2 pianos 4 hands

Posted by on Jan 31, 2011 in Book: Ice Harbor Mittens, Portland Stage Company | 0 comments

 
At last! The illustration I did during the summer for Portland Stage Company is now all over the place.
I had fun drawing hands many, many times. Nothing like the relentless practicing necessary for the musicians portrayed in the script. I got Marty to pose for one pair of hands.
 
And our neighbor’s son, Jacob, posed for the other pair of hands.

Portland Stage gets great coverage for their marketing, which means the visual needs to fit a wide variety of formats. I supplied the art in separate layers; the title font (2 Piano 4 Hands) was one piece, the illustration another, and the text another.

We saw the opening night show on Friday: marvelous! Even though I’d read the script, the actor/musicians, Tom Frey and Jeffrey Rockwell, are dazzling in their seamless performance of multiple characters, voices, and interrupted playing. They brought us to another place with the finale, a piano duo performance of Bach’s Concerto in D Minor. Heaven.

Hands are a challenge to draw, but I keep coming back to them. I drew them in this scene in Ice Harbor Mittens, when the elder knitter, Aunt Agnes, grasps Josie’s hand to size him up for mittens. Josie thinks her hand feels like an “osprey’s claw.”

 
Now I’m prepping for a book event this Saturday on Peaks Island. Author Robin Hansen and I will make a presentation about the folks and folklore behind Ice Harbor Mittens, with some drawing and orienteering activities. I’ll have some original illustrations on hand, and she’ll bring a suitcase of mittens.
Come on by! At the Community Room on Peaks Island, Saturday February 5 from 11AM – 1 PM.

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