I am in the middle of a very large project, but needed to practice some trees for it (so technically, this isn’t procrastination). Blue pencil sketch, black 0.1 technical pen over it, scanned and paper texture and lettering added on the computer. Slightly larger version here.
The trees are frankensteined from some of my favourite Brisbane trees, and the gowns are from Racinet. The quote is from a very excellent book. Every time I reread it I am amazed by how it is written, and fortunately my father often requests it when I get home. The conversation usually runs as so:
Me: Would you like to talk or read or watch a DVD?
My father: Read.
Me: What do you want? We were halfway through [military history title] and [19th century detective novel].
My father: Pride and Prejudice.
Me: Do you want me to start at the beginning, or do you want the best bits version?
My father: Start when they go to Pemberley.
Me: [reads from Pemberley to end and starts again at beginning]
My mother: [from the sewing room, periodically] That’s just like in the miniseries!
Kathleen Jennings 
This is fabulous!
Thanks, Vhrsti!
Beautiful! And practice trees are never considered procrastination, but essential skills training (I have to tell myself that too…) :)
:) Thanks
To me the miniseries is the best bits version. Which means there are five hours of best bits from that book. Which I’m okay with.
I hope this doesn’t hurt your feelings or what you intended for this piece, but the trees briefly reminded me of a scary yawning tree-mouth from Halloween (in a good way). I love it. The detailed shading is just wonderful.
Philistine!
:)
But it doesn’t have the psychology, the glimpses behind the words, the final tribute to the Gardiners…
(I admit it is one of the many books which the BBC made me read by showing me there was a story in there).
Where would George Eliot be without the BBC?
lovely – what a wonderful piece
Thank you.
Re the picture, that prettyish grove looks like a dangerous man-eating hunk of vegetation to me, though beautifully rendered.
I like the glimpse of family life, I’m doing a little bit of looking after my father now.
:) Pretty much. I’ve often found miniature forests much more sinister than big ones – maybe because the stories fill them out better.
Oh! Oh! Oh!
Squee! This should be a story for ‘The Ladies of Grace Adieu’ and it reminds me of The Illustrator Most Wonderful, Charles Vess.
That little forest is bigger on the inside. I’m telling you. It has that mystery.
It’s polished, it’s detailed, it’s gorgeous, and it’s perfectly done. We loves it, precious.
Heheh:) Thank you, Aimee!
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