In the thrall of illustration. Just when I think I've got something, I go to sleep and have to redesign the entire thing...taking stuff out, adding stuff in, reworking curves, reworking scale...and it continues. However, the work is moving someplace, someplace resolved and refined. It's truly the tribute of a prod from Murray, my growing empowerment and frankly, hearing what random facebookers think of an image that has helped me. My initial explosion into illustration doing 10-12 solutions per topic...was really me doing a sketch process bigger than most. Setting em up, knocking em down, not seeing the need to revisit the design, rethink the curves, rethink the message. It reflected my need as a designer to get stuff done...done. No time to massage, or to have the patience to rework (and now, to some degree, that patience has to develop and design almost beccome as welcome as the lovliness of just making that inked drawing and seeing where the detail develops and grows--pushing negative and positive )
Now, I worry all of it...and in the case of the Octopus (which I like how stylish he is) he will be redrawn with another Octopus entwined. That's moving toward message of love versus a plunk inside of a plunk... (octopus inside of a heart, Dog inside of a sun shape etc.) Not only now, we have design, I also have a desire to have a bit more meaning than "look Ma! I can make pictures and people don't laugh at me". The needle is moving all the time...but the last two months have moved quite a bit. I do have until May for the paper to be written, so I figure I can write the paper and continue to develop the drawings until they need to be put into frames and hung on the wall.
Just took a load of trash to the corner along with recycling. Need to put a pork shoulder in the oven. (slow cook all day). Bought it from the Munson Road Amish folks who run a remarkable little store (they were pulling leeks out of the ground even frozen, last week). They sell their own freerange pork, beef, eggs, chicken. All beautiful and unlike going to the big guys around here, way competitive with the run of the milk meat and dairy.
I love our new President. Watching his "its not a State of the Union" State of the Union address was wonderful with all the pomp and circumstance combined with his lovely manner, his remarkable wife and all the hugging and love. If only we could get moving on this poor State--then we could start thinking bigger picture. But these details that this layer of money may help to rescue or renew, might be a paradigm shifter for some areas (like health care?)
The day awaits.
Image above is the starting point of a valentine that will have copy "My love is like a red red rose"--there will be a rosebud in the middle of the twined stems, some new leaves, and a few more details that need to be redrawn and stripped in. Behind the roses, there will be a lattice pattern dropped in. I think I will need to color this one...after all, the roses are red. Right?