This Is Not My Home
The story behind the story: In May, 2012 a ladies retreat on the Oregon coast made me wish for some time with my friend Linda. I'd met Linda and her husband shortly before I moved to Uganda, East Africa to join the mission team they'd started. 15 years later, sitting at a retreat, I was thinking about Shawn and Linda preparing to move back to the U.S. after 31 years as missionaries. The retreat speaker was great, but she didn't have a chance of keeping my attention as phrases started running through my mind about transitioning back to life in America. Then the phrases began to rhyme, and soon they had become a Dr. Seuss inspired story just begging to be written. |
The Process: I started with pencil sketches, then ink. The inked drawings were scanned into Adobe Illustrator. That's where I cleaned up the lines and added color. I liked those pictures well enough and almost stopped there, but decided something vital was missing. The Illustrator files were then moved to Photoshop where I added texture. So much better!! From the first phrases running through my mind until I held a copy of "This Is Not My Home" was about four months. Though I wasn't sure I'd pull it together, it was worth all the work when I gave Shawn and Linda a copy of their book to welcome them "home."
So far this has only been "published" as a photobook through Mixbook.com. Whether anything else happens with it remains to be seen.
So far this has only been "published" as a photobook through Mixbook.com. Whether anything else happens with it remains to be seen.
Here is the story for you to enjoy.
Click on the first picture of the gallery to enlarge.
Click on the first picture of the gallery to enlarge.