Perfume bottles, 1984

So, like making all these tiny little dots takes a really long time. You know? It could take hours and hours just to complete one work. I began to wonder how I could make money doing it. Sean said that I could do advertisements in newspapers and magazines. Being the skeptic that I am, I did not believe him. So I decided to draw his collection of perfume bottles to see if I could do an ad for something like that. This drawing is the result.

This is not his entire collection, just some that I selected to draw. I used the pentel color pens for this work. As you can see, the bottles are all made of glass and have glass stoppers. Two have old perfume still in them. I had lots of fun seeing the light’s reflections in the glass and reproducing it on paper, especially in the perfume of the Lalique bottle (with the dove stopper) and the cut glass stopper of the bottle in the left rear. I was very happy with the result. But I decided not to go into illustration for advertising at that time; I kept my day job.

I apologize that the top of this drawing has been cut off by the limits of the scanner. Click to enlarge.

Last night, Sean put my drafting table back in my studio, which was the office we used to share. Sean had moved his office back out to the 5,000 square foot metal building on our property in the fall when he ran for First Selectman (he lost!), so it was only a matter of time. I carried some of my art that was framed, but not hung in our house into the studio from my closet and opened my portfolio and found some unfinished water colors. I am so intimidated by these. I don’t want to ruin them by mucking them up. One of them is of some koi that I started from a photo I took in Singapore. It is a beautiful and delicate work that I have put the first water color wash down on. I just don’t see what the next step is for it. But first I need to photograph some others of my works for the blog. That should keep me busy.