My Summer Hat

Back in the mists of time--was it October?--I hung up my summer hat on a  conveniently placed nail. It's still there. When will I wear it again? Come, Spring, come!

Getting the Hang of It

Every time I make a small book for my Storydello blog, I think, "Finally, I'm getting the hang of this." And then it becomes clear that I've still got a long way to go.

Each entry takes a lot of steps, and each book is just a bit different from the others, so I'm constantly tweaking things, and getting mixed up, and feeling confused.

But three of the steps have settled into a happy routine, and you can see them all in this picture: 1) place the text on the page, 2) work the pencil drawings around it, and 3) trace the results in ink, using a lightbox.

If the remaining fifty steps would fall into a nice neat pattern, I'd be all set!

Getting it Wrong

It's annoying-but-true that it can be a good thing to screw up. For about two hours, I was satisfied with my first attempt at these bugs from my Insect Alphabet. Then I wasn't. A green grasshopper against a green background may be good camouflage in real life, but it doesn't make for a good picture. Ditto for the fly, who seemed to be floating in mid-air against a weird background--a dead fern and a stick. What's that all about? 

Getting it wrong forced me to stop and think. A plainer background, in yellow and brown, would make the grasshopper stand out more.  And if I put the fly on a plain white background, it would look as if he was crawling across the page (or screen.) Because I lead a sheltered life, this struck me as brilliant and hilarious, and I thoroughly enjoyed doing that revision. 

It just goes to prove, for the umpteenth time, the annoying fact that getting it wrong can lead to getting it right.