“Whether you are flying the Atlantic or selling sausages or building a skyscraper or driving a truck, your greatest power comes from the fact that you want tremendously to do that very thing, and do it well.”
- Amelia Earhart
Red Winged Blackbird
Blogging has taken a bit of a back seat, since I’m never actually sitting at a computer anymore to write posts. Lately, I’ve been chronicling my work most on Instagram, which gives me a nice way to save some visual descriptions of what exactly I’m up to.
And, if you’ve looked at my Instagram account recently, you’ll see a whole lot of painting and drawing and not a whole lot of letterpress. This is a slower time of year for letterpress work, so a month and a half ago I decided to dig headlong into another of my long term goals: illustration.
Over the last 3 1/2 years with Charlotte, we’ve read more books than you can shake a stick at, and re-reading some of my own favorites triggered a new direction for me quite a while ago that I’m finally getting a chance to develop. Here I am, 32 years old, and some of the most important books to me are the books I read as a child; the books my mom & dad read to me. In the Night Kitchen, Where the Wild Things Are, The Wind in the Willows, Charlotte’s Web, Stuart Little, Berenstain Bears, East of the Sun and West of the Moon, and There’s a Train Going by My Window are particularly etched in my memory. I want to create something that lasting and that important.
All of that said, I’m at the very beginning of what will be – if I continue to follow it – a very long road of developing my own illustration skills. To what end, I’m not exactly sure. It’s all about trying things out for now. I’d like to get a handle on a variety of materials so that I can experiment and learn as much as possible. So, I branched out from letterpress & pencil/pen and ink drawing to watercolor. Here’s a little visual chronicle of the last 6 weeks, and there are lots more photos up on Flickr.
My first three watercolor birds: a cardinal, mallard, and hummingbird.
Red winged blackbird, in progress.
Peony & sunflower drawings and color separations in progress.
The whole process has jump started my energy, as well as my ability to draw and my drawing ideas and techniques. I’m full of new ideas for letterpress pieces, as well as illustrations, animals, and shapes and figures I want to get a better handle on. There will be lots more. I’ll keep updating on Instagram and Facebook and Flickr as I have new work and I’d love to hear feedback. This is all the beginning of a fun new branch for me, and I’m excited to share my work as I go!