Balloon

Circus clown and dancing dog in the big tent before the crowds arrive. An old digital composite updated for illustration friday's word "balloon."

Having been motivated by both the inspiration behind and the beautiful resulting art piece of Lisa Rivas’s Living Bridges , I thought I’d give credit where credit is due on this picture:

My 88 year old father, E.A. Autrey, at a much younger age, is the face of the clown under the white make-up (although he does not have red hair and was not quite so scary looking). Here’s a photo of him younger (in the middle).

The Circus from Toulouse-Lautrec’s lithograph portfolio (page 22 in the limited edition book I’d love to have except won’t since it costs $1,500) here was the inspiration for the circus setting. When I went to visit my friend in the Philippines a few years ago, the bedroom I stayed in had copies of these circus drawings hanging on the wall and I just loved them.

Finally, I was happy to have figured out how to make balloons using the 3D program in Illustrator and then turned them into a pattern brush in Corel Painter, which partially explains the funny outfit.

Chapter One/Purple Prose Part Two

I don't know if it was the cold, wet breeze blowing off the sea or some breaking and entering instinct from my feral youth that made me move closer but, once I noticed the shop's door was slightly ajar, I pushed it and proceeded to furtively step inside. The strobe effect of the interior malfunctioning overhead light and the buzzing noise that emanated from the fixture distracted me. It took a few seconds before I realized some of the glinting lights were bouncing off of the glasses of the shrunken man in front of me. As I stepped backwards to flee, a familiar voice called out to me in a semi-strangled gargle. "Welcome, Dan. I was expecting you."

This is part two of the exquisite corpse web experiment. For part one, written by Susan Sanford, go to the Chapter One Part One link. For part three, written by Brian aka Son of Incogneato go to the Chapter One Part Three link. Anyone can provide a conclusion at any time and can start a new story. If you don't like writing in the first person, a third person could kill off the first person narrator - it's all up to the author. This is open to the next random volunteer.

Bird Thoughts

"Birds without heads aren't much company. But that's just my opinion."

Bird thoughts for illustration Friday's word "Opinion"

Pretending To Be Something You're Not

For Illustration Friday's word "Pretend"

Wise Owl

Wise owl for Illustration Friday word "wise."
Watercolor owl composite with pen & ink & marker fish in digital fish bowl on digital stool. Framed rat on the wall (Owl's favorite food) is a china painted ceramic tile by J.L. Autrey.

Rabbit in a Vacant Lot

Illustration done for Illustrationfriday.com's word VACANT