An Amazing Illustration By Tré From Our New Book Moonscape Phase I

For a whole year my partner Tré and I wrote a book in haiku form about the phases of the moon and where we were individually and together on our journey during those moon phases. Then Tré took the haiku pairings we had created and drew an illustration for each one. Seventy separate illustrations. 

It only took Tré three months to do the illustrations, which is an incredible pace when you see how intricate and full of nuance they are. I remember how much fun it was as Tré unveiled each new illustration. 

Now after almost a whole year of editing our book is finished! Moonscape Haiku Phase I is the first of a trilogy of haiku books we will be doing together. Treescape and Dreamscape will be the second and third.

After the Solstice/The Longest Night is page 69 from that book.

The entire book is this incredibly lush and intricate, and the printer did an impeccable job of capturing the subtle gradients of Tré's shading. I've never been more fulfilled and excited to show others what we've been working on for over two years now. You can see the video about how Moonscape came to be and how it all turned out here at our Kickstarter. 

Order Moonscape

 

  

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Four "Cute" Watercolors of Aquatic Animals By Jenny Mathews

I want to show these four paintings by my partner Jenny in sequence so you can get the entire picture of what is going on. Every day I wake up after her and I come downstairs and she is almost always painting. A lot of times she is working on a project for clients, but sometimes she is just painting. So, I'll start making a cup of tea and wait. A lot of times she'll paint things in a series. When I first saw this first painting in the series I missed the point. I won't be heavy-handed about what I think these might be about.

The next day I shuffle down the stairs and I see she has finished another piece in a similar style, so I know she's on to a particular theme for a while. Sometimes I'm anxious to check my own mail, get a cup of tea going, and ingest whatever pills and potions my medical team thinks is necessary to keep me going, and I still didn't really get what was going on here.

On day three I got it. You see, I use plastic. When I go to the store and they ask me I say I prefer plastic. There was even a time in the 1990's when I was told in an Environmental Life Science class that in the end it didn't matter what we chose because both created about an equal hazard for the environment. Turns out that's not exactly true, especially not for marine animals. 

Day four

This was the fourth and final piece in this series. Frankly, I'm glad there aren't any more.

Jenny M. Mathews Instagram 

Illustrations

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Shiitake by Thomas L. Vaultonburg

This is another Tiny Drawing Poem we'll be showing at Spring Art Scene. Last year people were buying them right off the walls. 

"Shiitake," poem by Thomas L. Vaultonburg, illustration by Jenny Mathews

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Illustrations For The Kitchen

Jenny Mathew's Tiny Drawings are exactly that. Drawings done sometimes only larger than a postage stamp. How does she do it? I don't know. I watch her do it sometimes. When she started out with the intention of doing an illustration every day it seemed every object imaginable crossed her path. But she just kept drawing. Some of my favorites are her drawings of food. I think they're perfect for decorating the kitchen's of food lovers. This one is Sushi. Go ahead and click it. Sometimes she would run out of ideas and I'd be watching a football game or taking out the garbage and she'd ask me for an idea, and I'd say something like "How about a bunch of drawings of meat." Blammo...

And I'd come back at halftime and there it was, an illustration of prime rib of beef that literally made my mouth water. Damn these look good framed. Really classy. They're like Objectivist Poetry, just allowing the subject itself to assert it's uniqueness until even something you've seen a thousand becomes extraordinary.

I'd eat that paella. After I saw this drawing we went to a restaurant and I ordered paella and I was ultimately disappointed because it couldn't compete with this drawing. if you'd like to order an illustration for your kitchen, or even if you have an idea for something you'd like drawn contact me and I'll put it to Jenny. Otherwise, you can order anything at Tiny Drawings and we'll frame that up professionally and send it. 







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The Magnificent Art of Jenny Mathews

If you're ever lucky enough to work with an artist like Jenny Mathews I highly recommend  it. When I heard she was available to work with me on our children's book The Toughskin Rhinoceros Wrangler Company I was overjoyed. The results have been beyond my grandest expectations. But that should have come as no surprise.

In the past three years Jenny Mathews has drawn over 400 illustrations for her Tiny Drawing series. Drawings of trains, ships, wine bottles, goddesses, trolls under the bridge, mouth-watering drawings of meat, fauna, flora, and everything you can imagine. But why imagine when you can see her entire gallery of drawings here

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Top Ten Tiny Drawings By Jenny Mathews

                                                                                 10) Celery

     Celery is an every day Joe. He has a job and a girlfriend. He bowls. He goes to family picnics. The only difference between Celery and you or I is Celery is a celery. 

                                         9) Garden Gnome Riding a Squirrel

Gnome Riding Squirrel

    On occasion the creator of Tiny Drawings, Jenny, will run out of ideas for drawings and ask me. And sometimes I'll say the oddest thing I can think of like "There's a garden gnome, named Rastus, and he's riding a squirrel and using a sprig of asparagus as a lance in a joust with an Orc." Now if you said that to 99.999% of the people on the planet they might tell you where to put your asparagus, but since Jenny can draw anything she starts drawing, then a while later I get an email and it's a Gnome named Rastus riding a squirrel and using a sprig of asparagus in a joust against an Orc (in this case Orc not pictured). 

                                                       8) The Batphone

Batphone by Jenny Mathews

     This was another request by me. For some reason I want one of these old rotary phones in black. I have no earthly use for it, but I still want one. But when you have a Tiny Drawing you usually don't even need the thing anymore.

                                                         7) Prime Rib

     Peime Rib is from the cuts of meat series (suggested by me). I'd eat this prime rib. 

                                                  6) Two Planets Merlot

     Two Planets Merlot is from the beverages series. I think I may have also recommended that one. This would go really well with the prime rib.

                                                              5) House

     There have been occasions when I mentioned my ideal house would have porches on top and bottom so I could walk out of a summer afternoon and maybe drink a cold beer while watching the world go about its business. It's like that Twilight Zone episode where the kid imagines something and it appears. 

                                                          4) Train

     Sometimes other people will request a Tiny Drawing. And she draws it. Like this train. 

                                                          3) Mermaid

     This Tiny Drawing was the runner up winner in a national contest for a vodka label. I think the contest was fixed.

                                                            2) Well

     I don't know where this well is, but my guess is that it's somewhere behind the house from earlier.

                                                         1) Wolf Boy

     This is my favorite Tiny Drawing because I know what it is and you don't have to you can just look at it.

You can look at all the Tiny Drawings by Jenny Mathews and you can even buy them and request one at Tiny Drawing

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