Channeling Anahata Katkin along with Edith Wharton and Charlotte Bronte.....

Hello again, I know, it's crazy- me posting twice in the space of a few days?  What is up with that?  But, nevertheless; here I am with snaps of my (finally) finished pages for Kim of IM Girl.  You may remember that her artist of choice was Anahata Katkin......you may also remember that I mentioned having a hard time designing pages that honored her style without infringing on her creative rights.  And it took me a while, but I got there in the end!  I am really pleased with these pages!
I knew all along that I wanted to use an Emily Bronte quote I recently came across and as I was drawing the cherry branches and bird, I realized that it brought to mind a long time favorite artist of mine; Edith Wharton who wrote and illustrated The Diary of an Edwardian Lady.  I LOVED her work as a child, and was happy to re-remember her as an adult!  If you've never heard of her; google her- she's incredible!

 

I knew the bird had to be yellow because of the yellow

 (Anahata Katkin) bird on Kim's card

And I'll share a shot of this page as it appeared before I painted the letters but
AFTER I spotted a HUGE typo- 

it would have completely changed the meaning of this quote!  

I'm really glad I saw it before I painted all those layers of brown lettering- do you see it?

I wanted to continue with the bird theme for the outer side of her two page spread...... 

And I HAD to do a lady because I felt that was one of themes I have in common with Katkin- also, the tree is inspired from my current WIP canvas- I'll share it at the end of this post for anyone who wants a peek.

The words are part of an Emily Dickinson poem (I couldn't figure out a way to put her name on it without messing up the oval)  Here is the complete poem:

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -

And sore must be the storm -

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -

And on the strangest Sea -

Yet - never - in Extremity,

It asked a crumb - of me.

I really feel like I've poured a LOT of blood, sweat, and tears into this spread, but I am SO glad I stuck with it until I came up with a piece that was "me" as well as honoring Anahata Katkin.

Here's my WIP if you want a peek- I've been working at it on and off since January- it's the biggest, most complicated piece I've ever done- and I'm pretty fond of it too!

I think that's about enough from me for one day- I still miss all my blog friends, hopefully I'll make it back one of these days!

xx

Stephanie