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yeah, will be waiting for a "experimenting with drawing white on black in my spare time"-product!
do share some..... :)
art rules! whoa!

compliments, for yur contract...happy sketching, sir!

Thanks so much д∂Øήåïeš!

So good!

i'm with you all the way here until the very last, when *my* art school background kicks in. on this means war i'm going to have to argue that there is a most decided focal point and the design is not accidental.

look at that cover from a room's distance and what do you see? the color red dominates, which puts the focus on the boy and the word war. red is a hot color and stands out against the neutral beige and the cool blues. because of that, i feel the design fails if the main character is actually the girl because looking at the cover i would have assumed the opposite.

what's interesting to me, and maybe could have been highlighted better, are the actual colors themselves. since it's set against the background of the cuban missile crisis it's interesting to me that the palate consists of dirtier versions of the colors used in both the US and cuban flags - red, white, and blue. and when you look at how there is a natural triangle created with the characters head's at the top sloping down toward the outer edges of the word war, against white picket stripes, it's almost a subtle echo of the triangular field that makes up the cuban flag which, you will note, has a single star in the middle approximately where the star is here in the letter A. i'm going to guess this is an accident unless i hear otherwise, but it's an interesting coincidence nonetheless.

but maybe that's just me.

Whoa. That's really good, Mr. David Elzey. As I was reviewing my post, I noticed the red popping out at me, too. I hadn't taken color into consideration. I'll add the Cuban flag for comparison.

Nicely done, David - I like your eye! And Carol, thanks - I want to go back to school and study Art. And Art History. And Design. And History. And Museology. And Journalism. And Comparative Literature. And maybe Physics, in a literary way. And maybe Oceanography or Marine Biology. And Woodshop and Autoshop. And Photography...and Astronomy....

As a post-script, I'll add this link, which expands on the idea Carol offers up of negative space:
http://ooligan.pdx.edu/?p=2231

The Ooligan Press site is full of cool stuff about book design and design in general. Spend some time there when you can (aka Another Black Hole to Fall Into So That You Never Move From in Front of Your Computer.) and I'm going to link it in our Blogs We Follow list.

We TOTALLY understand. . . we get that way during the Christmas season. You'll get that rest, and when you do, you'll appreciate it that much more!

We'll still be here when you come up for air!
I loved seeing photographs of your stall! Wish I could have been there. It looked wonderful.

Enjoy your rest! Carla

PG, we certainly miss you, too!

Hoping that those projects don't do you in, and that before long you'll be able to sleep as long as you'd like, when you like. And then...tell us all about your dreams!

xo

I hope you do get some rest in between paintings!
I wonder if Positive Painting Waves can reach you over the internet?
Your "Twin Beds" has such a cosy and nostalgic look, I'm reminded both of Disney's Seven Dwarfs house and of Mole's bunk beds.
Take care, I hope you can let us have a partial peek at what you've been working on.

Carry on Gretel! We will all be here when your are done...but I have a feeling you might have opened a talented can of worms ;-) I have no doubt you will be leaving us all clamoring for more once we see what you have been up to.
I adore the painting..the candles on the headboard..so whimsical!

Occupational hazard. Not to worry.

The best part of the painting, IMO, is the cat making the most of two pairs of feet at once.

As you have friends all around the world, I,m sure that positive and sustaining thoughts are beamed at you by day and night.

I do like the silhouettes in the window of that darling painting.

I hope you can sneak in a good rest between working... Love the painting.

You must rest every so often - how else will those phenominally creative batteries of yours get re-charged?

I hope you manage to squeeze in a little rest somewhere. I know how it is, though and sometimes I blog in my head, because I don't have time to do it in reality (that sounds slightly mad, I know!).

Take care and plan a holiday or break soon so that you don't wear yourself out.

You just keep your nose to the grindstone lady....no time now for a rest... no precious time to fritter away blogging.

There's work to be done...so you become famous and... hey...maybe even rich! Then, ..... then, you can rest or do whatever you darn well please.....

We'll all still be here.... checking up on you and your creaitons whenever we notice you do an update on your blog...

My art world has been diminished to a small counter space in my brothers garage as I sort through the stubble of my marriage and divorce. I'm working full time now as I need the benefits of a 'real' job..but o how I miss my glass and the luxury of playing at being an 'artist' whatever that means.
Your blog is salve right now..I haven't been around in a long time. Thank you my dear for your lovely imagination and especially for sharing it all in the way that you do.

~Deborah

Over the garden wall is right - positive vibes to boost your batteries coming from all around the world!!!!

I know you must be so very busy. Completely understand about finding time to blog. I think of you so often and hope you are doing well.
Take good care.
Hugs,

Those are fabulous!

Now my only thought is you simply MUST buy and try one of these small size brush pens...

http://www.jetpens.com/product_info.php/products_id/1793

I think it might make give those same loose drawings a whole new dimension. I'm currently working on a book using one for the first time and I'm so glad I tried one.

They're totally different from the previous brush pens I tried... which were too big to really hold properly in one's hand.

I know there's a U.K. distributor that sells them... but don't know who. I'm sure a little google would find out though. Well worth the $12 price to try one.

best,
jn

I seem to be doing fairly well. Missed yesterday do to friend crisis and had to spend a few hours girl talkin’. But other than that, much success. ^_^

A miserable week redeemed by a decent weekend. I’ve been plotting and researching, thinking about orbital mechanics and what can be seen from the surface of a world then diving into the story arcs for the viewpoint characters.

So, this has been a good week, my first in too long. I am looking forward to starting the second draft soon.

Well, I just added up what I wrote over the last seven days and I’m blown away! I’ve written just over 13K, and that’s with three consecutive days were I wrote much less than 1K a day, but on the flip side I had several big-boom days as far as word counts are concerned.

I took up the Story a Day in May challenge, so on top of what I’m already trying to finish I’m also doing another thing each day. Right now my ’story’ a day is a short chapter in a middle grade fantasy, but I’m okay with that.

Thanks again for doing this! I look forward to checking in each week. I guess deadlines really help me.

I took April off because I’d just finished a story & work was overwhelming. Now that it’s May I need to get back on track with both editing & writing.

meh.

I’ve been surrounded by wedding details constantly. No writing done this week.
But it’s Monday and the start of another week. So here’s to looking forward.

My week was so productive in all areas except one — my writing! I got WIP writer’s block and didn’t know what to do until only a few days ago. Begin a new story, of course! Just a short distraction to refresh my mind.

Here, here! To looking forward!

Yay, I made my writing goal for the first time in months. Plus, this week is looking good since I signed up for StoryADay too!

This is such a great idea. At this point, I’m in cutting-words-mode instead of writing-words-mode. Do you have a challenge for that?

This week was awful for writing (and I’m really, really tired of having to write that). On a happy note, I finished the overall design for my web site, and kept up with my blogging goals. So something got done, even if it wasn’t the main goal.

Well, I did write my 500 words five times this week, so I count that as a success, especially since my little ’story’ now stands as 45,000 words. That just proves how much doing a little bit each day (or even five days a week) can accomplish. The writing is going better now that I sorted out the big problem I had with my story, and I’m feeling all smug today because I managed to get my writing done right in the morning even though I had a really busy day with much drama, and everything.

I’m so busy at the moment I almost forgot to check in …

Thanks for stopping in...it's always nice to meet new people. What part of Orlando are you in?

You have a really neat style...love the line work.

i love the collage style of your drawings! very interesting feeling and poetic style!