This week's word challenge was 'Boundaries,' and I put off working on it all week. Originally I thought I would do something showing a boundary between light and dark or night and day, but I didn't have a clear enough vision in my head of what it would look like. So, instead I came up with something else entirely. My new idea was inspired by a sweet illustration I saw by Barbara Cooney in the 1949 book, "Read Me Another Story." It shows a little hen standing in the middle of a pen. Her world definitely has boundaries. In my image, a fence is a boundary that is keeping a little rabbit out of the lettuce patch (You can click on the illustration to see it larger).
I experimented with a technique I don't usually work in - a digital scratchboard technique. My original digital sketch was done in Painter 11. A few days ago I finally succumbed to an email from Corel with details on a special upgrade deal for Painter 12. I bit the bullet and purchased it and it arrived today. I could have finished this image in version 11, but I was anxious to get my feet wet with the upgrade so I finished the image in version 12 (more about it in a future blog).
On the right, you can see my original sketch. You'll notice that originally, I showed much more of the garden. As I worked, I decided to zoom in a bit and bring the viewer closer to the rabbit.
Below is the Barbara Cooney illustration that was my inspiration.
