The trick was to depict an actual Curtis Park home, modify its landscape, give the overall feel an Arts and Crafts look (which in graphic design and illustration features thick lines almost overwhelming detail, turning shapes into simplified icons; contemporary illustrator and printer David Lance Goines regularly employs the Arts and Crafts look), and get it done fast.
My first thought was uncomfortable: Shingles and leaves in a short time. Drawing as I do, right-handed with a mouse (I'm left-handed), I recoiled at the thought of all the leaves and minute lines representing the roof.
Luckily, all Lisa needed was line art. She would apply the color, type and overall design.
The outside shapes would be easy by comparison. (My son has since lent me his electronic tablet, and once I get a pen to replace his that was lost, I'll have a learning curve ahead of me, but will be grateful to speed the process one day soon.) The devil would indeed be in the details.
This is the postcard. The package includes a poster, which required me to make the elements as separate entities so that Lisa could move them to fit different dimensions.
This is the line art as I composed it, for my own entertainment. You can see how the elements differ from the postcard:
Ultimately, the illustration doesn't fully embody the Arts and Crafts look; the home's style fits that movement, but the depiction of if is more architectural than ornamental. Only the azaleas above and undulant grasses below, I think, truly bespeak the Arts and Craft look.
Ironically, if I had worked less hard on the project, thickening outlines and tossing out details (and having time to sweat out which details to lose) the finished piece would have carried the Arts and Crafts theme more globally. A fun challenge, though.
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