First image

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Migration

I spent the afternoon learning how to combine photo images and line drawings.  I am almost happy with this first image, especially the rain at the bottom left.   I have now completed the line drawing for twenty two images.  Two or three more to go, depending on where the story goes.

Fun with the wizard

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The wizard experiment

 I am almost complete drawing the first set of illustrations for the story of Otto the grouse, but I am not happy with the way the images translate online.  I want to be able to publish both print and online copies of the book, alas, my very detailed pen drawings do not always pixelate as well as I would like them too.  Never mind.  This is the perfect opportunity to experiment with other media.  Ever since I spotted the cover of The Elegant Cockroach,  I have been curious about integrating photo-montage with hand-drawn pieces.  Here is my first pass.  I think I might add a window and a little girl (in my head so far) is sitting is that Louis XVI chair. How about some wood floors too?

This is like playing doll house with images! 
Not sure about adding shadows behind the characters.    Part of me likes the collage effect, part of me wants to make it look a bit more “real”.  I am also toying with adding color.  It will add to the cost of printing, but who can resist a touch of red now and then. What do you think?

Meet the hero

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Test for the ruffed grouse

There is it: the ruffed grouse, the book’s main character.  

This is the rough test I am working with in Adobe Illustrator.  I’m just learning the software and so far, I can scan my original, rasterize it, resize, center on the page and insert text.  Not bad for a test.
 
As it turns out, my ruffed grouse doesn’t look as ruffed as the real thing.  Its neck is longer and the feathers on its head much more fanciful than the ones I’ve seen in pictures on the net.  Then again, Mickey hardly looks like a mouse and he’s plenty famous.
 
I didn’t like the pictures of actual ruffed grouses on google: chubby little brown things in the same quarter-facing poses.  I believe most of them were shot and mounted by members of the Ruffed Grouse Society whose sole interest seems to kill every ruffed grouse it can aim its guns at.  Oh, the dangerous life of a migrating bird, especially the slowest one!

The flight speed of game birds

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The flight speed of game birds

The flight speed of game birds

Here is the inspiration for my latest book. 

 A trashcan.  A brown one.  With a chart titled “the flight speed of game birds in miles per hour”.

My boyfriend claims he’s had the trashcan since his high-school days when the flight speed of game birds was more important to him than the periodic table.
 
 I didn’t even know anybody cared to record the flight speed of birds until I lowered my sight long enough to eventually stare at the trash can to read what was on it. 
Charts tell a whole lot.
 
It so happens that the fastest game bird is the canvas back (80 mph).  The slowest is the ruffed grouse (20 mph).
Ruffed.
What does it mean to call a grouse “ruffed”? 
Does it ruffle its feathers in a gruff sort of way?
And isn’t a grouse some kind of small roundish bird no one wants to eat?
How would it feel to be immortalized as the slowest game bird, the looser, on a chart printed on millions of mass-produced metal trash cans?
Would a ruffed grouse ever get a chance to prove itself worthy?  And worthy of what? 
Oh,  the story of the ruffed grouse! I could feel it simmer and bubble up in my synapses.