Practicing more kitties.
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Friday, March 30, 2012
Illustration Friday: Return
A return to peace: pets have a wonderful way of reminding us the importance of here-and-now.
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Monday, March 26, 2012
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Illustration Friday: Swamp
Sorry for the multiple postings on this topic, I was just really inspired by it, and I needed to add some new pieces to my portfolio. :0)
Saturday, March 24, 2012
The Lion
I never thought for a moment I would set down my beloved watercolors, but I really enjoyed rendering this one digitally.
Friday, March 23, 2012
Illustration Friday: Swamped
The night sky was swamped with twinkling stars.
This is a color sketch of Ted and Jackjacks done on typing paper.
This is a color sketch of Ted and Jackjacks done on typing paper.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Twitter!
Hi everyone! Spring has sprung here in Virginia, and everything seems to have almost instantly come alive with colors, and lovely smells. This really is my favorite time of year.
I wanted to add a little update on my agent search. A lot of agents are at the Bologna Book Fair in Italy (lucky ducks), so things are on hold until they get back. For those of you who are also searching for an agent, I thought I'd pass along a little tip. Many of them have Twitter accounts, and aside from reading interviews online, following their Tweets is a great way to get to know their personalities and tastes, which will help you make better decisions on who to submit your work to.
Let me get on my soap box just one moment....I promise you this: if you work very hard, to the best of your abilities, study other authors and illustrators you love and practice your craft, you WILL get published. It's often a long road, but well worth the journey. They only way you won't get published is if you give up. If you get discouraged, ride it out. Cry, eat chocolate, whine to friends, shout at the kid's lit gods for being so unfair and often brutal, cover your bed in wet boo-hoo tissues--then get back on that horse (that's an order, and not a suggestion).
Keep that tough skin on too, I have had my fair share of rejections. Rejection is inevitable. And if someone knowledgeable in the business gives you a detailed critique, hold onto it like gold debloons off a sunken pirate ship.
Learn all the rules of writing and illustrating, and throw some (or many) out as needed.
As an aside, my twitter account is paigekysr. Hope to see ya there.
Get back to work! ;)
I wanted to add a little update on my agent search. A lot of agents are at the Bologna Book Fair in Italy (lucky ducks), so things are on hold until they get back. For those of you who are also searching for an agent, I thought I'd pass along a little tip. Many of them have Twitter accounts, and aside from reading interviews online, following their Tweets is a great way to get to know their personalities and tastes, which will help you make better decisions on who to submit your work to.
Let me get on my soap box just one moment....I promise you this: if you work very hard, to the best of your abilities, study other authors and illustrators you love and practice your craft, you WILL get published. It's often a long road, but well worth the journey. They only way you won't get published is if you give up. If you get discouraged, ride it out. Cry, eat chocolate, whine to friends, shout at the kid's lit gods for being so unfair and often brutal, cover your bed in wet boo-hoo tissues--then get back on that horse (that's an order, and not a suggestion).
Keep that tough skin on too, I have had my fair share of rejections. Rejection is inevitable. And if someone knowledgeable in the business gives you a detailed critique, hold onto it like gold debloons off a sunken pirate ship.
Learn all the rules of writing and illustrating, and throw some (or many) out as needed.
As an aside, my twitter account is paigekysr. Hope to see ya there.
Get back to work! ;)
Thursday, March 08, 2012
Hooray!
Well folks, it's really been an amazing week! The responses to my submissions have been well beyond what I could have possibly hoped for and dreamed. Thanks so much to everyone who has stopped by and posted words of encouragement. That really meant a lot to me because, plain and simple, I have worked so hard to make this dream come true and it's pretty scary to finally send your work out there. Your mind can't help but fill to the brim with all the what ifs.
I have my Happy Tums in hand, and I call them that because sometimes even good stress ties my stomach in knots lol!
I'll post with more details as soon as I can officially say I found a rep. For right now I'm going to keep putting my nose to the grindstone.
I have my Happy Tums in hand, and I call them that because sometimes even good stress ties my stomach in knots lol!
I'll post with more details as soon as I can officially say I found a rep. For right now I'm going to keep putting my nose to the grindstone.
Friday, March 02, 2012
DUH!
Well genius ol' me turned on comment moderation and forgot to add my email address. I had NO idea I had comments to look over! Good one, right? I'll look through them right now! Sorry about that, heh :) Thanks everyone for your patience with the dummy lol!
Illustration Friday: Intention
Thursday, March 01, 2012
New Decision
I've decided to start sending multiple submissions-- seems like it's a fairly acceptable practice these days, as long as you let the agent know. Sent a query off via email last night, and am working sending more to a couple of other agencies today. LOVE the ones who accept PDF book dummies/e-mail submissions! Some of them get back to you surprisingly fast. Fingers crossed!
The book I'm currently shopping around is, "Hey, Look! Bunnies!", and if everyone rejects it, I've other dummy books waiting in the wings.
"Never give up! Never surrender!" - Galaxy Quest (haha)
The book I'm currently shopping around is, "Hey, Look! Bunnies!", and if everyone rejects it, I've other dummy books waiting in the wings.
"Never give up! Never surrender!" - Galaxy Quest (haha)
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