We All Need Hellboy Telling Us To Get Over Ourselves

by Cory Godbey

The other day I came across this beautifully rendered and honestly written Hellboy fan comic by Benjamin Schipper. It's a personal conversation about ideas, writing, and reaching for something big. Also monsters.

Schipper's story touches a nerve I suspect that we all feel from time to time, that there are things we as artists want to do, things we know that we need to do, but for one made up reason or another we don't do. 

He explains that this comic is, "Just a personal story about a conversation I had with one of my favorite comic heroes. It was a self-medicating process that helped me scrape some rust off my storytelling and writing ability."

I think he's being modest with the description there. 

It's too easy to make a million excuses to not do something. Or finish something. Or start something. 

I know I fall into that pit myself far too often. 

And I need stories like this one to help pull me out.

You can find Ben haunting the internet over at his site, as well as on Twitter and Instagram.

SFAL DRAWING HAUL

by Cory Godbey

Others have more eloquently put together thoughts on why Spectrum Fantastic Art Live is special but suffice it to say for me, I just love that show. It's a convention like no other. From the friends that I only see there to the awards presentation, from the attendees and the volunteers to Cathy, Arnie, and John, the show is near and dear to my heart.



As try to do each SFAL, I make this my convention to acquire original drawings.

And it looks like I do some drawings as well.
No, YOUR posture is bad!
(Photo by Jerry Trapp)

I've collected here for your enjoyment a look at my SFAL drawings haul (and a bonus)!



To kick things off, very like these dwarves I actually STOLE these two drawings from noted Muddy Colors contributing editor, camouflage cargo shorts enthusiast, and Pittsburgh's favored son, Justin P. Gerard. 



Ok, fine, we traded but still, I might as well as stole them. They were begging to be swiped, just look at them.

GERARD IS ON TO US! GO, GO! THE DRAWINGS WE TRADED HIM WERE CURSED!

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Haunting, mythical work drawing on folklore and fantasy, I had to pick up some drawings from Tiffany Turrill. 

She had so many wonderful little pieces but in the end I settled on this pair because (like the dragon and dwarves above) the two drawings seemed to suggest a story and place and I really liked that about them.

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Scott Gustafson has always brought drawings upon drawings to SFAL and each show I've made it my top priority to acquire at least one. 

The drawings that my wife and I have collected from Scott (and Patty, hi!) over the years are truly some of our most prized originals. I could never say enough nice things about them so I'll stop, on to the drawings.

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The ever amazing and wonderfully hilarious Mark Nelson. Somehow or another I fooled him into trading so I ran away with this little treasure! (MARK, IF YOUR READING THIS, THE DRAWING I TRADED YOU WAS CURSED AS WELL, YOU AND GERARD ARE DOOMED, HA HA HA)

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Bonus! This is a book I picked up that I thought was a really great. Naomi VanDoren's work was a new find for me at the show and I was completely drawn in by her worlds. Her paintings and ideas are delightful.

Plein Air Painting With Bill Robinson

by Cory Godbey

Plein air painting is one of those things I've been interested in but truthfully never really tried. 

The reality is, for me, painting is enough of a challenge without the whole natural world getting involved. I'm envious of those artists who can set up shop seemingly anywhere and pull together a painting!

Bill Robinson and I go way back (we first met in 2009 when I was curating a Maurice Sendak tribute art blog called Terrible Yellow Eyes). He has a decorated career in children's books and animation and currently works as a visual development artist at Sony.

I thought I'd invite Bill over to share a little of his experience and expertise with plein air painting.

Enjoy!

How and when did you get started plein air painting?

A little over a year ago I moved to Los Angeles and was working at my first job in feature animation with some very talented painters. When I started nosing around and asking them how they got so good, they mentioned that they go plein air painting as often as possible. I had seen plein air and even done a couple of workshops years ago, but the practice never really cemented for me. Lucky for me, we formed a little group of people who would go painting every day at lunch, setting up on the streets of Santa Monica near our office. Being able to see the gear, subjects, handling of paint...and doing it every day finally got me over the feeling of, �I have no idea what I�m doing� and made the whole process much more enjoyable.

What makes a good location for plein air painting? Do you decide where to go and then choose a spot or is there something in a particular landscape or place that you set out to find first?

I find myself more attracted to nature than architecture or cityscapes, which for me comes down to where I like to paint and what I like to spend hours staring at. I would usually rather be out on a sunny trail or near a stream than in a busy industrial area, though there is plenty of beauty to be found in factories, train yards, etc. and I think it�s a good idea to mix it up every now and then. When I head to to my general location, the first thing I look for is the lighting. If there�s a really beautiful shadow pattern or the light catches my eye and holds it, I will stop and consider that place for a painting. Subject matter itself doesn�t matter all that much, I�ve found that a tree or a rock or a flower or a mountain can all be painted in beautiful ways. When I�ve been to an area enough times I start to keep a mental log of spots I want to paint, which makes it easy the next time I�m there.

What sort of materials do you take with you on locations?

I�ve found that everyone has a different plein air setup, but the main thing for me is finding stuff that is lightweight and very portable. Here�s a look at my current setup:

1. 
   Paper Towels, Spray Bottle, Artists Tape - These seems like add-ons, but they are essential! Paper towels especially, for getting the right consistency when mixing gouache. Too much water on your brush and you�ll be struggling. Spray bottle is good for keeping your palette wet.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   


2. 
   Brushes - I mostly use 2-3 brushes on a painting. Mainly a 1� flat and then maybe a �� flat for details. Once in awhile I use a round for smaller details. I love my cylindrical brush carrier, which keeps them from getting bent bristles in my backpack.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   


3. 
   Palette - I use a Sta-Wet palette for and it changed my life. I used to hate working with gouache because it dries out so quickly, especially in heat or direct sunlight. The Sta-Wet palette has a wet sponge and a special palette paper that keep your paints full of moisture, even days later. I also use a small spray bottle of water to refresh the paint if necessary.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   


4. 
   Paper/Pencils/Eraser - I work on a variety of surfaces, but mostly either cold press watercolor paper or hot press illustration board. I have started to prefer illustration board, mostly because you don�t have to worry about buckling or warping. I�ve always got a pencil and kneaded eraser in my kit for laying in quick sketches. The boards in the photo are from Cottonwood Arts.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   


5. 
   Water - I use an old pill bottle with a screw on cap to hold my water. It�s tiny, lightweight, and watertight.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   


6. 
   Masonite board - If you are using a small painting surface, it�s good to have a board to tape it down to.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   


7. 
   Pochade Box - I bit the bullet and bought a fancy STRADA easel. It�s lightweight, strong, super portable, and easy to use. No complaints. There are definitely cheaper options (including many homemade ones) for people just getting started.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   


8. 
   Tripod - I�m using a cheap old tripod I had lying around the house, but it would probably be a good idea to use something a little more sturdy. Just be careful of how heavy it might make your pack.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   


9. 
   Travel Toiletry Hanger/Paint - I had this old toiletry carrier and found that it is perfect for holding my supplies. It has a hanger hook up top, which I can hang on to my easel for easy access. I use gouache for my plein air paintings, mostly because it�s waterbased, opaque, and dries quickly. Also, the tubes are very small and easy to transport! I am fond of Holbein and Winsor & Newton, though there are other good brands out there.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   


10. 
    Backpack  - This Kelty Redwing bag is huge, with tons of zippers and pockets for all your supplies. It�s a serious backpacking kit, so you trade off a little more weight to use it. Sometimes I switch this out for a lightweight gym knapsack if I don�t need all the gear.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

Current setup in action:

Walk us through your process.

Step 1: Once I�ve selected a subject/area to paint, I take a few minutes to think about composition. This will depend on the format of my painting surface (sometimes it�s square, or wide, or tall, etc) but I tend to work rather small. This particular painting is about 5" x 7�. Once I�ve got a composition in mind (considering the rule of thirds, focal point, etc) I will do a very quick sketch. This is going to get covered by paint in a moment, so I keep it rough. I just want the key things like the telephone pole, the house, and the wall at the bottom in their basic positions.

Step 2: Basic Block-In. I do this as quickly as possible, mostly working wet-in-wet. Don�t expect this phase to look good - if it does, you�re probably getting bogged down in detail. Sometimes I will work on white, other time I will ground my canvas with burnt sienna or something similar. In this case I kept it white for the sky. The thing about gouache (and watercolor) is that you will never get a paint as white as the original paper...so be careful with preserving it when you need to!

Step 3: Tightening Up - Here I�ve got my colors blocked in and am paying more attention to local color. I want the greens to have the right temperature and the browns and yellows to feel like they are in either light or shadow. It still looks very rough.

Step 4: Values: Now I�m starting to pay more attention to value. I lay in some of the darkest darks and try to get more key details locked down. I pay more attention to color variation, like adding in some purples to the dirt trail and some blues to the sides of the house.

Step 5: Finished! Here I�ve added the fine details, the lines on the bricks, the fence posts, the telephone wires, small leaves and flowers. It�s amazing how much these little details bring a painting to life, but they would not work if the rest of the foundation had not been laid down.

I'm curious, do you find that people want to see what you're up to or do they give you space?

I have gotten pretty mixed reactions, depending on where I am set up. Most people are very friendly and just excited to see what you�re working on. I�ve painted in big cities, where people have made jokes about how they wish they could spend their day painting instead of working. (Reconsider your life choices!) I�ve painted at Disneyland, where kids get super excited to see an artist doing something. Mostly I paint out on nature trails where I get to meet dogs and chat with their owners!

Thanks so much for sharing your expertise with us, Bill! Where can people find you online?

My pleasure! I share my plein air paintings and a lot of my process shots on my Instagram:

http://instagram.com/flimflammery

I�m also on Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook.

Also, I understand that you have a show coming up as well, where can people find that?

Yes! I am very excited to announce that I will be having my first solo show of my pleinair artwork at the Light Grey Art Lab in Minneapolis. It opens April 21 and goes through May 20. The artwork will also be available online after the show opens. 

Check out www.lightgreyartlab.com for more info as it becomes available!

Jim Henson's The Dark Crystal Tales

by Cory Godbey

Over the years I've had the delight and good fortune to get to play in the gardens created by Jim Henson and Brian Froud. I love these kind of projects and I often feel as if I've stumbled out of the woods and into a dappled, ever-growing, ever-changing meadow. They planted the gardens and we get to enjoy them.



Here and there, I've been given the chance to plant a few seedlings of my own so whether the "garden" is the world of The Dark Crystal or Labyrinth, I've never taken that opportunity lightly. With each book or project I've sought to push myself as hard as I could to honor the original films, characters, and stories.



My next book is a follow up to 2016's Labyrinth Tales (which you can read about right here on Muddy Colors if you'd like!) and with it I'd like to invite you to return to Thra in The Dark Crystal Tales.

From the press release:

Los Angeles, Calif. (February 2, 2017) � BOOM! Studios and The Jim Henson Company are proud to announce JIM HENSON�S THE DARK CRYSTAL TALES, a new children�s book set for release this summer by acclaimed writer and artist Cory Godbey (Have Courage, Be Kind: The Tale of Cinderella). The publication is a follow-up to last fall�s best-selling JIM HENSON�S LABYRINTH TALES, also written and illustrated by Godbey. 

Jim Henson�s The Dark Crystal Tales delves deep into the Skeksis-ruled land of Thra in this beautiful look at some of Jim Henson and Brian Froud�s finest creations from the beloved cult-classic film The Dark Crystal.

�The themes woven within The Dark Crystal have never been more important for children or the parents of those children to hear,� said Godbey. �As the UrSkek tells Jen, ��we all are a part of each other.� For this book, my goal was to create three stories which reflect those ideas and honor the tone of Jim Henson�s original, groundbreaking film. These stories explore how a single act can ripple outward and how you can never know who it will touch or who it might help." 

�Cory Godbey brings tremendous beauty to Jim Henson�s visionary creations as seen in the bestselling Labyrinth Tales. We were eager to work with Cory again and witness his take on the colorful, rich world of The Dark Crystal,� said Editor Sierra Hahn. �What new chapters await young Jen and Kira long before their fateful meeting? Cory�s genius is in full effect in the delightfully spun The Dark Crystal Tales.�

This was a terrifically challenging book to write. While Labyrinth Tales is pretty light-hearted, a look at what some of these characters get up to when they're not otherwise engaged in goblin-wrecking adventures, the stories for The Dark Crystal Tales proved much more difficult for me to find. I wanted to write stories that meant more, that while fun still reflected the themes of the film, and were braided together to tell a story larger than each individual story.



I'll delve a little deeper in to the three stories once the book is released later this summer but until then I wanted to give you a look at the creation of the cover.

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In the same way that The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth are sort of companion movies, my first idea was to have this book's cover feel like a companion to Labyrinth Tales.

Here you can see the original thumbnail roughs. The second one has decidedly more Podlings.

And then the sketch. It felt more natural to have Jen sitting down.

For the sake of time and flexibility, I often work in pieces. Here's a look at the Mystic. 

Can there be more wonderful characters than these "natural wizards" the Urru?

And here's the undressed (actual term) cover.

Jim Henson's The Dark Crystal Tales will be released later this summer. It's a book that I'm terrifically proud of and one that which I think you'll enjoy, Dark Crystal fan or not.

It was a special challenge to take three stories, stories with characters who can not have met before the events of the film, and have a thread that weaves through and ties them all together. 

Good and evil actions ripple across each story and impact the lives of Jen, Kira, Fizzgig and many other wonderful creatures in the ever-growing, ever-changing world of Thra.

David Petersen's The Wind in the Willows

by Cory Godbey

Valentines Day? No sir, today is The Wind in the Willows Day!



At long last David Petersen's new, richly illustrated edition of the Kenneth Grahame classic is now available.

This is an astonishingly beautiful collection. The book has been a labor of love for David over the last couple years and across the 70 illustrations I think you'll see that love for rivers, cottages, and wild places pouring from the book.



David Petersen (of Mouse Guard fame) is a New York Times best selling artist and writer as well as a Spectrum, Eisner, and Harvey Award winner. I reached out to him to get a little insight into this project.

Tell me a little about your history with the story. What led to this project? 

The Wind in the Willows is one of those books I wanted to take a shot at illustrating before I died. I was aware of the story as a kid, and I think in high-school I even acquired the Cosgrove Hall stop-motion animated series on VHS, but it wasn't until I was in college that I read it. My Dad gave it to me as a Christmas gift knowing how much I still enjoyed animal stories. I read it over the break, home from school and was enchanted. When my wife Julia and I were dating, I read it to her aloud, doing my best to imitate the voices of the characters as I imagined they sounded in my head. IDW approached me saying that they wanted to publish some classic prose stories and use their contacts of comic artists to illustrate them. They'd thought The Wind in the Willows was the right fit for me and I couldn't have agreed more. This was my chance to illustrate it.

Did your process differ much from Mouse Guard? If so, in what ways? 

It differed in some ways and similar in others. The most obvious differences being that story was already written, and I had to go though and pick certain elements to illustrate as one single image, instead of telling an narrative with panels showing all the moments of a story. A less obvious difference was the amount of added texture and tonal value I wanted to add with line. But, just like Mouse Guard, I used the same process of doing traditional sketches that I'd resize and adjust digitally before printing out and inking traditionally on a lightbox. I also fell into my habit of making models of some of the architectural locations, furniture, and vehicles (though not Toad's motor car... I purchased a die cast model for that reference). 

How was it stepping into such a well loved (and well illustrated) story? What particular challenges did the book bring to the table? 

Several! Dealing with some of the size/scale issues presented in the book with animals who sometimes seem the size of animals and at others the sizes of human children was a trick, but the two biggest challenges were deciding what to illustrate (or what I'd have to pass on) and living in the shadow of every amazing Willows illustrator who came before me. IDW and I agreed on 70 illustrations (20 color, 50 black and white) partly for space in the book, partly for keeping the project scale manageable on my end, and it was very hard to still not illustrate some key moments in that count. And the list of folks like E.H. Shepard, Arthur Rackham, Inga Moore, Robert Ingpen, and many many others made it difficult to feel like I was bringing something new and worth saying visually to the illustrations of this book. In many cases, I'd draw something very close to one of their illustrations (Shepard's most often) and then force myself to adjust, draw the characters from another angle, get closer or further away from them, show the scene a second prior or after... and I'd come up with an inferior illustration and revert back to just doing my best to add my own voice to a classic layout of someone else's. 

Out of the entire collection can you pick a favorite image? Maybe that's an impossible question to answer. Which piece was the most satisfying or rewarding?

That is difficult. I really like some of the ending scenes with all four of the main characters geared up ready to take back Toad Hall (they were the first ones I envisioned when accepting the project) but a subtle one that I'm very proud of is the moment inside a tree hollow when Mole has gotten lost in the Wild Wood and Rat has come to rescue him. I'd mis-read the passage initially and was sketching out both characters sleeping in the hollow in a pile of dead leaves, but then found that Rat stays awake with his pistols drawn standing guard over Mole so the poor creature can get some rest. It changed the meaning of the illustration and helped me get into a better drawing for it. In the end, I also feel like it's one of the most 'David Petersen' pieces in the whole book.

Ok! Favorite character question in two parts: favorite character to draw and with whom do you most identify?

Even this is a hard question. Badger was fun to draw at first, but found him a challenge to draw in various angles. Mole the same thing, foreshortening his shape of snout along with his black fur meant that I was limited if I wanted him to be readable. Toad was hard to keep consistent and I think he changes throughout the book. And Rat was also a challenge because he's not a 'rat' but a water vole... and it's easy to make that look odd or wrong. I guess I enjoyed drawing Badger the most. But Toad was a close second. Identify with? I think there is a slice of each in me... more Toad than I'd like, but enough of the rest to balance him out so that I'm not unbearable. 

Lastly, where can people find you online?

My website for all things Mouse Guard: www.mouseguard.net

I update my blog every Tuesday with process & info: davidpetersen.blogspot.com

and on Twitter & Instagram, @mouseguard.

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One final note that I wanted to add, David is releasing many of the originals from the book today as well! You can peruse the entire collection here.

Artist Spotlight: Edward Robert Hughes

by Cory Godbey

Edward Robert Hughes is one of those Pre-Raphaelite painters that I should have known about sooner. 

While I'd certainly seen a piece or two in the past, it's only very recently that I'd had the chance to do any study about the man himself and his work. The quiet grace and (I'm not sure exactly how better to put this) the intimate otherworldliness strikes a certain tuning fork within me. I was compelled to dive further into his work and I'm here now to bring you a look at what I discovered.

Hughes was born in 1851, London. Young Edward studied under his uncle, the celebrated painter Arthur Hughes, until he entered the Heatherley School of Fine Art.

Afterwards, Hughes was accepted into the Royal Academy School at the age of 17. He went on to have a distinguished career in portraiture as well as academia.

Beginning in 1888, he served as a studio assistant to William Holman Hunt, a position he held until 1905.

Throughout his lifetime Hughes earned many prestigious titles. He gained membership in the Art Workers Guild (also in 1888) and in 1891 he was elected to Associate Membership of The Royal Water Colour Society. Ultimately, he became the Vice-President of the Society.

He died in 1914, just before the outbreak of the Great War. According to Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery curator, Victoria Osborne, Hughes was something of a "lost" artist. 



After his death, Hughes "began to plummet into critical obscurity. He did not have a one-man show in his lifetime and his work was not seriously re-examined for more than 60 years." 

In light of that, I find it incredibly touching that shortly after his death some of Hughes' friends formed what they called the E. R. Hughes Memorial Committee. 

They gathered up the equivalent of �13,000 and purchased two paintings from Hughes' widow, Emily Eliza, and donated them. The above painting, Night with Her Train of Stars, was donated to the city of Birmingham. The second painting, Blondel's Quest was given to the Ashmolean in Oxford. 



Speaking of Birmingham, at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, currently there's an exhibition featuring more than 70 pieces, evidently some of which hasn't been seen for the last 100 years. It opened back in October and will close next month, February 21st. 

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This being my first Muddy Colors post of the New Year I wanted to say thanks again to you, the reader, for your support! While I've done this every year so far, I didn't think to do it back in December with my final post of 2016 -- I've complied a handy guide to look back at all my posts from last year. Enjoy!

"Easy, Chewie."

So A Lawyer And An Artist Walk Into A Jungle...

Great Job, Internet!

Artist Spotlight: Sulamith W�lfing

Jim Henson's Labyrinth: Stone Cold

Hulduf�lk: Iceland Exhibition

Shadows of the Dark Crystal

Great Job, Internet! Vol. II

Kin Fables

Dragons and Other Incidents of Travel

Walking Through the Landscape of Faerie

An Illustrated Ghost-Story of Christmas

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One final housekeeping note, if you need more Muddy Colors in your day you can follow us on Twitter and Instagram! We're @muddycolors on both.