Will You Take Our Picture?

Penguins on vacation. A kindly hippo snaps their photo for them.

Illustration Friday: Snap

He couldn't wait to show his friends the photo, but after the seal had disappeared, the boy realized there had been no film in the camera.

Teenager

Something I need to be more aware of with my portfolio is the age group factor. I naturally tend to draw the 6-9 age range, so I will be adding some baby, toddler and teenager illustration samples over the next few days. You never know who's passing you up for a good job simply because you didn't include the age range they were looking for.

Think Think Think

They say if you can't think of anything to write, you write about being unable to think of something to write. I'm taking that same idea and 'drawing' from it (above illustration of me trying to think of a good illustration idea) ;0) I felt like pooh bear, sitting on his log saying, "think....think.....think....think.."

I did the stress echocardiogram test today. Oh my LORD, they really have you huffin' and puffin! They tilted the treadmill enough to where I felt like I was walking straight up a wall, and of course kicked up the speed. I was hanging on to the hand-bar for dear life haha. Anyways, that test came out, and I quote from the doctor "boringly normal". I'm just glad she didn't look at the result and go "Look at THAT! That's the strangest result I've ever seen. Hey Mary! Come over here and look at this!"

I also secretly hoped they would be impressed with my fitness level (har har). Before the blackout I was running almost everyday. I guess you can lose your conditioning pretty fast because it's only been about 3 weeks since then of not moving around much and I was informed I'm not in very good physical shape. Darn! I'm happy now though, because I can get back to running on my own treadmill again...which I secretly enjoy (as long as I can keep watching my "Wonder Years" DVD collection while running).

Another Book Dummy Page

My book is coming along very nicely! As you can see from comparing the last few pages to this one, I changed the character design a bit. Of course I had to go back, erase the faces off all the previous pages and redraw those as well-which was kind of a struggle since I had gone over them with a B3 dark pencil lol.

I tell you, it's a big step for me to follow through with my own manuscript, because my tendency is to find something wrong with the current story I'm working on, and abandon ship six pages into the book dummy. I guess I finally have confidence in a story I wrote - one that has lasted through all the difficulties of seeing it to almost the end. I have completed ten dummy pages so far, and my excitement is growing with every step I take in bringing it to life.

I plan on documenting this project into the printing/binding stage (I might possibly use blurb.com for that). And additionally include packaging info and I'll post all publisher responses both good and bad, without including their name of course.

I'm happy to say I have one extra special contact to send this book to. She's an editor who responded to a story I wrote and submitted while still in college. She invited me to send more work, so of course she's going to be one of the first people I send this too.

As for the health stuff, alls I can do is wait for the medical tests and test results. I guess it possibly could have been an arrhythmia--how fun! Meanwhile I'm keeping my mind on my projects....and staying away from chocolate (caffeine). ;0)

I Heart Email

I love getting email. it's like receiving little surprise presents every day. Unfortunately, my tendonitis filled wrist does not like keyboards. I'm happy to say that I can draw pretty much as often as I like now - so it's getting a lot better, but typing is still..'aaaaagony' if I tap those keys too much. I can type about one long email, or three short ones a day with a tad bit of discomfort, but not over that. So I just wanted to apologize for slow responses. I will answer all emails in my turtle-like speed :0)

Illustrations Friday : I Spy...

This is from Jack and the Beanstalk. Just a quick doodle before bedtime.

Book Dummy sketch Pages 6-7

Slowly but surely I'm plodding through the double page spreads. I guess what makes dummy book creating so difficulty is the unknown of what will happen to it. What if no one likes it, and it doesn't get published? What if I'm putting all these long hours in for nothing? Well from what I've read, even if a book doesn't get picked up by a publisher, showing a strong book dummy can get you illustration assignments. And even if that doesn't happen, the only way to get better at this is to practice. It sure is exciting breathing life into this story. I wish I could share the full manuscript with everyone. Ah well.

Book Dummy sketch Pages 4-5

Without giving away the plot, I can at least say that Jack is telling a story that he finds extremely entertaining. His classmates and teacher, however, don't agree.

Nursery Rhyme

Doctor Foster went to Gloucester
In a shower of rain;
He stepped in a puddle,
Right up to his middle,
And never went there again.

Note: The old word for puddle was "piddle," which rhymed with middle.

Pet Turtle

This is how I feel about my two dogs. Apples of my eye :0)

Gwyn Is Always Forgetting Things

The Star Of The Show

Well here is Jack, star of the show, ready to make mischief. He's going to be the main character of my story. Today in between chores, I'm going to thumbnail more page spreads and also start working on the final pencil illustrations for the dummy. I'll show some of them as I go (and hopefully not give away the story in the process)! Hope other aspiring author/illustrators out there are finding some time to work on their own dream. If I can do it (a little A.D.D. here and Dyslexia there-haha) anyone can.

Got Milk?

This little cookie-eating mouse was hiding behind a glass of milk before it got picked up.

Illustration Friday : Hide

Here are three examples of hiding after an embarrassing event:

This dinosaur is hiding after bringing up the very sensitive subjective of extinction during a dinner party. Side joke: what do you call a hiding dinosaur? A do-you-think-he-saur-us


This rabbit is hiding because he mistakenly told his friends that he thought carrots were actually nuts.


And finally, this is lion is hiding after tripping his way up the red carpet during an important animal kingdom ceremony. To add to it, a princess, who he has a very big crush on, saw the whole thing.....and laughed.

Kid's Comics

I might...just might... be considered as an artist/author for a serial kid's comic for a magazine. Below is one of the pages I've been working on, half-finished. I tell you what, I used to write and draw comics for my college newspaper and have forgotten how complicated it can be laying out text and images so that they all work design-wise, and come across clearly. This was quite a challenge, but it was a heck of a lot of fun! The first speech bubble and magazine are both blurred because they have information about who I'm submitting to. These projects are TOP SECRET. If I tell you, I'd have to kill you. Sorry, had to quote "Top Gun" there. ;-)

Pirate Ship