Christy Stallop » Uncategorized

I love Monsters!

Christy — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 21:08:26 +0000

I’m working on an interactive picture book dummy that developed from my participation in the Sketchbook Project last year. It was creatively freeing to work on something called a sketchbook. For me, a sketchbook ment nothing more than sketches. No pre-thought, no research, and no final art. Without using a pencil as a guild, I created my monsters with india ink and a brush. I added color using a cheep tin of watercolor (which I’ve fallen in love with). The sketchbook is part of a permanent collection at the Brooklyn Museum of Art Library where patrons can check the sketchbook out and peruse its contents. Every now and then I will get a wonderful comments via e-mail about my work. It’s pretty darn cool.

Three original monsters from the sketchbook project.

I reworked the monsters. I sketched them out this time but I used the same materials, india ink and a cheep tin of watercolor.

Erik is making me blog

Christy — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 15:17:36 +0000

I just discovered the wordpress app. (Thanks Erik) so now I don’t have an excuse not to blog. It’s been over a year, shameful!

Sketchbook Project

Christy — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 20:23:04 +0000

Sorry to those of you who follow my blog. It’s been over a year and I’m ashamed. BUT, it isn’t because I haven’t been working. There have been some projects that required me to keep images to myself. Hopefully, I will be able to post those shortly. In the meantime, I’ve decided to join the Sketchbook Project. www.thesketchbookproject.com Artists can choose their theme. Being that I am a fan of the dark side, I chose Nighttime Stories. After signing up, the artist is sent a plane brown sketchbook. The hard part, what to fill it with. I stared at the book for a few weeks. One day, while in Dallas for a hockey tournament, I started doodling on the cover with ink. I decided that I would not outline or use pencil on this project. Straight to ink….terrifying yet freeing. I doodled out the cover and added color with some watercolor. I got the basic idea down…but I had no idea how to fill the pages. I knew I wanted to involve the viewer. I wanted it to be interactive. I reflected on past projects and remembered this hatbox.

If you moved the hat box lid, you could change the character’s expression. This is what I wanted for my sketchbook. Something people would want to touch and play around with. I decided to cut the pages in my sketchbook and allow the viewer to change faces, torso’s or feet to create a gazillion different monsters. Here is the start of my project.

I’ve added several new monsters, Beware!

Wheels Book Dummy Complete!

Christy — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 21:23:18 +0000

It feels great to finish a book dummy. Suddenly you find that you can think about other things, play with your kids… shower! All this extra time!!! I sent my agent a digital dummy, (Indesign makes it so easy) but I need a hands on dummy for myself. I need to hold it in my hand, leaf through the pages, carry it in my purse and just adore it for a bit. Lot’s of work went into that little booklet.

quick sketch

Christy — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 17:20:58 +0000

I didn’t get to sketch till this morning. Along with the other wheels I’ve done, I needed to sketch out one of the double page spread ideas. Hopefully this will be enough for Rosemary to move forward. I love this simple book more and more.

Cartwheel

Christy — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 15:11:34 +0000

This will be the only person/child in this series. Because it’s about wheels and locomotion, I decided to have the child face away from the viewer. This will keep the focus on the movement and not the individual.

I’ve sketched out the little girl after setting up the background.

I’ve applied a crackle glaze that I’m using for this series and filled in the cracks with Burnt Sienna.

Blocking in color. Trying to stay true to my chosen pallet.

Mostly finished.

Star Wheel

Christy — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:57:10 +0000

This was the most fun wheel yet. I’ve looked up at the stars so many times in my life and I can even point out a few Constellations but to me the sky was too full of stars to make any real sense of it. I started drawing this star chart, plotting out the dots that would be stars and then connected them. After a full day of working I went out for a late night swim. The sky was clear and many stars could be seen. This time when I looked up, everything was familiar. I recognized everything. It was amazing! That’s what I love about drawing and painting, it forces you to be observant. Drawing/Painting allows you to make it your own.

I used a light crackle glaze for the space around the star wheel and added the star points.

Close up of the stars. There are so many dots! This forced me to find the constellations in a pattern of stars.

It was just like a puzzle.

and the finished piece.

Chris Barton’s “The Day-Glo Brothers”

Christy — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 18:40:35 +0000

I had the pleasure of attending Chris Barton’s book signing at Book People this past Saturday.

Chris was promoting his first published picture book “The Day-Glo Brothers” .

It was so nice to see all the Local SCBWI peeps showing their support for this very talented author. Not only was there a lot’s of writing and illustrator folks, but many parents and children. It was a nice crowd.

Chris had set up tables of crafts all in day glow colors for the kids as well as day glow cookies and bright orange juice. He talked about how his story came to be, how long it took, how many rejections it went through, how long the story was originally, and finally, how it came to be published. It’s a interesting and fun biography full of whimsical illustrations…. and, it glows!

Here Chris is signing my book.

Wheels, Wheels and more Wheels!

Christy — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 15:18:41 +0000

I never would have thought of doing a book on wheels. It something insignificant to me, yet what would we do without them? My friend Dianna thought up the concept. She sees things I don’t see, She thinks about things I don’t have time to think about. She finds the importance of small things most of us overlook. When she and I were first friends, we would go on long walks for what I thought was exercise. That wasn’t why Dianna walked. She walked to find things. She would find feathers, coins, buttons, seeds, plastic toys….to me, crap, to Dianna, little gifts. I still don’t think like her but she has helped me find wonder is small things.

This wheel is Training Wheel. I found a crackle agent I liked and used it for the background. In most of the pictures, there is some added texture for the backdrop of the image. None of the wheels have been properly scanned. I just took a digital picture. They aren’t sharp on here but I didn’t want to mess with it.

Wheels Continued

Christy — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 16:32:13 +0000

I used to play with these. They were hypnotic with their movement. Such a simple idea. This illustration is the third in a series of wheels.