11x14"; Ink, watercolor and colored pencil on illustration board
When one of us is feeling blue, the other says, “Don’t be saddish, have a radish!” It’s a quote from A Special Trade by Sally Wittman and Karen Gundersheimer, a picture book Emily liked as a kid. The other day, Em was feeling a bit down, and posted “A bit saddish; needs a radish” as her Facebook status. This gave me the inspiration and the desire to pull out the traditional art supplies – I love, love, love drawing with my crow quill nib and Higgins Black Magic ink and I need more practice with watercolors, so this was an ideal excuse. Google Image Search gave me an idea of what a radish actually looks like (it’s not a vegetable we eat a lot at home), and I set to work. An hour later (half an hour for the ink and the paint, then half an hour drying time and a minute or two for some finishing touches with colored pencil), I had a serviceable radish to present to Em when she got home.
It made her smile – which was my goal all along.