A while back, we read an article about Sarah and David Dalton, who came to New York in the early 60s when they were in their teens and met Andy Warhol. Warhol was just starting to paint, and he invited them to his house to see his paintings. While there, he drew a picture of Sarah with a bird putting its beak in her mouth. It sounded intriguing, but we couldn’t find any images of it online. So we did our own.
Of course we can’t find the link now (if we do, we’ll update this post:).
© 2011 John & Wendy
We’ve been experimenting quite a bit lately, combining drawings and photos, playing with Photoshop filters, and just generally letting loose. And we’re kinda liking some of the results.
Flowers. The sidewalk. Leaves. Wood grain. Grates. Clouds. For years we’ve been taking photos of textures and patterns, for no particular reason, just thinking they were appealing and might be useful someday. This could be why.
And sometimes the pictures tell the whole story.
We’ve recently started posting a story told entirely in pictures on every day john & wendy, our first and most eclectic blog (think scrapbook). It’s called “Diary of a Duck,” and as you can see, our hero has a bit of a problem. We’ve been posting an episode every few days, comicbook-style. If you’d like to follow the as of yet unnamed* duck’s adventures, you can get started here.
* suggestions welcome.
This is one of the sketches we sent for the cover of the latest volume of the chapter book series we have been illustrating since 2002.
The brief was for Katie to look awkward as she cheers her school on. For us, awkwardness always starts with the feet. Get them turned in and it adds instant tension to the whole pose.
Working with the limited color palette was fun. And it matched Katie’s shoes!
The finished art was done with watercolor and colored pencil.
It’s a new year. Bring on the glitter!
