A Little Something On My Garden

Given that most of the people that follow this blog also happen to be friends of mine in life and on Facebook this may be sort of a cop out entry but it's been over a week and I needed to put something up and I really don't have time for fresh material today.  What I have to offer tonight is a combination of old artwork and an update on my garden. To start with, the update:

My garden is doing so well! My patio tomato is pumping away at fattening up my little tomatoes (4 now plus more flowers!) and all the herbs are getting thick enough to allow me to indiscriminately give Norman lots of fresh herbs every day. When I bought the Cilantro it was a sad little thing but now both plants are thick and happy little bunches.

On the downside, just as I was getting excited about the fact that my tomato plant that's going to grow the large tomatoes had suddenly started blossoming like crazy (19 flowers on a bush that's only maybe 20 inches tall!) all of a sudden I started getting holes in the leaves. Well, I phrased it well enough on Facebook so here's the play by play of how I responded. It was an extraordinarily rational response, no doubt. ;)

11:00 am

"Oh, my old nemesis Tomato Hornworm. Appearing out of the blue eating all my tomato leaves and adding insult to tomato-injury by pooping everywhere. Remember: my grandmother was the lady that cackled while she snipped the heads off your giant grasshopper friends with her garden scissors. I suggest you move along."

6:41 pm

"Dang it! 3! Three times the same hornworm? Three individual hornworms? I'm not sure but, Mr. Hornworm, you were warned and you didn't heed the warning. The next time I find you on my tomato plant I will put you in the birdfeeder. The question is will it be in one piece or two. >:("

9:10 pm

"In the continuing saga of Me vs. The Hornworm I had an ironic setback: while I had no qualms putting hornworm #4 in the birdfeeder & felt no guilt doing so, the Hornworms scored a win of sorts because he caused me to feel guilty when, in trying to dislodge him from the leaves, two of his feet stuck to the leaves and came off. I'm telling myself it was a ruse & he actually just kicked his shoes off to make me feel bad. It's a Hornworm psyche-out."

Later, in resonse to a friend laughing at me and telling me "Ha ha ha, he tried to play you for a sucker." I responded "Right? I'll take him down. I'll take him down to Chinatown."

As I said, very rational. ;) I'll be house-sitting for Chad's brother in Beaufort, SC for a week so I'm hoping Chad's mom will follow through with her promise to check the plant 2-3 times a day for the little buggers. I don't want to come home to a Swiss cheese tomato plant!

So that's that. Now, I promised you some garden based art.

About two years ago I doodled out what ended up looking like Winnie-the-Pooh meets Dr. Seuss kind of tree. I thought it was cool in a wacked out Lorax sort of way. This is it here:

Well somehow it turned into this twisted little cartoon. It's the only cartoon I've ever made so I hope you'll find it funny. It may be a one time engagement! 

My next entries will actually probably be photography of a sort. There's lots of pretty stuff around Beaufort so I can only image it'll lend itself to it.

Ok, so there you go. Hope you can get a chuckle and I hope that all your gardening is going well and none of you have to fight the dreaded hornworm. :)

Artwork: Ki'rin Project Composite

This is the last stage that I have completed in the Ki'rin project: the composite. Here you'll find the background, the baby ki'rin, the mother ki'rin and the second female ki'rin that I mentioned in previous posts. The next step after this will be taking my rough lines and cleaning them up and then water coloring the image, either with actual water colors or with Painter. It will probably be awhile until I can post anything else on this project. Almost everything I own is in storage and I'm working on a 13 inch iMac so there's isn't a lot of space for this detailed of a job. I hope you've liked everything I've put up! Feel free to leave comments, critiques or compliments! ;)

Artwork: Background for Ki'rin Project

As the Ki'rin project grew so did my background. What began as a simple cherry tree idea to go with my baby Ki'rin and his mother Ki'rin evolved into a full setting. Because I liked the symbolism I knew I wanted to include lotus blossoms so I had to add the stream in the foreground. The picture I used to draw my cherry tree from had a really interesting boulder so I included that too. Next thing I knew I was adding moss, flowers, grass...you name it it started appearing. Those Ki'rin are magical creatures and apparently highly persuasive!

Lotus Plants and Lotus Flowers

Close up image of part of the lotus section of the background.

The lotus represents purity of heart, divine spirit, enlightenment and good luck. It grows from murky water yet the flower is unblemished. Just as the lotus represents enlightenment, the Ki'rin is said to only appear in lands ruled by a wise and benevolent leader. The meaningfulness of both the lotus and the Ki'rin meant that, as I said, it seem to be a no brainer that the lotus should also appear in the image.

On a side note, because of this project I have gotten really good at recognizing a lotus plant versus water lillies. You'd be surprised how often they are used interchangably even though they aren't the same plant and do not have the same symbolism. I saw a commercial that was suppose to be for a lotion containing lotus root and they used a lily instead.

The Cherry Tree and All Those Cherry Blossoms
 

Close up of cherry blossoms, leaves, buds and branches.

The most time consuming part of the project was the cherry tree. I wanted to draw in each individual bud, leaf and flower. At this point I haven't yet finished them all but I've done enough to at least show what I have. I chose the cherry tree both because I love the grace of the blossoms and also because I love the shape of the trees themselves. If I'm going to talk about symbolism then I suppose I should mention that in Japan the cherry blossom represents the fleeting nature of life and our mortality. It's beauty appears quickly and dies quickly. It represents the idea of Mono No Aware or the impermanence of things and the wistful sadness of their passing. I'd love to say that in the case of the cherry tree I was being that thoughtful in choosing it but my use was far more simple in intent: I wanted to use a gentle and graceful flower and tree. Then again maybe that was exactly what I was going for after all. The subconsious is a wonderous thing.

In the end I created what I consider a pretty detailed piece of work considering this will be my first complete illustration once it's finished. I've sketched here and there and I've done lots of graphic design but this is my first attempt at anything that I would call and actual piece of artwork. I look forward to seeing it done!

Full composition. The top of the tree is still bare but, in the end, will also be covered with blossoms, leaves and buds.

Artwork: Secondary Female Ki'rin from Ki'rin Project

As mentioned in the Mother Ki'rin blog entry, my plan after drawing that initial female ki'rin for the Ki'rin project was to draw a new mother ki'rin. I wasn't that crazy about the first one and thought that, perhaps, the issue was the body posture so I created this second female ki'rin. She was designed to be turning her head to nuzzle the baby ki'rin. I was happy with how she came out but then later I figured out my issues with the original female and fixed them leaving me with two ki'rin to choose from. I decided that the ki'rin that was laying down would be the mother and I would use the second as a father. The problem came from the fact that I had used a doe as the body model for the standing ki'rin which gave it a distinctly female feel. I decided then that I would go ahead and just have two females. My reasoning was that, since they are somewhat based on deer and deer travel in female herds with the babies, it would be ok to just go with it and would be far better than trying to force a male shape out of one that was clearly female.

Artwork: Mother Ki'rin from the Ki'rin Project

Following the Baby Ki'rin, the next step in the Ki'rin project was to draw a female. The initial plan had been to create something that would be relatively simple: a mother, a baby and a small cherry tree, painted in watercolors and fading just off of the edges into white so that even the tree wouldn't be complete. (See this link to Tony DiTerlizzi's web site and look at the images in the bottom row of the third page of images.) The design evolved, however, as you'll see in upcoming posts. This image is the mother that I drew for the original design. Later I drew another adult Ki'rin that I liked better and planned to use instead and so decided not to use this one after all but after reworking her I ended up bringing her back into the new composition.  

Artwork: Baby Ki'rin from the Ki'rin Project

This is the image that started the whole Ki'rin project. I decided one day that that's what I wanted to draw so that's what I drew. After I completed it I was so enamoured with the little guy that I decided that he needed a family and a nice place to live. I then drew what would end up being the female, followed what was suppose to be the male but, I think, really ended up being another female. I decided to go with that since they remind me of deer anyway and they run in female/fawn groups. The other Ki'rin will be in posts to follow and then the landscape that they're placed in.

Artwork: The Ki'rin Project

I'm working on something I call the Ki'rin Project. Even though I'm no where near done I figured I'd start uploading images. Once they're all up you'll see that the Ki'rin themselves are completed (at least to the initial drawing stage) but I'm still working on the cherry tree. If you look at the background image you'll be able to see how I'm working from the bottom up. In the end the Ki'rin will be composited into the background and then I'll do all the lines again in Illustrator and colorize it in Painter. The final project will be of Eastern influence but very similar to the Art Nouveau style I like so much. If you don't know what a Ki'rin is here's a link. I'm doing the Japanese version.