Above: Cockatoo sketch using Pentel Pocket Brush Pen and watercolors on a journal handmade with Stonehenge paper. (Journal is approx. 7.5 x 7.5 inches.) Click on the image to view an enlargement.
Saturdays are days I allow myself to check out some ukulele music on the internet. Really we have to keep a cap on this obsession. The other day I wrote 4 songs, one of which, "I Used To Be a Valley Girl" makes me giggle (which I don't ever do; and no I will never sing it for you, some things are too personal). Then I came up with a couple album titles, of course. So we all know where this is going—and I don't even have a ukulele yet (though we are going to look at some tonight)—I'm going to be making fake album covers just as I enjoy making fake book covers! I have to fill my spare time some how.
In the meantime I thought I would share a little movie scene I wish would find its way into a movie:
Sir Sean walks into a subway and down the platform, and as he walks we hear it, the little picky tones and strumming of the busker playing on his uke. Sir Sean tosses a couple bills into the gig case and keeps walking.
Once you fall in love with ukuleles you can't help imagining them being used EVERYWHERE!
Left: Detail from the cockatoo sketch so you can see how the watercolor works on the paper, and see the little bit of white gouache added in the orbital ring. Click on the image to view an enlargement.
So what's with the cockatoo sketch for today?
1. I'm still working on my State Fair scans.
2. I'm making two artists books (one an edition of 6 and the other an edition of 30) based on the State Fair scans and the deadlines are perilously close.
3. Despite the heartfelt encouragement of other ukulele fans who've written in to me, I doubt that I will ever sketch a uke (mine or someone else's) so I had to come up with something to illustrate this post.
4. Haven't you caught on by now that 99.9 percent of my bird portraits are self-portraits and that this one, even though it pre-dates the creation of the song is exactly what I would look like if I were to sing, "I Used To Be a Valley Girl." I thought you could enjoy it this way. (Actually I lived in San Jose, but I can do a good Valley Girl if I have to—just don't ask me under which circumstances such a portrayal might be necessary; my life is complicated.)
Oh, and the fortune that's stuck to the featured page spread reads: "The difficulty is not on [sic] coming up [with] new ideas, but to undo the old one."
Now how is that for serendipity!?
Fade out to a snazzy ukulele tune (just perfect if you're being chased by spies), which is actually a fun little tutorial as well.