Illustration Friday: "Sight"

"W-A-T-E-R"

One day in the spring of 1887 Helen Keller, then almost 7 years old, learned that there were names and words for everything.  Her teacher, Anne Sullivan, spelled the word "w-a-t-e-r" over and over into the palm of one of Helen's hands while running water over her other hand at the family pump.  Helen's world opened up and her life was changed forever.

I enjoyed reading about Helen this week while working on this illustration. Here are links to some of the sites I especially liked:

Helen Keller Kids Museum - Ask Keller
The Story of My Life.
Helen Keller - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Helen Keller Foundation for Research & Education

Morning warm-up

I wanted to toss out something fun before going on to the very regimented, perfect-edges-oriented work of the day.  Happy Tuesday!

Illustration Friday: "Jump"

For this illustration the foals were drawn with pen and ink.  The background and colors were done in Adobe Photoshop.

Illustration Friday: "Heights"

"Rapunzel, let down your golden hair!"

My idea for this week's prompt was to illustrate Rapunzel looking down at the prince from the heights of her tower.  Unfortunately I didn't get time to go any farther than this sketch!  I'll finish it though, and add it to the blog when it's done.  The weird circle at the top of the drawing was on the sketchbook page in ink so I couldn't get rid of it.  I figured nobody would ever see this sketch so it wouldn't matter! Anyway, please imagine that circle isn't there and I hope you like the drawing so far.  

First sketch of the prince

Illustration Friday: "Return"

The Return of Persephone

In Greek mythology, Demeter was the goddess of earth and agriculture as well as sister to the gods Zeus, Poseidon and Hades.  She had a beloved and beautiful daughter, Persephone.  Unbeknownst to Demeter, Zeus, king of the gods and Persephone's father, had agreed to let his brother Hades take Persephone as his bride.

One day, as Persephone was gathering flowers, the ground opened up and she was abducted by Hades, who was god of the underworld.  Demeter searched for her daughter and in her anger and grief refused to let anything grow upon the earth.  Zeus realized that the earth would soon perish and decided to arrange for Persephone's return.

As the story goes, if one ate anything while visiting the underworld they had to remain there forever.  When Hades learned that Persephone was to leave him, he offered her the seeds of a pomegranate to eat, and she ate a few.  Some versions of the myth suggest that Persephone had fallen in love with her husband and wanted to make sure she could go back to the underworld to be with him.

Zeus sent the messenger god Hermes to bring Persephone out of the underworld and return her to Demeter.  It was a joyous reunion!  Spring returned to the earth and once again there were lush plants, crops and grain.  But since Persephone had eaten the seeds, Demeter agreed that her daughter would spend three months a year with her husband in the underworld.

Winter comes every year during the time that Persephone is with Hades in the underworld, and when she returns to her mother Spring arrives again.

Medieval in ballpoint

I love medieval images.  And nice, non-blobby ballpoint pens.  Right now I'm using Bic Round Stic Grip in black fine point.  Nice!  This was scanned out of my sketchbook from this evening.

Illustration Friday: "Swamp"

I looked up swamp trees this week and thought they look just like they are wearing gowns that reflect in the water like they're on a marble ballroom floor!  This is a crow quill pen drawing on bristol board.