Rough Sketch Beginning

Shangri-la
1995
Dimension: 
7.75" x 5.5"
Medium: 
Oil on cardboard

Description: Color and b&w sketches done from the artist's travels around the world were pieced together to create this imaginary landscape, used for the cover of the book.

Cloud Studies*
1995
Dimension: 
15" x 20"
Medium: 
Oil on cardboard
The Dreadful Sea*
1995
Dimension: 
12" x 9"
Medium: 
Graphite on paper
Eden (b&w)*
1995
Dimension: 
8" x 20.5"
Medium: 
Graphite on paper
Eden (color sketch)*
1995
Dimension: 
3" x 8.5"
Medium: 
Oil on cardboard
Eden
1995
Dimension: 
18" x 48"
Medium: 
Oil on canvas

Description: Color sketches done from the artist's travels around the world were pieced together to create this imaginary landscape. The finished painting is in the collection of Microsoft co-founder, Paul Allen

Mountain Studies*
1995
Dimension: 
15" x 20"
Medium: 
Watercolor, body color, and pencil on cardboard
The Silver River
1995
Dimension: 
10" x 24"
Medium: 
Watercolor and body color on cardboard
Storm Studies*
1995
Dimension: 
15" x 20"
Medium: 
Oil on cardboard
Woodland Branches*
1995
Dimension: 
15" x 20"
Medium: 
Watercolor, body color, pencil, and graphite on paper
Shangri-la
1995
Dimension: 
7.75" x 5.5"
Medium: 
Oil on cardboard

Description: Color and b&w sketches done from the artist's travels around the world were pieced together to create this imaginary landscape, used for the cover of the book.

Cloud Studies*
1995
Dimension: 
15" x 20"
Medium: 
Oil on cardboard
The Dreadful Sea*
1995
Dimension: 
12" x 9"
Medium: 
Graphite on paper
Eden (b&w)*
1995
Dimension: 
8" x 20.5"
Medium: 
Graphite on paper
Eden (color sketch)*
1995
Dimension: 
3" x 8.5"
Medium: 
Oil on cardboard
Eden
1995
Dimension: 
18" x 48"
Medium: 
Oil on canvas

Description: Color sketches done from the artist's travels around the world were pieced together to create this imaginary landscape. The finished painting is in the collection of Microsoft co-founder, Paul Allen

Mountain Studies*
1995
Dimension: 
15" x 20"
Medium: 
Watercolor, body color, and pencil on cardboard
The Silver River
1995
Dimension: 
10" x 24"
Medium: 
Watercolor and body color on cardboard
Storm Studies*
1995
Dimension: 
15" x 20"
Medium: 
Oil on cardboard
Woodland Branches*
1995
Dimension: 
15" x 20"
Medium: 
Watercolor, body color, pencil, and graphite on paper

Original art is available for purchase and is marked with an asterisk (*). Please inquire through the contact page.

Los Angeles Times Book Review
April 14, 1996

Jamaican author James Berry's poem about an artist sketching ideas for a landscape is as rich in images as the drawings that artist Robert Florczak has borrowed from his sketchbooks to accompany the words. The resulting combination of words and pictures is a thought-provoking and imagination-stimulating meditation on the creative process.


School Library Journal
May 1, 1996

Teachers looking for a good book that combines lessons on writing and art need look no further. This volume pairs Berry's poem about the genesis of an idea with drawings and paintings that bring it to life. Each line is splashed against a two-page spread. Rough sketches build to a beautiful four-page spread linking the mountains, lightning, birds, and trees of Berryís poem, dramatically demonstrating how an idea can be transformed into reality via art. Any library would find this title a useful addition due to the quality of both its poetry and illustrations.


Booklist
May 1, 1996

To accompany [Berry's] poetic imaginings, artist Florczak has culled drawings from his personal sketchbooks of travels throughout the world. The resulting combination of words and images is a thought-provoking, imagination-stimulating meditation on the creative process. To bring closure to Berryís reflections and his own sketches, Florczak has incorporated their many disparate elements into a concluding painting of an Edenic landscape that stretches over a four-page gatefold and is reminiscent of ambitious paintings from the Hudson River school. A beautifully written, lavishly designed, and ingeniously illustrated book.

In 1997, the Children's Book Council instituted the Not Just For Children Anymore! catalog. This catalog contains over one hundred children's books selected by a distinguished panel of booksellers as titles that adults would enjoy and purchase for themselves and other adults. ROUGH SKETCH BEGINNING Wonders of nature are described in unique and poetic metaphors; text and images combine in a majestic work of art. Each view forms a double-page spread for meditation.