"strength" -- IF topic for 11.11.05

"strength" -- illustration friday -- 11.11.05 -- #399 on illustration friday (#68 in the archives)

this is a colored pencil drawing of joey, jerry's grandson, who was born may 15, 2005. i chose this for IF b/c i think that the birthing process shows an amazing amount of strength and stamina on the part of the mother as well as the baby. most often, we don't think of the traumatic experience for the baby, being taken from the nice, warm, comforting home and forced through a too-small tube to fall into the middle of the bright, loud confusion of a delivery room. to survive that and to thrive in the new setting and learn/grow/change as newborns do -- that's strength.

i've not ever done any type drawing like this or had any training, so it was a totally new experience. the drawing was done from a photo that was taken just minutes after joey's birth. the shading in some places was easier than others, but overall, i was happy w/ a first attempt at a project like this! feel free to comment or offer advice, though. i'd like to get better, and then i have a few other children in mind that i might need to make a picture of/for.

the drawing was done on cardstock that had a vertical grain to it. that's part of the reason for the shading being more difficult -- i couldn't get the color to "stick" to the paper b/c of the shiny finish. i used prang colored pencils and then had to spray the finished page w/ matte finish. even after that, the page was still shiny in the photos (because of the flash) but is not that shiny in reality.