ydIBSpRN24Ub5YHQFS3SbsClCJf6SZ6H4M/s320/KidTextureBlack.jpg" width="228" /></a></div>
marcus cutlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10784602473587219219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1084354017793197066.post-90681476875913963762013-08-28T10:12:00.003-04:002013-09-25T12:12:58.092-04:00My First Picture Book Dummy Part 5 - Roughs <a href="http://marcuscutler.blogspot.ca/2013/07/my-first-picture-book-dummy-part-1.html">Part 1 - Concept And Inspiration</a><br />
<a href="http://marcuscutler.blogspot.ca/2013/08/my-first-picture-book-dummy-part-2.html">Part 2 - Writing</a><br />
<a href="http://marcuscutler.blogspot.ca/2013/08/my-first-picture-book-dummy-part-3.html">Part 3 - Thumbnails</a><br />
<a href="http://marcuscutler.blogspot.ca/2013/08/my-first-picture-book-dummy-part-4.html">Part 4 - Character Design </a><br />
<a href="http://marcuscutler.blogspot.ca/2013/08/my-first-picture-book-dummy-part-5.html">Part 5 - Roughs </a><br />
<a href="http://marcuscutler.blogspot.ca/2013/09/my-first-picture-book-dummy-part-6.html">Part 6 - Finals</a> <br />
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After all the prep work was done for my picture book dummy came the best part, the drawing!<br />
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In my post on creating thumbnails for my picture book dummy I wrote about how I moved on from tiny thumbnail drawings to large ones which were really more like preliminary roughs as you can see below.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR8Ow9GuKNCyTdaSjif1Hk0ubPp1SLbrPAnZ9f3JaXkvpgmC8fLdHjJdBlYAe0tRtYLqZEixmQdR-VKEOW4fqtiJ979_uVszCs7FKNFBIIUlwDxr25eRGhrwua1D1Wj4bhJxz4ypOfTcY/s1600/Pet+Tiger-eating+food-rough1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="169" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR8Ow9GuKNCyTdaSjif1Hk0ubPp1SLbrPAnZ9f3JaXkvpgmC8fLdHjJdBlYAe0tRtYLqZEixmQdR-VKEOW4fqtiJ979_uVszCs7FKNFBIIUlwDxr25eRGhrwua1D1Wj4bhJxz4ypOfTcY/s320/Pet+Tiger-eating+food-rough1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiETBT5bPDtmhW0BpSyPZpy81i4ugYaIqNkaYAiwyed6OsHZFMILtkQircTt_ooVehPNasQoK-2iONzAhFLDmveXcEBEwz43DCFWIf2fpT0qEWnhFPsbCqDLqCPsLLrfsTJOKEENPPDE7Q/s1600/Pet+Tiger-bath-rough1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="169" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiETBT5bPDtmhW0BpSyPZpy81i4ugYaIqNkaYAiwyed6OsHZFMILtkQircTt_ooVehPNasQoK-2iONzAhFLDmveXcEBEwz43DCFWIf2fpT0qEWnhFPsbCqDLqCPsLLrfsTJOKEENPPDE7Q/s320/Pet+Tiger-bath-rough1.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Preliminary Roughs</td></tr>
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I used to do all my rough sketches by hand in a sketchbook and it involved sooooo much erasing and overdrawing. It seems some people just know where to put every line, but that's definitely not me. I'm the trial and error type.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>I made the switch to sketching on the computer at my old in-house job. A co-worker said I was nuts. She was way better than me (someone who just knows where to put every line) so I took her advice and put some effort into training myself to draw on the screen. It was really unnatural at first but like any new tool it just takes a bit of time. Now I could never go back.<br />
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All my dummy roughs were drawn in photoshop. I use lots of layers so every element can be moved around.<br />
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Then, when I was ready to move onto the polished roughs I drew right over top of my preliminaries.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLTulLjxbqVxpVJwW6UtMlRVMkHqBkmXvzgcjkKwyc1b4gy4uP2v33SlpC2I2m1fJEnUCBRf1nKGu-HjTj3acWtUV7F-6AbpDOidIQ2HxABsty_kMlUfeDX4jIOex48bMY_gmEPcpO51o/s1600/Pet+Tiger-eating+food-rough2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="169" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLTulLjxbqVxpVJwW6UtMlRVMkHqBkmXvzgcjkKwyc1b4gy4uP2v33SlpC2I2m1fJEnUCBRf1nKGu-HjTj3acWtUV7F-6AbpDOidIQ2HxABsty_kMlUfeDX4jIOex48bMY_gmEPcpO51o/s320/Pet+Tiger-eating+food-rough2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLeLNCk2zA-i0t_jpmuasRqg4x7uIq__SKov6yxgiEsbJG0LZbKAopx39hBQxLVsLCs9FCDg4i-p6HUJ4L5WRwIh5ozyyj5aW8qVsE0kzO-8nNViA-kZgGYmtDxjp9PuxUjx4sGRviB7Y/s1600/Pet+Tiger-bath-rough2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="169" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLeLNCk2zA-i0t_jpmuasRqg4x7uIq__SKov6yxgiEsbJG0LZbKAopx39hBQxLVsLCs9FCDg4i-p6HUJ4L5WRwIh5ozyyj5aW8qVsE0kzO-8nNViA-kZgGYmtDxjp9PuxUjx4sGRviB7Y/s320/Pet+Tiger-bath-rough2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Polished Roughs</td></tr>
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These sketches are more refined than my typical roughs. That's because only a few will progress into full coloured pieces for the dummy. Picture book dummies have mostly sketches since if a book is accepted changes will likely need to be made. For this reason the sketches need to be strong enough on their own so that the finished product is easy to visualize.<br />
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This was a lengthy process and I was fortunate that I had a big dry spell in my commisioned work to plow through most of it. I have a couple yet to finish but couldn't help myself from moving on to complete a few pieces. There's my impatience showing itself again. Now that I'm once again swamped by commissioned work I'll have to figure in some time to finish those last ones soon.<br />
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Check back to my next post to see the completed versions of the above sketches.<br />
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Excelsior!marcus cutlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10784602473587219219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1084354017793197066.post-50650462644354613172013-08-21T22:30:00.001-04:002013-09-25T12:13:09.150-04:00My First Picture Book Dummy Part 4 - Character Design<a href="http://marcuscutler.blogspot.ca/2013/07/my-first-picture-book-dummy-part-1.html">Part 1 - Concept And Inspiration</a><br />
<a href="http://marcuscutler.blogspot.ca/2013/08/my-first-picture-book-dummy-part-2.html">Part 2 - Writing</a><br />
<a href="http://marcuscutler.blogspot.ca/2013/08/my-first-picture-book-dummy-part-3.html">Part 3 - Thumbnails</a><br />
<a href="http://marcuscutler.blogspot.ca/2013/08/my-first-picture-book-dummy-part-4.html">Part 4 - Character Design </a><br />
<a href="http://marcuscutler.blogspot.ca/2013/08/my-first-picture-book-dummy-part-5.html">Part 5 - Roughs </a><br />
<a href="http://marcuscutler.blogspot.ca/2013/09/my-first-picture-book-dummy-part-6.html">Part 6 - Finals</a> <br />
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In preparation for this post I came to the realization that I did a <i>terrible</i> job at designing the characters for my picture book dummy, in the sense that I didn't. <br />
I went back into my folders looking for my rough designs that I assumed that I had done while writing and thumbnailing and came up empty except for this:<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsh6XrtoG3Rk7BTnLZrL5e0pe9xOQzffL-PmYp11JraR3NwY3E2i5Vczx54NjCwGKswNCgtonA69nJhp27Mluy5QcmxLIRivXuuJf5bmZ7uc2D_ndM0FePUmzDX2CIy3vWkAwQ2J6t_kM/s1600/Pet+Tiger-Character+Design.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="229" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsh6XrtoG3Rk7BTnLZrL5e0pe9xOQzffL-PmYp11JraR3NwY3E2i5Vczx54NjCwGKswNCgtonA69nJhp27Mluy5QcmxLIRivXuuJf5bmZ7uc2D_ndM0FePUmzDX2CIy3vWkAwQ2J6t_kM/s320/Pet+Tiger-Character+Design.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My only character design sketches</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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That's it.<br />
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One pass of just the main character.<br />
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Impressive isn't it?<br />
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<a name='more'></a>Now, to be fair to myself I had already done a test long before I even wrote a line of the story. This was back before I decided to expand the concept into anything more than a standalone promo piece.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxtmccl3B7F1NaZV9e4EOopiA_-RqInbPEot-lKg0j9b6C-6wk6hSYfaUCdMSufEqBGSXM9QKtpjx_jVRRPH5IfQnwe25cwnsgHgzOBt1ymCh0kSHGEhIhm4Vc0MfjBGE7ji0xFo1bsrA/s1600/Prowling+Tiger-700px.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxtmccl3B7F1NaZV9e4EOopiA_-RqInbPEot-lKg0j9b6C-6wk6hSYfaUCdMSufEqBGSXM9QKtpjx_jVRRPH5IfQnwe25cwnsgHgzOBt1ymCh0kSHGEhIhm4Vc0MfjBGE7ji0xFo1bsrA/s320/Prowling+Tiger-700px.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Early test and promo postcard</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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I think I intended to spend more time designing my characters but I grew impatient and figured that I could do it on the fly. That's what I typically do since most of my projects to date have been one offs. I normally just design the character within the composition. This is one of the reasons that many of my characters look a bit alike, I just swap in different noses, hair, clothing and TaDaa! Character! So by default I guess that was my process for this dummy as well.<br />
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This "mannequin dressing" process has served me well enough but I've decided to push myself to become more creative with the personalities of characters. I mostly aim to do this by varying their shapes and sizes more. With this purpose in mind I'm starting my own character design challenge that I'm calling <a href="http://marcuscutler.blogspot.ca/2013/08/the-140characters140days-initiative.html">The #140characters140days Initiative</a>. Please check it out and feel free to take part!<br />
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While I feel that I failed in my overall character prep, I did do heaps of research for the characters clothing which was quite useful. A great resource were clothing store websites. The ones I like best are Gap, Old Navy, J. Crew, and Etsy.<br />
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The major reference I used for the family was real life. Something I knew going in was that I'd be modelling the family members in the book after my own family. This was a no-brainer since this book is primarily for my daugter and she likes to assign people she knows to the characters in her books anyway (sometimes I even get to be a lamp) so I thought I would save her the trouble and base the characters loosely on ourselves.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoyY-jR9YpPFbCGGQ8MqNGFT1JyxBs1cq7KNpOQQ-txN7LxozMMFSu2tr-P9pt3dP_r1GkxN7-9b4V1YMC690dYLEpufD4M79MhnNpDNUSup25YCJoqh6PMK5xEfOOJJ8rQUKsxjar3-o/s1600/Pet+Tiger-Full+Roughs-Driving.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="319" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoyY-jR9YpPFbCGGQ8MqNGFT1JyxBs1cq7KNpOQQ-txN7LxozMMFSu2tr-P9pt3dP_r1GkxN7-9b4V1YMC690dYLEpufD4M79MhnNpDNUSup25YCJoqh6PMK5xEfOOJJ8rQUKsxjar3-o/s320/Pet+Tiger-Full+Roughs-Driving.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The left tire is me.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Stay tuned, next post I'll write about creating all those many many roughs. Until then, Excelsior! <br />
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<br />marcus cutlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10784602473587219219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1084354017793197066.post-62275751320113179462013-08-21T22:10:00.000-04:002013-08-22T10:08:45.280-04:00The #140characters140days Initiative<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuFJzpfyL6-dnH_jq_doibrQ5tvfufrZ811l_csFXFv-7nSz1j-axHBiqkdcMPt8Ul_RQT5UdJiKBy-ckYiHqSUAvyaLgm14FWwg1rnpANIaMXyJbSyEvY2j8s3zEdETk6Fww6jQ60nC8/s1600/Banner-squareRGB-600px.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuFJzpfyL6-dnH_jq_doibrQ5tvfufrZ811l_csFXFv-7nSz1j-axHBiqkdcMPt8Ul_RQT5UdJiKBy-ckYiHqSUAvyaLgm14FWwg1rnpANIaMXyJbSyEvY2j8s3zEdETk6Fww6jQ60nC8/s320/Banner-squareRGB-600px.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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My character design is weak. There, I've admitted it. Now... how's yours? Not bad? Could be better? Well let's do something about it.<br />
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Starting October 1, 2013 I'll be creating one character design per day for 140 days and tweeting them each day using the hashtag <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23140characters140days&mode=realtime">#140characters140days</a>. I'll also post a weekly roundup of my designs right here on my blog.<br />
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I'll also be scouring the intertubes for great character design resources and tweeting/posting those as well so we can all grow in our craft.<br />
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Please feel free to join in any time and make sure to use the hastag <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23140characters140days&mode=realtime">#140characters140days</a>.<br />
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<br />marcus cutlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10784602473587219219noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1084354017793197066.post-40436031894915339462013-08-14T12:08:00.000-04:002013-09-25T12:13:24.014-04:00 My First Picture Book Dummy Part 3 - Thumbnails <a href="http://marcuscutler.blogspot.ca/2013/07/my-first-picture-book-dummy-part-1.html">Part 1 - Concept And Inspiration</a><br />
<a href="http://marcuscutler.blogspot.ca/2013/08/my-first-picture-book-dummy-part-2.html">Part 2 - Writing</a><br />
<a href="http://marcuscutler.blogspot.ca/2013/08/my-first-picture-book-dummy-part-3.html">Part 3 - Thumbnails</a><br />
<a href="http://marcuscutler.blogspot.ca/2013/08/my-first-picture-book-dummy-part-4.html">Part 4 - Character Design </a><br />
<a href="http://marcuscutler.blogspot.ca/2013/08/my-first-picture-book-dummy-part-5.html">Part 5 - Roughs </a><br />
<a href="http://marcuscutler.blogspot.ca/2013/09/my-first-picture-book-dummy-part-6.html">Part 6 - Finals</a> <br />
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In parts <a href="http://marcuscutler.blogspot.ca/2013/07/my-first-picture-book-dummy-part-1.html">1</a> and <a href="http://marcuscutler.blogspot.ca/2013/08/my-first-picture-book-dummy-part-2.html">2</a> of this series I wrote about my inspiration, concept, and writing process for my first picture book dummy that I'm putting together about a little girl with a pet tiger.<br />
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Using a spreadsheet for my writing was quite useful when I reached the thumbnailing stage. I already had it all laid out and separated according to each spread. Of course thumbnailing is it's own process and tweaks were made along the way.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjogoo41i6KCvJq1DZhj-ImpEhXWEkXBUCJrQFLYnT3xoz8QxK8RtajoPVT7HQ84A0s8l5NA1GzGMsbyNBRs5FN0irgexnv6iy8pdrZCMQWoHAx9BPMAH5HeQm9rPFqXsdJxFpOrq0tNok/s1600/Pet+Tiger-Book+Thumbs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjogoo41i6KCvJq1DZhj-ImpEhXWEkXBUCJrQFLYnT3xoz8QxK8RtajoPVT7HQ84A0s8l5NA1GzGMsbyNBRs5FN0irgexnv6iy8pdrZCMQWoHAx9BPMAH5HeQm9rPFqXsdJxFpOrq0tNok/s320/Pet+Tiger-Book+Thumbs.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Very rough thumbnails</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The above thumbs are incredibly rough and likely readable only to me. They were done really quick to get down the compositions that I had in mind for each spread. Things were moved around several times at this point to get the visual pacing right. I did all these digitally within photoshop, which is how I typically sketch. I never nail things on the first pass and so I love the flexibility of working digitally.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>A typical picture book is 32 pages, but that includes what they call the front matter. There are a bunch of templates if you do a google search but I ended up making my own, <a href="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5988990/Book%20Thumbs%20Template.zip">you can try it if you like</a>. There seems to be debate about exactly how many pages to leave empty at the front of the book. The consensus seems to be 3 to 5 pages, depending on whatever feels right for the book. So I put my title page on page 5, which also showed the family getting the tiger from the pet store as a way to set up the story.<br />
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A step I should have taken would have been to create a second set of better refined small thumbnails focusing more on each composition, and maybe even adding colour. I may revisit this for some roughs that still need to be resolved. I'm one of those eager beavers and it's always a struggle not to jump over the important foundation work.<br />
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What I did do though was create large thumbnails. Large enough that they were really more like preliminary roughs.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj_tLHvYY9lxYynvcZkkIHk0MYuaBxqdbbjDwCvFdLdBJHTdDOF5GlsDYIqBJ1OA1XUYVeSHlBIAuWxTGus-u8MBBGIV54ixGMio5sDpNzTVToz_ODGZjqxn8hk6fQiKBg6RmqWxUGt4o/s1600/Pet+Tiger-Big+Thumb-Eating.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="169" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj_tLHvYY9lxYynvcZkkIHk0MYuaBxqdbbjDwCvFdLdBJHTdDOF5GlsDYIqBJ1OA1XUYVeSHlBIAuWxTGus-u8MBBGIV54ixGMio5sDpNzTVToz_ODGZjqxn8hk6fQiKBg6RmqWxUGt4o/s320/Pet+Tiger-Big+Thumb-Eating.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A large thumbnail, but really a preliminary rough for pages 8 and 9</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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I took these roughs and made a pdf out of them using inDesign, adding in the text as well. This gave me my very first test dummy.<br />
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Next week I'll go into my character design. This is going a bit backwards because a lot of it was done during the writing stage. I made a big omission when I designed my characters, but you'll have to check back next Wednesday to read what it was.<br />
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Excelsior!marcus cutlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10784602473587219219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1084354017793197066.post-35936593216510918772013-08-07T08:32:00.000-04:002013-09-25T12:13:33.267-04:00My First Picture Book Dummy, Part 2 -Writing<a href="http://marcuscutler.blogspot.ca/2013/07/my-first-picture-book-dummy-part-1.html">Part 1 - Concept And Inspiration</a><br />
<a href="http://marcuscutler.blogspot.ca/2013/08/my-first-picture-book-dummy-part-2.html">Part 2 - Writing</a><br />
<a href="http://marcuscutler.blogspot.ca/2013/08/my-first-picture-book-dummy-part-3.html">Part 3 - Thumbnails</a><br />
<a href="http://marcuscutler.blogspot.ca/2013/08/my-first-picture-book-dummy-part-4.html">Part 4 - Character Design </a><br />
<a href="http://marcuscutler.blogspot.ca/2013/08/my-first-picture-book-dummy-part-5.html">Part 5 - Roughs </a><br />
<a href="http://marcuscutler.blogspot.ca/2013/09/my-first-picture-book-dummy-part-6.html">Part 6 - Finals</a> <br />
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Last week in <a href="http://marcuscutler.blogspot.ca/2013/07/my-first-picture-book-dummy-part-1.html" target="_blank">part one</a> I wrote about how and why I decided to create my first picture book dummy. So then came the toughest part, the writing.<br />
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I knew that since I'm much less confident in my writing than I am in my drawing that it would be best to err on the side of simplicity. One day I might take a shot at wonderful rhyming prose like Julia Donaldson (The Gruffalo) but it will take a lot of work before I have the chops for that. At this point though, I still only had the idea of a girl having a pet tiger. Where to go from there?<br />
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One of my first versions had the set up of a girl asking her mum for a pet tiger, and her mum explaining why that would be a bad idea. Here's an excerpt :<br />
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Girl: I want a tiger!<br />Mum: If I gave you a tiger it would stay up really late to prowl. The tiger would make a huge ruckus and wake up all the babies on the street.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Their mommies and daddies would be so mad. The tiger would go out hunting and eat all of the neighborhood dogs. Their owners would be really sad.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">It meandered along those lines an</span>d ended with the girl deciding against a pet tiger, and asking for a jellyfish instead. Not bad, but I kept getting stuck. I was having trouble adding in the visual punch that I wanted from the story. The point to me was to show the silliness that would come out of having a pet tiger. So I scrapped everything, put away the word processor, and opened up a spreadsheet.</div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgieNe_7847U9z7ADEPHjXjnCxMTn0kiLMQcz0pr1pGiylTgp30QDx1gI7OL1PVdD16gcuRT1F09eCAKv5yoTZ5KWPEerjRreoUmBP_JZ_0QOmd0KNTQpXJAzGSQ9arChI-iKHlLwMakgI/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-08-06+at+4.53.19+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="251" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgieNe_7847U9z7ADEPHjXjnCxMTn0kiLMQcz0pr1pGiylTgp30QDx1gI7OL1PVdD16gcuRT1F09eCAKv5yoTZ5KWPEerjRreoUmBP_JZ_0QOmd0KNTQpXJAzGSQ9arChI-iKHlLwMakgI/s400/Screen+Shot+2013-08-06+at+4.53.19+PM.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Don't all great authors use Google spreadsheets?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I understand that a spreadsheet isn't a likely option to turn to for the purpose of writing but it kind of suited me perfectly for this project. I brainstormed what one would need to do with a pet tiger. It was really just analogous to a dog but on a bigger, more intimidating scale. So I filled the cells with all my visual set pieces, feeding, walking, bathing etc.. Then in corresponding cells I plugged in the text that could go with each. Looking back I realize that I must have been influenced by the many educational briefs that I've revived. They're often set up in a similar manner.</div>
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I changed the voice to that of an owner's guide, listing the various dos and don'ts of pet tiger ownership. This really helped to develop a contrast between the text and illustration that I really love. This became the books "hook" if you will. I mentioned last post about the influence of Mercer Mayer's Little Critter books. He does a tremendous job of this kind of text/illustration juxtaposition.</div>
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Since the book was now shaping into a series of tableaus and less a straight narrative, I could play with the sequence a lot which was easy to do in the spreadsheet.</div>
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I considered this to be a base on which to build. Much of the rest of the writing and finessing came in the thumbnailing stage which I'll write about next week. I'll even be providing my own handy resource, so please stay tuned!</div>
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Please feel free to comment below about your writing process or connect with me on twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/MarcusCutler" target="_blank">@marcuscutler</a>.</div>
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Excelsior!</div>
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marcus cutlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10784602473587219219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1084354017793197066.post-16221938205118917232013-07-31T10:34:00.002-04:002013-10-01T16:46:53.702-04:00My First Picture Book Dummy, Part 1 - Concept & Inspiration<a href="http://marcuscutler.blogspot.ca/2013/07/my-first-picture-book-dummy-part-1.html">Part 1 - Concept And Inspiration</a><br />
<a href="http://marcuscutler.blogspot.ca/2013/08/my-first-picture-book-dummy-part-2.html">Part 2 - Writing</a><br />
<a href="http://marcuscutler.blogspot.ca/2013/08/my-first-picture-book-dummy-part-3.html">Part 3 - Thumbnails</a><br />
<a href="http://marcuscutler.blogspot.ca/2013/08/my-first-picture-book-dummy-part-4.html">Part 4 - Character Design </a><br />
<a href="http://marcuscutler.blogspot.ca/2013/08/my-first-picture-book-dummy-part-5.html">Part 5 - Roughs </a><br />
<a href="http://marcuscutler.blogspot.ca/2013/09/my-first-picture-book-dummy-part-6.html">Part 6 - Finals</a> <br />
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Although it feels like I'm just getting started in my illustration career (will it ever stop feeling that way?) I've actually been doing it for quite a while now, over 7 years in fact. I've had many fun projects along the way but it has begun to feel like I was over due in focusing in on my big goal of becoming a published picture book illustrator.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU56ZNvd1L3WVhyX780WMvbD8-SUS4kzgRvFZ9sK80h9BbR2HVj5k3qhXhQYihKG5j6ol2MX1K2bnrc1BcOmXIsJvmMffKZtkISxx0sXMAZXS28KH2yz6dlLPXVHD2cvdtUTPyk3LalSY/s1600/2013-07-30+11.47.18.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU56ZNvd1L3WVhyX780WMvbD8-SUS4kzgRvFZ9sK80h9BbR2HVj5k3qhXhQYihKG5j6ol2MX1K2bnrc1BcOmXIsJvmMffKZtkISxx0sXMAZXS28KH2yz6dlLPXVHD2cvdtUTPyk3LalSY/s400/2013-07-30+11.47.18.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Inspirations for my picture book dummy</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Alas, the only offers I've received for children's book illustration have been from self publishers. While I'm quite flattered by the offers, I also want to be paid for my work since that's the <i>professional</i> part in <i>professional illustrator</i>. So I felt it was a good time to start creating my own picture book. A couple things helped me come to this conclusion.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUTjro-1snoqWAzP5q7-D74H4_YdISAJd6r2cHEgOnHWvWqlSMXrUDE6nW89PL0sUH12P0oXMXIDy83hyphenhyphenFLnSPgMTAa2TV-xja0RPXPXJWxtwEYMNCHRjEWXOm-AH4OoKDT6gY_ZoBo_M/s1600/Dandelions-Wee+Willy-500px.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUTjro-1snoqWAzP5q7-D74H4_YdISAJd6r2cHEgOnHWvWqlSMXrUDE6nW89PL0sUH12P0oXMXIDy83hyphenhyphenFLnSPgMTAa2TV-xja0RPXPXJWxtwEYMNCHRjEWXOm-AH4OoKDT6gY_ZoBo_M/s400/Dandelions-Wee+Willy-500px.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Two pieces that I created for Turtle Magazine</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Firstly, my daughter. Corny, I know. I'm very fortunate that I get to draw for a living but I realized that it's somewhat pointless if I don't use this opportunity to make something truly personal. I'm really good at taking a spec for an educational piece and and fleshing it out, but it's hard to inject a lot of soul into those. I've done a lot of magazine pieces that accompany poems and those allow me to be a lot more creative, but it's still not telling a story that's personal to me.<br />
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Secondly, my daughter. Even cornier, but hear me out. Now that she's two I've been reading many more picture books than ever before. I've done some rough math:<br />
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(3 books/bedtime + 1.5 books/naptime) x 365 days = 1642.5 readings per year<br />
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So I've become quite immersed in picture books lately and have learned a lot of what I like and don't like in them. I'll get more into this in my next post.<br />
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For a long while she was on a huge <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1S9_2aDbuo0" target="_blank">Little Critter by Mercer Mayer</a> kick. It helped that my wife had about 20 of these books left over from her childhood. I love them too. They have a great balance between pictures and text. The text tells Little Critter's version of the story and the pictures show the reality. It's a wonderful dichotomy. I got to thinking "I could do something like that!". This was a HUGE revelation because I've never been very confident as a writer. I've always found writing too, well, <i>literal</i>. Illustrating allows me to tell a story in a more open-ended way which is what I love about it. Reading the Little Critter books began me thinking about telling two versions of the same story and it seemed like a really fun idea.<br />
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This really freed me up since I could focus on telling a story with pictures, and then use the text to give it a second dimension. I already had a story in mind as well about a girl having a pet tiger. This came from my daughter having a tiger puppet, El Tigre, as her favourite stuffie toy. What I liked most about this idea was the contrast between a big hulking tiger and a tiny little girl who was kind of the boss of him. So now I had my concept and an idea of how I wanted to execute it. All that was left was everything else!<br />
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The next steps of writing, thumb-nailing, character designing, roughing, and finalizing will be covered in subsequent blog posts. The next post will be about my writing process which I think was a little unconventional. So please check back, I'll be posting a new one each Wednesday. Or follow me on twitter, <a href="https://twitter.com/MarcusCutler" target="_blank">@marcuscutler</a> and I can remind you there.<br />
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Excelsior!<br />
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<a href="http://marcuscutler.blogspot.ca/2013/08/my-first-picture-book-dummy-part-2.html">Part 2 - Writing </a>marcus cutlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10784602473587219219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1084354017793197066.post-15449445709021650842013-04-11T14:20:00.000-04:002013-04-11T14:22:25.042-04:00More Trucks for iOS<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix3heIxIXgNke_N_yNzKtC78V_uPI9_SGO4Z_3ja76O1UjrFWCdndnau_U0nNzFKJzottik58zUNJA_Um3nunUD9IwJcmP8a_pbobPvHD9xWZq8EOd4USxtDp9_304BfqFvD0Nmi4YHzg/s1600/MoreTrucksSC-Home-620px.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix3heIxIXgNke_N_yNzKtC78V_uPI9_SGO4Z_3ja76O1UjrFWCdndnau_U0nNzFKJzottik58zUNJA_Um3nunUD9IwJcmP8a_pbobPvHD9xWZq8EOd4USxtDp9_304BfqFvD0Nmi4YHzg/s320/MoreTrucksSC-Home-620px.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Last year I was fortunate to work with the wonderful developers over at Duck Duck Moose to help create the graphics for their iOS app <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id522563847?mt=8" target="_blank">Trucks</a>. This year I'm happy to announce that I was able to team up with them once again to help produce the sequel, <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id609771588?mt=8" target="_blank">More Trucks</a>.<br />
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It was a huge kick to see my 2 year old daughter enjoy playing with the first Trucks, and she's already becoming adept at the new one. Her favourite activity so far is is the junkyard car crusher.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwCmuM3k-i2ekKGQSeNJNIoAvXypEUlqK2dxmvYbWGTMm7bI7esEqP8icI5ca6vicBp4NFHnMu23PVTVdcnFHweOvhR9vsdXWTKB5X66oaGbjFkkvLWHrqrl-55gYgxt863T9YnJry71U/s1600/MoreTrucksSC-Junkyard-620px.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwCmuM3k-i2ekKGQSeNJNIoAvXypEUlqK2dxmvYbWGTMm7bI7esEqP8icI5ca6vicBp4NFHnMu23PVTVdcnFHweOvhR9vsdXWTKB5X66oaGbjFkkvLWHrqrl-55gYgxt863T9YnJry71U/s320/MoreTrucksSC-Junkyard-620px.png" width="320" /></a></div>
I don't think that she gets that I helped to make it, or maybe she
thinks I made the iPad too. Regardless, it's great that she can enjoy it
so much, it's incredibly rewarding.<br />
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If you have kids you should really check it out. Even if you don't have kids the monster truck activity is fun for all.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1EJzXARWGI9RLSzpAArmV0xHqGrOovy_v5gIRswx0LTcHI-Z3MMSWTvKS77lQeH1SMzQtpKtRoZApVnZgi0z-BPKS1wcZWf8o5Z2ZQc-qCV8kbauhkt5NAmlKz7ve_tzvFtO6TkDTeC8/s1600/MoreTrucksSC-MonsterTruck-620px.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1EJzXARWGI9RLSzpAArmV0xHqGrOovy_v5gIRswx0LTcHI-Z3MMSWTvKS77lQeH1SMzQtpKtRoZApVnZgi0z-BPKS1wcZWf8o5Z2ZQc-qCV8kbauhkt5NAmlKz7ve_tzvFtO6TkDTeC8/s320/MoreTrucksSC-MonsterTruck-620px.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglkSXhlC_A9HX2VCX7uZxwoZnL1N-Nu2qlj7Y5MdmwSdrOD1_JaJb9kzFzn9Pv89wJ8FkToW2mo3UyOIPTqtu4Zv-ipBDcP0t8BHGq97mI8uzK998Mmwlkk9crRfcEyi1yHYSFSUZndjg/s1600/MoreTrucksSC-Firetruck-620px.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglkSXhlC_A9HX2VCX7uZxwoZnL1N-Nu2qlj7Y5MdmwSdrOD1_JaJb9kzFzn9Pv89wJ8FkToW2mo3UyOIPTqtu4Zv-ipBDcP0t8BHGq97mI8uzK998Mmwlkk9crRfcEyi1yHYSFSUZndjg/s320/MoreTrucksSC-Firetruck-620px.png" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTkVX32rPdtgbevByUF9_7NYbAYJSuTdVwzw1G3oLAtRWsLYheWcxtN0aUR2tt7w7VB4I8_4cBASM_dX5ChYt5wPKYkAJlTtKPzBYcSyv5nIYe4IZP87HRLWLP0ao3szKIGPtZNJAuHts/s1600/MoreTrucksSC-crane-620px.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTkVX32rPdtgbevByUF9_7NYbAYJSuTdVwzw1G3oLAtRWsLYheWcxtN0aUR2tt7w7VB4I8_4cBASM_dX5ChYt5wPKYkAJlTtKPzBYcSyv5nIYe4IZP87HRLWLP0ao3szKIGPtZNJAuHts/s320/MoreTrucksSC-crane-620px.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />marcus cutlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10784602473587219219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1084354017793197066.post-62240090306143662792013-03-24T13:35:00.002-04:002013-04-11T11:45:20.546-04:00Dandelions for Turtle Magazine<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipLAEHVQdIHtBxdJa__gchMrOdL5tnXribA8sfbQqztbGFyXF2yfJjxJfIsEabG9ixORsqiClkB_qGY5bhlE_B2YX4kbMCJDwZz8IRwsW-WfdcFW0-xUsxvKEKkf5kqDaCTD1RSSoZxNE/s1600/Dandelions-600px.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipLAEHVQdIHtBxdJa__gchMrOdL5tnXribA8sfbQqztbGFyXF2yfJjxJfIsEabG9ixORsqiClkB_qGY5bhlE_B2YX4kbMCJDwZz8IRwsW-WfdcFW0-xUsxvKEKkf5kqDaCTD1RSSoZxNE/s400/Dandelions-600px.jpg" width="285" /></a></div>
Before this piece I've never drawn a character with such curly hair!<br />
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The untamable locks were in part inspired by by 2 year old daughter who's own curly hair is getting bigger and more unruly every day. She always wants me to draw her and so I decided that it was time to man up and figure out how to render crazy long curly hair in my regular style. It took a few attempts to get it right but I'm very pleased with the result. Since it was so fun and I was so pleased with the result all of my characters now have curly hair!<br />
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This piece is featured on the back cover of this month's Turtle Magazine. Thanks for the super fun assignment Turtle!marcus cutlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10784602473587219219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1084354017793197066.post-68172576052445055612013-01-04T12:59:00.001-05:002013-01-04T12:59:55.508-05:00New Pieces for U.S. Kids<br />
I've been incredibly remiss at updating my website and blog due to an incredibly heavy workload in the past several months. With the new year ringing in my one resolution is to redouble my self promotion and marketing efforts to keep moving in the right direction.<br />
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My website has been updated with a handful of new work, check it out <a href="http://www.marcuscutler.com/" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
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And to continue the trend, here are a couple of recent illustrations created for U.S. Kids magazines. My most recent piece for them has just been completed and will be out in March. It's one of my favourite pieces that I've done so check back for that.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFizoCcjPO3GTk8qzc4qm_ITR0fPESJbI_1VSNBgsHfGQY7qZbqQEQnJQ6y2TLrg1wx653VVIWeE4s154iYCmze-sOLCghtjPwRpGH7c1cbotPMNglEfdIiAJpYYh3Lwx0yKH83zRJ_r0/s1600/PaperSnow-500px.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFizoCcjPO3GTk8qzc4qm_ITR0fPESJbI_1VSNBgsHfGQY7qZbqQEQnJQ6y2TLrg1wx653VVIWeE4s154iYCmze-sOLCghtjPwRpGH7c1cbotPMNglEfdIiAJpYYh3Lwx0yKH83zRJ_r0/s400/PaperSnow-500px.jpg" width="266" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">White Paper Snow for the back cover of Humpty Dumpty Magazine</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvHipg8D993uCW3G5nRHzxV7f_BdW9Jn5cXI5h3YBJ9NuLU5CfQiDt-Ubk5xAs9DI3DmxfPru0DPwpkhaZWpMGV9zzotsEpv0a3pygpimCRD19fHGMO2md2FXQH-FccEcyc9ClvnJB46I/s1600/Time+to+Count+Birds650px.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvHipg8D993uCW3G5nRHzxV7f_BdW9Jn5cXI5h3YBJ9NuLU5CfQiDt-Ubk5xAs9DI3DmxfPru0DPwpkhaZWpMGV9zzotsEpv0a3pygpimCRD19fHGMO2md2FXQH-FccEcyc9ClvnJB46I/s400/Time+to+Count+Birds650px.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Time to Count Birds activity for Turtle Magazine</td></tr>
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marcus cutlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10784602473587219219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1084354017793197066.post-70161167923932292582012-08-07T22:56:00.000-04:002012-08-08T09:01:53.445-04:00StoryPals<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 0;">
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">I'm
a big believer that the iPad can be a great tool for education. So it
was my honour to work with speech-language pathologist Eric Sailers on <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/storypals/id502655731?mt=8" style="color: #faa745;" target="_blank">StoryPals</a>, an incredibly robust story comprehension app for iPad.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">It's
very rewarding to know that StoryPals will be put to good use by
dedicated educators helping children to learn valuable skills. Please
check it out and let me know what you think </span><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/cytg820LtkA?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXYXtonYbjUW0-jP3rED0_X5hxlFFj41rUkttgAiq8f4Cl3JCTQZYnq9SW6ELl2n_zHoHJr4zBz0r0AL_fLMmbl4FYPfKRxB42CWpURMZbbP72KSapZ-V4FaHqZ4DtYXplNYWDJgISq3E/s1600/3+StoryPals+Screens-620px.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXYXtonYbjUW0-jP3rED0_X5hxlFFj41rUkttgAiq8f4Cl3JCTQZYnq9SW6ELl2n_zHoHJr4zBz0r0AL_fLMmbl4FYPfKRxB42CWpURMZbbP72KSapZ-V4FaHqZ4DtYXplNYWDJgISq3E/s640/3+StoryPals+Screens-620px.jpg" width="279" /></a>marcus cutlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10784602473587219219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1084354017793197066.post-66234366866682890002012-06-04T09:49:00.000-04:002012-06-04T09:49:11.103-04:00New U.S. Kids IllustrationsAs always I had a great time working with U.S. Kids Magazines on this latest batch of illustrations. They're featured in the current Turtle and Jack and Jill magazines so please pick up your copies and check them out.<br />
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I especially had fun with Wee Willie Winkie which is on the back of this
month's Turtle. It's always fun to do night scenes which make it easy
to set a mood. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizzmvelXSTQaGZ0C0l13VDC_Q-gN1U6Tb_T-HhH7TDsVAAOCkvw8fdsQjv_dHvg16T_NIrHvetyFp0408BP52L_zhqcAJFZh3CgVissu2ZWfFk3DT9ecFN_6__rv3OBeiKujLX93VPhXw/s1600/Wee+Willie+Winkie-500px.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizzmvelXSTQaGZ0C0l13VDC_Q-gN1U6Tb_T-HhH7TDsVAAOCkvw8fdsQjv_dHvg16T_NIrHvetyFp0408BP52L_zhqcAJFZh3CgVissu2ZWfFk3DT9ecFN_6__rv3OBeiKujLX93VPhXw/s400/Wee+Willie+Winkie-500px.jpg" width="312" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipvHo_Dyj-oTgu6nnQBcqB0A65PW0ZpX-ypkAVs29oSBBULkxj2OKfBicArJSQIeFF-MGWkmuYQHMPbFC89VQuVV16uwBIeZYsjLaUmSKvR6q09KUuCF-4Mb3pwNAsqjf0s2c9ucWQ-rQ/s1600/Miss+Muffet-500px.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipvHo_Dyj-oTgu6nnQBcqB0A65PW0ZpX-ypkAVs29oSBBULkxj2OKfBicArJSQIeFF-MGWkmuYQHMPbFC89VQuVV16uwBIeZYsjLaUmSKvR6q09KUuCF-4Mb3pwNAsqjf0s2c9ucWQ-rQ/s400/Miss+Muffet-500px.jpg" width="315" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKE_fKOy38w9Ov0nL0N1V4A9ifY6ROqWJutLAywbnAmWPVhsZaUHCbxkB_R9CYl0SxVn6Vdtw6Y1P5JHGvku2vVRj_x3WqfKTOF5iZPd973wJche_KiLri3FHBlWX0fBGRdHSv-HdCUso/s1600/School+Puzzle+Pages-600px.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKE_fKOy38w9Ov0nL0N1V4A9ifY6ROqWJutLAywbnAmWPVhsZaUHCbxkB_R9CYl0SxVn6Vdtw6Y1P5JHGvku2vVRj_x3WqfKTOF5iZPd973wJche_KiLri3FHBlWX0fBGRdHSv-HdCUso/s320/School+Puzzle+Pages-600px.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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</div>marcus cutlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10784602473587219219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1084354017793197066.post-81828033268469008162012-05-05T22:51:00.000-04:002012-05-05T22:54:13.928-04:00TRUCKS!I had the great pleasure to create the visuals for the new <a href="http://www.duckduckmoosedesign.com/" target="_blank">Duck Duck Moose</a> app <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/trucks-hd-by-duck-duck-moose/id522563847?mt=8" target="_blank">Trucks</a>. They're a really fun company and have a great team environment to work in. I'm very happy with the finished product and am very proud at the reception it's had. It's currently in the Top 10 in the iTunes AppStore and is featured on the AppStore homepage, Woot! Woot!<br />
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One of the great things about working on apps is that my daughter gets to play them. Though she's supposed to be a bit too young for this one (she's 1 1/2) she's mastered it already. She even seems to prefer the hardest game which is sorting trash. What can I say, she's a prodigy.<br />
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It really warms the cockles of my heart when we open up her folder of games on the iPad and she goes right to one I helped make. <br />
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<a href="http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/trucks-hd-by-duck-duck-moose/id522563847?mt=8" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2UKGXiTbPS3UNUH74j-BcZqNmKkhs3UgwD-CsRQHF4eIpzatMy4qdgrVPa7WSCL_IIHJCm9IYYqpKrbzsfDBfnQowDxrjHzUpguNCtkvhyphenhyphenxFt5DpET6fGeCBQHW0x4XnvNAS9k2KP4oQ/s1600/Trucks+Screenshots-400px.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />marcus cutlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10784602473587219219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1084354017793197066.post-50819756160110656762012-03-19T22:49:00.000-04:002012-03-19T22:49:17.018-04:00A Naughty Wind - Humpty Dumpty Magazine<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI5QX8MKr_7BfHJCaX6YAIeQLc4RYGeHmXTCb7DyUbF9GuGxzre7-7Ql14ZA3T2-MJ7crfvz9naRGpuHg-W46h0UKft0ohkAlvhCaLHWCN6X9Qg2l1T9_o_u915IbiAXF4yxdf-PynKAw/s1600/A+Naughty+Wind-500px.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI5QX8MKr_7BfHJCaX6YAIeQLc4RYGeHmXTCb7DyUbF9GuGxzre7-7Ql14ZA3T2-MJ7crfvz9naRGpuHg-W46h0UKft0ohkAlvhCaLHWCN6X9Qg2l1T9_o_u915IbiAXF4yxdf-PynKAw/s320/A+Naughty+Wind-500px.jpg" width="247" /></a></div>
This is easily one of the most fun projects I've worked on recently. I recall a quote that I can't remember who to credit for, but to paraphrase, "Either do 1 thing or 1000 things." I think this is a really great concept. This would be an example of the 1000 things. Check out a <a href="http://marcuscutler.blogspot.ca/2012/01/winter-night-humpty-dumpty-magazine.html" target="_blank">previous piece</a> I did for Humpty Dumpty for an example of 1 thing.<br />
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My natural instinct is always to land somewhere in the middle because 1 thing makes me feel like I'm being lazy and 1000 things is too time consuming. I'm getting better though!marcus cutlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10784602473587219219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1084354017793197066.post-83332654939432727462012-01-23T12:49:00.000-05:002012-01-23T12:49:24.574-05:00Winter Night - Humpty Dumpty Magazine<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmIZEIXb9CWOY2Tydd97EyV8k-I_-2AVOKfXQbyaGmKeJ3EUFrbd2UJMQHfuuiLX576I4SEMB3jpITL6gYFxRQkgHTZo_QIt0YDQoJI1IF41RsxoKddFc4UC1JowKdnvDULjm_T1xqMss/s1600/Winter+Night-500x646px.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmIZEIXb9CWOY2Tydd97EyV8k-I_-2AVOKfXQbyaGmKeJ3EUFrbd2UJMQHfuuiLX576I4SEMB3jpITL6gYFxRQkgHTZo_QIt0YDQoJI1IF41RsxoKddFc4UC1JowKdnvDULjm_T1xqMss/s400/Winter+Night-500x646px.jpg" width="308" /></a></div>
I'm a bit late posting this since the issue this appeared in was the November/December Humpty Dumpty but better late than never.<br />
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I've been so crazy busy the last few months with a few large projects (which I'm very eager to share them but which must remain under wraps for now). I've also been on an extended working holiday from Christmas up until now. I'm finally getting back doing some promotion to hopefully keep things rolling throughout 2012.<br />
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This piece was for Humpty Dumpty's back cover. US Kids Magazines are always a
pleasure to work with. I love that they give me quite a lot of freedom
and don't usually have many revisions for me. For this piece they did
have a revision though which was to add a cat or dog which I think was a
good call (you can see my original sketch below). Being a cat person I
of course chose a cat and I think it helped to friendly the scene up a lot.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtViuUglvALI8fhCGtL7BhLkW2-DKb5S482IGfVdnRuUYG105FbOFHjX-AHLZNibTYHV98Pl8QvgQu40Fm4hx0j4BbAk2PUU3BEU12KIGiFc2RgNntMnmowxBprvpzYIrzN4Ogv-VWFko/s1600/Winter+Night-Sketch-500px.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtViuUglvALI8fhCGtL7BhLkW2-DKb5S482IGfVdnRuUYG105FbOFHjX-AHLZNibTYHV98Pl8QvgQu40Fm4hx0j4BbAk2PUU3BEU12KIGiFc2RgNntMnmowxBprvpzYIrzN4Ogv-VWFko/s400/Winter+Night-Sketch-500px.jpg" width="313" /></a></div>
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</div>marcus cutlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10784602473587219219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1084354017793197066.post-51925537955823701332011-12-07T21:17:00.001-05:002011-12-07T21:40:34.546-05:00Santa's Big Helper iOS App & New BabiesI'm not the type to miss a deadline but it's tough not to when your first child arrives in the world two weeks early. Thankfully I had a very understanding client in <a href="http://wetnosedesign.com/santa/" target="_blank">Wet Nose Design</a>.<br />
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<img border="0" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8k784_DKfo4k3098VS1FCNOvnl9-CsqKwLJbhyphenhyphennZfz8wigDAQY_dyrdsqMWV5gn3UhcGfgxOzpOojDgIXaQylvE6ZzZBpBkLX6u_n8t-SALbYFVVUuC3G3uIYIltF4csaZHpXE8Z2hn4/s320/Santas+Helper+iPhone+3-Up.jpg" width="320" /></div>
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I worked with them on <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/elf-cam/id401665877?mt=8" target="_blank">Santa's Big Helper</a> about a year ago under it's original title Elf Cam. The deadline for the artwork was the same day as my wifes due date and I figured the baby would likely be overdue (first children always are, everybody know that) so I had nothing to worry about. I had warned them though that if I was out of touch for a few days it was because we were in the hospital.<br />
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Needless to say finishing a large project with a newborn to take care of was nothing less than grueling but with a very understanding and flexible client it became manageable. Did I also mention that we had just moved across the country and hadn't yet to fully unpacked? I am pretty proud that even though I missed the deadline it was only by a couple days.<br />
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Our daughter is now 1 and it's been the best year of our lives. It's great to watch her grow up and my memories of her first couple weeks will always be tied to this project.<br />
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If you have kids yourself please visit the app-store and download <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/elf-cam/id401665877?mt=8" target="_blank">Santa's Big Helper</a>, it's fantastically done. My favourite part is the Elf Update videos. That guy puts a smile on my face.marcus cutlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10784602473587219219noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1084354017793197066.post-32938927100450031882011-10-12T17:43:00.001-04:002011-10-12T17:43:28.533-04:00Halloween Puzzle Pages - Jack and Jill Magazine<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPAT-Qb_sIRYBiOQ3wrn9M93rMUPMaHOT_N2kBfnxmf9IVuhLhojuzmLuneIF0lqpoHVcSHNM_OVQ3y3Xj8WWm1bS02OJ64y1jjZqR9v8YjA63PXnSea_T0x2REPKQCHvdwG4TI8OSzW4/s1600/Halloween+Puzzle-1168px.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPAT-Qb_sIRYBiOQ3wrn9M93rMUPMaHOT_N2kBfnxmf9IVuhLhojuzmLuneIF0lqpoHVcSHNM_OVQ3y3Xj8WWm1bS02OJ64y1jjZqR9v8YjA63PXnSea_T0x2REPKQCHvdwG4TI8OSzW4/s400/Halloween+Puzzle-1168px.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
Halloween is my favourite holiday, so I'm quite pleased that I had the opportunity to create the illustrations for <a href="http://www.uskidsmags.com/jack-and-jill-home/">Jack & Jill Magazine's</a> Halloween themed Puzzle Pages spread. My favourite part was the Frankenstein which in truth was primarily added to balance out the colours.<br />
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I love that these puzzle pages pose such fun compositional challenges. Look out for the next one which will be posted soon.marcus cutlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10784602473587219219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1084354017793197066.post-49904480156110307782011-09-16T14:35:00.000-04:002011-09-19T16:06:34.587-04:00First Flight for Baby - AAA Traveler Magazine<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRIV7c3FzKJTuiRTENeVnhiJuwUncsesaG6K3fGYZbQzWSZKSybUlyihGBVnwEh7SXLoCrNLuIkj1fNb-AWzwiSVIpYJAqB9Do6e0j_lPHnXtgVEkM1TTSV2hnNZfBDfLjnI_MGEQi_G4/s1600/Flying+with+Children-500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRIV7c3FzKJTuiRTENeVnhiJuwUncsesaG6K3fGYZbQzWSZKSybUlyihGBVnwEh7SXLoCrNLuIkj1fNb-AWzwiSVIpYJAqB9Do6e0j_lPHnXtgVEkM1TTSV2hnNZfBDfLjnI_MGEQi_G4/s400/Flying+with+Children-500.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The characters were based on my own wife and daughter.</td></tr>
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I had the pleasure of working with Pace Communications to create an illustration for this month's AAA Traveler Magazine. The article by Amity Moore is titled Hush Little Baby, Tips to make flying with young children as easy as 1-2-3.<br />
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This was a very interesting convergence since when I created this piece my wife and I had only recently returned from our very first flying experience with our 7 month old daughter. Our own experience wasn't quite as easy as 1-2-3, but we survived nonetheless.<br />
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Pictured above is an idealized account of how our trip was for the magazine piece, and pictured below is my actual wife and daughter whom the characters above are based on.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_ct81JrLv7erUnbWFrjhkLdLgd5AAf3MXmb9ZQ28re9HfBCOGuikA14uWjhcCQTWsbEyuy5hQ5xdRfI61jG9mXLmpn7rNwN7S1bggXLwooDVLb9AEM4Dd0kLkbmIrMRVStf6854C3P_s/s1600/Photo0066.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="365" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_ct81JrLv7erUnbWFrjhkLdLgd5AAf3MXmb9ZQ28re9HfBCOGuikA14uWjhcCQTWsbEyuy5hQ5xdRfI61jG9mXLmpn7rNwN7S1bggXLwooDVLb9AEM4Dd0kLkbmIrMRVStf6854C3P_s/s400/Photo0066.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">They're even more lovely in real life!</td></tr>
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One additional note, the pattern that I used for the chairs comes courtesy of <a href="http://drawsigner.com/2011/05/17/free-adobe-patterns/">Adobe and Von Glitschka</a>.<br />
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<br />marcus cutlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10784602473587219219noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1084354017793197066.post-81867334278669191892011-07-21T11:16:00.000-04:002011-07-21T11:16:22.367-04:00Cricket Lullaby for Turtle Magazine<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_pffhlYRVo0GlkLX8bcNJrxvRwzt0vxatO_VRPBqG-4HZo0BYuZH2S2JGI1uYk0gKxbJ1o5gfGclDSGkjquvZ7Lf1OiJ8ICB0QNClubmY-UhWNHihwcK4rjfDuFrfwMSnb2-othW5m7E/s1600/Cricket+Lullaby-500x646.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_pffhlYRVo0GlkLX8bcNJrxvRwzt0vxatO_VRPBqG-4HZo0BYuZH2S2JGI1uYk0gKxbJ1o5gfGclDSGkjquvZ7Lf1OiJ8ICB0QNClubmY-UhWNHihwcK4rjfDuFrfwMSnb2-othW5m7E/s400/Cricket+Lullaby-500x646.jpg" width="308" /></a></div><br />
Pick up the current issue of <a href="http://www.uskidsmags.com/turtle-home/">Turtle Magazine</a> and you'll see this piece I did on the back cover. It accompanies the poem Cricket Lullaby by Jacqueline Schiff.<br />
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The first sketch I did (see below) had the cricket in a suit and fedora a la Sinatra but that idea was nixed. I was sad to loose that touch, but I think it helped the image in the end because the suit would have diminished the effect the green has against the monochrome background. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOa5IZ7rEl5xwIdeFA2ABxqkK4Igc5lmUI1hBkrKipx4gq8CRyqQkY4mqwFdZd6Wc5t2Adv6F9oOxqz9t6pTEOPDxQ1xXy82FjaoZQFUz2OKCeQCFi7JSSVphWBc75TFxb6iZ7CRAuRb4/s1600/Cricket+Lullaby-Sketch1-500x635.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOa5IZ7rEl5xwIdeFA2ABxqkK4Igc5lmUI1hBkrKipx4gq8CRyqQkY4mqwFdZd6Wc5t2Adv6F9oOxqz9t6pTEOPDxQ1xXy82FjaoZQFUz2OKCeQCFi7JSSVphWBc75TFxb6iZ7CRAuRb4/s400/Cricket+Lullaby-Sketch1-500x635.jpg" width="313" /></a></div>In related news I'll be working on the puzzle pages for <a href="http://www.uskidsmags.com/jack-and-jill-home/">Jack & Jill</a> (which is Turtle's sister magazine) for September through to the end of 2012. Be sure to check out the first installment which is a Halloween themed spread.marcus cutlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10784602473587219219noreply@blogger.com0