Rich Sigberman Art & Illustration 90

For the past three days, all I've been working on is a 5' wide piece of cartoon art that has been consuming. It is a piece full of characters, some 70 in all, from a most colorful theater production called the Velocity Circus. And, it's great.

Any artist knows when they're doing great work, or at least the best they are capable of producing. That's what is going on with this piece. I don't want to count the amount of hours that has gone into it, as I'm not being paid an hourly rate wage, and I don't really care that much. The budget is good enough. The piece, by dint of its size if nothing else, is making me stretch. It's more than that, though.

I freehanded the entire piece, which means it is much more lively that if I had projected tracings from photos. The composition is all based on one point, with all the characters seeming to explode from that point. And the background is entirely black, which gives everything a lot of "pop". Doing that background has taken the better part of two full days of work. It's exhausting, but exhilerating too. And now, the hardest work is over and it will soon be time for all the color to be applied. It's times like these, with commissioned work like this, that makes me glad I stuck with art and dildn't go into Civil Service, like my parents urged me. (Of course, had I done that, I would be nearing retirement now, and have a fine pension. The only price would have been my heart, soul, and mind.)