More book cover art! I'm having a great time doing these…a whole lot of work, but a very rewarding product when it's finished. I used a book that had a smooth cardboard cover for this painting and didn't really like working on it until about halfway through. It's not nearly as forgiving as canvas and really shows up the lines from my carbon transfer paper but once some paint is down, it's a nice surface to work on. But it has no texture whatsoever. Canvas takes washes much better and allows for a less precise technique but fuzzes out details. The smooth surface is superb for small details. So basically I just have to adapt to whatever surface I'm using. Doing type is becoming a real eye-crosser. I used to really be into it but now I'm not really liking doing something that requires so much control. There's many steps of back and forth adjusting--an edge of a letter might be too short so I add some length and make the corner too high so then I have to come back to cut then corner down and cut off too much so I have to add more again to clean up the corner. That kinda stuff makes me grind me teeth. But it's done and I know Marv will be pleased. After I began painting this book cover I was looking for books for my next projects and came across a marriage manual for newly engaged couples. It had a section on--the birds and the bees! Funny that any young adults wouldn't know that stuff already, but there it was. I just wish I could have used that book for this piece--it would have really been a hoot to give that to Marv.
