Weekend Business

       Hoo, boy, whoa, wow, what a busy couple of months! As you know, good reader, I partook in my first Artist's Alley this year at C2E2 (Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo), and boy are my fingers tired! There was a set up to a joke there, but I seem to have missed it entirely. C2E2! It was great! I met a ton of awesome people, got to shake hands and actually TALK with the legendary Tim Sale (my favorite Batman artist), Adam Hughes (artist of beautiful women and other things), and a few others. I was seated next to my (dare I say) new friends from Yeti Press, a local comic publishing house, and had one to four of my very best friends at my side, helping with my table, at any given time, each of the three days. This post will whisk you away to the magical (and, at times, grueling) weekend experience!

         There it is! That's me! That's my table! That eight foot slab sums up many sleepless nights and long saturdays of my past months. The 'con' was awesome, though, and totally worth the investment of time and dollars. I made up my table mid-day on day two, and from there, started working toward a profit. It's not all about the money, but let us be honest... the money helps. I am very proud of my signs. If you can't make it out, it says "Ben, There! Pop Nostalgia," which is the name I adopted at Renegade many moons ago. The cursive looks a lot better in person, and at two-or-so in the morning.

        Let's start things off with Gandalf the Grey. He is found at the start of stories far greater than mine, but since he is here, I'll use him! He was one of my first costumed visitors, and his staff, of course, glowed mightily.

       Okay, let me say, when I made a little sign for $5 micro paintings to be painted on the scraps and off-cuts of prints, I didn't know what I was getting into. 'I'll do ten or fifteen,' though I, 'It will be a nice time-burner during the low hours of inactivity at C2,' said the fool. Man-o-man, was I wrong! These little buggers became the focus of my weekend! Let me assure you, I'm not complaining; Five bucks is five bucks, but these con-goers love some cheap original art!

       One of the first (of many, maybe ten) Harry Potters I painted.

       Cos-play break! This kid was great, and polite, and well 'stumed, as Chell from Portal and Portal 2, some of my best hours spent at the ol' Playstation.

       My darling Martha came and helped out on day one (Friday) and is seen here adorning one of the many, many (fantastic) mustaches handed out by Yeti Press. "Free mustaches!" It still haunts my waking nightmarish recollections... *shudder*

        ADVENTURE TIME!

       Star Track! (I kid, I kid) Martha was thrilled by these two - she has a secret geekery in the New Generation line.

       These were two of the better Scott and Ramona's, of which there were many. Girls seem to love this costume because it involves dressing cute and sometimes... Goggles.

        One of the better Doctors. Okay, fine, I'll type it... JOSH WAS RIGHT. There, Josh, you win, in capitol letters and underlined. He told me through and through that I should be making Dr. Who merch... apparently this 'Tardis' thing is catching.

         Best Batman, hands down.

         SNAAAAAAAAKE! If you don't get it, congratulations, you have a life outside of video-games.

        Of all the Jokers and Harleys, the ones with a giant mallet stole my heart, this one in particular.

       When Arkham Asylum Scarecrow showed up (and was a cute girl, bonus!), I had a total geek out.

       Let it be said that my good friend John did more for my booth than maybe anyone, self included, by standing around in his movie-accurate Wolverine costume. He switched midday into Logan, which just drove the point home... with more hyper-detailed accuracy to the movies. Thanks, John!

       HORRIBLE!

       As much as i loooooathe Episode I, no one can deny the absolute wickedness of Darth Maul, the great underused villain in science fiction. His costume and make-up blew me away.

        TARDIS MAN! Damn, I really should have done some Dr. Who art that wasn't a micro painting... boo.

         I deeply appreciate this one - half Batman: The Animated Series, half Arkham City... All great!

         I was fortunate enough to meet Walter 'Dot Com' Slattery (Kevin Brown) after hours on day two. He was seemingly delighted to grace me a photo, after a long day, off the clock, and acted like I was doing HIM a favor. What a nice guy.

       Father/son (daughter?) duo, blowing me away with their amazing costumes. So good, even up close. Note the glowing Jawa eyes: so cool.

        Inspired by the tiny Chell above, I did some Portal/Aperture Science micro-paintings.

        After everything, my favo-costume goes to Beaker, on kid's day (Sunday). If I wasn't so damned honorable, I'd steal this for hallowe'en.

       Big, big thanks to everyone who met me, liked my art, and tossed a dollar my way this weekend. You people built me up more than I deserve, and I am deeply, hugely flattered, and astonished, at every sale I make.

       If you came here looking for something I had on display and it isn't listed in my shop, please do e-mail me at benrum@gmail.com. Most work featured is still available.

'Just Like Dear Old Dad'

Howdy y'all! How's the day of foolishness and fibbery treating you? I am yet to be pranked, but remaining vigilant. I finished up another new painting this week and though I would share the process with you. Here it is - same subject as my last - STAR WARS! I love drawing R2-D2, he's so cute.

The sketch above was quickly copied onto a prepared grey background, and I used white transfer paper to get the job done. Love that stuff!

I didn't take many process photos, so here is a short trip to nearly finished.

...Aaand DONE! Please excuse the copyrights - if you buy the original or a print, it will be 'c' free, obviously. Glee! Less than two weeks to C2E2, so it's back to my desk with me!

Animals: Cute

Here are a few quick things I had the pleasure of crafting over the last month. The first was a quick pen and watercolor sketch of our cat Smokie. It was a birthday card for my friend Simone, who was turning four.

The next was a little more complicated. Robert, who is a long-time-friend of Heather, of Green Genes, both of which I've mentioned before. He saw her family dolls I made, and commissioned a set of he, his husband Trace and their adorable doggy, Kino. Too cute. Thanks Robert!

Force Feeding

One of my favorite scenes in all of Star Wars is the quiet, goofy exchange between Mark Hamill and Frank Oz when they first meet on Degobah. It's so fast and silly, with Yoda giving Luke the run around, it's such a clever defense. He's been in solitude, hiding all these years, and when someone finally shows up looking for the greatest of the Jedi, he plays it cool, and acts like a back-wood weirdo until he is sure he can trust the invader. Awesome.

So, in preparation for C2E2... oh, did I not mention that I get to show and sell at C2E2?! Yeah, that's awesome and scary and exciting and intimidating, and my first Artist's Alley. So, in preparation, I'm trying to make two or three new paintings that I can show off and sell prints and original artwork. This, currently without title, is the first! Here's how it happened.

After a few sketches (made while the scene played on a nearby monitor) I found the moment I wanted to work with. I love that Luke, even though annoyed and impatient, happily eats whatever weird soup Yoda is cooking up. I went with that, and composed a shot of Luke and Yoda having a little dinner party in his tiny mud hut. Like most of my scenes, it's one that never actually happens in the movie/book/whatever I am borrowing from.

'Why yes, that is worm! A refined palette, you possess.'

One of the hurdles of working in acrylic (or anything but watercolor), is covering up your drawing. I got around this by printing a copy of my original drawing, allowing me to cover things up without risking losing the details in the layers of paint.

I built up the background and sort of half-painted Artoo, before getting eager and moving on to the two diners. It takes a few layers of paint to completely quiet the white of the illustration board, especially with the light colors of cheap paint. I must have painted over Luke's hair five or six times before I was happy with it.

Yoda's robe and Luke's clothes called for a dry brush technique that is particularly stressful, as each stroke has to be just right, or I have to wipe it out (if I am quick enough to catch it still soft) and start fresh on the flat olive color. Below is a diagram I made to plan out the dark and light areas. I was sweating. I'm no Charley Harper - that dude made it look easy.

Here is a similar diagram (hiding under some scratch work) of Yoda's face. I'm used to working freely with line, so using the dark and light areas to make edges, rather than just using a line, was tough... but it worked!

Once the little green dude had a face and was looking appropriately weird, I knew I only had about two steps left (on the plan, anyway).

This painting was half-inspired by one of my favorite Amanda Visell paintings ever, Boozin' under the Tracks, which I recreated about a year ago for practice in acrylic technique. I love how she handles light and dark, and wanted to try my hand at it without being a total rip-off artist.

I dropped in bright orange on every 'edge' that would catch fire light, followed that with a medium yellow, then a bright yellow, and countered the warm with a cool blue moonlight on opposing edges that would be getting a little light from the rainy night outside. I know, I know, no moon in a rain storm, but I like the contrast. I love the end result, and hope you do, too. Prints will be available at C2E2 April 13-15 in Chicago, and soon there-after in my ETSY shop!

Stamping My Heart Out

I fully intended to send you all a Holiday card this past December, and if you didn't receive one, it's only because I didn't make any. Honesty is the best policy, and in this case, the truth is, I failed to find the time between other projects and commitments. I bought the supplies to make a linoleum stamp and prints some cool-looking cards, but I didn't have the time to learn the skill until mid January, and by then it was too late. What's a guy to do? Valentines, of course!

So I sat down about a week-and-a-half ago and got drawing. I came up with three or four clever designs, which I paired with sappy, silly messages, then dug out my carving kit and blocks. A few days later, I had carved out four stamps.

This heart is the result of my first and most obvious idea. I always enjoy it when artists and designers use an anatomical heart in place of a traditional cartoon heart. I started with a hard linolium block mounted on wood, but found that I could get superior detail (and results) with the pink speedy-carve blocks. They are softer rubber and, for me, much easier to cut. The first heart was a little rugged for my tastes, but I really like the second one (pictured), which is a nice meeting between anatomical and cartoony.

It took me about five minutes carving (the arrow) and two seconds of thought to finish this design up. This is by far the most distinctly 'Valentiney' of the designs - I feel like the others will be okay to use all year round. 

 This was my second idea and second stamp. On the inside it reads "YOU TICKLE ME." Har-dee-har. 

The original caption for this one was going to be "you brighten my day," but the brilliant and beautiful Martha took one look and said, "Nope, it's got to be 'you turn me on.'" Needless to say, she was right.

These hearts were test prints on watercolor paper, but I captioned them as an experiment. I think they could work as 'postcard style' greeting cards. 

After a bit of fooling with the words, I came up with this as my brand stamp. It's supposed to read "(hand) made by..." but I think it still works if people don't see the hand as the word hand. That sentence is a mess. originally I had it as "made by (hand) by Ben Rumback,' but without reading the (hand) it was easy to read 'made by by Ben Rumback,' which made me sound stuttery. 

 this last one was just something I made while practicing carving and stamping. It has no message counterpart, but I liked the look of it. These cards and maybe more will be on sale soon at Green Genes in Chicago, and in my ETSY shop! 

 

Monday, December 26, 2011

Have a Dolly, Jolly Christmas

From the weeks before Hallowe'en to December 23rd, I didn't get much of a break. I'm not complaining, but between costumes, craft shows, and Christmas commissions, I've stayed busy. I completely forgot to post about my latest craft show experience, at Water's Elementary School Artisan Fair, here in Chicago.

Above: Cocoa Cuddle Buddies

It was a great turn out and a wonderful experience - a complete shift from my only other craft show experience with Renegade. I feel now like I have touched both ends - the largest and the smallest, and now can use what I've learned to work the 'somewhere in between' market. Here are some of the new pieces that I started in Wisconsin, where Martha's brother and his wife Erica hosted an amazing (and delicious) Thanksgiving for us, Martha's parents and our amazing neice, Erielle.

Below: Cozied Up

I applied three days after the deadline, and the Artisan show was chock full of talented locals. A few weeks passed, and while munching appetizers on Thanksgiving, I got an email informing me that a drop-out had free'd up a space for me. Needless to say, the day after T-day, I braved Eau Claire's black friday mania to get stocked up on supplies from Jo-Ann fabrics.

Above: Mousy Christmas

I was able to finish three new pieces in time for the show, outside of my time teaching the children. In fact, some of my three year old pals helped sew the grass on that fox's bed.

Below: The S'more the Merrier (not new, but un-blogged from September)

below: Autumn Owl (also from September) (please excuse the copyright marks, these are from my etsy file).

Then... THEN... then... came the Great Christmas Commission flood of 2011. I got three emails on the same day, all of which asked the same question: "Can you make a set of nesting dolls in time for the holiday?" I, of the belief that sleep is for the week and that deadlines prove your worth, accepted all three, and haven't slept.

The Daly's are a family I have known for a few years, and host the preschool in which I teach in their garden apartment. Dad, Dan asked me to make a set for his family.

Miles (the boy) and I agree that Robin is one of the best people ever, and duly, Miles dresses like Robin every chance he gets.

The family turned out great, right down to the baby sister and the puppies. Every set I make turns out better than the last, and this one holds the bar pretty high. It's always a pleasure to do my best work for the customers I know personally.

Next came the family of the owner of Kustom Kribs, where I had my last retail show. Chris (the dad, but not the grand-dad, pictured here) is a heck of a guy, and it happens that we both studied at the University of Kansas (rock, chalk, GO KU!), which just happens to be a bonding point. He messaged me late one night between turkey and dumplings, and we were on board for his family's doll set.

The odd thing is, the only aspect that challenged me in this set was the glasses. It is incredibly difficult to symmetrize a pair of glasses on a rounded form.

Looking good, family!

The smallest dolls are about one inch high and about 3/4". This can be challenging to make a likeness. More often than not the smallest dolls are reserved for family pets - this set called for all humans, so I did what I could. They turned out great, if I may say so.

Lastly, I got a commission from a nice fellow in Minnesota, who had, for me, a bunch of furry family members, as opposed to their fleshy counter-parts. This set was the challenge of the year, for me, as a craftsman.

Painting people? I've done that time-and-time-again. Painting animals with accurate markings and features? That's a whole new thing. I pulled it off, I think, (he did, too), and they turned out looking quite like the animals, whose photos he sent.

According to Eric (the client) they were spot-on. When you get right down to it, that's what matters. He was able to give a meaningful and merry Christmas gift. That's what I strive for, as a service person, in the end.

Detail of the beagle

Tails UP!

Happy Chanukah, merry Christmas, winter-well-wishes, have a flattering solstice... I'm going to go take a nap.

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Ben Rumback is a freelance Children's Book Illustrator interested in Freelance Jobs.

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benrum@gmail.com

All images and text © ben rumback 2010