one person's "ewww" is another person's "squee"

How do you feel about crows? I have a friend-since-childhood who loves them so much she squeals with delight every time she sees one, even stopping her car on the highway to beckon to them and feed them and coo at them. They actually seem to trust her and will approach her, even at first meeting.

She made me promise to paint a crow etegami for her birthday this year. I reluctantly agreed, but it took me a long time to get inspired. Before I knew it, her birthday had come and gone. Once the pressure was off, I was suddenly painting crows on everything, including these drink coasters. My friend loves to drink wine, and coasters seemed an appropriate gift for her. But I can't imagine anyone else in the world wanting to rest their wineglass on a crow coaster. What do you think?

illustration friday (vocal)

dust of snow

A friend of mine, a fellow fan of the poetry of Robert Frost, challenged me to make an etegami illustrating Frost's poem "Dust of Snow." I tried one thing after another, and finally had to be satisfied with this etegami collage.

It shows a man's winter cap dusted with snow. I painted the cap on a washi postcard in the traditional Etegami manner, then cut it out and glued it to a sheet of paper which I'd printed all over with the words of the poem in very small blue type. The bold black words were typed over a different sheet of paper which I'd printed all over in very small pink type. Then I cut the bold black words out for gluing onto the card. I kind of like the effect, but you may feel it makes the card look too busy.

Here's a different sort of attempt, a straight etegami with the crow taking center stage. The words are written in the large, blotchy letters typically produced by a bamboo dip pen. The awkwardness of this one has a sort of appeal too.

Which do you prefer?