IF: ADAPT

The Troll is trying to adapt to the changing circumstances by compromising with the two Billy Goats and letting them cross the bridge while waiting to eat the older bigger brother.

I missed last week's IF and missed visiting many of my favorite blogs...I really need to catch up! It was a busy week since we are wrapping up the school year and there's a lot of functions and extra curricular activities for the kids. The next couple of weeks will probably be  just as busy as we try to adapt to the new summer routine. I'm not looking forward to the scorching heat that's for sure!

My goal is to finish, print and bind the Three Billy Goats Gruff dummy book before our summer vacation which is in about a month. It seems like a lot of time, but really with all of the stuff that I have going on, seems a bit unrealistic. Well, nothing like working under pressure!

Have a great weekend, and thanks for stopping by.

IF: CONTAGIOUS

Poor Timmy, he's home sick with Chicken Pox!

It's a good thing his dog is keeping him company!

I needed a break from my troll and goats.  So I drew this earlier today. I had the idea in my head, but I did not think too much about composition, perspective, etc. If I had to do it over, I would change it some.

YES! I won last week's challenge at Monday Art Day! Please check them out if you haven' done so already. They have some great talent!  I was so surprised. I had not submitted anything in months because of time, and I submitted something last week and it won! It feels great to have a little validation.

I promised I would post the progress I'm making with the Three Billy Goats Gruff dummy. I had an incredibly productive week last week. I am also becoming more familiar with InDesign, which seems to be the software of choice. So long for Quark Xpress! 

There's a couple of spreads that I'm thinking about revising because now that I see them in color, the composition doesn't work as well as it did when I was looking only at the line work. Rather than getting stuck on revisions, I will continue to move forward and do the revisions at the end. -- I'm half way through. Yay!

Comments are always welcome!

This is the middle Billy Goat

IF:PARADE

The Small Billy Goat Gruff was unaware that the Troll was about to rain on his parade. Crossing the bridge would not be so easy!

This is a stretch for this week's IF.  However, I am happy to be making progress on this dummy book. I will be adding the text after I am finished. So the bridge may seem a bit much, but that's where the text is going to be.

I am painting birdhouses at the moment to give myself a break from the troll and goats.

Have a great weekend!

IF: HIERARCHY

The Three Billy Goats Gruff walking in hierarchy.

This is another spread for the BGG book I am working on. I really feel more comfortable with this medium than I did a few weeks ago. I can consistently replicate textures and brushes digitally and I really think it feels very much like my traditional work. I am very pleased with the progress I am making. Now if I can only get my 7 year old epson 3000 stylus printer to print without any lines, then everything would be working as it should!

Have a great weekend!

TODAY MY BLOG IS ONE YEAR OLD

Happy birthday to me and to my blog! It was a year ago that I made the commitment to be creative every week by having a blog and posting my work here. My friend Nicole encouraged me to get blogging!

It was shortly after, that I discovered the wonderful world of children’s illustrations and realized my new path and my new mission in terms of my career. I set a few goals for my self for the one-year term: Create a portfolio, update my web site, create promotional materials and attend a conference to receive feedback. I accomplished all of those goals in about 8 months, so I feel very good about reaching those goals. However, the last year has not been all that easy.

After my conference, I thought my work needed quite a bit of fine-tuning to make it more appealing to publishers, and I’ve been working toward improving my portfolio. My new project is to illustrate a whole book. However, my biggest hurdle the past few months has been time. I’m not sure how many of you could relate, but as a stay at home Mom, balancing career and family is sometimes a daunting task. I’m not saying it is easier for Moms that work out of the house, but I do think it is easier to manage time if you have a block of time where you are ‘just’ working without any distractions and you know your kids are well cared for by someone else. I think it is a challenge to be productive when you have to stop your day numerous times to drop off, pick up, cook, clean, help with homework, play dates, go to activities…this is without including the unexpected illness, hospital visit (which we’ve had 3 this year!) or simply paying bills, holiday gatherings, doctor visits and other tasks to run the house.

Earlier this year I wanted to send out promotional materials to publishers since I know it may be a while before I get a call back, but the thought of actually getting a call back and be given a chance and not be able to fulfill because of my time constrains, stopped me from moving forward.

I have been reminded many times this year that my time is not my own, I have come to the conclusion (this is not the first time either) where I think I need to step back, count my blessings, enjoy my young kids (they are only little once) and wait. The time will come, where I will be able to dive into my work. As long as I remain creative even a little I’m being good to myself… My youngest starts Kinder in 2010, so I do see a light at the end of the tunnel.

I love having a blog, it has allowed me to connect with people that I would other wise have never meet. I have met so many other creative people that have provided kind words of support, inspiration and friendship. It’s been fun!

For this second year, I will enjoy my art, experiment, have fun and continue to refine my portfolio.

 

Thank you all for your continuous visits, comments and friendship. They really touch my heart. It’s Friday! Celebrate my birthday! GO HAVE A DRINK!

If: THEATER

This is an old sketch I thought would work for this week's prompt.

I don't know what is happening in my cosmic field lately, but I just can't seem to

get enough time to make enough progress on anything! Things keep popping up that need my attention and take me off track. 

Here's a color version of one of the sketches from the Billy Goat Gruff.

IF: IMPOSSIBILITY

The Three Billy Goats Gruff

Dummy Book Sketches

Pencil and Photoshop

Detail

The youngest Billy Goat Gruff began to cross the bridge not knowing the impossibility of what was ahead...

 

I am making some progress with my dummy book, and I am very excited about it. This project has made me re-think my process. I am realizing that spending a ton of time on one illustration is okay, but when there's about 14 spreads to create, each step represents time that I could spend on another project, and it minimizes my productivity.

I had thought about time vs. productivity constrains before, but didn’t give it too much importance, since at the time I was more concerned with achieving a certain level of quality regardless of time. Today, I feel that I have more control over the outcome of the illustrations, and have become more comfortable working with acrylics, pens, brushes, and pencils. However, I do spend a great deal of time on my work. 

I have been fighting going completely digital for my own comfort. I enjoy the touch and feel of the paints, brushes etc, and it makes me feel like a true artist. It probably has something to do with having the traditional stereotype of an artist holding a palette while painting on a canvas with a brush etched in my brain.

Up until now, I have used the computer mostly to scan or tighten original sketches, or create a color guide for the final illustration. I have played with some IF posts where I’ve done a quick sketch, scanned it, and then colored it in Photoshop. These quick exercises have made me realized that I can make the cross over and cut my time in half!

I’m pretty pleased with the results so far and I think I will continue in this digital path… I guess you could also say that I am working against the seeming impossibility to cross over to digital

The Breeze Award

I just received an award! The incredibly talented and warm hearted Bella Sinclair just blew me away with this unique award created by Peter Breese!

In his very own words: The coveted Breese Award is given to six inspirational individuals; since most blog awards cater to odd numbers, this particular award was designed for the more even keeled folk. These six should be a collection of bloggers that have helped you, either directly or indirectly, to stay creative.

I love this award because since I started my blog almost a year ago, I have met so many giving people that have helped me, supported and inspired me throughout my creative endeavors and this is my way of saying thanks! I couldn't limit my selection to 6, but hey! I stayed with an even number!

• Bella Sinclair
  
• Nicole Merkens
  
• Diana Evans
  
• Deborah Mori
  
• Kathleen Rietz
  
• Tom Barret
  
• Heather Hanlin
  
• ChickenGirl
  
• Froggie
  
• Kathy Hare
  
• Alicia Padrón
  
• Roberta Baird

 

 

Welcome to My Studio

I have visited numerous blogs where people post images of their studio and they are usually very impressive and elaborate areas. I just finished cleaning out my studio and adding the armoire (in the picture) to add more storage space, so I thought it would be a good time to share my working space. My studio is a room in the house where I get to be by myself. There’s nothing fancy or special about it, other than it is my very own space. I have a ‘work table’ where I do all my drawings and assembly. I find I like this set up better than a drafting table. I used to have a drafting table and found that my pencils, Exacto knife and other tools would always roll down the table, even if I had a tray or a cup to put them back in. My lamp is a jewelry lamp with ‘natural’ lighting to mimic daylight when working at night.

Well, maybe there’s one special item in the room, and that is my easel. My husband gave it to me about 10 years ago, when we were DINKS. This easel is a piece of art! It is so versatile…It can hold huge paintings or small paintings. It has so many features; I honestly don’t know how to use them all!

I also have a large cork-board where I post some of my work, some inspiration, ideas, or whatever I am working on. I bought the self-sticky cork-board tiles at Target at a reasonable price and then put them on the wall. The tiles kept falling off and I thought I would have to rip off the remaining tiles, but then I used some tiny nails to hold them in place.

I think what I like the most about the studio is that I can go and get lost in my creative world and have some peace and quiet. My husband calls it ‘my sanctuary’.  I love it!

I have my computer set up in a different room that I share with my husband.

IF: FLEETING

I just finished this illustration (Pencil and Photoshop) and I was so excited to see that it actually matched the IF prompt for this week!

HAPPY EASTER!!!!

ROUGH - PICTURE BOOK DUMMY

I really wanted to see what the accordion dummy book format would look like. Seems like an added step, but at the moment it helps me visualize the final product. The final dummy will be 7” x 9”, so that it would be easier to print, but this dummy is 85% smaller. Now that I can see and flip through the pages, I can begin to make the tight sketches for each spread. I have a meeting with my local SCBWI and look forward to getting some feedback on both the characters and the rough dummy.

Some questions I'll ask the group (and feel free to comment if you know the answer) are: Does everyone still work with this accordion format? Is there a difference between the dummy you submit to a publisher hoping to get it published Vs. the dummy you make during the production process of a book? 

WHY CREATE A PICTURE BOOK DUMMY FOR YOUR PORTFOLIO?

One of the things I took away from the Florida SCBWI Conference was that if you are trying to stand out and show your skills as an illustrator, you can not leave things to chance or hope that an AD can look at your work and imagine how it would fit in with their manuscript. You need to show them!

For instance, if you want to illustrate a children’s book, don’t expect to be noticed by having amazing portfolio pieces that would be perfect in a children’s book, but don’t show your understanding of the publishing world. But, how do you show understanding if you have never been published, you might ask? Well, create your own book. Illustrate and entire book for your portfolio, and have it bound (dummy). It doesn’t have to be an original story; it could be a public domain story that you take to show your strengths as and illustrator. There are many reasons for doing this, but mostly it shows an AD that you can take a character and portray him consistently throughout a story. It also shows that you understand the ins and outs of book publishing such as layout, bleeds, gutter space, word placement, flow, continuity, assembly, story-telling etc.

Hearing this at the conference really made a lot of sense to me. Many years ago I had the opportunity to interview many print graphic designers that were trying to make the transition to web design, and unless they had specific web samples in their portfolio, I could not be sure that they really understood the web world, even if their work was top notch. Designers that had web design samples always had an advantage.
Needless to say, I am now creating my own book dummy to include in my portfolio. I must say that creating one illustration Vs. illustrating an entire book is completely different, and if you are an aspiring children’s book illustrator I highly recommend it.

I am illustrating the Three Billy Goats Gruff. I started out with the character studies of the goats and the troll, shown on previous posts. I need to work on a color version of the characters and change the troll to have one eye. Since the story calls for a one eyed troll (I’m learning that it’s important to be true and honest to the story).

I would like to make more progress but at the moment all I have is a few hours a week for this, so it may be a while before you come to see something other than goats and trolls on this blog.

Below are the thumbnails for the layout. These are based on a 32 page picture book with 4 pages of front matter. The sketches are very loose and a little bigger than a stamp to focus primarily on flow, overall composition and layout. I first started with the text and broke it up into sections/pages to then illustrate that part of the story. There are a few pages that I’m not quite sure about…still making decisions…

ANY comments and criticism are welcomed!

IF:TALISMAN

I've been very pressed for time lately, and pencils and graphite seems to be my fastest medium, so here's another pencil drawing for this week's IF theme 'talisman'. 

NEW BOOKS RECENTLY RELEASED

The ABCs of Yoga for Kids illustrated by the very talented Kathleen Rietz is now available. The book introduces young children to simple yoga moves through beautifully illustrated poses. Please check it out! For purchase and more information visit http://licoricegirl.blogspot.com

Another book that was recently released and is available at all major stores is I Spy a Dragonfly. This book was illustrated by another very talented artist Diana Evans and it is about a little boy and his mom on a fun and colorful journey where they discover the beauty of the Dragonfly. For purchase or more information visit http://www.dianaevans.ca/html/picturebooks.html