Where did these guys come from? Well, last week I created an illustration for an article in upcoming issue of Mothering Magazine. I decided to do the piece on really nice heavy watercolor paper. It's nice stuff, and really a joy to work with compared with what I used to use as a watercolor surface. The way I cut it left me with a strip that I cut into little squares. Then the squares started whispering to me. Each square was asking for a creature. What's a guy with pile of pens and a brush to do?
After the Jump: another monster, a flawed watercolor, and some media recommendations...
I'm continuing to use spare moments (where I find them is a mystery) to catch the kids on paper. Here is an abandoned watercolor of Zita holding a chick.
I'm pleased enough with the drawing but I should definitely NOT have put in the background. I should have left it at a hint of grass around her skirt and legs and feet and let the upper part of the figure speak for itself. But we live and learn...
Finally, a couple cool media recommendations:
Here's a link to an illustrated Russian edition of The Hobbit. It's CRAZY. It's like traditional woodcuts done by the creators of Ren and Stimpy. Some of the characters are interpreted in really unexpected ways.
If you're looking for a real gem of a movie, we watched and loved The Maiden Heist, a great little comedy about a trio of museum security guards who try to steal their favorite artworks before the exhibit is shipped to Denmark. The distributor apparently went bankrupt and the movie never had a theater release, despite hilarious starring performances from Christopher Walken and Morgan Freeman.
