When the Kids @ the School here on Ocracoke asked me
if I would illustrate the Poster for their upcoming Play~
a little ditty by Bill Shakenberger~ I hesitated at the
chance... My 1st question was: 'Arn't there any Kids
who can DRAW at your School ?' But, all them kids
was busy busy busy gearing up dis-remembering
their lines and rehearsing, so~ once full fledged
flattery set in, and my ego inflated to the size
of a pea~ I said 'Okay'~ then whipped out my
trusty ever-present Sharpie, handed it to
Molly, along with a napkin sitting by the
hordevourves (at a gallery opening)
and asked her to scribble what the
design had to entail. She quickly
scrawled: A LIVE OAK TREE,
A DONKEY-MAN (Nick Bottom),
and FAERIES~!
Always up for a challenge, no matter
what kind of bad timing is involved~
I figured I'd jam it out in two sittings,
spending maybe 8 hours max on it.
Eight sittings, 5 days, and 20+ hours
later, here is what we got...
LIVE OAK PHOTO FROM MY SLIDE COLLECTION
TAKEN BACK IN 1996 ON THE SOUND SIDE...
(i only used the left half of the picture)
THE POSTERS WILL BE HUNG ALL AROUND TOWN IN VARIOUS SHOPS,
@ THE POST OFFICE, ON BULLETIN
BOARDS, THE COFFEE SHOP ETC.
ON 17 X 11 CARDSTOCK~ SO~ I
DREW MY BORDER THAT SIZE...
A SERIES OF FAERIES THAT I DREW ON THE FERRY RIDE FROM OCRACOKE TO HATTERAS
DURING A SEVERAL DAY COMMUTE OFF ISLAND
(faeries on the ferry ? how apropos is that ?)
SINCE I KNEW HOW SMALL THE FAERIES
WERE GOING TO BE, I DID NOT OBSESS
OVER MAKING THEM PERFECT~ IN FACT~
AS IS ONE OF MY BAD HABITS PICKED UP
FROM MY DREAM JOURNAL DAYS, I DREW
THEM STRAIGHT IN INK WITHOUT ANY
PENCILS~! JUST BALLPOINT PEN UNDER
A COUPLE OF THEM, WITH SHARPIE INK
ON TOP~! ONE CANNOT AFFORD TO
MESS UP USING THIS TECHNIQUE,
BUT IT REALLY SHARPENS YOUR
SKILL LEVEL AND IMPRESSES
NON-ARTISTS~!
NEXT, I SWIPED SOME IMAGES FROM
GOOGLES MASSIVE IMAGE WAREHOUSE~
OF A DONKEY~ AND A COOL MICHELANGELO
SCULPTURE ENTITLED 'CROUCHING BOY'~!
ALSO NOTE THAT, I DECIDED TO USE REAL
GOGGLES FOR PUCK'S HEADGEAR, AND
JUST PASTED A NEAT PAIR OVER MY
ORIGINAL DRAWING.
BELOW IS THE FINAL VERSION,
SANS A FEW MINOR DETAILS
AND ALSO WITHOUT DATE,
LOCATION, OR THEATER
COMPANY INFO (ya gotta
double click it til it grows
to full size):
YAY~! Next up~ I will illustrate the inside
of my eyelids after catching up on some
lost sleep ;~j
