I dug into the Strang Institute’s files from early on in the Ellie on Planet X Program. Here’s a diagram of Ellie’s parts and pieces. You’ll notice she looks a little different here – that’s because this drawing was done before her design was finalized by the Institute’s engineers. So if you were wondering where her Thermal Emission Spectrometer was, now you know!
Here’s part of a sketch I did of Squid-Girl, a character from Denver Brubaker’s incredible comic strip Tales of a Checkered Man. It’s like a film-noir-superhero kind of yarn and you should be reading it now if you’re not already. You’ll be able to see the rest of my sketch featured on Fan Art Friday when you visit there too!
Last weekend my Special Lady Friend Azucena proposed a project for us: create a sculpture made from nature’s cold weather play-doh on her front lawn. I think it started out as a rabbit, then a turtle, then a stegosaurus, then finally this dragon/brontosaurus/Loch Ness monster combo thing. We finished pretty late so the only pics I could get were in the dark with my phone. The next day it rained and our sculpture began its eventual decline toward a more liquid state.
As a bonus, here’s a little sketch from the archives, pulled out and all dusted off just for you! Enjoy!
Dinosaur Comes To Town was one of the books that inspired me to be an artist as a kid. My sister claimed ownership of this book in our household, but me being the dinosaur geek that I am, I swiped it every chance I could. The artist, Art Seiden, was notably a children’s book illustrator, but also set the tone for advertising in the 1950s and 60s. I love the texture he creates with gouache and what looks like water colors. His characters are simple looking shapes that are anything but – they’re easily recognized and iconic. Plus there’s that nostalgic thing going on. His work reminds me of a time when I didn’t have to worry about anything except if I were going to miss Sesame Street.
You can find the entire book posted at Golden Gems, a blog that describes itself as “a collection of little golden books and other vintage & modern illustrations meant to inspire and delight.” It certainly does. You can also find some more of Seiden’s illustrations at Today’s Inspiration by Leif Peng and more at his Flickr page too.
The good people at Comic Chatcast asked if I would join them for a live chat about all things Ellie! Pretty cool! It’ll take place Thursday April 7 at 9pm Eastern, 6pm Pacific. I’ll post more info as the date gets closer.
