Sunday, June 14, 2009

Gotta Dance!


Clipper and Shredder are hard workers, but they do have a lighter side. Sometimes they have to do silly dances. Red Wrinkler and His Rowdy Cousins is coming along nicely.

My process for this story may be a little unconventional. I'm making up the story, creating illustrations, editing and rewriting, all at the same time. I usually write a rough draft and draw simple sketches to work out a story. These Garden Pixie stories depend so heavily on photos from our garden, that I often have to look for a photographic "setting" and then draw the characters in appropriate poses to lay on top.

I am building the html pages at the same time. So, when I complete the last illustration and its accompanying text, I will also finish the last Web page. Then I'll go through and edit text and art as needed to make everything look and sound just right.

Monday, June 8, 2009

What, More Garden Pixies?


I'm working on a second Garden Pixies story and I thought you might enjoy a little behind-the-scenes reporting. This time you will meet Red Wrinkler and his Rowdy Cousins. I won't give away the plot yet (it's still evolving, anyway), but these are the guys who dispose of withering and dead flowers in the Spring and Summer and all the colorful leaves in the Fall. They're rough and tumble pixies who sometimes get into trouble. The photo/illustration above shows them hard at work taking an old Tulip apart. More to come in a few days.