Art Supplies

Usually I don't use watercolors... but I did for this new book project. I splurged at the art store... down at Daniel Smith's in Seattle.

There was this box of great looking paints... at a big discount. So I succumbed to temptation. I was amazed by all the granulation in the paints in the samples they had in the store. But in real life, I'm finding it's hard to duplicate that same granularity.

I think it requires doing really, really washy washes... which simply is not possible when doing really small scale illustrations.

But they're still gorgeous... and the tubes are huge! I'll have a lifetime supply.

Still, any trip to the art supply store is usually fun... and the temptations sometimes prove difficult to overcome. Digital art is all very fine... but there's nothing quite like a trip to a real art supply store.

I'll have to show you pictures of my new chair next...

Art on a sunny saturday

I'm afraid that my blog is longing for insignificance... as if it were lacking such a thing.

The weekend... the weekend... the weekend.

Let's see. Start with a trip to the zoo... watching the elephant pull leaves off the branches over the fence. What fun!

As a child, my grandpa once lifted me up over the fence at the zoo to retrieve a colorful feather. I don't think there were any rhinos about at the time. That's the sort of memory one tends to cherish.

A coffee shop... and glorious sunshine! The music was deafening... the lines were long... the tables were jammed. The patrons sit for hours and hours. I don't know how they read with the music that loud. We were the last in and the first out... even though I tried to linger.

A trip to the museum of porcelain. Actually it's just a bath design showroom... but it's what one must resort to when the Metropolitan Museum of Art is out of reach. Essentially it's the same experience as admiring art I think. Everything is perfect. The porcelain and fixtures are immaculate... and unused... and don't even have real water. I'm thinking about remodeling the downstairs bath.

Such perfection resembles art on a sunny saturday.

Oh... and my feline's perfect sense of oblivion. I cannot compete with this sort of languor. This feline has mastered the art-form far above my skill level.

A real book...

Yes... the waiting is nearly over. My long awaited picturebook has finally arrived... at least the advance copy has. It's always like magic to finally hold that real book.

After all the imagining... it really does arrive. Unexpected.. unannounced... but not for long.

The FedEx package appeared on the porch. I knew this had to be it. Of course one is afraid to open such a package after all the years of expectation. Bravely, I went ahead and opened the package. Gladly, I was not disappointed.

And so soon, we hope, the world might take a little notice of my new book, 'Cromwell Dixon's Sky-Cycle'. Due out in May.

I read on a Putnam PDF that authors are supposed to blog about 3 times a month about their book. So you'll be hearing more about this all from moi.

The Return of the Swans

A true rarity, the swans have returned to Lake Washington. This is the first time I've ever seen them here, but I hear from birders of yore that they used to always come here. It's easy to see how they're associated with ballet. They move in elegant gliding motions, always in a group... just like ballet dancers.

A meeting of the 'Tails-Up Club'. Very amusing. I have yet to see a swan that is not in the water. And they seem very skittish... never getting closer than 100 yards.

It was a sight to see them all taking off fleeing an eagle overhead.