An appropriate image for a first posting on my new blog here. The Earth Turtle was one of my first and most magical creations.
Created in the summer of 2001 I was sitting at my kitchen table in a small rustic cabin along Dead Indian Memorial Road. I remember thinking to myself, “Now I am going to create something absolutely great. I am going to open up a door into another world and pull out an amazing image which people will absolutely love.” I am setting an intention of love. I began to draw and the Earth Turtle was born. (This is not my typical starting point – But however interesting for this project)
The original drawing was done on an 8.5 x 5.5 piece of copy paper and took me about 45 minutes. I then used prisma color pencils and micron pens to color and ink the final drawing. When I get some time in the future I will include the picture right here as well as sell the signed original.
(((Hey, Shields – Put Original Earth Turtle Here – People Are Waiting)))
After the creation of the Earth Turtle I was always in pursuit of being able to surpass the popularity of its creation. No matter what format this turtle was in, on a journal, greeting card, shirt or clock. The image ALWAYS sold, and it almost ALWAYS sold first.
Once I saw the popularity of the image in original format, I decided to refine it down to the essence. I wanted to see if it could work better. I took the image and transposed it into adobe illustrator. It continued to gather attention and was once again a success.
I’m not sure if people just love turtles or if there really was some magic that occurred at it’s birth, and for this purpose the image holds my curiosity.