Bird Brains Left Side of Spread (See The Next Page Below)

This is my spread for a round robin book. The theme of this book was "Ravens". The scan does not do the actual color justice, but it is pretty bright in person. The purple words really stand out on the black background, which is why I left the original black for it. Normally I would have torn up paper to collage for the background, but I really liked how the white popped against the black.

I cannot remember where I found the funny men graphic....but I remember instantly liking the image! It felt a little like deja vu and I could have sworn I had seen it before. And I was right. This image was used by Kelly (who it will travel to next to be worked in ironically!) in an amazing composition!! Once I realised that I almost didn't use it -- I didn't want her to feel I was copying her! But I just love the image so much and was so taken with her own use of it, that I had to use it! So thank you Kelly for the inspiration!

All images were printed onto either card stock or matte photo paper. The words were printed as well. All the other colors were added with watercolor pencils. This was my first use of these type of pencils and I just LOVE them! I have the small set of 12 colors, but will certainly ask my hubby to start saving for the BIG set as I am hooked! They are amazing...you color the section you want just like with normal colored pencils. But then you take a wet paint brush and swipe it over. Instantly it makes your coloring seem like it was watercolored. Next I want to try watercolor crayons, as I hear they are just as wonderful to use!

Bird Brains Right Side of Spread

The quote is: "If men had wings and bore black feathers, few of them would be clever enough to be ravens". The actual quote from Henry Ward Beecher was not "ravens", but "crows", but I switched it for this spread.

It was an honor to have worked in this book for Mija, my dear Oregonian Art Friend & Santa Cruz Soul Sister! I must confess that I felt a little intimidated when it showed up as all the previous work is just amazingly beautiful! I took a long time working out what I wanted to do on "test papers" and couldn't find the right fit. Knowing that my personally set deadline to get it in the mail by the end of the year was quickly approaching, I sat down and worked it out. I had the images of the feathers, the large crow, the silly men and the quote but had no idea how I was going to put it together. I opened the book to the blank black spread and stared at it for about 15 minutes. Once I started moving the pieces around, it started to evolve. Then I really got into it and had to force myself to stop and sleep. I picked it up again today and finished it off. As is true with most of my work, it seems to just evolve into something. My compositions never turn out to be what I had in mind in the first place. I know some artists "see the finished canvas" before they start, but somehow that has never worked with me! I usually start with one image or a piece of paper or a quote or word and go from there.

The name "henry ward beecher" was put into the flying bird at the top left at first. Then I wondered, at about 9:00 pm tonight where this quote came from (what text). When I googled I found that it came from a piece called "bird brains" and voila! I knew it had to be put into the bird instead. I really like how it all came to ballance once I moved his name and added the title. With that, I was done!

Tomorrow this book starts its journey to Kelly in Southern California, where she will most certainly create a real masterpiece for it! It feels right somehow that it is going to "little bird" now! I cannot wait to see how it evolves...