BEHIND THE SCENES Part 1

May the adventure begin

I love posts and blogs, where artists take you behind the scenes, so you can get a glimpse of all the effort they put into their work of art. There are two blogs/websites I would like to mention here.

I am a fan of the blog.picturebookmakers.com, where illustrators and authors tell you the story behind the story. Reading their posts you understand very soon, that a book is not written and illustrated in 4 weeks time but that it needs a lot of energy, patience, willpower and perseverance to accomplish it.

My artfriend from the Netherlands Herma Starreveld has a beautiful blog, where she not only presents all her wonderful art but also talks about making art. You can find her website here www.studiomastarre.com.

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Cindy back in 2014

I just finished my first series (four pieces of art) for Carla Sonheims fantastic online class Y is for Yellow . My flatmate Cindy has got fans from all around the world. And now the idea of making my first Cindy book manifests.  This is a good moment to start talking about my workflow, how my stories evolve, where I get my inspiration from and how far the road is to publish my first Cindy book.

Long time I hesitated taking this step, but now I would like to invite you to accompany my struggles, kickbacks and progress I experience on my way to finish my project. There might be times, where I would like to hear your advice and opinion about this or that. And there might also be situations, where I could just need your encouraging and supportive words to move on.

I am still not sure, what should be in the book. Old stories? New stories? Less stories, more pictures? Maybe you like brainstorming with me? There are so many ideas I have in mind.

So here is my first question for you: What would you like to find in your copy of my Cindy book? Don´t hesitate to comment below and thanks for being part of the project.

Let´s get started. May the adventure begin.

Read in the next  BEHIND THE SCENES post: How the Marathon idea came up

 

 

Cindy -Episode 58- Runner’s Delight

 

imageY is for Yellow –  H week

Cindy and Granny Schwümmli run the Haspa Marathon Hamburg two weeks ago.

Last week we had a reporter from the Runner’s Delight Magazine here for an interview. The lady was also  interested in the pictures we took during the week after the marathon. She said, she could use them for the Collector’s Edition, they sell together with their magazine.

Today they sent us a preview of the title page. Amazing, what people are interested in. As soon as we can grab a copy of this issue, we will let you know. But maybe you are faster and find it at your local kiosk.

Cindy -Episode 57- Mother’s day

Y is for Yellow Class – I week

All mothers in the world may have a wonderful day !!!!

Oh no, relax and calm down, you didn’t miss the J to L lessons. It is not M week yet, we know, but Mother’s day doesn’t care about some M week in the furture.

The kids st school were already asking, what idea we would come up with this time. They love our craftsy ideas and that was fuelling Cindys and my brain.
So we sat down to invent this intriguing idea you can see in the little video. The card is indeed an extended version, so we had quite an issue to capture Cindy with her immense legs. After her Marathon she had stretched her legs a lot, but I hadn’t realise, what impact that could have on them. But it came handy for our project. It might also be implementable for a card for Dad.
Have fun!

The words are easy to understand on top
You are the greatest (in German same meaning als “tall”) MUM in the world!!!
Down:
You ask yourself, why?
Along the legs every student can write some sentences, what makes his/her mum unique. I can’t wait to see, what they will write down.

 

Cindy – Episode 56- The “Dali Delice”

04.03.2016 Y is for Yellow  D and E-Week

IMG_6431Cindy and I had lovely lunch around the corner. Our Café “Dali delice” had yummy food on the menu. So we set down, had some dumplings and went for the surprise dessert. And indeed, we were surprised by what Salvadore served us.

We finished our lunch off with an espresso (only because it starts with an e, we normally are teadrinkers ) and left Salvadore for some strongly needed exercise. There were some rabbits to be chased and there was a mob of elephants waiting for us to be erased out of the graphit.

 

 

Cindy – Episode 55- The B Adventure part 2

30.01.2016 Y is for yellow  B-Week

IMG_6371Both of us had been out and about the last few days. Not even a cup of tea we had shared during the week. But today Cindy and I sat down at the kitchen table with a big pot of tea and Cindy told me the most peculiar story I have heard for long.

But please form your own opinion.

Cindy took a nip of the King of Jasmine, put down the cup and started.

“You won’t believe, what happened to me at the flea market last Saturday. Such a lovely market with an endless range of Bric-a-Brac, I really looooooove it there. But this time, there was something new. An old bald-headed man with a big nose was sitting on a stool behind an easle painting people, who posed on the other side of the canvas.

Cind had a another sip. “I wondered, why he didn’t feel cold in his white and black striped shirt”, she continued. “I was wearing my big boots and got already cold feet standing there only for five minutes. So I left him.” “Did you buy anything new, Cindy?”, I said, but she got furious. ” PLEASE, Petra, DO NOT interrupt me! After I had finished my stroll, and no I hadn’t bought anything new, he still sat at the same spot. He was looking in my direction and a charming smile appeared on his face. I turned around to look for the person, he was aiming for. But there was nobody besides me. He nodded and made an inviting gesture. Petra, he meant ME. So I sat down in front of him and he instantly started painting me. “I love your face”, he rose his voice talking with a nice southeuropean accent, “I live around the corner, why don’t you come and see me in my studio and sit for me?”

Cindy paused and grabbed her cup, which gave me the chance to ask her: “So you went to see this stranger?? And sat for him???. “Yes, yes, yes”, she got excited,”I spent the last few nights posing for him. He is pretty famous. I googled him. His studio is amazing and all his work, you won’t believe it, very funny statues and crazy pictures. But I found it bit irritating, that he had blue paint in use only. But never mind. He is a genius. Last night he finished the last piece and said, I could have it.” She jumped up and flew down the hallway to come back a minute later heaving a big parcel into the kitchen. We unwrapped it and here it was.

“Petra, I own an Original Bicasso”, she said as proud as a Spaniard,” this will fit over my sofa nicely.”

For my taste he hadn’t really had captured her eyes properly. But Cindy was sooooo happy with her portrait, that I didn’t dare to say, that I had never ever heard of Bicasso before.

She urged me to take a photo of her next to her Bicasso. ” but wait a for a sec”, she said and off she went heaving back the canvas. While I got my camera out, I could hear her rumbling around. “Peeeeeeeeetra”, she shouted, ” I am ready for the shooting. Come heeeeere, please.” I went to her room, finding her in her new bathing suit, Paige had made for her. “Why do you have to wear the bathing suit for this photo?”, I tried to find out, “But isn’t it B week at Carla girls class?”, she said and posed for the picture.

Yes, she is right, it is still B Week and there she is in her yellow bathing suit next to her blue Bicasso.

Cindy – Episode 54- the Blue Booted Booby

05.02.2016 Yellow class  B-Week

We really love scrolling through all the facebook posts, the yellow fellows put on our classroom wall. It became a pleasant ritual last year with the sparkers to discuss the latest news from our group and we still celebrate it this way.

When I came home from work today, Cindy was already sitting at the kitchen table with her I Pad waiting for me.

” Look, Petra”, she started before I had sat down,” look, the people didn’t learn the lesson yet.”

I didn’t know, what she was talking about. “They still think, spinach is the best vegetable, when you suffer from iron deficiency and they still think, the BLUE BOOTED BOOBY is called BLUE FOOTED BOOBY.

I have to explain, that Cindy is sort of an expert on these lovely birds. She saw them in the wild on the Galapagos islands. And she brought home some nice photos, we put on the kitchen wall.

Only now I saw all the birdwatching magazines, she had piled on the floor.

Cindy grabbed a couple of them and started thumbing through them. “Just wait a sec”, she mumbled, while leafing through the next issue.

“Ha”, she said, celebrating her triumph, “we have to post this instantly to kill off this bloody fairy tale of the blue feet.” She showed me an article about the BLUE BOOTED BOOBY, but before I could start reading it, she already was on her way to our scanner.

Ok, so here is it, the one and only truth about these birds, if you like it or not!

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