Illustration Friday: Poise!

poise

 
 /pɔɪz/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [poiz] noun, verb, poised, pois⋅ing.
this is the sixth definition of the word, as a noun, from Merriam Webster
6. the state or position of hovering: the poise of a bird in the air..........
or an unseen helicopter as it delivers a fantastical gigantic blue stove with optional copper samovar to a Bakery in a forest, staffed by bears........"the anticipation was palpable as the bears watched the poise of the helicopter as the stove swung from the ropes!!"

shhhhhhh .....mice are sleeping in that mitten

I am working on work I cannot show .....yet, so here is something I am also working on at the same time that I can.
I recently wrote about Pobble's Way, one of the picture books I'm working on and I have finally begun painting the art! This is definitely my absolutely Favorite part.

This is a little spot illustration......today while I am working on a full page illustration for the book, I am also working on the aforementioned currently unmentionable work.Back and forth, an hour here, 45 minutes on that, back again...an odd but curiously interesting way to work sometimes. Illustrator Cross Training?
It's cold and rainy and raw outside and I think I need to make some quickie Salsa Bolognese.
Back to work...

Illustration Friday: Legendary

Well, here is another Illustration Friday piece. The theme for this round was Legendary.
I feel just slightly guilty, contributing pieces created for other purposes....but if I didn't there's simply no way I could participate, so I this will simply have to do.
It feels sort of like going to a pot luck at someone's home and bringing something from the freezer, even if it's really yummy, from because there simply weren't enough hours in the day to whip up a timballo especially for the occasion, such as this Timballo di Riso alla Romana (thanks to Mario, one of my favorite chefs, Batali).
But, as usual, I digress.
Here is my contribution to Legendary, a painting from the picture-book I illustrated, The Baker's Dozen. This book is set in the area around New Amsterdam, the 17th Century Dutch Colonial settlement that eventually became New York. The town developed outside of Fort Amsterdam in the New Netherland Territory (1614–1674).......so, for inspiration and and reference on the fashions that people may have worn, seeing that were probably few shops or dressmakers early on and people would most likely still be wearing the clothing that they brought with them from back home in the Netherlands.......who better to turn to than the most legendary of Legendary Painters, the Master Himself, Rembrandt. My painting of the Old Woman was inspired by none other than Rembrandt's Mother. The Baker's Dozen takes place around 1650 and Rembrandt's painting was done in 1639. My most sincere thanks to Rembrandt for this...and so much else.

Rembrandt's Mother

The Old Woman

Awards & Appearances

In my continuing quest to "put myself out there" more, to get out of the studio more and actually see and talk with the lovely people that support my art.... it appears that our indefatigably helpful and cheeky Universe ( aka Supreme Being, minor god or goddess, Universal Life Force etc. ) who always conspires to give us a leg up or a well needed kick in the butt has joined in the fun and brought me, my last picture-book, two awards in the past two days!
The book Saturn For my Birthday, by John McGranaghan and published by Sylvan Dell Publishing
was a whole lot of fun to illustrate and I am hugely gratified that others seem to enjoy spending time reading it and looking at my pictures.
Thank you everyone , Universe , included!

The two awards are, in order of appearance, The Readers Views Second Place Award for Children's Fiction ages 6-8 and a Foreword Magazine 2008 Book of the Year Award Finalist in the Picture Book category.
Here are the cute and shiny gold stickers:


Moving right along now to Appearances.....
I will be making two....
the first one.....soon!....on Saturday, March 21 from 1-3 pm at Oil & Water. I will be chatting, showing my work, talking about technique and showing my work, both finished, in print, and in progress.
This is the blurb that Richard, the charming owner of this wonderful art supply store wrote about the event:

"The Life and Times of a Children's Book Illustrator with Wendy Edelson
Learn about the joys and challenges of working in the creative field of children's book illustration from this talented and beloved local artist. Regardless of your interest in an illustration career, this demonstration is not to be missed, if only to see some of Wendy's beautiful work! In addition to book illustration, she also does beautiful, fanciful pet portraits."

awww shucks, Richard, I am determined to do my very best to live up to these high expectations and be witty and interesting.

Appearance Number Two will be Sunday, May 16 at Eagle Harbor Books from 12 -1:00 pm.
I will be reading Saturn For My Birthday and showing some of the original art from the book.
This event will be part of the events scheduled to promote literacy in connection with Page Ahead Children's Literacy Program in celebration of National Children's Book Week, May 11 -17.
Both events will be in charming downtown Winslow, Washington, on Bainbridge Island.
okay, I think that 's that.......
next time, more art.

Illustration Friday - Intricate

Okay, I keep feeling like I should Get Out More, at least put my work out there more...even if I don't get very far from my studio for very long.....very often.
So this is the first time I am participating in Illustration Friday...something I've been meaning to do forever. This week's topic was "Intricate", and for me, this was as easy as falling off a log so I finally jumped in.
I hardly just whipped this up specifically for this though. The original watercolor is about 14 X 15 and took me about 2 weeks to paint.
It's entitled Naptime and is well, obviously, really intricate. If you look closely at the bedside lamp you can see that the horse has a horn made out of bubblegum.....I guess the horse wanted to fit in with all the rhinoceri and Ceratopsidae. (If you click on it you can see it larger)
I plan to make this, if not a regular habit, at least a frequent one.

Speaking of getting out more.....I will be doing a 2 hour art demo/talk on March 21 (Happy Spring!) at a local art supply store, Oil & Water and a booksigning in early May. Some artists are great at these things, me, I'm a bit nervous. More on these events in another post, soon.

Camera!!!

I am SO excited!!! I FINALLY have a little digital camera so I can join everyone else in the blogging world, sharing pictures of my pets...my fluffy, drop ear, tricolor Corgi, Baci, (seen here, having a little swim today!) ......scenery, culinary successes , gardens, clouds, beautiful or otherwise exemplary ephemera/stuff...whatever I cannot manage to fit underneath the lid of my scanner.
I can actually write about something other than finished artwork.......or work I cannot show.
So......here are a few pictures I took today on the first actually sort of warmish late morning so far this year.

Baci on the dock

Someone's hat and driftwood on the beach and wonderfully colored kayaks & a sneak peek at a picture book illustration midway...shhhh, does this count?


Now, back to work.