Kevenn T. Smith 6/10/13 Kevenn T. Smith 6/10/13

The Ascension of Polychrome - Prints, Clothing & More!

This week sees the release of the movie "Oz, the Great and Powerful" on Blu Ray & DVD. Also, June is PRIDE month, so what better way to celebrate both than the release of my piece "The Ascension of Polychrome" now available as prints, t-shirts, hoodies, stickers, cards, post cards, and kids' clothes on Redbubble.com? While Polychrome isn't featured specifically in "Oz, the Great and Powerful," the rainbow does make an appearance, and Polychrome is the Daughter of the Rainbow... You can read more about this piece from my previous entry on it when I first debuted it on this site here.

As usual, the clothing comes in assorted sizes, colors, and styles - simply choose your favorite! Click on either of the images below to go directly to the listing on my Redbubble.com store.
©Kevenn T. Smith 2013

Kevenn T. Smith 5/31/12 Kevenn T. Smith 5/31/12

The Ascension of Polychrome by Kevenn T. Smith

This illustration, The Ascension of Polychrome, was made for the 2012 Winkie Convention Program Book. This year, the Winkie Convention is celebrating the 100th year anniversary of L. Frank Baum's 1912 book, Sky Island, the follow-up to his 1911 book, The Sea Fairies.

In the book, the young heroine, Trot, and her companion, Cap'n Bill, meet a young boy named Button Bright (who first appeared in Baum's 5th Oz book, The Road to Oz), and the three end up flying with a magical umbrella to an island high in the sky known as "Sky Island." They first land in the Blue country, where everything is blue and the people are none too friendly. They manage to escape through the fog bank separating the blue country from the neighboring Pink Country, where the people are more pleasant, but they're still not welcome to stay. The law leads them the Pinkies to believe that Trot and her companions must be thrown over the edge of the island to their deaths. Fortunately, Polychrome, the Rainbow's daughter, (who also appeared with Button Bright in Baum's 5th Oz book, The Road to Oz)arrives and stops the execution, and finds a loophole in the Pinkies' Book of Laws to not only save Trot, Capn' Bill, and Button Bright, but to declare Trot their leader. The Rainbow returns, and Polychrome ascends into it to return to her sisters and her father, which is the scene I wanted to depict here.

When creating this piece, I one of my goals was to capture the feeling of the many paintings depicting Christ's ascension into Heaven. I felt that in the book, Polychrome was a kind of divine savior figure, descending from on high and reversing the fortunes of Trot and her companions, as well as bringing an abundance of color into a monochromatic world. Like the Greek Goddess of the rainbow, Iris, she brings color and knowledge with her, which in turn brings growth and change.

The Ascension of Polychrome by Kevenn T. Smith ©Kevenn T. Smith 2012Polychrome Detail ©Kevenn T. Smith 2012Violet Sister Detail ©Kevenn T. Smith 2012Red Sister Detail ©Kevenn T. Smith 2012Pencil, ink, Photoshop
@Kevenn T. Smith 2012

This piece also gave me the opportunity to use a live model for my Polychrome. The last time I depicted Polychrome, a friend of mine said that she looked like the actress, Elizabeth Mitchell, who appeared in the movie Gia, with Angellina Jolie, and the ABC television shows LOST and V. I thought about trying to search for pictures of Elizabeth Mitchell at the angles I wanted to draw the figures for the piece in as reference material, but that would have taken too much time and may not have yielded the results I was hoping for.

Then, I remembered that my friend, the superbly talented and beautiful Cleveland actress, Emily Pucell, often reminded me of Elizabeth Mitchell. Luckily, Emily was kind enough to pose for me to use not only as Polychrome, but as her two sisters as well. This was the first time Emily has ever modelled for a drawing or painting, but she said she would definitely consider doing it again. Emily graduated in 2005 with B.A. degrees in Theater and History from Miami University. She performed in her first play at the age of 12, but has been working professionally as an actor since her graduation in 2005. Emily will next be seen onstage in the forth-coming show by Cleveland's Theater Ninjas this fall.

Kevenn T. Smith 11/16/10 Kevenn T. Smith 11/16/10

Oz Artwork Merchandise by Kevenn T. Smith

Kevenn T. Smith 5/29/09 Kevenn T. Smith 5/29/09

Singular Sensation: Polychrome

The third entry in my Singular Sensation series is of another character that I drew for the wrap-around cover of Oziana #37, Polychrome. This was the third time I had drawn Polychrome, and only the second time I had colored a drawing of her. She is a fairy and the daughter of the rainbow, and coloring her can be quite a complicated process. In the books, she is always described and depicted as wearing a dress in rainbow colors. I didn't want the colors to just be plain vertical stripes. That would be boring. It was a fun challenge to have them blend all together in a diagonal direction. In the books, she's usually always dancing about, so it was very important that there be a sense of energy going on.

Polychrome is a visually fascinating character to me, like Scraps the Patchwork Girl, because of all the colors involved. The great thing about the two characters is seeing how two characters full of different colors can also look so differently. Scraps is a loud and boisterous character in the books, so her colors need to be intense. Polychrome is usually written as a sweet and passive character, so I use tones that are, in comparison, more subdued on her. Polychrome by Kevenn T. Smith
Pencils, Ink, Prismacolor Color Pencils, Photoshop, and Adobe Illustrator.
©Kevenn T. Smith 2011

Now available as a t-shirt on RedBubble.com!

Kevenn T. Smith 2/4/09 Kevenn T. Smith 2/4/09

Oziana #37

Oziana is the magazine of The International Wizard of Oz Club. I was very honored when I was asked to provide the cover for issue #37, which is to be the final issue of the magazine. The cover depicts characters featured in the stories contained inside the issue engaged in a magical battle inside the Emerald City.

Pictured in this piece from left to right are: a Boar Guard (from the Russian Oz Series), the Witched Wick (an original character to a story in the issue), Bastinda (the Russian series Wicked Witch of the West), Polychrome the Rainbow's Daughter, Bungle the Glass Cat, The Wizard of Oz, Yurgod the Gryphon (from the Russian series), Princess Ozma of Oz, and a Rain Sprite (an original character from a story in the issue)

The issue will be available to order from The International Wizard of Oz Club's website.

Pencils, Ink, Prismacolor Color Pencils, Prismacolor Markers, Photoshop, and Adobe Illustrator.
©Kevenn T. Smith 2011