Wednesday, August 20, 2008

More Traveling Sketchbook


"The Pearl"

This is my contribution to Katie's traveling sketchbook. I'm a bit late in posting this, it's been sent off to Australia and I'm in the midst of working on Dinah's now. If you double click on the image, it becomes actual size. Katie, an artist who works with stained and fused glass, painted a vibrant, geometric, abstract design on hers and added stamping and string. I'm kicking myself for not taking a picture but you can see it here.

My youngest daughter enthusiastically posed for me for this illustration. I'm working on another illustration with my older, 8 year old daughter, but she keeps trying to negotiate some form of payment, "A dollar a minute mom, so for every 5 minutes I pose, you give me 5 bucks okay?" The big payout of course, didn't happen, but I admire her audacity. She has all the makings of a lawyer or politician (god forbid).

8 comments:

Melody said...

Ellen, I absolutely love this work. Awesome!......do people still say that?

patricia said...

Breathtakingly beautiful. And awesome, too!!

I am really drawn to this style of yours. Would really, really like to own an original...are you doing a whole series like this with the ravens?

dinahmow said...

Kraaa-a-a-k!laa-kaa-kaa-kraak!
Said the bird, approvingly.

Ellen said...

Melody: thanks!, and I hope so, I use it all the time, but I'm hopelessly uncool.

Patricia: Thanks so much and yes, I'm working on a lot of related pieces that will be for sale soon. There's a new daily illustration blog, new Etsy store an a gallery group show coming up, which I'll put be posting about, just as soon as it's all ready.

Dinah: thanks and more crows coming, (and I do hope no one in this book exchange has a loathing or phobia of them!)

patricia said...

Thanks, Ellen. Can't wait.

And oops! I should have said crows instead of ravens. But what do I know about birds here in Toronto? Even though our lame baseball team is called the Toronto Blue Jays, I think I saw a blue jay once this summer.

Caroline said...

What a great illustration!

This week on BBC's Radio 4 their book of the week is Corvus.

You might like to attempt to listen to it via the web - I heard yesterday's and today's about a rook that became a pet.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/book_week.shtml

Katiejane said...

Love this picture! I can't wait to see it in person. Your children are beautiful and I feel honored that you included them in my book.
Thank you for the plug.
I got another book today, but in case you are getting bombarded I will wait a while before sending it along.

Ellen said...

Caroline: thanks for the link! I so wish it could be saved and burned onto disk so I listen to it driving. (I was interrupted about 5 times trying to listen to it on the computer.)

Katie: no, it's okay, send it off when you're finished with it. My kids will be back at school soon, so I'll have more time (can... hardly... wait...)