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Book Review: Water for Elephants

God I love reading. I usually read stuff that either my friends recommend, what's on the best sellers list, or that I find lying around at my parents house. Then when I'm done reading it, I draw the cover and write a review. 

 

TITLE: Water for Elephants

AUTHOR: Sara Gruen

COVER ARTIST: Charles Mason/Getty Images

RECOMMENDATION: From my friend Anna. It's been sitting on my bookshelf for the past year waiting for me. Her sister read it while we were on vacation together. Then she lent it to me. She told me to pass it around. It's her goal to get everyone she knows to read it. I finally got around to it, another one to add to the list.

RATING: Freakin' Awesome!

ABOUT: Jacob Jankowski is 93 years old, lonely, and in a nursing home. He often floats back to the days when he gets caught up working as the vet in a depression era, C-grade circus (the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth!). It was nothing like Ringling. Right off the bat the ending is given in the prologue - there's chaos and murder in the menagerie. The rest of the book is entertaining but also leaves you anticipating and sweating for that final scene and when it does happen, your entire perspective is thrown. I can't tell you why. It'll ruin it.

MY EXPERIENCE: 6 hour flight back in a hot sweaty plane after the week long cirque du famille du freaks en Paris. I was holding on to whatever I could of the circus freak show thing before we left it in France. I read the book the entire way and finished it up the following jet lagged day of recovery. TWO DAYS. It was that good.

FAVORITE QUOTES: "She died nine days later. After sixty-one years together, she simply clutched my hand and exhaled."

"At the edges, near the tracks, tall weeds have taken over - tough plants with stringy stalks, small leaves, and compact flowers. Designed to waste energy on nothing but getting their blooms up toward the sun."
 

the catcher in the rye

I have been slowly inching and working my way on a children's/young adult book promotional of which I thought "I like making book covers, I should add some in the promo." So, I am.

  

The reason: I never understood the original cover design of The Catcher in the Rye. A bull? Really? Like most 20-something girls, I have been pining to re-design and re-draw it since forever. Here was my chance. Plus, we all have a little bit of Holden Caufield in us, don't we?

The intention: For my version of the Catcher, I tried to make 16 year old Holden Caufield as having just enough prep with just enough edge*. I see Holden as being pissed, realizing the idiocy of society and human behavior. People are fake and he can't take it anymore. He wants to save us from this game, he wants to be the catcher in the rye, but he's too confused to save us, or himself. The only one who can is his little sister; a return to simplicity, the innocence and fun of childhood.

The process: Eek! This came out exactly the opposite of what I envisioned. There's no hand drawn typography! I thought that would look super bad like a hand written note, but executed it looked lame. Sometimes you just need to use a real font. I also tend to forget that just because I give a character a peacoat does not mean they look modern and edgy. The pencil and tea stains really aged the whole piece. It looked like it belonged in the history section of the book store. I had to fix that issue with design and strategic color placement. I'm really comfortable with this illustration style right now, so I need to work on how to freshen it up for the kids.

*I was going to attempt a witty joke in which I compared Holden to perpetual rebel prep extraordinaire Scott Disick, but that would be like spitting in Salinger's face. So I didn't. I really should stop watching reality TV.

weekly Tao #10

The problem is that I will not sleep, I will skip meals, and sometimes I refuse to go to the bathroom all for the love of art. I think some people call it passion but I know it is definitely unhealthy. I've hit my tipping point.

Zen Habits recently had a really great article on killing to-do lists and Michael Nobbs has been writing some awesome articles for Underground Art School which got me inspired. They were about measurable goals and creative routines. 

Recently, I have started working on my own routines. 

A few of my important ones are to be in bed by 11, the first Thursday of every month are when I set up blog posts for Underground Art School + Pikaland, and soon I'm going to implement Internet Sabbaticals; pre-planned Internet vacations because man, social networking art sites are suffocating my work. Now I'm working toward daily routines in regard to art + work.

How do you set limits on a limitless activity?

One of the selling points of freelance was I didn't have to work a 9-5 and I could wear hats all the time and now I'm discovering that routines fuel accomplishment of goals, ideas, productivity, and a balanced life. The silver lining is I still can do all of that while wearing hats.

scribble sheet

I needed to do something creative but fun today so I made a Scribble Sheet! Apparently, only a few minor details have changed since childhood, such as the ability to listen to explicit music legally. Have you checked out Lisa Currie (aka OPPY's) The Scribble Project? Do it! You should totally make one of these too!

While you do that, I'm going to write Maria a letter and we both can wait for Jonathan Taylor Thomas' comeback!

Weekly Tao #9

One of the greatest challenges of being an artist is never being satisfied. Does this sound familiar to you: once I make something the next thing I want to do is create something new. OR, and even worse, start judging and editing the piece I just finished. Can a girl get some satisfaction up in here?

I edited this post because I didn't know what I wanted to achieve with it. Such a fantastic example of how blogging about art even leaves room for expectation. Ok, I feel satisfied now.

Weekly Tao #8

I had some hand surgery two weeks ago on my money maker. My other hand, the right hand, is completely unavailable for any type art making whatsoever so I've been itching to make something. I'm pleased to report that I can draw again, and that my left hand hasn't felt this great since...well, along time.

The first thing I made was a Tao Te Ching quote.

I know you're probably wondering "what happened?" Honestly, I'm thinking about making 'zines where I get real and talk about the stuff I don't share on my blog because I don't like and/or want to. I'm sorry, I just can't get that personal online, but I find drawings and writings in small booklet form a completely acceptable mode. This blog just can't do what I want it to in order to tell a story.

I'm not going to try to fight this, forcing some personal blog entries here. This is just the way I feel. Time to flow around it and make some 'zines.

Alice in Tears

My Moleskine Sketchbook Exchange group is in round two of exchanges. Here is my second entry into Carolina Espinosa's book. Her theme is Alice in Wonderland. If you are curious and curiousor,  the previous image from the sketchbook is of the Mad Hatter from Keron Lee. I went with the whole tea party spin off but also combined it with Alice crying, creating her own pool of tears from the beginning of the book.

I used to drown myself in tea so this image came out naturally. I only have one cup of the caffeinated stuff a day, my heart is not sad anymore. My favorite is Earl Grey with a few Jasmine pearls, in a little white teacup.

pudding

Meet Pudding, a hairy ghost like creature I started drawing for my little sister to cheer her up because middle school sucks. I have been asked a lot if Pudding is a boy or girl. I say semi gender neutral because I call Pudding a boy but is he really, and does it matter?

Anyway, I've been working on a children's book promotional booklet. I don't have a solid story yet for Pudding, but one in development in my brain. I've been debating back and forth whether to include him in the promotional...as a potential character. I probably will. Look at that face!

You can check out some more Pudding here.

The Weekly Tao #2

There's two sides to my art personality. There is the encouraging artist (positive towards my own work) and encouraging art director (positive towards other artists work). "Wow Rach, see, you DO have skills," I remind myself. "Yea! Do it! Make art! What you are doing is wonderful," I remind others. I mean what I say when it comes from the heart.

Then every once in awhile when I'm feeling rotten, the passive aggressive art bitch shows up. "Really Racheal? You can't draw a hand without reference? LAME." I criticize. I use my full name when I'm disappointed in myself. When it comes to others: "AWESOME!" Two seconds later in my thoughts: "that is the fugliest thing I've EVER seen." It's not the truth when I speak from my mind, especially if I'm exhausted or hungry.

It seems easier to judge whats in front some times than to understand how it became what it is. I guess that's artistic evilness. I am taking off my hata blockers so I can see what's for real.

Do you judge art? Should art be judged? What's a beautiful piece of work and what's ugly? Do we know ugly because we know what beautiful is?

Ché

“LET ME SAY, AT THE RISK OF SEEMING RIDICULOUS, THAT THE TRUE REVOLUTIONARY IS GUIDED BY GREAT FEELINGS OF LOVE" - Ernesto 'Ché' Guevara

I've been reading Ché's autobiography and frankly, I feel completely indifferent about the icon of the man. Probably because I only fight for peaceful revolutions while weaponless. If you lived in a country where social injustices were so incredibly outrageous, would you not accept and fight, accept it and flee, or accept it and remain where you are?