Our Bodies, Our Bikes

Just got my copy of the brand new Our Bodies, Our Bikes book. I am sometimes nervous to see my work in print, how will it turn out in the final form? But this book is quite simply gorgeous.

 Snapshot of my first draft of the cover art above with finished books alongside. The color and paper choice of the cover are so satisfyingly lovely. (It's the little things, like how it feels in our hands, that can really make a book special, you know?) And the graphic design inside is super great too: lush, sophisticated, yet very reader-friendly layout and color pallette. Bravo.

Super proud to be a part of this collaboration. Learn more at the Microcosm Publishing site!

Our Bodies, Our Bikes: Part One

Ms. Elly Blue, femininst bicycle zinester and awesome small-press publisher, invited me to create the cover for her upcoming book, Our Bodies, Our Bikes. (Just a few days left to fund the project!)

We agreed that it would be inspired by the awesome tricks that bike dance groups like the Sprockettes and the Derailleurs perform.

Having a team of people engaged in the same pose was a great opportunity to allude to diversity of experiences in the book.

Not to mention the themes of interdependence and the importance of supporting each other.

Progress! But wait, is this looking to static? Too well-balanced? Do we need more dramatic tension?

I suggested a twist of Nude Descending a Staircase. Elly suggested a dose of Laocoön. Oh hey, says I, there's this neat French statue of Hercules wrestling a giant snake at the Portland Art Museum right now. Field trip!

Sketched while the baby was awake...

...and then sketched when the baby finally fell asleep.

With that inspiration, the bicycle acrobats are revisited.

Feather boa stands in for the snake, of course. Better! A future post will have the color version--stay tuned.

Bikes in Space in Progress!

I was delighted to be invited to create the cover for Taking the Lane Volume 10: Bikes in Space! The editor, Ellie Blue, described by mission thusly: "I envision a two-color cover that depicts a super dramatic feminist bicycle beyond-the-atmosphere showdown in the fine tradition of pulp sci fi covers..."  So I busted out the sketchbook and started goofing around. * Fue un gran placer ser invitado a crear el imagen para la cubierta del libro de Taking the Lane Volume 10: Bikes in Space! (¡Bicicletas en el espacio!) Elly Blue, la editora, describió mi missión así: "Imagino una cubierta en dos colores, mostrando una confrontación feminista y super-dramatica, en bicicleta y más allá de la atmósfera, en la tradición divertida de las revistas 'pulp.'" Agarré mi libro de dibujar y empecé a divertirme.

I came up with three ideas that interested me, and I did simple thumbnail sketches to share them wtih Elly.* Llegué a tres ideas que me interesaban, y los compartí con Elly con dibujos muy simples.

Elly decided that the space-shark showdown was the most fun and dramatic. You can see how I developed this idea in the slideshow below. All the art was drawn in Photoshop. * Elly decidió que la confrontación con los tiburones era lo más divertido y dramático. Puedes ver cómo desarollé la idea en la serie de imagenes que sigue. Todo fue dibujado usando Photoshop. 

"Bikes in Space" should be coming out at the end of April 2013--assuming that we can get the rest of the funding for the project by March 23. (Now's your chance to help!) * "Bicicletas en espacio" debe ser publicado a fines de Abril de 2013--si podemos lograr algunos fondos más para publicarlo. (¡Tú puedes ayudar aquí!)

300 Years of Mark Catesby

My recent trip to Washington DC was triggered by an interesting day of free lectures. Mark Catesby was a scientist and an artist who published one of the first books about plants and animals of North America, Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands, starting in 1729. As it turns out, he was heavily influenced by another favorite illustrator of mine, Maria Sybilla Merian--no wonder I like his work so much.

I met up with my wonderful friend Ikumi Kayama for the day of lectures at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. The topics included techniques for drawing, printing, bookbinding, and self-publishing in the 18th century, as well as the science behind the plants and animals depicted in Catesby's amazing two-volume work.

It was eye-opening to learn that after 4 years of gathering research, the book itself took 20 years for Catesby to produce. He didn't have funds to hire a professional engraver, so he engraved all the plates and hand-painted them each afterwards.

We were entertained by some of the strange myths that other science books of the time were publishing about wildlife in North America: the idea that turtles can hunt by slamming shut their carapaces on neck of a snake to chop its head off; or the idea that rattlesnakes can hypnotize a squirrel and make it run down a tree right into the snake's mouth, for example.

We were thrilled to look at an actual copy of one of the original books after the lectures wrapped up. A very exciting day for me, all told!

Library Nerd

Took myself to the Portland State University library for the first time this week. I was looking up books on the philosophy of biology for work, but of course had to wander through the illustration section of the stacks as well. Was captivated by a book of posters by Maurice Sendak--man, that fellow can blend cross-hatching with delicate watercolors like a dream. Found this illustration from his interpretation of Ozma of Oz: look at Dorothy's oversize shoes with no laces, and how she almost looks sad-eyed in his rendition. Captivating.

I also came across a book from the 1600s that was full of home remedies for various ailments. It wasn't illustrated, but I loved the crazy archaic fonts and the spellings of common words. (Ah, the "long s" always makes me nostalgic for my Renaissance Faire days!)

I suppose that's one benefit to visiting libraries where you don't have borrowing privileges; it makes you take good visual notes on what you are excited about. (Or, in the case of the biology of philosophy articles, it lets you spend quality time with the photocopy machine.)