just for fun

After reading Helga and Amy's comments on my last entry I thought it might be fun to post the original 'auntie' character sketch I drew two years ago, so here it is, which one do you prefer?...The new chic Victoria Beckham-ish version or the 'wild and whimsical' hippie-like version??

...I'm thinking now something a little in-between the two.

Step 3 - Character Development

We are getting deep into the #PBDummy challenge at Kidlitart, just finishing the third step, two weeks of working on our characters. It has been a fun experience, but a real challenge for me. I have had an advantage in that I have been thinking of these characters for a few years, and some of the characters are based on people I know - it's their experience the story is based on. So the mom and the aunt were relatively easy....although the aunt is perhaps looking a little too chic with those sunglasses - in the story she has been described as being 'wild and whimsical'.

My main challenges are - drawing the character so they look like themselves sketch after sketch, and drawing in a consistent style - I bounce back and forth between drawing realistic characters and more cartoony characters.  Although our character development phase is over I am going to have to revisit a few of these characters for that reason. The little boy and the mice seem more cartoony than the mom and the aunt - which probably won't match up very well. For now, I'll leave them as they are.

If you have any feedback on how I can improve these characters, please leave your feedback in the comments.

On to step four - storyboarding!

maximizing your online presence

I just finished reading a great article from theabundantartist about maximizing ones online presence. I am not at a point where I am ready to start marketing myself, but when that time comes it certainly makes sense that I not only need a blog but a website as well where I can display my portfolio, contact info etc...This article speaks to the need to have both ones blog and ones website linked together to ensure that your web traffic is directed to both sites. There are also links to tutorials on how to merge your current blog with a website. Great info to reference when the time comes!

Lately I have also been overwhelmed with social media. It can be so time consuming to keep up with it all!! Below are some great articles that can help maximize ones online presence while at the same time cut the amount of time spent maintain ones blog, twitter, facebook, linkedin accounts, etc...

from the Abundant Artist  ("How to use social media and still have a life") who then links to an article entitled:" Streamlining your social Web presence in six steps", "Free services to streamline your social networking experience", and "It's about time: 5 tools to streamline your social media". Tools like twitterfeed, igoogle and using google alerts are suggested.

My first award!

Last week I was surprised to find my blog was awarded - the Liebster Award, granted me by Kerie Miller at illustration junky. Kerie is an illustrator and an online classmate of mine. It was a thrill and honor to receive this little award, so thank you Kerie. Now I knew very little about this award and what it represents so I had to do a little digging and discovered that it's an award for 'up and coming' blogs that have less than 200 followers. (I certainly fit the second qualification and hope to live up to the first).

As part of the tradition of this award I apparently need to share 5 things about myself and pass the award on to 5 blogs fitting the criteria.

As far as 5 things about me...I am a land-locked girl who loves the ocean (married to a dear man who has a phobia of large bodies of water)...I love to run with my girlfriends that way I have weekly guilt-free social time...I speak three languages, one being Chuukese - officially an "unwritten language" which, living in Western Canada has surprisingly never come in handy....I am trying to be healthy but chocolate is my nemesis...I am happiest when I am outside either sketching or participating in an activity with my family.

And now I officially pass on the honor of the Liebster Blog Award to:

Helga Pearson
Sylvia Liu
Jaqueline Hudon-Verrelli
Lynne and Melissa 
Ken Teghtmeyer

(Now honestly I can't tell how many followers some of these blogs have, for some blogs it's not obvious and if you are over 200 followers my apologizes but these blogs are deserving of recognition!)

Photoshop Tutorials

I have come across a couple sites that provide free tutorials in Photoshop that look intriguing, something I'm going to have to sit down and go through one day.


Kim Klassen Cafe
ctrl+Paint

Thanks to those who are so generous on the web, sharing their skills and knowledge.

On writing

I have wanted to illustrate picture books for a long time and have loved getting involved in the kidlit community. I had no idea how supportive it would be and never imagined how much information others would be willing to share. Not having officially gone to art school I have always hoped that one day once the boys are older I'd be able to return to school and get a BFA but I am learning so much through other illustrators and through courses online I don't know if returning to school is the best use of my time...but I digress. What I have realized recently is that I could potentially write my stories too. I didn't think I had a story in me, but I have been pleasantly surprised to discover through the 12x12 challenge that I do have stories to tell and I enjoy writing them.
So another stream of posts are in order - highlights of great articles/blog posts to reference later as I will never retain all of the info after one read. I find my blog acts like a trail of breadcrumbs since I often find myself thinking "now where did I read that article?" "What was a reading when I found that link?". I am completely overwhelmed with social media these days and can't even try to keep up with it all, but little by little I'll find some gems to save and to share.
I have been following Elizabeth S. Craig on twitter, I can't remember who suggested following her, perhaps Katie Davis in a podcast. Regardless I am glad I did, she is constantly sending out fantastic tweets with links to useful info for authors that I would never find on my own. Here are two links she tweeted today...

"Writing Secrets of Prolific Authors" from WritetoDone - a blog any author should bookmark it looks like.
"Writing Descriptive Passages" from Science Fiction & Fantasy Novelists

Also today I came across a link to a post by Tara Lazar where she wrote about the 400 things that kids like - to provide a starting point for an idea. Tara has so many great posts for prepublished authors that I have added her link to my sidebar. I am sure I'll be referencing her blog often.

Thanks again to all for sharing your wealth of knowledge.

Session 11 - complete

Okay, that was a crazy session from Mark's course - 4, 5 and 6 pt perspective. In theory I get it, but it's really tricky. It's going to take a lot of practice to master it. There are some great YouTube videos out there though for the artist who cares to learn more about it and Dick Termes seems to be the master.

Session 10 - complete!

Session 10 was all  about 3pt perspective, and it wasn't as scary as I thought it was going to be. I am really comfortable now with buildings, but people in 3pt is still something I am going to have to spend a lot of time working on . I did have an 'aha' moment watching some of the video links Mark suggested we take a look at, especially TomatoDragons' video on 1`pt perspective where he talks about the key to adding characters to the image is having their heads line up along the horizon line...beautiful!

Character Design Exercise

One of my favorite character designers is Peter deSeve - how can you not!  Recently I took out a compilation of his character designs from the library, both me and my children looked through his sketches over and over.
I think that coming up with creative characters are so challenging. I suppose it comes with practice, but to really think outside of the box is even more of a challenge.On that note, today I came upon a post with an amazing idea to do exactly that - think outside the box and create unique characters.  Here is the exercise ! Thanks to Letters From Schwarzville for posting!...note not only is this a great exercise for illustrators, I think it would be a fun challenge for grade school kids. Heck, I'm going to save this for a fun rainy day activity from my children.

David Melling's process

It always seems like such a gift when you are able to actually view someone's process  as they create a picture book. Here is a video of David Melling and his process from start to finish. (Thanks Helga for sharing this).