Welcome to my blog! My world of flying bunnies, illustration and contemporary fine art

Welcome to my blog! My world of flying bunnies,  illustration and contemporary fine art
Exploring Fine Art and Illustration while bunnies romp and fly

Sunday, April 29, 2012

New Illustrations, still debating Seaweederella or Swimerella



               Swimerella Rides to The Ball in my twist on Grimm's Fairy Tale, Cinderella. In my version, Cinderella is a mermaid, Swimerella or Seaweederella.
 
     Last weekend I had a fabulously inspiring time attending the Society of Children's Writer's and Illustrators Western Washington conference.
As part of the conference, I took a master illustrators intensive with Scott Magoon, Art Director, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and  Lucy Ruth Cummins, art director with Simon and Shuster. Both are also children's book illustrators.  The two directors really got across their excitement and love of children's books. Our assignment was to create an illustration from Grimm's Fairy Tales, with a twist. This was fun and also crazy to see all of the variations from my Seaweederella  to an adorable  fluff ball monster Little Red Riding hood, ( Ben Clanton)  and Robin's nutty Rapunzel with a beard.
Working with variations on fairy tales is a fun way to expand both  visual and literary ideas.
These drawings led to some new illustrations for my portfolio which are now on view at my website gallery. http://www.andreaklawson.com/gallery/illustrations/
I named my underwater Cinderella, Seaweederella, thinking that Cinderella was named for her proximity to the cinders and that Seaweederella  would be all covered in ocean muck and seaweed. I had a suggestion  to name her Swimerella and  think it has a nice sound to it.  For now, I won't say who the suggestion came  from as that might sway public opinion. I'll give the person credit if wanted,  later.

Monday, April 2, 2012

Frozen Plein Air on Marrowstone Island


Now that I have recovered from my broken ankle and am more mobile, I was determined to do some early morning landscape painting. My adventurous friend Beverly Michaelson joined me early one morning in February in what turned out to be 28 degree weather. We appeared by the side of the road looking like rotund elves topped with paint spattered smocks. Painting as fast as we could between sips of quickly cooling hot tea, we managed to capture some of the early morning light over Marrowstone Island's waterways. Here are some of our results. My smaller study and Beverly's landscape.