Tag: Illustration

Pages for The New Journal

Dear Liza,

Once we had the journal cover made, it was time for pages. Since this isn’t a journal for writing, but for doing art in, we were free to experiment.

I started gluing images down to scrap paper, which is always fun. Making THIS piece of junk mail look spiffy by sticking on THAT piece of old napkin is very satisfying.

When the pages were dry, I lined them up with the butterfly cover. I love the way the greens and soft pinks go together.

But wait a second! That cartoon dude is SO out of place! He looks like he got into the book through an unlocked window. He’s adorable, but he’ll have to wait for another project.

I kept looking, and more images kept showing up. This little girl and part of a watch face came together nicely. It needs something else, but it will come.

The Zoom Art group got together again this morning and I added this landscape over the splattered page. Not bad, but as it is here, it felt unfinished.

I put it aside and went on with the day. When Cousin Kestrel came over this afternoon, I asked her for advice. She suggested a setting sun with some rays, and I gave it a try.


I love it! Thanks, Kes!

This page of text strips goes with the color scheme and looks suitably cryptic. The splatters add a little character. As I told Ruthie, “Splattery will get you anywhere!”

And that’s the newest art journal so far.

Love,

Grandma Judy

New Story, New Pictures

Dear Liza,

A few years ago, I wrote a story about our cat, Mouse. In the story, Mouse steps out of her comfortable routine of napping and lap-sitting to help solve a mystery.

I found it the other day and liked it enough that I want to share it with folks. For me, that means printing it out, putting on a cover, and of course, illustrations.

I started sketching, and once again realized I was way over my head. But I kept at it. Turns out, if you do something long enough, you get better. I drew one piece of the drawing at a time, cut it out, and then traced it where I wanted it to go.

The dog in the picture is our neighbor, Trevor, who is a main character in the story. But of course, once I had the characters cut out, they wandered elsewhere, as well.

For a while they were part of a bizarre pet-juggling story…

Then they all seemed to be on a hamster wheel.

Eventually, it got drawn, colored, and some text got added.

I’m pretty happy with how this one turned out.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Tying Up Loose Ends

Dear Liza,

I have been working on the illustrations for your story, “Adventure Grandma”, for months now. It has taken a long time because I have no training in art or design and am making the whole thing up as I go.

I started with drawings, but they were not as bold as I wanted.

Then I tried collages made of ‘found’ papers from magazines and packages, but it was too much of a mishmash.

I wanted all the pages to go together, to have some elements in common, so I painted my own. A strong red, soft yellow and several different blues and greens did the trick. For the abstract people, I painted a little orange and lots of black on several sheets of mixed media paper.

Then I designed pictures that had diagonal lines, to show movement and action.

I am very happy with how the illustrations have turned out!
Now I am doing hand to hand combat with my computer to get the story printed out the way I want. I promise it will be ready for you in Spring!

Love,

Grandma Judy