Christmas cards

AL and I teamed up to make some block print cards for the holidays. I've scanned a few of my favorites and posted them here. Tisco Tansi is the little scrawny cat, which I cut. Cardigan is the hulkier cat; Anna Lena cut him out. I added extra embelishments: line drawing, pencil, birds, etc.

My favorite is #5, which I did most of. Except the bird, which is an old cut that Anna Lena made - a whimsical style that I cannot duplicate.

Each one is unique unto itself, which is something I love about home made block cuts anyway - even though they're the same shape, little artifacts creep into them. Industrial, yet, crafted.

Of course we're still making them (I think we're up to 50), and of course have only mailed out a few. Somehow it is easier to make cards than it is to write notes/letters and mail them. But we're nearing the end, so...hopefully no more procrastination.

Illustration class homework finished!

Late by a few months, but I took my free morning to finish the last of three drawings I did for an illustration class I took at the Durham Arts Council.

This particular assignment had been something of a brainstorming excersize: given a couple photocopies of a famous portrait (and an accompanying one for context), put the girl in the portrait into different stories/storylines. But first, just try and draw her. Here's mine:

Between session I came up with about 6 concepts, and after trying to compose a final drawing from my concepts, I gave up and went with the easiest. That turned out well, so I eventually tackled two more...which in a way make a mini story arc of sorts:

Two: getting ready for the day.




One: freed from the confines of courtly life, as much as possible. This was the first one I did.




Three: hideout.