I Love When This Happens
Posted by Bob Staake at 2:49 pm on May 2nd
A couple weekends ago we were in the city to celebrate my youngest's 16th b-day. On Saturday afternoon, the boys dragged me to ToysRUs in Times Square to check out some new Wii game. They were engossed in the shoot-'em-up air assault graphics and soon a line formed behind them -- kids, teens, 20-somethings, 30-somethings -- all waiting for their chance to take a shot at blowing a Saudi F-15 out of the sky or something. I just couldn't relate so I told them I'd be in the kid area. I walked over there -- amidst all the children's books, the leap frog consoles, the stuff all designed to TEACH kids something -- and all you could hear were crickets. It really bummed me out. How the HELL does someone like me even COMPETE against a surface-to-air missle with something as "frivolous" as a children's picture book? Yeah, it was a depressing picture. So I come back to the Cape, dig into my usual work, and then this morning comes an email that puts a smile on my face, makes me believe that it ain't as bad as it seems, gives me faith that we who write and illustrate these things really ARE helping.
For all of you who create books for children, this letter is for you:
Mr. Bob Staake, I bought RED LEMON for my daughter about a month ago. In these past 30 or so days, the book has been read at least 18,372 times. She loves this book so much that it has become a nightly read before bedtime. I read a few books to her before bed; she always saves RED LEMON for last. I also enjoy reading it to her. I have no doubt its colorful pictures and lyrical words are helping her to read. She’ll be 3 in a few months, but the poetry and rhythm allows her to read along with me by recognizing which line of the poem goes with which picture. She insists however on reading: “Lemons for Sherbet, lemons for pie, lemons for drinks….” herself, without any interruption on my part. She even makes the sound effects that would go along with that poor lemon getting tossed way over on that island. Today I bought MARY HAD A LITTLE LAMP with hopes that she enjoys it enough to add to her nighttime repertoire. Thank you for making it fun for us big kids too. I look forward to reading more of your books.
The Miniscule Vacation
Posted by Bob Staake at 11:08 am on April 25th
It was gorgeous here on the Cape yesterday, so Paulette and I were outside during lunch planting a new row of spinach when the phone rang. When a weekly or a monthly first asks me "can you do a quick turnaround", that usually means you've got 3 days, but with a daily newspaper, that quick flip is usually only measured in hours -- and here it was 24.
You know the drill -- story not completely written, no manuscript to read, at best the jist of the article and a little direction from the art director and editor. With the cost of gas, travel, the sorry state of the dollar, etc, people will be cutting back this summer when it comes to vacations.
We talked it over and the Journal was envisioning a stereotypical family of tourists all looking at a small ocean liner "in a cup or something" to suggest reduced and diminished holiday dreams, but I suggested a fish bowl.
I put down the spinach seeds, washed the mud from my hands and doodled -- for two reasons, really -- first, i LIKE to doodle, secondly, planting spinach doesn't pay.
There has been a lot of sketch-posting on Drawger the past few weeks, so I thought I might join. I guess we all like process -- and in the world of sketches, they're our equivalent of sausage making.
The first sketch with luggage being almost a crucial a player in the scene as the people.
In a second variation, I try to get past the singular usage of the ocean liner and introduce a variety of (small) modes of transportation. Everyone knows that I was married to one of the actresses from 'The Brady Bunch', and we had a small train like the one here that ringed our property and we could ride all day long. Ah, the good old days!
The Journal really pushed on the ocean liner theme, and since I had not read the manuscript, I had to assume that luxury cruises might be the real thrust of the article -- so back to the ship I went -- here with dad juggling luggage, kids and gravity.
The Journal loved all the ideas but wanted to tighten in on the point of view so it might better direct the reader's eyes into the fishbowl and ship. They took the original sketch and gave me a rough idea of what they were looking for design-wise, which worked for me.
A final sketch.
Once we settled on the sketch, I started working on the final art yesterday afternoon. In the middle of my mindless tugging, pulling and yanking of my mouse to add shapes, colors and effects I got a call from an old friend in Los Angeles. We probably talked for a good hour and when I hung up, I was a little shocked at how far the illustration had progressed. After dinner I added some labels to the luggage and emailed it to the Journal -- and just in time to watch my one weekly guilty pleasure, 'The Office'.
Pet Process
Posted by Bob Staake at 5:33 pm on April 9th
The final cover -- what I wound up going with.
I've never been all that into "process" and probably for a number of reasons. First, I've been doing this for a long time (let's call it 1976) so in all these years you pretty much find ways to just plow through, get the work doen, and never look back -- and rarely reflect on too much because there are always 8 other deadlines on the horizon. Secondly, I'm pretty lazy when I want to be and the idea of saving scraps of paper, scanning it all, then posting them as a conga line of scribbles and feeble searches for an answer seems like, well, kinda boring. Truth be told I'd rather be outside hammering some copper plating to a cupola -- but a cold front seems to be moving in.
Anyway, this is the cover for a new book of mine for Little Brown -- another pop-up -- and since I found myself doodling, sketching and plotting preliminary drawings more than I have in a long time, I thought these pieces might be worth posting.
Even though the final color art took me no longer than an afternoon to complete, it was one of those projects where you start in advance of the deadline to make sure you know where you want to be going -- knowing full well that if you sit down and try and do the project the RIGHT way, you'll discard more false starts in an effort to attest to yourself that your final decision(s) were correct.
At the very beginning, I knew that I wanted to create some sort of "puzzle" type design with key zoo animals from the book all working into the postive and negative spaces of the cover. With a 12 page book like this, I have as many animals represented on the spread, so the decision to use some animals -- and leave out others -- is really the main challenge I'll face. Of course the general SHAPES of those animals will make them likely (or unlikely) candidates for the cover -- a leg tweaked into this spot, a trunk curling in here, a neck extending from top to bottom. With a perfectly square canvas, it'll be crucial to get the right mix of animals -- and this first sketch shows that I don't even come CLOSE to making it work.
On a second sketch, I start getting a little closer to where I want to go, and even though the aesthetic borders on over-the-top cartoonishness, the drawing convinces me that I'm on the right track -- and if I can pick out the right animals and create the appropriate balance, I'll have a graphically appealing cover.
I keep playing around -- and by adding a rhino in the lower left, his angled horn seems the ideal way to "anchor" the 'P' in 'Pets'. The problem? I like giraffes more than rhinos, and visually speaking, I've never known an illustrator who didn't want to render a tiger. Something about the stripes.
Another quick doodle for composition purposes -- and to get the giraffe into the action. I always saw this cover as needing a boy and girl as well (the prevailing theme of the book shows kids interacting with these bizarre "pets"), but I knew there was a possibility that my editor (the lovely Liza) and art director (the equally lovely PattiAnn) would wonder if I could work in at least a couple traditional pets -- a cat and a dog. Given their small scale, I knew I'd be able to insert them SOMEwhere -- but would worry about that later if I had to. You SEE what we illustrators have to "worry" about?
A tighter, more fleshed out sketch is executed -- and this is the one I show to Little Brown. Not too tight, not too forced in the action -- and enough "air" between all the positive spaces that I think I'll need to make the final piece work.
I have NO idea why I did this because I NEVER do this -- but for some odd reason I thought I wanted to create a small color test based on the final sketch. Okay, wait a minute -- NOW I remember why I did that. The basic colors of EACH animal, that's crucial in a piece like this, and I wanted to make sure I'd be able represent each animal in distinct hues. I would have really loved to have worked an alligator in there -- especially since I like green so much -- but no go. Green in the background as a compromise? Sure, why not.
There are really tremendous advantages to being in this business for as long as I have because you sort of can predict precisely what the editorial suggestions and tweaks might be. Little Brown loved the action and the design of the piece, but bingo, they wondered if I COULD work in a dog and a cat. A friend of mine jokes that I create dogs that "can fit into ANY open space on any composition", so if I can do that with a hound, should be a piece of cake to do the same with a cat. So -- fini - complete -- done.
Next?
Tiger and kid detail
Lion and giraffe detail
Slinking kitty and blue dog detail
Elephant detail (in lavender and pink just because I'm SO comfortable in my masculinity)
Absinthe Makes The Heart Grow Fonder (So They TELL Me)
Posted by Bob Staake at 8:35 pm on March 14th
I don't drink, but don't hold that against me. Another thing I don't do is sleep too well, so last night at 3:00am I'm clicking around and I come across this show called 'Two Sheets To The Wind' on Mojo, that uber-guy oriented cable channel in which every bit of content seems to involve drinking, girls with tattoos and more drinking. The host went to the Czech republic and did a thing on absinthe. Apparently it tastes like a melange of pine-scented Lysol and turpentine (hey, count me in!). The best thing was the ritualistic manner in which you drink the ghostly green stuff -- pour it into a glass, rest a slotted spoon on the opening, place a sugar cube on the spoon, then light the whole thing on fire so it burns this cool blue. i guess after 6 of these you get used to the taste, though the host could not find a single person in this Prague bar (bar maid, bartender, waiter, etc) who would admit to LIKING the stuff. Still, it sure looked cool -- and made me think of Tolouse Latrec, Van Gogh, etc. I did a faux poster this afternoon -- and trust me on this -- I'll get into less trouble illustrating absinthe than drinking it! (I have a hunch Flaherty may have knocked a couple back over the years).
Absinthe has long been called the "green fairy" because of its (alleged) hallucinogenic properties. People say you have a couple drinks and all of a sudden you're willing to blow your entire political career. Just ask Elliot Spitzer. This fairy (faerie for all you goat-earred goths out there) looks kinda like a hood ornament from a 1942 Buick.
I originally thought the fairy character would work better aimed skyward, but now I'm not sure. I think I need a tankard of absinthe to figure it out. You guys drink it for me, okay?
ObaMcCain
Posted by Bob Staake at 3:59 pm on February 27th
While watching the debate last night, I grabbed my mouse and tried to channel my favorite caricaturist of all-time, Paolo Garretto.
Many of you are well aware of Garretto and his less-is-more approach to caricature, but if you don't know his work, be sure to click the link above (note: the 'Segue Caricature' link at the bottom of that page means there's a second page of Garretto brilliance). He could brilliantly capture a likeness with nothing more than a few judiciously placed shapes, add a couple airbrush details and then back it all up with a drop-shadow created by a dry toothbrush spatter of gouache.
I'm not alone in being a real fan of Garretto. David Cowles loves him, Steven Heller wrote a marvelous feature of his work in a recent issue of Print and am STILL jealous that my buddy Robert Risko actually MET the guy in New York in the 1980s.
Anyway, it was fun trying to reduce Obama visually and try and impart likeness with just a few shapes and elements, and when that worked out, thought I'd try the same thing with McCain. I'd try Hillary as well, but something tells me she's gonna be kinda out of the limelight in a couple of weeks.
Lost Angeles
Posted by Bob Staake at 4:18 pm on February 23rd
Growing up in Southern California, this was the architecture that I was surrounded by.
Idyllic bungalows like these from the South Bay of Los Angeles are literally being swallowed up and puked out by one McMansion after another -- and it's a crying shame.
I'm working on a giclee series called Lost Angeles -- part therapy, part visual history, maybe a little art thrown in.
Click the link to see the first three.
These idyllic bungalows are just so rare now and have been inhaled and
4,683 Paper Cuts Later...
Posted by Bob Staake at 2:15 pm on January 18th
... you get a BOOK out of the whole thing!
They're a lot of work, but I have to say that creating a pop-up book can be a trult rewarding experience -- especially when you finish the thing!
I'm in the middle of my second for the good folks at Little Brown ('Pets Go Pop'), but I have to say that THIS one, 'Trucks Go Pop' came out pretty well. Lots of color, lots of animated effects, lots of paper angling here there and everywhere.
The book was a unique experience for me because (generally speaking) I've never been big on projects that require my extended input, and between the extensive sketches, diecutting tweaks, working with the paper engineers in China and revisions to this that and the other thing, I somehow managed to keep my composure.
I think the BEST thing is what I learned on THIS book -- and how it is making the process of creating the next one (Pets Go Pop) even better.
Wish these photos were better, but you get the idea.
When Collaboration Sucks
Posted by Bob Staake at 3:23 pm on January 14th
http://www.bobstaake.com/wyldstallyons
I've always loved to collaborate -- particularly when it means working with talented people who specialize in creative areas different from mine. I've done a lot of animation design in my career, but I somehow have never been able to develop much of a tolerance for what I (assume) is some major tedium, so when the amazing folks at Wyld Stallyons in London said they wanted to work together developing an animation project based on one of my books, I told them I'd be desighted to -- as long as I didn't have to do any heavy lifting or major league drawing. In the end, we decided to start developing my version of 'Struwwelpeter', a book I did for Monte Beauchamp's 'Picto Novelette' series for Fantagraphics a couple years ago (the book of uber-German morality tales for kids was actually written over 160 years ago by physician Heinrich Hoffmann). Anyway, Wyld Stallyons sent me a test this morning -- based on 'The Story of the Thumb Sucker'. It's pretty amazing to me that they could get SO much out of the mere TWO illustrations I provided them -- art created for the book and not tweaked in any way by me -- but the pacing, the music, the edits really demonstrate just how good Wyld Stallyons are.
