A Wee Nip of a Post: Messy Frosting Trumps Orderly Lines, Bear Hat Wins Out.

A wee little post to start my year off right. Sketches and scrawlings for a larger project finally took over my dining room table again, after Christmas passed. Per usual, I spent more time frowning at the papers, walking deliberately past them to heat water for tea or glaring furtively in their general direction...but even so, I made a little bit of progress.

This evening, we have a close up of Cakeasaurus on the verge of snatching a cake.

Originally, it was just going to show a really nice slice of cake. 

You know, toothsome texture, luscious frosting. But then you know, he's really not compassionate. He wants the whole thing. So, better to have it untouched.

And then again, I do fancy a domed cake plate. And the hand is nicely ominous, non?

Pretty close to being ready to transfer onto a woodblock.

I liked the design on the left for the first day after I finished it. 

In all the months following, it has rubbed me the wrong way. I'd look at it, become annoyed, but never have a better treatment in mind. But suddenly this afternoon, I thought of a doodle from my to-do notebook. Whether the adult naysayer stays around remains to be seen, but I think the little girl in her animal hat (hastily scrawled of a small passer-by at the Rust Belt Market last month) holds the key to a better illustration...I was so convinced that we needed to see the child's face, being kept from a party. But somehow the refusal works better, seeing her from behind, with the woman facing us, refusing us entry. Still in-process, clearly, but it's such a good reminder that it's almost always that small shift in perspective which suddenly helps, especially when one had become convinced there was no good solution...

Here's to a year of growth and stimulation, enough joy to balance out the sorrows and the ability for all of us to be grateful and appreciative...