what have I been up to?

sketchesI have been trying my hand at illustration.

Its exciting.

I am so inspired by kids books these days. Particularly by vintage books. I cant hold it in, I had to give it a whirl. Though, I truly appreciate the skill that illustrators have, and feel rather daunted by the task. Its one thing to make a painting of one image that you have in your head, that can take its own life and form. Its another thing to make a series of images that work with a story, that work together,  and are rich and exciting.

Not to intimidate myself or anything…

So I wrote out a little story from the history of the Bahai faith. Belonging to a relatively new religion means that there are fewer books for kids, and its so lovely to have these stories for them. The story is about a puppet show.

The process of drafting the images and figuring out what to put in each of them took months, and covered my studio space with sketches. It is a bigger task than I expected. I thought I could just whip up a picture for each, but sitting at the drawing board I would draw a blank, and realize I have no idea what a Persian puppet might look like, or a tent in a courtyard.

Anyways, its been fun, and now I have twelve illustrations to show you…

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