Bionic Mamas

you're not losing a vagina, you're gaining a son

Category Archives: arty


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Still dreaming about Giraffe

Sugar here. Remember this? And this? Well, I’m still working on it, veeerrrry slooowwwly. Here we go with pages 2 and 3 from my story about Giraffe:

giraffedreams
Giraffe had a ticket to the city. He wanted to live a glamourous life.

giraffe-rides001
So, Giraffe left home.

Coming next, a scene inside the train, as soon as I figure out how to draw a cricket wearing cat eye glasses.

When I was a kid my mom’s best friend and my “fairy god mother” was a children’s book writer and illustrator. I loved getting new books from her. She gave me a book called Hello Irina when I was very small. In it, a horse takes a boat and then a train from Russia to the coast of France to be with the wild white horses she has heard about. I stared at the picture of the horse on the edge of the field dreaming about leaving home for what felt like hours. (Now that I know a two-year-old, I realize this was probably more like 10 minutes.) I didn’t realize it until I was home this summer and saw the book again, but Giraffe’s story is a lot like Irina’s. The Bean loved Hello Irina when he saw it at my parents’ house this summer, so I have hope that he will like Giraffe.

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Sketches for Giraffe’s Dream

Sugar here again. I can’t get this illustration right, so instead of sending our hero into his adventure, I’m ruminating on what to do with page two.

I tried to finish page two, and I got this, which I really don’t like:

he wanted to move to the city

At the very least, the car in the foreground needs to go, but so much is not right here that I’m going to do it over.

I went back to my quick story board for the book. Here’s the original ten second sketch:

he wanted to move to the city

For some reason, giraffe looks like a hippopotamus here, could be the bowler.

Next I tried to make a sketch that showed buildings, trees, and cars as three dimensional shapes, rather than the flat approach in the first painting:

he wanted to move to the city

And then I tried again:

he wanted to move to the city

But I was worried that the road was not a good place to run the text, particularly because the greys and blacks I seem to be mixing are UGLY. So, I moved the horizon line down:

he wanted to move to the city

This is better! I was going to try to do this in paint last night. Unfortunately we then had Toddergate Part One, in which the Bean did not eat dinner, punched Bionic in the eye with the corner of a book (she’s ok) and then took two and a half hours to fall asleep, effectively killing the evening. Toddergate Part Two was this morning, just as much fun, but with persistent attempts to yank me out of the shower and lots of wailing when I was anywhere except within six inches of the Thomas the Train set up. Good times. The poor guy has cold sores and a bad diaper rash right now, but he’s on the mend, so maybe this weekend will be better.


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Giraffe has big dreams

Hi – Sugar here. I’m writing/painting a story book for the Bean.  Since Bionic is holed up grading awful papers, I’m going to punctuate her blog silence with the pictures as they come along. I’ve got 1.5 pictures so far, thanks to 3.5 total nap hours from Saturday and today. Here they are:

giraffe-story001

This is Giraffe.

giraffe-story002

Giraffe wants to move to the city. He’ll live a life of friends and parties, taxis and buses, fancy stores and apartment buildings. (This is the .5 picture.  Pay no attention to the unfinished right hand side.)

Can you see where this is going? Bionic and I have a collection of stories about animals moving to urban areas. You’ll have to get her to tell you the one about the whale who accidentally becomes a maritime lawyer. Stress ensues.