Rough Stuff... on a Highwire, at That

Tonight, I'd like to do something rather uncharacteristic...I'm digging into my sketchbook, to expose a handful of rough thumbnails. These were created as part of a project I worked on with my good friend Brian, a New Jersey high school band director. The theme he had chosen for the annual competition show was "Under the Big Top", and three sideshow banners needed to be made.

As time was limited, I chose to forgo the traditional route of hand-painting on canvas, in favor of illustration that could be expanded vastly, and digitally-printed on vinyl panels. The result was a great deal of fun, and I honestly regret that the banners are still in the possession of that school district.

To be honest, in retrospect I actually prefer the colors and rickety nature of the thumbnails, to those of the finished drawings. I am deeply fond of "cleaning up" my work for the purpose of final appearance, but I just may have to do a project "in the rough", so to speak, allowing the character to shine just as it is. For the sake of comparison, I'll add two photos of the finished pieces, as they hang at my bedside. To prevent odd inquiries, yes, those are antique hats. The theatrical one with the feather is a circa 1920s Odd Fellows Hall uniform piece, that I restored and trimmed out with peacock and antique jewelry - Matt wears it during oriental foxtrot numbers at the Singapore Slingers performances. Quite a couple, I assure you...