Finally... all three projects from CBook2 are FINISHED!

I told you they would all be due today, didn't I?

Let's start with our folktale project, the story of Sigo the boy who lived with the bears...

Left side of the double-page spread...

Right side of the double-page spread!

Both pieces of art were wood-burned on (scrap) pine, scanned and then put into Photoshop to do the page layout.  I tried to make the words look like they were "burned in" too!

Here are the final double-page spreads for Mother Nature.  I've included the text, though it is copyrighted to the author, but this is for educational and learning purposes, and I hereby do not take any credit whatsoever for the text.  I find it an important part of the process, because the assignment was to work around the original text layout, versus coming up with one like we did with Mooin. (Should anyone find this to be problematic, contact me and I will remedy it immediately.)

In case you forgot, these were done in ink and watercolor on pre-stretched Arches 140lb hot press paper.

As for our collage project, my "Song of Spring" poem has yet to be actually merged with the art in proper layout form.  I still haven't had the time to re-learn how to do a text path.  Yeah, I know it's one of those silly easy things, but hey I've been busy!  Also, it needs to be re-scanned because I've got a seam in the middle, where the gutter usually is.  Here it is anyhow, so we can see the whole body of work together in one blog post.

Once again, this was done by painting old Chinese and English newspapers with non-toxic acrylics, cut and pasted with Matte Medium, with a few finishing touches done in either acrylic or colored pencil. I almost feel like it needs some little blossoms in the tree... but I'm going to wait and see what it looks like with the words before I do anything else to it.

All in all, a very satisfying semester! Four finished double-page spreads, a finished picture book manuscript, and a cover letter.  I don't think I could of asked for more, especially in a three month period!

Now... What's next???

From Start to Finish - Mooin, The Bear's Child, Part 3

(Note: I realized that I hadn't actually posted my last blog post when I created it, so it looks like I posted twice in a row...I swear I didn't mean to!)

Critiques are life savers.  Yes, they're a royal pain in the patootie, and man can they draaaaaag!  But without some of the crits of art-classes-past, and the one on Monday, many of my pieces would have turned out entirely differently.

For example, during the last crit, a very smart and insightful person brought up that most of my stuff is super colorful.  Like straight-from-the-tube colorful.  And I've been trying extremely hard to stay away from that, because I tend to yield better results when I do.  My problem is that I wasn't brought up to use neutral colors, or rather, no one seemed to point out that I didn't mix my own colors. That explains why I have such a problem deciding which colors to use in my art, because I don't use a limited palette.  If the whole wide world is available, why not just use them all?

So I am very thankful to my dear friend for bringing that point up, and reminding me that I'm an artist, and not a toddler with a 280-count box of Crayolas, (or whatever number they are up to now)! Those days were much simpler, though.

Well I'm done blathering about that.  Here's what I've been up to in the past few days...

New composition and style to my design!

My wood-burning friend, the tool I'm using for my line work.
(I wear a mask and turn on the kitchen hood fan for proper ventilation when burning the wood.)

Left side of my double-page spread.

Right side of my double-page spread.

New & Improved! color palette, using 3 primary colors, white, and one brown.

Not done yet... but I'm liking the results!  Thank goodness for the color changes!

This project, as well as "Mother Nature" and "Song of Spring," will be completely finished by Monday, and all three will be scanned and posted here on my blog most likely a day or two after that.  I'm so glad to have some nicer pieces to put into my portfolio! Can't wait to have it all done!!