Zine Revolution

Just wanted to share my most recent residency from Imagine It: An Art Book of Your Own.
I had the pleasure of working with some extremely talented fifth graders at Beverly Farms Elementary in Potomac Maryland.  Each student created an illustrated zine about how select historical figures impacted important events during the Revolutionary War.  This was a fun project.

 Benjamin Franklin that is....lol!

The students researched images and information on their classroom chrome books.  I taught them how to break down their reference images into shapes to make them easier to recreate.  Then I taught them the rules of drawing the face and the body of a character.  We talked about creating depth in drawing, camera views, and story sequence.  I shared "Invictus", a beautiful comic tribute to Nelson Mandela from Zen Pencils, one of my favorite websites by Gavin Aung Than.  This was all the inspiration the students needed to tell their stories.  

Page by page the students work started to blossom and I could not be happier with the results.  This was a great experience and I left this school with the best set of zines I have created with students thus far!  I made 3 copies of each students zine so they would have some to pass out to friends and family and I made a few....okay more than a few copies for myself that I hope to share with the public.  

Please enjoy the photos from the residency!  The Zine Revolution is coming to a school near you!!!!

  

As you can see these students are so talented and creative.  We had lots of fun together.  I really love my job!  This project was Zinetastic!!!!

Shout out to the fifth grade teachers, Ms. Bardwell, Foley, Cashmere, and Balzar.  Thank you for hosting me in your classrooms.    These little handmade booklets turned out great.  I enjoyed my time at Beverly Farms.  These student's drawing skills blew me away.  I can't wait to pass these out on tours at Young Audiences so people can see the work of these up and coming young author/illustrators!

The Earth's Treasures

See Mural Madness if you missed the introduction of this residency before you read on.

Here are the student illustrations for the mural, "Earth's Treasures" and their vision boards.  I think it is hilarious that the students were thinking the vision boards were going to be our mural.  They were proud of their drawings and trusted my vision, but were completely caught off guard when they saw how I interpreted their illustrations on 2'x4' wooden panels.  Pay close attention to the images you see and see if you recognize them in the mural!
               
                     

The painting studio ran rather smoothly thanks to Tia Breckenridge, the school counselor.  She is an organizing guru, had the room smelling all good, made sure the students had passes to come during their scheduled workshop time, lead two after school sessions without me, was an amazing support through the whole process, and is sure to become a lifelong friend.  I got attached to these students too, I hope to work with them again soon.  It was an exhilarating experience.  Enter Mrs. D's studio:





And now it's finished!  I have so many pictures to share, I don't even know where to start.  Please watch the making of "Earth's Treasures" and enjoy the final results.  I am so proud of the students at John Hanson Montessori.  They are creative, focused, and fun!  They made me feel like a part of their family.


                   


Drum roll please.............

 Panel 1:  Sea life, Beaches, Islands, and Cliffs.    

Panel 2: Family, Orchards, Plains, and Mountains

Panel 3:  Faith, Humanity, Parks, and Recreation

Panel 4:  Education, Creativity, Entrepreneurship, 

Panel 5: Self Discovery, Milestones, Bays, and Bridges

Panel 6: Rural and Urban, Wildlife, Waterways, and Commerce 

Panel 7:  Roots, History, Culture

Panel 8:  Seasons and Agriculture

I wish that you could see the whole panorama in person, that you could have been to the best culminating event EVER, and met the ABSOLUTELY AMAZING students that participated and captured my heart with their AWESOME attitudes.  But, I guess you had to be there.

Here are a few pics from the amazing culminating event that really brought the John Hanson Montessori community together!  So many parents and supporters showed up including John Ceschini, the Arts Integration Officer of Prince George's County Public Schools.  We sat together and chatted about this awesome residency, upcoming projects, and our passion for arts integration. There was a sit down dinner buffet style, center pieces, and performance!  It was a true Art Gala with giveaways and cake!  The food was delicious!  And when they opened up the curtain to reveal the mural, I couldn't have been more proud.........

                    

Thank you John Watson, Briana Wallace, Teja T. Tops, Tanesha A. Stovall, Serenity Smith,
Destiny Smith, Taylor Scott, Haaliyah Aneese Scott, Donovan Ross, Princess Robinson, Shayne Richmond, Brittaney-Nya Payton, Manuel Joseph Orallo, Jordan Newkirk, Mariah Nelson, Mariah Nelson, Alicia L. Nelson, Breanna Miller, Medgar Mack, Kai V. Lindsey, Kourtney Lewis, Victoria Lanier, Mya Johnson, Jovan Jackson, Thomas Hedgepeth, Jordan Goodman, Jasmin Golson, Kourtney Garrett, K. Galloway, Nico Edwards, Ayanna Earl, Jarai Dumas, Genesis Dorsey, Elijah Dorsey, Nike S. Diggs, Jalisa Davis, Deonte' Davis, Ajani Colymore, Dahria Clement, Jayla Bobo, Jamare Blagmon, and Aniya Bell for answering the call and creating an EPIC mural for your school! 

And a special thank you to the Tia Brekenridge, Principal Pinder,  and the PTA at John Hanson Montessori for hosting me, and making this such a wonderful experience, you guys rock!

I LOVE MAKING MURALS!!!!!!!!!!!!  

Keep planting seeds 

Bad Hair Day

So proud of this project.  Adrienne Vincent Sutton,  A friend who is self publishing her first children's novel, gave me the honor of designing her book cover, and it is now off to print!  I love the outcome, but this beauty went through several stages to get finished.  I usually paint by hand and enjoy doing so, but since the success of this book will rely heavily on it's web presence, I decided to go digital.  I'm a newbie to digital painting but have been trying to challenge myself since I now have the means to do so.  Photoshop and Corel Painter, I love you.  You are both, the wind beneath my wings.

After reading the book, I felt an immediate connection to the main character.  Struggling with my own natural hair journey since childhood, has made this subject matter near and dear to my heart.  I was inspired to create a cover that would make girls and boys pick up the book and say, "Hey that girl is kind of fly, and her hair is kind of fly too.  But why is it in two totally different styles?"  Pick up the book and find out, young whipper snappers.
(I said that in my Yoda voice)    

I started with this sketch this past Spring, on the airplane in route to the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta, Georgia.  I felt a freedom I haven't felt in a long time on that plane, traveling for work.  I can't tell you how long it had been since I had picked up my favorite sketchbook.  This girl easily oozed out of my pencil like I had been sketching everyday!  After revising the lip and the eyes, the client settled on the following sketch, I scanned it and cleaned it up in photoshop.

I love sketching on brown paper.  I just want to lick the page, it's so buttery and delicious.  First challenge:  Capture the look she had right at this moment, a crucial point in the story.  And that look on her face says it all.  This moment sums up the main character's whole dilemma....

but you'll have to read the story for yourself to find out.  

I wanted the title to be as unruly as her hair.  Then I had to drop in a bit of the setting for some background.   

TIME TO PAINT! 

I started with the hair first because the hair is everything in this story and getting it right would be my biggest challenge.  ESPECIALLY, that amazing fro!  

When I say this hair took layers upon layers of work, I mean I stopped counting how many times I created a new layer.  I finally got what I was going for.  I probably took the long route, but I learned a lot through the process.  Main thing, it's the same as painting on canvas, just with different tools.  Man that Wacom tablet is a treasure!  Now to capture that pretty brown skin.  Airbrushes, you rock!

Finding this version of a lock in a reference picture, then playing with it in photoshop to make it follow my vision, really was a turning point in this process.  It supported the color choices I had already made in the hair and really inspired the rest of the color story.  

I would call this my "Aha Moment."

I love the colors.  She's almost there.......mo' layers, mo' layers, MO' layers!

Now this.....this is "The One"!  Bout' time!

And now for the back cover and spine design, drum roll please........

BAM! (applause and the crowd goes wild!) 

I did that thang!  Thank you!  Thank you very much!  "In the face!"

Stay tuned, because as soon as this baby gets printed you can order on line and have a copy of your very own.  You're gonna love it.  Go to www.adriennevincentsutton.com to find out more and spread the word!

And holla at your boy!  

UPDATE:  AVAILABLE NOW ON AMAZON!!!

"Bad Hair Day" by Adrienne Vincent Sutton

Cover Art by:  Me!

D.L. Tucker Illustration

woop woop

  

Mural Madness

Over a year since I've posted.  Man.  Don't dwell Danyett.  I've done so much since last August.  It's been a heck of a year.  Exhausted but motivated to share the beginnings of my first mural this school year!

The following are pics from day four's workshop at John Hanson Montessori .  We spent the first 3 days developing images and creating the layout and design.  Now it's time to paint!  Everybody was shaking in their boots!  Hahah!  Paint is so intimating but a worthy challenger.  

The theme of the mural is "Earth's Treasures".  I love creating murals with students.  I'm not just the instructor but an active participant.  Murals are one of the most authentic community arts projects.  And I get to do me, which is the little strawberry on top.

I gave the middle school students a poem for inspiration.  I googled earth's treasures and found this little treasure  A Lunar Lament by: Anne Pedtke.  After I read the poem to the class for inspiration, I asked them to imagine that they were the moon looking down upon the earth, marveling at it's treasures.  What treasure's would make you a jealous moon?

They came up with some great sketches, which I pieced together into our mural composition, all from the moon's perspective.

Here are six of eight panels.  I love taking their sketches and turning them into one picture. They are always so shocked to see how all the pieces fit together.  They thought their vision boards were the mural!  I'll post those pictures next time.  Imagine the looks on their faces when they saw these.....

They were so tickled to see their ideas and sketches imagined through my eyes.  

And here are my little community artists at work to bring our masterpiece to life!

Mrs. D runs a tight ship but I Ron Clarked it!

  

Dearest Ron, 

Since I got that first peek into your head, I've been chasing that feeling I had when I came to visit your amazing school in every interaction I have with a child or educator. 

Dearest Jay the Magnificent,

I remember my first time being exposed to your process.  I remember thinking....this man is a diabolical genius.  The imagery that came out of your workshops were otherworldly.   I got caught up in those panels, it was magnificent, hence why I call you Jay The Magnificent.  And now I get to create these collaged universes where anything is possible with a totally awesome group of students of my own.

I want to be like those two when I grow up!  

I hope these young people could feel that magical vibe in the air that this kind of project can bring.  So grateful to Young Audiences for blessing me with this opportunity to serve communities that feed me with inspiration and fuel my passions daily.  

Now if I can just get them to be fearless....we are gonna have one humdinger of a mural and they will be left with a cherished memory and an experience they will never forget! 

Continuum

Continuum-a continuous extent, series, or whole.

Continuous-being in immediate connection or spatial relationship

This may be the best first page of a new sketch book I've ever drawn on the fly.  

Spontaneous and Free.    

I call it, "Continuum" because I found a way to make every line that I made work together for the good of the whole.  Sketched in ink so as to promote confident lines, I just went for it.  The grey paper with the brown ink is making my heart quiver with glee, it's so delicious!  I like it a lot!  Yummy!  

I have a confession to make.  I am a sketchbook addict.  I saw the paper and had to have it.  I rarely fill up a sketch book.  I may have two completely full sketchbooks (and one is a thumbnail sketchbook so that doesn't count), but I have a lot of incomplete sketchbooks.  I know it's a problem, I'm working on it.  I don't know what it is but there's just something about a fresh blank book!  I collect them.  I labor for days on what to put on the first page, it's so ridiculous.  It's always that starting point that gets me.  The fear of messing up.  The pursuit of perfection produces a deadly combination when art and fear merge.  How could I ever expect a sketchbook to be perfect?  It's a freaking sketchbook!

I have to talk myself through my misgivings.  A sketchbook's imperfections are what makes it perfect.  It's the space for experimenting without restrictions and preconceptions.  It is inception.

Inception-beginning; start; commencement

Duuuuhhhhhhh....

Well, cheers to spontaneity, and doing what comes natural, and what makes you feel good!

I think I'm going to have to digitally paint this one because there is no way I can reproduce this drawing as a painting otherwise.  Ain't no way lightning is gonna strike twice in the same spot.  I like my first try!  Who am I fooling, I always like my first sketch best.  Don't we all?  It's always more loose and free and full of promise and potential.  No pressure....until the second draft which will not include the Edward scissor hand....I loath drawing hands.  I wish I could wave a magic wand to make them appear effortlessly.  But noooooo, hands have to be all confrontational and difficult, ol' suckas.  

The figure was initially intended to be laying on the drawing, melting into it.  Somehow, she ended up standing holding a tree up.  Then she somehow became the tree.  Sound familiar?  I always start off in prostrate, then somehow end up standing, carrying the load until it becomes second nature and an extension of myself.  We all have the tendency to do that without even thinking about it, some of us need more practice.  I might start off on my face but I find a way to make it to my knees and after that God lifts me to my feet then fills me with His grace.  And if you know me, you know....there are going to be some trees thrown in the mix!  

I just can't help myself.  I don't see dead people.  I see tree people.  LOL!

So this one has mad layers too, which seems to be a reoccuring theme.  She's lays in prostrate and stands in strength, all at the same time.  It's duality, and I like it like that!  That's what laying in prostrate can do for you!  It can give you the strength you need to stand! So go throw yourself down on your face and pray for the strength you need to get back up!  Do not delay!  Do it now!  

This is about as abstract as I get, but I do love when recognizable images emerge from lines and shapes...now that's gangsta!  

Emergence=Evolution