Hitched

For this week's Illustration Friday challenge, "Hitched":  here's the nuptials of the Frog Prince and his bride.  I got the idea for this one from the book I'm working on, The Smallest Carbon Footprint in the Land by Anne Morgan (coming out in early 2013 from IP Kidz!)  Anne's text has the couple embracing the whole frog thing and singing a rousing frog chorus.  At first I did it in pretty candy colours, but then I thought it would be more appropriate to have a slightly muddy wedding.  (Thanks to my scanner, it is especially muddy).  I really wanted the bride to have a bouquet of bulrushes, but I also wanted the dramatic hand gesture (taken from an opera singer), so in the end I created a heart-shaped bulrush frame.

The meeting of illustrators on 4th May was a huge success with 12 attendees, and we're planning follow-up meetings, so contact me if you're in Hobart and want to come along.  Here's something I learnt there:  community-funded arts projects, including publishing projects, can be set up or supported on this website: http://www.kickstarter.com/.  Worth a look if you've got a project you want to get off the ground.  Also, if you're in Hobart, don't miss the Art From Trash exhibition in the Long Gallery at Salamanca Place.  It makes the wildest offerings of Surrealism look tame.  I think my favourite exhibit was a lost sock chart, created by schoolchildren in the shape of an IPhone.  It consisted of pegged-up found socks and maps pinpointing where people had lost their socks.