Art changes and chaos ensues.

Happy almost Fall! The leaves are just beginning to turn and there are apples at the farmers market. I am still leaving the window open at night when I sleep- but some nights I need a wool blanket. My little 7-year-old dog is acting like a puppy again since the temperature has dropped, too. Our tiny family seems ready for the change.

The weather isn't the only thing changing around here. I am in the middle of trying to rethink the process I use for my picture making. If you like what you've seen on this blog before, don't worry too much. In the end, the pictures probably won't look like anything drastically different. But it is difficult for me to rethink the way I make a picture.

Since everything has been in flux, I haven't really made anything that I've felt like I can share. I've made a mess, though. I'll share that.

Above is my very sad desk as of late. I keep drawing and painting and redrawing the same picture over and over again. I feel a little like Edvard Munch (well, maybe. I mean, he made the same picture over and over again.).

So why the ugly pastels?


Why the sketch of a boy over a defunct print from my first book? (that green shape is a turtle shell from a bad print from A Sick Day for Amos McGee...if you can see it)

I'm rethinking the way I apply color in the next two books I'm working on. I'm still using wood blocks, not the ugly pastels. Somewhere in all of that mess on my desk I am solving a color problem. I think.

Look, I even tried markers! Where did my snooty traditional art schooling go?

It'll all work out into a lovely print. I think.