Beatrice Gets Her Wings Day 2

This is how the painting looked yesterday, late afternoon, when my indoor lighting began to alter. The late afternoon light is shining through the blinds at right. I use studio lighting that mimics daylight, but when working with the cool colors find it best to work in the same block of hours every day, to maintain a similar degree of intensity. This holds most true when working with ultramarine and thalo blues or greens. If painting in the evening its apparent the following day exactly what areas I was working on the evening prior. Values are too intense and the blues/greens are over saturated.

As you can see, the body is considerably narrower. To keep the colors bright and clear I'm not using washes. Instead, I paint in small section by section, as if piecing together a stained glass window. Every now and then I stand back and evaluate; modification may be needed. If one wing was too large or oddly shaped, this is the time to balance and adapt.

Something to Strive For

I know well enough not to end in a preposition, but I just found this blurb on the Cybils (see the blurb at the bottom right of the blog) and think it is a good goal for us to set. I really want to produce something of quality, that is a child's favorite book, something they learn from, want to read over and over, something with a message that resonates within them about it. One of my favorites is The Lorax. I thought how could people be so blind to pollute, to take away and not beautiful our world. And now it seems there is nothing that can stop that path. We are destroying the rain forests at a phenomenal speed. We seed clouds for our benefit. What are we doing to Mother Earth. There is no Lorax to speak for the Earth. What will it become for our children? Days of wearing 200SPF? I still think that maybe my true path is to go be the Lorax and speak for the Earth. 


Anyway, we'd love to hear from you. What is one of your favorite books of all times from your childhood? And what impact has it had on you? 


From Jacket Flap: Now in their fifth year, the Cybils are the Internet's first literary awards. The public nominates their favorite children's books. Then groups of bloggers get to work. First, a nominating committee reads ALL the titles in a given category. After nearly two arduous months, this committee winnows the nominees to five finalists. A second committee of bloggers considers the shortlist and, after much debate, chooses the best of the best for 2010.

Working With Faulty Design

Below you see my first attempt, traced from our detailed pencil drawing. The butterfly's abdomen is too dark and wide even though its to proportion for this species. Almost at center, the ugly bray blob dominates the space. One way to circumvent this is by rendering the wings as dark or darker, then shading the abdomen in a way that makes it appear smaller than it really is, blending its contours into the wings. Adding an overall pattern or drybrush texture would make good use of the darker areas, like lace placed over a solid color fabric. Another solution might be washing out the darkest pigment until its a midrange tone and when the art is dry, touching up with opaque white or colored pencil. This particular paper, however, is delicate. Its a vintage, handmade sheet with no sizing, which allows pigment to soak right in without puddling. If the area is scrubbed, fibers unravel and the surface will be damaged beyond repair.

Kimberlee and I want this butterfly to be somewhat true to species, which means darkening the wings is not an option, nor is scrubbing the dark area to a lighter value. I opt for cutting my losses and start over with a modified drawing. I've redrawn the wings but modify the body, making it slender and adding curves. This is not anatomically or correct, but when finished, the art will appear believable to the eye. Look to the left of #1: the new butterfly is placed left of the first, blotched attempt for comparison. There's also an actual butterfly that I found in our driveway this summer (already dead) and an assortment of different wing diagrams, etchings and photos.

Painting #2, below, shows the new painting alongside the original pencil drawing. Since taking this photo Ive painted most of the wing area but its now so dark outside (snow is on the way!) that I wont be able to get a good shot. This is a good place to leave off, and the next entry will show the progress and talk about some of the challenges befor us. The colors are coming out BEAUTIFULLY and Ill talk about the brands and pigments selected, the paper choice, and other technical aspects that might interest those of you who share my fondness for watercolor.

CLICK THE PHOTOS TO ENLARGE THEM

PAINTING 1 PAINTING 2

Beatrice Gets Her Wings

Okay, for some reason that last entry wasn't letting me load the image but this time all went without a hitch!

At left you see the first layer of wash for one of our illustrations. The day was a bit dark, so its not as clear as I'd like but you get the idea. What I noticed is that the Beatrice, our butterfly, had a thorax that was proportionate to her species. That's fine, but in the enlarged image it will attract too much attention, right there in the center of the art. I attempted damage control by experimenting with some pattern work and varying the values but could see that this was not what we wanted. Also, I didn't like the way this watercolor board was taking the pigment. Soooooo, what next? What do you do when that beautiful drawing flops on the watercolor table? You'll see in tomorrow's installment.

Painting the Art

Kimberlee and I have been balancing family, work, and creative endeavors but this doesn't mean we've forgotten about our book! To keep creative energy cooking, we touch base with scheduled conferences that are part business, part everything else. Mutual support is instrumental in staying on task, and a sense of humor. Yesterday I sat down with one of our drawings and began painting. Almost immediately I saw a problem with with the composition. Sometimes a b/w pencil rendering works great, but translating that drawing into 4 colors often requires reassessment of values and design. The final outcome depends on what the artist is striving toward.

Kimberlee and I want imagery that will appeal to younger children: large blocks of of color and within those areas of color, monochromatic pattern. We also plan on hiding some imagery amidst the foliage and in the borders, to keep things interesting. For example, little ants on their way to work, bumble bees, spider webs or caterpillars nibbling leaves. We want a degree of accuracy but the characters need to be personable, too.

After noticing the problem, I decided to continue painting and see if there could be some adjustment using pattern and tone to distract the eye. Theres a photo of the art at this stage but the' image upload' icon is not functioning. Ill take a break for now and try to figure out why it isnt working.

To Trademark or Not To Trademark

That is the question. So, I have finished up my logo and am planning on trademarking my series of books and logo. I'm wondering...does anyone have experience with this out there and can they tell me, will it be worth it? or not? I have been to the US patent and trademarking web page and read most of what is there. It is not super expensive, but is maybe an expense I don't need to make upfront. Still I feel like it is something that would be worthwhile. Thoughts?

One Fine Afternoon

So finally the weather in southern Texas has been bearable to go outdoors and enjoy without getting eaten alive by mosquitoes. Today I enjoyed some outdoor time with my daughter and we caught view of and shared some precious moments with this beautiful butterfly. Life moves so fast for us all now and I took simple pleasure for the time we spent to just admire this other being going about its daily routine.

I worry about nature. I worry about our planet. I find it hard to see people not caring about their daily actions. Later in the day when I went to rent a movie I saw someone just leave their soda can by their car door on the ground and get in to leave. Why don't some people take responsibility for their actions? Who must be the parents of this slice of society when they don't seem to care about their actions or the impact to others or the environment? What irks me is that it seems to be quite a few people who just don't seem to care. I certainly don't aspire to be parents for everyone, but I wish I could hold people accountable for things like that. Better yet, I wish to restore that care, that respect, that patience and calm through my writing and reaching out to children and adults reading to children. One of the movies that recently affected me most was WALL-E. I looked at the planet with all that trash on the ground and in orbit around Earth and thought grimly, "This is our fate. And most people don't seem to care."  I wish for my books to bring back to us today what humans and our ancestors have known for a long time but we have forgotten in our race to be the best,  the first, the boss, the richest, the - whatever. That is my goal is to break through to people and to get them to really think about what is right, what is really important, to be the best they can be for each other and for us all. We are a very "connected" society one could say, but I say we are a very disconnected society more than ever before.

So with my extra hour this weekend I hope to get back to my book and finish my logo and potentially submit my series name for trademarking.  What will you do with your extra hour? I hope you find some time to take simple Earthy pleasure in something without littering. :)