I’m starting to run into her more often in the mornings when I’m on my run. This is a super quick sketch when I got home, but her face is just so striking to me, I can’t help it. All that makeup! I wonder where she’s off to every morning? This morning she was all about the lavender jumpsuit, probably to celebrate spring. Stylin’!

This is a little guy I had made some time back. Please don’t ask why he has a telephone. He’s pretty annoyed at the absurdity himself.

A little bit of scribbly ballpoint covered with Photoshop later. Violetta is looking a bit on the “bad girl” side on the bottom. Probably needs to be toned down. She’s a trickster, but she’s not evil. More like a Puck character. And I kind of like the little Hindi woman that appeared.

This lady crossed my path while I was on my morning run a couple days ago. Her pale face caked with makeup and white-blond hair set against her backdrop of dark clothes was rather striking. And it was a grey, cold and foggy morning.

About something.

I’m still figuring her out. She’s lithe and limber, an acrobat, and can balance on the ball quite well. She wears the traditional harlequin’s costume of the Commedia Dell’Arte. In this incarnation anyway!

Inside the theater, before Marjane’s interview at the Persepolis screening.
Watercolor done at home…

I tried to draw Marjane from memory today, but I find it pretty difficult to capture a person from memory. So here’s the only sketch so far that I was sort of feeling ok about.

I just had a chance to check out the the animation design of Mary Blair over at the Cartoon Art Museum. I wasn’t aware of Mary as one of the first women concept designers for Disney, or her work by itself. However, you instantly recognize her style, since her designs and color styles are distinctly apparent in such classics as Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, Peter Pan, The Three Caballeros, and more. She designed the It’s a Small World ride in Disneyland! You can’t escape her work. We have all grown up with her style and whimsy, and I find myself smiling at images of her art that keep popping up in my mind. She managed to capture something iconic, full of warmth, surreal, and yet playful in her designs. I can only hope to try to emulate some her essence in my own work. Go check out the exhibit! It’s up through March 18th, 2008.