2 Works in Progress - Berry Tart, and Jesus

Nothing finished to show today. I took reference for something that ended up being a disaster, so I had to scrap the idea (for now) until I can do a re-shoot and start again. I've also been feeling a little under the weather (partly thanks to a weird piece of fruit, and the rest is thanks to the heat, I'm sure) and haven't been as productive as I'd like. But I do have two very different things 'on the board', and thought I'd share some work in progress shots so you can see what's happening.

First up is a little berry tart. These scanned so different, when in fact the only thing that's been worked on more is the criss-cross dough on the top one. I'm saving the filling to the end, because its going to be so much fun to do - its such a gorgeous color. This is also planned to be one of my Architectural Food pieces, showing the top (this view here), side, and cross section views. If all goes according to plan. If they don't work out I can always cut them off and just have this nice round tart all by itself! So far this is all Prismacolors, on Fabriano Artistico hot press paper.

Now, onto Jesus and the children. These are the first first first sketches, sitting with plain printer paper and a black ball point pen, with a cup of coffee, out on the porch. 

Working out the girl hugging Jesus.

It seems like there would be a crippled child in the scene. And a bird.

Maybe a girl carrying her little baby brother or sister. Also thinking about hair styles. A braid? Just tied back somehow?

I love fat little baby hands, reaching.

I like the idea of one kid hugging Jesus' hand, and kind of standing on his foot. Jesus doesn't care if you stand on his foot! haha  Also drew a little Down Syndrome boy, but then wasn't sure if that was too much. I want to show all kinds of kids, so that kids looking at the illustration will be able to relate.

A girl carrying her lamb. Or maybe he's a boy. Have to make sure the sandals don't look like flip flops!

This one looks like he's anointing someone. Need to work out what that arm's doing. Not sure if I want it to just be 'down', or like he's saying "hey, Jesus!".

Just walking. Getting the feet just right, especially from the back, is tricky.

A little boy and his . . . sister? Not sure how many of these kids will be in this illustration, but the one's that don't make it in will show up in another piece, somewhere, eventually.

Its fun to just imagine a scene like this, and what it was really like. 

So that's what I'm up to. Hopefully next time I'll have a little more to share. Hope its cool where you are!