Comedy of Errors

Every summer my mom directs a Shakespeare play with the local community theater.  This year she’s putting on Shakespeare’s “Comedy of Errors,” a story about twin brothers with twin servants both separated just after birth and the confusion that results when they are in the same city.  Here’s the poster I created for the play.  If any schools, community theaters or other nonprofit organizations happen to stumble across this poster, you’re welcome to use it, I’ll even change the text for you if you send me a nice e-mail!

ComedyPosterforSite

Dorbran Fa

Dorbran Fa is the leader (Father or “Fa”) of a wandering band of gypsies.  I created this character one night for my sister but quit working on him when a couple of people pointed out that he bore an unintended resemblance to the 16th president of the United States.  A better title for this sketch might be “Abraham Lincoln as a Roving Gypsy…”

DorbranFa

Just a Little Goblet

gob·lin (gbln) n.

  1. a mischievous elfin creature with several teeth and a tendency to bite knees toes and the occasional nose

gob·let (gblt) n.

  1. a baby goblin

A few weeks ago I discovered a goblet in my house in the form of little Daniel.  While teething, he decided that biting his parents was a funny game.  He would bite our ankles and toes if we ignored him; and while we played with him he would go after our fingers and noses with a laugh and a playful growl.  Eric and I both thought this was hilariously adorable and began calling Daniel “our little goblet.”  Unfortunately, our new apartment complex doesn’t allow baby goblins so we had to put a stop to the biting, but I drew these pictures to remember him by.

GoblinKid

First sketch of a sweet young goblet.  I liked the idea so much I decided to do a portrait of Daniel as a baby goblet.

img002Goblin004

First drawings of Daniel’s portrait. I thought the drinking goblet made my little goblin look tipsy so I replaced it with a pet mouse.

MouseMouse2

The mice were fun, but they just didn’t seem like quite the right thing for my goblet.  I drew a different pet for him an Orcan pig-dog named Muhgg but I kept him on a separate piece of paper because I had another idea for Daniel’s portrait.

Muhg007

In the actual picture I wanted Daniel to be playing with a chewed up book.  What better object for an illiterate, book-despising goblin parent to give their child as a chew toy?  And so without further ado, the final product!

Goblet

My Personal Art History

While sorting through my closet in preparation to move to Washington, I came across a folder of my earliest surviving drawings. 

charactercards

characterhouse

I was about eight when I drew these, they are from one of the many make-believe games my sisters and I made up. Growing up I always felt the need to draw the characters from the games I played and the books I read.  I’m not sure if that’s normal, or  just another symptom of the artistic temperament I was born with.  Anyway, I thought these pictures were extremely cool when I drew them.  I love the details my eight-year-old self included.  I particularly like the views through the curtains in the upper stories of the house, the “legs” of the table, and the strange heads supporting the columns… 

SlyCrocodile

Evidence of my early inclination toward illustration, apparently I was quite the author as well.

SuperSetsuperzoomer

These gadgets are from yet another game I played with my sisters, we were interplanetary time travellers who did a little spy work on the side.  This is all of our gear.  I’m especially proud of my collapsible phone/calculator with a keyboard (who needs a smartphone?).  If you zoom up on the super cool spy watch I designed, you’ll see that it tells you everything you’ll ever need to know, including whether it’s hot or dry where you’re standing, what creature you are looking at and even what continent you’re in!  Pretty cool huh?  Oh by the way, the space ship on the bottom right is a Super-Zoomer 2000 which is powered by apple juice!  Talk about a deliciously environmentally friendly fuel!

medieval

Here a a few more characters, I’ve always been fascinated with medieval knights and wizards and such.  I remember when I showed these to my mom she said she liked them but thought their necks were a little too long.  Her critiques really helped me grow as an artist and I still go to her when I need a fresh opinion.

 

 

 

 

 

cat and dragons

And of course a couple of a dragons…a theme I never outgrew.

Like so many of my sketches, these were drawn during class, a habit that has earned me both scowls and extra credit points from my teachers over the years.  I drew these in sixth grade when I sat in the back of the classroom with my friend Jason who was also a dragon lover.  They look rather like dinosaurs to me now.  Later that year I discovered the book “Dragon” by Jody Bergsma and for the first time it occurred to me that dragons look much better with long faces instead of such blunted snouts.