Shennen Bersani's Weblog

Illustration Friday - Wind

Illustration Friday is a weekly illustration challenge. A topic is posted every Friday and then participants have all week to come up with their own interpretation.
www.illustrationfriday.com

This week's word is Wind.

As soon as I saw Wind I immediately thought of the eight years I spent hand lettering signs for a chain of ski stores in the Boston area. I worked at Ski Town USA from 1981 - 1989 (I lost my job when they sold out and closed up shop.) My tools were magic markers, Flair pens, and buff colored Crescent mat board. No white out, no tolerance for mistakes. I used to love adding characters, such as wind blowing snowflakes, on my signs. So, as an ode to my old Ski Town days I knew that I just had to draw a Wind using only a Flair pen and a plain sheet of paper (long gone is my supply of buff colored Crescent mat board!)

And just for entertainment value I thought I'd add this photo of me helping sell hot dogs at the annual Ski Town Tent Sale in 1989. Truth be known, that is my actual hair color! I'm not sure what is funnier, the chic reflective earrings that I had purchased at the Boston Museum of Science or the large eyeglasses! (My long hair was pulled back in a ponytail.)

From where I sit....

This summer I mentioned that I was renovating my studio space. A number of my dear friends have requested and encouraged me to post photos. So here is a 360˚ view of 'from where I sit'.

Those with a keen eye will notice that many of my furnishings came from Ikea. Take special note of the Alex set of draws that sits under my built in lightbox. The top draw holds my entire set of Prismacolors perfectly.

A few other items were purchased at:

The Boston Museum of Science gift shop
Anthropolgie
Crate and Barrel
Lowes
Home Depot
Costco

On another website I mention that I always have fresh cut yellow flowers. My kind thanks goes out to Donna and Russ for assisting me with this indulgence.

Before I took over this room the ceiling was seriously damaged from a previous leak. Not sure what to do with it, I took a lesson from my old friend John Budris. Back in 2001 I illustrated an article he wrote for the Boston Sunday Globe Magazine. In the article he mentions using 'mud' a.k.a. sheetrock compound to cover up all sorts of ceiling and wall ills. Well, here's my little secret, I had my son Ryan play around with cool whip and vanilla pudding with his hands to use as reference for my illustrations, not that gunky stuff John was touting.

So would John's 'mud' really work on my ceiling and not crumble, cave in or fall down? Oh yeah! John came over and helped me. He applied the compound first and then while still wet I used a whisk broom to make the sweeping patterns, painted over it with white and it looks celestial. Many thanks JB.

VBS Ocean art

A few weeks ago a British publisher asked me to illustrate a cover and four pages of a book for them to show at the Frankfurt Bookfair (October 4-8, 2006). The very day I was finishing up the art and preparing to Fedex it off another British publisher inquired the very same thing of me - asking me to do the next to impossible - finish the work in one week.... Both of the books are novelty books, with difficult positioning and cutters' guides. Working nearly non-stop without sleep, I succeeded. So... I am delighted to say that my book art is now being displayed to thousands of International attendees....

Most of my clients ask me not to show my illustrations to others until after the work has been published. It is a competitive world, so this policy is very understandable. Back in January Augsburg Fortress Publishers hired me to illustrate the art for their 2007 vacation Bible school program. They now have the package available on their website - and it is very cute, imho, so I am about to share it with you! Please note that you can even download and print out these delightful creatures full-sized from their clip art page and watch them 'swim' on the website. http://www.thevbsplace.org

I illustrated the five characters (which have also been turned into plastic toys to resemble my art!) and the coral reef. (I did not do the photographs of children found on the website.)

This coral reef illustration has been used and modified for many purposes; packaging, promotions, textbook art, cards to name a few.