Home and dry!

At least, Christian & Hopeful are. 

I still need to do corrections, hand letter any text in the illustrations (signs etc), flatten all my paintings (my patent post-painting stretching method is annoyingly not working as well as it has in the past) and scan them...

But still - 72 paintings!

Normal service will be resumed shortly.

As I have a deadline for my Pilgrim's Progress book at the end of the month, I think I'd better concentrate on that!

A rather cheerier painting

The four sisters in the Beautiful Palace: Good Judgement, Careful, Godly and Love (aka Discretion, Prudence, Piety and Charity in the original.)

Valley of the shadow of death

Well, this was a tricky one!

Has to be dark enough, but not so dark you can't see anything.

I really like the cliffs; unfortunately a lot of the bottom will be covered by a flat black area for the text. As it will be published in several languages, all text must be in black. This is because the text is done on a separate printing plate which can then be replaced to translate it. However, I have discovered it will be OK to have white text on a black background here. A pale area at the bottom would rather have spoiled the effect.

Work in progress

And the advantages of having a dining table which unfolds to twice the size (and an understanding family :-) )

Summer

Last night, 10pm

Lots more pictures

It was worth doing some simple ones, as it made me feel I was getting somewhere. So the many hours spent on the last one weren't so bad. 

I do feel I'm getting the hang of what I'm doing a bit better. It's 3 years since I did my last lot of watercolour illustrations - no wonder I was forgetting what to do!

The style's still a bit all over the place, though; the sad picture is far more 3D, for example. It's the more realistic style that's throwing me; I'm much more comfortable with the stylised watercolour pics I've done in the past.

Aaaargh! It's so difficult to lay out pictures in Blogger!

Another PP Painting

Sex Crazy, Wants Everything She Sees, & Wishes to Appear Important
(aka Lust of the Flesh, Lust of the Eyes, & Pride of Life)

The problem with doing so much artwork on the computer

is that you end up wanting to 'undo' when painting.

Painting

As I've now got the book layout more or less corrected (i.e. altering layouts so arms no longer cross the gutter - oops!), I can finally start properly with the painting. :-)

Stubborn and Changeable (aka Obstinate and Pliable in the original)