Picture Story: snow hootenanny

 "snow hootenanny" is another image that I created for the calendar. I actually began the original sketch in August whilst sitting at the Art Walk and biding my time. So, one would think that maybe it would have been finished as an illustration in a timely fashion... nah.

Like all the calendar graphics for this year - this one came right up to the deadline as well.

 

So, this is the original sketch.

 

And, as per the usual, I scanned the sketch, converted it to a blue page, printed that out, inked it, and scanned it back in to Photoshop and began editing it for fills...

 

 However, I was not enamored with my owl.  It was just too belabored and stiff and trying to be symmetrical... So, I printed out a light copy of my trees and sketched some new owls over top of that.  And then I scanned that sketch, edited it, and printed it out so that I could color it...

 

The thing that I remember most about coloring the owls is that I was watching "My Soul to Take." Yes, heh-heh, while I was coloring a family of owls for a whimsical owl illustration I was watching a horror movie.  It happens a lot, as that is my preferred genre of movies.

So, anyway, I colored my owls and scanned them, and cut the scan all during the span of that movie.

 

Now, I needed some trees. I suppose I could have just colored the bark by hand. But that isn't what I had in mind.  In the spring, summer, and fall, I go into town and wander around and take all manner of photos.  And as I've mentioned before, I photograph all sorts of things - not necessarily with the intent that those are glamorous photos that need to be printed out and hung on the wall - but because I can use the content to fill in some part of a future illustration.

So, the owls are sitting on sycamore branches via the magic of photoshop: layer rotation and the rubber stamp tool. Yes, this is what the file tends to look like when I'm creating a fill from a photo (or several photos).

 

overcast orchid rain

The picture needed a background. So, I selection one of my watercolor paintings, and added the digital scan as a layer.  This was one of the salt on watercolor / gouache paintings - so it has both the salt crystal effect and dabs of white gouache spattered across it. Overall, it looks kinda snowy, so it was perfect.

Anyway, I added it to the picture and then adjusted the color to something more bluish - because I wanted the picture to have a cool wintery tone.

The next step was to add snowflakes.  Now there are actually 2 separate layers of snowflakes in this picture.  The snowflakes at the top of the picture were derived from all the snowflakes I design for Christmas cards. In fact, the layer used in this picture came from the file that I make the snowstorm backgrounds.

Now, the snowflakes on the bottom of the picture — and yes, there is actually a layer of snowflakes super-imposed over the bottom half of the picture — came from a different source: Winterwood.

Yes, the picture I used as the graphic for February on the calendar 2 years ago, which, yes, is named after the Don McLean song — that I happen to be very fond of. Anyway - I made a layer of snowflakes for the bottom of that picture - and decided to use them in "snow hootenanny" too.

 

 

snow hootenanny

So, all those parts come together to make the whole: sketches, drawings, salt on watercolor painting, photo walks, scary movies, colored pencils, ink pens, and snowflakes...

snow pictorial

So, yeah, it snowed... again.

I tried to have a sense of humor about it, I suppose. But really, now I hate snow. I've had enough. I don't want to spend any more time shoveling the driveway or that part in front of the mail box... or an extra half an hour driving to work, and another extra half an hour driving home. I really just want it to stop.

In the mean time, I suppose, I have hot chocolate and animal crackers. But really, I'm just ready for spring. (as recent additions to my "sarahknight" etsy shop can attest)

••∞•∞•∞••

Oh, but on a non-snow related note: I now have a Tumblr
You can find me at: http://sunshinesight.tumblr.com/

I'm still a technophobe, so honestly, I'm not quite sure what exactly the point of tumblr is. It seems like a middle point between twitter and a blog. Still, don't expect to find any nude photos there or anything.

••∞•∞•∞••

On an optimistic note:

• new episode of "Supernatural" this week (a + that it wasn't pre-empted)
• FX reruns "Archer" at 11pm on Saturdays - so I can actually watch it
• my socks are all folded (so now I don't have to pick through the pile to find 2 that match)
• Brett Dennen has a catchy new song which I keep getting stuck in my head.
• Found Zachary mellowcreme "valentine mix" when I was browsing the Holiday candy aisle - yum

hibernation

I was never a child who liked to take naps. When I was too young for school and was at home with my Mother, she used to try to sneak in a daily nap. Translation, as a 3 year old I was like "Sleep during the day? What, you mean peak playing hours? What about my dolls?" So, basically, as I recall these events I would lay down and wait for the sound of my mother's door closing, and then I would get up and play 'quietly.' This sleeping in the middle of the day thing never made sense to me... it still doesn't.

And yet, it's January. January isn't so much a time for napping as it is a time for 'hibernating.' I don't mean I go into my bedroom and sleep for a month, I just mean January is the month when I'm just tired.

It snows here in Michigan. And what that actually means is that it takes me an additional 20 to 30 minutes to drive to and from work, plus 5 minutes of scraping my car, plus me driving in my car with frozen fingers waiting for the 2 mile point when the heat might finally come up. In other words, a 35 minute drive just turned into an hour... cold weather = giant time suck.

I hate being cold. It just makes me cranky and tired (not unlike napping — which never made me feel refreshed, it just made me cranky; my brain chemicals don't like to be tricked with the prospect of sleep (8 hours) only to be pranked into wakefulness after an hour). Napping never worked for me, and I just find cold weather to be unbelievably irritable.

Anyway, one morning last week while I was watching CSI reruns on Spike tv, I did manage to crank out 15 new paintings. Which, of course, meant that I spent a day waiting for them to dry, spent a good hour 'naming' them, and then spent a morning & a half scanning them into the computer and saving them in 3 file formats after color correcting the scans. And then I varnished the paintings (another morning). And then I gessoed the backs to counteract warping (another morning). And then I printed out info sheets (artist, title, media, date) for the back. And then I remembered to stop at Walmart on my way home from work because I couldn't find a freaking glue stick, and then last night I glued the backs on all the paintings...

Considering how relatively quickly I can paint them, the process-y stuff after the painting part is enormously time consuming. Anyway, painting — or moreover: playing with color — makes me happy. So, I suppose that's my counter-January measure: colorful paintings.

I like color — as can be evidenced from the photo I took for the entry. My bedroom is actually lemon yellow, and those are, in fact, my sheets (300 thread count, from Target). I actually have 2 of my larger paintings hanging on the wall, one it very magenta-y and the other is peachy toned. Most of the 15 paintings I made last week were orange (except for the 2 blue ones). Apparently I was in an 'orange' mood, whatever that means.
Anyway, "astral orange sunshine" is one of the new ones, you can see it here.

Ironically, I seem to have contracted a cold: sore throat, cough, runny nose, weepy left eye... So, this morning I'll be going to the drugstore to acquire some more kleenex and stand in the pharmacy aisle for 20 minutes reading cough syrup boxes... and then buying some orange juice.

So, go have a big tall glass of vitamin C for me & take a nice long nap, maybe 8 hours?
; )

snow...

Oh, snow.
Which quickly turns into "ugh, snow."

The first time it snows, and it isn't that powdery stuff that comes with frigid temperatures, it's kind of pretty. In a different time, under different circumstances, I might find snow delightful... but I don't.

It was fun & wonderful for a while when it was falling from the sky like a scene from a Christmas card... and that's when I took these shots.

As you can see, it was still very wet. And I was at home. Hence the relative mundanity of spruces and the apple tree covered with lichen covered with snow.

But then it snowed all day, and I had to drive to work in the snow, and it was really apparent that no one bothered to plow anything (proficiently). And then I drove home from work. Let's just say that US 12 was a sheet of ice and we were doing an average of 30MPH (on the 'country highway' part), crawling around each of the 6 curves, avoiding that tree that toppled into the road, and watching the traffic in the other direction come to a complete stop on the highway (not for an accident, but for an ice covered curve).

Snow is fun & pretty if you don't have to drive in it in an area where the road commission didn't bother to take care of the roads.

If it all melted, that'd be great.
I'm enjoying a cup of dark hot chocolate as I type this and thinking about how tired I am of spending twice the amount of time to make one trip to work. Of course, this is just the first day.

Ugh, snow.

If you have warm snow-free weather wherever you are (and it isn't like monsoon season) then relish in your good fortune and easy travels.