b mused: June 2015

June's Postcard of the Month

Lupines.

Most of the Lupines growing in my garden(s) these past 8 or 10 years

came from seeds

that my best friend from 7th grade - Leslie Grove*

sent me from her Lupines, from her garden, where she now lives, in Portland, Oregon.**

This is me & Leslie @ 30 years ago,

playing mandolins on the lawn outside of Manghi's Bread bakery in Montpelier***:

And then there is this patch of Lupines

(that years ago were far more extensive and multi-colored)

that I get to gaze upon from my dentist's chair every June! :)

And, finally, every June, when Mule & I used to travel to and from Bike Week in Laconia, NH,

our rides would take us past vast stretches of lupines along the roadsides.****

Quite a thrill.

Re: Production:

I started by slapping down a couple of quick ideas:

I got a fair sense of what I was after, so I prepped my materials and then just dove in.

However... I'm not as happy with this month's cards as I'd like to be.

Occasionally, over these past >>FORTY-ONE!!<< months of postcard production, I have started in on the production process not being entirely enamored with what I've come up with, but, so far, I've always ended up quite happy with them by the end of production.

This time though... Something just doesn't jive quite the way I want it to with this batch.

I mostly like them, but there are a couple of decisions I would make differently if I were to tackle 'em again.

For instance:

While I quickly opted to put that one pink Lupine stalk right up against the horizon:

in the majority of this month's cards,

I realized - once done - that I actually preferred the subtler purple stalk in that position...

Another aspect that I wished I'd tried harder to render

is the distinct cone/triangular shapes that Lupine stalks form.

Some of my torn shapes could have used some refining (see pink stalk above)...

And, finally, I'm not so sure that my 'fields' were quite satisfying:

they just seemed a little bland, depthless.

But I'd not wanted too much going on with the grasses and leaves,

so that the Lupine stalks would be prominent, so... ??

(most of) The Fixins (plus some that I didn't end up using)

Steps: The Movie:

The (SIXTY-ONE!) Steps

(meaning: I touched these 21 postcards AT LEAST 1,281 times!!)

Step 1

Step 2

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Step 4 - Also wasn't totally happy w/this particular light green...

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Step 10 - Some black 'lace' paper:

Step 11 - What would I do without this green fibrous paper?! Instant grass. :)

Step 12

Step 13 - Here come the flowers!

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Step 20 - I also ended up not so enamored with this particular pink (used for at least 3 stalks)... I mitigated with cover-ups and some watercolor pencil in the final products.

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Step 50 - Started to add in (first of 4) stalks from some of my hand-made purple paper - that I'd further washed with a metallic purple acrylic. Got my shiny pieces in this month!