Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Preliminary Sketches - Waterplants

With my friend Bronia we are working on one of her new and wonderful stories, and these are the preliminary sketches for illustrations. They are done in my Moleskine notebook, which I take everywhere. This notebook is like a well. It brings up ideas and intuitive drawing and Miss Doodle, of course, it also "hosts" the Metroheads. The notebook is my treasure trunk...

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14 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love little sketchbooks and really love looking inside other people's. I'm beginning to illustrating a book for a friend too! Thanks for sharing these first pictures :)

Andrea and Kim said...

...and now you are doing story illustrations. Now how much fun is that?

Andrea, I really love this so much...these watery paintings are so beautiful. This moleskine is really a treasure...but I feel that way about those notebooks, too. They command true treasures, but yours are far more than that!

Andrea, have you noticed how your paintings are turning a corner? This one and the one showing the ink curve are really wonderful and to me are showing a different focus and an even greater (if that is possible) depth. Have you noted that?

Thanks so much, Andrea.

Unknown said...

Jess, thanks and that is great news! and you are welcome, I sometimes find that in notebooks we let completely go and our imagination can fly...

sukipoet said...

I love what you say about your notebook, that it is like a well. These sketches are just so lovely, the lines, the colors. I agree with Kim that your recent watercolors and sketches have a marvelous depth to them. Thank you for sharing your well waters with us.

Unknown said...

Kim and Suki, thanks so much for your rich comments which are treasures for me, like the moleskine notebook!
It's so great to be able to share every bit of development with you, so fun that you noted a change because over the weekend I have been studying two books written by two great French watercolour painters and I just had something like a brainwave! which made me say: this is how I want to be able to express myself, with light colour and shadow.... And then came the everpresent self-doubt: "Oh I will never be as good as they are". A day later I thought "rubbish" and so I went to work, and its really work cause I have to read about colourtheory and re-arrange my pallette. Reading technical things while not painting is not my specialty:) But I feel that I have to do it in order to advance.
So, these two notebook pages and yesterday's painting are the start of a new adventure and your comment make me sing and be hopefull that it can be managed to sooner or later, paint the things we have in our heads, if we perseverate! In fact, everything is in this word. Thanks for all your insights
love
Andrea

Lynn Cohen said...

Such a good feeling that goes with these watery plants/paintings. They will be delightful in a book.
I was surprised to enlarge the picture to find that some of your writing there was in English.
Your notebook/sketchbook holds much of your creative life. What a treasure it will be years from now to look back upon.

Anonymous said...

Heute mal auf deutsch weil ich nicht weis wie ich dir in englisch sagen kann wie wundervoll ich deine Aquarelle finde. Schatten, und dunkle Partien und alles so klar. Ich weis wie schwierig das ist. Wie sagt man in Paris? Chapeaux!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Unknown said...

Lynn,thanks for visiting and yes, some notes are in English, many in German, some in French, as I constantly work with these languages, the "inner brainstormings" are like that:)
love
Andrea

Unknown said...

Martine, es ist auch schön, Dich in Deutsch zu lesen! Ich wünschte, ich könnte Holländisch! Verstehen kann ich grade ein wenig, wenn ich es lese, aber das ist auch schon alles.

Und, ja, Aquarellmalerei ist für mich DIE grosse Herausforderung und Entdeckungsreise...

Cris, Artist in Oregon said...

Oh I missed this some how. bummer. It is wonderful. I love peeking into others sketch books too. I need to come back again and really check these out. But I like that you take your moleskin with you every where. I need to keep mine with me. I get ideas and they slip away if I dont put them down.

Unknown said...

Cris yes, that is exactly what ideas do if we don't fix them somewhere: they slip away. Even if you think while having thme" wow that's a great idea, I don't need to write this one down, it is so great I'll never forget it"...and oups, three minutes afterwards you are already thinking about another great idea, completely forgetting the first.
Vive les notesbooks:):)

Anonymous said...

Wie schön! Auch deine Mohnblumen gefallen mir sehr und Miss Doodle "en boites" ist köstlich! Letzten Samstag habe ich Pastellkreiden hergestellt und heute ausprobiert-die ersten Versuche sind eher naja, aber es macht mächtig Freude und mit etwas Uebung entsteht bestimmt bald Ansehnlicheres.

Liebe Grüsse und ein schönes Wochenende
Christina

Anonymous said...

je suis admirative de la diversité de ton travail,
cette planche est pleine de fraicheur , la difficulté ensuite sera peut-être de garder toute la spontanéité de cette étude?

Unknown said...

Flo, merci pour ta visite et tes mots, c'est bien vu car c'est exactement avec cela que je me bats, da reproduire une spontanéité là où je ne suis pas spontanée:)
à bientôt
Andrea