Last one?

Today I did my last illustration (I think) for Teen Summer Reading. We are doing a "Makerspace Meetup," which is to say, we haul out all our crafty crap (tools, materials, stencils, found objects, etc.), come up with a few concrete suggestions for the kids who don't know where to start, play a few YouTube how-to videos, and turn them loose.

We have no idea how well or poorly this will go, because we've never gone free-form like this before. Usually, we have a specific craft (stenciling T-shirts has been a favorite, and calligraphy, and card-making for various occasions), but we're giving it a shot--encouraging their creativity instead of imposing our own ideas.

So--I picked up some random things that can be used to make stuff and painted a picture of them for the brochure and flyer illustration. It was hard to decide what to include and what to leave out, and I'm hoping no one says "I can't paint or sew or draw, so this isn't for me!" because there are many other things they can do, and many other tools and supplies that will be on hand.

I was fairly pleased with this, but about 2/3 of the way through, I really wished I had done it on good watercolor paper instead of sticking with my sketchbook paper. For one thing, the sketchbook paper was a bit too small, and I redrew this three times to get the top of the glue bottle and the bottom of the scissors and paintbrush into the same drawing (and they barely made it!). Also, it's hard to do multiple glazes on this smooth, thinner paper, and with the shadows I didn't have near as much control as I would have had with 140-lb. rough. But…it's done!

I may need to paint just one more thing, because Anarda reminded me yesterday that I have to design this year's Reading Log, and I need something for the front of that. Some random book covers would be fun. Stay tuned…

Almost done!

Three more illustrations done for Teen Meetup in the Burb, my teen summer reading program.

The first is a do-over of the Open Mic Night idea--Anarda and others fixated on the possible gender of the hand holding the microphone that I sketched last week, so I took humans out of the equation and did this instead:

She requested something a bit more mysterious and evocative, so I hope this fills the order!

We are doing two writing workshops this summer--one is a "make a mystery" workshop, on the elements of a good mystery and how to put them together, with teacher (and author) Gay Toltl Kinman. For that, I got our young library assistant, Kristen, to pose for me with a magnifying glass like a hip, female Sherlock!

The second workshop will be short forms: Flash Fiction, which is the art of the extremely brief story (300 words or fewer); and Six Word Memoirs, which Smith Magazine editors Larry Smith and Rachel Fershleiser turned into a "thing" a few years ago when they challenged people to write some and got such an overwhelming response that now they have published two or three books of them! I couldn't think of an image evocative of either of those, so I turned to creative lettering instead:

Just one more illustration to go. I was hoping to get all four done this weekend, but not quite. I think, however, that since all my crafty materials are at work, I will set aside some time tomorrow, assemble an interesting and eclectic tableau of tools and supplies in the Literacy conference room where I will not be disturbed, and do the final drawing for our "Makerspace" craft day there. Then I can watercolor it when I get home!

I'm excited to see the brochure with all the illustrations finally in place, and all the flyers too. This has been a fun project, although it has taken more time and effort than I expected when I first started. But it definitely keeps the "day job" interesting!