All future blog posts will be on my new and hopefully improved web site

 https://markbraught.com/

CONWAY LEAGUE OF ARTISTS presents MARK BRAUGHT PASTEL WORKSHOP Mark Braught will be our guest speaker at the CLA September meeting on Wednesday, September 11th - @6:30, Faulkner County Library. The workshop will be the following Saturday, September 14th - @9am-4pm, Wesley United Methodist Church.

MARK BRAUGHT PASTEL WORKSHOP Date: Saturday, September 14th, 2019 Location: Wesley United Methodist Church 2310 E Oak Street, Conway AR Time: 9am- 4pm (Lunch:12-1p) Cost: $75 per seat (includes lunch) -Checks preferred, make out to CLA- -Sign up starts this Wednesday, August 14th at the CLA Meeting.- If you have any questions or would like to reserve a seat at the workshop please contact Don at donp4e@gmai

HAPPY HALLOWEEN This is this year's image for the Dawson County Library Campfire Storytelling Festival, traditionally held every time this year. However, after this image was completed & submitted, the festival was moved to the spring of 2018. The theme for the festival will still revolve around scary stories told round the campfire, but will be in the spring, sometime in March. I am really looking forward to creating another image that will better reflect the new springtime setting for this event.
Should be loads of fun and I will definitely post how that progresses.
In the meantime . . . a big BOO to you and yours!

original art 16" x 22", pastel on strathmore bristol, 400 series 4-ply, with some minor digital touches

Just some fun.
This was a piece I did during my visit to Hollins University last summer while teaching a pastels course.
The assignment was to create an image to communicate a message using a bird and two unrelated objects. One organic, one not.
This one addresses the problem, "How does one manage the challenge of eating while maintaining a roof over their head".

DEMO at HOLLINS UNIVERSITY

Last summer I had the privilege of being on the faculty at Hollins University for their graduate program for children's literature and was asked to do demonstration session creating an illustration in pastel. It only seemed appropriate to create a piece that had some relevance to their program based on their famous alum Margaret Wise Brown, the well-known children's book author. It was also appropriate because I thought I could complete the piece in the hour and a half allotted for the demonstration and that their would be ample information there for all the reference needed.

The first step was to do some research regarding Ms.Brown gathering information on her life and career. Like most assignments, I knew very little, beyond the obvious about her.
She led a fascinating and exciting (although short) socialite sort of life, and a very successful professional career as an author, with the highlight authoring, Goodnight Moon.

Co-Chair of the program, Elizabeth Dulemba was present and did a write-up with some photos of the session and posted it on her blog. These are really fun sessions and I hope those present had as much fun as I did.

Interview with Elizabeth Dulemba. 

The last number of weeks I've been in Roanoke, Virginia teaching at Hollins University in their MFA & Certificate programs for Children's Book Writing and illustration. It was a wonderful experience, and I will share much of that in the near future. but in the meantime, fellow faculty member, the wonderfully talented, Elizabeth Dulemba interviewed members of the faculty for her blog. This link will take you to the interview she did with me

While you're there you should really take a spin through her site. It is full of wonderful work, informational things. other interviews as well other KidLit tidbits! 

Just in time for the Holidays!

 My latest, a new childrens' book for the fine folks from Deeds Publishing and author Rosalind Bunn.
A fun story about the imagination of a young boy and what he sees before he goes to sleep.
http://deedspublishing.goodsie.com/whose-shadow-do-i-see

Campfire Storytelling poster

HAPPY HALLOWEEN and a LESSON IN LESS

Recently I completed a commission from the fine folks at the Dawson Library in Georgia for their storytelling concert in October of this year. This annual event entails an evening spent outside by a campfire listening to a number of storytellers sharing spooky tales to a young audience. They requested an emphasis on "scary" as their previous years' posters were a bit too "friendly". This presented a wonderful opportunity. Scary, but for a young audience.

The client graciously gave me complete creative freedom to pursue any solution of my choice. In the initial sketches included woodland critters, scared kids, witches, pumpkins and other Halloween characters. All too busy.Finally, I focused on the character from a classic fireside story, the man with the hook hand.To complete the concept, a campfire, a book, and the outdoors were included. The essentials.

This is the initial rough sketch. And like most initial things,
I thought it would be "great" if the character would appear to be reading from a book to the audience (to emphasis the library connection). Too much, and off target. It was distracting the viewer from the fact the man with the hook hand was menacing, and more importantly, looking at you.
This decision was made during the reference photo session with the model. He just seemed more menacing looking directly at you with book by his side.

With some additional reference gathered for the fire, the trees and the moon I transferred the finished composition to the final working surface (Strathmore Bristol series 400 paper) using charcoal and a bit of workable fix to keep in in place to begin the color work. The type was very roughly placed to help with the placement of the moon, that was to be integrated into the final type solution. The final type was done separately and placed digitally into the final painting.

b/w charcoal underpainting

  

painting in progress

 
To address the issue that this event was for a young audience it seemed appropriate to create a more playful type solution.

This type was created using a black pastel and done separately from the painting and applied digitally to allow greater freedom in choosing the right colors and position for the final poster.

final art

Through the process of working on the poster, I departed from my reference and eliminated much of the information in the face and jacket of the character to help emphasize just how scary this guy was
and create a focal point around the eyes. Back to that "less is more" thing.

final poster with type in place

OUT IN SEPTEMBER

I've been tucked away illustrating a children's book the last few months for Deeds Publishing and can finally show a bit of what's to come. This is the cover. In the next few weeks, I'll post some the process work and the finished art.

Super Bowl Sunday!

Let the trash-talk begin

National vs. American, East coast vs.West coast, who's better, what ifs, and the recital of statistics all come down to this annual showdown for every football fan. A battle for bragging rights . . . until it all begins again next season. It's become an almost national holiday, in stature, tradition for get togethers. Here's to a great weekend for fun, excitement, food & drink for everyone.

All images from T is for Touchdown, a Football Alphabet, published by Sleeping Bear Press

FACEBOOK CHALLENGE Day 5

Throwback Thursday
In commemoration of this new weekly celebration of our past, it seemed appropriate to acknowledge some of those people in 1984 that gave me some of those first breaks to start my career as an illustrator. I'm very grateful to these people who took a gamble and gave the new kid (pictured here) some work. Dawn, Curt Chuvalas, Lloyd Brooks & Brian Miller. In keeping with the theme I chose Andrea Eberbach and hope she will join in on the fun of this challenge. She was the first illustrator in Indianapolis I met (a fun story in itself) and took me into the fold. Thanks again to Bethanne Hill, Tim Jessell, and Tina Cargill for this wonderful opportunity of the last five days.
Also managed to find a few additional from back then (had to go through slides. Remember them?)

FACEBOOK CHALLENGE, DAY 4

WaCkY WEDnEsDAy!

Day four I decided to post some images from my days teaching at the Creative Circus, an advertising school in Atlanta. These images were created for student creative teams for various advertising projects/assignments for their classes. They were a great opportunity to explore new directions, try some new things and work with some incredibly talented and new people in the advertising industry. Many of these people have gone on to do great things in the advertising community and it was a real treat to get to work with them!
In addition to the images posted on Facebook, here are some additional things as well.

FACEBOOK PAINTING CHALLENGE, Day 3

CRITTERS!

 

The first was for Sleeping Bear Press and their children's book, P is for Peach, a Georgia Alphabet. "O" is for Okefenokee Swamp.The duck was a calendar assignment from a printer in the midwest. The only parameters were that a bowl, the days of month, and some sort of reference to that month be included somewhere in the painting.The small bird was a commission from the Hal Riney agency out west for Saturn Car Company.
And . . . some others I didn't post on Facebook

 

FACEBOOK PAINTING CHALLENGE, Day 2

Recently, friend and fellow ex-Terre Hautean, the incredibly accomplished illustrator, Tim Jessell invited me to participate in the Facebook painting challenge. The challenge consists of posting three images on Facebook for five days and nominating a new artist each day. What a fun opportunity this has turned out to be. It's been fun to revisit some past images, an opportunity to show somethings that maybe a bit unexpected and acknowledge some people I am very grateful to (I already have all the images selected for the five days). All of the images for the second day were assignments that involved portraits of literary related folks.

Harry Potter, Edgar Allan Poe & Cyrano de Bergerac

And some others I didn't post on Facebook

HAPPY HALLOWEEN ! Some seasonal fun and some of the pieces that went into its' creation. It originally was inspired from the bat bow tie my good friend Louetta sent when she saw the Edgar A. Poe piece done earlier. The self portrait photo below was sent to her along with a huge thanks for the new toy. Later it seemed like a good place to start for a new piece and a new direction.

Another of my backyard denizens,

and the subject of my latest watercolor. These are really fun to do and are a real source of relaxation as well as a fun break between assignments. 
Be looking for more of these neighbors as well as a few not from around here, that would just be fun to do. I see a Cedar Waxwing in the near future.

And of course, prints are available
https://www.etsy.com/listing/200272780/cardinal-signed-giclee-print?ref=shop_home_active_1

SCBWI 2014 Southern Breeze Illustrators Show 
If you're in the downtown Decatur, Georgia area this Memorial Day weekend, this isn't a bad stop to make.
Original art on exhibit from a number of  published children's books, by a number of illustrators. This year’s show features works by Elizabeth Dulemba, Jill Dubin, R. Gregory Christie, Prescott Hill, Susan Nees, Amy Schimler, Laura Freeman, Bill Mayer, Mike Lowery, Sarah Frances Hardy, Lori Nichols, and Yours Truly.

Here is one of mine that will be there, from P is for Peach, a Georgia Alphabet.

The opening was last night. It is always wonderful to see everyone and catch-up with old and new friends over dinner afterwards. Here's a link to some photos of the festivities!

The World of Nickhoo!
This is a CD cover and the tunes are available on i-tunes & amazon now. The physical release is in the works currently. This has been a fun project and group of people to be involved with. My participation has been only in the character development aspect of the program, but it has been a rewarding experience. Follow this link to learn more about their program.

Inside

CD

Below are some of the many sketches for the various characters. Nickhoo, the main character is the only one that has been rendered at this time, but there are a lot of exciting things in the works for the future of this program. Character development is big-time fun, learning and sometimes creating a back story for the character in addition to meeting the voices behind them and integrating some of that into the development and evolution that becomes (hopefully) a successful and believable final result.

ORIGINALS & PRINTS ON ETSY.COM
https://www.etsy.com/shop/MarkBraughtStudios


Right now it's only the originals and prints, but things are in the works for some other offerings, in addition to more birds of course.

Dahlonega Literary Festival this weekend!
This is one of my favorite festivals, and truly look forward to it every year.
The Holly Theatre is one of the wonderful attractions there. This was done as part of a series
of note cards depicting various points of interest in Dahlonega GA.
http://dahlonegaliteraryfestival.wordpress.com/

© 2009 Mark Braught StudiosAll rights reserved Unauthorized reproduction prohibited