rain sounds

The cottage is not for sale. But if it was for sale, I'm quite sure that if a potential buyer could be convinced to spend a rainy night in the slightly run-down, not-too-well-insulated, bats-in-the-chimney cottage, he or she would agree that it is worth far more than its shabby exterior might indicate. 

If you sleep in the bedroom with the door open, you hear the rain from the living room. A steady, side-to-side , ambling sort of sound. Scattered yet constant, like the feet and voices of a marching multitude. But softish, and far away. 

Simultaneously, closer, in the bedroom, you hear a variety of pleasant pattering and one high note. Water falling from the gutter into a small puddle forming on a trashcan lid? A heavy drop falling from the dilapidated tin roof and hitting the windowsill at just the right angle? 

Whatever it is, this is the clincher. The sound that really pushes the property value over the top. 

It's this one. 

,

+

       ,       

Soft, not too sharp. 

+

,

+

Like a drum beat.

,

+

,

+

,

+

And when you close your eyes, it joins with that marching rain from the other room: 

o     o     o     o         +               o          o           o       o

     o     o     o           ,              o         o          o        o

o     o     o     o         +          o         o          o        o

o     o     o     o         ,        o        o          o        o

     o     o     o           +                  o            o          o

o     o     o     o         ,                o            o          o 

   o     o     o     o      +           o            o          o

     o     o     o           ,        o             o         o

o     o     o     o         +           o            o          o

o     o     o     o         ,         o            o          o

     o     o     o           +    o           o            o

o     o     o     o         ,              o              o   

And when you get up in the middle of the night and feel your way to the bathroom in the dark, the sound surrounds you (surround sound) as you walk:

(bedroom)

o     o     o     o         +               o          o           o       o

     o     o     o           ,              o         o          o        o

o     o     o     o         +          o         o          o        o

o     o     o     o         ,        o        o          o        o

     o     o     o           +                  o            o          o

o     o     o     o         ,                o            o          o 

   o     o     o     o      +           o            o          o

(living room)

     o     o     o                    o             o         o

        o     o     o                  o            o          o

         o     o     o             o            o          o

      o     o     o            o           o           o

  o     o     o                      o            o   

        o     o     o            o              o

                    o       o            o               

                    o       o 

(kitchen)

                 c      c       c     

    c        c        c

         c     c     c      c

     c     c     c     c     c     c

c     c     c     c     c     c     c

     c     c     c     c     c     c     

c     c     c     c     c     c     c

     c     c     c     c     c     c

c     c     c     c     c     c     c

     c     c     c     c     c     c  

           c     c     c     c    

                    c     c     

                       c    

(hallway)

             ;  

               ;     ;

                ;     ;     ;

          ;     ;     ;     ;     ; 

               ;  ;   ;  ;  ;  ;

 ;  ;  ;  ;  ;  ;

               ;  ;  ;  ;  ;  ; ;

 ;  ;  ;  ;  ;  ;

               ;  ;  ;  ;  ;  ;

 ;  ;  ;  ;  ;  ;

               ;  ;  ;  ;  ;  ;

 ;  ;  ;  ;  ;  ;

            ;    ;     ;

             ;     ;

                ;  

(bathroom)

            ',  

             ',  ',  ', 

               ',  ',  ',  ',  ', 

                ',  ',  ',  ',  ', 

                  ',  ',  ',  ',  ',

                    ',  ',  ',  ',  ',

                      ,' ,' ,' ,' ,' ,'

                    ,' ,' ,' ,' ,' ,'

                  ,' ,' ,' ,' ,' ,'

                ,' ,' ,' ,' ,' ,'

                ',  ',  ',  ',  ', 

                 ',  ',  ',  ',  ', 

                   ',  ',  ',  ',  ',

                     ',  ',  ',  ',  ',

                       ,' ,' ,' ,' ,' ,'

                    ,' ,' ,' ,' ,' ,'

                  ,' ,' ,' ,' ,' ,'

                ,' ,' ,' ,' ,' ,'

                ,' ,' ,' ,' 

              ,' ,' 

            ,' 

(you, peeing)

                  p

                        p 

                          p

                      p

                  p

                       p

                            p

                        p

                    p

               p

                    p

                         p

                     p

                 p

             p

Process post: Illustrating for Pandodaily

[Last winter I was interviewed to be featured in an online magazine. I was asked to write a couple of process posts. I recently found out the feature was cancelled, so I'm sharing them here. Below is the "process post" I wrote about illustrating this article for Pandodaily.]

My job as a full time illustrator at Pandodaily is a unique challenge. I'm usually online by 9:30 AM. I do some some warm-up sketching as I have my coffee and find images for our morning stories. By eleven or so, our writers have filled out the schedule, so I know which article(s) I'm going to illustrate that day. Sometimes I have 40 minutes to draw something. Sometimes I have 5 hours. Every day is different.

On this day, Sarah sent me a message around noon to tell me she was writing a post about the debate around whether women can "have it all" - a family and a career. She was still working on it, but I read what she had so far - It was enough to get an idea of her main point. I began to sketch around 1pm, and the story was going to be published at 5PM.

Sarah's article reminded me of an idea I'd had in my head for a while - of a magician cutting a woman in half to symbolize how a woman is divided between work and family. I did some rough sketching to see how it might look. I decided the concept was successful.

Next I did a small but detailed draft, with all the major elements I wanted to include. The border and the little phrases in the corners just came naturally as I was drawing. I had just read the wonderful Hall of Best Knowledge by Ray Fenwick, and you can directly see his influence in this illustration. I'm fairly shameless about integrating what I like into my work (related reading: Steal Like an Artist). I enlarged my sketch in the photocopier.  I wanted to have more control of the detail in my final draft because I would be using a brush and ink.

Then I put the photocopy on my light board. On a thicker piece of paper, I traced the lines more carefully with a pencil and worked out the details more carefully. I inked using 2 small brushes - one for lines and one to fill in black space. 

When it was partially inked I was pretty tired of looking at it, so I paused to look at it through my kaleidoscope. There it was - already a masterpiece. I congratulated myself.

When it was fully inked, I erased the pencil lines, making sure to blow away the eraser dust in a loud, sputtering manner to irritate my office-mates. Once it was scanned, I opened it in photoshop. With the lines on a separate layer, I played around with some colors and textures.

I struggle with coloring, so I usually save images that have color palettes I like, and steal them for myself. Mostly I use stuff I find on flickr - lots of vintage ads and old timey children's book illustrations. For this one I stole a bright red color from a chinese match box someone posted on flickr. I like this screenshot because I love that it looks like there's blood on the saw.

It was about 4:45 when I started to color the illustration. I told my editor that I would need a little extra time - he said that was fine. By the time it was all done, it was about 5:25. I uploaded the image into wordpress and hit publish myself. Immediate gratification!

Nobody even looked at it before it was published. I could have drawn anything. I could have just written the word "fuck" and scanned it and nobody would have stopped me. But I didn't. And that's why I'm the art director. 

Crayons possess a magic innocence.

I

 could

 color

forever