The outfits Griffen and Molly are wearing are two that I noticed people wearing yesterday, though the lady with the awesome Kitty Stardust bag was actually wearing blue jeans; it just amused me to give Molly striped shorts.
Here is the result of my Patreon Art Challenge for August, the Art Challenge being where I solicit suggestions from patrons at the $3 and up level for what I should draw of an evening. All the suggestions get written on slips and thrown in a hat in order for my daughter to blindly select one.
The slip my girl drew from the hat this time was “ice cream.” Which delighted her but left me a bit stumped as how to interpret that. Until I looked to Mary Blair for art inspiration and then it became obvious as to what I should do… to me at any rate.
It’s always fun to play in some else’s sandbox for a couple of hours and glean what lessons you can and try to parse how they approached a subject. Which is one of my goals with this art challenge; to give myself an excuse to play as well to be pushed to draw something I might not of other wise.
This is the result of February’s art challenge for my patrons at a certain level. (Which, yes, was executed in March. This happens.)
My girl blindly drew “dinosaur” out of the hat. Then, as she was excited by the selection, I asked Taran what dinosaur I should draw and she immediately said “Tyrannosaurus Rex.” (One of her many nicknames in day care was T Rex.)
At a loss for an approach to take with a T. Rex, I consulted the book oracle and got “vines.” That didn’t help, so I tried again and got “carved.” So naturally my mind went to Chinese paper cutting art.
For the flora I chose from the Late Cretaceous period: ferns, conifers, magnolia and dogwood. And instead of the sometimes butterfly I went with dragonfly.
That the Florasaurus Rex should strike a dancing pose seemed a given.
How Mirka got her Jetpack -or- January’s art challenge at my Patreon.
Once a month, patrons at the $3 pledge level are invited to give me suggestions for something I could draw in an evening. I then put all suggestions on to slips of paper which are then thrown into a hat and my daughter to selects one at random.
And she selected Barry’s request to draw Mirka, the star of his excellent and delightful Hereville books. The jetpack actually came from another request because it amused me to put Mirka in one.
The challenge is there to hopefully entertain patrons plus encourage me to tackle something I don’t normally draw and/or play with a style that inspires me. All within the time limit of two to four hours which is its own challenge.
This year for my solstice drawing I decided to revisit a subject I did a few years ago, the Saami sun-goddess Beiwe, in large part because it had been pointed out to me that quite a few sites who cite her use that quick drawing I did in order to illustrate her. Which I found, well, amusing, as I only had a wikipeida article as reference. To wit:
The Saami, indigenous people of Finland, Sweden and Norway, worship Beiwe, the sun-goddess of fertility and sanity. She travels through the sky in a structure made of reindeer bones with her daughter, Beiwe-Neia, to herald back the greenery on which the reindeer feed. On the winter solstice, her worshipers sacrifice white female animals, and with the meat, thread and sticks, bed into rings with ribbons [sic]. They also cover their doorposts with butter so Beiwe can eat it and begin her journey once again.
In my previous drawing I went with a sled for the structure of reindeer bones she rode through the sky. This time, I decided to have fun and make it a magical crinoline. On the other hand, I did spend a considerable amount of more time researching Saami costumes which was its own reward.
I also clearly did a more finished drawing. This is because I had planned from the get go to make a gift of this for all supporters of my Patreon campaign, even at the $1 level as a way to say thank you and kick things off right. It will be available to all supporters as a free print quality pdf until the end of January.
Also new is that I have (quietly) started a Patreon page. I will officially launch my campaign in a week, but as core of it is in place and folks have asked about and are discovering my Patreon page, well, here it is.
For those unfamiliar with Patreon, it’s a way for creators to be funded for ongoing projects by the people who want to see those projects done. As applied to me, that means enabling me to make more Dicebox per month; how much more is reflected in the goals of my campaign. I’ve been waiting to initiate this Patreon drive until I was in a place to fulfill the promises made, which, as it happens, I am!
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