When I first designed Waterfall City (detail, above) I hadn’t dreamed up the idea of Dinotopia yet, with its partnership of humans and saurians. The logical way to travel across the chasm was by a giant pterosaur, but at the time I was thinking of hang gliders.
These design sketches imagine configurations for hang gliders a little different from the ones Otto Lilienthal and the Wright Brothers came up with.
Over the next few days, while I'm assembling some of my trip sketches, I thought I’d show you some of the early concept sketches for Waterfall City (1988). Here’s one from 1987 showing the water emerging from two big arches, like something at the edge of the world. The lighting is from below, which gives it a strange feeling, and the architecture is reminiscent of the early skyscraper architecture of Hugh Ferris.
I followed a narrow trail near the summit and found myself surrounded by a small group. They were busily chattering, nibbling on fruit, and grooming each other. I pulled out my sketchbook and started drawing them. They're awfully shy about eye contact, so I used the sidelong glance technique that had worked earlier with gorillas (see previous post).
One of the juveniles perched behind me, watching over my shoulder, commenting on my technique to his compatriots. All of the sudden he leaped onto my shoulder. I held my breath. He watched every move of my hands, and then started grooming my neck and reaching down my shirt with his little cold fingers.
He dug into my pockets and found a couple pieces of a cracker. Then his friends came over. The guy on my shoulder must have wanted to mark me as his own, because he sent a little jet of pee down my neck.
I'm back from Malta, Tunisia, Morocco, and Gibraltar. Here's the reaction of my Yorkshire airline seatmates to my three-week old unwashed clothes, scraggly beard, and monkey urine aroma.
Fountain pen and marker is a good combination for doing concept art sketches. The pen is an inexpensive Waterman pen from an office supply store. You can fill it with any color ink that you want, as long as the ink is watersoluble. Markers can then give the sketch a touch of color without dissolving the pen line. If you want to melt the penline, you can use a water-based pen, like the waterbrush I’ve mentioned on previous posts.
Jim did this large pencil sketch while sitting amid the jangle of the midway at the local county fair. The carnival barkers were curious and came by to check out what he was doing. He was surprised how many of them were artists and poets and musicians.
Here are a couple of the initial capital letters that I (Jim) designed for The Hand of Dinotopia by Alan Dean Foster, with whom I’m currently traveling in North Africa. Initial caps are an old fashioned device in book design. I used them to open up chapters with little pictures.
Here’s all you need for the watercolor pencil sketches: a few pencils, a waterpen, and a pocket drawing sketchbook. They all fit in two pockets of a jacket, so you can take them anywhere.
On a rainy day, one of the only options is to run the heater and the windshield wipers while you prop your work on the steering wheel. The problem I had at this paintout a few years ago in Rye, New York, was fogged-up windows. The painting was a dud, and I ended up rubbing it down and doing another once the rain cleared in the afternoon.
Hi, everyone, Jeanette here. Thanks so much for all of your encouragement. Since this post is about sketching from the car, I thought this one might fit. I did this ballpoint pen and watercolor sketch from the front passenger seat on a cold day in the Catskill Mountains. We were waiting for our younger son to finish skiing with his friends. We had an hour to ourselves (sans teenagers) and Pine Hill is sort of a forlorn and ramshackle little town, our preferred locale for sketching.
The 15th Spectrum Annual is now available in bookstores and online retailers. This collection of the imaginative artwork features artwork from all over the world and includes a new concept art category.
The jury included Justin Sweet, Daren Bader, Frank Cho, Tim Bodendistel and Kelley Seda (photo by Arlo Burnett). Directors Cathy and Arnie Fenner say that the hardcover version, which will be distributed to accepted artists was held up a little bit in customs, but should arrive within a month or so.
I’m attracted to sketching unlovely subjects, not to make pretty pictures, but just to understand how things are made. As I did this watercolor study of a track excavator, I was thinking how much the mechanical arm is like the anatomy of a human arm.
Over the years Alan has sent me postcards from places like Timbuktu, Pitcairn Island, Great Barrier Reef, Papua New Guinea (above) and Oouagadougou. This time I’m thrilled to be joining him. I’ll be researching a couple of different projects and sketching in watercolor and gouache. We’re going first to Malta, and then Tunisia and Morocco.
I’m leaving the laptop home with my wife Jeanette, who will be posting regularly to the blog, using content that I worked up in advance. Maybe she will share a few of her own sketches. If I can figure out the tech, I’ll try to send home some pictures from Internet cafes along the way before returning on November 26.
The Louvre is presenting “Picasso and Delacroix.” At the Musee d’Orsay they’ve got “Picasso and Manet.” The Grand Palais features “Picasso and the Masters.”
Picasso and Masterpieces of Clown Art
Picasso and the Chicken Carcass
Picasso and Motel Tikis
Picasso and Cow Flops