Heidi Schmidt

Happy Holidays!

2008-12-23T06:11:45+00:00

Nice Work if You Can Get It

2008-11-14T05:53:06+00:00

It's the time of year when I wrap up my theater projects. The Member of the Wedding is one of my favorite plays. I would love to direct it one day.

I Voted! Thank you Elizabeth Cady Stanton!

2008-11-04T18:48:54+00:00

Obama / Biden 08

2008-11-04T00:34:50+00:00

BOO!

2008-10-31T18:41:42+00:00

If you show me your Obama, I'll show you mine.

2008-10-09T23:30:25+00:00

OBAMATHON!!!! Show me your Obama, baby.

Happy 80th Birthday Mr. Sendak!

2008-09-15T08:36:15+00:00

As a kid growing up in the 60's I was raised on the magnificent visual story telling of Maurice Sendak. How lucky I was to be the proud owner of one of the first copies of Where the Wild Things are. Sure, I had a Dr. Seuss collection, The Carrot Seed and Harold and the Purple Crayon but nothing compared to Max and his bedroom of monsters. Then there was Little Bear Goes to The Moon & Higgledy, Piggledy, Pop. A few years back I bought a copy of The Juniper Tree and Other Tales from Grimm illustrated by Mr. Sendak. Every once in a while I crack open my dog-eared copy to soak up some inspiration from the amazing illustrations. Each drawing is full of detail and storytelling. Tonight, in honor of his 80th year I will turn down the lights, get in bed with the covers up to my chin and read Where the Wild Things Are.

Recent New York Times Article about Sendak turning 80

Where the Wild Things Are Film Fan Site

Time Article (1973) This article talks about The Juniper Tree

It's a Hard Knock Life

2008-05-07T23:52:53+00:00

It's a hard-knock life being an orphan. Tell your politicians. I did it.

Send a Letter

mobygratis

2008-04-18T18:35:15+00:00

Moby is giving away music to anyone who might need a tune or two. Great idea. Nice guy. Listen to what he has to say about his friend who was sued for copying a copyrighted photograph yet the photo had copyrighted imagery in it that the photographer did not pay for. Hmmmmm.....

Charlie Harper - I'm an important guy!

2008-01-08T18:22:26+00:00

Here is a nice You Tube video addition to Don's post about Charlie Harper:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUTQ9_e8WXI

Mo' Figures

2007-08-03T01:29:12+00:00

From friday's figure drawing class. Some days are better than others. I like this one. Check the gallery to the right. Practice, practice, practice.

Fabric Patterns

2007-06-12T05:59:21+00:00

Every once in a while I get asked to create a design for a fabric pattern. Patterns are difficult and fun. The trick is to not let your eye see where the pattern repeats. I have done a few really tough ones. Good luck to the guy who has to screen print it onto the fabric. The best project was to illustrate teeny-tiny floral designs for a set of Fisher Price doll house furniture (see below). Every time I go to Target I admire my work.

The Politicians

2007-05-04T04:59:47+00:00

Ah, the politicians. You love em, ya hate em. Nancy Pelosi. This is how she looks. I'm not kidding. I bet her face must hurt from looking so appalled all of the time.

Check em out in my new gallery.

On the 20th Century

2007-04-23T22:27:46+00:00

Once in a while I get a request to do a theater poster. Most of the time I decline because there are so many restrictions about who's name is bigger than who's and why isn't so and so's name above the title...blah, blah, blah. Not to mention the 300 people who have to okay the mug, t-shirt, poster, postcard and mailer art. And did I mention I also want to be paid? Here's one that I was happy to do just because the subject matter is much fun. The 20th Century Limited train.

Bill Nelson

2007-04-02T18:51:37+00:00

When I went to Art School (CCAC) in the 80's there was no illustration department. I took the only illustration class that was offered. It was taught by a very nice instructor who idolized Boris Vallejo and Frank Frazetta. So if you could render buxom women riding fire breathing dragons you were guaranteed an A. If not, them don't let the easel hit you in the ass. There was even less support in the Design Department. There the instructors warned against using illustration in design because was expensive and took away from the structure of the design. I really have no idea why there was this prejudice against illustration but I sneaked it in when ever I could. Interestingly, two of those design instructors now call themselves illustrators. Anyway, I would spend hours in the library pouring over the SI annuals and CA looking for illustration. One of my idols was BIll Nelson. Man, what he could do with a colored pencil! Soft, economical drawings with just enough detail. Wowie! Today I was in the local used book store and found a book about his work. "Finishing the Hat" is a veritable treasure trove of illustrations, stories about how Fed Ex lost a piece of art, sketches, process. Scintillating! Who says illustration isn't fascinating? Okay, so I'm an illustration geek, still.

Friday is for Fish Wigs

2007-03-10T00:34:04+00:00

Friday is for Fish Wigs. An old kids book idea that my get some revisions if I can bubble up for air.

More Frida

2007-02-08T07:33:15+00:00

Inspired by Randy's wonderful post about Frida Kahlo here is my attempt at her likeness. Portraits are darn hard to do. My hats off to all Drawgers who knock these portraits out of the park every-time. I could fiddle around for days and not get it just right. An eyebrow hair here and a nostril shadow there. Geez! My medium of choice this evening is a stubby Ticonderoga pencil on Office Max printer paper. Practice, practice, practice!

The Studio!

2007-02-06T21:45:07+00:00

Well here it is! Today is the final inspection of my new studio. It only took six months and a zillion dollars to build but move in day is finally within reach. Sniff. If I knew that I was going to spend 10K on cement (concrete, whatever) I would have changed my vocation and become a Buddhist nun or a hobo. I'm proud to say that I paid for it all with illustration or art money, give or take a dimmer switch or two. Now I'm back to being a starving artist for a while. But at least I'm livin in style and not in the spare 10 x 11 bedroom! Ha!

The first picture is the pumpkin patch before the big studio. I'm already missing those pumpkins.

Hand Knits for Young Moderns

2007-01-31T05:46:45+00:00

I'm not a knitter myself, but I know there are some knitters among us (Nancy?) who will appreciate this site. I never ger tired of looking at this stuff. I actually remember when it was "the thing" to knit yourself an evening gown. My mother whipped up a few beauties when I was a kid. There was nothing like wearing your brand new hand knitted pantsuit to that July birthday party in sunny California!

See more Hand Knits for Young Moderns here...

Orville Redenbacher Zombified

2007-01-23T17:49:33+00:00

Check out this really creeepy CG animated commerical from Orville Redenbacher. The dude is dead already! Or is he?????? EW. Walt Disney would have loved this kind of thing.

Here is a high res version from the Rednebacher site

Or a really high res version here

The War President

2007-01-12T06:45:01+00:00

Condi Mania!

2007-01-04T08:04:52+00:00

In between stuff I have been working on a series of portraits of politicians. Portraits are tough. One slip and you've got Endora from Bewitched and not Condoleeza Rice at all. Family members who walk by my computer screen are often helpful with comments like "make him meaner" and "you made Bush look too intelligent" and so on.

My goal is to use very few gradation blends, stick to simple overlapping shapes with flat color to describe the subjects and to make the shapes as elegent as possible. Below are a few close up and screen shots of Condi in progress.

BTW, I use a regular mouse in Illustrator CS2, not a pen and tablet thing. I have one I just haven't had the time to bust it out yet. Also, I'm not a tracer. I just look at the reference and start mousing away. I can knock one out in an evening now. Ooops! I guess I shouldn't say that. Really it takes me days and days to do one, what with all the napping and stewing in my creative juices and all.

How Rudolf Got His Groove Back

2006-12-22T08:09:17+00:00

I found this amazing blog from some puppet folks in LA that were lucky enough to get to restore the original 1964 Rankin/Bass Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer and Santa figures. Rudolf had a rough time since his stardom in 1964. He had to have to have cigarette smoke removed and other damage repaired from being tossed in some kids candy bowl one too many times.

Go here to see the shiney new Rudolf and Santa.

BTW, I found this link through one of my faveorite sites Cartoon Brew. If you scroll down to the bottom of the site you will see a blurb about our own Drawger David Gothard.

Woof!

2006-12-17T22:03:44+00:00

Here's my Peter Boyle-Fronkenshteen contribution.

Hair Do Study

2006-12-08T04:11:15+00:00

I few weeks back I bought a swanky Parket 45 Flighter fountain pen on Ebay. Since my projects are a little thin right now I have the chance to give the Parker a spin. I have been thinking for sometime that it would be fun to draw simple headshots of people. I really wanted to draw prison inmates but I could not find any interesting reference. I thought of Civil War soldiers or cowboys. Too much of the same thing. Then I came across a bunch of high school yearbooks that alumni have scanned and put on the web. Perfect. I found a year book for almost every decade going back to the teens. Besides relearning how to draw with a pen, I learned that high school is about one thing - hairdos.

Here is a sample. To see more check out my gallery.

New Studio - Go to FINAL!

2006-12-01T21:59:27+00:00

After four months of fiddle-farting around with the city planning dept, various other headaches that come from being my own general contractor and not knowing what the heck I'm doing. UGG. The foundation for my new studio is signed off and ready for the big cement pour on Monday! I'm doing the happy dance now. It seems unbelievable to me that my new communte is going to be 50ft from my bedroom (I know this because it had to be measured) instead of the two feet that it is now. And I get to go outside to go there. Ha!

X-Men illustrator dies at 65 in his Superman pajamas

2006-11-29T17:37:12+00:00

COLUMBIA, South Carolina (AP) -- Wearing Superman pajamas and covered with his Batman blanket, comic book illustrator Dave Cockrum died Sunday.

You gotta love an illustrator who dies wearing his Superman PJs. Dave Cockrum was one of the original illustrators of the X-Men comic series. He struggled with diabetes for years with little or no money coming in until some friends got together and convinced Marvel Comics to help him out. He will be cremated in a Green Lantern T-shirt.

Here's Dave's Obit

Dave's deal with Marvel

Dave's Art

Ta Ta Rummy!

2006-11-09T10:13:33+00:00

Ta-ta Rummy! Don't let the WMD's hit you in the ass.

Some of my favorite Rummy Quotes:

'The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence...Simply because you do not have evidence that something does exist does not mean that you have evidence that it doesn't exist.'

'Death has a tendency to encourage a depressing view of war,'

"We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat." –on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction

"Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns -- the ones we don't know we don't know."

"Now, settle down, settle down. Hell, I'm an old man, it's early in the morning and I'm gathering my thoughts here."

"If I know the answer I'll tell you the answer, and if I don't, I'll just respond, cleverly."

Virgil Partch

2006-11-07T21:29:03+00:00

I found this really great article about cartoonist Virgil Partch. Partch worked at Disney in the 1940's in the "extracurricular art department" for four years when he was fired for too much extracurricular art.

Hereare some Partch quotes from around 1950 that I like:

"You can't beat freelancing for freedom. No matter where you are, a dime's worth of typewriter paper and a ball point pen puts you in business"

"Frequently the advertising agency will want finished work the day after you get the assignment. Naturally you must cooperate fully with all agency decisions. They are the client's front men and the the client signs the check"

"At the end of the week I have 10, working on a lightboard...I get them in the mail by Saturday morning. Or, I do absolutely nothing all week until Saturday, when I get up early, sit at my desk and say, "Okay, 10 gags before the noon mail leaves."

To see the article:
http://mattsmorgue.blogspot.com/2006/10/famous-artists-part-1-vip.html

Bud's Big Adventure

2006-10-30T21:56:47+00:00

I have been working on and off for about a year on an idea for a book about the first dog to drive across America. I have a bunch of sketches and some finished art. Here is a spread that shows one of the hundreds of times the car overturns emptying all of it's contents.

Monkey Jones

2006-10-26T23:20:51+00:00

Being a veggie eating, croc wearing lefty from California I got the most recent issue of Mother Jones in the mail today. I'm thinkin, I've seen that monkies mug somewhare before. Oh, yeah thats the work of Tim OBrien! Another monkey in the can, as they say.

Staake Story

2006-10-24T08:32:04+00:00

Okay Bob Staake has thrown down the gauntlet with his Random Story Generator thing. Here is what I came up with. It took me about 3 hours to scratch out and hoooold on... I drew it with a pencil! I think that i might need therapy now.

I also opened a Gallery for anybody who wants to take the Bob Staake Random Story Generator challenge.

Muzzy!

2006-10-19T07:07:59+00:00

When I'm not toiling at the computer/artboard I'm either cycling or down at the theater. Currently I am acting in Thoroughly Modern Millie at my local Performing Arts Center. I have been doing theater for about -- ahem, 25 years. It can be really fun and also really boring. This show is somewhat boring for me because I have a lot of downtime in the second act. So, I have been lugging my sketch book backstage and rattling off a few doodles of the show. Also, in the show is a longtime friend who is a writer. As luck would have it she wrote a hilarious story about my character and I was so tickled that I offered to created a portrait of her character Muzzy. Every evening I have been following her around and sneaking little sketches of her when she is not looking just to capture details that I normally would not notice. Man, this was much harder than I expected. One little line out of place and she started to look like Joan Crawford. Geez. I think that I captured her though. Here is what she looks like.

BTW, the style that I show on Drawger is much more goofy than my regular stuff. My rep likes my tighter style with more (more marketable, I guess) serious subject matter. I am going to have to bite the bullet and go for more editorial/book projects on my own if I want to work in a more light hearted manner. Ohhhh, that advertising money is so good though.....

Mo' Mo' Monkies

2006-10-06T22:00:52+00:00

Okay. I'm in. Maybe there should be a monkey gallery or a skeleton gallery? I love skeletons.

Piles o' Pie

2006-09-29T16:54:15+00:00

Von Glitschka's Baseball patch post reminded me of a project that I completed earlier this year. The client asked that I create 40 dessert images for a jigsaw puzzle. Alrighty! I know something about dessert so when they asked that I come up with the list myself I was happy to kick in. My list included stuff like chocolate-raspberry tiramisu with flaming frangelico sauce. The client was polite and said "That's nice, how about apple pie?". Linzer torte cookies were the most exotic thing that made the final cut. I guess that I'm just a crazy California-type with a yen for wacky desserts.

Craig Mullins

2006-09-27T23:27:05+00:00

Call me crazy, but Craig Mullin's work is just amazing. I know, there are no giant black, amorphous, drippy robots sucking the heads off of little doe eyed dolls. Not that there's anything wrong with that kind of thing. But get a load of the brush work and composition! I think that I may need a nap after just looking for too long. Click the image to see more.

http://www.goodbrush.com/

Oh Lord...

2006-09-15T18:19:07+00:00

Man, this is how I feel today. I think artist Big Al Taplet gets it right. More about Big Al here: http://alumnus.caltech.edu/~dacrotty/taplet.html

Kids Books

2006-09-13T07:06:17+00:00

I always think about illustrating a kids book in the fall. Here is my most recent attempt. It is about the folks Berkeley Farmers Market and is aimed at the early pre-reader crowd. I visit the market once a week to pick up my CSA veggie box and I always see so many interesting Berkeley-types. I like the caucasian Dad with the asian baby the best.

9/11

2006-09-11T16:24:55+00:00

AnnOprahrock

2006-08-17T20:43:31+00:00

Digital Image Tampering is so interesting. Here is a collection of some of the most famous digitally altered images in recent history. It is interesting to think about why an editor would choose to digitally monkey with a photograph instead of using an illustration.

http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/farid/research/digitaltampering/

Studio Woes

2006-08-03T05:59:08+00:00

I need a new studio! The one I have now is teeeeeeny. 10 x 12 feet filled with too many canvases, books and bikes. Ug. It's been a pretty good year so it's time to move out of the low rent district and build something new. I can go as large as 20' x 15' or bigger if I pull out some trees. Even a second story on the house might be considered. I have several Tuff Sheds on my property already and I like them but would like something a little swankier with some more pizzazz. It's going to have solar for the power of course. Anybody got any ideas? Show me your studio!

Hotter Than A Pepper Jack

2006-07-22T07:36:29+00:00

It's 12: 30 am here in Northern California and the temperature is 90 degrees in my house. Ha-Cha! Can't sleep. So, I decided to create one of those meme lists of the first seven songs on my ipod. I have the most embarassing taste in music ever. What's on your ipod? No cheating.

1. Ready Steady -Elvis Presley
Vintage 1950's Elvis. Ahhhhhh.

2. Sleeping Beauty Suite, Op #66 Valse - Berliner Philharmonik Tchaikowsky. This what comes from dating a ballet dancer. Don't ask.

3. Tibetan Monastary Sounds.
Ommmmmmmmmm. Good for airplane rides.

4. I've Got a Crush on You - Frank Sinatra
Smooth and easy. For long drives or oil paintings that won't dry.

5. Your Just In Love - Ethel Merman and Dick Haymes
Good n Loud!

6. Over the Bannister - Judy Garland and Tom Drake and the MGM Orchestra. This song was a big hit in 1899 way before it was used in Meet Me in St Louis. Love it.

7. Come to Me Greif Forever - Music From the Spanish Armada
I used this music when I was taking lot of advanced Math. Helped me think.

8. (Extra Credit) Never Can Say Good Bye - Gloria Gaynor
What can I say? Embarrassing.

Found Stuff

2006-05-25T17:37:19+00:00

Checkout my "Found Stuff" gallery to see some images from two scapbooks that I found while pawing through a local community dump. Whatta find! I'm not giving up my sources so just fergit it! I love these people. The photos are great to draw from. I am guessing that they were not exactly God fearin folk based on an old newspaper clipping stuck in the back of one of the books. It looks like someone wound up in San Quentin prison.

Hey That's My Art!

2006-04-17T06:01:58+00:00

You can't fool a fool as my Dad used to say. The other day I was browsing around the Illustrator tutorials on the Adobe website and found a snippet of what looks to me like a piece of an old illustration that I did for a client about 15 years ago. See the tutoral art (left) and my original art above (right). What is really amazing is that the the person who ripped this image off must have the orginal Illustrator file because the artwork was taken apart and changed slightly for each step in the tutorial. The only thing that I can think of is that someone who worked at the orginal company that bought this illustration (name deleted here) took the illustration and kept it for 15 years, then dug it out and resused it. Like I'm not going to notice! I have a stinkin hunch who this person is and how they got this image but have yet to figure out how to get anything out of the whole mess. Arrrgggg.