A Ghost of a Wedding Cake

A Ghost of a Wedding Cake
© Diana Ting Delosh
Black Medium Point Bic® Pen 

Miss Havisham's wedding cake has been standing as it was the day she was jilted. Over the years the frosting has hardened and now the cake is inhabited by spiders, centipedes, noseeums, rats, ants and is festooned in cobwebs and dead roses. A ghost of a wedding cake for a ghost of  bride. This illustration is inspired by the Charles Dickens novel, Great Expectations.

Something about Dickens made me think of doing a black and white illo. Originally I thought of using my trusty double zero rapidiograph pen to ink and brush on a wash but then I thought how well a ball point pen could do whisper thin lines -great for cobwebs. That clinched it. I decided to use a Black Medium Point Bic® Pen as my medium. I frequently use ball point pens to sketch with as they're just so handy and flexible. Depending on your pressure and the tooth of the paper you can get a variety of strokes from barely there to bold black. However using this as my medium on a Finished piece of art required me to shift my perspective on this everyday tool. I mean was it really OK? Sure it was fine for impromptu sketches but serious, planned, finished art? Sure, I mean why not? What do you think?

The above illo is in the CBIG Illustration Exhibit, A Celebration of Dickens in Pictures at the Yonkers Riverfront Library Gallery. The show will run from August 25th to October 31st, 2012.  The artists reception will be on September 13th. For a complete schedule of events for this show please visit cbig-nycexhibits.blogspot.com/ .

If you can't make it to the show my fellow exhibitors and I  will also be posting the art over on cbig-nyc.blogspot.com during the run of the show.

IF: BOUNCE!

Dancing Bunnies
ink and watercolor
© Diana Ting Delosh

Dancing bunnies don't just hop
They stand on their toes and twirl, twirl, twirl.
And If they fall they Bounce right back.

Here's my entry for the illustrationfriday.com weekly illo prompt.

Here's to bouncing back from all the missteps and mishaps that life throws at us.

PumpkinEater Promo Postcard

July2012 Postcard front & Back
Art on Front is © Diana Ting Delosh
Art on Back is from An Armful of Acorns © Farfaria
NOTE: I've smudged out some info out of privacy concerns
  

Opted to try the BIG postcard size for my latest postcard campaign. From what I have read on various sites and have heard from other illustrators/art directors and editors - the Big size stands out amongst all the postcards they receive. At almost double the size of the standard size postcard it had better.  They're just shy of 5.5 x 8.5 inches.

I had these printed via VistaPrint.com and as they were running a sale - even printing in color on both sides did not bust my budget. I must say I'm really pleased with how bright and vivid the colors are. Now postage of course is the 1st class rate so that did tack a bit more to the price. Is it worth it? I hope so, however as I just mailed these out it's too early to say. I am keeping my fingers crossed that they get noticed and pinned to that coveted bulletin board. I can even dream that they lead to an actual assignment.

Any other news? Well lots but unfortunately it's all still hush hush.

Mr & Mrs. Pumpkineater

Mr. & Mrs. Peter Pumpkineater,
© Diana Ting Delosh, Ink & Watercolor

Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater
had a wife  and couldn't keep her.
He put her in a pumpkin shell
and there he kept her very well.

Tah Dah! Here's the finished painting for Mr. & Mrs. Pumpkineater. Please view the previous post if you'd like to see the Work-In-Progress steps.

This painting will be part of a CBIG Mother Goose Exhibit, Dec 2012 - Jan 2013. Where all the original art will be for sale. Which sounds lovely except as I was watercoloring, I realized this meant I had to be extra careful as I didn't have Photoshop to fall back on to clean up any slips or drips. While the "hand of the artist" and slight human imperfections are fine - This would be it. What you see is what you get...But matted and framed of course.

I will still clean up the original art file in PS so I can make this image available as giclée art prints, cards  and possibly other  products.  It's a bit horrifying what imperfections appear when you blow up the 600 dpi scan to 200 percent. Splotches and stray marks appear that aren't seen by the naked eye on the original but somehow are there on the file and need to be cleaned up while leaving the human brushstrokes and quirky line and marks that gives it the charm of hand drawn and painted art.

In case you were wondering - the original physical art may be sold etc. BUT the COPYRIGHT still remains the property of the CREATOR unless it is specifically and formally transferred or licensed or sold.

Details about the CBIG Mother Goose show will be posted closer to the show date.