The creation of the paper butterfly

I know I have been quiet over the last few weeks but I have spent this last month busily writing the first part of the book I am hoping to write and illustrate this year. I felt that I needed to have a good section of the narrative written before beginning the images so I could get a feel for the progression of feelings, colour and storyline. Last week with the first part of the story written I felt ready to begin the paintings that will accompany them. 

This will be the first  image of the book. I kept to a fairly muted colour palette for all but the paper butterfly herself as, to me, it helps to focus our eyes on her as she is introduced to us. She is , after all, the heroine of my story and sharing her creation visually with my readers will hopefully help them to connect with her too. 

This is the snippet of the beginning part of the story that I chose to illustrate: 

'The long, graceful fingers moved, turned, and folded in what felt to the Origami butterfly to be like a rhythmic dance. As she felt her Makers soft fingers lovingly form each careful fold of her wings and body, she sensed a momentary flutter deep within her folds. It almost felt as if this feeling would carry her high out of his hands and up into the air.'

It was a lot of fun bringing to life that sense of movement in the image. I chose to have just the maker's hands and not anymore because to my paper butterfly this is what she connected with and what she felt made her. She is so small that visually it then also helped me to focus in on her and yes, I spent several days learning how to make an origami butterfly too. The maker's hands were modelled by my husband.