Adding Light

Yesterday I received my copy of the 2008 Children's Writers & Illustrators Market in the mail. I've been reading the articles in the front whenever I need a break from painting. The ones I've read so-far are really quite informative and helpful. They even have a nice review of the basic rights that might appear in a contract.

In other news, my sister stopped by for lunch which resulted in what can best be described as a flurry of ideas for the graphic novel project. We solidified a good bit more of the plot to our liking.

More work on the Snow Queen. I'm trying to figure out what I want to do about the lighting design.

The Snow Queen Returns

Today I took a break from characters designs and worked a bit more on the Snow Queen piece. As I was not pleased with the painting step I ended on last time, I scrapped it and started from the rough sketch. From there I made multiple layers of clean line art for each part of the image. After that I blocked in solid colors for each object (each on their own layer). The next step is going to be to get more local color into each part and to start on shading and adding dimension.

Web Comics and Foxprints

Another discovery made today. Perusing DeviantArt I came across the gallery of tracyjb and shortly thereafter her website. Ooogling at her wonderful character sketches and web comic got me thinking. And we all know how dangerous that can be... I in the space of the last few hours I've come up with an exciting idea for a graphic novel of my own that I am bouncing up and down about. Not to mention beginning sketches of the main character and a couple possible titles for the whole series. I think it will be the perfect way to get more practice drawing and less painting (and get my butt in gear), all while actually creating something worthwhile. There is nothing like standing on the edge of something new to make you want to leap.

Love the Work

There are things I blog about so that I can let others know, and there are things I put in my blog so I can help myself remember. Yesterday I discovered the site of Keri Smith via a post on ConceptArt.org that linked to her "Artist's Survival Kit." The kit itself is a delightful five PDF pages for the artist who is feeling down. I liked it so much I got to looking around the rest of her site. In my exploration I discovered "Seven Steps to Getting Published" and "How to Make a Living Doing What you Love." The point she makes about loving your work spoke to me most deeply. And this:

why is it that so many times we have difficulty seeing our own light?

I also found two of her books on Amazon that I'd sorely like to buy, the non-planner datebook especially.

I was playing around with the an online version of the Myers Briggs personality test (here). Looks like I'm an INFJ, which appears to be one of the rarest types. This nifty link on INFJ.org explains it pretty well.

First Sketches for The Snow Queen

A bit of beginning work for the Fairytale Thunderdome competition. I still think I'm happier with the sketch than I am with the next step. Hmmm...

Interior Illustrations and Beliefs

Just finished up an interior illustration project for a client. For something so off my beaten path, it was surprisingly fun -owning much to how easy the client was to work with.

As I don't have any other projects lined up at the moment, I hope to get some work done on my Thunderdome entry. I think I arrived at a composition I liked in my sketching last night.

This is completely random, but I picked up a slew of poetry books a while back and am just getting around to reading them. The choice of the moment is a thick book of poetry by Robert Frost. It's actually quite fun to read (in moderation before bed). Anyway, I came upon a passage in one of his poems last night that really jumped out at me:

For, dear me, why abandon a belief
Merely because it ceases to be true.
Cling to it long enough, and not a doubt
It will turn true again, for so it goes.
Most of the change we think we see in life
Is due to truths being in and out of favor.

Seems odd at first, but it makes a lot of sense when you think about it. Aren't most things in this world periodic? Fashion, art, politics, hmmm...

In other news my Under the Raspberry Canes entry to cypherx's "Best Friends" contest has made it to the Finalists Round!

Here are the new interior illustrations I spoke of:

Stardust in My Eye

I just came home from the local theater where I saw Stardust. I loved it! I think it shines best (he he) in the relationship between Yvaine (Claire Danes) and Tristan (Charlie Cox). Tristan's character was just so boyishly cute and hilarious. Hugable, very hugable. And Claire as Yvaine is just awesome. Such chemistry between them. I'll admit at the very beginning I was a little apprehensive, but by the end I had been charmed completely. The humor throughout was quite lovely, especially the whole dead princes thing and the tough-guy *cough* Captain. One of the most sophisticatedly humorous movies I've seen in a looong time. I love the way that they did the whole star thing. Awww...

New Work and Best Friends

Site update. Wooh! I just finished up a "personal" painting for a contest Cypherx is holding on Deviant Art. The theme is "Best Friends." I did a painting inspired by one of my favorite childhood stories: The Velveteen Rabbit.

See this Deviant Art link for the image.

And this one for the required WIP.