All posts by msanborn

Ruby June Coloring Page Contest

March 17, 2015Blog, The Amazing Adventures of Ruby Junemsanborn

We’re having a coloring page contest for kids who come to the gallery show for my new book, “Ruby June and the Voice of the Sea” The contest will run from March 19th to April 10th when a winner will be chosen. Participants will be required to send me scans or good quality photos of their completed drawing via e-mail along with their name and age (so I can factor that into my decision… that’s right, I’m talking to you pros out there.) Even those who can’t make it to the show can still participate by downloading a copy of the page and printing it at home. https://db.tt/z0W782yK

All the pages will be posted right here on my blog site and the winner will be announced after April 10th. Have fun coloring and I’m looking forward to seeing everyone’s awesome artwork!

Ruby June and the Voice of the Sea art show

March 3, 2015Blog, The Amazing Adventures of Ruby Junemsanborn

Finally, after years of plugging away at this book in between bouts of freelance and day jobs and raising children and all the other things that tend to get in the way of getting art done, the chickens have come home to roost! I’m not even sure what that really means. All I know is that it has been over 5 years if memory serves me right. That is way too long to have something like this on your plate if you ask me. I think a lot of it comes down to having multiple projects going on at once. It is nice, on the one hand, to have a backup project to go to when you start losing motivation on one. At least you keep working. On the other hand, it is easy to lose significant amounts of time in between work periods and really start to lose a cohesive look. I thought that might be an issue from the start so I decided to do all the values together, so my style remained consistent, and then work on painting the group together so the colors and look could remain unified.

For any who might be local to the Orlando, Florida area and feel so inclined, the show will be from 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm at the Redefine Gallery, 29 South Orange Avenue, Orlando, Florida 32801. Unless something terrible happens at the printers, books will also be on sale there as well as the original paintings.

Lunchbox Painting February 2015

February 11, 2015Blog, Lunchboxmsanborn

Finally got back to working on some painting after a bout of the flu and lots and lots of my day job. The Aristocratic Owl had to come first as it is destined for my daughter. This one posed some issues as I went a little too saturated in the background and had to push that back considerably to make the form pop better. A little Photoshop adjustments and it was ready to go, though I may jump back in to play with it a bit more with my paints.

Franklin and Nunu Christmas Card

January 9, 2015Blogmsanborn

Time for me to post the Franklin and Nunu Christmas card for this year, for those you you who haven’t seen it. The story goes Franklin (an escaped circus bear) and his friend Nunu (a wild pig) find Santa’s pack and end up eating some of the toys and the list of good little boys and girls. Santa recruits them to help deliver to kids who are away from home, particularly those who might be out camping during Christmas. Here Santa has caught up with the hungry bear and pig as they are trying to snack on some of the toys.

Lunchbox Paintings December 2014

January 7, 2015Blog, Lunchboxmsanborn

I decided it would be a nice idea to do a few small paintings of some of the lunchbox drawings for my family for Christmas presents. I sat them down and we sorted through the pack, picking out some of their favorites and then I chose from those which ones I wanted most to work on. We ended up with the Aristocratic Owl for my 5 year old, the Karate Space Pilgrim for my wife, and Duck Duck the Goose for my 1 year old. They did not get finished for Christmas as I couldn’t find time away from everyone to paint them (thus keeping the surprise) Now it looks like they will have to be birthday gifts.

As always, in keeping with my process, I worked charcoal on canvas to lay down my values. The Karate Space Pilgrim had an issue where there was a spot on my triple primed canvas (triple primed by the company, not by me) where the charcoal wasn’t seating right and I ended up with an interesting texture which I am going to try to incorporate into the work. At worst I can paint a little heavier over it. Note to self… do all your priming yourself and don’t trust the company.

It was interesting working up value pieces from the line-work, deciding how to approach the lighting. I though for the Karate Space Pilgrim it would be cool to go with a creepy underlit face, like he has a light source in his helmet, to push that 70’s sci-fi/horror movie feeling.

So here are the charcoals and the original line drawings. The paintings hopefully will follow soon (if I can find time around getting the Ruby June book ready for print.)

Lunchbox Drawings – December 2014 Part 1

December 13, 2014Blog, Lunchboxmsanborn

Finally getting around to posting some new lunchbox drawings. I can’t keep track of where I left off, so many of them are getting done. On a side note, I’m going to be painting three of them for Christmas presents for the family. I just finished the charcoals of the aristocratic owl (which I will have to post later) and it is turning out very well so far. I love what you can do with lighting with charcoal. It just lends itself to that so well. I should thank one of my students for making mention of aristocratic owls as it prompted the image in the first place.

Painting of Ruby June and Charter Jack Preparing to Set Sail

December 3, 2014Blog, The Amazing Adventures of Ruby Junemsanborn

Ruby June and Charter Jack preparing to set sail in search of the mysterious Voice of the Sea. Charter Jack looks a little worried but Ruby June, as usual, is unruffled! She is such a trooper and knows when the world needs her to get it out of a jam. For the design of the Slippery Squid, Charter Jack’s boat, I drew from the boat they used in Jaws. I always think back to that scene with Robert Shaw, Roy Scheider, and Richard Dreyfuss showing their scars and talking their tales around the table. One of my favorite scenes! And, of course, I had to give Charter Jack a pocket in his shirt in case he needs to munch on some crackers.

The textures on this panel I felt really came together. I really liked the way the shadow of the plank on the side of the boat really showed the texture so well. Sometimes the texture works well, sometimes not as much. I think the key is to have a darker value for the wash and a lighter value to pick up those peaks. Still trying to perfect the craft.

Lunchbox Drawings – November 2014 Part 2

December 1, 2014Blog, Lunchboxmsanborn

Here are the tail end of the November lunchbox drawings. It has started to become quite the bear keeping up with them but I am learning a lot about forcing the creative process and more about technique in pen and ink, which should come in handy when I start work on my comic book. Don’t want to go too much into that except to say that I have a list of books on order to learn more about the craft, from the writing through ink and color. This is definitely a good exercise in understanding the tools and where to apply detail and where not to. In any case, here are the November drawings, part 2.

Painting of Ruby June and Charter Jack Examining the Map

November 7, 2014Blog, The Amazing Adventures of Ruby Junemsanborn

Here we have Charter Jack showing Ruby June the map the Deep Ones were after, the one that shows the location of the sunken temple and the mysterious Voice of the Sea. Good thing they didn’t know to look in the hollow oar! That Charter Jack is a clever one.

I really wanted to draw out more of the map but remembered I needed a place for the text. This is a children’s book after all. I had a tendency to forget all about that as I was working. Luckily on this one I remembered in time to avoid putting a lot of detail in the space I left for the text.

Lunchbox Drawings – November 2014 Part 1

November 7, 2014Blog, Lunchboxmsanborn

So here are some more Halloween lunchbox drawings and a few post Halloween. This past week was a little difficult getting inspired after all the Halloween fun. Thanksgiving just doesn’t have the same draw for me. Guess I just like drawing monsters and aliens.

I’m still exploring my line quality from image to image, playing around with thickness to denote distance and mass and to otherwise affect the composition for better balance and emphasis. Maybe it is time to do a podcast for my cartooning line-work and talk a little about my process.