Bringing My Dream To Life

I've long wanted to celebrate my childhood home in art. It was flooded by Hurricane Floyd in 1999, when I was fourteen. We didn't take many pictures when I was young. Film and development of photos cost money and we didn't have much to spare. That was the story for all of my neighborhood, and as a result, there are few photos of the houses or the restaurant except for during floods. The only real reference photo I had for my house was the one below, taken after the flood.

Before I had kids, I worked for a company in Alabama that made computer models of cities using satellite data, photos, and hand-made textures. I had never really combined the skills I gained in that job with my love of drawing, but it occurred to me one day that I might be able to when I wanted to begin illustrating the story I had written for my kids about the old neighborhood. 

I began gathering reference photos of houses similar to the one in which I grew up. I spliced them together to create the house, and then captured the background using Google Maps Streetview. 

This was the reference I used in creating the illustration below. When I did this piece I hadn't seriously drawn in years, and looking at it now after months of more regular practice, I'm itching to do another version. Even so, it's neat to see something more akin to the home I remember as a child. I also console myself with the thought that the art in the book is supposed to have been created by its eleven-year-old heroine, so maybe it's on point. :-)