These weeks of classes with Lilla are really intense. Even I, a seasoned veteran ...with a licensing rep...who teaches university students...is feeling insecure showing my work..even making work. Last week, when I attempted...and you are reading right..attempted making dinner plate artwork using the plant and pod images I showed in the last blog post I ended up crying in Gary’s studio that I could not seem to pick colors for my plate. I could not get those images to work no matter what I did so at the last minute I went back to my studio, used cut paper and made the following plate.
I solved the problem and people liked it but I was not happy with it really...I feel I would have done better using a circular shape and making my pods come off the edges of the plate and flow into the center. I plan to go back and revisit this project but for now I am leaving it alone.
Last week we did the kids book market. I have worked on kids books before. I have a ying and yang feeling about them....I would like to do preschool kids books like an alphabet book or a counting books...books where I could make simple strong images. But to do a whole picture book...not sure I want to do that. I worked on a full book for Klutz many years ago with a fabulous art director, Lynn Garrett. The title was Hunt for Harvey. It was like a Where’s Waldo book where each spread would have tons of stuff in it and you needed to find Harvey. The book went back and forth for almost six months. I had woefully underbid it and when the book was finally cancelled I was really happy. Never thought I would say that...my childhood dream was to illustrate kids books...but I wanted to have no more of the kids book market.
But I have changed my mind about this..it is now 6 years later...and I went into Lilla’s kid book week with gusto. Our mini assignment given on Monday was to make a snail ...use different emotions, draw snails with charm, whimsy...make a snail with character. Oh boy, I love to make animal characters! And if I was going to make one character how about 2...the snail should have a sidekick...I love to make sidekicks...the title of the book was to be The Snail and The Rose Tree....I would change the title to The Snail and Rosie...my sidekick would be Rosie. So I made Rosie the worlds tiniest dog..a ladybug...all sorts of things. Here are my snails.
Why I did not think to go online and goggle the title to see if was a story I will never know. When the assignment was posted on Wednesday I reeled with horror....the story The Snail and The Rose Tree was by Han Christian Andersen and in it the snail was a real gloomy gus...and the story had no room for sidekicks. I needed to rethink what I was going to do. We were to do a cover or a spread. We also had to do the title in handwritten type.
In the story the rose tree was full of life and did many things each seasons for others...the snail did nothing but complain all her life. So I made a big rose tree with lots of life in it and a gloomy snail with a season chart on her shell to show no matter the season she stayed the same. And since we had worked with mushrooms in the first project for Lilla and pod flowers in the second project for Lilla I put those in as a little nod to those projects. I was very happy with the result. Here it is:
This week is Wall Decor week and for our mini assignment we are to gather collage materials...paper, ephemera, we can paint grids and make textures which will all lead to making some type of collage that is abstract. There is a color palette we are to work with...I am in the group of the color palette of orange and blue...not bad but my color choice would be green and pink. We can also use all neutrals. I do not need to do any gathering of materials...I have so much stuff I know I should have what I will need.
Check back next week to see what I have done.
I solved the problem and people liked it but I was not happy with it really...I feel I would have done better using a circular shape and making my pods come off the edges of the plate and flow into the center. I plan to go back and revisit this project but for now I am leaving it alone.
Last week we did the kids book market. I have worked on kids books before. I have a ying and yang feeling about them....I would like to do preschool kids books like an alphabet book or a counting books...books where I could make simple strong images. But to do a whole picture book...not sure I want to do that. I worked on a full book for Klutz many years ago with a fabulous art director, Lynn Garrett. The title was Hunt for Harvey. It was like a Where’s Waldo book where each spread would have tons of stuff in it and you needed to find Harvey. The book went back and forth for almost six months. I had woefully underbid it and when the book was finally cancelled I was really happy. Never thought I would say that...my childhood dream was to illustrate kids books...but I wanted to have no more of the kids book market.
But I have changed my mind about this..it is now 6 years later...and I went into Lilla’s kid book week with gusto. Our mini assignment given on Monday was to make a snail ...use different emotions, draw snails with charm, whimsy...make a snail with character. Oh boy, I love to make animal characters! And if I was going to make one character how about 2...the snail should have a sidekick...I love to make sidekicks...the title of the book was to be The Snail and The Rose Tree....I would change the title to The Snail and Rosie...my sidekick would be Rosie. So I made Rosie the worlds tiniest dog..a ladybug...all sorts of things. Here are my snails.
Why I did not think to go online and goggle the title to see if was a story I will never know. When the assignment was posted on Wednesday I reeled with horror....the story The Snail and The Rose Tree was by Han Christian Andersen and in it the snail was a real gloomy gus...and the story had no room for sidekicks. I needed to rethink what I was going to do. We were to do a cover or a spread. We also had to do the title in handwritten type.
In the story the rose tree was full of life and did many things each seasons for others...the snail did nothing but complain all her life. So I made a big rose tree with lots of life in it and a gloomy snail with a season chart on her shell to show no matter the season she stayed the same. And since we had worked with mushrooms in the first project for Lilla and pod flowers in the second project for Lilla I put those in as a little nod to those projects. I was very happy with the result. Here it is:
This week is Wall Decor week and for our mini assignment we are to gather collage materials...paper, ephemera, we can paint grids and make textures which will all lead to making some type of collage that is abstract. There is a color palette we are to work with...I am in the group of the color palette of orange and blue...not bad but my color choice would be green and pink. We can also use all neutrals. I do not need to do any gathering of materials...I have so much stuff I know I should have what I will need.
Check back next week to see what I have done.
