Erica - 2004-07-26 17:45:04
what a WONDERFUL illustration and story...I LOVE IT!

samantha - 2004-07-26 18:00:19
oooh Wee I luhved this story! I want to hear more about Aunt Tilly, pretty pretty PRETTY please? And the picture was amazing, you are soo talented. Yay for the wonderful whimisical Wee! and I hope Finny Jane feels better soon.

lizardek - 2004-07-26 20:45:12
You never cease to amaze me, Wee. That was WONDERFUL, both the picture and your story, but most of all your creative brain that comes up with this stuff that makes me boggle with love. You should take a look at these 2 livejournals: http://www.livejournal.com/~sepiapeople, and http://www.livejournal.com/community/sepiapeople2 And OH! I made your blogroll, and I'm THRILLED! :) :) wow!wowowow! *big shit-eating grin*

bluepoppy - 2004-07-27 09:04:33
Could you possibly be any more talented?!!! No--- it would not be humanly possible-- you delight and amaze me--- the chicken incident just KILLS me-- what goes on in that beautiful head of yours??

otter - 2004-07-27 11:30:32
O! O! O! *will check back in when I'm not speechless with awe* O!

wee - 2004-07-27 11:51:03
I must 'fess up about the chicken thing. This actually happened to my Mom when she was like eight or something. She was getting a ride home with her friend's older brother and he and his buddy decided to steal a chicken as a lark. They tossed the crazed, flapping thing into the back seat with my mom and her friend and it went snake (so to speak), and started beating them with its wings and pecking them and scratched them to bits. The whole event freaked my mom out so much, she was unable to talk for a couple of days. She still hates any chicken that is not lying on her plate.

wee - 2004-07-27 11:59:25
and just so you know, my mother most definitely DID NOT take a vow of silence afterward and bears very little resemblance to Tilly aside from the fowl-a-phobia or whatever a fear of chickens is called. Quite the contrary!!!

wee - 2004-07-27 12:15:35
still work?

samantha again - 2004-07-27 15:10:00
oooh I am luhving all of your blog pages, especially the new comments layout! wee, you are so amazing. I don't blame your mom for not talking for a couple of days. It was like chicken related post tramautic stress disorder.

rhya - 2004-07-28 09:38:16
wowsers, melanie you rock out. your illustrations are so thick and vivid...i love it. mmmm...mmm. r

sooner - 2004-07-29 14:11:42
Oh, Wee. I've been so very busy. But this afternoon I found a few minutes to visit Diaryland and I am so delighted by your current entry that I can barely sit up straight. May I tell you how much I've missed you? I know you've been here and it's been me missing and all, but that matters little in my estimation. Oh, Wee! Tilly is a dream.

Melinda - 2004-07-29 15:55:09
You really are an amazing mind and talent. As with my diary, it's hard to find words... Your story, more than you could possibly know, tells why my diary is as it is. My "readers" can only observe and connect with the image, or not; imagine the story behind it, or not. I never really know if a photograph has the same sort of impact on others as it does on me. In my diary I've made myself the photographer, in a way....hunched beneath the dark cloth, or bent and holding the old box camera, head down and faceless. Then, here you are telling the perfect story...of photographs and letters tied with ribbon, and of artists' renderings that remain to remind us of the life that would have otherwise been forgotten with time. Part of the sadness of these photographs is that they're no longer where they belong, and the stories behind them are lost. Tilly has won the distinction of having two lives, and I know she would thank you, if only she could!

Kate - 2004-07-30 11:02:04
Weellustrator, I cannot believe I missed this entry this week! Oh how I love that illo. I like the brown "sepia ink" lines (are those real, or computer generated?) and the glowy yellowness. Your style here is so unique. It's like a combination of old children's books and new technology, taking the best of both worlds. Brilliant! Oh, and the new comments page is dandy, I heart it.

wee - 2004-07-30 11:22:02
Aww, Thank you Kate (and everyone else too!) ... As to the process: the ink lines are "real" in the sense that they are part of a line drawing (in pencil) that I drew and then scanned in and the line and texture are original (though it fades somewhat in the layering process), but all the colour was added in Photoshop, layer by layer. I blur and distress each layer to give it authenticity and play with the opacity alot, hoping it doesn't appear to digital. Sometimes I use the burn tool to darken the lines of the original sketch. The handwriting in the background is mine (just scanned in) and the weathered frame around the image is adapted from a Vbrush brush. I just play until it feels right. I did the original much larger so that it could be reproduced in print at a reasonable size for my portfolio, and sized it down here so it wouldn't eat up too much storage space.

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