Reading Journal Entry: Islands

When Anny Butler marries Dr. Lewis Aiken, she becomes a member of the "Scrubs", a longtime group of Charleston friends who all have medical connections. For years, they share their free time together at a communal beach house. Then misfortune begins to plague the group, resulting in three deaths. When the story gets top-heavy with disaster, into it roars an unlikely but intriguing new character. Gaynelle Toomer, a Harley-riding, freckle-faced ex-librarian, is hired to do odd jobs for the Scrubs. She becomes a constant companion to Anny's frail friend, Camilla. Camilla, the stabilizing force of this group, turns out to be not at all what she appears, making the story's end a shocker.

Since much of the story centered on a big old beach house, it was natural to feature it as the illustrative element of this spread. I thought the warm colors that I chose for the background contrasted nicely with the dark blue of the sky, so I decided to use blue gouache to write the headings. I had seen the technique of extending an existing picture by continuing the scene past the actual boundaries, so I decided to give it a try here. Since my drawing skills are limited, this looked like something I could handle...just the sky, a road, and some grass. It's not very well done, but it was interesting to try.