13 year-old Emily of Georgia sent me a link to her wonderful watercolor rendition of the Spiderwick Nixie. Check it out.
Well done Emily, the facial proportions are nice and you rendered it in watercolors – which can be tricky. I started playing around with them when I was your age and I still enjoy painting with them. Keep up the great work!
I am nearing the deadline for delivering the artwork for The Search for WondLa, and it has been intense here in DiTerlizziland. I cannot wait to share the new story with you and the news surrounding it. I AM SO EXCITED!
In the meantime, I got a message from a fellow fairy researcher from Europe this week, Álvaro:
“I’m sending you this *”captured will-o’-the-wisp”* from Spain. It’s made of fluorescent polymer clay, so it glows in the dark. I hope you’ll like it.”
Do I like it? Do I like it? You made a will-o-wisp that actually glows!? Holy crap!
I LOVE IT! You made my week, Álvaro. Keep on creating…though, if your studio starts getting swampy, or you suddenly can’t find your way back home, don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Happy Friday everyone!
Angela received a kind note and link from Ranae Atchison, who sculpted some familiar brownies and boggarts out of polymer clay. Check it out:
You can see more pics of these little lovelies, as well as Ranae’s other fabulous work, on her blog. Have a great weekend!
Twelve year-old Emily has sent us some lovely examples of her drawings done in the same mediums which I use. We have a dwarf done in pencils…
…and an ink drawing of a nixie…
…not to mention a mermaid drawing which has been inked and painted in watercolors. WOW!
Nice work, Emily, especially on the sunken ship – why didn’t I think of that? Thanks for sending these along and participating on my blog. Have a great weekend and keep drawing!
Ben sent me a whole slew of cool drawings this week. Looks like he is working on his own fantastical field guide. Check them out:
This is a sprite named Bellwings. She’s named after the sound her wings make…
…and this is Hutchwin. He’s a brownie who helps Ben by sharpening his pencils for him.
This cool guy is a bat-goblin. It can fly (unlike other goblins)…
…and lastly, this is Padear an original faerie created by Ben – very neat!
Keep on drawing Ben, I predict many more marvelous drawings in your future!
This week I complete another I.O.U. for one of my art-buddies, Dan Yaccarino, who contributed on the upcoming Spiderwick Chronicles Completely Fantastical Edition.
As I mentioned before, there is an all-star artist’s gallery in this bound Spiderwick collection, and I’ve been fortunate to have received a few of the original pieces as gifts (um…awesome!). Never one to take anything for granted, I’ve been slooowly returning the favor.
So, here is my rendition of Dan’s beloved character, Oswald the Octopus. I hope you like him:
Ben, of Aurora, Colorado, sent us this wonderful little watercolor of a sea serpent this week. He also included some elf shot which he found in the field as well(!)
…looks like we may have another fairy naturalist in the making. Keep up the fantastic work, Ben!
I don’t recall if I’ve mentioned the fact that my mom was a doll-maker when I was a kid. She made all sorts of dolls and puppets out of all sorts of materials. Sometimes she made them for us DiTerlizzi kids, other times she gave them to friends, family and even sold some to local boutiques.
I loved watching her cut the peachy fabric and fill the bodies with wads of cloudy stuffing. It was magical to me. I’d go to bed and she’d be hunched over her Singer sewing machine on the kitchen table making tiny elven clothes. I’d wake early the next morning and see a little cowgirl, sailer boy, teddy bear, or gnome, patiently awaiting her finishing touch.
That grew into a lifelong love of puppets and dolls, not mass-produced plastic molded manikins, but well-crafted, expertly sculpted little beings. Fine art really – as there is certainly a fragment of the creator’s soul in each and every piece.
The field of one-of-a-kind dolls has really prospered in the shared universe of knowledge on the internet. Artisans can exchange ideas and methods, sell their work, and inspire one another. Such was the case with Michelle Bradshaw, a fantastically talented sculptor (and mom) working out of Atlanta. I was first shown her work by Brian Froud’s Goblins collaborator, Ari Berk, and was blown away by her amazing talent for crafting tiny creatures. Her pieces have that spark, that animus, that is so incredibly hard to capture in Sculpey, fur and feathers.
Needless to say I am thrilled and inspired by her interpretation of two of my favorite creatures in Arthur Spiderwick’s Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You - a little sprite named Toadshade, and the enigmatic phooka. I hope you enjoy them too.
Check out Michelle’s site, Pixiwillow.com, you won’t be disappointed.
Have a great weekend!
