Gina and I got an out of the ordinary job a bit ago. Betsy Semple from American Way called and wanted us to work on top of a photo for an article on Guerilla Gardening. This is a term for when people plant flowers or trees in vacant lots or dingy public places. The idea was to show how the new planting contrasts an otherwise run down area.

Our preference for work is to paint together on a single surface. It keeps the family bonds tight. Every once in while, there will be a job that gives us a good reason to do otherwise. Figuring that the photo surface wouldn't be ideal for painting, this seemed to be one of those cases. We painted our parts separately and collaged them together in P-shop.

Another thing we'll do around here is delegate a point person on each of the jobs that comes in. This helps the job flow, and narrows down the collective decisions. This job ended up being in my court. So this is what the sketch ended up looking like with me drawing in most of Gina's areas. Sometimes sketches work this way. Sometimes I'll pencil them in and she'll ink them. Sometimes she'll sketch my parts and I'll shade them. Sometimes we'll split it down the middle and pass the sketch back and forth.

This job was actually held for a bit, waiting for Spring to arrive. We forgot about it until I received an e-mail from a high school friend who saw it on a flight back from Grenada. The funny thing about the airline magazines is that someone always brings those illos up to us. I think that's foremost because they're good operations run by quality folks. I think there's also something to be said for the captive audience, though. Maybe people pay a little more attention to the art when it's that or counting the minutes to arrival.

Above are some details of the finish and below are a few of the separate elements before we joined them.