Monthly Archives: January 2015

ART SHOULD PLEASE THE SENSES

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ART SHOULD PLEASE THE SENSES

Language like art, is a means to illustrate and get your point across. Think about it, art appeals to the senses, or grates on them. It’s all about pleasure and pain. Some artwork is painful to experience. Art can appeal through sound, smell, sight, taste and touch. Some things are more provocative than others, and some are more successful than others. A nice meal, a massage, a pleasant aroma, a beautiful painting, or music is ART.

It Hurts When Your Artwork Gets Scrapped!

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This Illustration was Scrapped, but Not Forgotten

He DIDN’T MAKE THE CUT, SO HE WAS CUT.

This is the only fame this little guy is going to get, unless we post him on Pinterest.
Folio boy, Will Terry, created this little gem for a job he was working on for Klutz awhile back and this little guy just didn’t make the cut, so he was cut.

They can’t all be gems

But like on Facebook, if you have a million pictures of yourself or loved-one, or you cat, you probably don’t need to post all 1,000,000 of the pics, just post the good ones that get the point across. I know it’s sad when you have something that you work on and work on, our little babies they are, only to have them rejected by “the man”. Or the publisher, or the client. So Wizard boy here gets to come out of the flat file of shame and stand tall in the lime lite on this small time Folio Academy blog.
Here’s a wizard I did a little while ago that was never used by my client – Klutz. I liked him but he didn’t fit into the project so the poor guy got scrapped. Enjoy your 15 minutes my little sorcerer. ~Will Terry

A slice of life story about a spider who got roasted alive,

till he was dead

When I was in 7th grade I was in a science class that required an insect collection. I had a pet tarantula at the time who came to an awful demise when my aunt Jeanine set his jar in the sun. He roasted to death there in a quart jar with holes in the lid, on the kitchen table in the warm sunshine on a sunny day while I was in school  😥
Well I made the best of it, I pinned him to my insect collection board. But the day I took the cardboard of pins and death to school, I chickened out, “He’s not an insect stupid, everyone will laugh at you!” So I took Terry the Tarantula, my great, big, beautiful, wonderful, incredible, super, spectacular, giant, awesome, and very impressive spider off that board and handed it in with out him. He never got to shine, because he wasn’t an insect. I still feel bad about that, I should have left him on there to enjoy his 15 minuets. Insect or not, he belonged on that board with all his dead little friends.
In loving memory of Terry the Tarantula
Counting the one in your cephalothorax, it took 9 pins to hold you down

a BIG ole Parade, You know? for Kids.

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an image I did for Harcourt awhile ago –

a challenge, & fun trying to fit all the animals

I like how it turned out. for the most part, even though the perspective isn’t perfect. I was going for a Richard Scarry kind of a look. It was a challenge however, to try and fit all the animals in the picture. You know how art directors are, and worse yet, how a committee can be. Well it’s kinda busy but all the animals that they wanted, ARE in there and it worked. More or less.

Looking back I can see a lot of things that I could do a little better now. Oh well, always moving on. When ever Norman Rockwell was asked which was his BEST piece, he would say his next one.

 

Children’s Text Book Cover Illustrations for Innovatus

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Text Book Cover Art for Innovatus Children’s Text Books

 I painted 9 textbook covers in one year for Innovatus in acrylic.

innovatus cover
One year I painted 9 textbook covers for Innovatus in my dry-brush acrylic style or technique. I know what you’re thinking, what’s Innovatus? I know, I think it’s Latin for innovate, or maybe it means Innovate us! 1st person plural command form for Innovate.
It was a really fun project and I got to work with Karen Steinberg who I had worked with over 10 years ago when she was at Harcourt. I know what you’re thinking, where’s Harcourt? I think it’s by the second star to the right then direct till morning…

Some animals come with baggage

Where was I? Oh yeah. Working on these covers was interesting because I had coming up with “acceptable animals” to paint. Apparently not all animals are created equal in the politically correct world of educational publishing. Some animals come with baggage. In some countries for example, certain animals are sacred while others are “dirty” and there for not an appropriate fit for the classroom. You dirty dawg! It was a challenge finding usable animals without repeating. Ho the webs they weave. I just want to paint.

I also found it funny that in this cover the animals absolutely had to wear helmets for safety but were allowed to desecrate natural arches with their combustion engine desert machines – up to a $5,000 fine in a national park. Just sayin’.