A Very Frizzy Day

According to my friend Kim's mom, 'frizzy' weather is any humid, misty, or rainy day. If your hair has natural texture or body (a.k.a. is a styling nightmare), I'm sure you know what she's talking about. We had a particularly frizzy day here in Savannah recently and my hair was such a disaster, words were not adequate to describe. For fun I scribbled out the little black and white ink sketch you see here to post on facebook. Hearing comments everywhere I went that day from Savannah ladies who were equally dismayed concerning their frizzy locks, I was inspired to make my little sketch into this color piece.

http://violetlemay.com/artwork/833406_The_Frizz_Factor_Humidity_and_Your_Hair.html

First Assignment for the Globe and Mail

In the ten years I've been illustrating, somehow or other, until very recently, I had never worked for the Globe and Mail. This is a little odd because AGM (my agency) is based in Montreal, and the Globe and Mail is a Canadian paper. I've worked for plenty of other widely circulated newspapers (The New York Times, The Washington Post, etc.), but all here in the states. It's not that the Globe wasn't interested; I've had to turn down several of their offers over the years due to schedule conflicts. When a call came in late last week for me to illustrate a travel article for them, I was thrilled! I accepted the job even though we were on our way out the door for a weekend in Atlanta. Got sketches approved before we left and completed most of the final art in the car on my husband's laptop. Those of you who know me are very impressed right now, aren't you? (I get car sick at the drop of a hat; as a rule I can't look at anything in the car while we're on the road). This time I was so excited about the job that I just decided not to get car sick. I was a little wobbly when we arrived in Atlanta, but felt fine after a good night's sleep. All in all, it wan't too bad.

The article is about traveling without luggage; I posted one of the rejected ideas a few days ago. I'm extremely happy with this image: went for the concept of traveling light, of being as light as a feather.

Here is the image on my website, in case you'd like to see:

http://violetlemay.com/artwork/833421_Traveling_Light.html

New Christmas Image

Every year I do at least one new holiday image inspired by my love for Christmas in New York. When I lived in Manhattan, I was enthralled by the rows of Christmas trees for sale, lined up on the sidewalks. They smelled sooooo good! For last year's holiday image I drew those very trees. My technique/style has evolved a bit, however, since I created that image early last fall. It was the only remaining 'old' image on my website, and I knew it had to go. A sad realization, as I really love that illustraion. One of my all-time favorites. You can still see it on my altpick page; It's the very last illo in the portfolio:

http://altpick.com/violetlemay

This year's inspiration relied mostly on color. In my mind's eye I saw a yellow cab contrasted against a rich blue background; in the back seat, a red glove pressed up against the window. I didn't intend to use a primary palette, but that's pretty much how it ended up, isn't it? Oh well... as I tell my students, you can never go wrong with a primary palette. It always satisfies.

Storefronts never fail to bring me joy—I love to draw them—so creating the background was a pleasure. The falling snow ended up contributing quite a bit to the overall atmosphere of the piece, I think, and I'm very pleased with the whole thing. I was a bit sad, removing last year's image of the Christmas tree forest to make room for this one, but I'm quite relieved to have done it. Now my portfolio is consistent, and the new image tells a nice story. As for my beloved Christmas trees, I think I'll make a print to hang in my studio. Any of you who live in the Big Bad Burg, enjoy that evergreen scent for me!

Letter Girl

I've been working on some poster projects lately, for various organizations (more on this to come!). During the sketching phase for one of these groups, I had a foggy idea to do illustrated letters, like the kind you'd see on the first page of a children's book. The idea remained stuck in my head, however... I didn't have any luck at all trying to sketch it out.

Several weeks later, the idea popped up again. It was one of those lightning rod moments (makes me think of Roger Von Oech's book, A Whack on the Side of the Head). I was in the middle of teaching a class, and suddenly, out of the clear blue, I saw this illustrated letter in my head, clear as a bell. I don't get inspired like that very often, but I'm always grateful when it happens! Initially, anyway.

Remember Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the version that was released in 1977? In that movie, Richard Dryfuss' character has a close encounter, and subsequently becomes obsessed with creating conical shapes. He carves them out of shaving cream, mashed potatoes, any malleable 'medium' he comes in contact with. That's how it feels, I think, in the hours/days/weeks after inspiration hits. It's an obsession, sort of an internal directive given from above, and until a girl is able to realize that vision, to get the inspiration out of her system, it can be quite overwhelming (understatement). It's sort of maniacal, but in a good way. Mostly.

So anyway, I got the inspiration, and thankfully had time to do something about it. Voila! My Capital L Girl came to be.

A few days later, my wonderful agent Anna sent out a group e-mail to tell us all that Nate Williams had posted a link to AGM's Pumpkin Carving Contest on illustrationmundo.com. She included a link, which I followed... only to stumble upon Nate's new site:

http://www.letterplayground.com/

Two seconds later Anna sent another e-mail, explaining that she had sent the wrong link. But I thought, Wow, that mistake was meant just for me! Ten minutes later, my illustrated letter was posted on the letterplayground site, and I sat back in my studio chair, deeply satisfied. Directive: complete!