Jean Bartik and the Glass ceiling. And other stuff.

Here's the last in the series of chapter header illustrations for the Notable Missourian book on Jean Bartik.  This illustration attempts to give a sense of the glass ceiling felt by many women, especially during the 40s and 50s. Jean and her fellow women programmers did a lot of the heavy lifting in programming the ENIAC.  Their work was often attributed to the male supervisors. In fact, the hard work of these women was not fully recognized and appreciated until many years after their accomplishments.  After working on the ENIAC jean entered the corporate world and felt the effects of the glass ceiling there as well.  

Next up in the Notable Missourian series is Stan Musial. Some of you may be saying "Who is that?" and some others are no doubt saying "Pfff....he's not a notable Missourian, he's a famous Missourian!" Ahh such is sports!  He was a star Cardinals baseball player and was one of the most famous people in the country for years.  You ever hear of "Stan the Man?" Well thats this guy! Stay tuned for those. 

I also need to say a bit more about THIS IS KANSAS CITY, the book I recently illustrated for the awesome Angela Kmeck of Possum Trot Productions. It seems like I showed some of the art but didn't really talk about what it was for other then mentioning a "Mystery Kansas City project". THIS IS KANSAS CITY is a board book for kids of all ages showing the awesomeness of our town. The printing has been completed and it is getting ready to ship now. We will have a debut coming up soon at the Hilliard gallery down in the crossroads. More info to come on this.

Other stuff too. Maybe Katy Days even. Been busy and haven't been posting as much as I'd like. In fact I need to end this because I only have a few more hours to work this morning and I don't want it all to be blogging.  


From super rough to finish - Jean Bartik and the ENIAC

Rough hand painting.  Rough rough rough..

Rough hand painting.  Rough rough rough..

So the way I'm going about this year's round of notable missourians is way different then the way I did the recent "This Is Kansas City" illustrations.  The TIKC illustrations we're made completely by hand on panel.  The Notable Missourians are hybrid hand/computer illustrations.  First I start with a rough hand painting. Really rough. I mean people think my kid did it and I don't correct them rough.  The main purpose of the rough painting is to give me some good textures and colors and the basic location of the illustration elements.  I digitally bring the rough painting into photoshop and thats where I chip away at it.  Its a great method that makes experimenting, editing and changes no prob, and I think it gives a nice hybrid look.  

The Notable Missourian series is published by Truman State University Press.  The book on Jean Bartik was written by Kim Todd.

The illustration after some computer lovin'.  

The illustration after some computer lovin'.  

Hayloft Daydreaming

This is the first illustration for the Notable Missourian (Truman State University Press) book on Jean Bartik written by Kim Todd. Here a young jean is shown looking out of her family barn's hayloft and doing a bit of daydreaming about her potential future.  If that was me in that loft I would be daydreaming about hitching a ride to town and getting a box of Claritin.