"Night Garden"
22"x28"
 watercolor, magazine, and acrylic collage

     The theme of "Death and the Maiden" is one of my favorites. The maiden is usually pictured embracing or sitting by a skeleton (Death) and often she is gazing into a mirror symbolizing vanity.

     I've painted this theme before - not necessarily to be spooky but as a reminder to myself not to take life for granted. So I guess the point is, to me, that while we are caught up in all the 'small stuff' of life - status, beauty, disagreements, etc., - our mortality is always with us. Not one of us lives forever. This helps me keep my attitude in perspective about what is really important when I'm sad, depressed, worried, etc.

Here is a great link to art works about this theme created by various artists over the centuries: http://www.lamortdanslart.com/fille/maiden.htm

Rocks Paper Scissors

     I'm really getting into this watercolor collage business! As I was playing with the cut-outs yesterday I thought, "I'm going to recreate a huge landscape out of all these pieces!" I then set out to recreate with collage a photograph I had taken and I realized it was becoming more and more boring as I went along. I disassembled the piece and decided just to put it together the way it felt best - I left it up to the individual paper rocks and flowers to dictate their own destiny and here's what I came up with:

   
 Here's a detail of the little guy in the background. I don't think I'll glue the pieces down - I like that it looks temporary - somehow that implies movement to me.

 
    Moral of the art story? Let yourself play. Some of the best advice I received from a teacher: paint yourself a surprise!

Fun with Paper Cut Outs!

     I have been doing a lot of research lately on children's books which involves going to the bookstore  and sitting in the kids' section and pouring over picture books. This is always a little strange because I don't have any children (just a surly small dog). No, I haven't been arrested yet.
     Anyway, my favorite illustrator right now is a guy named John Klassen. He is both illustrator and author of  I Want My Hat Back. I think this book was the winner of the Caldecott Medal. His pictures  are simple, fun, quirky, and effective watercolors.  Here's one from the aforementioned story:

and one from another story:

So this second one got me really excited -  I love those very simple shapes that make up the mountains. When I'm painting I often end up with a ton of watercolors that simply don't turn out for one reason or another. Watercolor is difficult because you really only get one go at it - you can't erase. So I took a page out of Mr. Klassen's book (very punny!) and cut up all my pictures that didn't work and this is what I came up with:

Rocks with Dandelion Fluffy Things

Booy with Dandelions

Rock Cairn

Large Landscape with rocks and Dandelions

Party Animals

     Alrighty, here's the cover page of our ebook. I made it on my ipad with the Book Creator app.

And here's the last page. Rawr.
I'm heading to the local chapter of the Society for Children's Books Authors and Illustrators tonight to learn about running a kickstarter campaign as well as how to market your book with social media. I am thinking about doing a kickstarter campaign so I can get this book in print: although lots of people read ebooks now I have many friends with little ones who have asked me for a print version. I would be THRILLED to have this in a hold-in-your-hands-turn-real-pages manifestation. It is quite short (9 illustrations, 22 pages) so maybe I will finish illustrating a couple more of Amanda's poems and make it into a short collection - say three poems. Thoughts? Comments?

Children With Tails

     Hello friends! I have two stories I am working on illustrations for right now: "The Little Match Girl" and another poem by my very talented friend, Amanda Kraft, entitled, "Children With Tails". Amanda is the same friend who wrote, "Wolf Party" -see previous posts for illustrations of the wily wolves! Also, I am working on having an ebook made for "Wolf Party". It will be available on iBooks, Kobo, and the Barnes and Noble Nook! I'll keep y'all posted.

     This new poem is about little devils masquerading as children - the only way you know they are devils is when they forget to cover their tails. Here are a couple of pictures of my progress.

          "Children with tails live all around,

            in almost all towns a few will be found.

            At first glance you feel as though nothing is wrong,

            as they are clever with words and haunting with song."

Is the tail obvious enough? 

In this detail of the portraits you can see I added to the schoolmarm's dress.

Some people have mentioned that the work is kind of dark, sad (the little match girl), or too grown  up (wolves drinking ale) but I grew up in the '80's with Garbage Pail Kids, Mad Magazine, Edward Gorey, and the funky poems of Shel Silverstein! I'm hoping the work appeals to more than just little children - I want big kids (a.k.a. adults) to want to read it too. So there!

The Little Match Girl

     So I am starting a couple new illustration projects. I didn't study illustration at school so I'm finding myself trying to learn all the basic stuff like balancing text and images, storyboarding, composition, etc.

     Usually my approach to art making is to jump in paint brushes ablazing! I try to make the work in one go (especially water color) to keep it fresh, expressive, and gestural. This does not always lend itself to illustration. So here are my preliminary drawings for Hans Christian Anderson's,"The Little Match Girl".

"Her little hands were almost numbed with cold. Oh! a match might afford her a world of comfort, if she only dared take a single one out of the bundle, draw it against the wall, and warm her fingers by it. She drew one out. "Rischt!" how it blazed, how it burnt! It was a warm, bright flame, like a candle, as she held her hands over it: it was a wonderful light"- H.CA.

     This little drawing above was made on a post-it note - 3"x3"- with ball point pen and yellow colored pencil. I found an artist who makes all of his drawings on post-its (!) which I thought would be a brilliant idea for storyboarding since you can move the pics around and change the sequence of your story. 

"When she left home she had slippers on, it is true; but what was the good of that? They were very large slippers, which her mother had hitherto worn; so large were they; and the poor little thing lost them as she scuffled away across the street, because of two carriages that rolled by dreadfully fast."

     Here is the second drawing made with conte crayon and colored pencil. This one measures 5"x7"- practically huge in comparison with the post-it. If her shoes look big its because in the story all she has to wear are her mother's slippers - which are later stolen by an urchin (I can't wait to draw the slipper-stealing urchin!).

     Both of these drawings were made from imagination. I generally always work with a model or some sort of reference photo. I'm a little shy about showing my "from imagination" stuff so please be kind!

      

      

Portrait of a Young Man

"Portrait of a Young Man"

9"x12" watercolor 2013

                                                             click here to make me yours
     Hello friends! I'm sorry I have been M.I.A. for the past week or so. I have been a very busy lady  painting, publishing children's stories, applying for teaching positions, and hosting family this past weekend! Anyway, I do have work to post this week, including new illustrations for Hans Christian Anderson's, "The Little Match Girl" and "The Steadfast Tin Soldier". I also am continuing to work on the collaboration with my friend Amanda ("Wolf Party" author) on some of her other short stories/poems. Keep tuned in!