One Night in a Grave

I got permission to post this poem so I thought I'd repost the drawings to go with it. Thanks Ted.





One Night in a Grave

I had a job that kept me late
And the way back home was scary.
It skirted to the edge of town
Then through the cemetery.

It wasn’t bad, I told myself.
The path was quite well traveled.
I sang a whistled little tunes
To keep my senses raveled.

One moonless night as I rushed along
Humming a nervous tune,
I fell into a hole they’d dug
For a grave that afternoon!

I panicked at the very thought
And scrambled to get out!
But the fresh, damp earth just crumbled in;
I commenced to scream and shout!

Then reason ruled and I settled down
Resigned to bear my fate.
They’d soon be back to fill the hole.
I’d not have long to wait.

As I sat back and went to doze
And in the silence waited,
Another fellow tumbled in
And he was inebriated!

I smiled as he fussed and clawed and failed
The same as I had done.
He didn’t see me in the dark.
He thought he was all alone.

I touched his arm and softly said
“You’ll never make it buddy.”
“There’s no way out so just relax.”
“You’ll just get spent and muddy.”

But I was wrong! He gasped a breath
And shouted “Lord forbid!”
His frame uncoiled a mighty leap
And make it he truly did!

© Ted C. Hindmarsh
November, 1978

Illustration Friday: Fresh

Not a lot of time for much more than a quick sketch slapped with color. Mooo!

Black n White

Just playing around with some b&w styles. Which one do you prefer?

Original sketch

Original painting

Converted to b&w

inked line with value added in Photoshop

Lost artwork found!

Researchers have uncovered two very old, very valuable pieces of artwork. As far as I can tell these are some of my earliest works. They were both included in letters to my oldest brother, Lee, written some 30 years ago. I was 5 or 6 years old. They were carefully preserved—probably in some kind of airtight vault.

In this first illustration, I'm sure you can appreciate the strong compositions, the well-developed characters, the limited pallet, and the incorporation of text. Amazing. My brother is an avid hunter, hence the theme. I placed myself, the guy with the gun, into the illustration, surrounded by cute forest animals in a cozy woodland scene. Bambi's got nothing on me. A tiger, a spotted leopard, a curious bunny and what I'm sure is a majestic eagle all living together under a spider like sun while I stand there shooting fiery blasts from my rifle into the air like some kind of crazed rebel, and yet still finding time to send a cheerful "Hi Lee" to my Bro. This drawing has so many levels that it is hard to find the deep meaning hiding therein, but I'm sure it exists and I'm sure it is a strong statement that I was making. Maybe I was protecting the animals from an unseen alien invasion? You don't know.

The second piece clearly shows my ability to spread peace and joy throughout the world. Children are snuggled in their warm beds dreaming of the piles of presents Santa is sure to bring them, while overhead ole St. Nick is rocketing through the star-filled sky, led by his faithful reindeer. Thin wisps of smoke trail from the chimbleys (that's what my dad calls them) of the humble little homes under the moonlit landscape. Can you feel the peace and joy yet? I used red and white to emphasize the Christmas theme with just a touch of brown to bring it all together. It's like a friggin Hallmark card.

So you can see I was destined to become an artist. I'm sure my parents kick themselves for not saving the "good stuff" from my even earlier years. Lucky for the world, these two rare pieces were saved to document the small beginnings of this artist’s life.

Illustration Friday: Escape

Hate it when that happens.
Quick sketch colored in photoshop.

G.O.T.-Gary

This is another sketch for my gallery of terror. I think maybe his name is Gary. He's a retired beach resort boat rental guy who took up pumpkin carving as a hobby and now travels with county fairs doing consultation work. I kind of like the way he is turning out, so I might paint him. I'll post it when it's done.

Update: Here is the painting. I started with sepia ink washes then added a little color with acrylics. Really quick but I kinda like the way it turned out.

Weeks sketches

A few doodles from the past couple weeks.

Illustration Friday: Depth

I think I'm still in the Gallery O' Terror mood (last post) because I'm still thinking about spooky stuff. This is what I thought of when I read the topic this week. I scribbled it during church. It is based on a poem that a neighbor of mine wrote. It is great. I'll see if he will let me post it. This picture also reminded of a lawyer joke...because deep down they're good people.

Gallery O' Terror

I'm teaching a little class as a guest illustrator at Brigham Young University. It is a class of senior illustrators and the deal is that a different guest illustrator comes and teaches the class once a week for three weeks. The first week I do the song and dance routine. Show my work, talk about the business and give them the assignment. The second week I have the students come to my house and visit my studio. We review sketches and I do a demo. Then we finish up with a final critique the third week. (This year it might even involve food. They wanted to have some kind of pot-luck dinner. I'm game. I'm bringing brownies) Anyway, the assignment I gave them this year is this: Gallery O' Terror!!! (spoken in a creepy Vincent Price kind of voice) It needs to be a children's book illustration. Either a double page spread or a single page illustration and a spot for the other page. Each page is 9x10 horizontal or vertical layout. The only rule tis year is that they must include a pumpkin somewhere in the illustration

The idea started years ago when I worked with a bunch of artists animating educational software for kids. It was really cute stuff. I mean sometimes it was waay too cute. So we found the only way to balance the cute was to periodically delve into the dark. Every fall we would do the Gallery O’ Terror. We would make a topic and everyone would do their own version and then we would hang them on our cubicle-wall gallery. Loads of spooky fun. This is where the idea came from. The reason I give the assignment in September is so that if a artist wanted could make a promotional postcard to send to art directors or to Grandma in time for Halloween.

My wife started taking a bunch of my past gallery submissions, framing them and hanging them in our living room at Halloween time. Those crappy little paintings started looking okay with a nice frame around them. So, now I try to do something each year to keep the gallery growing and to keep the too cute stuff at bay.

This is the sketch for this years painting. It is also the painting I was doing as a demo for the class. I’ll post the final when I finish it.

And here it is.

I include this assignment here for any reader who might want to participate or might want to begin their own Gallery O’ Terror for themselves (even if your not an artist). Of course you don’t have to follow my rules. Do whatever you want. You could email me a jpg or a link and I could post it. Now get to work. Your grade depends on it.

My daughter and her cousin joined in. Aren't they awesome.

Illustration Friday: Roots

So, I was thinking I wasn't going to do a IF this week. Too busy, didn't want to think of an idea.. blah blah blah. Then this morning I thought it would be funny to do a girl with dark roots in her hair. It evolved in to this. Enjoy.