Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Supplemental drawing 8/10 - Ivan and the Firebird

If you like, you can read a more detailed post here about what these new drawings are, but they are basically, small companion pieces to be posted one a day leading up to the opening of the exhibition.

I took another moment from each of the stories and made a new drawing. Consider this my humble thank you for sticking with me through all the posts without seeing any final work (yet!)

* * *
Original post :
Ivan and the Firebird


Next post : The Troll at morning

Monday, March 30, 2009

Supplemental drawing 7/10 - Beauty and the Beast

If you like, you can read a more detailed post here about what these new drawings are, but they are basically, small companion pieces to be posted one a day leading up to the opening of the exhibition.

I took another moment from each of the stories and made a new drawing. Consider this my humble thank you for sticking with me through all the posts without seeing any final work (yet!)

* * *
Original post :
Beauty and the Beast


Next post : The firebird's feather

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Ease the Longing : CD release party

Here's a little break in the flow of the Grimm posts -- I wanted to pass along to you guys a few pictures. A couple months ago I did an album cover for a friend who was releasing her first CD.


Hey, buy it on iTunes! And check out her MySpace music page.

Here's a couple links to the previous posts.
rough, pencil, final.

Friday, March 27, 2009

Supplemental drawing 6/10 - The Nine Peahens

If you like, you can read a more detailed post here about what these new drawings are, but they are basically, small companion pieces to be posted one a day leading up to the opening of the exhibition.

I took another moment from each of the stories and made a new drawing. Consider this my humble thank you for sticking with me through all the posts without seeing any final work (yet!)

* * *
Original post :
The Nine Peahens


Next post : Beauty and the Beast

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Supplemental drawing 5/10 - Hansel and Gretel

If you like, you can read a more detailed post here about what these new drawings are, but they are basically, small companion pieces to be posted one a day leading up to the opening of the exhibition.

I took another moment from each of the stories and made a new drawing. Consider this my humble thank you for sticking with me through all the posts without seeing any final work (yet!)

* * *
Original post :
Hansel and Gretel


"...leaving a trail of bread crumbs."

Next post : The peahen

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Supplemental drawing 4/10 - Little Red Riding Hood

If you like, you can read a more detailed post here about what these new drawings are, but they are basically, small companion pieces to be posted one a day leading up to the opening of the exhibition.

I took another moment from each of the stories and made a new drawing. Consider this my humble thank you for sticking with me through all the posts without seeing any final work (yet!)

* * *
Original post :
Little Red Riding Hood

The Wolf.

Next post : Hansel and Gretel

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Supplemental drawing 3/10 - The Four Clever Brothers

If you like, you can read a more detailed post here about what these new drawings are, but they are basically, small companion pieces to be posted one a day leading up to the opening of the exhibition.

I took another moment from each of the stories and made a new drawing. Consider this my humble thank you for sticking with me through all the posts without seeing any final work (yet!)

* * *
Original post :
The Four Clever Brothers

The Thief, the Stargazer, the Hunter, and the Tailor.

Next post : The Wolf

Monday, March 23, 2009

Supplemental drawing 2/10 - Snow White

If you like, you can read a more detailed post here about what these new drawings are, but they are basically, small companion pieces to be posted one a day leading up to the opening of the exhibition.

I took another moment from each of the stories and made a new drawing. Consider this my humble thank you for sticking with me through all the posts without seeing any final work (yet!)

* * *
Original post :
Snow White

"Queen, you are full fair, 'tis true, but Snow White is fairer than you."

Next post : The Thief, the Stargazer, the Hunter, and the Tailor.

Friday, March 20, 2009

The surprise before the show - Supplemental drawing 1/10 - The Old Woman in the Wood

In my last post I mentioned I had a surprise in store before the show.

I started thinking what must it be like to not see final work post after post, all the momentum, all the foundation for each piece, but no pay-off.

I felt like I had been asking a lot of everyone to stick with me and through each piece without showing you all the final work. So. I wanted to do something as a way to thank all of you who have been there with me and been enjoying the posts.

Here's what I've secretly been working on :

Supplemental drawings for each of the ten pieces.

Basically, small companion pieces to be posted one a day leading up to the opening of the exhibition.

I took another moment from each of the stories and made a new drawing. Consider this my humble thank you for sticking with me through all the posts without seeing any final work (yet!)

These small drawings have been tremendous fun for me and they've also worked as a sort of decompression from the intense work of getting the show together these past few weeks. I hope you enjoy them.

* * *

Original post :
The Old Woman in the Wood.

She lamented her fate but a dove came to her with a golden key.

* * *

Next post : "Mirror, Mirror."

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

The Blue Goblet : The Mountain King

Hey everyone, taking a quick break from postings about the show (hopefully you aren't all sick of seeing about it by now!) I'm always dreadfully afraid I've worn out my welcome whenever I post on a consistent theme for such a long time.

I do have a couple surprises in store before the show opening that I'll be posting here.

But! In the interest of showing you something completely different, here's some of work that I've been doing in between a couple projects here at work. Remember this piece from a while ago?


Well, over the last few days I've put together a scene leading up to this painting that we will hopefully see animated before long. Here's some of the art for that :



It's been quite a while since I've posted anything from The Blue Goblet. Right now the font and ornament set has been getting all the attention but rest assured, The Blue Goblet will be books someday, all three stories + the prologue. They are all very dear to me and the right opportunity has not come along yet.

Monday, March 16, 2009

musical pixelation + trolls

I don't know about you guys but it's really rainy here and it's the sort of dampness and cold that gets in your bones. Also, my desk lamp bulb went out. It's dark and cold and a Monday.

But! I had to pass this along -- this music just turned my day around :

Crystal Castles, Untrust Us :



and it made me scribble out some fat, naked trolls dancing and playing music :


I can only hope it will do the same for you.

Grimm and Other Folk Tales : the complete color comps.


Here are all the color comps for Grimm and Other Folk Tales.

What I am doing with the show this week is letting all the finished paintings sit and then reconvene at the end of the week and how well they match the color comps.

Justin and I were talking the other night about color comps. in general. It can be difficult to match them. It's as if you can do a magic trick in a about 5 minutes easy but to sustain that magic over days and nights can be a little unwieldy. I feel like the finished pieces match the color comps well but I'll be able tell better in a couple days.

If you like, take a trip over to Justin's blog and see what he has to say about the upcoming show.

Friday, March 13, 2009

Categories!

Ok, I spent a while going through and trying to make my blog a little easier to navigate.

It's still a work in progress but you can see on the sidebar other there a list a categories. I've made it back to around 2007 so far. It's not perfect yet but I'm working on it.

Special thanks to the good people over at Google Tutor for teaching me how to hack my code and make it work. I've got the older template for Blogger and if I updated it to take advantage of labels I'd loose my customization (so they tell me) so through the link above I was able to snorkel my way through the code and make the addition manually.

Hope this helps! Also, if you might have any suggestions for labels that would be helpful.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Daga and the Flying Troll of Sky Mountain

When I began thinking about the show before I had a theme or a name, I started with what I liked most to draw. I detailed this thought in an earlier post :

"When I originally began planning Grimm and Other Folk Tales, I looked for stories with three key elements -- princesses and monsters and birds. It may not be exactly that intellectually shallow but it's close. No, there are hopefully a few other themes in there that I am hoping to get across, but, for the visuals of the stories I looked for the princesses, the monsters, and the birds."

At first I was a little disappointed with lack of monsters in fairy tales, at least the old standards. Sure there are some but just not as many as you would think. You've got wolves and witches but those are not really monsters. I wanted monsters, big ones, legendary ones. But not giants, not humans, I wanted real honest-to-goodness monsters. What I was looking for were trolls.

I kept reading and looking into the stories but didn't quite come up with what I was looking for... didn't that is, until I stumbled across the work of John Bauer and folk tales from Sweden.

John Bauer is just one of those artists -- the moment I saw his work I instantly felt a connection with it. I was drawn to it to the same degree I'm drawn to Maurice Sendak's work, or Trina Schart Hyman's (especially her Peter Pan) It just gets me, I love it.



above, John Bauer

So when I read the Swedish folk tale, Daga and the Flying Troll of Sky Mountain I literally felt like I'd hit gold. Here, encapsulated in one story was what I was truly looking for, a princess, a troll, and not just a troll but the flying Troll of Sky Mountain. I felt like the earth cracked open and delivered up the greatest title for a story in the world.

Daga and her brother Dag live alone, their parents had died a couple years ago. Dag hunted and brought food, Daga cleaned and sewed. All this worked very well until Dag did not return from hunting one day. Distraught, Daga left the house and went looking for him (quietly followed by her tomte, a house elf or creature of sorts. A Tomte was believed to take care of a farmer's home and children and protect them from misfortune, in particular at night.)

Along the way searching for her brother Daga met a traveling prince. He instantly fell in love with her and wanted to marry her. He gave her a beautiful white dress, gold rings, and a gold crown. The prince told her that he would send out men to look for her brother and she agreed. That night she over heard the men saying that they believed her brother was dead and why should they risk their lives looking for him? She escaped the castle (followed by her tomte) and traveled through the woods at night.

Now here is where I have to break from the story to just interject something -- is this not the most beautiful sounding image? Daga wears a white dress, a crown, she's walking through the woods at night and there are trolls in the woods. This is the moment I chose to illustrate. In fact in the story there's mention of "two large trolls with 'firefly eyes' watching her and shuffling in the woods." Something (we know it was the tomte) scares them off.


The rough.


The color comp.


The pencil.

The next morning Daga changes back into her old clothes and hides the gifts from the prince. She meets an old troll woman and asks her if she knows anything about her brother. She says yes but she won't tell unless Daga will give her a white dress. This of course, is the fairy tale convention of the hasty promise. It's something I love -- it could be anyone, no matter how wicked they are they are bound by their word. Daga of course has a white dress and gives it to the old troll woman. Begrudgingly the old troll woman tells Daga that her brother was kidnapped by the Flying Troll of Sky Mountain.

Daga makes her way to Sky Mountain but can't find a way up. She meets a dwarf and says, "Little father can you tell me where to begin to climb the mountain?" The dwarf laughs and tells her that even if he did she'd fall and break her neck, but no, he won't tell unless she gives him something, say some gold rings. Again, the hasty promise and again Daga produces the gift. The dwarf shows her the stairs and she begins to climb. She climbs for days and into the clouds and finally finds her brother. He's trapped in a rock. Only his head is visible. He's weak and about to die. Daga weeps. He tells her to leave him but she refuses. She goes in to see the Flying Troll.

She makes her way into his hall and asks if he would free her brother. The Flying Troll laughs and laughs. All of his blacksmiths stop working join in the laughter. The Flying Troll makes her a promise, "I'll free your brother if you can give me a gold crown in two seconds. If not you will have to live here and work for me."

It's a beautiful moment when Daga pulls out the crown and holds it up and the Flying Trolls and all of his terrible blacksmiths are utterly thunderstruck. The Flying Troll, bound to his word lets Dag and Daga go. Meanwhile the prince had been searching for Daga. They are reunited and married. Happily ever after.

* * *

This piece has been such a joy to work on. I finished it last night. I feel like the mood gets just what I wanted. I like that there's a small powerful thing (the tomte) that protects children and it's not a afraid of trolls at all. Everything came together in a good way for this piece. Daga, at night, trolls with "firefly eyes" the tomte, it all just feels right.

I can't wait to show you the finished piece.

* * *

As always, none of the work I've posted yet is a finished, final piece. These are final drawings and final under-painting but they are all just steps in the process.

I'll be revealing the final work at the show opening.

In production news, I have completed all the work for Grimm and Other Folk Tales. I am going to let the pieces sit for a couple days and then give them a once over again. I've not been more proud of work I've been able to do. Mark your calendars, April 3rd, 2009. I hope to see you there!

Here is the official show poster with all the important information :

* * *


Daga and the Trolls
from Dag and Daga, and the Flying Troll of Sky Mountain

* * *

Next post : A guest post by Justin, or he's posting about the show Monday on his blog and I'm curious to see what he has to say.

* * *

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

The Three Billy Goats Gruff

The Three Billy Goats Gruff. Here is a piece that I feel gets it. It gets exactly what I wanted now and what I wanted 5 years ago sitting in class. I enjoy public speaking and I took a story telling class in college -- one of the most enjoyable classes I ever took -- but that's not what this is about. What it is about is a doodle I did on the back of my notes for the chapter of Peter Pan that I performed.

But alas, here is where the story turns to ruin and ash -- I have failed you all -- I can not find this doodle. That's inconsequential you may say, it's just a doodle. Maybe it is -- but I know I have it somewhere! I know I've seen it around my room somewhere. I spent an hour looking for it (and finding all sorts of interesting things from my time in school) but could not find the doodle in question.

The reason I wanted so badly to show it to you is that more than anything, this new Billy Goats piece is a fulfillment of that doodle, almost word for word, visually speaking. But alas, I can not.

UPDATE! 10:05 AM

Morning of mornings! I dug through a few folders here at work and I have found it!

The original idea!

* * *

A couple years ago, Justin and I started working up a treatment of The Three Billy Goats Gruff. We did some writing and some character development. It was fun but we didn't do too much with it. I was never happy with my part. The ideas I felt were good but I just didn't have the power to do the ideas right. I'll show you some of them here, for educational purposes with the understanding that they are several years old. Please know that.



Well, that wasn't too painful I hope.

In any case, I always liked the ideas behind these, even if the final products didn't work out.

Another thing I like is imagining about the troll. The troll is ultimately more interesting to me than the goat. Justin had an idea that maybe the troll lost a wager with a king and was cursed to live under the bridge.

I like to draw trolls and monsters. And if you were to ask I'd tell you that I'm pretty traditionally minded in regards to the depiction of trolls, dragons, and monsters. I don't like "fractured" fairy tales or deconstructionist retelling of classic stories. That being said, I can appreciate when a classic story is retold in the interest of looking at the story or characters in a different light -- not when it's done for jokes or poking fun at fairy tale conventions.

An idea I had about the story (and this is something of a digression here) is maybe the troll is the protagonist of the story, not the goats. The troll is reputable, clean, and decent. He owns the bridge, owns the land. He tends for it, cares for it, but these interlopers, these reckless, filthy goats unseat him and squat, ultimately ruining the land and moving on when its worthless. (Admittedly this probably has something to do with my own thoughts on order and decency as opposed to the Marxist notion of the inherent virtue of the under-privileged and the inherent vice of the privileged.)

Ultimately this is not the route I chose to go with for the piece, I went with the traditional. Though in my piece the troll isn't bad, just annoyed.

* * *


The thumbnail.


The rough.


The color comp.


The pencil.

* * *

As always, none of the work I've posted yet is a finished, final piece. These are final drawings and final under-painting but they are all just steps in the process.

I'll be revealing the final work at the show opening.

In production news, I am now in real time with these posts, a head by a little. Last night I completed The Three Billy Goats Gruff. Mark your calendars, April 3rd, 2009. I hope to see you there!

Here is the official show poster with all the important information :

* * *

* * *


The Troll
from The Three Billy Goats

* * *


Next post : Daga and the Flying Troll of Sky Mountain, or a beautiful Swedish folk tale I'd never heard of before.

* * *

Monday, March 09, 2009

Tsarevitch Ivan and the Fire Bird

For this piece here, Ivan and the Fire Bird, I feel like there's some history to get through. If you'll bear with me, I've done some of the explaining in older posts so what I've got for you below is a compilation of all of those posts in context. Hopefully our trips back and forth through time won't be too terribly confusing. Enjoy!

* * *

I read once a quote by F. Scott Fitzgerald, an American writer widely regarded as one of the twentieth century's greatest,

"...in life every person searches for reincarnations of a former aesthetic experience. The writer or painter tries to approximate some moment in their life when they had very real contact with awe."

Awe? Maybe.

Giant birds? Definitely!

I've discovered that for the last 4 or 5 years of my life I have done at least one painting a year stemming from a single idea I had 5 years ago. I've come close to the idea, approached it, but never hit it. This is part of a post from May 2008 that encapsulates the thing I'm trying to explain here :

I've got a piece in the works that is about three years in the making. That sounds ambitious, you say. Sort of, say I.

There is a piece that I've had in my head for about three years now. Various ideas about the idea have made to finish but they were all only inspired by this one idea. I hadn't the power three years ago to make this piece but now I feel it is within my reach.

It's a spread in the forth coming Ticket.

Here's the thumbnail for it:


I don't think this is even the original thumbnail. Even so, it's the one that I've had tacked up on my desk at work taunting me for the last 1,000 or so days. What's so complicated about that? -- I see a crude thumbnail of maybe a giant bird, or several, some Grecian style columns, possibly a foreground. I think there's some people, in the foreground, perhaps gathering something off the ground. Hm. Hopefully grapes. Or olives.

I know, who knows. For whatever reason it has eluded me but I've still been interested.

Here's a piece that almost came from that idea, just the birds, really. It would it have been the above thumbnail but the power eluded me and it veered off into smoke and war.


Here's another. I guess about a year later, still not it.


Other than these two pieces having big birds, they both bear the distinction of being pieces which started out as my stab at the top thumbnail but they veered off into their own territory, the second one a little more successfully so-- it had another idea pulling it in another direction:


So now what?

Production on Ticket is underway and under a fantastic deadline. I've got all my thumbnails and storyboards together, everything is in place.

I don't think this particular spread in Ticket is going to blow any minds like a piece "three years in the making" ought to, but that's not the point in any case. The point is that, hopefully, it'll be a great piece surrounded by other great pieces and no one will ever need to know that I've kept a doodle tacked up at my desk for three years.

* * *

Fast forward back to now. Here is part of a post from July 2008 concerning the completed piece I was talking about back then :


Ticket didn't take off (...that ...might be an unintentional pun) until this piece. When I brought up this picture for Ticket, it was the first one I feel that I really had to knuckle down and improve on to do. The simplest things stump me. I went through half a dozen or more thumbnails for this one. It'd been several nights in a row and I'd made it through the first 4 spreads. I drew everything at about 14x20. This piece has managed to be my favorite one out of the bunch. (I think, it's hard for me to know and harder to pick one) but I think it might be though, there's something in it that completes a little half inch by half inch thumbnail I did and tacked up on my desk maybe two years ago.


I don't know. There's always been something that struck me in it. I'd had the idea for sort of Grecian architecture, giant birds landing, they had more Greek architecture on their backs and something. Lights at night, a party. In the end having such regal birds carry something on their backs felt like they were just big winged donkeys and felt demeaning.

There maybe a way to yet make it work. I'm sure I'll be back.

Who knows for sure, but it's nice to think that some ideas are good enough to be mined again for fresh pieces. I love drawing birds. And little flying boats and clock towers. Enough? I don't know, maybe, for a little while.

. . .

No, it's never enough.

* * *

We're back to the present. Whew.

Well, in truth I don't feel like that piece above (while I still get enjoyment out of it) is truly the completion of that small idea I had way back. I'll be at it for a long time I believe. But honestly I enjoy the process, and I also just enjoy drawing and painting enormous birds. I've taken a pause from chasing that idea and set my pursuits in trying to perfect the way I see these birds.

My forthcoming story in Flight 6 (look for it July 2009!) revolves in some respect around the life and death of a bird, yes, a giant one.

Here's a page from that story that doesn't give anything away :


* * *

When I originally began planning Grimm and Other Folk Tales, I looked for stories with three key elements -- princesses and monsters and birds. It may not be exactly that intellectually thin but it's close. No, there are hopefully a few other themes in there that I am hoping to get across, but, for the visuals of the stories I looked for the princesses, the monsters, and the birds.

Ivan and the Fire Bird, a Russian folk tale, is a somewhat risky one to include in that it is an "Aarne-Thompson type 550, the quest for the golden bird/firebird" which means that it and The Nine Peahens (which is another piece I've done for the show) are very likely a derivative of the same source. Meaning, they're closely related ideas; golden apples, bird(s) stealing them, prince sitting up at night to catch the thief, etc. however the stories do distinguish themselves from one another in the way the events play out.

To separate the ideas I made the fire bird in this painting a giant bird. The story doesn't say that it is, but then again the story doesn't say it's not. It's got a talking wolf for goodness' sakes.

* * *

A king's apple tree bore golden apples, but every night, one was stolen. Guards reported that the Firebird stole them. The king told his two oldest sons that the one who caught the bird would receive half his kingdom and be his heir. They drew lots to see who would be first, but both fell asleep; they tried to claim it had not come, but it had stolen an apple. Finally Ivan Tsarevich, the youngest son, asked to try; his father was reluctant because of his youth but consented. Ivan remained awake and caught a tail feather. The Firebird did not return, but the king longed for the bird. He said that whoever caught it would have half his kingdom and be his heir. Wiki.

* * *


The thumbnail.


The rough.



The color comp.


The pencil.



(details)

I really decimated the watercolor so I'll not be posting that here but I got exactly what I needed from it, value and texture-wise.

* * *

As always, none of the work I've posted yet is a finished, final piece. These are final drawings and final under-painting but they are all just steps in the process.

I'll be revealing the final work at the show opening.

In production news, I am nearly up to being in real time with these posts, this evening I completed Beauty and the Beast and tomorrow night I'll begin final work on Ivan and the Fire Bird. Mark your calendars, April 3rd, 2009. I hope to see you there!

Here is the official show poster with all the important information :

* * *


Ivan and the Fire Bird
from Tsarevitch Ivan, the Fire Bird and the Gray Wolf

* * *


Next post : The Three Billy Goats Gruff, or another piece that I've been after for way too long.

* * *

Friday, March 06, 2009

Grimm and Other Folk Tales -- Official show poster

The official show poster for Grimm and Other Folk Tales.

Bob Jones University
Sargent Art Building
Lower Level

April 3 - 10, 2009

Opening Reception
April 3rd
Friday

6 - 10 PM

Grimm and Other Folk Tales
is an Alumnus Art Exhibition by Cory Godbey and is comprised of entirely new works.

* * *

The piece I used for the poster is from The Four Clever Brothers. You can check out the previous post with the story and progression from thumbnail, to rough, to drawing here. And that's pretty much the only final piece I will reveal before the show! (Well, we'll see about that) maybe another, so keep your eyes open.

What can you expect to see?

Well, you will see monsters, princesses, and trolls.

“Educational” isn’t quite the right word but I’m not coming up with a better one right now so, here it goes, I’m presenting the show in a somewhat “educational” format — along side the finished, framed pieces will be the progression — from original idea to thumbnail, to rough, to drawing, to watercolor, and finally to finished piece.

I hope to see you there!

* * *