Snail Trail Tales

Update: I can't stop!! I worked the illustration further and now feel I have final art that I'm even happier with. I gave the snail and her house-shell more gloss, shadow, and texture and reworked her environment for a more storybook mood. It now feels like part of the Halfland button family. (Dear Readers (you), remember to get your name on the private Button List by commenting or emailing at address below. We've got one of these just for you!) *Click image below to see the art in more complete detail.
I knew the second Collectible Halfland Button would feature the background character, the Pink Snail, but it was the beautiful image on the left below that I found on eFriend and reader, Corey Amaro's blog this morning that was so inspiring for how I could portray the character in a more interesting way than I would have thought of.

It's been a year since the first "Highly-Collectible-Halfland-Limited-Edition-Memorabilia-Button" was issued. So, I thought it high time to spend some prime time today making the next in the series! Himself and I have as many buttons as we can made available to readers of this blog at absolutely no charge, no strings, not even shipping, just our big thank you for being out there supporting this project with your interest.

Any reader that would like one of the soon-to-be-rare 1-1/2" buttons (if you got the first button last year then I still have your address in my private file and you'll get this one too!), while they last, simply email me privately at nobledesign [at] sbcglobal [dot] net with a postal mailing address and a new button will be sent to you as soon as they are ready. (These addresses will be used only for this purpose and kept utterly private, guaranteed. This is strictly for the fun of it.) When and if Halfland is really here, these babies may indeed be valuable little bits of new cinematic history! I haven't decided whether to add the blog address to this new art yet, perhaps along the outer rim on the back?

I stuck the puppet into the cat's catnip greenery and snapped a few shots, trying to match Corey's intimate feel but also to present the full picture of the moment in the film when we see the character (film 2; scene 4, in the story outline link at right). I spent many hours, creating and experimenting with new improvised Photoshop techniques for adding golden lantern light falling on the leaves as the snail troops past us in the evening light, raindrops gently fall in the background leaving glossy pearls of water, cozy smoke rises from the old stone chimney, as her window curtains get dirty dragging along behind her in the mud.