(Inside A Black Apple)

Watercoloring

I have been using watercolors lately and I really love them. They are so different from my usual paints, which are all building and layers and varnishes. Silk chiffon vs. wool.

I was wishing for something a bit lighter & airier to work on a few different things I've got percolating. One thing I'm using them for is to make pictures for a new story I'm writing (like the one above).

This will soon be a black mushroom cavern, all inky and dark, but I liked it white & bright as it is, too.

I'm in the midst of lots of behind-the-scenes work right now.
Lots of it is bookish: I'm writing of an expanded novel from a favorite fairy tale, making sketches for my next picture book, but my mind and sketchbook are also filling up with a few series of new pictures.

I will, of course, share dispatches!
Happy Spring!

Blanche & Cora

One of the most unusual old children's book's I've brought home lately: a nineteenth century chromolithographed book about two girls in florida, a bow & arrow, and a snake. I love the image on the cover so much (and the pamphlet-style book is quite brittle and delicate) so I think I'll probably frame it to keep me company here in my studio.

There is nothing quite like the colors they achieved when printing chromolithographs. There's an irrepressible brightness in the colors and a softness in the shadows...it's hard to define, really. I only know that they're some of my favorite, favorite illustrations and that boxes of postcards and game pieces and scrapbook bits printed this way make me go out of my mind a little.

Powell's Storytime Tomorrow

Dear Portland,

Tomorrow (Saturday, 3/8) I'm doing Powell's storytime (Downtown, 11 am). Bring me your wayward children or animals in clothes!

Endpapering

I'm working on the endpapers for my next picture book with the help of Dr. Ph. Martin's Golden Brown.

I've always loved all the little extra bits in books (endpapers, bookplates, secret covers under the jacket, etc.) and I extra-love making them for my own books.

Off to finish up these last little bits!