Illustration Friday: Sail

Although I'm not very happy with China's policy on Tibet, or their smog situation I put that aside for a night, and immensely enjoyed the opening ceremony. One of the highlights for me was a lovely and graceful dancer who made her green ribbon sail through the air.

I was so inspired that I jumped up, and took a couple photos of my television screen.

I missed quite a few IF topics lately, and haven't been blog visiting as much because as I mentioned in my last post I was working on my new website. I'd love to hear your comments and opinions.

My New Website!!

I've been a bit absent from this blog because I've been hard at work trying to organize myself into website form. It was a project that became so much more involved then one anticipates, but I'm so glad I finally put the time in to figure it out. I was just the designer of the site, the credit for all the heavy lifting with the coding goes to my dad. It was our first time working together on a project of this magnitude, and I'm happy with the results.

I've never shared work from my day job, or my freelance work on this blog, so if you'd like to see the other sides of me that pay the bills please head on over and check it out. We see it as a work in progress that will continue to evolve, so I'd be interested in opinions and critiques.

My new website: www.angelamatteson.com

San Diego Comic-Con 2008!

I've been back from Comic-Con for a few days, and I still don't know how to sum up the experience other than to say that it was mind-blowing and spectacular! For a tv-aholic like myself it was so much fun to see some of my favorite stars talking about the shows I love. My first panel was for Stargate, and I have to admit, I'm not a huge fan, but I couldn't pass up seeing Richard Dean Anderson and Ben Browder. The whole cast was wonderful. I then tried to see a bit of the exhibit hall, and found Gris Grimly's booth, and came back to buy 'Little Jordan Ray's Muddy Spud', and have it signed by the man himself. After a very long line I made it into the 'Dr. Horrible Sing-a-long Blog' panel with Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion, and the one and only Buffy creator, Joss Whedon, and it may have been the most entertaining panel I attended. All 3 acts of the musical, Dr. Horrible, are temporarily available on Hulu.

Also on Friday I attended panels for Family Guy with Seth MacFarlane, and Seth Green, and Prison Break, which was missing Wentworth Miller. :( On Saturday my friends and I walked to the end of the longest line I have ever seen for the Heroes panel. It was literally over a mile long, and went way past the convention center, and then when hope appeared to be lost it actually started moving, and we made it into the hall amongst cheers of 'You made it!' The 6000 of us were treated to an airing of the entire first episode of the next season, and a very brief chat with the entire cast. Later, on the exhibit floor I saw Adam Baldwin with his son, and proceeded to stalk him for a few paces for a few pics. He was then at the Chuck panel where he stole the show in front of a crowd that contained more than a few Firefly fans sporting Jayne knitted caps. I somehow ended up at a Battlestar Gallactica panel, a show I don't watch. It was still fun because Kevin Smith, who I enjoy, moderated, and the cast members attending were hot! :) The last panel I made it to was for Fringe with J.J. Abrams and star Joshua Jackson. Walking around the Gaslamp District we saw a herd of cows penned up in a parking lot presumably as viral marketing for Fringe. It's still too soon to tell if this show will be any good.

It was then back down to check out more booths, and take more photos of people in costume. I was impressed how everyone came prepared with their perfect pose for photos, but I still found it sometimes more fun to catch those candid moments.

I ended up picking up anything they were giving away. I figured with the popularity of reusable shopping bags, we'd see the studios take advantage of this form of advertising, and it definitely was the year of the bag. The poster size Pushing Daisies bag was my must have Con accessory.

It wasn't all just tv and movie booths, although they were the loudest presence, and attracted the most wall to wall people. The Ugly Doll booth was bright and cheery, and I got a few pics of the life size dolls roaming the halls. Sights like this meant standing in line was never dull.

Seeing so many of my favorite illustrators was a real treat. Chatting with the great Stephen Silver was a special highlight.

I ended up with a bag full of cards and postcards of inspirational artist's work that caught my eye that I'll be looking into more online. I didn't bring big enough luggage for all the books I wanted to buy.

One of the best parts of this trip was reuniting with my most awesome college chums, Bob, Trevor, Sean, and Eric. After all the chaos of the Con it was nice to kick back, and enjoy the beautifully perfect weather of San Diego.

We had some great fish tacos at Tin Fish near the convention hall, and the taste of Shanghai at the Red Pearl Kitchen another night, and a nice relaxing day of sightseeing along the beaches of La Jolla. I was excited to see the seals swimming in the ocean, and while strolling along the shoppes we stopped for some most delicious gelato! I had a scoop of blood orange with raspberry fudge swirl on top. So good! :)

We also took the trolley to Old Town, which had photo opportunities a plenty. We had some great Mexican food, and went ghost hunting at the Whaley House.

I took around 900 photos and videos, so this post could go on forever, but I'll end it here so I can get back to doing some illustrations. :)

Illustration Friday: Enough

Even though they were like ducks to water, Rupert and Mildred had

had enough of all the flooding in the Midwest.

I haven't posted in forever, and I have been really missing participating in Illustration Friday. I needed a little break to enjoy all the wonderful summer weather, and to get all my ducks in a row. It should be known that even if you do manage to get your ducks in one single row that getting them all to face forward is a whole other matter all together.

The last few weeks I've been working on some other projects which I hope to share here soon. Tomorrow though, I'm off to San Diego for 6 days to meet up for a mini-reunion with some of my ol' college chums, and to attend Comic-Con. This is my first year attending a conference of this magnitude, and my first time on the west coast, so I'm unbelievably excited!!

Illustration Friday: Worry

When I saw the IF topic, worry, I almost was going to do a collage of some of my past illustrations since so many of my characters end up with a somewhat worried look on their faces. I think I'm drawn to that worried look because you can see that something is churning in their brain. I find the mystery of what that may be intriguing.

I'm not sure what this bunny is worried about. I know he wasn't so sure he'd make it to post before the deadline, and he's not sure where he came from. He just showed up about 5 minutes after I started sketching. I'm not so sure he's worried about anything in particular, and instead is just generally neurotic.

Illustration Friday: Wide

Lucy Pevensie pulled the wardrobe door wide open, and found a whole other world.

I've been meaning to post some photos I took a couple years back of the actual wardrobe that inspired C. S. Lewis to write The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. It was on display along with his writing desk, and other items. I was most interested in the wardrobe, which although it was not the one from the movie it was more special because it was the catalyst to the entire Narnia series. I thought it was timely to post it now with the new movie, Prince Caspian out in theaters now.

This sign was some cute museum humor. It warned, "Enter at your own risk. The Wade Center assumes no responsibility for persons who disappear or are lost in the wardrobe."

A Typical Day

The other day I was reading a post on Eric Orchard's blog about his typical day, and I couldn't help thinking about my own day, and so when I got to the end of the post, and saw that I was tagged, I thought what a fun surprise! But, sorry to say, my days are quite boring, and I don't have myself on a schedule for the illustrating stuff you see on this blog. I'm thinking I may have to fix that. Oh well, here's a typical weekday:

4:55 am - The alarm goes off. I hit snooze to turn the buzzer off. Also, my wakeup light turns on, and I have my thermostat set to make it hotter, so I'm forced to throw the covers off.

4:57 - The radio alarm turns on, and listen to the weather, etc for a little while, although lately all I hear is the rhythmic creaking of my neighbor's bed above my apartment. More incentive to get up, and leave I guess.

5:15 - give or take - Take a shower, and make myself presentable to the world. Make a protein fruit smoothie if I have time.

6:10 or so - Pack my lunch from whatever frozen meals I have prepared in the freezer. Grab my protein smoothie, if there is one, otherwise just grab a yogurt. Leave for work. It's so nice not to have to clean the ice and snow off the car anymore.

6:30 - Arrive at the office. I'll check my email and horoscope, and maybe a few blogs. Also, I have my breakfast smoothie, or the yogurt with cereal. Then I look at what projects I have. Right now I'm designing Christmas. So everyday is fa la la la la, and holly, holly, snowflake, snowflake. A few other projects also cross my desk.

midmorning - I start to get hungry. I might nibble some Trader Joe Multi-grain Pita Chips, and then a few Tollhouse chocolate chips. I would say I check my email again, but I've probably already checked it 5 times by now.

about 5 to 10 minutes before noon - I go to the cafeteria to heat up my lunch, unless I have a cold salad. Lunch is almost alway brought back to my desk to eat, and internet browse.

after lunch - Back to work.
2:00 - small break

3:15 pm - The benefit of starting so early pays off. It's time to go home!! :) Now here's the variable part of my day. I'll either:
a) Run some errands
b) Drive to the bike path for a 3 mile walk followed by relaxing outdoors
c) Go straight home, and do my Yoga Booty Ballet exercise video followed by a shower
d) Go straight home, and browse blogs, or draw, or work on other projects
I didn't do much of b and c over the winter, so I'm trying to get them back into the routine, so I have more energy. Yesterday, I did 16,585 steps, according to my pedometer, approxiamately 8.29 miles to make up for all the slacking. I'm feeling it today. Good pain though.

between 5:00 and 7:30 - I make myself some dinner. I'll usually have my favorite Discovery channel shows on, "Cash Cab" and "How's It Made".

7:00 - 10:00 - Watch tv and maybe draw, or visit blogs, or work on some procrastination project like making a necklace, or work on a freelance assignment. What I do in this block of time depends on how tired I am.

between 9:30 -11:00 - I often fall asleep on the couch with the lights and tv still on. This is an awful habit I'm still trying to break.

2:00 am - I awake to find that I'm still in the living room, and some horrible infomercial is on, and those messed up dreams I was just having are starting to make sense. I now try to go to bed, but end up not being able to fall asleep, and I toss and turn for hours, hopefully, eventually getting a little more sleep, before the alarm goes off, and I do it all over again.

Whoa, sorry this got to be so long. Probably way more then you ever wanted to know.

I will now tag-- Eric Smith, Andi Butler, David Sones, and Sheree Boyd

Illustration Friday: Electricity

After Ben Franklin discovered electricity he invented the oven, and he and Isacc Newton baked that apple that fell on Isaac's head into a very fine pie in this chapter of altered history.

This week's topic of course made me think of Ben, but I also, for some reason, immediately thought of Isacc, perhaps because their epiphanies both came about outdoors. Anyway, I was excited about drawing some historical figures, but the sketch wasn't turning out like I planned. It was too dull and ordinary, and I asked myself, "Matteson, where's the style, the dynamic shapes, the fun???" I was discouraged, but kept at it until I got to this point which I'm kinda o.k. with.

Interestingly enough, I just read that Ben just missed meeting the aging Newton. So it feels good to be able to bring them together at least in spirit. Ben actually did invent the Franklin stove, but it wasn't electric. For more real facts follow the links above.

Illustration Friday: Seed

Little did the mothers who gave birth today at Hanz Hopkins Hospital know that Doctor Spermalot had planted his seed all over town.

This was the first idea that came to mind this week. Mostly likely influenced by last week's episode of Reaper. I wasn't sure I wanted to finish sketching this idea, and had started a 'prettier' second idea, but bounced back to this one. I've got to get working on these earlier in the week, but then again having no time means quick decision making, and more unexpected results.

Illustration Friday: Wrinkles

Sam never worried about his wrinkled, rumpled clothes when he went fishing.

This needs some proper shading, but I only have time to block in some quick colors. I tried not to clean up my sketch so much this time for added wrinkly effect. :)

Illustration Friday: Primitive

Back home at my parents home there used to be a ton of cute, furry, little chipmunks scampering about the yard. But, slowly they started to disappear as some neighborhood cats took over the territory. Soon, no more chipmunks were to be found, but occasionally we would find a tail here and there. I began to imagine that the savage wild cats would perform some sort of ancient tail-removal ritual to gather these prize souvenirs. Somewhere in a secret lair I imagine them decked out in full ceremonial garb with the tails made into headdresses and necklaces. In the drawing I had to strategically place the tree stump because these guys are so savage that they don't wear any pants.

This is a sketch color blocked in photoshop. The other week I was busy painting some of my decorative wooden boxes to give my little place a little spring makeover, and I was sanding a painted surface, and ended up scanning that, and I used it here as the background texture.

My apologies to chipmunk lovers. No chipmunks were directly harmed in the creation of this illustration. The same can't be said for what happens in the wild.

Holocaust Star Project

back:

The illustrations are acrylic painted on wood.

When Jillian Curtis contacted me about the Holocaust Memorial that she is building in her front yard I was more than happy to participate. It's a wonderful way to teach her children that every life is precious, and that we can never let hate overcome.

Jillian is asking that stars of any sort be sent. As I thought of what to illustrate I remembered the striking imagery of the girl in the red coat in Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List. While the girl in the movie wasn't based on anyone in particular, Roma Ligocka said that when she saw the movie she saw herself. She was wearing that same red coat when she was a little girl at the door to the home of the polish family that took her in, and secretly housed her.

You can follow the star project on Jillian's blog: Blog Me Til Midnight

••• update: The Winona Daily News did a story on the project. There's a sweet photo of Jillian and her boys holding my star. The article is here.

•••• 2 News stations covered the project for Holocaust Remembrance Day. You can read the articles, and watch the videos at these links:
KAALtv story and video
WEAU story and video on lower right side

Winona Daily News photo

• The news stories are no longer available, but here is the photo of Jillian and her boys.