How I illustrate a childrens book.

Work in progress for the book, "And Candy Lived", by Carole Sarkan

As I enter the final stages of illustrating my latest book, "And Candy Lived", a sequel to "And Candy Smiled", by Carole Sarkan, I am finding that it is very challenging  to keep the two books consistent. When I did the first book in 2010 I had never illustrated a book (or anything for that matter) and had never used photoshop. I have grown tremendously as an artist since then in many ways, so keeping it the same is tough. The first book was sent off to the Caldecott people in 2011 and went through the entire nomination process right up until the final handful of books. It surpassed somewhere around 3000 books to get to that point if I understand the process correctly. I don't really get how it works since I had never heard of a Caldecott nomination until I was told it was in the running. I guess its a pretty big deal in the book world. It didn't win of course, but its still a huge honor for a self published book painted by someone who has never illustrated a book before to be recognized. Lets hope and pray that I can achieve the same magic with this  next one.  I don't really care about winning, but I am excited to have learned something new. Here are few pages from the first book, published in 2011.  These are the images before being digitalized.  To see the final results go to www.andcandysmiled.com.

 

 

I specifically have not done much study on how to illustrate a book. I may be wrong about this, but I am hoping that my lack of knowledge will keep my illustrations unique from other books. Instead of doing what other illustrators do  I just do what feels right. I had this same attitude when I illustrated my second book. This book was also a learning process.  "Savannah of Williamsburg", written by J.S. Devore, was already a published success, but it did not include illustrations.  (http://www.amazon.com/Savannah-Williamsburg-Blackbeard-Pirates-Squirrel/dp/1427609764)  The author commissioned me to create 20 illustrations for them which will be published in their new digital book sometime soon.  They were looking for something with pen and ink with a wash on top, sort of like Winnie the Pooh or Beatrice Potter.  I had not worked in pen and ink in many years but hey, pen and ink they want, pen and ink they get.  Here are a few examples of the book. 

Many people have asked me to describe my process for book illustrating.  Its hard to describe something that I am just winging, but I will do my best.  First I collect photos.  In the Candy books I used photos of random English Springers then gave them Candy's likeness. Giving them her likeness basically  meant removing one of the legs and matching the spot patterns.   I had many photos of Candy that I used directly as well and also had the pleasure of meeting her.  Meeting her was important to me.  I wanted to capture her spirit, not just her likeness.  I also used photos of random people and gave them the likenesses of Carole's family, but used photos of the Sarkans when ever possible.  Below are examples of all of the photos used to create the last page of "And Candy Smiled".  It was supposed to look somewhat like a scrap book with Poleroids taped to paper.  The older the photo the more yellow I painted it.

Some random dog I found in a google search.  I altered his appearance to look like Candy.  I used this reference photo for the bottom right image on the last page by illustrating him next to Christine.

Another random photo that I found on a royalty free web site.  Again, I altered her appearance to look like  baby Christine and altered the dog to look like baby Candy.  This image was used for the top left of the final page.

 

 

the last two photos are of Christine which I stole from her facebook page. (with her mother's permission of course).  This was used  as references for the bottom right image on the last page and the upper right image. .  I think she was around 15 in these cute selfies, so I aged her for the bottom right image of the final painting.  I knew she had her heart set on going to OSU, so I painted her as an OSU student.

 

Page 26 using all of the photos above combined. This is the painting before the photoshop final alterations.  The final page looked entirely different.
 

Important note to new artists.  If you use a random photo off of the internet you must alter it significantly.  I think the legal amount of change is 10%, but I usually try to change 50%ish if I don't have written permission.  I also purchase photos from Dollarphoto.com.  I am purchasing their copyright permission and royalties, so I can copy them as much as I wish.

Next I combine the photos on photoshop to give me a "book dummy".  These early compositions have text so that I can visually see the book. The publisher will add the final text, so I eliminate the written part after this step. Once satisfied I print each image out then tack them to my wall to visually see that they flow. After tweaking these photo collages I use velum to trace the tricky parts and add my whimsical touches by eye.  If you look closely you will see that I did much more by eye than by tracing.

 



Photo collage for page 11, 12 of "And Candy Lived"  The random lines were added on photoshop before printing.

sketch of page 11

sketch of page 12.  As you can see I made major changes from the photo collage to the drawing.  I eliminated the flowers, lost the tunnel and turned the body of the dog.

 Once I am satisfied with all 27 velum sketches I scan them back into the computer again and clean up the lines.  I print my own sketches, which are reduced to 50% opacity, (lightened up), directly onto Strathmore 140 lb watercolor paper.  Each sheet is enlarged to around 12.5 x 16.2" so that I can really dig in there and get the details. Once I start painting I shut my brain down and just go for it.  What comes out comes out.  I think that my art angels and spirit guides take over at this point.  (long story)This is where I am at right now, which brings me back to the WIP at the top of the page.  It is of page 11.

So, after painting all of the pages I scan all 27 of them back into my computer yet again.  To do this with the larger sheets I have to scan them in pieces and knit them back together on photo shop, because I am too cheap and lazy to take them to a printer who might have a larger scanner.   Now I sit down with my bamboo Wacom tablet and zoom in tight to clean up the paintings.  Cleaning means eliminating drips, cat hairs, spaghetti sauce stains and smudges.  (I don't always stop painting to eat, I just chew and paint!)

Once each painting is cleaned and resized to 8.5 x 11, I digitally cut out the painting so it resembles a sherenshneitte.  On the last book I literally cut them out with a knife, but then had to cut them out again on the computer.  Not doing that again this time!  That will save me at least a few weeks of work.  I will layer the "cut out" paintings on top of a textured mat board and add shadows so that the painting will appear to float over the board.  At this time I will add the boarders and other little things like textured dots and such.

I save each painting at 300 dpi, put them on a cd and mail them off to Carole, who is waiting patiently for the end result.  She will take it from there by working with the publisher.

It takes me about 80 hours per page to create each painting.  It is hard work, so I am not sure that I will illustrate another book after this with everything else in my art life going so well.  I wish I could clone myself so I could do it all!

 

Finished book cover for "And Candy Smiled".  This is what is sent to the publishers after about a year of work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Napping Fox" 11 x 14" Pastel on Paper, animals

"Napping Fox"  11 x 14"  Pastel on Velour

I have been working on making paintings that show the inner glow, the energy so to speak, or the creature, human or plant that I am drawing.  I have always thought that the animals and people in my life had an aura about them.  Some are good, some are not good at all.  I want to show this aura in my work so that I am sharing not only the physical appearance of the subject, but it's relationship to the environment, and its spirit.

You can bid on this little guy on www.dailypaintworks.com.  Just search for me at Emily Christoff.

Art school of hard knocks: What I am learning about showing at art festivals.

 

Aren't these photos a hoot?!  The bottom one was taken last December at 2nd Sundays festival in Williamsburg, VA, The top one was taken when I was somewhere between the ages of 18 and 20 while sketching at Cedar Point in Sandusky Ohio, in the mid 1980s..  Thanks Rita Kirkman for the old  photo of me hunched over and looking agitated at you!  Ah those were good times. 

 

 

 

I have learned so much over the 30 year span of my career as a portrait artist, but it seems like the more I learn, the more that I realize that I don't know.  As you know from reading my past blogs I have been trying to change my career from being a quick sketch artist to fine artist, but it is much easier said than done.  For my entire career I did very inexpensive quick portraits from life, and inexpensive portraits from photos.  My typical client was of the working class and had little extra money to spend on art.  The fine art shows that I started doing in the past year is geared towards an entirely different client base, but I find myself still thinking as a line artist.

 

In order to learn and grow I have been trying to meet as many 2d artists as possible at the shows and  pastel community web sites so that I can pick their brains and get redirected.  2 weekends ago I set up for my first out of town art festival in Arlington Virginia.  Some artists had a great show, some didn't sell a thing.  I sold a few prints, but not enough to pay for booth space and hotel.  The next weekend in Virginia Beach the weather was horrible.  Most artists, myself included had no sales the entire weekend.  This was only my 4th show outside of our local 2nd Sundays festival.  My wallet is horribly dry but the knowledge that I received at these shows was invaluable.

 

At Arlington I was set up next to a lovely man from Williamsburg.  Not only is he a show vet of many decades, but he is also the board of director for a very prestigious art show that I have applied to.  I totally expect to get rejected from it again, but I thought it was a great opportunity to find out why I was rejected last year and most likely  will be again this year.  He was kind but very honest which is exactly what I needed.  Thank you God and the universe for putting our paths together.

 

He seemed to remember my booth shot from my application.  He said that it will hurt my ability to get into shows because, well, it was pretty lousy.  He said that I need to take all of the glass out of my frames, set the entire booth up in the back yard and take it again.  When you use a booth shot from a show it will have all sorts of distracting things in it, like your cooler peeking out from under your panels and the reflection of me taking the photo. The reflections were so distracting that you couldn't see the art in the photo.  Reduce the amount of work on the walls and make it look clean too he said.  Another artist told me that most artists don't even hang the quality of work that they show in their applications. 

 

This is the booth shot that I used on my 2015 applications for shows.  The photo was taken in the fall of 2014 but other than new frames, this is pretty close to how it looks now.

 

He also said that people do not go into caves while visiting a show.  I actually heard this many times from other artists over this weekend and the next.  Our display is black, our tent top is opaque so the interior looks like someplace that Gollum would be very happy to call home.  (Yessssss my precioussssss... )  My neighbor and several other artists had some great suggestions for lighting it up with out having to pay for electricity.  Eventually we will need to replace the dark panels, but that's not in the budget at around $2000.  A new tent with a skylight is a must, but we priced that at about $1,600.00, so that will have to wait.  A marine battery, adapter and clip on lights will cost around $300.00.  I will put off groceries for a few weeks if I have to, but we are getting lights before our show next weekend in Richmond. 

 

We also need to replace all of the standard glass with AR glass.  Anti Reflective glass will make my pastels look like they do not have glass on top of them.  Now, when viewers look at my work all the see is their own ugly mugs staring back at them. The company that makes AR glass is called True Vue. http://www.tru-vue.com/products/ar-reflection-free/  They only ship to frame shops.  There are no frame shops in town that sell it, so I will need to make a drive to Richmond or Virginia beach to get it.  I cant seem to get a price on it on line, but I am estimating that a single sheet of 11 x 14" glass will be around $100.  I have around 40 frames that will need replaced.  One pastel artist said that she has good luck with acrylic instead of glass.  I will check that out too, but I heard that it acts as a magnet and will end up covered in pastel dust.  She suggested visiting http://www.pictureframes.com. She said that she only stacks them upright or flat, never upside down to reduce dusting.  Duh... I should have figured this out ...sheesh. Ok... good to know.

 

I was also scolded many times by my fellow show artists that my prices are way too low.  They explained that in order to sell pieces you actually have to price them far above what you think is reasonable.  I had mine priced at $2 per square inch, making an 8 x 10" drawing $160.  I need to triple this I guess.  It is too high to attract the working class buyer who I love so much and far too low to attract the collectors and people with money to spend on art, who I really REALLY want to get to know better.  I heard many times over the past 2 weekends that the middle class no longer exist, so don't worry about appealing to them.  Who knew?  I was also told to have one large piece with an astronomical price tag.  Everything else will look low compared to this.  The people who see that price tag and run out of the booth complaining about my price are not the ones I want to attract anyhow.  the others will see my other smaller pieces at a much lower price and feel good about their purchase. The man who told me this made $7000.00 the last 2 hours of the show, then as he was fully packed up and ready to drive home David stood there with his mouth open and watched him sell an additional $3000 piece!  He carves fish out of driftwood.  His show piece was priced at $16,000.00 and drew people into his booth like flies to a hog.

 

I learned some new things about prints.  One man I met is a 20+ year vet who does photo realism with egg tempura.  He and his lovely wife were an endless font of helpful knowledge.  They urged me to call them in the future when ever I need help and I look forward to keeping in touch with them.  Most of his work were prints that had been  signed, and professionally framed by his wife.  He was selling mostly prints, but at the same price that I was selling my originals.  He might have had a few originals up, priced very high.  He said that it doesn't matter if you make your own prints at home using an artisan printer or have them made by a print shop, as long as the paper is archival and the ink is pigment based.  He said that it is becoming very trendy in New York to purchase signed prints and told me, with a look of awe, that A Chuck Close print just sold for $9000 at the MOMA.  The MOMA does not call them prints, but calls them "archival pigment based reproductions". He said that it is stupid to call them gicilees because that term was used to make the word "print" sound fancy, and has no special meaning . It just refers to any print made using an inkjet printer.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gicl%C3%A9e OK, I am hopping on THAT band wagon!  I don't have any signed prints framed on the wall but I will before next weekend.  I use a home printer called an Epson Artisan 1430 inkjet printer which prints up to 13 x 19".

 

Mr. Egg Tempura also told me that asking questions was the best way to learn about this industry, and said that he wished that he and his wife did that in the beginning.  They didn't start to see a profit until after about 2 or 3 years.  He said to try every show that seems appealing, then do it again if it is profitable.  Do NOT base your choices on other artist's experiences, especially if they are selling jewelry, sculpting, abstract paintings or a craft, as these are far removed from what I do.  Also, do not base your attitude about the industry from talking to other artists.  I met a man Saturday who told me that he and his wife have been selling for almost 30 years at shows, and that 2d art was dying and there is no future in doing art shows if you are a painter.  Mr. Egg Tempura finally got it out of me who told me this and he and his wife were hoppin' mad.  His wife hissed that this dude tells everyone this and it is a total lie.  They know his wife and she is as successful now as she was 30 years ago, he is just mad because he wants to retire. wow.  This couple also said that no matter how good or experienced I am I will get rejected from shows for no apparent reason, and the shows will never tell me why.  Many artists had some humorous stories of being rejected from shows even after winning poster contests for them and such.

 

One thing that I did get from every artist who I asked for a critique and information from was that the quality of my work was absolutely not an issue.  Even the board of director said that my work was outstanding.  He apparently saw my web site as he was researching me for consideration to his show a few weeks ago.  He said that I really need to show my glowing fruit still life, so guess what I will be working on this week.  Mr. Egg Tempura said that he has never seen animals drawn so beautifully.  His wife pulled me aside and said that her husband does not ever compliment artists.  Ever.  I needed to hear this.  At least I know my work is doesn't suck too bad.

"Winter Wolf" 12 x 16" pastel on velour paper

"Winter Wolf"  12 x 16" pastel

I really enjoyed working on this painting.  It was the first time that I had tried my hand at using velour paper.  Velour paper is exactly how it sounds.  It is soft and fuzzy, just like the pant suits that my grandma Hazel liked to wear back in the early 80s.  Velour is not easy to work on however.  You can not do a pre-drawing on the paper, because you can not erase, and once that mark is there, its pretty much there for good.

The trick to working with out that very important value underpainting that  have come to count on is to do it on another sheet of paper to work out the details, then transfer it to the velour.  One artist recommended tracing her own drawing using carbon paper.  I tried tracing using this method and made a hot mess.  Ok, so that didn't work, now it is time to get extra special creative.

I often do my preliminary sketching on photoshop using my bamboo tablet.  I had to learn the tablet thing when I started illustrating kids books, and I am in the process of doing a book right now.  Naturally my brain put two and two together and I came up with an idea that works quite well.  I did a prelimary drawing, to size, on the tablet.  This drawing is also a value scale.  I can alter the color of this value monochromatic drawing to what ever I want, then print it, yes I said PRINT IT, right on the velour.  It is still my own drawing, it just transferred really well.  I have an artisan printer to make my own laser prints for shows, so I can print my own digital drawings up to 13 x 19" on any paper I want.  Problem solved.

Oh, by the way this is not my photo.  I purchased this royalty free photo reference from Dollarphoto.com.

I will tell you more about working on this crazy paper in a later blog.

The Art School of Hard Knocks; Becoming a Portrait Artist

My niece has asked me to share some of my stories with her about my life as an artist.  I figured that since I was writing these to her for her paper I would just go ahead and share them on my blog.  It might entertain some of my fellow artists.

The Art School of Hard Knocks

Becoming a portrait artist:

In the winters while I was still in art school in Ohio, and then later after I moved to Virginia, I could always find work sketching in malls, hotels, time shares and craft shows.  My first pet portrait actually was for my brother Tony during one of these winter gigs.  His beloved husky, Mashka, was hit by a car and died, leaving him in horrible grief.  As a gift to him in 1996 I drew a portrait of Mashka swimming in our parent’s pond from a rather out of focus photo.  (See below) He became quite emotional when he saw it, and being the business man that he was born to be, encouraged me to hang it up at the mall.  I figured, why not?  I have a big blank space on the wall so I will just stick it up there.  As soon as clients walked past my little booth they were mesmerized by the idea of having a drawing of their pet. The next thing I knew more than 50% of my income that winter was from drawing pets and people from photos. I didn't think that I could do it successfully, there were so many obstacles to this process, but I had to do it.  I needed the money, so I just pretended like I was some sort of great pet portrait artist and cranked out some pretty crappy pet portraits.  I was getting impatient for the universe to show me what I was supposed to be doing with my talent, so I just kept spewing out those portraits until something better came along.

Eventually I found myself single and without child support.  For the first few years of being single I supported my two young kids and I with sketching quick profile portraits for tips while their dad also struggled to find work as a cartoonist.  I would draw anything for money during this time, but I swore that I would never go on welfare or food stamps.  My kids came to work with me and they would sit at the base of my easel since I usually could not afford day care.  I would work on the photo commissions late at night after they were asleep or during the day when they were in class, and crank out quick sketches 4 days a week at time shares and the local mall. After every quick sketch that I would do I would say to silently to myself, “Thank you God for that gallon of milk.” Or, “Thank you God for bringing me that commission of Fido so that I can pay rent.”  It didn't matter anymore that I was the best at drawing portraits, I had to survive. Being the best does not support the kids. Financial success has absolutely nothing to do with artistic talent or ability.

I was in a pretty constant state of panic, but I faked it well for Eddie and Halee’s sake.  It was vital to keep one foot in front of the other and focus on the goal of parenting and not on my current emotional or physical pain. I had given up on thinking that I would ever figure out what the universe had in store for my talent and walked away from my dream of ever being a real “A”rtist. Doing portraits of pets was outside of my definition of what I thought that I wanted to do with my ability, my art box as I sometimes call it, but it didn't matter anymore.  I was exhausted and I was defeated.

During those desperate years I learned to make half way decent portraits from some horrible photos because I could not afford to decline any opportunity to make money. Later I will describe this process on my blog. At first people would send me Polaroid snap shots since digital cameras had not been invented yet.  As cameras progressed the photos improved, but not by much.  Most of my photo references were of family or animals that had passed on, so the clients could not take additional photos and often begged me with tear filled eyes to capture their loved ones from just their verbal descriptions.  Sometimes I wondered if they thought that I was some sort of psychic portrait artist, able to conjure a likeness out of thin air like a police artist.  It was nuts, but hey, it was better than welfare.  My son jokingly called my business, “Dead Pet Portraits”. There were only two commissioned photos that I have ever declined during this time.  One client handed me a photo of her baby grandson in the casket.  Another client e-mailed me a photo of her dog, dead, lying in a pool of blood on the side of the road.  During these years and up until around 2011 I stopped making art for myself entirely. I had given up.

A few years ago I started feeling pretty guilty about wussing out, so I started studying again. I met with a few art schools to apply for graduate school, but was told by the graduate art director at BGSU that I was too old for grad school and that I was just a robot who created mini robots and had nothing to say with my art.  (He was referring to my years of teaching portraits.) I don't know why I expected to hear anything different from my alma mater. He did however spend some time talking with me to show me how to research on my own, which I am very grateful for.  Grad school would have been a waste of my time anyhow, I realize now.

Today I do my best to be an art magnet with constant study, art shows and research.   I just started showing my work publicly and had my first fine art showing just this past spring. I also have a portable painting party business and Illustrate kids’ books, I wrote and published a book as well as created a ghost tour business.  In later writings I will explain how I got into those careers. Mostly I will admit that I just tried to succeed at whatever travesty the universe brought for me while I was waiting around to make it big in the art world.  Now I understand of course that each and every one of those travesties has led me to where I have always wanted to be, and that is to be a professional “A”rtist.  It took the universe many years to make the point that I was and always will be a real artist.

In a few days I will post some information about the process of creating a portrait from a horrible photo.  Here is a few examples of my portraits from photos from past years.

"Jessie"  pastel on paper, 8 x 10"  2010.
 Not a great photo, plus I had to add the toy in her mouth.  The client was wonderful and appreciative, but after this commission I had to take a little break from drawing pets as you can imagine.  I am a bit embarrassed to post this, but it makes my point. YIKES!!!

"Mashka"  16 x 20"  Pastel on paper. 1996.  My first pet portrait

"Lick"  16 x 20, Watercolor on paper.  2006
This was actually a really good photo except that the dog's foot was cut out of the image.  I had to make the foot up.

"Baily"  Pastel and charcoal on grey paper.  8 x 10"  2014

"The Art School of Hard Knocks; Becoming a Quick Sketch Artist"

My niece has asked me to share some of my stories with her about my life as an artist.  I figured that since I was writing these to her for her paper I would just go ahead and share them on my blog.  It might entertain some of my fellow artists.

The Art school of hard knocks

Becoming a quick sketch artist

It is fun to tell the story of how I first began drawing portraits for a living.  I had grand aspirations when I was studying fine art at Bowling Green State University in the mid-80s to be a great Artist.  My study focus was on life drawing, primarily using dry medium such as pastel and chalk.  I knew that it was just a matter of time before the universe opened up to me and I would magically become a great “A”rtist with a capitol “A”, in the mean time I knew that I needed a degree.  At this time the professors at my school were obsessed with abstract expressionism.  This caused much dismay for me since I had no ability to work in this way. It’s not that I don’t enjoy gazing at a Jackson Pollack or puzzling over Picasso, but I had no desire whatsoever to work in abstract.  Philip Pearlstein, Chuck Close, Edgar Degas and of course the great Georgia O’Keefe were my heroes.  I was born a photo realist and had taught myself how to paint by around 12 years old by studying these masters at the library and with the help of two awesome middle school art teachers. Most of my college professors ridiculed me for being able to draw so accurately, and many of them boldly claimed that I had nothing of value to say.  I wanted to be the next John Sargent but I was soundly corrected by my teachers that this was a bad idea because the great portrait artist sold himself out for money by doing portrait work.  A real artist lives in poverty they said.  A real artist gets a day job working in a factory and only paints at night and on weekends, so that they don’t compromise their art. (Adrian Teo, 1987, art professor at BGSU.) My fellow students were also very quick to point out that I was just a robot who could only make very pretty lines. I believed them.  It took 30 years for me to get up the courage to start showing my work in galleries and art shows thanks to these guys, but during these 30 years I was able to support myself by drawing portraits, and I was quite good at it once I got the hang of it.

At first I mostly just did profile portraits from life at amusement parks.  I got my start at Cedar Point, in 1984 right after my freshman year of art school.  They did not teach us how to draw the portraits back then.  My first day of work was terrifying.  My supervisor, who had no clue how to draw, walked me to an easel and said “Here you go, have a great day!”  I said, “Wait, how do I do this?”  She said, “Here is your chalk, here is your paper and look over here, you have your first customer. Don’t forget that you may only take 5 minutes to finish it.”  My customer was a very elderly lady who had Parkinson’s and could not sit still for me to draw her.  The family bought the sketch because I was sobbing by the end of it.  To make matters worse it was cold enough to snow and my uniform consisted of a pair of very short shorts and a short sleeved shirt with a windbreaker.  I could not even get warm in the shower after work.  Our dorms were a former hotel and they did not have heat, air or hot water.  If this was what it meant to be a professional artist I wanted out. This was totally outside of what I considered to be my "art box".

A few weeks later I had all I could take.  I wasn't making any money because we were not paid an hourly rate at that time.  I earned 50 cents a sketch, that’s it!  I begged my supervisor, Nina Bonezzi to transfer me to work at a roller coaster but she pulled me back into the break area to give me a little talk instead. I will never forget her and the powerful advice that she gave me.  “Emily”, she said, “If you would just pretend like you were enjoying yourself and try to have a positive attitude, you would attract much more business.  Not only that, but your sketches will improve.  Take off your dark sunglasses.  Stop crying at work, and fake a smile.  I have a feeling about you.  I don’t know how to draw, but I have a feeling that you are going to be the very best at this and you will be doing it for a very long time.”  Her advice was just what I needed to hear.  It never occurred to me that drawing in the public was exactly like being on stage and performing.  I understood stage performance thanks to my years of music study, so I figured I could fake this. I assumed that this was what I was meant to do until the universe prodded me in the right direction for my life work and so I gave it my all.

It is amazing what a positive attitude can do for an artist. Somewhere around July I stopped faking and started flying. I learned mostly by mimicking the other more experienced artists, since they usually were hesitant to share their sketching secrets. By the end of that summer I was in the top three of about 20 artists. By the end of 1986 I was the top profile artist at Cedar Point, averaging a 2.5 minute sketch and kicking out over 100 faces on an average Saturday. My all-time record was 132 faces in 14 hours of nonstop drawing. Now the newbies were mimicking me, but I encouraged it and taught them how to sketch. Eventually teaching would become my primary focus in the parks.  I may be a robot, but I became a damn good one.  I was fully supporting myself and bought a little trailer home and a cherry red Camaro before I even graduated from collage.

In 1987 I was finishing up my junior year of art school when this new company called Kaman’s Art Shoppes asked me to run my own art operation at Busch Gardens in Williamsburg Virginia.  Oh man, I did NOT want to do this.  I was petrified!  I was so not qualified to run an entire park art operation. I just wanted to have fun and make beer and book money. The owner said that if I did not accept the park manager job that he would fire me.  I doubt that he really would have done that but  I didn't want to take a chance. Like my first year at Cedar Point, I was told that he knew that I had a very special ability and that I could do this, but I lacked self-confidence.  My first year at the park was horrible as you can imagine.  I was 21 years old and in charge of somewhere around 40 artists, some of them much older than me.  I remembered the lesson however about maintaining a positive attitude and did my best to fake it.  I don’t think that I fooled too many people, but it eventually did attract to me the right people and circumstances to be a very good park manager. I decided that I would continue to be an art souvenir park manager until the universe nudged me in the right direction to continue with my work as an “A”rtist.

After graduation I was the park manager at Busch for 8 years. I went on to train some of the other artists who became to  a park managers themselves. Kaman’s went from being a small operation run from Rich and Tricia Kaman's garage to the largest art souvenir operation in the United States. (http://www.kamansart.com/)  I wrote the company’s national portrait training guide in the mid-90s, and re-wrote it for them again in 2005.  I won’t say that I was the best park manager they ever had of course, but my employees told me frequently, and some still tell me today on Facebook, that I was the best manager they ever had. I figured that I didn't do too bad of a job considering that I was working out of my box. I would still wait for many years to discover what the universe had in store for me artistically however. The next several years after this would be very difficult.  If I was going to quit working as an artist it would have been during this next overwhelming time of my life but I stuck with it even after I left Busch.

I will continue this story in a future blog.  In the mean time here are some silly photos of me sketching.

Em sketching, November 2014

Em sketching at Cedar Point, 1986

"Stink Eye" 11 x 14" pastel on sanded paper

"Stink Eye"  11 x 14" on sanded paper

I was messing around with my camera the other day and woke my cat Sophia who was snoring in the studio next to the window. She was quite irritated with me as you can see by her squinted glare and gave me the stink eye as I kept tapping her basket to get her to look at me The photo was really fun though since I used the macro setting on my camera.  I wanted to create a drawing from the photo as close to photo realism as I could manage with pastels.  I work tight normally, but this drawing is extra detailed, even for me, so it was quite a fun challenge.  I thought I would include the photo so that you can see what I was working from.  As you can see I was quite liberal with the colors in the drawing.

First I created a monochromatic under painting in blue tones, using rubbing alcohol and an old brush to paint the dry Rembrandt pastels onto Uart sanded paper.When the paper dried I applied the pastels in very small hatching strokes.  When I was ready to blend I used a very hard Derwent white pastel stick sharpened to a point, instead of blending with my fingers.  When you look closely at the painting you can see that I created the impression of browns by layering a rather vibrant pallet of blues, reds, golds and purples.

I did something very different with this painting when I was done.  I have been reading that many pastel artists do not mat their work done on sanded paper because the tooth of the paper will keep the pastel from dusting off on the glass as long as the frame is tight.  This was my first attempt at framing a pastel with out a mat and I was thrilled with the result.  The pastels are so much more vibrant when pressed against the glass, and I don't have to worry about the dust staining the matting.  I would never do this with normal paper.