Juggling in springtime
The watercolors are still progressing, but I've been helping a few quilting ladies by rendering some patterns in the meantime. A new quilt project will involve some storybook-type illustrations featuring children at play — lot more up my alley.
My time seems so divided between my family, the workplace, the university and ... last, but certainly not least, the drawing board. I realize a lot of artists out there are finding ways to stay focused on the tasks at hand, but the real difficulty for me is something I learned from watching our excellent realtor awhile back. No matter how many things she was juggling at once, she somehow managed to always make us feel we were her number one priority.
I'm striving to keep that kind of focus right now in each "juggling area." There is a Friend with me at all times whose voice offers direction and encouragement ....if I can be quiet enough to hear it.
Come to think of it, He set an example too, of always giving his full attention to whatever needed to be done. Healing, feeding, teaching, even finding lost sheep.
He also managed to spend some quality time with children around. — lec
Lon Eric Craven
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A winter blast
Snow was falling outside in the Midwest, but this fellow is blissfully unaware as he works puzzles in his cottage at the edge of a swamp. Another installment in the pirate story. – lecA brief scratchboard diversion
This scratchboard piece came together tonight as part of an assignment for an op-ed illustration about autism.
I'll be thinking in color again in a half hour or so as I figure out another watercolor layout, but it was rather refreshing to use lines again. – lec
The "peril of suggestion"
A bit of helpful feedback and research has directed me to two conclusions in watercolor: I need to "suggest" the subjects and backgrounds in this current project rather than traditionally illustrate them....and that the whole thing is fraught with peril. There will be strokes that I can direct, but others that will do some of the work on their own. On deadline.
I'll be talking to some Cub Scouts later this week, and I want to be able to confidently describe what it is that I do, but I'm not feeling very confident at this moment.
Here is a quick sketch of our neighbor's miniature greyhound. Later today I'll be trying out some more daring strokes in a sketch of an alligator-infested swamp. — lec
Painting details without painting details
It's still a challenge to render just enough without rendering too much. Oils and pen and ink tend to be more forgiving.
Here's a part of one we finished tonight. My illustrations begin in this Sunday's paper and will continue weekly for the remainder of the serial.
Maybe by then I'll be seeing the whole world in watercolor. –lec