Friday, June 2, 2023

Puzzled!

 




I recently partnered with Vermont Puzzle and started the Barclay Collection of puzzles featuring my illustration work! The Vermonotaur puzzle is now available to purchase! 

The puzzle features the Vermonotaur, a solitary creature that roams Vermont helping collect sap for sugarers and other good deeds. It is a 12x18 inch 345 piece puzzle that has been individually printed (no mass production. 

If you are interested in purchasing one you can visit my site at barclay-studio.com

Hopefully, more puzzles will be coming soon.



Friday, March 10, 2023

Sketching at Diagon Alley


As part of my family's visit to Orlando, Florida I took an opportunity to sketch a bit in Diagon Alley at Universal Orlando. I could have spent a lot 
more time there. I loved all the skiwampus buildings. It was a visual smorgasbord!

If you are interested you can purchase a limited edition print of the sketch from my website here.

Thursday, January 19, 2023

A Visit to Orlando: Cinderella's Castle

 


My family and I recently visited Orlando Florida for the first time. On the day we went to Disney World, I made sure to spend some time sketching while the rest of the family waited in lines for rides. I really enjoyed the complexity of Cinderella's Castle. 

There is something wonderfully calming about slowing down and looking. In the process of drawing this I saw a mother struggling to take a selfie with her two sons. I took a small break and offered to take the photo for them. I do not think I would have noticed her struggle if I had not taken the time to just look.

If you are interested you can purchase a limited edition print of the sketch from my website here.

Friday, December 2, 2022

New Book and Lessons Learned

 I recently had the wonderful opportunity to Illustrate and design "A Girl Named Gitta,” a series of stories about the childhood of Brigitta Straumer Clyde.



I will be writing more about how I got the job, and why I chose to illustrate a self-published book in a future post. Here I want to share something I learned about the process of illustrating a book and meeting deadlines.

Yesterday, while discussing procrastination and burnout in one of my classes, a student of mine shared the idea that we should do the vanilla first and then make the banana split. As I thought about this profound statement about getting the basics done and then if you have time, you add the topping, I realized that is how I approached this book. 

In order to meet deadlines at a very busy time of my life, I got out the basics first. For example, in the image below I got the idea out. 


I wasn't happy with it. I knew it could be better, but I had to get something done. At this point I didn't know how to fix it, so I submitted the preliminary black and white image. At this point this was one of my least favorite pages. The authors were happy with it, but I knew it could be better. 

Once I was finished with the line drawing for the whole book, I went in and reworked my least favorite images. This was the result.


I then went on to the next image I was not happy with and found a better solution. I used this process until each page was at a point I could be happy with. 

So, if you are overwhelmed with too much to do, do the basics first. Then if you have time, add the good stuff.

 


Tuesday, March 15, 2022

Vermont Animation Festival


On March 25 and 26 Northern Vermont University will be hosting the Annual Vermont Animation Festival. You can find out more about the event at vtanimationfestival.org

I also found out that one of my animations was accepted into the festival!

Friday, September 24, 2021

Henry VI posters




I love Shakespeare. For a few years now, I have been reading all his plays with the goal of creating a poster for each. It has been a challenging process. With Henry VI part II I started figuring things out. In act 2 scene 3, after Gloucester is found dead, Suffolk is accused without evidence. The Earl of Warwick gives the following reason:

Who finds the partridge in the puttocks nest
But may imagine how the bird was dead,
although the kite soar with unbloodied beak?
Even so suspicious is this tragedy.

This image of the kite hovering over a nest struck me. It seemed to say so much more than just the murder of Gloucester. I replaced the puttock's nest (a bird of prey like a kite) with the crown to emphasize the idea of the impending coup. I chose the black-winged kite because of the blood red eyes gave the illustration a more menacing foreboding appearance. From there, it started to click as I read more. For consistency among all the History Plays I would keep the crown and the Background the same. Then I would change the things around the crown depict something about the particular play. For Part I the War of the Roses started. For Part II, I referenced a line from Queen Margaret comparing Edward, George and Richard to wolves. In each poster there is also a small amount of red to depict the battle for the crown.

Now that I have a format for the Histories. I have a plan for Richard III and I will need to go back and read the prior plays to determine what to do for them.

This is also part of my current 100 somethings project to create 100 play posters.


 

Monday, September 13, 2021

The Play's the Thing: Gallery Exhibit


On Wednesday, September 15 from 5 to 7 I will be exhibiting my work at the Satellite Gallery in Lyndonville, Vermont. I will be showing over 25 years of theater posters as well as other examples of me playing around.

Here is a description of the show:

My work is all about play, whether it's a poster for an actual play (I love theater), or it is me playing around with my bow tie guys, recording my travels with on-sight sketching, or illustrating children’s books and coloring pages; it is me having fun. It is me trying to bring that sense of joy and fun to others.