Return of the 52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 1

Week 1: Fairy Tale

Facebook Friend Tania McCartney is running the 52-Week Illustration Challenge again in 2015. My first effort (above) is Little Red Riding Hood: a watercoloured artwork on dampened watercolour paper. Outlined in black Sharpie - freehand with no pencil lines.

I shall be adding the artworks to this Flickr slideshow each week. Enjoy!

I did the Challenge in its inaugural year, which saw its membership surpass 2500 members! (2728 at last count!) Last year, I got into a fairly good routine of painting on a Sunday afternoon (and perhaps a little tinkering the next night), then creating the scan or digital photo so I'd be ready to post to the Challenge's Facebook page at midnight on the Tuesday. Of course, originally, I had no intention of doing a second artwork each week. I started getting intensely jealous of people putting up multiple works of a theme... so now, if inspiration strikes, I'll alway do more. I'm looking forward to seeing who's still here - and how artistic we all feel - in another year's time!

Update:

Week 1: Fairy Tale II

Peter Pan. Charcoal sketch of my Chicago actor pal, James Edward Dauphin, from a publicity shot of his featured stage role. In a costume he designed himself. Highlights in green oil pastel.

Week 1: Fairy Tale III

The Witch - of numerous fairy tales - as portrayed by Meryl Streep in 'Into the Woods'. Charcoal over watercolour wash on A3 watercolour paper. Based on a publicity photo.

I saw the movie, Into the Woods, on Sunday night and that particular image of Meryl Streep as The Witch has been haunting me ever since. I did exaggerate her nose because she was looking too pretty. I was excited by the randomness of the watercolour wash. Just as it was close to drying, I patted off excess green in the centre, with a scrunched paper towel, guessing where the face needed to be. Then I kept reorienting the paper, trying to decide which way was "up". Working with charcoal takes me back to the late 70s/early 80s. Nostalgia plus!