Do you feel the wind?

My grandparents 50th anniversary was last month, and I wanted to do something special for them. I decided to draw a prairie landscape for them, they both came from small farms out in Saskatchewan before moving out to a town in northern BC. I caught a quick glipse of a photo my grandfather took when he went back to visit his family. The picture was of his home; an old shack, no glass in the window, an old and weathered roof, and weeds/grass consuming the whole structure. When I saw it, it just struck a chord with me. In that decrepit old hovel is where a family spent years of blood, sweat, laughter and tears. And here it was, the remains of somebodies home.

The process of the piece was pretty... Interesting, I guess. As I worked on it, I shot copies to both Steve and Frank for input. They'd tell me it was too dark, too muted. Then I'd go back, redo levels, touch up problems, add detail, at one point near the end I completely re-did all the grass. My grandmother is an especially cheerful soul, so I threw in a bright red kite in the background to cheer things up. I had a rich blue sky and bright yellow grass. I printed it up and got a frame, and my grandparents loved it. My grandfather was taken by it in particular, even though I didn't get the original picture for a reference of the building, I heard him say "It's the farm!"

But I digress. I'm glad I put together a bright and colourful piece for my grandparents, but I wasn't quite happy with it. During the process the Frank told me "you can't make a piece be something it isn't". And it hit me - This needed to be something that would parallel what I felt when I saw the photo. It had to be a shade of sad, and have a tint of longing to it. It wasn't meant to be a happy piece. And so weeks after I got back from the anniversary, I opened up the file again. And I admit - I didn't do anything big. I tweaked the brightness. I played with the contrast. I toyed with the levels. And... That was it. It wasn't quite as far off as I originally thought. But now it feels right.

If you haven't skipped all this by now to get to the pic, chances are you just want me to finish. So here it is:



And a hi-res, 1600x1200 version here. I drew it at super-dumb high resolution, so if you're interested enough for a certain resolution let me know.

Overall, I think I'm pretty pleased with it. Probably some more of my best stuff yet. I guess to me this was more of an emotional piece than anything else. That being said, huge thanks goes out to Steve for the feedback and to Frank for the guidance. Thanks fellas, I really appreciate it.
-Cril

Under this national rain cloud
I'm getting soaked to the skin
Trying to find my umbrella
But I don't know where to begin

KT Tunstall - Under the Weather