Ragged Claws Network

Over at GoofButton, Jeffrey Meyer has posted some terrific scans of José Miguel Covarrubias’s lush illustrations for W. H. Hudson’s Green Mansions. Here’s a taste (you’ll find a larger version on the GoofButton site):

What I especially appreciate about this illustration, in addition to the lovely colour and composition, is the observational quality of the foot. Although the shapes are simplified, they are still clearly based in reality, with the pinky toe tucked in toward the fourth toe, which in turn is tilted slightly toward the pinky toe, and with each of the toenails having a distinctive shape. And then there’s the pale colouration of the toes themselves, bluish near the nail, suggestive of slight downward pressure on the forest floor. And so on. Without such variations and details, the picture would still be attractive; it would not, however, be half so alive.

Hi! Welcome to the new Ragged Claws Network. Hope you enjoy your visit here, although I should warn you, it might be a month or more before I begin posting regularly. In that time, I will be transferring selected information from the old site, familiarizing myself with WordPress (which I have never used until now), and trying to decide whether or not to resurrect “Free Tools.” Wish me luck! –Wallace “RC” Polsom

p.s. The picture of a welcome sign posted above is actually a snapshot of the welcome sign on our inside front door, i.e., the door that leads from the unheated porch at the front of our house into the heated living space. I bought the sign at a local thrift shop a couple of months ago–I think I paid a buck for it–specifically because I liked the simple design and because I thought the colours would look snappy against our old yellow door. The sign originally had some straw tied around the wire hanger, but I immediately snipped that off. We aren’t farmers. And check out the various holes in the door above the sign. Be ironic if they were bullet holes. But they’re not. They’re screw holes.