I had trouble with this one!  All Illustration Friday topics are good, is my general belief, and if I cannot come up with an illustration, that is not the fault of the word! But all I could come up with for “PREPARE” was an elaborately prepared birthday cake.  So I started a 4-tier fancy cake, but couldn’t decide on a decorating scheme for it.  I finally hit upon Minas Tirith* but couldn’t muster up the enthusiasm to do it right.

Then last night the boyfriend’s new alt-country band Honeysuckle Road was playing at a bar, and I brought drawing paper (8″x5″ Bristol paper from a small drawing journal, folded in half to fit in my tiny purse), a pencil and my favorite Staedtler eraser. Oh, and a pencil sharpener. Over the course of the evening (after several false starts), I came up with the following:

Magic Preparedness Kits, Display and "Actual" Versions

It’s a pretty rough sketch with many eraser marks, but I like the sketchy style.  I also left the scanned version in “color” because it seems to give an old-fashioned kind of sepia tone (not sure why, actually, since it was all regular pencil!) Also, it is probably pretty clear I had no reference objects so some of the items are sketchy in more ways than one.

The Display Version of this wizard preparedness kit includes: Magic 8-Ball, witch hazel, candles, “spirits”, jar of newt eyes, tuning fork, genie lamp, Swiss Army Wand gadget. The “Real” Version includes: change for laundry, Sham Wow, spork, sharpie marker, nail clippers, Neosporin, Snickers bar, duct tape, cow bell, toothbrush, bifocals.

Some items that didn’t make the cut: extra straw for brooms, calligraphy pen, snakebite kit, Mag light, matches, flare gun, sticks of dynamite, fishing hook, ace bandage, rope, salt and pepper shakers, sewing kit. I think I will do a full color version in the next couple days, so we’ll see what ends up in there!

Can you think of any items I should have added? How about for your own emergency kit? Thank you for visiting!

*Minas Tirith is the White City from Lord of the Rings. Built in the side of a mountain, with terraces and levels going all the way up to a castle at the top (and the courtyard with the white tree).  Apologies for the rampant geekery. But anyway, great tiered cake idea, right!?  So great it’s probably been done, now that I think of it. ;)