Me 'n Daddy do a Art Project - or - My Father's ABCs

 

My Father can draw. 

And I'm not talking - oh, he's good at Pictionary - I mean my Dad can really draw. No training, he does not have to work at it - it comes naturally. You know the black and white drawing of my house on the right on my blog? He drew that. It is an enviable skill, one I have to work very hard at. He's a lefty. Maybe that explains it.

We've been talking about doing a collaboration for a long time. The ideas we tossed back and forth never seemed to resonate for both of us. During my visit last Christmas we talked more about it and proposed an alphabet. We still tossed ideas back and forth. Then, when they visited last month, we went to Chanticleer and he was inspired:  an alphabet of flowers. 

He has been unstoppable. Apparently letters E-N are in the mail to me, currently I have A-D. But what do we want to do with it? Make a coloring book? Write verse to accompany it? We are leaning on coloring book considering the current craze -  and to that end I decided to sit down and see what I could do with "C". 

If we were going to do a coloring book - the letter could not be black. That goes without saying because people are part-tick-you-LER about their letters and colors. When I mention this to him - he said (in a tone of - details!), "oh, you can just get rid of that in the computer." Well, no, not quite so easy. What worked better was putting his original composition on a light table and tracing it out. 

Here is his beautiful original drawing for C - California Poppy.

  

In writing this blog post I see I need to scan the original again for my records since I saved over it after trying to erase the black. 

After tracing it, I scanned it again and printed the drawing out on Rives BFK, a favorite drawing paper. 

 

Then I dug out my dusty but trusty Prismacolor Pencil sets.   

 It has been years since I have used these. They were my primary tool as an artist in high school and undergrad. I had forgotten how much I love to apply color with them.

   

They blend beautifully and seamlessly. I loved to draw with them because I had so much more control than with paint. 

What a joy to be working with them once again. They can be layered to achieve so many tones. 

In spite of how excited I am about this, I have not had time to color what with too much work and all.

 

This evening I have arranged to finish coloring outside. It is a beautiful evening, cool and dry, there is a breeze, and someone in the neighborhood is cooking garlic. Mmmmmm. :)
In about an hour the fireflies will emerge.
What a perfect evening.