I'm happy to announce the first two books of the Notable Missourian series by Truman State University Press have been printed and they look fantastic! The books are SAM NIGHTINGALE by Mary Barile and GREAT WALKER by Greg Olson. Original illustrations by yours truly, including the cover image for Sam Nightingale. These books look fantastic. The printing, binding and overall quality are superb. Yes superb...and I don't bust out that word normally. Moreover, these stories are very well written and truly bring to life these interesting characters and the time periods in which they lived. Great stuff!
First Notable Missourian books complete!
Olive Boone Sketches
Here's some example sketches for the book on notable Missourian Olive Boone (Published by Truman State University Press, written by Greta Russell). For the sake of experiment I freehanded these sketches completely on the computer instead of the pencil/computer combination used in the other sketches. I prefer the other way.
Olive learning how to use a spinning wheel from her mother.
Olive and Nathan Boone flirting while he carves a piroque out of a huge poplar tree.
Olive and Nathan Boone crossing the Missouri in a skiff with all their possessions.
Olive gardening at their new homestead.
Olive and slave girl building a chimney without the help of the men.
Olive and slave girl building a chimney, alternate view.
Olive and her (at the time) seven children rushing to a fort during an Indian raid.
An elderly Olive with some of her grandchildren.
Olive showing her granddaughter how to use a loom.
Harbinger of Spring
The Dreaded Dinosaur Virus
Sam Nightingale mixing herbal remedies
Here's another illustration from the Notable Missourian book on Sam Nightingale (Truman State University Press). This one shows him in his later years mixing traditional herbal remedies.
Hey Irish!
Happy Saint Patricks day!
Mobile Playground
Here's another webcomic. I should probably explain more about what the hell Animal Therapy (the comic) is sometime.
The Conjuror is in
This illustration for the Notable Missourian book on Sam Nightingale (Truman State University Press) shows Sam using his hoodoo conjuring to remove a hex from a woman. There were a lot of great spooky options for this chapter.
Creepy Money
New web comic! The story problem examples are taken from my 1st graders homework.
Childhood Imagination
A gentleman commissioned me to draw a likeness of his child having an adventure with her favorite toys done in my sketch style. It went over well and lead to a couple similar requests. Making these was a lot of fun because that was me as a kid...making up worlds and elaborate scenarios with my toys. To this day, the first thing I think when I see someones backyard for the first time is "would this be a cool place to play with GI Joes?" Funny thing is, the nicer the yard the more dull it is...er...was to play in. Give me a thicket of untrimmed trees and some washed out soil. Hills and rocks wanted. I think I may be justifying the poor condition of my back yard actually. It's a GI Joe paradise. Or GI Joe armageddon, depending on the play scenario. Hell, my father in law has tons of abandoned farm equipment on his property and I always think it would have been heaven to play in as a kid. Yes. A giant bee infested, tetanus riddled heaven. I've always been a bit jealous of the way farmers don't take their stuff to a salvage yard. They put it "over there" and call it good. Okay I'm wandering off topic. Anyways these were fun.
Sam Nightingale loading a flatboat on the Missouri
I really enjoyed making this one. It makes me look forward to the Joseph Kinney finals where there will be a lot of river scenes.
The first three books of the Notable Missourian series by Truman State University Press are at the printer now. Two of them may even be complete. I cannot wait to see how the actual books turn out!
The slave march of young Sam Nightingale
So far all of the Notable MIssourians I've illustrated have been very interesting, but there's something about Sam Nightingale (Guinea Sam) that really drew me in. Sam's complex story begins with bondage and ends with him helping to heal others. Okay so he may have occasionally hexed people too, but people should know better than to cross a hoodoo conjuror. Anyways, here's a guy that is long dead and gone and there is no photo of him and not a lot of first hand written record yet the stories of him persist. The man to this day oozes a spooky charisma. We should all be so lucky to ooze such things.
This illustration shows Sam as a boy having been captured by slave traders and marched to a slaver ship in his native country of Guinea.
(All Notable Missourian illustrations are for Truman State University Press.)
Helen Stephens at the 1936 Olympics
Plenty to say but short on time so I thought I'd post another illustration for the Notable Missourian series of books for Truman State University Press. This is Helen Stephens competing in the 100m at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. I don't think I've ever mentioned it but thank you to TSUP for permission to post these various works before the books are out. The first three books go to press in a couple weeks and I can't wait to see how they turn out! Okay...for being short on time and not planning to say anything I'm saying a lot. This will not surprise those who know me.
Back to painting...
Helen Stephens with the All American Redheads
After Helen Stephens returned from the 1936 Olympics, she began playing basketball with the All American Red Heads. The Red Heads were a team composed completely of women with red hair. Mind you most of it was dyed red, including Helens. They would travel around and take on local mens teams in front of sell out crowds at venues such as high school and college gymnasiums. They would make it a show too!
Oh by the way this is another illustration for the Helen Stevens volume of the Notable Missourian series to be published by Truman State University Press. Awesome pepes there!
Anyways, I think my brain was being sneaky with this one. Without realizing it I put the only bona fide looking redhead on the opposing mens team.
More soon.
Helen Stephens Chapter 4 illustration
This illustration simply shows a collection of equipment from the many sports that Helen Stephens mastered and received awards for. I think it makes for a nice break from the action in the other illustrations for this book in the Notable Missourians series (Truman State University Press).
Helen Stephens running to school
Another Illustration for the Notable Missourian series to be published by Truman State University Press. This is Helen Stephens AKA the Fulton Flash. She was an Olympic Gold Medalist (x2) and all around super athlete. When she was a kid she did not have a track nearby to practice on, so to train Helen would jump ditches and fences and run through corn rows on the family farm. She even outran her cousin...who was on a horse!
Improv Art
Saturday I got together with some fellow artists in the studio of the amazing Laura Huliska-Beith for an improv art jam. It was a wonderfully welcome reprieve from the careful crafting and problem solving of illustration. I love those aspects of illustration, but I need the occasional reminder that standing in front of a canvas and going bananas (without overthinking) is one of my favorite things in the entire universe. And lots not forget there's rocky road ice cream in this universe. The way it worked was we all wrote down words or phrases on scraps of paper and threw them into a "hat". Every 10 minutes Laura would draw a new word and we would include it in the painting. The words were: line, high-contrast figure, jacket, big city skyline, sorrow, and rabbit hole. At right is what I put together. Not the best thing in the world but thanks to awesome company, great conversation and lots of laughs - I think I like it.
Guinea Sam sketch examples
Here are some examples of the Guinea Sam comp sketches. Researching materials for the illustration of this book has lead me down some fascinating rabbit holes. (fascinating rabbit holes?) I've really enjoyed making these and I look forward to the final art.
(These sketches are for the Notable Missourian book series to be published by Truman State University Press)
Guinea Sam as a young boy captured and sold to slave traders in his native Guinea
Guinea Sam as a slave on a rice plantation in South Carolina
After working on a sugar cane plantation in Louisiana, Guinea Sam was sold to a man from Boonville Missouri. There he tended an apple orchard.
This is an alternate approach for Guinea Sam in Boonville. I like the scene better but the figure is not great. Guineas Sam was freed at the end of the civil war. He stayed in Boonville for the rest of his life as a gardner, storyteller, and conjure man.
Guinea Sam using his conjuring to lift a curse
A family refused to put Guineas Sam up for the night, so he hexed them by telling them that before the end of the night they would be driven from their home. That night there was a big storm and what sounds like a ball lightening incident. The timing is awesomely spooky.
Guinea Sam as an older man mixing herbs and traditional folk remedies.
Meet Guinea Sam
AKA Sam Nightingale. Sam was an herb doctor, conjure man and story teller from Boonville Missouri. He is another fascinating subject of a book in the Notable Missourian series (Truman State University Press).
The challenge here was that there was no known photo or engraving of Sam to work with. That meant I had to come up with character sketches based on the description of his appearance and personality. To get in the mood, I listened to some hoodoo podcasts while reading up on the Gullah culture and conjuring. It worked maybe too well...I think this image might have some juju going on. My son asked me to print out a copy so he could hang it in his room and some fold deep in my lizard brain told me that was a bad idea.
Along the same lines, it seems superstition has been a theme of mine lately. The other day I had a black cat cross my path while running and the first thought that came blasting through my head was "Well great, now I'm effed." To build further on the crazy I got home and my own pet black cat came out to greet me and I thought "Oh good! I own a black cat so that nullifies any black cat crossings, right?"
Seriously, thats a thing right?
Back to reality. So Guinea Sam is a fascinating story and I can't wait to start on the final art for it, but right now I'm working on the final art for Helen Stephens so he will just have to wait...cause her story is amazing too!