Book Cover Initial Mock Up

Our current Sketchbook Skool teacher (for this week) is Jean-Christophe Defline in Paris, who has inspired me with his wonderful adventure comic covers of family vacations, based on his long-time love of Tin-Tin comics (I think his are even better).  His name for them is Flin-flin.  Inadvertently he has given us an exercise for this week that was timely for me, as my novel was put on hold for months to enjoy participating in SBS klasses.  I needed a kick in the pants to inspire me again on my writing project, and this assignment fit the bill.  He has us doing mock-ups of book covers in whatever way we like, which produced some amazing and diverse results amongst the students.  I realized that creating a mock up for my novel's cover would be sort of therapeutic, and help me to feel that it could be real, and actually be published at some point!  This is my initial effort, with much help from my wonderful husband on the printing part.  This was simple, old-fashioned cut and paste.  For a peek at parts of chapters, please check out last year's postings in October and November: http://www.elsbethmcleod.blogspot.com/2013/10/and-now-for-something-completely.html

Our Moclips Adventure

Last week Jim and I had a pleasant little getaway to Moclips, Washington. I had not been there since 1986, when Neil and I had spent a few days at the Ocean Crest Resort for our honeymoon.  Nothing had changed. Much. A new and fancier restaurant, but it did seem the suite we stayed in hadn’t been upgraded since I was there, then.  The bed was new, though, and so comfortable!  It truly made up for the choking episode the first night, when the free-standing, ancient fireplace billowed and filled the rooms with swirling smoke, no matter what we did with the damper.  How hard can a Duraflame log be to light?

The scene had gotten even better through the years...even more heart-stoppingly gorgeous, with the added patina of storm clouds and the thrashing drama of crashing breakers, the foam torn and flung by gusts of wind.  Early morning woke us with the building shaking from thunder, the lightening illuminating our bedroom constantly.  Rain hit the roof deafeningly, seemingly forever. Even so, the late morning brought sunlight and refreshed the still-turbulent waves with a rich blue.  As the unusual tide retreated back down the beach, the wet sand gave the appearance of our walking on the sky beneath our feet, seabirds flocking by us, soaring with their own reflections.

This is the drawing I dashed into my sketchbook in tiny installments through the days before we headed home again in the rain.  Almost entirely done with Derwent Inktense water-soluble color pencil wash, layered on a watercolor Moleskine book, landscape page format.  With a little Staedtler Pigment liner pen for the birds, and the foam was done partly with the Uniball Signo White Gel pen.

Haunted Girl's Room

Our current teacher for our online klassroom is very inspiring!  Mattias Adolfsson is an amazing illustrator and one of this week's assignments is to draw our memory of our first day at school as a child.  Well, my mind drew a blank for that day, though I remember the emotional memory quite well.  Instead, I drew the memory of a situation in second grade, I think, when I was just sure the girl's restroom in our elementary school was haunted.  The idea spread like wildfire, and little girls being what they are, before long we were unable to visit the room alone.  When we did (in groups), there was much screaming and racing back to the classroom.  Soon other classes had the "haunted restroom" bug going on.  It took the principal himself to step in and put an end to such nonsense.

Ghost Door

Recently a band of merry Sketchbook Skool classmates who discovered they all happened to live within a few hour's drive from one another, decided to descend upon Port Townsend and get to know one another.  And sketch the town.  We all arrived from our various points on the compass, had coffee at 10:30 AM at Better Living Through Coffee, and scattered to pick our fave subject.  Linda Tennant, Diana Jackson and I found a good area we settled into.

This is a view from the parking lot where The Upstage used to be, a wonderful venue that had many fabulous entertainers come and perform while folks dined on great food.  So sorry I never got to see Maria Muldaur perform there before they shut their doors.  Now it looks like a ghost town, other than the bicycle shop still in the complex. Off to the right was also the back door to The Undertown, one of our fave hangouts, sketches of which I've posted on this blog.  Also closed now.  

Rocky's Theatre

Jim and I attended the 2014 Port Townsend Film Festival last weekend, Jim as a volunteer photographer, and me as a tag along sketcher. The heart of the events centered around the Rose Theatre on Taylor, one of our most fave places to hang out. Rocky Freidman, the owner, happened to be sitting out front in the sun, enjoying the crowds, when I spotted him. How often does one get a chance like that, to sketch Rocky with his venue as a backdrop? He glanced over at me now and again, and then got up, disappointingly, and walked away down the street. Oh, well, no matter, I worked on the building facade a little. Suddenly, there he was, squatting down on my right, exclaiming, "Oh, my God! That's me!" He was excited, even though it didn't look like anything but chicken scratches at that moment. He flipped through the other pages of my Moleskine, and decided he would pay me whatever I wanted for that drawing, when I was done. I told him I couldn't tear it out, but would make him a print. He grinned, and I said, "My husband and I have had so many good memories at your theatre. I couldn't charge you, it's my gift to you." Well, it's done.

Papa's Handkerchief

I have been reflecting on my father, my relationship with him when I was a young woman (he died in 1977), and wondering how to honor him with my current work. The only things I have of his are this handkerchief, and a navigator's pin (?) he wore during WWII, when he was stationed on an aircraft carrier. 

My mother had done her best to raise me to be a good housewife in the '60s, so I was in charge of ironing and pressing all of my dad's shirts and his endless stack of freshly laundered hankies when I was ten or eleven. I felt so abused at the time, thought that was my mom's job, not mine. Funny the way an old, threadbare hankie can bring back such vivid memories.

Fat Cat Lavender Farm

This was my result from the other day Judi and her friends and I sketched in the Sequim valley.  The ducks kept passing back and forth, giving us a sideways glance, wondering what the heck we were doing.  Maybe they'd never seen a sketcher before, and I had never seen a duck with a pompadour.  They were Peking and Mallard mix, and the one white one had a white puff ball of feathers on it's head (sorry, I added it after I scanned this image).  Strange, alien bird!  Judi had started quacking at them, and they each tilted their heads, like dogs, to listen.  After awhile, when I was done with the swing, Vicki came and sat in it.  I wish she'd done so earlier, as it would've been great to sketch a seated figure in the chair!  

When I sat to begin sketching, I decided that no matter what I did, that ancient, twisted, writhing apple tree had to be pivotal for the scene!  Judi is the silhouette under the tree.

This sketch was done with Daniel Smith watercolors in a travel palette, Staedtler black Pigment Liners, with a touch of Derwent Inktense watersoluble colored pencil details, on a watercolor Moleskine.  And some sweat.