The Beautification of Pearl

For the past year and half, I have been resigned to working at Pearl Art and Craft in Rockville. This has its perks, some of which include employee discounts, VIP trash-scrounging opportunities, and--best of all--the ability to draw (and get paid for it) under the guise 

of creating promotional signs for the store. Here's the best of the bunch.

 

This was the very first, done with Sharpie and, of course, Crayola crayons. 

This is probably my favorite sign to date, and also the most time-intensive. It is a collaborative effort with Frans Boukas of Thor Thursdays and Sugarboukas Comics.  I di

d the preliminary sketch and initial inking, at which point Frans was so appalled by my line work that he commandeered the piece and added all the fantastic pustules and furrows that give it so much character, along with the gnarly plaque on the teeth. Afterward, he handed it back to me for coloring.

Here is the finished result, which was colored with cheap watercolors. The plaque spelling out the words "Foam Core" is now clearly evident, and this sign currently hangs over the paper department and terrorizes small children. 

This one was created for a new soapmaking display. It was the first time I'd played around with watercolor pencils, as Frans had recently bequeathed me a set. The unfortunate seafarer is named Captain Josiah Scurvy.

This is another one of my favorites, done in regular colored pencil on black mounting board. I had a blast doing all the fleshy bits on the fish. 

My boss, Ruth, somehow entrusted me with decorating the downstairs display windows. Initially I was excited about this, but after the fifty-seventh time of knocking over the embossing powders and glitter (massive craft supply landslide) and banging my head on the defunct light bulbs, I'd grown a little disillusioned. More fun was making these guys--a crafty fox and artsy peacock--to decorate the background. 

Frans and I felt we hadn't seen enough of the foam core monster, so here he is featured in a Back to School promotional sign. Yes, I know it actually says "Back School Sale." Yes, this was pointed out to me by a five-year-old after it had been on display for several weeks. 

Last up is a Headless Horseman, completed for the October sale's window display. Like the candlemaking fish, it's done in colored pencil on black mounting board.