Books about Reality: How to write Reality?

I perused a library, its young adult section brimming with books. Books set in the past and future, but mostly set in fictional universes in which our hero discovers she/he is the Chosen with great powers and given some important purpose.

(Here is ChatGPT's cover to a "YA novel in a medieval fantasy world with a teen who is the Chosen One)

In that they are not wrong. In fact, the cliche works because there is so much truth in it. It resonates with some part of the unjaded little souls because the resonant frequency programmed into them senses some truth.

Each of us is breathed in by the Breath of God, created for a mission and a calling, sent forth into a world at war between Evil and Good. Evil beyond our comprehension and Good beyond our wildest imagining.

But what struck me was how young a lot of the authors looked in their back-jacket pictures. It may be simply photoshop or judicious use of sunscreen, but a lot of those authors looked to be in their twenties. In your twenties, writing books that teens read that will shape their understanding of the structure of reality. 

As far as the book-jackets could show, these young authors didn't seem to be war veterans, or peace-keepers from soup kitchens, coming out of the trenches of war or humanitarian aid, with lots to tell of what they had seen. A lot of them seemed like just young people themselves who gathered their ideas about the world from other young adult novels they had spent the last decade reading.

The serpent is eating its tail. 

The AI is creating answers based on its own answers. 

The computer program is stuck in a loop, recursively spitting out its cyclic version of reality.

George R. Martin, comic book nerd and draft dodger, tells other comic book nerds what true gritty war is like, from a lifetime of consuming novels and comic books.  

In contrast, by the time J.R.R Tolkien wrote The Hobbit he had fought in a world war, grieved his best friends, convinced his teenage crush to marry him, held down a job interacting with other humans, raised 4 kids, and then was sending The Hobbit in chapters to encourage his son fighting another world war. 

He had seen a lot. He had experienced a lot. He had interacted with others who had experienced a lot.

He'd lived. 

(It's possible George R Martin maybe based his stories on actual stories of his fellow men who did go and fight in wars that he didn't believe in. I don't know, I haven't read his novels. I know he did consume a vast amount of fiction & comics, by his own account. But if I had a choice of hearing about war from the minstrel, or the soldier, I'd rather pick the soldier. Guns Up or something by a man of George's generation who actually fought)

When people write to escape their lives, their works by definition are all conjecture. The brain must draw on something.

The Bronte sisters, stuck on the moor in a small village, consuming a lot of gothic novels, wrote of what they didn't know. Thus we have fantastical stories woven mostly of threads from other gothic novels, forgettable works like Emily Bronte's "Wuthering Heights" which felt like sticking my head into an AI simulator or a surreal nightmare. A simulator in which an introverted pastor's daughter wrote what she thought it might be like to be embroiled in a tormented paranormal gothic romance.

And then we have her sister Charlotte's more enduring "Jane Eyre" in which she blends a lot more of her own experience into the gothic nightmare. Now we have a very real childhood friendship as one of them dies of consumption (her sister),  the warm mission-minded family with the driven Greek-studying boy in love with the idea of India, the gossipy maid, the real people woven into the strange nightmare. And thus, Jane Eyre has just enough realism in it to maybe make the gothic nightmare worth it. 

Then there is Jane Austen, another nerdy pastor's daughter, who in her own words "writes on 2 inches of ivory." She knew she was limited to write what she knew, and she did it so well that those people she knew still come to life in her pages. You can even chart the same characters, as she looks back on them with older eyes, change and morph throughout her novels. I found her "Pride and Prejuidice" penned at 21, to have the flattest characters. Her later books, reincarnations of those same characters become every more deeper. She finally forgives Mrs. Bennet and gives her a whole book as the protoganist (Emma). 

L. M. Montgomery's genius was writing her own village church people....Anne of Green Gables, Rilla of  Ingleside...all the side characters, all the real people she wove into her stories....now, nearly 200 years later I can love her nosy neighbor, and laugh and cry over the struggles of this small town in the throes of being the homefront in WWI. The most forgettable of her stories are the ones I suspect she strayed most from her lived experience "Anne's House of Dreams", where as the romantic writer proposes to the girl with the floorlength hair of swirling gold, it feels like we really have wandered into one of Anne's dreams. Give me Ken and Rilla's awkward date on the porch while Old Susan crashes the party and starts sharing embarrassing stories of them as children. One of those scenes felt so much realer, because I would bet $100, it was.

Can young people write good books, my son asks? Is it required to actually live everything you write about? No. Tolkien didn't become king, or destroy a ring of power. 

But on some level the stories (and people) we write must come from somewhere. 

1. Your life of the life of someone you know [primary]
2. The life of someone else who wrote about it [secondary]
3. The novel of someone you hope got it from reality, or at least, another novel based in reality.

Obviously, even 1 & 2 have some level of distortion, in that we are interpreting reality all the time, trying to make sense of it. That's what writing is.

Books about reality

In no particular order

Autobiographies---Primary Sources

• The Word Came with Power
• Search for the Source by Neil T. Anderson
• ?Mission Possible by Marilyn Lazlo
• Guns Up, Johnnie M Clark
• ??Korean War book
• ?book by Amy Carmichal? Mimosa?
• The Cross and the Switchblade
• Through the Valley of the Kwai
• Guadalcanal Diary
• Laura Ingalls Wilder books, Farmer Boy
• Caddie Woodlawn
• First 2 Ralph Moody Books [Little Britches, Man of the Family]
• Water by the Inch
• Cheaper by the Dozen
• The Hiding Place
• ?Surviving the Angel of Death by Eva Moses Kor
• ?Leap into Darkness, by Leo Bretholz
• ?Diary of Anne Frank
• In God’s Underground/With Christ in the communist prisons by Richard Wurmrand
• Pastor’s Wife by Sabina Wurmbrand
• Between Hammer and Sickle by Mihai Wurmbrand
• If Prison Walls Could Speak & With God in Solitary Confinement by Richard Wurmrand
• ?Gulag Archipelago
• Son of Hamas
• Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus
• ??Unbroken, Louis Zamperini
• Joker One 
• Guns Up by Johnnie M. Clark
• The Search for the Source by Neil Andersen
• Yoneko, rice child, daughter of happiness by Yoneko Tahara
• ????Daylight must come.
• ????The insanity of God

Biographies

• Joan of Arc: Her Story by Regine Pernoud
• Kit Carson by Ralph Moody
• ?Christopher coulubus by Fernando Aresto
• ?Mary Lincoln by Ruth Painter Randall
• ?William Wilberforce, by Eric Metaxes
• William Wilberforce by Belmonte
• ???TO the golden shore, [adoniram Judson] by Courtney Anderson
• Never Say Die (Gladys Aylward) by Cyril Davies
• Sundar Singh by Cyril Davies
• Vanya: A True Story by Myrna Grant
• Rees Howells Intercessor
• ?[something about Francis Xavier]
• ?[Something about John Donne]
• ?Wounded Tiger by

Epics & Legends & Ballads

• Illiad & Odyssey
• Beowulf
• Song of Roland
• Silmarillion
• The Lord of the Rings
• George MacDonald The Golden Key
• Fairy tales (Lang, irish one, etc)
• ???Viking Sagas???
• Demon Lover, Wanderer, [Medieval Ballads]
• Ballad of the White Horse

Novels

• All the Trailblazer books (Dave and Neta Jackson) especially “Bandit of Asheley Downs” and “Listen for the Whippoorwill” and “Captured by the River Rats”
• God King by Joanne Williamson
• The Lantern Bearers by Rosemary Sutcliff
• Narnia Books CS Lewis
• CS Lewis’ space trilogy
• Till We Have Faces by CS Lewis
• The Lord of the Rings & The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien
• Roll of Thunder, Hear my cry
• To Kill a Mockingbird
• Tell me a riddle, by Tillie Olsen
• Chesterton’s Father Brown Mysteries, Four Faultess Felons, Man Who Was Thursday
• George MacDonald something
• Bronze Bow by Elisabeth George Speare
• Rolf and the Viking Bow by Allen French
• Cry the Beloved Country
• Crime and Punishment
• Number the Stars 
• Allegiance & Choices of One by Timothy Zahn [Star Wars]
• [The Giver]
• Anne of Green Gables series by L. M. Montgomery
• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
• Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Emma etc by Jane Austen
• Enemy Brothers by Constance Savery
• Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
• Mark Twain's Joan of Arc
• ?Jane Eyre? mixed feelings on this. It's a Christian response to a gothic novel, but it's still a gothic novel....my favorite characters die
• ???Starship Troopers
• ????something by Isaac Asimov?
• The Eighth Arrow
• Strangers and Sojourners & Plague Journal by Michael D. O'Brien
• Sophia House by Michael D. O'Brien
• 
  

MORE BOOK RECCOMENDATIONS from a friend. ( I haven't read all of these yet)

For kids and teens to read:

Peter Rabbit

Charlotte's Web

Trumpet of the Swan

Tom Sawyer

Little Women

Little Men (others if desired, Jo's Boys, Eight Cousins, and Old Fashioned Girl are among the next best) 

Alice in Wonderland 

Through the Looking Glass

Mrs. Frisby and Rats of Nihm 

Treasures of the Snow, other St. John

Peter Pan

The Secret Garden

The Little Princess

Treasure Island, other Stevenson

Mother Goose

Aesop's Fables 

Heidi

Robin Hood, Arthur, myths, fairy tales

Sherlock Holmes

Father Brown

Caddie Woodlawn

(Black Beauty)

(Black Stallion) 

The Princess and the Goblin 

The Princess and Curdie 

Narnia

Hobbit/LotR

Wind in the Willows 

Old Yeller

Where the Red Fern Grows

Little House on the Prairie 

Phantom Tollbooth 

Just So Stories or other Kipling

Winnie the Pooh

Sarah, Plain and Tall 

Skylark (other sequels, too, if interested)

Little Britches 

The Great Brain

Penderwicks and sequels

Anything by Robert McCloskey 

Dr. Doolittle?

(Pinocchio)

The Railway Children, other Nesbit 

Pollyanna

Witch of Blackbird Pond

Cheaper by the Dozen

Boxcar Children, first 19 only

Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys? At least one each

Sadako and the 1000 Cranes

Frindle, other by Clements if desired

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Anne of Green Gables, sequels and others if interested

Christmas Carol

Scarlet Pimpernel

All of a Kind Family

Brighto of the Grand Canyon, other Henry if interested

Captain's Courageous

Johnny Tremain

The Bible

The Westing Game

Little Pilgrim's Progress by Taylor

Original American Girl books

Chronicles of Prydain

The Little Engine that Could 

Velveteen Rabbit

Wizard of Oz

101 Dalmatians 

Mary Poppins

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Carry on Mr Bowditch

My Side of the Mountain

Call of the Wild

White Fang 

Incredible Journey

Tale of Despereaux

Jules Verne

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm

Understood Betsy

Older kids (~10+):

Huckleberry Finn 

Jane Eyre

Watership Down

Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Other C.S. Lewis

Cry, the Beloved Country

Any Jane Austen

Tale of Two Cities 

Anne Frank

Ender's Game

Pilgrim's Progress 

Agatha Christie

Dorothy Sayers

Robinson Crusoe

Swiss Family Robinson

To Kill a Mockingbird

Three Musketeers 

Count of Monte Cristo

Crime and Punishment

Frankenstein

Shakespeare

Gulliver's Travels

Importance of Being Earnest, other Wilde

The Giver and sequels

1984

(Animal Farm) 

Brave New World

Lord of the Flies

The Great Gatsby

(Grapes of Wrath) 

Uncle Tom's Cabin

The Scarlet Letter

(North and South) I've read another by her that was good.

Cranford

Pygmalion (My Fair Lady)

(Last of the Mohicans)

00000000000000

recommended by random ppl on the internet

Gay girl good God (Jackie Hill Perry)

Prison saved my life (Louis Dooley and Heidi Gruber O'Very

The Insanity of God (Nik Rripken)

Patrick of Ireland (Michael AG Haykin)

?????https://www.kevinhalloran.net/best-christian-biographies/  literally googled this, have no idea who this guy is

So that His blood could Un-Zerg Us

Reposting I think the best post I ever wrote.

http://makingrivendell.blogspot.com/2013/09/of-zerg-and-protoss-or-why-jesus-came.html

Arwen's Bloodred Gown or Requiem Gown: Planning and Studying

I was too tired to really make anything today (well, other than take the kids grocery shopping IN MY GONDOR MEI TAI CARRIER and changing diapers), so I spent up my valuable free time writing this post and looking at pictures.
(Something I have found, is if I want to actually make something, I must not connect the internet or turn on my computer that day.)

My last-priority of the 'SHB sewalong' projects (which is in fact, not for a SHB...although I suppose being a maternity version, the SHB is inside it somewhere...) was a nursing-maternity dress inspired by Arwen's Bloodred dress/Requiem dress from Lord of the Rings movies. (As I have noted before, Arwen's gowns make great maternity dresses...)

So now, a write up and analysis of all those pictures I've saved to my computer from hours and hours of wasted time on the internet, most of done years ago.

Firstly, the bloodred dress is just a better fitting (to the actress) version of the requiem dress, but in different colors.
Note:

Not falling off.

Falling off.

They're fundamentally the same except the requiem dress looks 2 sizes too big)
So I shall refer to them interchangeably.


In my hours of time wasted looking at pretty dresses research, I noticed that often costumes just look better/different when on screen on the moviestars who don't actually do the full range of movement (e.g. Arwen just sort of stood when wearing the bloodred dress. It's far too long to walk in. Or her "Bridge dress" I have heard reported that when made screen-faithfully, gapes like crazy at the neck, then again, she was just standing just so for 10 minutes during filming.)


So before actually making something from a movie, I go and look up other people's reproductions, (Here is a place to start, the alleyscratch scrapbook. You can also find the correct names for each dress on alleyscratch and just google search them, and you get fan's reproductions.)  and see which ones I think look good, and which ones I think don't. I have found it actually isn't really dependent on sewing skills or even expensive materials, but the ones

Of Heroes and Singing Crocodiles

Isaiah wanders around the backyard, purposefully, carrying this watergun and singing his rendition of Mumford and Son's "The Cave". He's being "Jim". All from here.

 Its amazing how stories, especially stories of heroes, shape a kid.   Any man in a mech suit, or anything that could resemble a mech suit (generic astronauts) are "Jim." It makes his "Reach for the Stars" shirt with a astronaut that much cooler, its his "Jim shirt."

He also loves Captain America, and Saint George, sometimes conflating the two, with Captain America killing a dragon.

We had a day that was cold enough for me to subject them to their hats. Keziah would have none of it, but Jenny obliged.

Grandpa was teaching Isaiah how to hit the T-ball. Jenny kept being disturbed whenever Isaiah knocked the ball off the stand. "No, duh ball be ON"

Keziah was oblivious to the dilemma. Now that she was free of the tyranny of the hat, all was well.

On a sunnier day, I decided to photograph some of the circlets I was working on for my etsy shop (yet to be opened). Her is my Arwen Evenstar, modeling them for me.

After I was done photographing Arwen, I turned and saw Keziah, looking at me for moral reflection, as she pondered going after a fallen orange....You know she is figuring out forbidden and not-forbidden at this point, give the little guilty look she shoots you before she goes into the cat water dish or picks up a fallen orange...

Keziah also bounced up and down whenever we pray (we sing Praise God for dinnertime, and various other tunes for lunch, etc). She even stops fussing for food, and silently bounces, often with a big grin on. It is her contribution.

The other day, Jenny heard the whine of a machine.
Jenny: Mommy, what is going on? Is dat a crocodile singing?
Me: No, I think its a lawnmower
Jenny: (very confidently) No, its a crocodile singing.

Isaiah continues to make up stories and retell stories, often reapplying them to various situations in his life. The other day, I was in the other room, and I heard Jenny getting very upset.

Jenny: "Mommy! Idaiah took the peawls fwom Gamma Beawr!!"

He usually doesn't go after her stuffed animals, much less their jewelry. I voiced some commands and threats, no response.

I went into the other room, and saw him holding the pearls and a pair of toy pliers, oblivious to the indignant Jenny, saying to himself "...an a pair of scissors cut duh pearls, and two flour covered hands caught duh pearls..." (From Richard Scarry's The Great Steamboat Mystery)

Stories, they make such a huge part of his world....

Joseph of Arimathea

Adonai, I was silent, and believed.
Silence and belief ---which the greater sin?
I waited waited waited ---till the time was right to reveal
what I knew, inside
Bide Bide Bide
'Wisdom', 'Forbearance'---failure I
called it such, and did not speak...
God, I failed.

Now at last, too late, too late
He is dead.

I waited to tell men, till ---when?
Now. too late.
But I, Now will go. Tell them.
And bury him.
All I have left, all I can do,
bury him.

I gave You not my words
I give You now my tomb

Holy God, Forgive,
I failed You.
Too late, too cautious, too coward
now I
Bind him with these failed hands,
Wrap the linen, pour the myrr
These hands that touch your dead flesh
loved you, Lord.

(from  Aug 2011)

picture credit

Making My Room Like Rivendell part 3: Thoughts on Making Elven Banners

I must make this. applique trees and leaves etc (w/ heat n bond, I have no shame. The elves probably had cool stuff) maybe outlined in silver stem stitch? Definitely do the scrollwork with couched silver cord.

 

Just looked up some more pictures. They totally used paint. Guess that's medieval enough. I guess I will too. Def not puff paint though....

Definitely paint there....

Ok, so just looked at these helpful links of other fellow banner makers on alleyscratch

After looking at various recreations, I realized my favorites were ones done on a sort of matte fabric surface, they somehow looked less costumey to me than the ones done on satin (perhaps this is all the fault of flash camera...)

This was my favorite

Arwen's Banner by Sidhe on Alleyscratch

 Which was done completely with paint on fabric. She did it for her wedding decor, and afterwards hung it up in their room, which I thought was very cool.....

Then there was this one, done with heat n bond and lame applique, and details in a silver paint pen.

Elvish Banner by Sarah (Aranel13) on Alleyscratch

I lover her speckled stars look, it just looks So. Incredibly. Awesome.

 This one's pretty cool too....

(Leah on Alleyscratch)

Done with fabric applique with fusible interfacing.

So I think I shall do fabric paint, with stars cut out of lame and appliqued. Because they are geometrical and easy to cut out :)


I remember than Joan of Arc referred to the making of her banner as hiring someone to "paint" her banner, so it must be authentic.

So paint, here I come....

(Although I know Arwen sewed Aragorn's standard....so there's that....maybe I'll embroider it a little bit....)

So I am planning to probably do a rendition of Arwen's banner.

Although make the trees more like the trees on the gates of Moriah....

And do it on a blue-black matte fabric, with speckled stars on it like Sarah Aranel13's elven banner above....

And a Gondor banner, ofcourse. I need a Gondor banner. I am planning to paint some sort of elaborate medievalish looking border on it, all in silver.
Some mix of the below designs....

I think Tolkien would approve.

Potty Stories

Isaiah is a big boy now. He is being potty trained. He reads his Richard Scarry books on the potty, and is very good at spotting Goldbug. He'll spend so much time with his "Cars an Trucks an Sings dat Go" and "What do peeple do day?" books.

Once, as I was reading him a book, he looked up with a thoughtful face and announced "Mommy, brown poops are not tasty." With as much conviction as a human can put into a voice, I agreed with him whole-heartedly, trying to ensure he never tries to test his hypothesis.

Jenny has joined in the potty training fervor. At least, she begs for "Pot-tee! Jenny Pot-tee!" when Isaiah gets called away to the glorious place.

She's even filled her little potty a few times, to much clapping and adulation. The problem is she wants to stand up every 10 seconds, look into her little potty bowl, and clap for herself joyously exclaiming "poop!" even when there isn't anything in it yet. And her up down up down motions mean that sometimes, bad things happen on the floor instead.

But its so cute to see her there, flipping authoritatively though Isaiah's alphabet books, looking up at me to grin, joyously exclaming "Jenny Pot-tee!" every now and then, glorying in her grown-up-ness.

Isaiah has also taken to loving bedtime stories. His favorites are, "Sain George an de Dragon", "Gowdiwocks an de three bears" (he likes roaring with Papa Bear), "Baby Jesus an de Tree Kings", and "Story of de Red Sea", and sometimes "Firebird" (although that one I couldn't remember what happened and left a rather unsatisfactory ending of Dmitri exploring a mountain or something).
The Firebird was his first fascination, when I was reading him Beatrix Potter on the potty, he pointed to the doctor magpie in 'The Pie and the Patty Pan' and said "FIREBIRD KILL DE KING!"

After explaining to him that the firebird didn't kill anyone (in our version at least...), he then would point to it and say "Firebird NOT kill de king!" I decided his imagination needed a boost in imagining the firebird as more than a magpie.
After getting him all excited how we were going to see a firebird, I took him to the computer and we used the great google image search. All we got were cars. I think we're going to need to remedy this somehow.

Now his favorite (at least, by the number of requests) is 'Sain George an de Dragon'. It's his first request, every night. Last night during bedtime, as I was feeling bad, I was out, and came in to find Isaiah snuggled on Josh's lap as Josh told him the story. When Josh got to the part where the people are going to give the princess to the dragon, he burst out with "YOU NEVER GIVE DE PRINCESS TO DE DRAGON!"
<3
That's right Isaiah.


This influx of new stories can take strange turns, like when I overheard Isaiah telling stories to himself "Goldbug, Crucify!" or another tale where "Cap'n Merica" was facing a "green dragon, on a bicycle."

He's also taken to singing along with me at bedtime songs, but keeps interrupting the song to burst out with "GOOD JOB! GOOD JOB!" when he gets all the words. He does it about every half phrase, rendering our bedtime songs something like
"As the Deer-GOOD JOB! GOOD JOB!-for streams of wa--GOOD JOB! GOOD JOB ISAIAH!--so my soul--GOOD JOB!!!..." etc.

Here's a picture of Isaiah discovering the wonder that is glitter.

Isaiah reading books. Jenny with her blankee (its actually a girls size 8 nightgown. She trails it around everywhere...)

  They got Dad-Rides

Here's a few pictures of what we wore Sunday.

Isaiah and Grandpa

Me and baby at 34 weeks

Illustrating Children's Books: Some Analysis of the Greats

So I have been thinking about my woefully inadequate attempts at illustrating my children's books, and how I am going to learn how to paint. I decided I have to get an idea of what I am aiming for, and thus rounded up some of my favorite illustrators.

1. Beatrix Potter, whose pictures are somehow so full of wonder....

 

Evidently I am not alone, C.S. Lewis mentioned experiencing wonder from Beatrix Potter's illustrations as a child. There's so much beauty in them. Especially the misty backgrounds, you can feel the morning sun and mist. OK---So practical notes here. It appears to be line (ink?) drawings, on watercolor backgrounds, filled in with watercolor (and maybe gouache?).

2. Brian Wildsmith.

I love his use of color and gold illumination, it also filled me with wonder as a child, how everything in the picture meant something, how there were meaningful secrets tucked into the details of the pictures.

pix from this blog These are from "A Christmas Story" Isaiah's favorite

Note the gold illumiated window, with the cross-beams highlighted...and the position of Baby Jesus' arms as he learns how to walk....

He seems to be using pencil outlines, with watercolor and gouache to fill it out....

3. Ivan Bilibin

He's THE fairy tale illustrator.

Love his use of borders, of dark and light, and his superb line drawings.

Again, he seems to use line drawing (ink?) and fill it in with watercolor (or gouache??). His colors cut off more at the lines than Potter or Wildsmith.

4. Jenny Dolfen
And then there's this absolutely amazing artist my siblings found on the internet, "Gold-Seven" on deviantart, Jenny Dolfen. She draws the most amazing and heart-wrenching pictures of Hannibal's struggle against Rome. Her website is here. Her Tolkien illustrations are pretty amazing too, she is the only artist I have ever seen who really captures Gandalf. Check out her galleries, they are amazing.

She really  makes you care about Hannibal. From her website http://goldseven.wordpress.com/2013/10/18/crossing-the-alps/

She has a lot of helpful tutorials on her blog. She does line art, and then paints it in with watercolors. If I could be one third as good as her, I would be very happy indeed.

5. Trina Schart Hyman

I stumbled across her art as an adult.

Hyman seems to use extensive pencil line drawing (with shading and cross-hatching and all) that is then painted over. There's a lot more pencil than the other 4 illustrators we've looked at so far.
It's very fairy-tale-ish. For me, it has a little less wonder in it than Bilibin, Potter, and Dolfen....but I don't know if that's style or my mental associations with having people fleshed out with pencil so much. Watercolor seems to leave more up to the imagination somehow...



So in conclusion, the kind of illustration style that I really like is some form of line art (ink or pencil, but not too heavy) with watercolor and gouache.
Since the best way to learn from them is to copy them, like the apprentices of yore, one of my goals this year is to mimic them.
This year, I'm going to go over and analyze and try to copy in some small way each of these illustrators in turn. First I need to get one of those "Watercolor 101" type of books from the library.