creative process

Fine art, books and similarities between art and writing

A Creative Life, art exhibit, art gallery, art techniques, artist book, artistic inspirations, author illustrator, dog portrait, fine art, household surrealism, life of the mind, mental health, miniature art, Odditerrarium, visual thinking, words and pictures, writing and illustrating

More work this week towards an upcoming art exhibit I’m calling “Odditerrarium”. I’ll tell more about my creative process on this exhibit here and in subsequent posts. Odditerrarium will be an exhibit via Caplan Art Designs later this year.

This week I finished a dog portrait I’ve titled “Secret Knowledge”. It’s 10 x 8 inches and made with ink and gouache on board.

Here’s a closer look at this dog’s thoughts – according to the dog’s human this dog likes walks and is passionately interested in moles, chipmunks, mice and frogs.

Elsewhere in this blog (here) I’ve written about the similarities I see between the creative process of writing and the creative process of fine art. Like a writer might begin creating a novel by noting a story idea nugget in a notebook I began this Odditerrarium series with the nugget “what if we could see what our dogs and cats thoughts?” – just this nugget of a thesis and little else. But I began there and with exploration of that notion came the notions of thought bubbles and terrariums… and I began drafting in my sketchbook. Here’s some examples.

After a number of sketchbook drafts I began a few full size paintings – generally I do at least 5 paintings before I declare that I’m working on a series or give the series a working title. This is like a writer deciding to write a few chapters to see if their idea has merit – by creating an overview or even a rough draft of the whole work.

I think of my one person art exhibits as books you can walk around inside. And each painting is a “chapter” within the book. Each chapter/painting begins with it’s own notion, an outline or rough indication of what could be. Things at this point are usually vague. For “Secret Knowledge” thanks to my friend (the excellent author Liz Gauffreau) I had a photo of the dog I wanted to portray and the dogs thoughts also thanks to our conversation. Then I spent time thinking and making sketchbook notes. Then I drew on a board. As you can see I work on several paintings at the same time – this too is like a writer writing though the gaps in one chapter by writing on a different segment within the work.

When I have a rough drawing on board I begin what I call “chunking” trying to get a bit of color on every area in the artwork. The colors don’t have to be perfect – it’s a rough indicator subject to adjustment based on other colors. I don’t worry about details at this stage just rough shapes of color and contrast. Like how a writer writes a whole story imperfectly, all in a rush with “detail to come” notes sprinkled throughout the tale.

In the photo below I’m in the chunking process. I know I want a blue background for the portrait of the white dog but at this point I’m not sure of the precise shade of blue. The other colors within that portrait will help me determine that. Like when a writer decides a character’s course of action based on another character’s choices.

When the chunking is more or less done I begin bit by bit to fill in and flesh out areas. Here’s an example- I’m sure you can see the transition happening from chunky to smoother.

The photo at the beginning of this post is of the finished portrait which I titled “Secret Knowledge”… the blue I ultimately chose is of early morning or late evening sky: a time for walks and a time when small mammals might be more active… something of which this dog certainly has knowledge! 😉

For my art exhibit Odditerrarium I’m thinking about mental lives and encounters with the minds of other humans and other beings in this world. Here’s a few of my favorite sketchbook pages on this topic. To help me keep on task, so to speak, for my Odditerrarium series I will continue to read, write and sketch on this topic of self awareness and encounters with other minds.

In psychology this called a developing a theory of mind …and this link explains it well and I quote “Forging a strong theory of mind plays an important role in our social worlds as we work to understand how people think, to predict their behavior, to engage in social relationships, and to solve interpersonal conflicts… Forming a theory of mind is critical in our ability to understand ourselves and others. This ability to understand mental states allows people to introspect and consider their own thoughts and mental states. Such self-awareness is important in the formation of a strong sense of self. Our social functioning also hinges on having a theory of mind. By being able to think about what other people are thinking, we can better understand others and predict what they might do next.”

Anyway, when paintings on the easel need to dry a bit I’ve been playing with my poetry sketchbook.

Inside my poetry book is a notion of a new experimental art book for Storyberries. In the photo you see my notions in my book and on the right side I’m beginning to work on my notions in a tiny concertina format book.

A cat reaching is my main notion that’s getting played with in two different ways in this photo for two different books.

I’ll keep you posted on whatever happens with these newbies.

The Aurora Gallery contacted me wanting more of my cards and books so I took those to them this week!

It did my artist heart good to see my things displayed by the Gallery so well and to know that my work is appreciated! The Aurora Gallery ships my art, cards and books anywhere and my signed green dragon book plates are available on request.

This week in kitchen creativity I made spinach enchiladas inspired by “Mrs Rasmussen’s Book Of One Armed Cookery” by Mary Lasswell. I used both arms to cook with and didn’t have a beer. I’d probably get demerits for that from Mrs Rasmussen as I can imagine her saying “What?! No beer?!” but the chili onion gravy was divinely scrumptious over spinach enchiladas and beans and rice!

I say I was “inspired by” Mrs Rasmussen’s recipe because I ruthlessly adapted this recipe as I was only cooking for two people and as you can see below Mrs R was cooking for the entire tricounty area. Plus I don’t use lard…

To make my chili onion gravy I used my good gravy recipe but instead of sausage I used a small can of roasted chilies and some chopped white onion.

In one serving size oven safe boats I made one spinach enchilada for each of us and surrounded the enchilada with beans, rice then ladled the gravy over it all and topped it with cheese. Turned out so good!! I did have gravy leftover which I used for another meal.

My evening reading loosely related to the topic of encounters with and awareness of other minds is the last book in the trilogy “His Dark Materials” by Philip Pullman and Pullman’s nonfiction book “Daemon Voices” about stories and storytelling.

Hope your week is a good one! See you next Monday?

This Rabbit likes good eggs

A Creative Life, Alphapets, Alphapets Too, animals in art, art exhibit, art gallery, Art Word Combinations, artist book, artistic inspirations, author illustrator, books, creative thinking, fine art, greeting cards, humor in art, illustration, life of the mind, mental health, Numpurrs, printed books, publications - publishing, rabbits in art, Sustainable creativity, This Rabbit, whimsical art, words and pictures, writing, writing and illustrating

This Rabbit, my newest children’s book, is now a free ebook and audiobook on Storyberries.com! How fun is that? Click here to both see the book and/or listen to it read aloud! Basically This Rabbit is now officially available worldwide! Wahoo!

The Aurora Gallery also now has my signed books – This Rabbit being one title – along with a number of the original illustrations from the books framed and on the Gallery walls!

For example the Numpurrs book and some of the artworks in that book are there at the Aurora Gallery too.

Also framed are a few of the original illustrations for This Rabbit….and for Alphapets and Alphapets Too. (More about each of these books in my portfolio)

Since rabbits can deliver more than just treats for kids this time of year in addition to making lots of rabbits for a children’s book I’ve also made a collection of my rabbits available on my Zazzle shop. These are intended as fun gifts for grownups; greeting cards, jigsaw puzzles and coffee mugs. (The photos below are a small sample of what’s available on my shop.)

A note card: https://www.zazzle.com/my_heart_is_with_you_note_card-256344942961836795
Jigsaw puzzle: https://www.zazzle.com/rabbit_sax_jigsaw_puzzle-116637967822588564
Mug: https://www.zazzle.com/hares_to_hot_beverages_and_comforts_mug-168629126897898357

Since we’re nearing Easter naturally my thoughts turn from rabbits to eggs. This week I tried, in the name of I’m-to-busy-to-cook, a sheet pan breakfast with eggs, bacon, green bell peppers and sweet potato chunks. It worked reasonably well … one set of eggs got a little more firm than I like but everything – including the eggs – were quite enjoyably edible. And enjoyably edible counts!

This week I rearranged the most important bookshelf in my house: the one in the bathroom. It seems that the average person spends 1 hour and 42 minutes per week in the bathroom. Or to put it another way during an average lifetime we will spend at least 92 full days in the john. Might as well use that time for some encouraging reading. Here below is a photo of my bathroom bookshelf. The purple ceramic thing serves as a bookend as well as holding the extra roll of TP.

For the same reason I have inspiring books in my bathroom – notice all the books by Austin Kleon! – I also like having good artwork there too. Keeping good books and art where they’re viewed often is a way to keep my own creativity sustainable. The framed art you see in this photo is by another Pacific Northwest artist named Jill Mayberg https://jillmayberg.com/ I like the colors and textures in Jill’s work.

We’re here, so we might as well get comfortable. Reading books about writing and creativity are where we learn about, and practice, being human. I’ve written elsewhere in this blog (see links here and here) about the similarities I see between the creative acts of writing and making fine art. Verbal storytelling, writing, drawing and reading are such quintessentially human activities. Are we completely human if we don’t do those things?

These thoughts are why I find it such fun to depict animals reading books and doing other typically human behaviors – it’s my way of pondering what in means to be fully human.

Btw: there are more animals besides rabbits running around in my brain now. The new critters are getting comfortable too. As I wrote in my last post I’ve been thinking about human development and about dealing with feelings. I’ve also been thinking about Jane Austen and her descriptions of emotions within her novels.

Anyway, I’ll keep thinking and drawing… Share more with you next Monday? Oh, and Happy Easter, aka Rabbit-delivers-fun-things-day, in advance. [Thanks again Kris and Nan for this stuffed rabbit!]

This rabbit likes books and breakfast

A Creative Life, animals in art, art techniques, Art Word Combinations, artist book, artistic inspirations, author illustrator, book design and layout, books, home hare care, illustration, mental health, poetry, printed books, publications - publishing, published art, rabbits in art, story, This Rabbit, visual story, visual thinking, whimsical art, words and pictures, writing, writing and illustrating

My newest artist book for children “This Rabbit” is rolling out! It’s a whimsical look at self-awareness with lots of different rabbits liking a variety of things. As I mentioned in my last post “This Rabbit” shares a cover design similarity with some of my other artist books that also have a bunch of different characters exploring a life concept. In the photo below you can see the covers for my series of books.

Here’s a closer look at the hardcover version of “This Rabbit“

https://www.blurb.com/b/10612530-this-rabbit

And here’s a look at the page design. I made the artwork large so that it mostly fills each page with a small space at the bottom for the poem lines.

More of the inside of “This Rabbit” can be seen on my portfolio page here or as a preview on the page where the book can be ordered here

Book signing during a pandemic is a challenge. I’m solving that in a few ways and one of those is by placing a few signed books at the Aurora Gallery. Some of the original artwork for many of my books is there too. In the photo below is an assortment of books signed and destined for the Aurora Gallery. https://auroragalleryonline.com/

And while I waited this week for my copies of “This Rabbit” to arrive from the printer I worked in my sketchbook and over short bursts of time towards a new painting using all of my recent rabbit research. This painting is one of several that will be in new art exhibits later this year.

While working this week I was thinking about human development. In addition to learning what you like as one lives you also learn and practice attention to your feelings. With that in mind I’ve been thinking of what Dr Bob says in the book I illustrated some time ago…”feelings are guides not gods to be obeyed“. For example we’ve all done things like cleaning up yucky messes even when we didn’t feel like doing it at the time – but once it was done we were glad it had been done. So we’re capable of using our executive brain to decide when to listen to our feelings and when to go ahead and do something despite our feelings.

In the picture above is my breakfast: overnight oats (made in a small wide mouth mason jar) along with coffee. And here’s a recipe article link about this quick-easy meal. I like quick-easy breakfasts so I can spend more time in the morning drinking coffee, reading and sketching.

In the photo below I’m working (after breakfast) on a new painting. There’s a collage bit in it from the falling apart copy of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice that I’d talked about in another post.

Here below is what the new painting became: “Attention To The Feelings” – 12 x 9 – acrylic and collage on board.

“Attention To The Feelings” – by Clancy – 12 x 9 inches – acrylic and collage on board

One of my favorite authors who write about sketching and creative efforts is Danny Gregory. Here’s what he wrote about dealing with feelings in his book “Art Before Breakfast” :

This is inner-voice phenomen is true for any creative effort. Including trying a new recipe for breakfast.

So please be gentle with yourself and the other people in your life this week. We’re all just muddling though trying to remember what we like, trying to pay attention to our feelings – but not too much attention – and trying to regularly eat a good meal.

See you here next Monday? Hope so…

This Rabbit likes Irish Coffee

A Creative Life, Alphapets, Alphapets Too, art techniques, Art Word Combinations, author illustrator, book design and layout, books, graphic design, illustrated poem, illustration, Numpurrs, poetry, printed books, publications - publishing, published art, rabbits in art, This Rabbit, visual story, whimsical art, words and pictures, writing and illustrating

My newest children’s book “This Rabbit” is about noticing what you like. For the book description I write “This rabbit likes one thing. This rabbit likes another thing. So many things to like and do! Which do you like to do?”

The act of noticing what you like sounds deceptively simple but it’s easy to be swept along in a tide of what’s popular, trendy or what people tell you that you “should” like. It’s easy to forget what you-yourself really really like.

For our entire lives it’s helpful to practice being aware of our inner self and our preferences as they change over time.

Anyway, here’s a few poem lines and illustrations from “This Rabbit”

This rabbit likes doing hair

This rabbit likes the outdoor air

Here’s a look at those same illustrations in the digital book layout I’ve designed in prep for making both print and ebook formats. As I mentioned in my last post I’m making these illustrations large in each page with a small space for the poem line running along the bottom of the page.

Below is a look at the cover art. The cover layout is similar to some of the other books I’ve done: Alphapets, Alphapets Too and Numpurrs. I did this cover design similarity on purpose because I’m working on a series of artworks and books that play with concepts using a variety of characters. This cover layout allows me to show many of the different characters right on the book covers. The cover similarities emphasize that each individual book is an art series collected on a topic that exists within a larger series of artist books.

By now the book “This Rabbit” is finished and will be released world wide on Storyberries Mar 29. I will continue to tease out the book a bit on my social media till then. But for my followers here’s the advance link to the finished printed book: https://www.blurb.com/b/10612530-this-rabbit Yes, you could get a copy of this book early, in time for Easter! (On average it takes 7 to 11 business days after placing your order to get a book)

Copies available via this link: https://www.blurb.com/b/10612530-this-rabbit

Before the digital files could be made I began “This Rabbit” by creating a series of ink and gouache artworks depicting rabbits enjoying activities. Then I wrote a poem on a legal pad with a fountain pen – prior blog posts here and here tell more of my working process. Anyway here’s a look at my legal pad scribbling and the illustrations. I like to emphasize the non-digital parts of my book creations – the digital reproduction, in print/ebook formats, are simply an allowance for kids messy fingers – the book is still intended as a work of fine art and of love.

On to other non-rabbit thoughts: Saint Patrick’s Day is coming up and we can celebrate the holiday and also drink to celebrate my new book “This Rabbit” – so here’s a recipe for an Irish drink I really like perhaps you will like it too? No matter what you’re drinking – “Sláinte!” 

A page from my kitchen sketchbook Favorites So Far – https://www.blurb.com/b/9759759-favorites-so-far

Saint Patrick’s Day is one of my favorite holidays so my evening lounging-about-before-going-to-bed reading is an anthology of Irish writers mystery stories. The book title is “Murder Most Irish” edited by Ed Gorman, Larry Segriff and Martin H. Greenberg. Some of the stories are so enchanting that I’ve looked up almost surprised to find that I’m not in Ireland following behind a sleuth on a cold rainy night but sitting in my warm living room instead. The book pairs well with Irish Coffee….or peppermint tea.

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day in advance and thank you for following my progress on “This Rabbit”! See you next Monday?

This Rabbit likes extra drawings

A Creative Life, animals in art, art techniques, Art Word Combinations, artist book, artistic inspirations, author illustrator, book design and layout, books, creative thinking, graphic design, handmade books, illustrated poem, illustration, poetry, publications - publishing, rabbits in art, This Rabbit, visual story, visual thinking, whimsical art, words and pictures, writing and illustrating

When I was a kid I wanted drawings on every page of a picture book. For “This Rabbit”, my newest artist book for kids, I’m doing extra drawings, with simple lines like this drawing below, for the book info pages.

And here is the drawing placed in the software so it will print on the books title page.

Here’s the drawing I did for the book dedication page.

Here it is placed so that the rabbit’s heart shaped balloon floats up towards the dedication text.

In my last post I showed some of the poem lines and the illustrations that go with the poetry. I’ve also been serially posting pages from “This Rabbit” on my Instagram and Facebook pages. Here below are a few more poem lines and illustrations.

This rabbit likes to seed

This rabbit likes to read

I’m filling each page of the book with the artwork leaving a small white space for the poem line below each illustration.

This week I’ve talked with Storyberries.com sent them digital files and whatnot as per their request! They will distribute This Rabbit just before Easter! How fun is that? (Telling this news here first!)

Also this week I made homemade hummus to go with a Persian flatbread my spouse made. It was yummy! My hummus recipe is in my kitchen sketchbook Favorites So Far.

Page from Favorites So Far – https://www.blurb.com/b/9759759-favorites-so-far

Below is a photo of books I’ve been reading: it’s March and Saint Patrick’s Day is coming up so I’m reading some Irish writers work in a short mystery story anthology “Murder Most Irish”. I’m also reading a book from the Hamish Macbeth series by M. C. Beaton which is set in Scotland.

See you next Monday? Hope your week is as good as possible.

Patch La Belle part 5

A Creative Life, Art Word Combinations, artist book, artistic inspirations, author illustrator, Authors, books, ebook, illustrated poem, Patch La Belle, poetry, visual story, visual thinking, words and pictures

My book Patch La Belle has been officially released on Storyberries! You can see it for free here: https://www.storyberries.com/poems-for-kids-patch-la-belle-childrens-poetry/

The printed book version is slightly different (more on that in a sec) and it’s available here: https://www.blurb.com/b/10351859-patch-la-belle

Here’s a look at the digital files for the front and back covers:

Front cover of Patch La Belle by Clancy
Back cover of Patch La Belle by Clancy

Photography of the pages was a challenge because I wanted to keep the warm creamy tones of the paper on which I wrote and illustrated the poems. I wanted this book to have a nostalgic handmade feel. By and large I’m pleased with how it turned out.

For the ebook version of Patch La Belle on Storyberries.com I was able to have each page of the ebook be 100 percent my hand made pages. Because it’s not a printed book blank pages aren’t needed.

In the printed books I had to have blank pages in strategic places in order for the covers to attach properly. So I used the blank pages as a chance to visually foreshadow what was to come in the book. For example the little illustration on the blank page attached to the cover visually relates to the dedication page:

And the candy on the book info page (above left) visually relates to the page just before the about-the-author info.

There’s also a visual relationship between the characters on the cover of Patch La Belle and two of the poems inside the book. The paintings of books on the list of “other books by Clancy” also echoes one of the poems.

Yes, I tried to rhyme in my artwork as well as in the words of the poems!

I strongly believe that children (all people really) need exposure to all kinds of images including complex images just as they need exposure to all kinds of food including complex foods.

Homemade cookies are often more robust and complex in flavor, more, more full of love, than a box of store-bought cookies.

I like to think of my artwork, my books, as the visual equivalent of a sheet pan full of homemade cookies.

Thanks for following my progress on this project!

If you’re just joining this party – welcome! – there are details about Patch La Belle and links to past posts about Patch located here.

I’ll see you again next Monday. Till then…

Patch La Belle part 4

A Creative Life, Art Word Combinations, artist book, artistic inspirations, author illustrator, illustrated poem, illustrated shorts, illustration, Patch La Belle, poetry, visual story, visual thinking, words and pictures, writing, writing and illustrating

(There’s a surprise inside this blog suitable for all ages) This week has been a flurry of finishing pages, and the cover art for Patch La Belle. I’ve also been doing the graphic design hocus pocus for both the printed books version and an ebook version for Storyberries.com

As per my last post I’m still thinking about the topics of enjoying and trying things:

There’s the trying that is an effort to make something – like a cake or a book.

Then there’s the trying things so as to learn what you prefer – like a type of food or a hat.

Trying things also gives us abstract information about how much food is too much and what time bedtime is.

It’s an important lifelong skill to cultivate the willingness to try things.

Here’s the finished pages (my last several blog posts tell more of my working process)

And here’s a photo of me working on the cover art and finishing a few pages.

Sue Clancy with original pages for her book Patch La Belle

I slipped all the artwork into archival sleeves so the pages could be sorted without risk of damages. Prior to being sprayed with a fixative and varnish the gouache colors could be easily smeared.

I asked my first editor, my wife Judy, what page order she thought was best – and I sticky-note flagged her page order and it was such a good order that I followed it! And if you’re looking at the picture above thinking “that looks like a lot more pages than have been shown on this blog” – you’re correct, I’ve impishly saved some for when the book is formally released.

My desire to hand make all of the words and images for this book has also resulted in a relaxed way of working – everything exists in the real world and can be laid out on a table.

In the past when I’ve done a hybrid of computer typewritten words and hand made illustrations the page sorting and design was more abstracted. But this time everything was made by hand. The “graphic design hocus pocus” that I refer to above is simply the photography of the finished art and laying out the photos in a software package for uploading to Blurb.com the place that will print and ship the books on demand. A different software package is used to make the digital file for the ebook on Storyberries.com [Btw: the art page photos above are just quick pics for sharing here on social media. I have another camera for photos of art to be reproduced]

Here’s the cover artwork as photographed for reproduction. I think I managed to keep the warm tone of the off-white paper I used to make the original artwork. (Yippee!)

Anyway, showing Patch La Belle to the folks at Storyberries.com generated some excitement there! They said “it’s going to be really engaging and the families will spend a long time reading it and looking over the pictures… it’s so beautiful!”

And just the thought of that feels so good!

Surprise! Dear loyal reader of my social media posts here is an early access link to the printed book Patch La Belle https://www.blurb.com/b/10351859-patch-la-belle

The “official” release of this book will be next week with the books release on Storyberries.com – more details here next Monday!

Patch La Belle part 3

A Creative Life, Art Word Combinations, artist book, artistic inspirations, author illustrator, books, drawing as thinking, handmade books, illustrated poem, Patch La Belle, poetry, Sustainable creativity, visual story, visual thinking, words and pictures

As I worked this week on a new children’s book (see my last post) titled Patch La Belle I’ve thought more about the importance of enjoying and trying things regularly.

Too often we expect our enjoyments to be big life changing experiences when in reality a good life is a cumulative of many small pleasant moments. To have a good life one has to be able recognize a pleasant moment when it happens (even in the midst of a pandemic). This ability to recognize something enjoyable, while also absorbing it, is a skill to be learned and practiced all of one’s life.

Anyway, I spent time this week rereading my poetry sketchbooks, thinking, writing notes and sticky-flagging pages. Here’s a picture of two of my poetry sketchbooks. They’re small books, about 5 x 3.5 inches and I wrote in them with a fountain pen

As a way of working creatively I find it helpful to collect a bunch of thoughts into sketchbooks for sorting into something, a published book or an art exhibit, later. (I do a version of this sketchbook method with my fine art exhibits too.)

When I work in a sketchbook it feels random, the thought I’m recording feels unconnected to any future book or exhibit notion. The book or art exhibit ideas come later from rereading the sketchbooks and refining elements from my sketchbook. Essentially every sketchbook is a series of very rough drafts along with notes on what inspired me.

Here’s a page from my poetry sketchbook. Please note the margin notes, my thoughts in connection with my poem effort.

That poem with its marginalia sat for a long time. Months later I tried this effort, pictured below, to shape it a bit… still without a firm plan for what published book or exhibit it might become.

That finished art sat in my files for a while, gathering dust, unconnected to any project.

Then more recently when I was talking with the folks at Storyberries – www.storyberries.com – about formats for doing my words and picture combinations for them I remembered my illustrated giraffe poem and shared it with Storyberries. The above format of my poem it turned out wouldn’t work for my future Storyberries projects. So I shoved it back in my files.

Later on when rereading my poetry sketchbooks for the umpteenth time I came across the original poem yet again. As I reread my sketchbook I’m noting themes; multiple thoughts on a topic. The raw poem and my thoughts that inspired the giraffe poem fit with my reoccurring theme of trying things. Seeing this theme and thinking more on the topic is helping me to organize my current project Patch La Belle. So this week I reworked both the text and illustration for this particular poem.

That format fits much better with Storyberries guidelines and with my desire [more on that here] to do an entirely handwritten book. Now the poem has a place, it has become – at least for now – part of my newest children’s book effort. It will stay there till all of my pages for this project are finished and I reread them and decide what ultimately fits together best.

This project still feels “in flux” and uncertain but I just keep working, trusting that as I bring my vague notions into the real world as touchable objects I can see better what to do with them. My project idea firms up as I work. The trick is to roll with the feelings of uncertainty until that point.

And here are some more new Patch La Belle pages that have been done and redone in similar fashion to what I’ve just described. To save time I’m skipping ahead, omitting the sketchbook draft pages, and showing the finished work here.

I’m sure you’re seeing my working method now. My way of getting a thought outside of my head into a sketchbook, however messily, however vaguely, and then working with it multiple times in multiple ways just to see what it can become.

It’s my way of trying out ideas, of practicing enjoying something, of taking a notion and playfully exploring it. It’s also a way to have a small pleasant moment of fun regularly.

Thanks for reading. See you here next Monday?

P.S. if you’re just joining this party – welcome! – and you can see my other children’s book projects on my portfolio page here.

Numpurrs and a dragon

A Creative Life, art techniques, Art Word Combinations, artistic inspirations, author illustrator, Authors, books, cat portrait, Cats in art, ebook, fine art, illustrated poem, math and numbers, Numpurrs, pet portraits, poetry, product design, publications - publishing, visual story, visual thinking, words and pictures, writing, writing and illustrating

It’s barely been a week and Numpurrs on Storyberries.com has been read over 3000 times! Here’s one kind comment:

“Thank you, this is exactly what teachers are looking for, online opportunities during virtual teaching makes teachers lives so much easier. That was perfect timing! And a beautifully illustrated and written book! The weird thing is, I just did a cat drawing lesson for 1st grade. Now we can read the book and learn how to draw a cat!”

How nice is that?! It made my artist heart sing! 

Here’s a link to my book Numpurrs on Storyberries.com – where you can see it (and many other stories) for free – https://www.storyberries.com/bedtime-stories-numpurrs-by-clancy-free-counting-books-for-kids/

So this week quickly filled with additional efforts to help teachers and parents: I also made a poster, a calendar and then a 676 piece jigsaw puzzle too.

Here’s what the poster looks like. It’s big, 23 inches square, big enough to be seen in the backgrounds of online classes.

Numpurrs poster – https://www.zazzle.com/numpurrs_poster-228224328093121348

My copies of the printed book version of Numpurrs also arrived at my studio this week! So I photographed the book and created a portfolio webpage to hold all of my work on Numpurrs in one spot – to help the teachers find things easier – here’s that page https://sueclancy.com/portfolio/numpurrs/

Below are just a few of the photos of the printed book…you can see more on that portfolio page I just mentioned

I’m pleased with how the book turned out! Of course I can nitpick and find things I could have tweaked – that’s always the case with any creation. I think of art making as similar to cooking, you do your best to create a good meal then you say “good enough, let’s eat” and you go on to the next thing. Perhaps you make a note for yourself on that recipe as to what you’d do differently in the future – but you enjoy the meal as it is and you go on.

Speaking of going on: for years now I’ve been regularly jotting short poems in a small 3 x 5 inch book with my fountain pen. Now, as per discussions with the people at Storyberries, I’m working on illustrating some of the poems for a new book. As I wrote my last post I’d thought I’d do more on this new project this week than ended up happening – so more on these illustrated poems in coming posts.

Here’s a look at my little poetry sketchbook with some of the potential to-be-illustrated poems flagged with sticky notes.

I write with a fountain pen because they’re refillable. Fewer plastic bits of discarded pens to end up in the landfill this way. Besides a fountain pen – if you have a good quality one – can be super smooth to write with.

For those who say a nice pen and hand bound book would be “too precious to use” I reply “your thoughts are precious too”. Buy quality supplies and use them with joy. It’s just stuff on Earth here to be enjoyed. (And if you just can’t bear it then buy whatever supplies you will actually use and get your thoughts written down. But remember that you really deserve the best.)

Below is the dragon poem you can see my handwritten draft of in the photo of my book above and the handwritten poem and illustration I got done this week with ink and gouache on nice paper.

More of that kind of thing here next Monday – I hope. Thanks for reading. Have a good week.

Numpurrs 20 & it sums up…

A Creative Life, art techniques, Art Word Combinations, artist book, artistic inspirations, author illustrator, books, cat portrait, ebook, fine art, food in art, graphic design, illustrated poem, illustration, math and numbers, Numpurrs, pet portraits, printed books, Sustainable creativity, visual thinking, words and pictures, writing, writing and illustrating

There now! Despite all the odds (see last post) I finished “Numpurrs”! I’ve also sent it in to Storyberries for distribution. When I sent it in this last week Storyberries said “I just LOVE it Sue!!! It has come together so nicely !!!! Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful work with us!!”

So I think it’s safe to say that they’re pleased! The book will be live on Storyberries.com very soon as they said they’ll “…schedule it for 9am Gold Coast time Australia on Monday morning.” Which works out to about 4 pm in Washington state, USA on Sunday. And I post these blog posts on Mondays but write them on Sunday morning’s… so, yes, I can have a bit of time zone confusion.

[Update: here’s the link to Numpurrs on Storyberries.com: https://www.storyberries.com/bedtime-stories-numpurrs-by-clancy-free-counting-books-for-kids/ ]

Time zone differences between where I live on the western US coast and the time where Storyberries is in Australia can confuse me even when I have help from the internet. My solution to working across continents and time zones is the same in publishing as it has been when I’ve done fine art exhibits outside of the U.S.A; get it all done early and everything into their hands as soon as humanly possible then let the people I’m working with sort the what-happens-when out at their end.

It helps that I work on the graphic design part of any book almost simultaneously with creating the fine art illustrations. This way by the time I finish creating the fine art illustrations I’ve almost finished the book design too.

The graphic design informs and affects my illustrations – in the number of illustrations needed, the size of them and so forth. But what I want to do in the first place with my illustrations/fine art at my easel (using ink and gouache on board) will also affect the graphic design.

This interdependence (and writing the poem is in there too) is related to the construction of my book idea in the first place in a which-comes-first chicken-or-egg kind of fashion. As a result of my working method the posting I do online nearly always slightly behind the action. My motto is create the thing first talk about it later.

Anyway, here’s a pic of me working on my laptop doing the book layout. I often do my computer work in the corner of my dining room near the cookbooks and am almost always cooking something on the stove. Taking breaks to stir something on the stove is so nice!

Sue Clancy creating “Numpurrs”

And here are the last poem lines in my book:

Twenty butters bread, risen with yeast

And it all sums up to a wonderful feast!

In the printed book my three panel “feast scene” will flow in sequence left to right and will line up side by side. But it worked pretty well in scroll ebook form too even tho it doesn’t line up at the edges. As I worked I had to think of both of these “flow” patterns when I was creating the images.

Even though I’m doing so much myself – which sounds like a lot of freedom – there are still constraints: page flow, number of pages allowed within the publication formats, where the blank pages must fall, printing product options, ebook construction and so forth. I see these constraints as the path, the way forward, the technical issues become part of my creative process.

When it came to creating the feast scene artwork in Numpurrs I consulted this book, Food and Feasting in Art by Silvia Malaguzzi

Many of these art historical images had the viewers eye moving left to right and or moving up and down. This served as a guide as I created my cat feast illustrations. (I love art history!)

Running into the graphic design publication constraints I mentioned earlier I only had 3 pages within which to fit my feast. When, in an early sketch, I fitted all 20 cats in – the cats were too small and the numbers couldn’t be easily read. Since the point of the book is to distinguish between cats and to recognize numbers I decided to make the cats and numbers bigger even tho it meant leaving out some cats.

Besides at almost every group photo I’ve ever participated in there were several people who declined to be in the picture. Perhaps we can pretend some of the cats in my artwork were similarly shy?

After sending everything in to Storyberries, and after being given the release schedule, I was asked to send in a new photo of all three of the feast panels as one image. There are design constraints and issues at their end too – and we’re in this project together. So I hustled (time zones remember…) and sent this photo in:

Since my book idea is about distinguishing between cats and numbers I also used 4 of my allotted pages to include the photos of real life cats that my friends had sent to me for use as reference to create my artwork. Like the feast scene artwork not every cat illustrated in the book is on the cat photo pages… again it was a case of if I fit in every photo the cats were too small to see well. And in some cases the photos my friends sent was fine for my art reference use but it wasn’t high enough resolution for a printed book. Since I’m doing both print and ebook forms I had to design for both to look the same. Perhaps it can add fun to also distinguish which cat is there and which isn’t and also to see some of the source material I worked with?

Here’s what the Numpurrs book cover looks like, and the dedication page where I thank my friends for all of their help.

Numpurrs by Clancy – https://www.blurb.com/b/10297565-numpurrs

You can see a preview of the entire book Numpurrs via this link: https://www.blurb.com/b/10297565-numpurrs

You can see all of my artwork and my blog posts containing my thinking as I developed this project on the webpage here.

Here, again, is the link on Storyberries where you can see what they ended up doing with the new feast scene photo I hustled to send in …. https://www.storyberries.com/bedtime-stories-numpurrs-by-clancy-free-counting-books-for-kids/

On my Instagram page I will tell more about Numpurrs as things on Storyberries develop. (An audiobook version is in the works etc)

Next Monday this blog will move on to my next art project…

Thanks again for reading and adding to the Numpurrs fun!