Designing ball gowns

Eight months in,  2014: Year of the Fairy Tale online class is going strong.  Carla's class assignments explore many techniques and themes that I can "take for a spin"; if I am really taken by any I can explore further on my own.  The class keeps moving on and every fairy tale teaches something new.  This experience in itself is valuable for me.

We are in the discovery period of Fairy Tale #6 - and it's all about ball gowns.

Designing/daydreaming the gowns, the details and of course the fabrics...sigh.  I enjoyed it so much I was surprised.  Since these are just black and white sketches, much is left to one's imagination.  So let it take flight :-) 

For waltzing... gowns with room to move.

Under the ballroom lights - sparkle, sheen, translucence.

Birds... sketch, sketch, sketch

I was sitting outside with Remy.  The clouds obscured the sun, there was the hint of a breeze, and perfect temperature.  The cloud cover the produced my favorite light.  Strangely no birds were about and no beautiful birdsong.

Back in my studio, I decided to draw some birds:

Alas, no singing.

Monday Mushrooms

Mushrooms... I don't know why I find them to be so fascinating, but they are.

Now being a nice, calm, beautiful evening, it's just the perfect time to sketch something for tomorrow:

Together :-)

Illustrations from Fairy Tale #5

(2014: Year of the Fairy Tale) where the emphasis is on gesture, emotion, symbolism and background.

This first one is of the pregnant Queen with one of her sons:

Delivering very sad news.

The young princess and the youngest of her brothers:

Come out of hiding...

The young Queen and King:

Together <3

Of the four, my favorite illustration... just because I love ravens :-)

 

 

A brother raven.

Mr. Moose

Today was ear cleaning day for my Remy - a bit of grooming that he does not enjoy.  Instead of his regular food reward, he got a new toy, a replacement Mr. Moose, the other one having been lovingly chomped, chewed, shaken and dragged around until unrecognizable.  O joy, I do think Remy forgot all about the ear cleaning thing...

This moose toy is adorable.

The moose will be a mess in no time so this is a photographic reminder of just how cute it was at the beginning.  Strangely, Remy has a lime green corduroy octopus that he has played with for a couple of years (!) with but has not destroyed - it is the only one of his toys left unscathed. 

My funny Golden.