Ballookey in Aya's Round 4

I shipped this to Andrea via Priority yesterday (Tuesday). As a point of order, I don't know if we're shipping on the 15th every month (in which case I'm late) or if we're shipping on the 1st (in which case I'm either really REALLY late, or a little early. But, BUT this round I'm going to try not to let it stress me out! :)

Aya started her book with the theme of dreams, daydreams and nightmares, and I felt like continuing it. This illustration didn't come out as well as I'd hoped, but it's based on a daydream probably common to those of us who have to sit in traffic. In LA, if it rains, people DO NOT handle it well on the freeways. One day, stuck on a rainy freeway, I wished I could be riding to work on a train. Then I started imagining how the train would look - very ornate, all glass and metal that tinkled and chimed as it rocked it's way to it's destination.

This would NOT be a practical thing for hail.



So while the color came out a little murkey, and there's parts I'm not happy with, there is one thing I'm happy with: I committed to the detail. Several times as I was sketching, I either wanted to cut corners on the design, or just ditch the idea and go with something easier (and probably better suited to my lack of skill) but I forced myself to finish it the best I could. I really wish I'd taken good photos of the finished ink as that's maybe when it looked best.



The next two pages are dedicated to a nightmare. There were a few nightmares I could think of to illustrate, but one day while working on the first few pages, this popped into my head and I felt it was honest and a little personal, and so therefore probably better than trying to illustrate the nightmare where I accidentally cut my toe off with the toenail clippers. ;)



And lastly, the beginnings of a collaboration with Andrea. I counted the pages in the book and it seemed like I could probably do a few more pages, but I decided to wait until it came around the second time before I got greedy.



I tried to paint a mare to look like she was simply a void, full of stars. I like the way the dark blue came out.