Martians' First Thanksgiving

Periodically, SCBWI offers contests for writers and illustrators. They'll present an idea, and we interpret it. This month, the idea for illustrators is called "Thanks, But No Thanks!" The description: "Ever been dragged to a Thanksgiving dinner against your will? Well, so have the brother and sister duo of your new book. But nothing could have prepared them for Thanksgiving '08. For this month's Illustrator's Contest, show us what your characters are up against at this year's feast."

I wanted to play a little with irony. For these Martians, it is their first Thanksgiving on Earth. However, when they are presented with the golden juicy turkey, they are disgusted. What does a turkey resemble to them? Why would it cause such disgust? (And no, they are not vegetarian.)

Graphic Designer turned Art Teacher turned Set Designer

Artists can wear many hats. I started out as a Graphic Designer. Now I am a teacher. All the while I painted and illustrated. Now I am back to something I haven't done since my high school days. As a junior and senior in high school, I helped paint the backdrops for our musicals. I remember painting the backdrops to "Sweet Charity." Now, I am called upon to do some work for my school's Christmas program. The theme – "Santa, you have mail." Here is a small watercolor sketch I did as a design. Hopefully I can pull this off with a little help from the Art club and some parents. I get rather intimidated doing art at a large scale.

Found Time to Draw!

Yes. More progress has been made. I worked on a sketch yesterday developed from a few photos of my children. I wanted a more "candid" shot – though my son is looking right at the camera. But I still think I captured the essence of both my children. Molly is in the foreground – not because of importance, but I wanted to say something about her personality – she's lively, "bigger than life," a show-off of sorts and consistently happy. Jacob on the other hand, is less extroverted – her can be found standing behind someone a lot, not that there's anything wrong with that at all! He's just the soft-spoken one of the two. However, he's still laughing along with Molly. I wanted that to be an indicator that he's not devoid of humor or liveliness. In fact, there's more to him than he lets on. A complex one he is!

I think I will produce this at a larger size (most of my work is pretty small). And I'd like to experiment with application. But don't know how far I want to go outside my comfort level. I've been studying the work of a watercolor artist named Kim Johnson-Nechtman. I love the way she presents realism, but in a loose yet controlled style. Anyway, here is my final sketch:

Been too long

My goodness! How long's it been since I've written?! And what has happened in a month's time? Well, what's happened besides Halloween, my school's Fall Pumpkin Festival (where I face painted for the first time!) and of course, the Election? For one, I have finally started the Art Club for my school. Looks like the kids'll dig it. Our first assignment? Set design for this year's Christmas program. I have also been preparing for something I haven't done in awhile – a portrait of my kids – together. I realized as I was looking at my portrait work, that I have done paintings of each of them, but not together. The challenge is that I want this to be more that a mere rendering. So I will produce it to enter in the North Light Book cover competition. And after today, I think I may have found the perfect images to work with!! At the same time, I will be working on the SCBWI illustration contest for November. The theme: "Thanks, but no thanks!" More on that later! In the meantime, here are some pumpkins I carved (from the fake foam pumpkins) and displayed in my classroom.

Field Sketch

I am really digging plein air painting. I feel like I did in art school – painting straight from life and very spontaneously. It's a nice break from the illustration series that I am working on at the moment. Though, all the outdoor sketching I had been doing is paying off – the scenes in the illustration take place outside. And it was much easier to set up the backgrounds having painting so many trees, grass and landscape in the last few months. The trick is going to be the dinosaur (you'll see what I mean when I finish). In the meantime, let's enjoy a day at the basketball courts. I even captured a few young players too.

More Time Sketching

We took the kids to the park yesterday. While they played, I sketched the playground they played in. Where are the kids, you may ask? Well, I'm pretty good at capturing people on the move in my sketches, but my kids move at the speed of lightning!

Adventures in Education

In the midst of a presidential debate, a floundering economy, and global warming – what is it that I, as an art educator, worry about? Last year – my first year –was so valuable even though it was so challenging. There are things I learned that has almost become second nature to me this year. Classroom management is still a struggle, but new insight has given me a better outlook on how to handle many situations. It has given me more room to focus on individual students. And I have begun to discover some of the pain these kids must suffer in their lives – the things we as adults tend to forget that come along with being a child.

A lot of what I'm finding are children who need validation, attention, love and encouragement. I learned at the end of last year and over the summer that there are educators who believe that classroom management should deal very little with consequences. By that, I mean that if we took a more proactive approach – where we focus mainly on relationships, monitoring and encouragement – then consequences become less of an issue. So I am trying this approach this year and there is some truth to that theory. But there are a handful of students that I am focusing on that really struggle because they feel out of place everywhere else and thus carry that with them into my class. True, I only have students for 25 minutes at a time, twice to three times a week, but I still feel compelled to reach out to them. One in particular actually thinks that I do not like him at all. I've given this particular student a lot of thought this week. My personal goal is to reach out to him, to let him know that I do care. And I hope to see him try to make more positive choices. Because I get a feeling that few adults have really done that for him.

It also strengthens my resolve to become a better father to my own children. They are definitely more privileged than most of the children I teach, but there are universal needs that every child has – no matter their financial and family situation.