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Fun little tidbit… today I got to FaceTime with my brother, the amazing painter, Sean Beavers. Being two busy creatives with multiple jobs, we rarely get to touch base… but today, of all days, it happened—making this one of my best Valentine's Days ever (really, they're generally never very good to me, LOL).
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| BroTime + PupTime |
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| Golden Light, by Sean Beavers |
After a few scheduling snafoos, the
MasterWorks of New Mexico team was finally able to make it over to interview me, on camera (eeeeek!), as this year's Judge of the MasterWorks Miniatures Division. This is my first opportunity to be a judge for a show and I'm so honored to have been asked by MasterWorks. I've been submitting to this show since I moved out to New Mexico, and I'm extremely humbled to have received multiple awards (
2009,
2010,
2011,
2013) from them and served as a juror for the miniature division in 2012.
I was quite nervous, I really don't like being the center of attention, but it went fast. I'm sure I'm not going to want to
watch it… ever—but it was actually a pretty great experience, thanks to MasterWorks Mastermind,
Barbara Lohbeck.
And, hey… New Mexico locals! I'm giving a colored pencil miniature
workshop at the show in April. Check out the
details here.
After a few scheduling snafoos, the
MasterWorks of New Mexico team was finally able to make it over to interview me, on camera (eeeeek!), as this year's Judge of the MasterWorks Miniatures Division. This is my first opportunity to be a judge for a show and I'm so honored to have been asked by MasterWorks. I've been submitting to this show since I moved out to New Mexico, and I'm extremely humbled to have received multiple awards (
2009,
2010,
2011,
2013) from them and served as a juror for the miniature division in 2012.
I was quite nervous, I really don't like being the center of attention, but it went fast. I'm sure I'm not going to want to
watch it… ever—but it was actually a pretty great experience, thanks to MasterWorks Mastermind,
Barbara Lohbeck.
And, hey… New Mexico locals! I'm giving a colored pencil miniature
workshop at the show in April. Check out the
details here.
Last night we had our second local SCBWI-NM Illustrator's group meeting of 2014!
At 5pm, as is the new norm—we started with dinner and socializing at a local cafe. Our SCBWI
Schmooze is held on the same night, so writers
and illustrators got to mingle a bit while we noshed and hung out.
At 6pm, the illustrators headed over to one of local indie books stores,
Alamosa Books, for our first official meeting of 2014. We had a night large group of 8 illustrators once again, and almost everyone had new work, a work-in-progress, or some topic of interest to discuss. We also had local author/illustrator,
Neecy Twinem join us to lead a discussion about licensing basics—given
her extensive experience with her own toy line, Zombie Zoo.
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| SCBWI-NM illustrator meeting at Lovely Alamosa Books |
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| Neecy Twinem and her Zombie Zoo buddies! |
We were having so much fun and had so much to talk about, we went right past our usual cut-off time of 7pm. Still, a few of us headed over to the monthly Schmooze meeting (about 45min late) across the parking lot at Alamosa's Reading Room where, SCBWI-NM member, Lee VanBrakle was giving a presentation on taxes for writers and illustrators. I personally, was very disappointed to have missed out on the bulk of the talk, so I stayed late pestering Lee with tons of questions (she very graciously put up with me).
Whew, what a night!
Last night we had our second local SCBWI-NM Illustrator's group meeting of 2014!
At 5pm, as is the new norm—we started with dinner and socializing at a local cafe. Our SCBWI
Schmooze is held on the same night, so writers
and illustrators got to mingle a bit while we noshed and hung out.
At 6pm, the illustrators headed over to one of local indie books stores,
Alamosa Books, for our first official meeting of 2014. We had a night large group of 8 illustrators once again, and almost everyone had new work, a work-in-progress, or some topic of interest to discuss. We also had local author/illustrator,
Neecy Twinem join us to lead a discussion about licensing basics—given
her extensive experience with her own toy line, Zombie Zoo.
|
| SCBWI-NM illustrator meeting at Lovely Alamosa Books |
|
| Neecy Twinem and her Zombie Zoo buddies! |
We were having so much fun and had so much to talk about, we went right past our usual cut-off time of 7pm. Still, a few of us headed over to the monthly Schmooze meeting (about 45min late) across the parking lot at Alamosa's Reading Room where, SCBWI-NM member, Lee VanBrakle was giving a presentation on taxes for writers and illustrators. I personally, was very disappointed to have missed out on the bulk of the talk, so I stayed late pestering Lee with tons of questions (she very graciously put up with me).
Whew, what a night!
(SCBWI Tomie dePaola Entry)
Hey! I'm heading to an SCBWI conference this weekend and I got a new postcard made for the occasion! I just happened to have a new piece, the one I made for SCBWI's
Tomie dePaola contest.
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| This is the whole piece, check out the assignment/prompt here. |
It's a visual play on Hear no evil, See no evil, Speak no evil… which originates from Japanese folklore. So I took the work famous Snow Monkeys (
Japanese Macaque) and instead of having anything to do with evil, they're just all sneezing… but only one of them is covering their mouth. I thought it was fun, and I'm happy with the piece overall. It also gave me a chance to test a new style—I worked smaller than actual size on this, and I went back in and added the line work (breezes and sneezes) digitally.
Yet another birthday surprise—a couple weeks ago, my friend Miranda announced that she was getting me tickets to see Peter S. Beagle (as if I need to mention, but I will—the legendary author of The Last Unicorn the book, and screen writer of The Last Unicorn movie) in Santa Fe at the end of the month. WHAAAAAT??!!!!
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| waiting in line to get in |
So, while I did know that
George R.R. Martin lived in Santa Fe, I did not know that he recently bought and revoted a small theatre there, the
Jean Cocteau Cinema. It's a really cool place, small and intimate—and they have amazing events.
This one was so cool, George R.R. Martin basically interviewed Peter S. Beagle, on stage. It was a lovely, informal conversation between two greats. We heard all kinds of behind the scenes tidbits—like how Peter started The Last Unicorn years before going back and finishing it (a version of the original manuscript will be released soon), how Peter didn't know where the unicorns where for most of the writing of the book, and how George had approached Peter to write for the TV show Beauty and the Beast—and Peter turned him down! And, exciting news—they're planning a live-action movie! After the talk, the showed a remaster version of the animated movie.
I gotta say, I thought it was going to be cool, but damn if I didn't turn into a complete fangirl once I was there.
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| George and Peter chat on stage |
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| Peter signs books from his impressive oeuvre |
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| Look and me and George! Yeah, I'm slouching. ;) |
 |
IRON HAGAR
A special promo image. I didn't get one, but I did love the image. |
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I bought two collections of short stories & got all my copies of The Last Unicorn signed:
two paperback editions and the new graphic novel. |
Our local SCBWI-NM Illustrator's group kicked off 2014 tonight, with several events.
At 5pm, we started with dinner and socializing at a local cafe. Our SCBWI
Schmooze is held on the same night (a new schedule that gives writers and illustrators have more options), so writers
and illustrators got to mingle a bit while we noshed and hung out.
At 6pm, the illustrators headed over to one of local indie books stores,
Alamosa Books, for our first official meeting of 2014. It was informal; illustrators brought recently finished pieces or works-in-progress. We're hang a group show called Enchantment this year, and pieces are due at the end of the month—many members brought their already finished show pieces. It's going to be an amazing show!
At 7pm, a couple illustrators stayed to chat at Alamosa, while several of us headed over to Alamosa's Reading Room (
another location across the parking lot—where they sell YA and cross-over adult books)—for our monthly Schmooze meeting. Former SCBWI-NM RA,
Chris Eboch, did a lovely presentation on voice in anticipation of a
voice workshop she has coming up on Feb 1st.
Overall, I was super excited by the evening. Being the
SCBWI-NM Illustrator Coordinator AND the Newsletter Editor for our region, I've been a bit back-logged—I'm still finalizing our illustrator calendar for the year and I only sent out a reminder for this meeting
yesterday! We had
8 illustrators in attendance, that is
excellent for our group!
So, it's the new year! Yay!!
And a new season of Downton Abbey is about to start. It's a wonderfully entertaining show with amazing art direction—costumes, sets, you name it, it's just great visual inspiration.
Last month I had the opportunity to attend a Downton party of sorts. It was like a second Halloween for me. Doing my hair Edwardian style was a highlight, here are couple pics just for fun.
To all my Interweb friends and followers – have a happy, happy Christmas and merry New Year!!
I hope to post process images later… I was all over the place with ideas this year, so there's a lot on the "cutting room" floor that I hope to use for future cards and/or projects.
I do solemnly swear that I have faithfully executed
the
PiBoIdMo 30-ideas-in-30-days challenge,
and will, to the best of my ability,
parlay my ideas
into picture book manuscripts.
My
fourth year of participating in
Picture Book Idea Month (#PiBoIdMo) is a success! I even tried a new approach which has landed me at the end of the month with even more than 30 ideas!
I can't believe it's been a whole month and PiBoIdMo is done once again. This whole year has positively flown by! I'm so thankful for all my experiences and opportunities this year has brought, and I'm especially thankful for the excuse PiBoIdMo has given me to daydream a little extra every day.
It's almost November!?!! Wait… what?! Sometimes I feel like 2013 has hardly arrived, and now it's winding down. But it's harvest time for group projects and creative challenges! PiBoIdMo 2013, here I come!
Head over to
Taralazar.com to find out more about
PiBoIdMo. This will be my FOURTH year participating (and
PiBoIdMo's 5th year). I'm still not much of a writer (gotta get over that), but I'm so thankful the month-long guest blog posts, inspiration, and support that PiBoIdMo provides.
I haven't made the best use of my PiBoIdMo challenges, but I have my lists saved and simmering. I'm working on an illustration right now that germinated from a PiBoIdMo idea I had back in 2011. Personally I think it's a great way to brainstorm and gather up project ideas for the coming new year (or future new years, if you happen to be as slow as I am to getting around to them).
I can't wait to get started!
Is it cheating if I start my list now?
LOL, ;)
Hey, what?! Two days in a row? No way…
So, this one's a bit of a cheat since it's from a book I worked on last year (The Zoo's Annual Piggyback Race, March 2013 - available from me or the author/publisher)… but it was just so perfect for this #iFri prompt, and it was definitely one of the more challenging pieces from the book.
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| "The snakes became tangled, around and around" |
I actually tangled up two different colored stings for reference, and drew directly from that. Apparently I never took a reference photo of the tangled mess, but I think the result speaks for itself!
(I plan to do a new piece as well, continue with experimenting, etc.)
Long time… Yeah, it's just been a long time.
I've been talking about experimenting for over a year now, and I haven't really gotten around to it, so tonight I sat down and forced something out. I don't necessarily like, but I think it's a real start of something.
I'm excited I finally did an iFri too (even if I am getting in about 40 past the deadline). I've been all wrapped up in "stuff", I gotta learn to have fun doing what I do again.
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| Jack-MustachiO's |
*anyone catch my shout-out to Little Pea? LOVE that book!
Once again, a new batch of miniatures are complete and submitted! Keeping my fingers crossed they are all accepted into the MasterWorks show.
After taking a year off to participate in the show as a miniatues juror last yea, I can only hope I do as well as I have in past years (2009, 2010, 2011). While I’m still inspired by my travels throughout the state of New Mexico, this year I’m focusing on it’s beautiful skies and sunsets. Like a couple years ago, I raided my own photo archives for inspiration on these pieces, but I started planning these piece for last year’s show… but I never was able to work on the finals. As usual, I left most of the work to the last minute—all pieces were completed last week, and submitted on Saturday.
Driveby Sunset
4.75" x 3" On Arches, 140lb. Hotpress
(6.75" x 5" framed)
This piece is based on yet another snapshot I took while driving home from Santa Fe one evening. I just loved the light of the sunset, outside the frame of the image and unseen directly, but reflecting it’s warmth into the image—while the blues and purples of twilight hide in the shadows of the clouds. It was a surreal moment I was lucky to catch.
Ember Sky
4.5" x 4" On Arches, 140lb. Hotpress
(5.5" x 5" framed)
Once again, I was inspired my the many layers and colors of the sky for this piece… the small yet intense colors of the sunset, so focused in one spot, while the sky above is still hanging onto late afternoon and dancing with frolicking wisps of clouds.
Sunset Aflame
3.65" x 2.65" On Arches, 140lb. Hotpress
(4.75" x 3.75" framed)
This one is a bit more traditional, a real flaming sunset—although maybe a bit more wildly colorful than reality. More desert silhouettes play beneath what looks like a writhing storm of fire, but I was there and I know just how peaceful it was.
-------
PROJECT NOTES: This year it was a little harder for me to get back into the minis. Maybe taking last year off to be a juror wasn’t such a good idea. I’m hoping I can find a new spark of inspiration to really get me head back in it next year.
Audiobooks/stories listened to while working on these pieces:
Neverware, by Neil Gaiman (BBC theatrical radio production)
The Map of the Sky, by Felix J Palma
By:
melinda beavers,
on 3/14/2013
Blog:
m.b illustration and design
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 |
| The book is here, at last! |
Hello, hello! It's been a pretty busy year so far, and now I get to announce that my first illustrated children's picture book is out and available to purchase, directly from me! I've been toiling away with website technicalities for weeks now, and I discovered… there's a reason I don't do web design/programing. I couldn't make it work, so I turned back to my old friend Etsy. I've added the book as my one and only listing for the time being, there are several copies available, so when the initial quantity for this listing runs out, I will re-list it ASAP. I plan to add prints from the book in the next few weeks as well — keep an eye out!
**Please note, shipping time is slow for the time being while initial orders are placed, but will speed in the next few weeks… please bare with me!- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
In the meantime, here are some pictures from the Barnes &Noble Story Time I did this past Wednesday, March 13th.
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Story Time in the fabulous Kids' section at
Barnes & Noble, Coronado Mall — ABQ, NM |
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| There was singing, reading, and crafting galore! |
 |
On the shelf, right next to Chu's Day…
it pays to have bookseller friends! |
*Extra special thanks to Lynn Platow for taking these fabulous candid photos!
 |
four+carrot
(edited pencil sketch + digital color & texture) |
I know, I know… it's the end of February. I'm just gonna say it, it's been s struggle so far this year. I'm trying to hang-in though, and here's my first post of the year, a
#twoodle (learn more about twoodle
here, thanks to the lovely and talented
@aliciapatron).
I sent two words out into the twitterverse during the week,
four and
logging. It seems many twoodlers were also inspired by
@johnlechner's word,
carrot.
So, I'm going to try and sketch more and post more and just get back to being
present here… and in life. Wish me luck!
By:
melinda beavers,
on 12/1/2012
Blog:
m.b illustration and design
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I do solemnly swear that I have faithfully executed
the
PiBoIdMo 30-ideas-in-30-days challenge,
and will, to the best of my ability,
parlay my ideas
into picture book manuscripts.
My
third year of participating in Picture Book Idea Month (
#PiBoIdMo) was another success. And, once again, I find myself thinking… this is really something I should do more regularly – keep a PB idea list going all year long. I still haven't found a way to make it a regular practice, but I think it'll definitely be on my 2013 Resolutions to find a way to make this happen!
And of course, I'm interested in the follow-through of the these ideas. Even if they're only dummies, turning these ideas into completed books is the next big challenge!
I can't believe it's been a whole year since the last
PiBoIdMo, and here we are at the end of another one. I've done a lot in the past year, including
completing my first finished picture book (as illustrator only), signing on with an illustration agency, visiting the
SCBWI-LA Conference for the first time (and as an SCBWI Volunteer), and reading over 200 picture books (as a self-study project to just read more PBs regularly - I posted about it
here and
here). I did start writing a few of my own picture books, but haven't gotten very far with them yet. I keep stopping myself. It's the one step I haven't figured out how to approach, but I continue to try and in the meantime – I'm keeping the new ideas rolling in and ready for me when I do figure out the right process for myself, to write AND illustrate my own stories.
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| Hello!… 3.75"x3.75" - a brand new mixed media experiment. |
It's time for our local New Mexico CPSA District Chapter Annual Show again, generously hosted by the
Old School House Gallery! I submitted three pieces this year, including my Sleep Bears piece and these two new pieces. I hope to see a great crowd there tonight!
 |
Snow Buddies… 5"x7" - some of you may recognize this as the
original drawing used for my Christmas card last year. |
I'm giving the advice/tutorial blog post a try – let me know if you like it!
 |
| nubbins, nubbins, everywhere |
Being a colored pencil artist, I've developed quite a collection of pencil nubbins - you know, the stubs left over when you just can't sharpen them anymore? For most colored pencil brands, this generally isn't too much of an issue, they're pretty cheap and easy to replace. But there's still a lot of waste involved, not only in the nubbin ends, but tip breakage and leads that creak inside the barrel. It's frustrating!
In the last few years though, I've upgraded my pencil stock to Caran d'Arch's Luminance 6901 pencils. These are the créme de la créme of colored pencils (IMHO). There are all kinds of technical and longevity benefits to using these pencils, besides the brilliant smooth color and ease of use in burnishing and blending. They have the best light-fast ratings on the market (probably the #1 reason color pencil is looked down upon as an artistic medium) and there's a lot less breakage inside the pencil. Unfortunately, these advantages show through in the price, about $4 per pencil. It usually adds up to a a small fortune for me when I'm restocking. So I want to save & use every little bit I can.
There are lots of pencil extension tools on the market, but most of these products can be made from household items and scraps if you have the drive, know-how, and time to experiment and find what works for you.
 |
| some current consumer products to aid in pencil extension |
 |
| the tools i use |
I've always made my own pencil extenders from used-up ball point pen tubes. Just remove the pen tip & ink well from one end, and the cap from the opposite end. These tubes are general a bit smaller that the barrels of colored pencils, so depending on your level of comfort, you can either chew the end of the pen tube until it's flexible enough to wedge a pencil in (just let it set for a bit and you can easily exchange pencils) –or– use a candle flame to soften the pen-tube ends and expand them with an awl or screw driver and gradually enlarge the openings on either end, until the pencil fits snuggly. As long about about a quarter inch of the pencil fits in the tube, it should offer sturdy use.
However, no matter what you use to extend your pencils, you eventually get to a point where you can't sharpen them anymore, they're just too short to hold AND turn a sharpener. I've ended up with tons of little nubbins of the colors I use most. *I never throw them away - I've used them in craft projects and various other things… but ideally, I'd like to find a way to use them up in my artwork! When I saw the Glu-it To-it product online, I thought it was a pretty clever solution, but being the thrifty/crafty artist I am, I thought it might be a pretty easy thing to make myself (and by that I mean I KNOW someone that works with wood regularly, has scraps and know-how – and I asked him if this would be a relatively easy project: he did, thanks Dad!).
It's a simple concept, a narrow wood block with a pencil-barrel-size channel cut in it, and one area hollowed out as a waste/glue-drip well (so your pencil doesn't end up clued inside the channel). Simply put a little crazy glue on one end and hold the ends together until the glue sets (which is pretty quickly). Now you can keep sharpening the nubbin all the way to the end!
 |
| this is how it works |
There does come a point when there's so little of the glue left that the joint breaks, but in my first try it lasted until the very tip, which saved me about ¾" of pencil. That doesn't sound like much, but I either go through a LOT of pencils where these nubbins add up (white for instance, I probably have one or two whole pencils worth of white nubbins) … or I run down to a nubbin of color I'm currently using and I need to order another that will take a few days to arrive – using this technique just might hold me over until the replacement arrives!
So, did you find this post helpful & informative? I hope so… because I really should be working on a few other projects and the "procrastination blog-post monster" took over! ;)
So, I haven't posted in a few weeks, it's just been madly busy. But it's that time of year again, and time to spread the word — PiBoIdMo 2012 is upon us!
So get out your pens, notebooks, or computers ready and head over to
Taralazar.com to find out more about
PiBoIdMo. This will be my third year participating. I'm not much of a writer (
yet), but I'm so thankful the month-long guest blog posts, inspiration, and support PiBoIdMo provides. I have 60 ideas just waiting for me to turn them into amazing books thanks to the driving force of this event and I'm about to add 30 more. I can't wait!
Sign yourself up
here or just follow-along privately on your own.
It's been a pretty hectic week… I'm working on several rather large illustrated map projects – which I love, but they seem to be all-time-consuming, leaving with very little energy to check in here and often as I'd like. That and I've been going through an "I-hate-everything-I-draw period" which is always frustrating.
But in the meantime, I've still been reading plenty of picture books, more than 10 this past week.
- DANNY AND THE DINOSAUR – Syd Hoff *from Steven Malk's list (LASCBWI12)
- THE PHILHARMONIC GETS DRESSED – Karla Kuskin / Marc Simont *from Steven Malk's list (LASCBWI12)
- THE SNOWMAN – Raymond Briggs Classic, what more can be said? *from Steven Malk's list.
- CHRYSANTHEMUM – Kevin Henkes *from Steven Malk's list (LASCBWI12)
- I'LL FIX ANTHONY – Judith Viorst / Arnold Lobel *from Steven Malk's list (LASCBWI12)
- MISS NELSON IS MISSING – Harry G. Allard Jr. / James Marshall *from Steven Malk's list (LASCBWI12)
- TED – Tony DiTerlizzi
- WILD ABOUT BOOKS – Judy Sierra / Marc Brown
- BADGER'S FANCY MEAL – Kieko Kasza
- THE DOG THAT CRIED WOLF – Kieko Kasza
- SCAREDY SQUIRREL – Melanie Watt
- TOOT & PUDDLE, A PRESENT FOR TOOT – Holly Hobbie *from Steven Malk's list (LASCBWI12)
- WHAT NEWT COULD DO FOR TUTLE – Jonathan London / Louise Voce
- GERALDINE, THE MUSIC MOUSE – Leo Lionni
- IN THE RABBIT GARDEN – Leo Lionni
- THEODORE AND THE TALKING MUSHROOM – Leo Lionni
- THE ALPHABET TREE – Leo Lionni
- INCH BY INCH – Leo Lionni
- LITTLE BLUE AND LITTLE YELLOW – Leo Lionni
- CYRUS THE UNSINKABLE SEA SERPENT - Bill Peet *I am a long time, huge, Bill Peet fan from childhood. Every time we went to a book store I looked for a new Bill Peet book. *from Steven Malk's list.
- CHESTER'S MASTERPIECE – Melanie Watt
- AUGUSTINE – Melanie Watt
*I'm in the middle of one of my first official responsibilities as SCBWI-NM's Illustrator Coordinator: organizing a 2013 Illustrator's Day event for our region.
Patti Ann Harris, from
Little Brown and Company Books for Young Readers, has graciously agreed to come visit us in NM next year and we're currently planning the event together. As part of this process, I've been reading up on some of Patti Ann's other SCBWI appearances – including the big SCBWI Winter conference in New York, beautifully recapped by my friend Leeza Hernandez
here, and
SCBWI-Austin, as well as some of the books she's worked on:
- SUBSTITUTE CREACHER – Chris Gall
- SHARK VS. TRAIN – Chris Barton / TomLichtenheld
- DAVE THE POTTER – Laban Carrick Hill / Bryan Collier
- WHEN BOB MET WOODY – Gary Golio / Marc Burckhardt
*Books I already own/have read, that are also part of Patti Ann's list:ME… JANE – Patrick
DINOTRUX – Chris Gall
View Next 25 Posts
I haven't made the best use of my PiBoIdMo challenges, but I have my lists saved and simmering. I'm working on an illustration right now that germinated from a PiBoIdMo idea I had back in 2011. Personally I think it's a great way to brainstorm and gather up project ideas for the coming new year (or future new years, if you happen to be as slow as I am to getting around to them).
My third year of participating in Picture Book Idea Month (#PiBoIdMo) was another success. And, once again, I find myself thinking… this is really something I should do more regularly – keep a PB idea list going all year long. I still haven't found a way to make it a regular practice, but I think it'll definitely be on my 2013 Resolutions to find a way to make this happen!
This is soooo cute. And of course good luck with everything.