Lara grows here: The story of an original baby name
I am grateful for every moment that I get to spend with a paintbrush in my hand. Funnily enough - and contrast to popular belief - I spend far less time painting than not painting. There are so many other hats that one has to wear to keep the ship afloat! Here’s the honest truth about being a full-time artist: Creating art does not pay the bills. Selling art does. To sell art takes time, effort and money and a whole different skillset compared to the creating-part.
A lot of those precious paintbrush-yielding moments can be quite challenging: The Creating Art Hat needs a quiet head to perch on. Switching between the many Other Responsibilities Hats is not conducive to a quiet head…
But, every so often, I get to work on something truly special. Something that draws me in like a good book. A book so good that I can’t put it down! No matter what I was doing before (or which hat I was wearing), once I open that book, everything else melts away into meaningless nothingness. All there is, is this book right now and its mesmerising story!
Lara’s garden-themed, hand-painted baby name was a very, very good book! Perhaps it was the fact that my client gave me total creative freedom (apart from firing the praying mantis in my concept sketch, due to an immense phobia — which I totally empathise with, since I’m inexplicably horrified-to-my-core by grasshoppers!); perhaps it was the playful, naive style that is far less pressure-inducing than my usual photo-realistic wildlife art; maybe it was simply all the delightful little critters that appealed to my nature-and-garden-loving soul… Whatever it was - from start to finish - this “book” was an absolute joy to create!
I completed this piece just as baby Lara made her arrival into this wild and wonderful world. It is very rewarding indeed to know that she will grow with my painting watching over her as she scripts the chapters of her life…
Unbeknownst to me, hubby Alex took a pic of me while I was tracing Lara's concept sketch onto my fancy watercolour paper (why yes, I look like a spider monkey...). Watercolour paper does not take kindly to too much erasing, so I do the sketch on "normal" paper first so that I can scribble, erase and redo to my heart's content! Once approved, I then lightly trace my sketch onto the paper that I will actually paint on.
My favourite little character!!!
Oh no, wait... The chameleon is my favourite now!
The process of the poppy...
Okay, so now the Cape Robin-chat is my favourite........
DONE, and beautifully framed by my hubby, Alex.
Left: The praying mantis from my concept sketch. Right: The kindly snail that got the job instead!
It was pretty terrifying adding the letters in after the entire illustration was complete... But, I wanted her name to really look like it was painted onto the wooden sign board. Watercolour is actually great for this -- since it's transparent, the details of the wood showed through the purple letters! I also only decided on the colour of the letters once I finished all the flowers. It was important for the name to stand out, but not overpower the garden.
When your husband is your camera man, and he flirts with your to produce a natural smile... Well, that backfired!
Aah, now that looks a bit more like a normal person... ;)
If you aren't able to wait, consider a gift from my SA Animal Alphabet range: Each letter was hand-painted and scanned in to 'build' names and posters. You get the detail and charm of an original illustration, but much faster -- and at a fraction of the cost!
