sculpting a storybook...

For a very long time, I've been imagining illustrating a story with our artwork.
With no particular story in mind, it remained a dream.
We've never been closer to that idea coming to realization, however, than right now.

A short while ago, Jeff and I began tossing a made-up tale back and forth while relaxing on the back porch one Sunday afternoon with our cat. We liked the story. It made us laugh.

Sculpting the characters began almost immediately. They are simply a collection of townsfolk ---like any good story has.

When it came time to paint, I wanted to try something different, and put some mulberry paper, that I had been saving, to use.

I printed images of trees and plants that I photographed and altered onto the paper, draped it over their cloaks, and covered with glue.

The buildings, for part of the scenery, have also been made.

While still a work in progress, it easy for us to picture it being completed. 

There are still other elements in the story that we need to sculpt, and images from our own abstract and nature photography will also be used for illustrating.

We're looking forward to seeing what the end result will be and imagining that it will be something that will make us smile