Design & Execution

This Christmas, I find myself surrounded with a banquet of non-electronic sources of entertainment, including silly putty, books, family, as well a literal banquet. However, I also find myself without internet for some ten days this Christmas. Today, the withdrawal symptoms have been punctuated with a trip to a local Panera. I feel like an alcoholic slipping down to the corner bar, only my cup contains mango ceylon tea which delivers a fresh smack of fishtank pebbles with each sip. The wi-fi, however, is slicker than I-80 in January. In a brief (and and slightly overdue) detour from Lucy's Dance , the book for which I will shortly produce my first polished illustration, I thought I'd post a Christmas illustration I recently revised for Buffalo Exchange . The request: "I'd like to show a bunch of buffalo pulling Santa's sleigh, which will be driven by a [Star Wars] stormtrooper . . . all drawn in the approximate style of Ralph Steadman ." I did my best. ...

In past weeks my layout sketch allotments for Lucy's Dance have included up to 4 double-page layouts. This week demanded a mere 3 single pages (the final illustration and two covers) . . . and an inset of a dance stick to illustrate the educational postscript. The latter doesn't really have a "layout," per se, but I thought I'd sketch it anyways to get a start. LAYOUT 17--LUCY'S DANCE: At the end of the Curukaq festival, Lucy dances at last, hovering over a final view of Stebbins, Alaska. I used Google Maps to confirm the shapes of buildings shown in fuzzy photographs. Lest anyone think I'm lazily echoing the view from illustrations 1 and 2, know that I first rendered Stebbins from an entirely different view before I decided to show the same coast and buildings again. It didn't work out. Not only do I prefer this view compositionally, but I like the way using a similar vantage shows the progression of time. I may shift the angle of one of the earlie...

In this week's layout sketches for Lucy's Dance , Lucy shyly presents to Apa her homemade gift: a piece of dog fur, a sprig of tundra cotton, and the tip of a moose antler, all bound to a crooked stick with red yarn. The gift is is a child's version of the traditional Yup'ik dance stick, which Yup'ik men adorn with figurines, tundra cotton, and other embellishments that represent their memories and achievements. Inspired by Lucy's gift, Apa recalls the origins of the three gift parts, then launches into an enthusiastic traditional dance, indicating how much he missed participating in the festival of Curukaq . On previous pages, Apa's character is reticent, withdrawn into his parka. I wonder whether the thoughts in Apa's covered head sound at all like the words of the speaker in one of my favorite Old English Anglo-Saxon poems, The Wanderer . Below is a modernized excerpt: Where is the horse gone? Where the rider? Where the giver of treasure? Where are th...

This week brings a third installment of rough layout sketches of illustrations for Lucy's Dance , a picture book about Yup'ik culture by Deb Vanasse. At this point in the book, Lucy's small Alaskan village has decided to host a Curukaq , or potlatch dance festival, in order to satisfy Lucy's demands and cheer up Lucy's apa (grandpa). Traditionally, Curukaq involves competitive gift giving that requires months of prior handicraft and collecting of materials. Lucy's family members work to collect and their gifts, but Lucy does not have money to purchase or skill to build much for anyone. Instead, she hunts around the house for gift-able items--beneath her bed, in a closet, in her mukluks, and in her backpack. Lucy finds three items: a tuft of animal fur, a piece of antler, and a swab of tundra cotton. I have always approved the of the practice of poking around the house for anything I can reuse or give away. I have a pesky feeling that there are a dozen differen...