Not a studio picture, but an important picture nonetheless. This is an illustration from my all-time favourite book when I was but a wee thing. It's called "Old Witch and the Polka-Dotted Ribbon" by Harry and Wende Devlin and it took me forever to find it. I finally did two months ago and bought it from Ex Libris. One of the best purchases I ever made and o... I can't tell you how rich it makes me feel. Something about it occupied me completely and lived in my imagination for over thirty years, sharp and vivid. It's not quite exactly how I remembered it... there's not quite as much detail as I seemed to have assigned it thru the ages and parts of what I remember were likely from the first book (the Old Black Witch) which I don't own yet (but hope to someday soon). But I love, love, love it!
I love the way it's drawn most of all... loose and fluid and quick with texture... the dense cross hatching of Old Witch's dress... you can almost feel it scratching on your skin, the crisp petticoats rustling, the coarse, bristly strokes of her hair and those squat heeled, two button boots.. the brick, the broom, the latch on the door and the dovetailed details of the kitchen hutch drawers. And I love the colour too, the hot pinks and the autumny ochres, the lavendar swatches of sky. Lovely! That Harry Develin knew his stuff. And the other characters, so precise! They look like they could have been drawn by S.Britt.
And there's just something about squat, snarky little cake-stealing witches that appeals to me!
In other news: well...sigh. What's the deal people? I have not been feeling bloggity AT ALL lately!!! I sit down with the intention of writing... something... and nothing comes to mind. I just stare blankly.
Hmmm. Part of me thinks I need to take a break after 3 years of consistent (if completely inane) blogging. The other part of me knows that this is just all part of my evolution, the quiet before the storm. It's high time I got myself a proper website with a proper portfolio gallery and left Diaryland to the tweenies and the newbies and I'm itching ITCHING to make the move. But I just renewed my membership for another 3 months because, trust me on this one, it's going to take me that long to get myself organized.
and organized I need to get. I had that slow realization about a week ago when in a virtual discussion with some fabulous illustrator friends, I realized how lax I've beecome in the way I operate my business. Somehow, I've let go any pretense toward good business practice since we relocated to Ontario and let things slide that I really, really shouldn't. That's not good. That has to stop.
And I realized too that I haven't been evolving my career the way I want to. Somehow I lost track of the big picture. and I need to recapture that again, square my shoulders and get marching on track again.
But not today. Today is a holiday in Canada (Victoria Day) and I promised myself I would not work, that if I did anything at all, it would be for fun. And what's more fun that scanning pictures of Witches? The wolf will tell you it's a scamper through the park with a new tennis ball and the possibility of a roll in the grass or a good ole fashioned squirrel chase. Hmmm. Sounds good to me too. Happy Monday all!
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