Illustration Friday : Proverb

The word over at Illustration Friday this week is proverb.

 Native American proverbs resonate deeply with me so I looked a few up and chose this one.

"Do not judge your neighbor until you walk two moons in his moccasins."  (Cheyenne)

I have been (gratefully) busy painting commissions and working on items for shows and galleries but today, just today I had to pull back and do something that called to me, like this word. 

Some of you wanted to know my process when I paint on patterned paper. It's pretty simple, really. I draw the image and then lay the flat colors on with acrylic paint.

But then MAGIC happens (I swear) when you add Prismacolor pencils on top of the paint. It becomes so rich, almost pastel-like and I have never been able to do anything with pastels. After adding the colors I use a blending pencil to smooth it all together. I usually go back several times adding highlights and lowlights, crisping up my edges, etc.

Here's a scan of one moon and one moccasin done while the other is still flat paint waiting for details.

Okay, I started adding colored pencil inside the moccasin before I realized I hadn't scanned it! And trust me, I see so much wrong with this illustration now that it's posted. But I'm not going there. Today is a day I needed emotionally and creatively.

So I'll leave you with this gem that I saw on my doctor's office bulletin board.

""Do not judge me until you've walked a mile on my medication." 

Hahahaha!! Happy weekend my friends.