Color Cat Studios: August 2013

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Routine of Illustrating a Book

Falling into a routine for each picture in the book:

Read the text and notes about illustrations
Email author with questions/comments
Sketch possibilities. Anything goes, even bad ideas and sketches
Author/artist dialog continues
Narrow down to one drawing
Pose family members in correct positions and photograph (live models at the ready! :)
Do a nicer sketch and send to author
Discussion/comments/ideas from both of us, confirmation that I'm on the right track
Final drawing
Send final to author before coloring it
Paint final.

Repeat. and repeat. and repeat.

At this point, I'm close to half way done. Getting there!

Saturday, August 3, 2013

Work on Book Continuing and Back to School!

Well, you're still not hearing much from me because I'm continuing on the book illustrations. I'm sorry to keep you waiting, but I'll begin to put them out when I can.

I'm also gearing up for school and will be holding six art classes this year. Daily I'm adding to the student list and preparing for classes. Thank you, Lord! I believe one of my gifts is teaching kids, and You continually heap them upon me! It's going to be a great year.

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Turkish tour

Another look at those natural color-sources. I asked about cochineal, because you couldn't just have that on a shelf, and yes, their deep reds are cochineal. It's a South American insect that is a parasite to the prickly pear. Owners deposit them into their fields, and blow them off and collect them once they're big. Then they crush their fat, bloody bodies for a nice, natural, red dye. I'm so happy to report that the rug we purchased has cochineal in it. I'm also happy to report that it's likely in your lipstick and blush, ladies, and if you drink cherry coke - it's in there, too! :)

'My' Chair

At our theatre the other night we had an orchestra meeting after I taught my sets class. After about a half hour, someone pulled me out of the meeting for a few minutes. When I came back, everyone in the room was laughing and pointing to the nice, uh, black leather chair. I had paint on the back of my shirt, and it permanently smeared all over the leather! The last time I went in the office, I noticed that someone had taped up the sign you see here. One way to lay claim to something! Well, it's not the first time, let's see, there's my driveway with many colors of paint, our carpet with Peter Pan green footprints, my car with yellow paint on the seat, my gloves, half of my clothes. It seems like everyone likes my painted clothes, kind of like already-broken-in-jeans. Maybe I should start a clothing line!