Unfamiliar Aquarium

   This vacation shot comes from deep in the subconscious and has never happened exactly in this way.  But it  has happened many times, in many variations and forms and melded together in this pool of neurons that make up the mind.  I can hear the "Aquarium" movement from Saint-Saen's Carnival of the Animals playing as I look at it.  This image surfaced for Illustration Friday's prompt this week: "vacation".  Happy summer vacation and may yours be compelling and memorable.

Up in the Air

   I'm floating, I'm floating.  Look.  What's that?  Can I get it?  I think so.  Oh, there's something else that's going after it, something flying, dropping and fast.
   What will happen?  We'll see.

   Today's illustration and post are prompted by Illustration Friday's theme this week: Airborne.

Imagine a Selfie

You knew it had to happen, didn't you? A selfie, right here. But it's different. It's all part of the plan.
   Yes, I've been noticing that the more I illustrate, the more the physical world, the actual tactile environment around me changes. I start to see the usual stuff and places all around me with a different light coming from them, different colors, kind of like the color of potential.
   It makes sense, though, if you think about it. We have the physical world we can touch. We have the mental world we can think and plan and analyze and organize. We have the dream world we can imagine.
   When we draw, paint, illustrate from the core, from our unconscious, we take an idea from the dream world and bring it into the physical world. Now it exists in both worlds. We changed our physical world.
   Okay, I could keep going, but let's just sit with that for a while. And here's an illustrated likeness of me. Yeah. There are major changes going on here.

Rabbit of Ages

Rabbit reflecting

Happy New Year!  Something new hopping through my studio… or is it ancient?  I figure it’s got to be ancient, though it’s new to me: the Japanese reed pen.  It’s really just a bit of bamboo with shaped points at each end of it.  I was intrigued by a few of Uri Shulevitz’ reed pen illustrations in his book, “Writing With Pictures”, so I hunted down a source for the pens and ordered fine, medium and large sizes. 

Mr. Shulevitz suggests that working with these pens really frees up the style and after a couple goes at this, I would agree.  I’ve been exploring loading the pen up with ink from the dropper in the bottle stop, as well as with dipping the tip of the bamboo directly into the ink.  I’ve tapped the nib on the mouth of the bottle, as well as blotted it on paper towels to release the excess ink and control the flow.

The effect of the reed pen really took my pencil drawing of the rabbit (above) to the next level.  The lines formed have an effortless grace to them.  And the process is gentle and enjoyable, calling me back again to the drafting table after I have finished my piece.

What has been your experience working with pen and ink?  Have you worked with bamboo pens before?  What about other tools?

Harp Song

A little on the illustration side, today.  I've wanted to illustrate the harp for a while, and as it turns out, this image fits in nicely with Illustration Friday's theme this week: Spirit.

And of course, here's the super-sized edition, so that my link shows up better (I hope) on Illustration Friday's site.

Thank you for stopping by.

Come Cruise With Me: Writing Warm-up Exercises

So, I’m sitting here in front of the monitor, you know the feeling, trying to write and I’m thinking, “huh?”  You’d think it’d be easier if you already have some writing started to just get on with it, right?  To just get the thing written and polished and finished, already.  But my mind shies away from it, like a skittish horse from a rattlesnake.  So, what’s going on with that?

So, I asked myself, “Self, huh?”  (Self understands short sentences best.) 

Self says, “Music.”  (And it utters single words best.)

Oh. 

Now, I think about when I sit down to play my instrument of choice.  Sometimes, I want to get right into a piece that I’ve been working on, that I’m excited about.  But I know better.  Yep, all you serious musicians and music teachers are shaking your index fingers at me right now, ‘cause you know that you are supposed to warm up, first, right?

Yeah, like scales and arpeggios.  Yeah, that’s one way to start, with set notes that lie at the foundation of most music.  Or maybe, first, a little improvisation, to get the mental juices flowing.  And then, the scales and arpeggios.  With sports and exercise, same thing: warm up, first; work out; then, cool down to finish.

So, why not with writing?  I’m not talking about writing prompts that say to write about your first day at school or the objects on your desk.  Those are good, too, but they’re still asking for full on writing.  I’m thinking more of something that will get me from zero to cruise speed, more of an in-between step.

So, I got basic.  A little improvisation for writing.  We’ll need to get to those scales and arpeggios, too, but this is what I’ve got so far.

Letter Go Wild

You’ve got two minutes.  Write (or key in) words that start with or include the letter of the day.  You choose the letter: the more random, the better. 

Here is an example of what I came up with the first time.  You’ll notice that I did not begin with the logical choice of the letter “a”.  Try to keep away from that logic stuff for this exercise.

Letter Go Wild: W

Whoopee

Whip

Wow

Wonder

West

When

Whip

Willow

Wedding

Waistcoat

Wessing?

Wesley

Wellesly

Wubber?

Wumbelism?

Wonky

Wicked

Wilhelm

Wecipe*

Wohemia*

Whitakers

Wokawemia

Webmickedy

Wonnebennow

After the first time through, I stopped putting question marks and asterisks after slip-ups and mistakes and just left them as they were and typed it correctly on the next line.  We spend all day correcting ourselves and conforming to rules.  So, why do we expect our minds to just free-flow on demand when we want to write?  A little “everything goes, everything flows” play should loosen it up.  Here’s the second trial run:

Letter Go Wild: P

Potato

Press

Posse

Passive

Passic

Possible

Patriotic

Cowslip

Posy

Pakistan

Pugnacious

Pandemic

Pad

Pasta

Pasty

Putrid

Puck

Pucknacious

Puke

Packy

Pucky

Pluck

Possible

Paranoid

Pontificate

Powr

P[ow

Power

Plan

Plant

Planit

Planty

Parliament

Parlor

Parle

Pest

Pesto

Pen

Pep

Peer

Purr

Puck

Pluck

Pun

Punny

Pun-tificate

Pontificate

Prarie

[prairie

Primal

Primacy

Peer

Peer

Pan

Pen

Pan-tificate

Pep

Pepper

As I went along, my brain came up with hybrids of 2 or more words, with words that weren’t words and with completely random collections of sounds and letters.  I went with it and wrote them down.  The effect seems to be a little destructive to my sense of structure, but I’m thinking I’m in the middle of an evolution.  I guess I’ll see how it plays out.

I do know that this exercise is easy to sit down to do, so I don’t avoid it, and after it, I am launching right into writing without a second thought.  That’s an improvement and that’s what I was looking for: get me to cruising.

Moving in Shadow

Another illustration for Illustration Friday.  This week's theme is "Shadow".

Dancer in Shadow

And a cropped version, so it reads better on Illustration Friday's website... I hope.