A poppy for Veteran’s Day.

Tomorrow is Veteran’s Day, and we’ll probably see a lot of poppies as a symbol of remembrance. Here’s a little illustration of a poppy I did in my sketchbook a while back, and some info about how that tradition got started.

From The Poppy Story on the American Legion’s website: “After World War I, the poppy flourished in Europe. Scientists attributed the growth to soils in France and Belgium becoming enriched with lime from the rubble left by the war. From the dirt and mud grew a beautiful red poppy. The red poppy came to symbolize the bloodshed during battle following the publication of the wartime poem “In Flanders Fields.”

You can read more about The Poppy Story on the American Legion’s website, where you can also download a poster of “In Flanders Fields.” And here’s a sweatshirt featuring my illustration.

In Flanders Fields
By John McCrae

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

    That mark our place; and in the sky

    The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

    Loved and were loved, and now we lie,

        In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

    The torch; be yours to hold it high.

    If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

        In Flanders fields.

Unique holiday greetings make an impression!

Make this season even more special by sending custom holiday cards to your clients and customers. It’s a thoughtful way to let people know you value their business.

I’m currently finishing up several customized greetings cards and letters for clients, but I think there’s time to squeeze in at least a couple more!

Ready to get started or have questions? Just send me a message here.

Wishing you a happy holiday season!

Art history.

Art History has been a longtime fascination of mine, in particular, the Renaissance. I took my first real Art History classes not so long ago (thank you Brad Anderson) and I’m always looking for ways to learn more. About a year ago, I ran across the Smithsonian Art History certificate program. I enrolled and now am almost finished with the course. One of the best discoveries has been Rocky Ruggiero, a frequent lecturer for the Smithsonian. He’s passionate about the Italian Renaissance and is quite entertaining. He also has a podcast, a YouTube channel, and plenty of programs of all sorts available on his website (a future fantasy is that after-hours trip to the Sistine Chapel!). Just today I ran across his book, which I promptly ordered and will devour once it arrives!

The Feelings Umbrella

LaNay Meier is a retired mental health nurse who saw many people in pain throughout her career. She developed a concept that she thought could help people process their feelings in a healthy way — a ‘feelings umbrella.’

She wanted to create a book to help get this message across to children, so they could avoid the unfortunate situations that result from an inability to cope with emotions.

She asked for my help in putting the book together. Many friends and professionals helped to clarify the concept and message. Then I designed the book, using stock images which I revised to fit the story.

The result is The Feelings Umbrella, available here.

A bookish bombshell.

My collages often tell a story, but I don’t know what the story is until the piece is well underway. In this case, I started with a vintage dictionary page as a background, then began rummaging through my collection of ephemera and other odds and ends.

If the collage seems to need a particular item and I don’t have an image that works, I’ll draw or paint what I want. For this mid-century woman, I used colored pencil to draw some snazzy cat-eye glasses so that she could see her world more clearly — and read the dictionary page.

I made up a story about her as the piece came together, but I hope viewers are inspired to make up their own: who’s the woman, what did she see with her glasses, did she have a special relationship to any other of the ‘B’ words on the page?

A Bookish Bombshell was created for the Lincoln Art Center’s Book It show.

Forgotten art supplies.

I wish I had kept the red roto-tray that I had years ago. Apparently, they’re now a collector’s item, shown here at the Museum of Forgotten Art Supplies. There are a LOT of fascinating items on that Museum website! If you were a graphic designer, commercial artist, draftsman, or architect in the mid-twentieth century, I bet a lot of them bring back memories.

I’m currently using a black version of the roto-tray, not a vintage as the red one, and short pencils still get lost down in the holes. This is its current state, drawn with my favorite pen, a Pilot G2 gel pen in black. Only one problem, it’s not waterproof.

Who's your inspiration?

Every Monday I get an email newsletter from painter Bob Burridge, which includes a link to one of his YouTube videos that he calls BobBlasts. They’re usually demonstrations of his technique, which is always loose and colorful and kinda wild. But this week’s BobBlast was about inspiration. He encouraged his viewers to think about who and what inspires them and use that inspiration for energy in their own work. It got me thinking: 

Bob Burridge is an inspiration to me. I admire his discipline and dedication to his work. David Hockney, too, for many of the same reasons. Hockney comes up with new ways to look at things and is not afraid to evolve and adopt new technology. In the design world, I’ve admired Paula Scher for years. She’s created some of the most iconic identity systems in the world, and always finds time to do her own personal projects. Check out her typographic maps. 

These are just a few of the people I find very inspiring, and they remind me to, as Austin Kleon (another inspiration) says, just keep going.

Practice makes perfect.

The downside of a typical day for me is that it’s mostly spent staring at a computer screen. I do carry a sketchbook with me and frequently jot down details of my surroundings. But I love detailed drawing, and those kinds of projects don’t happen without conscious thought and planning.

Towards that end, a few friends and I have been meeting once a week to learn and practice lessons from the Bargue Drawing Course (here’s an economical alternative to the full course). It’s the way many art students in 19th-century European academies learned to draw.

The emphasis is on accuracy — no personal style or creative flair desired, just reproducing a set of lithographic plates exactly as they are; training the eye to see accurately. We use the sight-size method to get the measurements precise and then build the shading in layers to reproduce the effect we see in the original. Results build s-l-o-w-l-y. We spent hours copying a small preliminary sketch of an eye, getting every line placed at just the right angle in just the right spot. After 18 hours(!), I’ve done an eye, a bust of a man in profile, a hand (not finished), and next week will start on a sculpture of a torso. I’ll have 9 hours to finish that, then we’re taking a break for the holidays.

It’s been such fun to spend time with friends who are also interested in this style of drawing. We’re in good company: Van Gogh used the course to strengthen his drawing skills when he couldn’t make it as a student in a traditional academy. Bargue drawings aren’t meant to be an end in themselves, but a way to develop skills that I can use to improve other drawings.

Meatball or worm?

As I watched yesterday’s thrilling landing of Perseverance on the surface of Mars, I couldn’t help but notice the big round NASA logo on the wall — the ‘meatball.’ Do you remember the NASA ‘worm’ logo? It was designed in 1975 by Bruce Blackburn (he just died earlier this month).

Blackburn’s design quickly became a symbol of the space age and the promising future that lay ahead. “The less you can do with the most effect, that’s the thing you want to do,” is how Blackburn described his process. He used a simple combination of lines, curved, and circle fragments to create the iconic design. Upon seeing the new design, a chief administrator of NASA reportedly said, “Where’s the cross strokes in the A’s? Feels like we’re not getting our money’s worth.”

After the Challenger accident in 1986 and other morale-deflating incidents at NASA, the decision was made to bring back the meatball. There was an uproar in the design community. Blackburn had not only designed the logo, but an extensive Graphic Standards Manual — a stellar example of information design in and of itself — and now all that would be rendered useless.

But, such is the way of the world. At least appears that the Mars Rover 2020 logo pays homage to Blackburn’s work.

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Merging three logos into one identity.

What happens when one bank merges with two other financial institutions, but they all need to keep their individuality?

Countless experiments and revisions, for one thing.

In recent years, Sunflower Bank merged with First National 1870 and Guardian Mortgage. Despite being legally linked, each needed to remain recognizable to its current customers.

Even before the merger, there was interest in updating the Sunflower Bank logo. It was designed in the 80s, and by the time I began working with the bank, it had already been revised several times. The options I presented used the existing color scheme and font, eliminated the yellow/red gradient (which was often difficult to print), and removed the blue enclosure. Here’s what I presented, but none of these were used.

Then came the merger. Here are the original three logos from each of the banks.

I pushed for a single identity that could incorporate aspects of each institution, but since the client wanted to maintain the equity built up within each of the names, that idea was rejected. So we needed to find a way to create a blended identity that allowed each bank to maintain its individuality. I won’t go into all the behind-the-scenes information that governed what could and couldn’t be done. Suffice to say, we pursued many different directions, and we progressed in stages. I designed dozens of variations and permutations. Here’s one of the interim versions that was used.

One version of the final design appears below. It checks all the necessary boxes: font consistency, versatility in arrangement, and relative simplicity in design. The logos have to work together and separately, accommodate both horizontal and vertical layouts, and must include the disclosure indicating ownership. Sometimes practicality is the best form of creativity.

Grant through the years.

I’ve been listening to Ron Chernow’s epic biography of U.S. Grant on CD (38 CDs!). While listening, I drew these five portraits of the past President with a variety of pens from this set of plain ol’ Bic ballpoints.

The drawings were mounted on 8″ square wood panels and were displayed at the Sandzen Gallery holiday show.

Published!

Thanks to Jason Ryberg of Spartan Press for including three pieces of my work in his new poetry anthology, Somewhere Between Kansas City and Denver.

There’s a book release party scheduled for August 22 from 6-9pm at SPARK in Downtown Salina. See more info about that here.

January 12 marks the anniversary of John Singer Sargent’s birth. I have always admired his excellent drawing skills coupled with his mastery of paint (left: Madame X).

I was reminded of him in a roundabout way after listening to a story about Steve Mumford, an artist who documented the Iraq War with drawings and paintings. Mumford’s Baghdad Journals are a moving account of the time he spent there. He was inspired by Winslow Homer’s documentation of the American Civil War.

Hearing about Homer reminded me of John Singer Sargent’s work done after spending time at the Western Front in 1918. His large painting, Gassed, was completed during this time. Definitely a master.