Wednesday 25 September 2013

Together

When I saw this weeks topic, together  for Illustration Friday I immediately thought of this illustration that I did for Leola Kennedy's book There's a Reason . It is a lovely children's novel about a girl struggling with the limitations caused by her hearing impairment. Through various situations she comes to learn that she has value and that God has a plan for her life. This story takes place in northwestern Canada during WW2.
Leola asked me to do some little illustrations for her book. I found it to be a more difficult job than I anticipated but Leola was very patient and gave me a lot of encouragement.
Through working on this project I came to realize that illustrating children's books is something I would really like to pursue as a career.

Tuesday 3 September 2013

Lush

I went off on a different direction than I had started with this drawing. When I thought of Lush (the Illustration Friday topic) tropical plants were the first thing that came to mind. I I thought it would be cool to do a bunch of different tropical Hawaiian plants and maybe a butterfly.

I remembered that my grandparents had gone to Hawaii and that my grandpa had taken a lot of photos of flowers and plants when they were there. And all of the photos are in my basement. (Somehow most if my grandparents photo albums ended up in my possession).

Grandpa used to take a lot of photographs before he went blind. He made a whole album dedicated to flowers and another one of all birds. I think there is even one of frost on window panes.

Well the tropical plants were a little too confusing and difficult for me but a photograph of a Canadian tiger swallowtail butterfly on a lilac bush caught my eye. Grandpa actually took quite a few pictures if these beautiful butterflies. So I dedicate this illustration to the memory of my grandfather who had a great appreciation for beauty.