30th
- me posing for my friend Tom for his illustration work
I’ve been thinking about how much the illustration business has changed over the past twenty years. I came across a box of reference shots I have taken over the years for illustration projects and some of them are too funny to post—some of me, some of my hubby (thanks dear for always helping!) and some of friends from long ago who I wouldn’t want to embarrass. (!) Now it is so easy to shoot reference with a digital camera but back then 1) the film was precious and expensive 2) there weren’t timers on the cameras so one had to ask others to pose or try to get someone to shoot photos and hope they got the pose just right. It made for some good laughs and interesting discussions when I’d ask a stranger if I could take their photo and then have to explain to them that I would only be drawing from the photo and that the photo would never appear in a magazine,etc. I remember going to our elderly neighbor’s house in St. Paul to ask her if she would pose with me in a photo (a job for the Baltimore Sun). She agreed but she said she wanted to make sure her hair was pretty in the photo and told me to come back the next day to shoot the photos. I love looking at those photos now because I remember how sweet she was and how excited she was to be a part of something that would be published.
me posing for a job for the Dallas Morning News
I had to explain this one to my daughters---no I was posing for a reference shot. Mom doesn't eat photos...
I think this one was for a book entitled, Spit Nolan by Creative Education.
Sometimes it was so fun to get into character and distort my face to get the best expressions.
Me posing as Marie Antoinette for a painting for a exhibit in France.
This is one of my favorite refrence shots. (excuse the drawn-on shirt) It was so much fun to pose and then to paint myself as Marie Antoinette. Below is the finished painting.
copyright Kate Brennan Hall
27th
I had an interesting conversation with someone the other day—this person is single and is she is frustrated with the lack of good men to date. I told her that when I was single (24 years ago!) I decided to make a “shopping list” in my journal and I listed all the attributes I wanted in a partner. She seemed to like this idea so I thought I’d pass it along via a color pallette I created for a project. Happy shopping!
24th
I’ve been wanting to add some yard art to our new front gardens and I found this sweet little piece at Goodwill. I smeared on the Gorilla Glue ( I happen to like the foamy yellow quality of GG after it dries )and added all sorts of buttons, old earrings, and found objects to all four sides. I coated it will polyurethane to protect it from the elements and now all it needs are some snazzy flowers. What fun!
Another view of the yard art next to a mosaic pot I made a few years ago
19th
Do you ever barter with friends? Years ago my friend Todd Peterson (www.artaviary.com) asked me to shoot slides of his work. I was willing to help out my friend but he felt bad for taking up my time so finally we settled on the idea of his painting my portrait. I chose a nice shirt to wear (hoping to look more dignified) but he told me he thought this flannel number was more authentic (sigh) so I sat for a few sittings and he took some polaroids of me to fill in the rest. After all these years (20?) I stand in awe of how much Todd captured my life in this painting. I’m usually a very easy-to-smile person but when I sat for this portrait I had just lost my brother to an awful battle with cancer and I was grieving. Todd later confided that the crow was to symbolize death that was hovering (my brother’s wife at the time was diagnosed with breast cancer the month he died) My husband and I had made a promise to my brother that we would be guardians of his three daughters (three flowers in the sky) if God forbid, his wife succumbed to cancer. We weren’t parents yet but Todd intuitively knew that deep in my heart I also longed to have my own biological children and so nestled safely in my arm is another flower. I’m so happy to report that my sis-in-law is healthy and happy now almost 20 years since her diagnosis. I’m so glad that Todd captured that time in our lives in such a loving and insightful way. Thanks Todd for your amazing work!
08th
“to treat or lay with concrete: to concrete a sidewalk.” It sounds so easy until you actually do it. It’s been about 20 years since I’ve had the pleasure, but watching our friends Pam & Mark create this sidewalk brought back many fond (sweaty) memories of creating our first sidewalk. I remember being the “gopher” on our project. The huge truck pulled up with our 5 yards of concrete mix and we had 15 minutes to get the mix from the truck and into the sidewalk forms. I remember feeling stunned by the weight of the mix as I pushed the wheelbarrow (running) back and forth between the truck and forms. Our friend Dean Lucker helped us with the technical aspects of smoothing and finishing the concrete (Thanks Dean!) and at the end of the day we were completely spent but so happy and proud of our new sidewalk. Mark’s sweet grin in this photo made me remember that great feeling. Great work Marko!
02nd
Here’s a photo from time spent at a local festival in our town. It was a gorgeous Sunday morning with a lively gospel band on stage, a cool breeze blowing and good friends gathered ’round. Ah—life is good.
A closer shot of this wonderful tree that shaded us and kept us cool.
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