Flawed Urn

This charcoal and pencil sketch of an urn is flawed in more ways than one. Besides the fictional flaw superimposed on the finished piece (for Illustration Friday's word "flawed"), the original sketch had its own problems. Then, when I scanned it, the white of the watercolor paper came out like a rainbow so I smudged the whole thing to get rid of the lines.

The original model is quite nice in the gardens of Robson Harrington house - which is now owned by the town of San Anselmo.

Pale Pisces

Question: How do two trout represent Illustration Friday's word Pale?
Answer: Through their relationship to Procol Harum's most famous song.

My interpretation of Procol Harem's song "A Whiter Shade of Pale," with lyrics by Keith Reid, is that it is about an affair with a married woman. The lyrics reference Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Roman mythology and astrology by their mention of "The Miller's Tale," the Vestal Virgins, Neptune and mermaids (who are often represented by the astrological sign Pisces). As evidenced by other websites, including procolharum.com and departmentofuseless.blogspot.com, however, this is but one interpretation of many.

"The Miller's Tale," is about a wealthy, older carpenter who married an 18 year old bride and out of jealousy kept her in a cage. But a younger student Nicholas fell in love with her and cuckolded the husband. The Vestal Virgins were ancient Roman virgin priests of Vesta, the goddess of the hearth, whose primary task was to maintain the goddess's sacred fire. According to Wikipedia, three famous Vestal Virgins were a) the infamous Tarpeia, who was traitorous, b) Rhea Syliva, who was raped by Mars and conceived the twin founders of Rome (Romulus and Remus) and c) Tuccia, whose chastity was questioned. I couldn't find specific reference to the mermaid who took Neptune for a ride but did find that Neptune, the Roman god of water and sea, is considered the ruler of the astrological sign of Pisces.

I did a whole set of the 12 signs of the Zodiac in 2005, the illustrations for which can be found at artistrising.com. They included my pen & ink illustrations of the Sign and Flower (in this case two fish and water lilies), set against watercolors of Santa Barbara painted by my mother, the Element (earth, fire, air or water), Symbol, Sign and an illustrator vector drawing of the actual Constellation.

Contained Crows

These crows are all contained in boxes for illustration friday's word "contained."

Voices

An owl, a cardinal and a frog all raising their voices and singing their songs. Perhaps they are remembering a time years ago when there were fewer houses with fewer people living in them behaving badly. For Illustration Friday's word "voices." B&W photograph taken by E.A. Autrey in Santa Barbara years ago.

Rambunctious triplets

Similar

These gourds are similar and yet, very different.

Pen & ink and marker illustration cut up and manipulated digitally for Illustration Friday's word "similar."

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.