WIPs and Fahrenheit 451

Thank you for your kind comments on the previous post. I am doing much better now, though I've had very little sleep, mainly due to my insomniac cat who was exceptionally irritable last night after a forced cat bath. She was keen on creating a constant ruckus all night by leaping onto the door handle ever half hour and tangling herself in plastic bags; on the upside, she smells lovely. 

I'm drawing as much as I can now (or as much as my rapidly deteriorating eye-sight will permit) before I return to school next week. I'm determined to finish the two commissioned-ish pieces before February. You can take a look at the progress so far. The first is a WIP of an illustration for the cover of an article that will advocate nuclear disarmament in the World Tribune, the newspaper for the Buddhist organization, SGI. The idea was to create a hopeful image that calls for peace by drawing attention to a very pressing issue of nuclear energy and weaponry. I began this project in late November and it took a good couple weeks to come up with an idea that seemed suitable. I really wanted to avoid generic symbols like a fat red X across a power plant or sad faces of children embracing the earth etc. This is what I came up with--and I'd appreciate your feedback on whether or not the image makes any sense by looking at it. You can click on it to enlarge--I suppose it will be printed large enough for the details to show. I've yet to fully work out the composition and effects, so the haphazard flock of birds is definitely going to go through some changes. 

The second is a promotional illustration for an LP video channel that features retro games like N64 and SNES. I initially planned to do something Mario-related since I've always yearned for a reason to draw Mario-themed stuff, but I decided to stick with Zelda for this occasion. I've actually never drawn Link before so this was pretty fun--after nearly ten drafts and variations of compositions and styles and angles etc I settled down with this. Let me know what you think--though it's pretty hard to give any opinion really when it's still in this sloppy stage. The red lines are going to be abstract symbol-ish-runes... kinda inspired by some Native American art that I picked up in a book recently. 

Speaking of books, I recently finished reading Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (I feel like a campaign girl repeating this so many times in this blog) and just this morning I watched the 1966 Francois Truffaut film version of the book.

 

I have to admit that I was slightly disappointed, primarily with the lack of "The Hound," which was the main reason I wanted to see the film anyway because I was having trouble picturing the monstrous machinery in my head. But I admit I had raised my expectations quite a bit--a little too far for what the 60s' film industry could provide. Still I found it quite moving and fascinating to see classical literature be brought to life as talking, walking people. Once I have time, I may want to sketch out some scenes from the novel of my own rendition.

Also, HOT SPRINGS IN HAKONE TOMORROW (not to boast--though I am boasting... quite shamelessly). I have been looking forward to this... very much.