Catching Stars, Finished

I was able to finish this spread this past week, but it was really hard getting that sky dark enough.

It was pretty dark when I finished last working with it, but only after abandoning my original plan and switching to something awfully messy. But at least it was well on its way to dark!

So, when I got back to working on this, I started with something I knew how to do - I painted the hares. I used transparent Golden fluid acrylics and worked in layers. It was relatively low stress and worked out pretty well, I think.

I was nervous about adding the text even though I thought it would be a good idea to have some, plus there was something I wanted to say, namely, "There are so many stars in the sky that perhaps it's inevitable that some will fall. The hares are collecting them. They're planning to plant a garden of stars."

Sometimes my handwriting is pretty good, but more often it's not! And it's especially not when I get nervous about it, such as when I write directly on a journal page where there's no erasing or re-doing.

So, I decided on this method. Using a Staedtler pigment marker, I wrote the text on a piece of deli paper. This paper is semi-transparent which is good, but its surface is slippery, which it tricky to write on. I had to write three times before I got one that was sort of OK. I ripped it out of the sheet and glued it onto the piece, then glued on the little cut-out letters. By the way, the semi-transparency of the deli paper lets what's underneath show through some and I like that on this piece.

Working on these hares makes me want to do two things. First, I want to work more on dramatic lighting. And second, I'd like to do a spread of the hares' working in their garden of stars. Working on the garden spread will give me more practice with lighting - perfect!

This is how the spread looked after I finished the hares but before I finished working on the sky. For that, I worked with my Neocolor II water-soluble crayons and added more scribbles and blotches. (By the way, I took the last three photos in this spread in different light than the first one. I kind of like the effect of the warm light in the last three.)

This little hare is my favorite part of the spread. I like her soft expression and her excited body language! So much fun to paint animals!