One over-filled gallon box of fresh-picked-that-morning strawberries. And the field is only about a quarter mile from me. They are beautiful, sweet and so many big ones!
Now most of them are in the freezer packaged up in servings for one.
The last few mornings have been frosty walking to and from the gym.
And now back in the studio and the struggles with the dragon scale book illustration. I tried, I really did, to get the right colors and mood with the colored pencil collection that I have, And when I put the guide drawing up to follow for the next section of several half inch exposed fore edges, I realized the plain graphite was better…somehow better….
So I took my kneaded eraser and daubed at the pencil drawing of the first full page over and over again to take the color back, way back.
The softness of the image seems to go with the softness of the paper. It felt more “comfortable” for me. Odd choice of words but if I have to spend so much time sitting over a project I set up for myself, I might as well be comfortable with it.
Putting color in only to take it back out was driving me to think the whole idea was beyond where my capabilities now lie. But for right now I am going to blame the colored pencils. Some just have too much pigment in them and you don’t realize how much until the mark is made. The whole bunch will be put away as soon as I see this through.
Then I went back in with the oh-so-much-better graphite pencils and finished it up. Anyway, I think finished. But on this side only.
It is a dreamlike image of the river flowing by. BUT what goes on the back side when I flip all the folios back to the left? The larger page will be on the right…opposite the way we “read” left to right. Should there be something on each page if they were turned individually like a normal book? Seems like a dumb idea for this binding designed for continual movement.
I thought of making the “backside” a long image of what is under the water. Decided not to. Too much drawing! So maybe, just maybe the large exposed full page when flipped to the left will be a poem about the river. That appeals to me if done in cursive, using a graphite pencil.
Now, how to present it? I will likely do what it was intended to do in the first place, and make it into a scroll. And if I only have the poem on the back side, having another long image expected to lay flat will not be an issue.
But best of all, when I finally finish this I will have learned the following:
- Pick your challenges carefully.
- Keep your limitations in mind when you make the decision in the first place.
- And never, never quit until it is seen through.
I will write the poem over the weekend and roll it all up with a tie to hold in place. Then I will get my table space back to work on something new and SMALL.
Til later…