Book cover illustrator..wheeee

Now, that's a lofty title -"Book Cover Illustrator"! Rini asked me to design the cover of her book. A book that covers Intellectual Property issues .Weighty, eh? Don't get carried away that a swish of the brush, stroke of color ( some luck, too) and some dab of paint is all it takes. To design a cover you need to know what goes under it, right? That was a task I had to surmount. Rini is wont for using large words, actually unknown to my 46 year old ears. I had to contend with concepts such as 'hermeneutic' theories and "tropes of nature and mind" which were casually thrown at me by this childhood friend of mine. I did the obvious thing. Scurry to the nearest dictionary. Meaning, I opened another window on my laptop..all fine..but I also had to engage the muscle between these 46 year old ears to understand what dictionary.com said. It amazes me how some folks which include Michelle, Madhu and Rini are all at it- on and on - in the pursuit of excellence in academia ( might I add, at this age!). Quitting work has brought on a comfortable sense of laziness in me. I am content to get up at eight!! I recall times when I would be up at the cracko'dawn. No more for me, those busy times. Get me that foot stool. Switch on the sunshine. Let me listen to the same old songs again and again and again. Let the world jump on to newer, faster treadmills. I am willing to smile and wave to the rats.
ok..where were we?? Ah ..yes.. designing the cover happened in 2 hours flat but not till I figured out what was in Rini's mind. This friend wanted me (moi) to work a certain Dali painting into the theme. She was enamored with "The Three Sphinxes". This involved reading reviews of this Dalian piece of ..er... art.
That done, I proudly arranged my wonderful collection of watercolors. Admired them. Got to work. Voila! Must confess.I produced something at the end of this labored, cerebral effort. Phew! Now lets see what the ( picky) publisher says!

OUP used my artwork and did a nifty layout!

Artinspiration

Gosh it would be easy if I could open a catalog and choose today's inspiration. How handy! But now..for those who are self-proclaimed artists this is probably the hardest thing.. and to keep ideas and concepts "original" is really the search for the Holy Grail. Take me for instance. I want to churn out ( wrong word unless I am an assembly line artist ?? paradox?) year-end gifts. Should they be cards? Aw..I do that every year. Should they be calendars? That way those who receive them will be grateful to me for the WHOLE year- see the ego? Now, do I personalize each calendar to suit the recepients? Put in birthdays of those in the family? You do know how big Indian families get? Should I look for professional spiral binding services.. should I get it all printed professionally? Aaarrggghh. So, what do I do? I sit and look through sites on the Internet and spend only 3 hours looking at other people's ideas..there goes creativity and orginality- straight out of the window! My head's buzzing with options. PRIORITIZE! Okay..first things first..lets go see what material we have and what we need. More agonizing and more confusion along the way..but, for now, go I must.