Illustration Friday: Tropical

I like illustrations with flowers that are large in proportion to the characters, so I was happy about this hibiscus with my little bluebirds.

I was trying to capture the cozy feeling of being inside with hot drinks on a snowy day. I didn't really figure out how to make good snow with my colored pencils, though I think the interior has some of the feeling of snowlight, that soft white light that diffuses everything when snow covers the ground and more snow is falling.


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Some lovely paintings by Bradi Barth

A few days ago I discovered Belgian artist Bradi Barth (1922--2007), and I clicked through her site with joy and wonder. I felt I was meeting a long lost friend. Her paintings are mostly quiet, simple, feminine, consoling. I think some of her paintings might verge on kitsch if placed in a fine art context, but my frame of reference is more the gentler world of children's illustration, where they fit in just fine.

I share seventeen of her paintings here, more than I usually post, but I didn't want to leave out any of these, my favorites so far. To see more of her work and learn more about her, her site is here.

Illustration Friday: Moon

I had a little nut tree,

And nothing would it bear,

But a silver nutmeg

And a golden pear.

The king of Spain's daughter

Came to visit me

All for the sake

Of my little nut tree.

As I was thinking about last week's Illustration Friday prompt I had a sudden mental image of the little tree, its branches bare against the moon, its fruits decorated with bows. I've always loved this rhyme, and moonlight seemed to fit its magical feeling.  I first drew the tree with leaves and no bows, because I didn't want to suggest that the fruits were only tied on, but the fruit didn't show up well and the moon looked uncomfortably trapped, so I erased and went back to my first idea.

I did a lot of erasing in this drawing. I thought a simple pencil drawing would go fast, but it didn't. I'm not happy with it in a bunch of ways, but I worked hard on it (maybe too hard) and it could have been worse. It's time to get back to my bluebirds and my crucifix carving project. I heard an artist say the other day that their favorite piece is always the one they are going to paint next. I think my least favorite is probably always the one I just finished.

The King of Spain's daughter I based on the Infanta Margarita Teresa, the blonde princess in several portraits by Velasquez, the most famous being Las Meninas.

An update and some little sketches

I've been patiently working on my bluebird story, molding the plot and thinking through structure before getting too much into my favorite part--playing with words and other little details. I find that good ideas come in bursts, with a burst every day or two. I used to say "I'm not good at plots," but now I realize I'm just slow about it. This podcast and its sequel have been helping me to think carefully about the story I want to tell. If you want to tell stories too, give it a listen.

On another note, here are some two-inch by one-and-a-half inch colored pencil sketches I've been doing in odd moments like visiting friends and waiting in the car to pick my husband up from work.

Merry Christmas and God bless you, every one!

Making little Christmas cards with colored pencils on brown paper.

Just keep swimming

I'm feeling panicky, anxious, blocked. I want to drop my Loula and Hampton story. I'm afraid it's just not worth doing anything with.

I am afraid of landscapes. I imagine the most uninspired children's illustration landscapes I've seen and think that is what mine will be like.

I am afraid of drawing street scenes and interiors (all those straight lines).

Unlike Hampton, I prefer the open-ended to the finished and closed. I don't much like making decisions. Independently completing a children's story with illustrations seems to mean independently making five million decisions mostly right now.

And to top it off, the most reasonable part of me, the part that is not subject to my predictable cycle of idea and discouragement, is fairly certain that my little tale is not going to shake the publishing world, but that nonetheless I should complete it in some fashion because each thing we finish provides grounding and education for the next thing, and I do want there to be a next thing.

The most reasonable part of me is also fairly certain that if I try I can make pretty landscapes, charming interiors and cute birds pushing vacuum cleaners and making music.

So here goes.

(But not yet. First this bit of loveliness, from India, 1700, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I do love pretty trees.)

Two more birdy sketches

Loula with a stack of music under her wing.

Hampton pausing on the way to his vacuum cleaner shop.