Recently in one of my online classes for SmArt School, a few students were having trouble creating visual interest in their compositions. The pieces lacked depth. The culprit wasn’t the design of the main elements, but the distribution of values. Generally, the students think of the background as dark, but they also wanted to put their main subject in dark clothing, and all the darks in the subject were the same darks as in the…| Muddy Colors
World Building is one of the most underrated essentials of storytelling, and if you do it right, one of the most invisible. In my personal opinion, the holy trinity of storytelling World Building and Character Development are top tier with Plot as the tiny lagging puppy running keep up. Character and World Building are what draws you in to a story, and want to revisit it again later. When a story is working, Plot is…| Muddy Colors
Think about what your dream life looks like. If you picture it, placing no constraints on yourself to keep it humble or realistic, what would your fairy tale best life be? In mine, I am a celebrated author and illustrator. I increase representation of Native American people, queer people,| Muddy Colors
Lately I’ve been illustrating classic novels for special handmade editions. One publishing house I’ve worked with is Arete Editions in the UK. I’ve worked with the publisher, Marcelo Anciano, for twenty years and we love to discuss books and publishing and writing when working together. It’s from one of those conversations that he offered me the chance to illustrate Stephen King’s mild ghost story, The Life of Chuck. Marcelo also works on books and interior…| Muddy Colors
I think as creative humans, it’s important to have a deep and strong connection to the senses. And I feel that all senses are a support to the others. They work in tandem, and along with understanding and openness, a presence. For example, let’s take what it is to see. What does “to see” mean to you? I feel that to see is… To be awake, aware, to let ourselves be lifted by all that…| Muddy Colors