Illustration Friday: “Suspense”

Child + visually impaired grandma + clippers = SUSPENSE!

If you were a fairy….

Where would you live?

In November a friend, Rick, asked me to paint a picture for his little girl. He digs my style and wanted a picture made that incorporated Tinker Bell. His daughter is MAD for Tinker Bell. Not only was I flattered that he asked me to do this, but I was also nervous. The initial thought I had is my style and Tinker Bell do not go together at least not in an age-appropriate fashion. He chuckled at that Statement of Truth and was confident that I could pull it off.

Because of the hecticness of November, I got a late start on the painting. Then because of my nerves and previous experiences with doing these kinds of things for family, I kept thinking I cant do this!, “He’s going to hate it!”, “She’ll have nightmares!”, and so on. I didnt know what materials to use, I didnt know what colors to use, I didnt know what kind of landscape or background I needed, etc This is when I took in a breath and asked myself:

If you were a fairy, where would you live?

Hooray for an unbridled imagination! Channeling not my own inner little girl, but what I know from Ricks little girl, I started getting these images rapidly firing off in my head. Bursts of colors and happy and light and fun! Exciting and pretty! PINK PINK PINK! Sparkles! Glitter! I’m sure princesses and ponies belong in there somewhere. I do have to admit, working on this has been hella fun – his little girl is a GIRLY girl…possibly the girliest little girly girl I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting.

And so here I am, paint brush in hand, trying my best to piece together all those pictures in my brain, make one big picture, and slap a Tinker Bell on top! By the way, Tinker Bell has been giving me a hard time. Seriously. WHY am I having such a hard time drawing her?! I has taken me for-ev-er and I still don’t have her right.

Here is a glimpse at this WIP: