Pulled Scene + Conversation

(A conversation during a recent phone meeting)

Client: “Okay, we were talking about your illustrations and you draw women really good.”

Me: “Wow, seriously, thank you very much!”

Client: “Yeah, one of the AD’s saw your stuff and said “He gets away with a lot.”

Me: “Okay, I’m not sure where to file that.”

Client: “I think what he meant was they [girl illustrations] are close to sexy.”

Me: “Alright, should I be pulling things back??”

Client: “No, no, we were just joking about a few of them. They don’t have superhero bodies or anything. They just look…put together.”

Me: “That sounds good…Kinda.”

Client: “(LOL) I don’t know what I’m saying -wait. (NAME) is asking if you use a reference.”

Me: “That’s actually a really good question. No. But I put out a casting call for one recently and bombed. I was offering $125 an hour plus milage reimbursement and got nothing.”

Client: “Were you asking for nude models??”

Me: “No, that’s the thing. It’s totally G-rated. T-shirts and jeans. Seriously.”

Client: “Wow, you’d get models here if you asked. (NAME) said she’ll model. I think she wants to be in a scene.”

Me: “I’m fine with that. Cause right now I modeling for my scenes if I need it.”

Client: “No you don’t! Did you model for that scene we just pulled?”

Me: “Which one??”

Client: “I know, right! Cause we keep pulling scenes. Uhm, where (NAME) is wearing the earrings and there’s the iPhone.”

Me: “Oh, no-no. Not like that. Not a close-up. I can’t pull that off. But I’m the hand model with the iPhone.”

Client: “(LOL) Okay, well I think the guys are trying to write somewhere where we show skin.”

Me: “I’m ready if it’s part of the story I guess. That’d be a first though.”

Client: “(LOL) Someone just asked if your blog has any examples of girls showing skin.”

Me: “…uhm, ya know. I’m not sure if it does. I kinda don’t remember.”

Client: “Okay, well if it does I think the guys want to know. Send them a link or something.”

Me: “Alright. I’ll remember that…if I ever draw something like that.”

Making Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes (again)

Been taking tiny steps towards this recipe. Here’s the latest attempt which, I feel, is one step away from the “we got it” moment. Oh, and this particular recipe is egg, nuts, and dairy-free. Maybe even gluten. Gotta check on that. Anyhow, the building blocks were:

2 white cake mixes
2 “fluffy” white frostings
food coloring
icing coloring
box of 12 ice cream cones

First, we mixed one of the cake mixes ‘n baked it in a rectangular dish. Caution: If you have a problem raising cakes for the sole purpose of slaughter you should really stop reading now.

So next we blended the second cake mix, divided it into several dishes, and hit each with food coloring. Which is jus’ too much fun. Seriously. After gently stirring (to insure the batter still rises) we spooned the colorful mixtures into cupcake liners. If you wanna be precise with your coloring consult the color chart on the back of the food coloring box. However, if you wanna be the type of person people actually want to hang around just add color(s) until it looks “about right.”

This is just another shot of the mixture…because it’s just so damn pretty. Although things got ugly next. Remember that first cake mix? Well, it had just finished baking. And because I had raised it since birth it waddled right up to me when I called it. That’s when I climbed it to a pulp -then gutted it with a fork. Here’s the results.

The warm, fluffy innards ( <— word combination I’ll never use again) was then emptied into a bowl, frosting added, and folded with love and care.

This oddly unidentifiable mixture was then placed in the freezer for around 20-minutes. The refrigerator would have sufficed on any normal day but we were actually in a hurry that evening. Moving on. As the cake-frosting mixture cooled and colorful cupcakes baked we turned our attention to the cones. As luck would have it, we stumbled upon a cardboard tray in the recycling. Score. We chose to flip this tray over and Grandpa (who desperately needs something to do these days) kindly cut holes in it to hold the cones.

Blam. Ice cream cone holders. Now if we had had more time I would have covered the tray in white paper and drawn all over it. So maybe it was a good thing we didn’t have time (?).

Next we spooned the chilled cake-frosting mix into each cone.

Because I’m doing a crappy job of telling this story you missed the part where the cupcakes were removed from the oven and also cooled in frig. Why? Only because we were pressed for time. It’s not like I’d mention any of this online -or include an image of me sliding cupcakes into the frig on a metal tray.

Here’s “Holy Crap This Is Fun” moment #2. Blending Wilton “Icing Colors” with frosting. And where might you find such a product -without having to speak in a British accent, travel by carriage, or adorn an opera hat? Meijer. A box of 12 colors cost around $13. Note, it’s actually a unique gel that doesn’t thin the icing. So next we divided the icing (-should I call it “icing” or “frosting?” WFT?) into several dishes and used toothpicks to add the coloring.

Chloe rocked the icing using her “dribble” method. Had I cooled the frosting/icing it might have covered better but, again, time was a factor so we stuck with icing only the top of the treat. Next time we’re gonna really chill the frosting and go Martha on it.

And here’s the end results. Like I said, I think we’re one batch awhile from really making these rock. Next time the focus will be on getting the frosting to cover the tops and improving the cone holder. BTW, these were out the door before I tried one…so I have no idea how they tasted. Really curious though. Until that time comes I’m gonna jus’ stare at this picture (jus’ like you).

TEDx Grand Rapids / Preview

I recently had the good fortune of being the Graphic Recorder (using an iPad 3) for TEDx Grand Rapids. The illustrations create for that event will be available via the TEDx site soon and also here. However, I really wanted to share one in advance. But first…you’ll need alil’ context.

There was a total of 14 speakers divided into 4 sessions, 3 performances, plus a few extras. Each speaker held the stage for roughly 15-minutes with only a few minutes between talks. Challenging to illustrate, yes. However, that’s hardly as challenging as creating illustrations for performance pieces. Initially I ignored the performance pieces because, at the time, I was racing to keep pace with the speaker’s illustrations. So essentially I treated the performance pieces like a type of “pit stop.” Well, later I was asked “Hey, did you create illustrations for those performance pieces too??” Enter a Will Smith-like response of “Ah, pfffff, course I did.”

Knowing all that, here’s one of the performance illustrations create post-conference (minus the TEDx branding) for an interpretive dance by “The Dance of the Annex.” Extra stress on the word “Interpretive!” Meaning “really, really hard to interpret” or “it could mean anything.”

As for the dancers, is was wonderful watching you perform. While I don’t know each of you personally I took care in representing the five of you as best I could. It was tricky though. Fingers crossed.