Zick Design

Long time coming: Wedding Night

zick — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 23:41:21 +0000

It has been so long since I started this painting, I thought I would never be finished. So many other projects were always on my plate over the past two years, I hardly ever scraped out any time to work on this piece. It was a difficult piece for a couple of reasons. The figure in the image is actually my friend Janet G. Peckham. She was the first of our small group of friends to get married, and it was an emotional event for everyone. Painting a friend is hard because, let’s face it, you don’t want to offend them! The image of Janet standing behind the campfire was burned into my mind. I wanted her to look like part of the smoke, like she was transforming becoming something more. She looked so calm and at ease that whole night, but her presence was powerful at the same time. And sure, one could make all kinds of associations between a woman’s wedding night and fire, but the truth is this painting is not about sex. It’s about power.

More “How the Sun Fell in Love With the Moon”: Process

zick — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 16:37:55 +0000

©Elizabeth Kingsley 2011

This was my original sketch for “Lonely Sun”. In this picture, I wanted the sun to look small compared to the lush greenery of the Earth below. I spent a long time working out how to show the vibrant imagery described in the text, but when I was done, I felt like there was something slightly off about the composition. I did a little tweaking and I feel like the final painting has a much better flow to it. Here it is:

©Elizabeth Kingsley 2011

Here’s another excerpt from the book: “But after a long time the sun became lonely. He began to look around. He was all alone in the wide blue empty sky, and he began to feel the slight chill of sadness.” ©Richard James 2011

Latest Project: “How the Sun Fell in Love With the Moon”

zick — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 02:59:48 +0000

This is an illustration for the upcoming book “How the Sun Fell in Love With the Moon” written by Richard James (richardjamesomnibus.com). Here’s an exclusive excerpt:

“Long ago, when the world was new, the sun shone all alone in the sky. At least he thought so. He would never bother to notice the little pin-pricks of stars appearing just around the time he set. Compared to his red-hot burning brightness, they were just a dim sprinkle of dust.” © Richard James 2011