Return to Days of Yore

Well, mostly projects of days of Yore. (Does that word have to be capitalized? Probably not, but I like it that way (Also Yore is a fun word to use, especially during the holiday season.).) [I'm feeling creative with punctuation. Be warned.]

I started this project illustrating The Wild Swans by Hans Christian Anderson almost five years ago when I was recovering from major surgery, because I felt I needed a huge project to take up some of the hours I was spending sitting around otherwise staring at the computer or reading for months. Turns out the project was too large though, and I didn't even really get that far into it. So I decided to finish it now.
The project currently entails about 15 ink and watercolor illustrations, which I may cut down to 12 or so. These will then be used in my illustration portfolio. About 8 of these are somewhere in the sketch -> full blown drawing stage currently. One is (probably) finished and one more is currently in progress.

The finishedish piece:

The probably-needs-a-major-overhaul-because-i-hated-it-and-ended-up-playing-around-with-it piece. Obviously, unfinished:

Both of these drawings reached the "full blown drawing" stage when I originally started the project, and I'm trying to balance that with the artistic progress I've made since. There are some things I really like about them, but sometimes, as with the original version of the unfinished image (in which she looked like she was in a park rather than a forest. I still think it looks more like a park after a bad thunderstorm), I'm realizing that they don't translate very well to paint, or don't fit my current style or vision or could be better executed. Or all of the above. So even the things which I felt before were mostly finished need tweaking or even overhauling. Luckily, because I don't have a deadline I'm feeling pretty free to use this as an opportunity for play.

Also It's becoming more and more clear to me how dearly I need a better camera. That's not going to happen any time soon, however.

I'm hoping I can keep this project going steadily and am trying to develop good work habits around it. I have another printing project creeping into my brain also so hopefully I can balance them. The printing project also depends on another person, however, so it's going to remain vague for now.