every picture tells a story

pic 1

pic 2

pic 3

pic 4

pic 5

pic 6

pic 7

 pic 8

pic 9

pic 10

The first three were drawn on a sketch pad.
Transferred to watercolour paper by number four.
Then ink.
Then base colour shading.
Adding colour washes.
What's outside the window?
Good enough.
Time to start another.

Even simple things aren't always easy, are they?

♡

dragon days of summer

As you can see, I did come up with one picture in recent days but the heat and humidity of August has made it uncomfortable enough that I can't stay at my table very long. So - a simple picture of two friends meeting after a little absence is something of a character study rather than an illustration for anything in particular. One of these days I'll get that story done..

Now that I've mentioned a story but don't have one of my own, here's an old favorite you might like:

When Grandma Goes To Court

Lawyers should never ask a Mississippi grandma a question if they aren't prepared for the answer.

In a trial, a Southern small-town prosecuting attorney called his first witness, a grandmotherly, elderly woman to the stand. He approached her and asked "Mrs. Jones, do you know me?" She responded, "Why yes I do know you since you were a little boy, and frankly you've been a big disappointment to me. You lie, you cheat on your wife, and you manipulate people and talk about them behind their backs. You think you're a big shot when you haven't the brains to realize you'll never amount to anything more than a two-bit paper pusher. Yes I know you.

The lawyer was stunned. Not knowing what else to do, he pointed across the room and asked, Mrs. Jones, do you know the defense attorney?

She replied, "Why yes I do. I've known Mr. Bradley since he was a youngster too. He's lazy, bigoted, and he has a drinking problem. He can't build a normal relationship with anyone, and his law practice is one of the worst in the entire state. Not to mention he cheated on his wife with three different women. One of them was your wife. Yes, I know him."

The defense attorney nearly died.

The judge asked both counselors to approach the bench and, in a very quiet voice said:

"If either of you idiots asks her if she knows me, I'll send you both to the electric chair."

Meanwhile, I hope you've been enjoying the great outdoors as much as we have. Til next time.

♡

character studies

So far as my own work is concerned, you can see I've been doing more sketching than finishing these past few weeks as I try to image(ine) the characters for a story written a number of years ago by the now grown daughter of a friend. It's a challenge, but kind of fun for all that.

In the meantime it keeps getting colder here as we count down to the shortest daylight hours of the year. There's been rain aplenty and cloudy skies too, but happily we've had no snow to spoil our walks in the park. A long stretch of that walk is by a channel in the bay where the woodland rises to a height on the left and the sea is at the bottom of a steep drop to the right. One recent day we'd fed some crows at one of the spots where we drop peanuts for them on our way to the point of land that faces right out to sea. The crows were following when we noticed a flock of chickadees flitting around in the brush to our left. Usually what happens when we see them is I scatter some nuts and wait to let them eat while we keep the greedy crows at bay. This time I still had the food in my hand when a hungry chickadee landed on one of my fingers and took a nut. Before I had time to react the little birds came one after another to take their share of peanuts from my hand. It was the sweetest feeling ever to be that trusted. Now that we know they'll often come if we wait a bit, feeding them has become one of those little events to treasure.

I know this is a small thing, perhaps even an ordinary occurrence. If so, I hope a connection with the wild world is something routine in your life. For me, it's an example (one I can hold in my hand) of real magic in the world. It's funny to think that until the final triumph of the scientific revolution at the start of the eighteenth century, magic and a great many things connected with it were treated as everyday matters in Western cultures. The sense of life, mind, and meaning in the cosmos is something that we as individuals put into the mix in the process of constructing our worlds.

Experiencing the world as a community of existent thinking beings leads us to understand that every living thing has an equal part to play in the great web of life. The opposite is to experience the world as a dead and mindless mass of raw material that has only whatever meaning and value certain human beings choose to give it. Which of those behaviors is more useful in the present predicament of industrial society is another point worth considering.

For something extra (and finished in this case) I did find a great short video you might enjoy watching as much as I did:



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the consultation

According to a report by Oxfam which warned that inequality between rich and poor is spiraling out of control, the number of dollar billionaires in the world has more than doubled to 1,645 since the financial crisis of 2008.

Despite the austerity affecting ordinary people around the globe in the wake of the recession, the richest 85 billionaires saw their fortunes increase by a total of around $240bn over the past year. Research earlier this year found these 85 people had access to wealth equal to that of half the world’s population.

If the world’s billionaires were taxed at a rate of just 1.5% on their wealth over $1bn, it would raise $74bn a year - enough to get every child into school and deliver health services in all of the world’s poorest countries. The report is titled, Even it Up: Time To End Extreme Inequality.

Oxfam’s chief executive Mark Goldring said: “Inequality is one of the defining problems of our age. In a world where hundreds of millions of people are living without access to clean drinking water and without enough food to feed their families, a small elite have more money than they could spend in several lifetimes. The consequences of extreme inequality are harmful to everyone. It robs millions of people of better life chances and fuels crime, corruption and even violent conflict. Put simply, it is holding back efforts to end poverty."

Oxfam challenged governments to follow a seven-point plan to rein in inequality:

1. Clamp down on tax dodging.
2. Invest in universal free healthcare and education.
3. Introduce equal pay legislation.
4. Agree to a global goal to tackle inequality.
5. Introduce minimum wages and move towards a living wage for all workers.
6. Shift the burden of taxation from labor and consumption towards capital and wealth.
7. Provide adequate safety nets for the poor, including a minimum income guarantee.

While I prefer not to be skeptical..
Do you think we have leaders capable of introducing these ideas?

Meanwhile I hope you like the new illustration. Any suggestions for captions or story ideas are welcome.
♡

picturebook problems

"Why are there no other drawings in this book as impressive as the drawing of baobabs? The answer is quite simple: I have tried but with the others have not had the slightest success. When I drew the baobabs, I was driven by a feeling of urgency."

This passage from The Little Prince caught my attention for the simple reason that I've been working on (intermittently, depending on this, that and Crow's portrait schedule) illustrations for a story for more months than I expected the whole project to take. The as yet unfinished one above is the second in a series of what I expect will be either 8, 9 or possibly, 10 pictures altogether - in other words, however few I can get away with drawing, inking and painting. As of now I have 7 drawings underway in various stages and the problem I've run into is some of them are much better than others. This series will eventually get done but it's no surprise I've never become a storybook illustrator. I too only rarely feel that sense of urgency.

Speaking of which, you may like this:



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a little character development

This is Anthony. A very long time ago when our son and his best friend were small children my husband wrote several stories to entertain them, stories that were only illustrated in their imaginations. Some weeks back, after reading Anthony's story again, I decided it was well worth the process of turning it into one with pictures. Well, I'm going to try. Other than drawing the limited number of pictures done in pen and ink for the Adventures Ink blog, I've never done a series of interrelated illustrations before. Although the fact that these will be in full color makes the project that much more complicated, I hope I'll have them all done within the next few months.

Drawing pictures is always a bit like exploring a new landscape in that you never know what or who will meet your eyes when you turn the next corner. After a couple of false starts Anthony showed up quite fully formed almost immediately. A picture somewhat like this one will be the first - I say like this because what you see above is an ink and watercolor wash I did today as an experiment. So far I have nearly a dozen reasonably complete pencil sketches of the story in its entirety that I don't plan on posting until all are done. I'm just afraid I'll either lose interest or the thread if I post them too soon but in the meanwhile there may be a few Crow pictures if he feels like posing again.

For now, and until I'm done with Anthony's story (which actually has a very different title), I'll likely post to the blog without drawing a separate picture nearly every time. How on earth did I ever start that habit?

Would you believe we've been having another blizzard here - at least that's what they call it when there's any snow at all with sustained winds blowing at 40+ mph. Maybe we should rent out a room to anyone who'd like to experience a North Atlantic winter for a few days. We'll even open and close the windows to provide sound effects.

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off the drawing board

Eustace's Gift was finally finished by late yesterday - at least this version was. As usual right after I finish something I look and see a few things I wish I'd done differently while other aspects are pretty close to just right. There's a story behind this painting but it's one I'm not ready to tell right now. If you'd like to see the progression I've posted some transition pictures below.

This was the very first sketch of the scene as I imagined it on a drawing pad last summer.

A few weeks ago I revised the original, added the other main character, and inked outlines and areas that would be in shadow. The next picture in the group I posted last week so won't do so now.

The first color washes continued to define the background while still allowing for either full or partial color of the toys and decorations.

Detailing added in the background and initial character colors done. Obviously, there's still lots of room to intensify the colors and shadows so that's what I did over the course of the next few days. I didn't do any more in between scans because the changes after this one are all pretty obvious even as the difference is notable.

Anyway, it's done and now I'm going to start working on another (and very different) story while this one and the others in the eventual series go back to the portfolio.

I hope it's not too cold and nasty wherever you are. Eustace wishes he could bring everyone the perfect gift.

♡

little distractions

Is is just me or have you also noticed how distracting it can be reading news articles on line compared to elder days when mostly what we read was in printed form on paper? It's not that there isn't a whole lot more information openly available these days but I often, usually, in fact, find I get distracted by silly stuff that either pops up or flashes in bright colors in my peripheral vision. Stuff like this:
Why did Beyoncé lip-sync the Star Spangled Banner at the Presidential inauguration?
She didn't know the words?
Bieber dethrones Gaga on Twitter.
Who are these people?
Can we reverse engineer the brain?
Ask Fox News?

I have to admit that sometimes I'll find something interesting enough or funny enough that I end up being glad I wandered off for a few minutes. Today it was the story about IBM's super computer Watson having been taught natural language by being given access to the Urban Dictionary. When the researchers questioned it later Watson answered their queries with 'Bullshit'. We may be on the brink of AI beings fit to run the world. How could they do worse than this guy?


MAN from Steve Cutts on Vimeo.

The picture above is of Eustace in company - he's a charming but somewhat tentative creature who's trying to learn the ways of a new world.  The painting/illustration is still underway.

♡

back at ye olde drawing board

If I'm not doing one thing it seems I often find myself involved in doing half a dozen things at about the same time. It can get confusing but it's kind of fun too. This little guy who appeared this afternoon will likely be an element in a painting I have on the drawing board. It's good I have more than one drawing board because there's another illustration in progress that had to move to a shelf temporarily while I work on this one. My drawing table isn't all that big.

The painting on the shelf I'm afraid to show you. It's not that it isn't a good one in my opinion but that it's the first  picture in what will be a story that was only told once or twice a long time ago. It never had pictures. It may not even need pictures as most people, especially small people (known as children) have very active visual imaginations. Anyway, it's getting pictures, probably a dozen, but I'll keep them to myself for a while as I work the whole thing out in the real. Scans are being done so once I'm closer to finishing I'll show you the process as it happened. It may take a while.

Next, I have a couple of stories in mind for the long neglected Adventures Ink. The whole idea with them was they could be drawn fairly fast once I knew which one I wanted to relate. I've remembered a couple.

So that's what I'm up to. If you're not bored yet or don't have anything else to do for a couple of minutes you might like this little animation I found. It's a bit strange but I like strange and I like van Gogh and it's nice to see something a little bittersweet. So far as I can tell it was made by an Iranian team.

Painted Pie from Mehdi Farrokhtala on Vimeo.

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trials in illustration

Here I am again without a complete version of the story I mentioned several weeks ago. You've already heard I didn't like the first picture mostly because I was having a lot of trouble balancing the shades of green. Another problem that didn't really occur to me until I was too far into the picture to change it turned out to be the little shed next to the house. I already knew the setting for the next illustration would require a larger building to be in view, or at least suggested in the background, and the original picture wouldn't allow more structures. What I'd envisioned as a grove of trees behind the path turned into an unanticipated barrier that spoiled the effect even more.

All this to say that in the time between this post about the story and the last nearly a month ago, is that I've drawn too many variants of the scene and have painted three. First I got rid of the big house in order to have a thatched cottage that would look more friendly - plus, I added a couple of sheep just to keep things a bit more lively (thanks, Linda). You can see from this drawing that the watercolor paper had already been seriously overworked so the painting that came from it was unsalvageable for that reason alone but, once again there was no barn and, worse still, the farmer looked sinister. Since that one got tossed before I finished coloring, it doesn't count as a painting I finished. Nevertheless I liked the idea of a town being hinted at in the background.

Then I returned to the large house plan and modified it with a sizeable barn visible behind the farmer, along with a tree that would help to harmonize the greens of the surroundings. The sheep would stay. I actually liked this version enough that I painted it more than once. I won't show you the first because.. er, have you ever looked at truly bilious greens? It practically dove into the garbage without my help.

Anyway, the third try looks okay (it will just have to do). The second painting was finished without problems and now I'm working on the last one. In a couple of days I'll post the whole story but in the meantime here's a preview:

One fine May morning a local hillside farmer had just finished putting up a sign that read 'Puppies For Sale', when who should he see pulling a wagon along the path but a small boy.  I'm sure you know signs like that do have a way of attracting children.

'How much are you going to sell the puppies for?', he asked.

The farmer replied, 'They're working dogs so I'll be asking $50.'

The little boy reached in his pocket and pulled out some change. "I have $2.37," he said. "Can I please look at them?"

The farmer smiled and said, 'Right this way', pointing to the old barn next to the house.

***

more soon
(and to think I'd planned four pictures..)
♡

back to the drawing board

Over the past week or two I've been putting together four drawings for the little story I mentioned having found. One day last week when the rain and wind made going out for a long walk impossible, I decided to transfer this one to watercolor paper and paint it fairly fast so I could gauge how long it might take to turn the four planned illustrations into satisfactory paintings.

Several hours later I'd gone from the drawing above to this one and the resulting certainty I'd painted and inked my way into a corner. There were parts I still liked a lot - the house, the characters, the idea of the road - but overall it was looking just a little too stark for my liking. Greens are the most amazing colors in nature but are for me the most difficult to paint. The huge background hill also was going to require a different approach.

Nevertheless, I'd already gone so far that I decided to finish the painting as doing so would allow me to see what was going to work and what parts would need to be revised. I went back over the entire picture adding colors to intensify the clouds and greenery as well as delineating the two characters. I'd started inking so had to finish at least enough of that to make the picture coherent.

I've discovered (and not for the first time) is that for me making something magical takes time as well as fearlessness. I have to allow myself to make mistakes  and  be willing to start over from a blank page. With so many things in life we don't have that luxury but at least we could work on the theory the best course of action is to begin again from wherever we are right now - considering lessons learned of course.

What makes life magical for you?
♡