Town Map
Project 51 of 365
Town Map - detail
I went to the
Western Washington Scrapbooking Retreat last October and won a big door prize: a photo album, extra top-loading sheet protectors, 12x12 paper, stickers, ribbon, and double sided tape. How lucky!
Since I don't scrapbook pages for photo albums, I briefly wondered about giving my prize album to someone else. Instead, I had an idea to use the album as a way to organize my fiction writing ideas. I made a couple pages dedicated to interesting first and last names that have potential for sprouting into new characters.
Then...I've always been interested in maps. So after having drawn up the
initial pencil sketch for my fictional town, I decided to collage it and make it an official part of my compilation.
Needless to say, I dedicated some serious hours to researching various components for my map, cutting out buildings, getting the streets lined up...and, the biggest time consumer of all, stamping the names with my ultra tiny stamp set I recently bought from Office Depot. I loved it! Tinkering at its best.
Office Depot Stamp Set
Nimble Fingers and Strong Vision Need Apply!
Amazingly enough, I have not lost a stamp yet, although many have sprung off my tweezers and bounced hither and yon around my studio. Thankfully, I have light colored carpet and can spot them somewhat easily.
Now, I can't wait for new characters to move into my fictional town so I can whip out my stamp set and help them get settled. I'm crazy. I know.
I've been reading up on screenwriting and story development to help me layout a good story arc for my children's chapter book stories. I've read several books that I believe are worth mentioning:
Save the Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need by Blake Snyder
Teach Yourself Screenwriting by Raymond Frensham
How to Write a Damn Good Novel by James Frey
Writing Dialogue by Tom Chiarella
I just finished Save the Cat! and Mr. Snyder mentioned that having a board to pin story elements to helps identify where the holes are. He suggests to tack as much to the board as you can, so you can delve into writing with confidence...you know where to start and where it's going.
He also urges screenwriters to write a logline before they get started. This is a VERY short summary (28 words or less) of your story. The
Cracking Yarns blog was very helpful in this area and contains lots of other useful information too.
The Board
The Board - details
I've written and revised my first chapter book and will be sending it out to agents/editors that visited the last SCBWI Western WA conference last April and are accepting solicitations from attendees. While that's in the cooker, I've already started my second book and wanted to try using the board as Mr. Snyder suggested.
I have it all tacked down...now I need to start writing. Once I get cracking on that, then I'll know if spending the time writing, tacking, moving, and eliminating index cards was worth it. So far, I'd say it was a worthwhile exercise.
Guaca Mole
Project 41 of 365
I'm behind in my 365 projects, but it's for a good cause! I'm in my writing groove. I finished writing 12 chapters for my children's book and am nearly done with revisions. I've started on the second chapter book, mulling over an outline right now, and hopefully within the next two weeks, I'll be mailing out my first chapter of the first book to publishers with fingers crossed!
This illustration was done for my children. I told them about a stuffed animal I had when I was a kid, called Guaca Mole. They wanted to know more about him, so I felt inspired to put the memory to paper.
Just a Bunny
I played around with just painting it digitally but, ultimately, I couldn't get away from adding texture. So it changed from solid digital color to added collage elements. It's a process.
Neigh
Project 13 of 365
Buzz
Project 14 of 365
Caw
Project 15 of 365
I love making these minis. They are small and quick...and most important, not precious! This kind of freedom lets me play and explore without the stress of being a perfectionist. I see the mistakes and chalk them up to lessons learned. I see what's working and now have a reminder for the future.
Horse
Shadowed with black and white
Horse Sketches
The top picture is shadowed with black and white, while Horse, Project 11 of 365, is shadowed with green and yellow (with minimal use of black and white). Nice to see the comparison. Project 11 is definitely warmer, but, IMHO, not necessarily better. Just different.
I worked on some more horse sketches today. I'd like to get a feel for facial expressions and anatomy so I can create a unique character. Not feeling it yet...
Horse
Tonight, I decided to dabble in digital collage. I experimented with using contrasting colors for my shadows and highlights...in this case green for the shadows and yellow for the highlights. I couldn't get away from my usual black and white entirely and used these colors sparingly to punch up certain areas.
Tomorrow, I will go back and add my usual black shadows and white highlights so I can see the difference more clearly.
Woof
I made it to double digits! Yippee!
Tweet
Another quick collage on recycled cardboard. It's small, simple and fun!
Recycled elements: cardboard and scrap paper
A Room of My Own
It's late so I chose art prompt number 5*, "Allow yourself to sit at your worktable for five minutes. Sometimes just getting to the table is the challenge, the rest is easy."
I combined this with a project from Melissa Sweet's Drawing Book for Kids. The book was a freebie from the SCBWI conference and has been sitting on my desk. I flipped through it and chose a project of creating quick sketches of objects in my room. Easy enough.
Bye Breezy
Bye Breezy - detail
LETTER
Great. It’s about time. It’s weird how over the past
two weeks life’s gotten much more exciting. I’m
still trying to figure out why John was kissing
my hand. Anyway it’s been raining here and I’m
getting mad because I want to sun bleach
my hair. After all, I am a Californian. So when are
you coming back? To California of course. Well
I gotta run. Since it’s been so long you’ll have
to fill me in on your adventures. It’s been live.
Bye, Breezy
Today, I used Project 6: Just Relaxing as my inspiration; the second part of Cloth Paper Scissors' (Jan/Feb 2012, page 80) art prompt number 23. "Create a doodle on a piece of paper and then use it to create a piece of art."
After reading about Breezy's adventures with hand kissing and hair coloring, her thoughts
faded into the night.
Just Resting
Just a quick sketch and some brainstorming while I watched a movie tonight. To get inspired, I reviewed the art prompts mentioned in the
Cloth Paper Scissors magazine (Jan/Feb 2012, page 80). I was inspired by number 23,
"Create a doodle on a piece of paper and then use it to create a piece of art."
Happy Hour!
Doing an illustration a day is hard (insert whine)! Today, I ran around doing chores and running errands so I could get ready for ladies night. I knew I wouldn't be up for creating art when I returned from happy hour at the Parlor...so, after enjoying my Huckleberry Press cocktail, I doodled on my bar napkin. That's gotta count for something, right?
MeowI wanted a quick collage for project 4 since I didn't meander down to my studio until 10:00 tonight. I had already created four other animals
(bear, duck, pig, and owl) on recycled cardboard dividers from a case of beer.
I need a better schedule if I'm going to keep this up for another 361 days! Oy!
Recycled elements: cardboard, scrap paper, ribbon remnant
Birdhouse Sketches
I jumped right into collage mode, and spent some time creating a birdhouse face. I was trying to be quick and didn't wait long enough for my crackle paint layer to fully dry. My haste really showed...no matter how hard I tried to turn it into an interesting texture, it just looked bad.
So, I went back to the drawing board and put pencil to paper. Good thing I did because I still don't know where I want to go with this image. I've had this idea for awhile...a birdhouse luring a bird into it's mouth. I want it to appear innocent and charming...oh look! What a cute birdhouse. But the hole into the birdhouse is a mouth. Hmm. Is the bird going to make a home or is the bird going to be breakfast?
A question, and illo, for another day.
Baby is Back.
Baby is Back. - Detail
GUEST CHECK
I love you so much baby
Even know you can be a bitch
I still love you
Cause I know who you really are
So please bring her back baby
We can have a great life together
But it's up to you
I love you baby
Have a merry x-mas
Love Austin
I found this note in the ditch by my mailbox a couple years ago and have been inspired by it since. I am intrigued by the use of "baby" and the multitude of emotions layered in this short note...pleading, love, insults, ambivalence...all written on a restaurant guest check. What a story! Who is baby? Did she get this note and toss it in the ditch? Or was Austin too proud or embarrassed to give it to her?
Recycled elements: guest check "love" note, ticket stub, magazine paper, stationary, parking stubs and other memorabilia.
Cover: The Garden of Abdul Gasazi
by Chris Van Allsburg
Insert: The Garden of Abdul Gasazi
by Chris Van Allsburg
Just read this book to my girls and love-love-LOVED the illustrations. So detailed and crisp...looks like pencil, so it's all black and white. A very talented artist, indeed. I've not read anything else by
Chris Van Allsburg, although most are familiar with or have at least heard of his Caldecott winners,
Jumanji and
The Polar Express.
This story,
The Garden of Abdul Gasazi, is good but what really held my interest were his spectacular illustrations. Chris Van Allsburg won a Caldecott Honor for this book.
"Feeling left out."
I took the advice I received and dulled the white birdhouses so they didn't compete for attention with the birds. I also added some shimmering red berries to the tree and bush in the opposite corners, hoping to counter the strong diagonal line between the two birds.
I scanned the image in two passes and in Photoshop stuck them back together. I hope this helps show the true color palette.
I'm busy working on illustration #3. I have layered the background with letters from my grandmother and am waiting for it to dry. I'm having lots of fun with this! I've saved piles of letters over the years and it's nice to pull them out and turn them into art materials.
"It meant so much."
Another traditional collage piece fresh from the studio. The scowling mermaid is meant to hang in my bathroom so I wanted a quote that was about water...but when I came across an old greeting card in my memorabilia stash, the words "It meant so much" printed on the inside really spoke to me.
Thoughts, critique? Would love to hear it as I move forward in my exploratory phase.
Closetfound
I just posted my
favorite illustrator this week,
Sergio Ruzzier, who was also my inspiration for this week's character challenge: "Closetfound." I wanted to mimic Ruzzier's doodling style so I just let me pencil do the walking without too much worry of
proper and
perfect getting in the way.
This is Tayisha's closet monster...he's patiently waiting for her to return from her bug catching expedition.
It felt good to let me pencil tell the story...I just stepped back. A good exercise for me as I always want a polished piece to show.
Owl at Home
Digital Collage
I just finished this paper collage turned digital collage today. FINALLY! It's been sitting on my desk for months...and piece by painful piece, it has clicked together like a puzzle to tell Owl's story.
Too bad
Illustration Friday's theme this week is "chicken." I'd've really liked to give owl the debut he deserves. Alas, he is alone.
If you'd like to see the scans of the original paper collage...they're at
Espial Design.
Hi group! Just checking in to let you know I have NOT been illustrating lately. I have been working on my children's book manuscript and am very excited after getting feedback from SCBWI's Great Critique here in Seattle.
The large group of participants paired off into small groups of seven. We were assigned a leader who is experienced in writing and being published. She also teaches children's lit at a local higher level school, and spent 7 years volunteering her time with SCBWI's local chapter. I received very positive feedback and practically skipped home on a very high note!
I've tightened up the manuscript even more and I'm very pleased with the outcome. I'll be true to my resolution this year, and get that baby mailed out! First stop, is to apply for one of SCBWI's grants.
There are many and I think anyone who is a member AND is an illustrator and/or writer, should look into these. There are quite a few grants to look at...check out the information here: SCBWI Grants Information
I'm Not Afraid of This Haunted House
I pulled a Halloween goody off our book shelf last week to read to my kids and thought I'd make mention of it here. It's a great read, with rhyming verses that are fun to read. It's very catchy! The book is called
"I'm Not Afraid of This Haunted House" by Laurie Friedman and illustrated by Teresa Murfin.
It's a five star in my book!
I read so many library books to my kids...that I couldn't help myself from starting my own book list. So far, my list is up to 15 picture books. If you're interested, check out my list at the
Lazy Lemur Review.
By: Stacia,
on 10/19/2010
Blog:
Creative Cup Illustrators Group
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Living on the Edge
These two little fish were part of my overworked image in
"Warming Up" that I edited out. They were so cute that I wanted to be sure they had an illustration all their own. So I thought, what better use for them, than putting them in the "Cup" challenge.
They started off playful...then turned into thrill-seekers. Swimming in coffee, out of their safe aquatic tank, and living on the edge, baby. I wanted to include a cat under the table...but thought better of it. Better for me to keep it simple.
Critique is always welcomed!
Just Warming Up (version 4)
Okay - I changed the water so it wasn't so sinusoidal (my new favorite word!) alleviating some tension with my vertical circus tent stripes.
Also, hearing that all the elements felt too busy made me see that the house and the bright colors were competing with the acrobat for attention. Sooooo, I made the house smaller, the acrobat bigger, and dimmed the background a bit to push it where it belonged...in the background!
Now, how do you feel? Would love another round of critiques...any comments could be helpful.
I want to call it quits (so tired of looking at you, pink skirted acrobat)...but this is really helping me dust out those mental cobwebs.
Thanks a bunch.
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and happy New Year :)
Hya Stacia, wow, how cool is this? I love the process, how you are using the available materials to make something so exciting. It must be meditative, setting those small type thingys. I'm looking forward to seeing where you end up with this. It's like 3d and 2d together. PS merry Christmas :) see you!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, Andrew! I hope the new year treats you right.
Making this map with those tiny little stamps was meditative. Had my music cranked, a plan in place, and teeny tiny stamps at my finger tips. The hours vaporized!
I felt very powerful creating my own town :)
Ha ha yes, it's great when we can reconstruct reality :) Being online? Ah yes, I think it's advantage is that you know you have an audience - therefore you do your best cause you don't want to show work that is not upto scratch. But there is a point where the fulcrum tips and you are spending too much time online and not making "art" images etc. It's a fine line between pleasure and not pleasure ! see you!!
Wow, you have an amazing amount of patience Stacia. Very cool project! Merry Christmas! :D