First Asssignment: Interpreting Quotes

As I mentioned recently, I am hoping to once again work on my dream of writing & illustrating children's books. I signed up for a course at the School of Visual Art here in Manhattan and have my second class tonight. The class is called Illustration Portfolio, a course focused on creating portfolio samples that reflect our personal style while still providing a broad scope of imagery with hopes of catching a client's/agent's/publisher's eye. We will not only work on concept and composition in our work, but also learn about the business side of illustration. Although children's books are only one of many available markets for illustration that we plan on discussing, the instructor has illustrated over 20 books for kids - including Billy Crystal's NY Times picture book bestseller, "I Already Know I Love You".

Last week, the instructor gave us a list of quotes and actions; our first assignment was to create a rough sketch based on one of each, interpreting them however we wanted. During our critiques tonight, we will receive feedback on how to alter & better our images before illustrating the final picture in color.

I picked this quote:

"A great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do." -Walter Bagehot

I combined action words in my image such as "stretching" and "cutting". The sketch is very faint (and also very small) once scanned and copied in since I drew it in light pencil -- so if you can't tell, the little girl is about to cut off her bangs. She's holding lipstick in her right hand, which is all over her face. Oh and she has dressed up her kitty as a princess.


For a little girl, THIS is the great pleasure of doing what people say you cannot do.

until next time,


g