Carbo OVERLOAD

Hey guys! Who doesn’t love food?! I love being an illustrator, but cooking has been one of my new favorite hobbies, probably second only to eating. I recently got to do a piece for the Vegetarian Times, and I did a write-up on it for The Loud Cloud too! (it has all the same info as here, but its laid out nicer, hehe)

I don’t often get a chance to draw delectable dishes for an assignment, so I was excited to try my hand at this one! The article, “Carbs Demystified,” includes a lot of technical information about carbohydrates—good carbs vs. bad carbs, glycemic load, glycemic index, and net carbs. Part of the great thing about being an illustrator is that you learn a myriad of interesting facts from the articles you’re assigned (sweet potatoes have a lower glycemic index than white potatoes, despite their name!) but sometimes it’s difficult to figure out what the focus of the image needs to be. The A.D. on this story, Scott Hyers, helped me out by specifying that the illustration shouldn’t get into the technical info or define good or bad, but instead should just show a general choice between foods.

As someone who will spend 15 minutes deciding what type of cookie to eat, I understand the overwhelmingness of choice. Since there are amounts of carbohydrates in every food group, I figured a diverse representation of food would be the best way to go for my sketches. The food had to be all vegetarian, of course. I know there are different levels of strictness in people’s diets, so I checked with Scott to make sure I wouldn’t be in the red if I included egg or dairy products.

While sketching, I enlisted the help of my trusty cookbooks for some examples of tasty-looking dishes. I admit to being biased—all the food I sketched happens to be food I enjoy eating too! I liked the idea of a traveler finding his way through a jungle of food, and also tried some other approaches, like catching whatever meal you want on your plate. In the end the gastronomical explorer was chosen, and I set to work!

Throughout the project, I looked at my childhood doodles for inspiration. I’ve had a huge sweet tooth my entire life, and one of my go-to drawing subjects as a kid were various types of desserts. I was excited about bringing together kid-Kali and adult-Kali in one illustration! I remember drippy chocolate-glazed cakes and fruity cupcakes were some of my favorite scribbles to do, so I made sure to include an updated version of each in my final illustration.

Any time I deal with a lot of objects in one illustration, coming up with a solid color scheme is extra-important so all the objects don’t look too cluttered or disconnected. Colors like red, orange, yellow, and green have been shown to trigger hunger, and I wanted to go with a bright, summery feel. It took me a while to balance all the different food colors, but in the end I was pleased with the results. All in all a very satisfying project, with the only downside of making me perpetually hungry!

Sabriel Posts & the "God Molecule"

Hey guys! Wow, I've gotten a bunch of comments on my most recent Sabriel post! Thank you, I really appreciate all your thoughts and support--as I've said before, none of us at the Picture Book Report are getting paid for our work on this project, so hearing from you guys really makes it all worthwhile. I got a request to make it easier to find all the other Sabriel posts, so now if you scroll down the column on the right side of the page, you will find a section named "Labels" with a handy link to all the Sabriel posts! (I'm considering labeling all my other posts too, for easy browsing)

Okay! So it's way past time for me to get back to posting weekly pieces, right? The past month of so I was in a bit of a slump--feeling creatively burned out, wondering where my illustration/life/future is going, and having some mild health problems that just sort of added to the bad vibes. It seems common in creative-types to cycle between these on-and-off times. Resting and focusing on non-art pursuits (cooking! exercise! reading!) seems to have done the trick and I'm feeling better now and ready to go!

So, to put you in a good mood for the weekend, here's 2 spreads that accompanied an article about dying! ;P It was actually a pretty cool assignment from Tom Kachadurian, a great AD at Spirituality and Health magazine. The article talked about the use of a psychedelic drug, nicknamed the "God Molecule", to help people with terminal illnesses deal with their eventual death. Apparently the drug induces a hallucinogenic state where you feel totally at one with the universe and a higher power, as if you had died already, so the participants don't feel as scared of actual death anymore. Tom wanted to go for a swirly psychedelic look without getting too much of a 60's/70's vibe, and I wanted something calming and epic for such an intense experience.

My thoughts went to a galactic-type feel...like the participant is floating through the universe. It was a double-page spread, so I tried some different views with rich blues, whites and red/oranges (that I ended up combining in the end). I also tried an overlay of the human nervous system (approximate, at least), but Tom thought it looked a little too scary and skeletal.

I tried both a closeup and expanded view. With the expanded you get more of the calming, floating feel because you can see more of the body. I kind of like the head sketch on its own, but it does feel a more creepy than calming!

So, we end up with a space-goddess, with some swirling energy and a burst of enlightenment! I remember watching an X-files episode with aliens in it while working on this assignment. I wonder if there was some subliminal influence... Swirly marks come really easily to me, but once I go crazy with them I have refine a bit to ensure there isn't a distracting amount of swirls or strands or colors! I tried to go for a more watery look, like ripples and eddies of energy.


In addition to doing the space-goddess spread, I also did some edging on the following two pages. I actually really like the spread I created for these pages, it's simple but I spent a while balancing everything.


I hope you like 'em! Thanks to Tom Kachadurian at Spirituality & Health!

Abhorsen's House!

First off, I updated www.ciesemier.com with some new work! If you've been keeping up with the blog there probably isn't anything there to surprise you with, but if not check it out!

Second: This is a really long post!! I did a lot of sketches and prelim work for this month's picture book report piece so I'm just dumping it all here! Apologies for the extensive Sabriel-jargon and analysis, I don't blame you if you just skip through to the pictures. ;)

Third: Sabriel! Whew, a bunch of false starts this month! You can check out my little narrative post at The Picture Book Report.
I was having a really hard time deciding what scene I wanted to do next...Sabriel runs away from the Mordicant, she gets to Abhorsen's house, meets Mogget, and sets out in the paperwing. All really cool things I'd like to draw! In the end I probably chose the least narratively-involved thing to draw, but I needed a bit of break from all these dark, intense scenes.

When I was trying to decide what to do I made a bunch of super-quick thumbnails from different scenes in the book I was interested in. I then narrowed down the total 12 (or 11, since I missed a week) that I'll have done in the end...super hard, there's so much cool stuff! I don't think I'll give anything away by posting these because my sketching and handwriting probably look like chickenscratch to anyone else:


I was still struggling between drawing Sabriel and the Mordicant, or something involving Mogget at Abhorsen's house, OR the scarier form of Mogget Sabriel encounters a bit later on...I decided not to do the Mordicant, since it will show up in an illustration later, so I thought maybe the Free Magic version of Mogget would be fun (he's kind of a big lighting-monster!) I ended up with this color sketch:

But the colors weren't working, and the pose was so-so after a million revisions and I was just feeling stuck. I decided to set it aside and try a different subject. However, in the process of making this sketch I had to work out Sabriel's Abhorsen outfit. As I've pointed out before, I really love researching into illustrations and I wanted to be accurate to the book's description of her wardrobe as well as realistic to similar medieval counterpoints. Here's the different pieces of the outfit, in the order they are layered:
*A thin cotton-like undergarment
*Baggy drawers
*Linen shirt
*Doeskin tunic
*Supple leather breeches, reinforced with hard segmented plates at the thighs, knees and shins (and a padded bottom for riding)
*Long armored coat, buckled at sides--knee-length split skirts, swallowtailed sleeves, made of interlocking ceramic/stone plates, like a fish's scales.
*Hobnail boots (guessing they came from Ancelstierre since they're more modern)
*Blue surcoat with embroidered silver keys
*Sword belt and bandolier, with a helmeted turban

Whew! Lots of stuff, eh? Well, in the end a lot of the layers wouldn't fully be shown, like the tunic or shirt, but I like the idea of knowing that they all exist and what they look like together. Here's my sketchy thoughts:
Because I was lazy I didn't put the keys on the surcoat or the plates on the armored coat on the right hand side
I made sure the armored coat and the surcoat were split up the front and the back, because side slits (though sexier) are of no use when riding a horse, and the book points out that her pants are padded for riding. Medieval surcoats in general seem to be sleeveless, or have very short sleeves (probably so they don't get caught while you're flingin' your swords) so the sleeves of her armored coat would be sticking through--probably with a bit of her linen shirt showing at the neck and wrists. I also kept the neck of her doeskin tunic up high, for a bit of extra protection around her neck where the armored coat might chafe. I think the idea of the pants are pretty cool with the sewn in armored plates, even though they're not seen much--it made me think of the overlapping layers of a samurai's armor. Hobnail boots seem to come up around the mid-calf region, so plating in the pants would have to end around there.

I decided not to have Sabriel at all in this month's piece, but at least my rough guide will be helping me in illustrations to come!
Instead, I was charmed by the idea of taking a break and giving Mogget & Abhorsen's House their own illustration. I did many bad sketches, or starts-of-sketches. Some of them started working better:
Mogget by the front door, Mogget in the study, Mogget at the end of Sabriel's bed
Abhorsen's house with Mogget at the front door
I liked the close-up drawings of Mogget that I did, but I thought drawing the house's exterior and doing something brighter and more architectural would be a nice counterpoint to the figure-dominated pieces I've been doing. Plus, I like looking for excuses to use the white of the paper in a spot-type piece, and the whitewashed exterior of the house would be perfect for that. (We have a great Battaglia book here that's a big inspiration for that sort of style). I wanted the house to be a safe-haven (and typical of mishmash medieval architecture), but still a little ominous. Here's the resulting final:


Geez, if you guys stuck around and read even half of that you deserve a pat on the back!! I always really appreciate your comments, and if you want to weigh in on the outfit or Mogget or how I write too much I would encourage it. :)

SABRIEL, as always, is copyright Garth Nix.

Mass Appeal

So for the April issue of Air Tran GO!, I did a couple illustrations for an interesting article on the power of crowdsourcing. Otherwise known as THE HIVE MIND!!
When I got the job, it didn't take long for me to get a sense of what I wanted to do--something vaguely reminiscent of a 1960's science textbook style, with bright overlapping colors and simple linework. GO! wanted some space for text within the illustration--the perfect spot for a giant lightbulb, given the illuminating qualities of the article (hohoho). Because I already had the general idea of what I wanted to do, all my sketches were variations on a theme:


And thus the final and spot:



Thanks for stickin'around! See you guys at the end of this week for some Sabriel work with a kitty innit! ALSO if you're interested in LOTR or the Hobbit (or just some sweet artwork based on it), check out this great blog post Irene Gallo put up on Tor.com, with a bunch of great artists and interesting contributions (including Sam!)

Spring Bloom!

So for the third in my series of lady portrait-type assignments, I've got this more realistic one for the LA Times! No sassy bra-ladies this time ;). Joey Santos came to me with an article in the weekend issue about spring tips and trends in makeup as told by Carmandy of What Not To Wear fame (I used to watch What Not To Wear all the time, to Sam's chagrin). The general theme was out with the old and in with the new and fresh, with a particular emphasis on floral colors like corals, pinks, and reds. I was feeling the zest of spring and wanted to do something light and airy with plants and flowers to signify the season.

The assignment turnaround was just 4 days from start to finish, so my sketches were necessarily brief. I had a little trepidation about doing the sketch that was chosen because I wanted the girl to look dreamy but not too silly, though I'm very happy with how it turned out.
Joey also suggested adding her other hand putting makeup on, and toning down the floral wreath-- a good call on both counts! I've been trying to expand my color palette to include some more neutral colors, so I wanted to limit my brights to just the pinks and reds spoken of in the article. Because the emphasis is on the face and the "prettiness" of it all, I really enjoyed going with a more realistic fashiony style. It turned out to be one of my new favorite pieces, I hope you like it too! :)

Feminist Porn Awards!

So here's a quickie for you in my line of lady-portraits-- I did the cover for the Toronto Eye Weekly highlighting the Feminist Porn Awards. They basically wanted to do a modern-style version of Rosie the Riveteer--in magenta glasses and a bra, holding the award statue. You got it!
The original Rosie:

My version:

Obviously mine doesn't transcend the original iconic piece, but it's my little homage. The colors are a little lighter in my version (since it prints darker on newsprint)...The tattoo was originally going to have info in the little ribbon, but it didn't happen in the end. I chose the axe for the tattoo because the doubleheaded axe was a symbol for the Amazons, and now for feminism and lesbianism. I love secret meanings!
Art Directed by the talented Taylor Shute-- www.taylorshute.com. Thanks Taylor!

There Had Been Too Much Death On This Hill

Hey guys! It's that time again...Picture Book Report Time! I've got another Sabriel piece to share! Check out my post at PictureBookReport.com to get a little more background on the story behind the illustration. I'm glad many of you enjoyed the previous Sabriel process post and I wanted to show the process for this one too.

I started out with the Cloven Crest sketches I had made previously and did some color comps for them...
...which made me realize it just wasn't that interesting to look at! I wasn't really excited about drawing it.

I decided to revamp and do something more focused on Sabriel and her encounter with Thralk. (I was a little sad I couldn't fit the broken charter stone in there though!) N.C. Wyeth's work has been blowing my mind and I've been looking at all his strong compositions--you can probably see the silhouetting influence in this!
I started with a bunch of quick crappy b&w photoshop sketches, trying different silhouettes and cropping. Once I found one I liked, I developed it more and tried a color option.


I wanted something spooky and cold and snowy, and finally settled on these colors:

I looked at a lot of reference for knickers, boots, and coats of the period. The coat she is wearing is one of her father's old hand-me-downs, and is only specified as "oilskin". Since Ancelstierre is vaguely 1920's, I figured her father's old coat could be a variation on the WW1 trenchcoats. I really love researching into illustrations, and I also spent a while sketching ideas for how her bell bandolier functions.(I think the bell handles would have to hang down, so they don't ring while she's walking)

I cleaned everything up and added textures and some digital painting to my usual flats. I wasn't expecting to put the red in there, but I really ended up liking it!

Voila! And here's some closeups!


Thanks for checking 'em out!