From The Vault - Spider-Man Ornament 1997

While digging around in the vault last week to try and find the first Christmas Card I ever did I came across a manilla envelope filled with some of my old work. It was fun to seeing the old work and even some of the printed pieces I did back in the day for Marvel Comics.

And there, at the bottom of the envelope, were two blurry Polaroid photos.

In 1997 I was all but done working for Marvel Comics. I had worked for them for years doing airbrush painting but, around the start of 1996, everything seemed to be switching to computer coloring and I was getting lost in the shuffle. I simply didn't know how to color on the computer yet and, at the time, I had no real desire to even try and learn how.

I would still do little jobs for them here and there and even ended up doing some inking for them later but, when I took these photos, I was pretty sure my work with Marvel was at an end.

Fortunately, there are still a lot of things in the world you can't color on a computer. So actually knowing how to paint with my hands came in pretty handy when Marvel was scrambling to find someone to paint a Spider-Man Christmas ornament for them.

The story I was told is that they needed the ornament painted and it would then be signed by Stan Lee (yes, that Stan Lee) to either be auctioned off for some charity or hung on some tree or something. Of course, they now had to figure out how to paint Spider-Man on this thing.

So, they gave me a call.

I told them I'd love to do it and took the job even though I had no idea how I was going to pull it off at the time. I was FedExed out this simple plaster ball and told to paint Spidey's head on it. No problem. Airbrush the ball red, mask out his black and white eyes, spray some more paint down, and you had a basic Spidey face.

The problem I ran into was trying to figure out how to make the webbing really nice and even looking on something as perfect as a ball. I thought I might be able to do it with brush work but I didn't trust myself to make the long lines exactly perfect on the ball. So, I turned to a friend who did a lot of acrylic painting and asked her advice. She came up with an idea so simple that I still love her to this day for making it so easy. She said the easiest way to make lines that would be straight and perfect would be to take a piece of string, dip it in black paint, and lie the string over the ball. Perfect lines!

It worked out great and then I painted the webbed lines in between by hand with a brush.

I then sprayed the whole piece with a clear coat fixative and sent it back to Marvel. Another job well done.

Sorry the photos are so blurry but you can see how I hung the ornament off of my stand-up easel and over the box of padding they had sent the ball in. My biggest fear is that I'd drop this thing, break it, and really screw the job up. So I was taking every precaution I could think of.

In the end it was really a fun and unique job to do. And I think it's funny to picture someone of Stan Lee's stature, a character as big as Spider-Man, and an event as big as Christmas, all being helped along by a guy sitting on his small porch in Colorado, painting away, trying to figure out how to make straight lines.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Going Gray

Since I showed off the inks for the skateboarding books yesterday I thought it might be cool to show the next step the pieces take after they are scanned into the computer.

After scanning each piece into the computer and cleaning them up a bit I'll make a few layers of each piece and start adding grays. When I first started doing these books I would only gray in the backgrounds and leave the figures purely black and white. But, over the years, that has changed and now I'm adding as many grays to the figures as the backgrounds. In order to make the figures still pop out from the background I started playing around with turning a lot of the background black lines into gray lines.

I think it works really well and I like the technique. I'm not sure whether the client likes it or not (or even if they notice that I am doing it) but they haven't said anything so I think I'll keep it.

In other news, I went to Seth Godin's blog this morning. I visit his site everyday and, day in and day out, he always has great advice and tidbits of information about being creative and marketing. This morning he suggested we all do a simple excercise and make a list of all the projects we "shipped" this year. In his world, shipping means getting the project done and out the door into the world. It doesn't matter if it was successful or not. Simply that you got it done and out the door. He went on to list the books he published, the seminars he put together, and the programs he launched.

So, I looked back at my year and realized, other than doing the same client work I do year in and year out, that I have absolutely nothing personal that I got out the door this year. The world was an open door to me this last year and I didn't take advantage of any opportunities presented to do something for myself.

My list was empty.

To tell you the truth, that realization made me more than a bit depressed.

But, it also had me making a vow to myself that I wouldn't make the same mistake in the coming year. The world has opened a few doors to me and this coming year, in 2011, I promise, I will "ship" something.

What it will be will be interesting to see.

Skateboarding Interiors

I finally completed the inks for the interior of the kids book on skateboarding.

It's been a busy couple of weeks and, unlike the last bunch of kids books I've done, the schedule for this round of four books feels a bit chaotic. Usually I'll read one book, do thumbnails for it, pencil it, ink it, finish it up, and then move onto the next one. Because the schedule for these four books is so tight and because I sometimes find myself waiting up to four or five days for approval to continue onto the next step of work, I find myself penciling one book while trying to ink another while trying to read and do thumbnails for a third all at the same time.

Like I said, it's been chaotic and more than a bit exhausting but, so far, I've been doing a good job of keeping up and getting stuff done. I just try and do as much as I can each day and it seems to be working.

So, at least the first book is all inked and ready to be scanned into the computer, touched up, and gray toned.

Maybe I'll get these books done on time after all.

Peaks Island 2011 Calendar

One of the other things I've been slowly putting together has been a Peaks Island 2011 Calendar based on my Dad's photography that he posts over on his own blog.

For years there were a few people on the island who would put together a yearly calendar and, since 1993 or so, I've had one of these calendars on my wall to keep me company. But, a few years ago they stopped. I'm not sure if it was due to funding or time or what. All I knew is that I was in danger of not having photos of my home on my wall for the coming year.

So, I did what we Tiffanys seem to do well when dealing with such adversity. We did a calendar ourselves.

I took a few images off of my Dad's blog (luckily he posts very large images so the photos should look great when printed for the calendar.) and put together something for the new year. The funny thing I found while going through this past year's photos was that he had taken a few photos of the same locations during different times of the year. I'm not sure if it was intentional or not but it was really cool to see these places, almost taken from the same spot, during very different times of the year.

So, the calendar's photos have been chosen and now it's just a matter of getting a few of them printed up and sent out in the mail. I may have missed Christmas but I think I can get them to everyone before the start of the new year.

So, everyone, enjoy a few pictures of where I grew up from my Dad's point of view.

And, Dad, when you wonder why you keep the blog going and question yourself why you keep taking photos of the same five-mile-around island you now have your answer: because we'll need photos for next year's calendar!

Take care, everyone.

I Lied...

I thought I'd actually take the whole day off on Christmas because, well, you know, it's a holiday and all.

But, no, I found myself inking away on some new illustrations for a kids book because my plans fell through.

Ah well, when all else fails there is always more work that needs to be done.

At least a new Doctor Who Christmas Special was on. And that was really fun to watch and made the day special, even if only for an hour and twenty minutes.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!

I hope you all have a great holiday filled with friends, family and fun!

Take care of yourselves!

From the Vault - Christmas Card 1993

I had to dig a bit in the back of the vault to find this, the first ever Christmas card I did to send out to people.

I was about a year out of college and pretty much all alone living in New Jersey. I wanted to do something to reach out to family and friends I missed during the holidays and sending out custom made Christmas cards seemed a great way to do it.

Back then I simply did a black and white illustration and printed them out on 8.5"x11" paper, folded them up, and sent them on their way. I actually really like the trucker cap, biker looking Santa Claus I used to do for these cards. I may have to bring him back someday.

With only a few exceptions, since I did this card, I've done a holiday card each year and sent them out to those nearest and dearest to me.

The cards, over the years, have turned into more sophisticated colored pieces but the thought behind them is always the same. I miss you all and hope you have a great holiday season!

Take care of yourselves out there!