Illustration pen pal: Torii gate and Amabie postcard
Out of the blue, I got a postcard in the mail from a friend. One side was a beautiful landscape he created with pen and watercolor, the message on the back described a book called Griffin and Sabine , a lavishly illustrated and interactive book about correspondence between two artists, and he invited me to respond in kind. I couldn't possibly say no! I wanted to respond with a Japan-inspired illustration. Painting isn't my medium, but I liked how the flowers turned out on the deck of cards , so after some thought I landed on digitally tracing and painting a famous torii gate and added an Amabie . Not my best work, but doing it is how I get better Design process: