OLD SKETCHES COME TO LIFE

by Martha Slavin

 After a weekend calligraphy workshop, getting ready for my watercolor class, and with a pile of stuff remaining from various art projects scattered around my room, I stopped, sat down, and sifted through some old sketchbooks looking for some drawings that I had put someWHERE. I never did find the drawings I was looking for, but what I did find made me happy. I discovered some sketches I never completed hidden in an old tracing paper tablet.

by Martha Slavin *  I have no idea why I drew Toast!

In an earlier time, I had filled sketchbooks with ideas for greeting cards and needlepoint designs. Some of them I finished and sent away to greeting card companies. I had one accepted and published. The rest made me realize I needed to sharpen my skills. I went back to art school at night, but I never fulfilled my ambition to be the next Kate Greenway, Blanche Fisher Wright, or Merry Engelbreit, all-female illustrators. While taking classes, I set aside the greeting card drawings in a portfolio that ended up behind five or six other portfolios filled with various art techniques from printmaking to painting. (Not to mention the dozen boxes on other shelves filled with more recent additions.) Looking through all these portfolios meant looking back through my life, remembering the years when I studied graphic design, illustration, printmaking, mixed media, and drawing.

I decided to complete the old sketches I found. Just for fun. Just not to think about the heavy issues of our days. Just to put some extra color into my life.

By Martha Slavin

I still haven't found the drawings I was looking for. Anyone else have a clue?

Check out the artwork of Kate Greenway:

https://www.pookpress.co.uk/project/kate-greenaway-biography/

Or Blanche Fisher Wright's artwork:

https://www.gettyimages.com/photos/blanche-fisher-wright?

phrase=blanche%20fisher%20wright&sort=mostpopular

Or artwork by Merry Engelbreit:

https://www.maryengelbreit.com/collections/featured-fine-art-prints