My creation from the workshop with Hanoch Piven at the Society of Illustrators 11.10.09

I was lucky enough to attend a workshop given by illustrator, Hanoch Piven, (www.pivenworld.com) last Tuesday, at the Society of Illustrators in New York. Mr. Piven creates striking yet simple images with objects and is well-known for his celebrity and pop culture caricatures.

The evening began with a brief slide show of his portfolio examples, famous collages from art history, and art created in previous workshops. Meanwhile, all of us were salivating over the long supply table in the center of the room, which was loaded with a plethora of objects and ephemera that we would soon be using for our collage pieces. There were sewing notions, sequins, old tools, construction paper, dead light bulbs, feathers, buttons, jewelry parts, odds-and-ends; all kinds of things, as well as glue guns for assembling our masterpieces.

Our challenge was to focus on the items available to us and "let the objects guide you" as to what our final "drawing" would become, and to play around with and manipulate the objects until we found some inspiration from them. Mr. Piven stressed that we were "drawing with objects," and not choosing items from the table based on a preconceived idea for an image. If we needed a specific concept to get started with he said it was alright to work with the idea of a face or portrait.

I brought all kinds of things back to my table but I soon found myself playing with a zipper. When I unzipped it half way, it looked like a pair of legs running. I decided this was not enough to base my image on but I was loving the "legginess" and thought that if I had more zippers, maybe I could make an animal with more than two legs... maybe an octopus? Luckily I found enough zippers to create 8 legs. After playing around will all of these some more, I discovered that a squid would be best, considering the available materials.

To finish, I cut the head out of paper and made a hole for the eye to poke through. I used the round part of a kazoo, which I had with me since we had been instructed to bring some of our own objects to use. I added a silver, plastic arrow with a feather glued on to represent a harpoon that the squid is fleeing from.

And here is how it turned out:

I was very impressed with how quickly all of the collages came together. We only had about an hour and a half to work, then a half hour to assemble and glue everything down before the display and critique at the close of the evening. I had a great time figuring out what I was going to make and really got into that creative "zone" while I arranged everything. It just made me feel lucky to be an artist. The great thing is, is that anyone can give this method a try and see what you come up with. I hope you'll be as surprised and pleased as I was with the outcome!

An assistant was taking photos of the collages, so I will hopefully be able to post a link with more pictures from the workshop, there were many amazing results.

Here's another Halloween costume photo that I found. I believe this was senior or junior year of high school?

I don't think I had a name for this one but I know that I really wanted the white make-up on half of my face to be in the shape of a quarter moon! This was a year that I re-purposed some fabric from a past year's costume. The white drapey fabric that I am wearing in this picture was from a ghost costume that was inspired by one of my favorite young adult novels, Ghosts I Have Been by Richard Peck.

The main character of the story, Blossom Culp, dressed as a ghost to expose a scam artist who came to town and claimed he could summon spirits. Anyway, she carried a candle and I carried a batery-powered, glowing pink rose instead.

Believe it or not I still have that white fabric and I used some of it last year as part of my "Ghost of a Zeigfeld Girl" costume:

Hooray, Halloween!

I was thinking last night, about how inspiring Halloween is to me. I often come up with an idea early, maybe in mid-August. This year inspiration didn't hit until a few of weeks ago and I'm finally going to take action this weekend to get started on gathering the supplies that I need. Elaine and I are planning on driving out to a fabric store on Long Island (better deals and selection!) to see what we can find. Luckily I probably won't need much more than some felt to add to and embellish pieces I already own! But I'm not going to reveal my costume idea right now.... stay tuned.

Leading up to the big holiday, I am going to try to post images from Halloweens-past of some of my favorite costumes. I might not have something each and every day, but I'll see what I can do. It will probably continue past Halloween, too, since I'll have to show off my creation for this year.

Here's one of my ultra-faves- Fabulous Bee! I am embodying one of my illustrated characters. Tara is dressed as Thelma from Scooby Doo! I remember that at the party we attended that night there was a group dressed as the Scooby Doo gang that did not have a Thelma! That was a hilarious moment, I definitely have a picture of that somewhere.

Great News! Prints for sale on Etsy.com!

Hooray! I goal I set for myself in May has now come to fruition! I have an Etsy.com store to sell prints of my illustrations, and whatever other handmade things I might create in the future. I just finished posting all of my current items for sale.

Thanks to Mom & Dad for helping out with the custom mats and shipping.

Without further delay, enjoy this link while I grab a cup of tea....

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5395171

How does my garden grow?

I was visiting my friend, B, on Sunday and helping out in her large vegetable and flower garden in Westchester County. B's brother has quite a bit of land around his home (especially compared to what this city mouse is used to!) and he knew she was interested in learning more about farming, so they decided to experiment with things this year. They planted so many different things and it's really too much for 1 or 2 people to handle, which is why they've been asking friends to help out when they can, in exchange for lunch and bringing home some of their bounty.

Aside from the freshly picked veggies and eggs that were laid that day, I brought home a few other morsels to think on in regard to my state of mind about my artwork lately.

Since they haven't been able to work in the garden every week, and can't reliably entice friends and family to give up their free time in the summer, the weeds really are everywhere, but still there is stuff that is thriving; most of the plants just continue growing anyway. This reminds me about how I always have ideas, projects, and chores related to my illustration on my to-d0 list and I never seem to have time to do them all, or to ability do as much as I would like. The garden reminded me that in all of the craziness, good things (like kale and snap peas!) still happen despite the "weeds."

I was also able to relate to something that B said about learning about gardening. She mentioned the various seed packet instructions, and how they tell you when to expect the plants to grow or at what point they will be mature for harvesting. Basically, these things take their own course depending on the conditions; weather, planting location, etc. She said that some plants took much longer than expected, but still grew in very healthy and strong. So that made me think about the fact that some ideas need time or "rest" to take on a life of their own. Not every idea can develop as planned, and the fact that an idea doesn't take off right away doesn't mean that it belongs on the compost pile... it just might surprise you.

Illustration Mundo!

A fellow illustrator told me to check out IllustratonMundo.com recently. Its a great site for illustrators, a place to connect, ask questions, and pat each other on the back. Who doesn't need that once in a while? They also have an "illustrator search" area for art buyers.

It is free to post a profile image, although the images must be "of great quality" as deemed by the editors of the site. Another great idea and resource for illustrators. Check it out sometime!

Just keep going!

I am finished with long-ish break from my magazine/office gig and was able to get some good art time in during the past couple of weeks. This seems like a natural time of reflection for me each month; changing gears to be back on a different schedule while trying to keep the momentum going and keep my own work moving forward.

For the past few months I have had many ideas and projects, and at times I am never completely sure that I am working on the "right" thing. I want to show that I can do graphic design as well as production and illustration, so I have some design ideas going, there are a few art gifts I am working on for friends, sketching and rewriting my new story starring Adelé, a series of illustrations of cakes, sending out resumes and query letters, a day of freelancing on a project for my toy designer friends, blogging, planning the opening of my Etsy.com shop, plus unsuccessfully trying to find time to learn new software. And, the boring stuff... updating that mailing list and making some tweaks to my website, etc.

I was able to get small bits of each thing done, and did actually finish a task or two. The big questions that has been living in the back of my head for the past 3-6 months are: How can I get my illustration to the next level? Is one of the ideas I am working on now my "next big thing?" Do I need to alter or enhance my style to gain more attention? It is going to take some time to find the answers to these questions, I know greatness is not achieved without a lot of time and hard work.

It has really helped to keep a list of goals for each week, it helps to have that structure to help me remember what to do next. I am looking forward to getting my Etsy Shop going ... http://sancynam.etsy.com/ There's nothing there as of this week, but I hope to post some prints for sale this month, with the help of Mom and Dad. (Thank you!!!)

So, I hope the Etsy shop will help bring more focus to my efforts and lead to more web traffic and networking, maybe some $$ along the way. I am glad to have so many outlets for my creativity; when I can't get inspired to work on one thing, I can always switch to something different. I just don't want to let myself avoid what is more important, if only I could decide what is more important!

Until next time, I will post a sketch or two of Adelé in progress.