Odd Little Stories, thoughts behind the work

Remodeled work station

remodel work station

I redid my work station with Mike’s help. I am very grateful. I am almost there. In any case, writing and drawing will be much easier now. I haven’t been able to use my Wacom Intuos 4 in a few years. Moving to Mexico will knock the wind out of you. I even am using the monitor I brought here from Washington in a suitcase, praying all the way that it would not break. Now at last my world is coming together.

In celebration, I wrote a little story and am breaking through to incorporating my drawings and stories together.

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animals, Illustrations, interior design, Pen and Ink Drawing, step by step, how to, thoughts behind the work

Rabbit and company, still life, color and black and white illustrations

 

 

This process is really long and tedious.  I don’t understand why I am making so much work for myself….except, I started with this idea and I can’t break the mold now. When you have high resolution images, bottom line is that it is what you need to publish your work.

I first do a pen and ink with fine line nib on to bristol paper, which is great for detail.   If I am happy with that, then I transfer that drawing to a heavy watercolor paper.  I am using my 12″x16″ light table to make the transfer.  I am doing this with a thicker nib and heavy emphasis lines are darkened to balance the amount of black on the page.

Then I scan the b&w into a large scanner and upload the b&w to my online store.  When I have the new darker black and white on watercolor paper, I paint it.  The composition defines whether or not I leave a lot of background white in the image or paint it in.

I have been playing with gouache and my usual clear watercolors, which is either Winsor and Newton or Maimeri Blue.  Why do this complex process?  I have learned a lot by this process.  It is remarkable how if you discipline yourself, you can accomplish a lot.  These drawings are giving me a lot of pleasure.  I can’t wait to get to a place when I can assemble them into some kind of storyboard book.

I studied this book building and illustrating in 1988 with Uri
Schulevitz but here I am now, so many years later, actually stepping into scary waters with a style that is actually the first one I adopted such a long time ago.  I discipline myself to doing 3 things every day, studying Spanish, working on the treadmill and drawing and/or painting.  I actually am very satisfied doing these activities.

I hope people will enjoy what I have to say.  My story really never changes.  It’s only the way of telling it that is new.

You can find my art here.

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