A drawing a day keeps the blues away

Derek, my wonderful boyfriend, gave me a challenge to complete 5 pieces of work by January 28th. If I meet the deadline, we're eating out at my favorite restaurant Luella in Russian Hill, or some other gourmet digs. If I fail, we're getting Little Ceasar's Pizza. Either way he wins.

So while most people make a New Year's resolution to get back in shape, mine is a little different this year. I would LOVE to get back in shape, be able to run for miles without stopping, but after searching for a full time job for nearly eight months, it's time for a different type of workout. DRAWING, or at least creating new work.

So the goal: to do at least one drawing a day, even if it's just a doodle. This includes sketches in ye ole sketchbook as well as playing with digital media.

Since I do far better coming up with ideas for other people's stories (at least lately. I'm sure all this creative "exercise" will eventually inspire me to resume work on The Last Tooth), I decided to visit The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. And as my dream job is to work in the art department of a certain animation studio that shall remain nameless so as not to show favoritism, I realize I need to push my style a little more. First assignment that I have given myself: produce full color story beats (to help create a color script) using Illustrator. Not only will this actually force me to stylize, it will force me to ignore detail and focus on light, shadow, composition and color. This is good for me as far as expanding my horizons and also allowing me to work a bit more quickly.

The first piece was completed Friday afternoon, the second, just a few hours ago. I know what you're thinking: "Melissa? A drawing a day? Where is the one from Saturday?" Well, sometimes life happens, people, and occasionally I must pay attention to my wonderfully supportive boyfriend, even if it means it takes time away from me beating his challenge :P.

So, for your perusal and enjoyment, I present the first two story beats from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz:

Rather than go completely gray-scale for Kansas, I made everything very desaturated. The most saturated source of color is the sky and clouds, because it is the storm that ultimately whisks Dorothy away to the wonderfully beautiful and colorfully vibrant land of Oz. The framing is done to demonstrate how vulnerable a small Kansas farm would be. Baum describes them as being more surrounded by the storm, but for the sake of communicating a looming storm with one image, I thought this was a good choice.

The second image is up inside of the cyclone. I wanted to present a more dynamic view than simply the house being held in the mouth of the cyclone as it is depicted more often in storybooks, or just outside of the cyclone as it is shown in the theatrical version. In the book, Dorothy almost loses Toto through the trap door that originally led down to the storm cellar, but now leads to nothing but whirling air. I played a bit more with effects in Illustrator on this one, as well as the brush tool :)

"A strange thing then happened.
"The house whirled around two or three times and rose slowly through the air....
"In the middle of a cyclone the air is generally still, but the great pressure of the wind on every side of the house raised it up higher and higher..."

--L. Frank Baum "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz"

I think I could still play with this one a bit more. We shall see :)

TO BE CONTINUED... (dum dum DUM!)