Cats, elephants, cards and boxes
All start their bee-ing at breakfast
Good morning and welcome to all of my new subscribers! Grab your coffee cup, there's a cat on my mind.
As you saw in my last newsletter I typically use small sketchbooks and I think in my small book about things I might create in larger formats. Here's what's happening in my larger 8 x 11 inch size sketchbook… I'm using ink and gouache to make an image for a greeting card. This image was inspired by a sketch I had done in my small book, more on that in a sec but here's a look at my finished card design.
In my last newsletter I shared this small sketchbook page below and I'm sure you can see the similarities between it and the larger drawing above.
Because I'm making a get well card that is both a print card and a downloadable ecard I wanted to simplify my artwork so that it will be bold and hopefully cheerful in both types of reproductions. Here's an image of the finished get well soon card… and a link for it.
On the inside of the card is my handwritten “get well soon" message.
Related to why I like to make greeting cards - (I think connecting with people relates to good mental health) - recently
asked me lots of questions about my artwork and how it relates to mental health. Very candidly I told all… and Kathryn did an excellent job putting it all together!
In the afternoons I've been working in my studio on a 3d wooden sculpture that I'm hand painting to resemble a cardboard box but with an elephant painting a mural on the outside of the box. More details are on my blog but here's a photo of it in progress…
… and here are some project related morning sketchbook pages in my small 3 x 5 inch book. As you can see in my sketchbook I've played with the kind of scaffolding the elephant is using as well as the elephant's stance. In the sketchbook page with “peace and love…” hand written on it I drew the elephant with all of the elephants weight on her left foot. In the other sketchbook page her weight is equally on both feet. That's the scaffolding and stance I ultimately chose.
Here's another sketchbook page from another breakfast time this week.
That page was inspired by the bees on the flowers in our garden. I took artistic license with the flower color in my sketchbook because I have a new tube of Cerulean Blue that I wanted to try.
I hope you have a relaxing and playful weekend! And if my newsletter brings a smile to your face, you can bring a smile to mine by upgrading to a paid subscription—but only if you’ve been meaning to and it’s in your budget. I’m so very thankful for all the love and support I’ve received here from *all* of my subscribers. Thank you! 💚
Now let's all go relax and play!
Your work is so gorgeous. My daughter, Bu, wants to go to school to pursue art as a career... she greatly enjoys your illustrations and sends her hello!
As always, there is so much here! I love your friend's observation that we will all die with books that we haven't read.