Eric 4/5/10

I know! I know! It's been forever! This month was cra-zy busy. But now it's time to pick up the blog and sketch, sketch, sketch.

Continuing with Willy Wonka, tonight's sketch is that of the grandparents. Honestly, there's nothing earth-shattering about this. The four grandparents are invalids. They stay in bed 24/7. What I like so much about the original Wonka movie is that the grandparents' nightclothes are stained. They're clean, but stained. I think this is really important. The family tries in earnest, but they simply don't have many options. I imagine the grandparents have two or three sets of nightclothes, but that's it.

Grandpa Joe's suit is old fashion and worn. Along with the rest of the Bucket family, I see their clothes as patched, but done so lovingly. In other words, they're not doing the high contrast patches like a clown. Rather, the grandmothers spend their days darning and patching, to keep their clothes lasting as long as possible.

One of the GREAT things about this show is that I get to have CUSTOM KNITWORK! Wait until you see this sweater tomorrow for Charlie. A local knitting group is volunteering their time so that I can outfit Charlie, Grandpa Joe (sweater vest) and the whole family in hand-knitted sweaters, shawls, scarves and hats. After all, that's HOW they would get those pieces anyway! It's so organic!

So, here's a thing about these drawings. When I have a large show, I discovered last summer that I really enjoy drawing them in tableau on bristol (14x17). It's challenging to get the figures to look like they are all in the same world. For this, I'm using an intentionally stylized face (plus I sort of drew this in a hurry).

My goal: to make it through this week on the blog. I sort of have to: I gots LOTS of sketches to get done!