I’m taking an online art class on painting with watercolors. One of the artists the teacher mentioned is Blanche Fisher Wright, who illustrated the “The Real Mother Goose” book that was originally published in 1916. She suggested that we might want to obtain a copy of this book, to use the pictures in it for reference, for practice. I have a reprint of this book from my childhood, so I was thrilled to hear this.

When we ended the Zoom session, I immediately went up into the attic to find my copy of Mother Goose in my keepsakes box. I was happy when I found it, and in great condition, considering.

I’d forgotten how old-fashioned the drawings are–the men and boys are wearing breeches to the knee, and women and girls are all in long dresses and mobcaps.

But the purpose is practice, not something you’d want to hang on the wall. So today, I pulled out “The Real Mother Goose” and found a picture to copy. For practice. I didn’t try to copy it in perfect detail. I just wanted to draw and paint the same general image.

Below is Blanche Fisher Wright’s on the left and mine on the right. Although I thought it would be pretty simple, I’ll admit I struggled a bit. This artist did what so many experts are able to do; her deceptively simple drawings look easy.

There are dozens and dozens of pictures in “The Real Mother Goose”,  and I am going to work on copying more of them. In doing this, I hope to gain the skills to reach my goal: to illustrate the three stories I made up for my kids when they were little. I’ve been struggling with the first story, the one about the cat, for just about forever (see previous posts).

Oscar Wilde said “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness.” I wholeheartedly agree.