Illustration Friday - Stay

Stay - mixed media on cut paper - click image to enlarge

Stay, the new IllustrationFriday prompt, hits close to home this week. I don't tend to get too personal on this blog & have debated sharing TMI this week. I don't do emotional very well in the real world (let alone the virtual one) so that is why I have been scarce around here. (who knows, I may come back & delete this later).

About 10 years ago my Dad was diagnosed with a nasty case of cancer. It did not look good.  Luckily he was accepted into an experimental study with some new heavy-duty treatments, and he beat it.  Now he has another kind & has surgery today. Needless to say, we are all hopeful & worried.

I wasn't worth a damn today so  drifted over to DA and trolled through my stock photo faves for some inspiration. Then played in PE9 for a while. Since I have no time to paint anymore, I've been mocking up some digi-sketches in case the calendar clears someday. 

Stay - digital sketch - again, just click to enlarge

I've still got a way to go on this one but it includes my thoughts on "Stay", crossing over, and of course a version of Little Red. I went too faded,need to tone down the white light & give the wolf a bit more ooomf. But as a sketch it is a decent start, I think....

Many thanks to these talented DeviantArt folks for sharing their fabulous stock images:

xCrystals: Arctic Wolf 17

MyBluelight-stock: Cold Winter

AshenSorrow: Premade Background 1277

But I still felt a need to wrap my hand (& mind) around a pencil. On impulse I challenged myself to make something using only a handful of items from the pigsty on my desk. So, there is a scrap of torn patterned paper (it has typewriter-style text with words like -  "sudden", "alone" & "I remember", which seemed apt). Then 2 Pitt Pens, red & blue; a pigma micron brown 05; Plus a handful of Derwent Pencils - metallic Red#7; my go-to Lemon Cadmium watercolor pencil; & a Chinese White Drawing pencil.

Plugged in a Monoral Mix I haven't listened to in a while - it includes this great tune that anime fans will recognize - seemed to fit my mood....

Then I shut out the world and doodled away. Lucky for me, my wonderful husband covered for me in the kitchen and with the kiddo for a couple of hours. Little Dude came in about 3/4 of the way through & declared the illo "meh" - I had to agree. But plodded on & then had a go with some scissors. The cuts seem to let some of the fun texty paper show through without being too dull a background. 

The final is at the top of this post - I had to scan it on black , sorry if the background is distracting. It measures about 5.5" x 12". I was going to just add it to the never ending stack of dusty drawings but am thinking about matting & framing for the ArtSnark etsy shop. What do you think?

Are you inspired by Stay today? Pop on over to I.F. & see some other fun takes on the topic. Please add your own too - come out & play!