Mental Exercises - Illustrations

This is Agnus taking a pee.  Agnus belongs to my friend Laura who so graciously took pictures of Agnus going to the bathroom. 

I painted the illustrations for this story in oil paint on a panel.  Below is just part of it.

I like the idea of bookends or two stories that are actually the same story but from two different perspectives.  #16 Mental Exercises is a mirror story of #15 Lost.  As such, I wanted Ned and Claire to somehow physically relate.  To accomplish this, I painted Ned, then gave him a sex-change and reversed his figure in Photoshop to make Claire.  See below.

 

I have been behind on this story from the get-go. Technology has been a bugger on this one and I hope it will be completed by Friday morning.  It will be close, but worth it if I can make a certain effect work.  We'll see on Friday if I was successful.

It is always a balance to get everything done. There's the day job - which I like mine, although I would much rather make art. There's parenting - which is 24/7, even when my daughter is not home. Then there's maintaining the house and the yard, social life, keeping up on other art activities, updating things on the computer and then, finally, making the art.

Mental Exercises will be published this Friday, March 1, 2013.