another project completed...

i haven't been lazy, you know... between kids, home owning, halo, marriage life, and everything in between, i've managed to do a bit of art here and there... around january 2007 [yes, over a year ago], theresa had a wonderful idea of getting 6 ladies together to do a paperbag swag book project... we each start out with a book and decorate it... then we send it to one of the members and they decorate a spread... this keeps happening until all 5 other members decorate your book... while this project was to take 6 months, we managed to spread it out to 16 months... as you can see the books are getting pretty fat...

i only have 2 more books to illustrate... although, today one is being sent off, COMPLETED!! i've been stuck on mimi's book for 9 months and can proudly say, it's something [hopefully] worth the wait... the above photo is the inside of my spread.... or rather, it's the outside... when you pull the flower, you see the illustrations...

like this....

now, mimi is one awesome dollmaker... "mimi likes to sew".... she even made miss isabella a darling sweater baby that sleeps with her nightly... i wanted to do an illustration of mimi sewing one of these dolls and managed to make a decent layout [after upteen attempts] portraying this talent of hers... the lil doll is under 2" tall...

and "mimi likes to travel"... although i'm not sure if she's been to paris, this illustration was the easiest and most fun to create... simple colors, simple design, and simple layout... this one is my favorite especially since i've had that background paper forever and FINALLY found a good use for it....

"mimi likes to garden"... i think she does... at least, all her dolls have beautifully embroidered felted flowers... she takes pictures of her dolls in gardens... i wanted this spread to emulate these factors so hopefully it panned out as so... this was the doll that inspired the spread most...

and lastly, "mimi likes herself'... why shouldn't she? she is a wonderfully talented woman who creates the most unique and well crafted dolls around... she is sweet and tenderhearted [and oh- so- patient]... her book theme was called identity and while i tried to portray this theme throughout all the illustrations [by showing what makes her mimi], this was also meant to show her joyfulness...

when you open up all the pages, it looks like this... while each person in the paperbag swag project was to illustrate only one spread, a trend began on how to add pages TO those pages... i think it began here and soon became the norm... it's been a fun project thus far but we are all looking forward to wrapping it up and seeing our own book again....

there will be several posts this week to make up for my lack of rambling... but hope  you enjoy this wonderfully new week!!!! the hill family will :)

Comments

[simone]

I am a big fan of Mimi's too! I am the proud owner of one of Mimi's fabric postcards. I am also a fan of Ellia Hill who does the most amazing cut paper illustrations!!!!!!!! I am sure Mimi will be delighted with her book.

[cindy k]

that book is absolutely fantastic!! you are so talented. mimi's very lucky.

[Jen]

I love EVERY illustration in that book! Especially the sew and garden one!
If you ever take custom orders (in your SPARE time-- HA!) please let me know! I'd love those two illustrations for myself. :) (Minus the "Mimi" of course!)

GREAT work, as usual!!

[Root & Sprout]

WOW! WOW! WOW!!

I am so impressed!! Your work never ceases to amaze me!! I'm totally hiring you to illustrate my WIP book! ;-)

(BTW - it's ME, Lis Garrett)

[Aletha]

Great job supergirl!

[mimi k]

It looks so beautiful! And you got everything right- travel, gardening and all. You could have done a page, Mimi likes her stuff and made a very MESSY page! I am so happy that the project is back on track. I received Kristen's book yesterday from Theresa. I am so excited to see the book in person :-)