What is a little up in the air is three picture books that are on the cards for the next couple of years – or as well as I can fit them in with the boys. Two are books I have written. I found it much easier to write than draw last year – I guess because you can review text while walking around a park. But you can’t draw. Try as you might… it doesn’t work. So – writing. I’m really pleased with them and they have both come from little scenes that I created in the Moleskines, for no reason whatsoever. That is particularly exciting. That means that instead of coming up with an idea for a book and then creating a story etc, I have worked the other way around. Drawn and accidentally come across a character and a scene that I love, then let her tell me her, or their, stories. It may not sound very earthshattering but it’s quite new for me, and the style will be completely what I love to do. No hybrids, no almost-theres. Just lots of pen and my imagination dong loop-the-loops.

And the third is someone else’s story – a lovely one, that I need to think about some more to know if I am the right one for it.

So it’s all exciting but not pinned down. Meetings need to happen with people behind closed doors and numbers will matter a lot. I just want to hear some big YESs so I can say yippee and get working!

But as yet, it feels a little like conjuring and directing fish. In mid air. I hope I get yesses. It’s not natural for them to hover up there for too long. I might lose one!

First of all, drumroll please, we have a clear favourite in the great print decision.

There were many votes – at coffee shops, at the market, online, from the casting of bones and, yay-verily, a little  tea-leaf reading… and so now I have a print for boys.

It came out Beautifully.

And not only but also… a bold foray into the realm of the future.

A Calendar! It is printed on beautiful thick paper that will stand in its clever case on your desk and features paintings and some never-before-seen drawings from my private collection. You will also see that it has the Koko Black rabbit – for those of you who have asked for an image of her! I’m so pleased with how it has turned out and I can’t wait to share it with you all. I’ll pop it into the shop next week. But if you can’t wait – it will be at the market tomorrow ready to find a new home and only $15.

The Wild Boys

The Climber

What do you think?

x elise

Drawn on Monday 14th February 2011 at Residential cafe with the boys sleeping in the pram by my side.

Hooray! My hands were having a good evening and let me draw a bit. Yes, still tingly and weird and sensitive and sore but – hooray!

She’s the Hummingirl. I have always been a huge fan of art nouveau hair – especially as drawn by Rackham. But by so many others too. My attempt is a bit shakey but so were the hands. In this case quick = good.

Mondoodle drawn in the lounge on a stack of cushions as the boys kicked my belly like crazy. The humming girl and I are both being very very patient.

Monday 17th January, 2011 at 10pm.

It’s fun to look back at some of my pictures and have a close peek at things in the background. As the pictures build so slowly, rarely being planned all at once or with a clear vision of the whole picture, these elements are often as important as the main focus. I loved doing these characters – the upright seal who takes his work very seriously and the romantic cat desperate to watch the serenade.  Technically there was some stuff that did need planning – leaving the whiskers, the light straps of the apron, working out the flow of light and dark across the figures so that they don’t pop too far forward, nor do they become too indistinct against the background.

Drawn in my Moleskines collection, book 4, I think.

And then I worked it out when I found out that today is Tuesday already. Genius. Funny how days sneak around on holiday…

Anyway, I was watching the latest Dr. Who Christmas special the other day and I found myself encountering what must be a common dilemma for artists. That moment you see someone using an idea you have had too – and you have that uncomfortable feeling that is a mixture of ‘No!‘ and slight resentment and yet begrudging (or wholehearted) happiness at watching someone playing with the same concept you like. Happily, I’ve learned to generally Not go all-fetal-in-the-corner when someone has a similar idea. They’re just out there. Maybe we watched the same thing, read the same book, connected the same dots, registered the same delight as a kid over something… Then things percolated, waiting for the right moment to fit in with other ideas, to find the vehicle that would let us play with them and give them voice… Occasionally someone kills one of my ideas by doing something just to damn similar, but generally you just have to wait it out, play with it further until it becomes yours again and remember that you probably got your idea from somewhere too, even if you don’t remember where. So you really shouldn’t get bent out of shape about it.

And what was it? Flying fish.

Here’s a bit of one of mine from a little while back.

Of course, there may be a time when I am sure someone has actually stolen an idea, then… feel my wrath! What is annoying is seeing someone copy something too closely – like all those ads on tv recently in the style of an Amelie memory clip – right down to visual effects, lighting, colour and the voice-over actor. Did they think no one would notice? There’s a big distinction between inspiration and borrowing. We must all make everything our own. It’s like using someone else’s photo from the internet as reference but not bothering to change it, incorporate an aspect into a different scene or make it new in any way. We all get material from somewhere. But the onus is definitely on us to be creative and bring something original to the party.

That wasn’t meant to be a rant! I think it may have turned into one. Sorry Long story short… I enjoyed the flying fish and will keep enjoying drawing and painting them myself too.

Have any of you experienced the same thing?

]]> http://www.elisehurst.com/journal/2010/12/mondoodle-28-12-2010/feed/ 4 http://www.elisehurst.com/journal/2010/11/mondoodle-15-11-2010/ http://www.elisehurst.com/journal/2010/11/mondoodle-15-11-2010/#comments Tue, 16 Nov 2010 02:28:35 +0000 elise http://www.elisehurst.com/journal/?p=1871 I still get a shock that it’s November. Which I think might have something to do with the reality that the boys are due in Feb (which I think will be mid Jan). And so I thought I’d draw some boys to help get me used to it. But after how they’ve been kicking me around… well, they definitely had to come out as wild things.

Perhaps the energy will wear off before they make their appearance… Or perhaps not.

Drawn late on Monday 15th November 2010 in the lounge, sitting somewhat awkwardly on the couch because there are no comfortable positions to be had any more.