PiBoIdMo 2015 - Winner!

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.

Wow! My sixth year of participating in Picture Book Idea Month (#PiBoIdMo) was a success!! (even if I was delayed by visiting family for the holidays)

It's always a wonderful challenge… and I'm looking forward to continuing my writing experiments with these ideas. That's been a slow, slow process for me, but definitely something I'll be concentrating on in 2016!

Congrats to all the other winners as well—it's a long haul, but WE MADE IT!

7th Annual Picture Book Idea Month — PiBoIdMo 2015

I have been SLACKING… how can my SECOND blog post of the year be in late October?! I guess it doesn't help that I've have a mysterious illness for almost 2 months… but thankfully that's getting better and I almost feel like a person again (although I still have no idea what it was/is).

It's harvest time for group projects and creative challenges! PiBoIdMo 2015, here I come!

Head over to Taralazar.com to find out more about PiBoIdMo. This will be my SIXTH year participating (and PiBoIdMo's 7th year). 

I'm really looking forward to the month-long guest blog posts, inspiration, and support that PiBoIdMo provides.

I finally started writing last year… and while I've made some progress, I'm still not where I'd like it to be—so, as usual, #PiBoIdMo is a reminder (and a good kick-in-the-pants) to revisit my collected ideas and start WRITING… you know, to go along with all my artwork. I'll just say it: I'm tired of waiting around for someone else's story—time to create my own stories.

I'm so excited, I've started already. (…just a minute ago…idea #1 was recorded for posterity…I think I feel another idea coming on…this is what it's all about)

PiBoIdMo 2014 - Winner!

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.

Wow! My fifth year of participating in Picture Book Idea Month (#PiBoIdMo) was another success!! It's always a wonderful challenge… I don't know if it's because so many others are working right along with me and our combined motivation keeps us going or what, but it works… every year for me!

The best part, after 5 years of participating in generating ideas… I've finally started writing! Well, I actually started before PiBoIdMo, (and I've started several projects in the past, but I'm not counting those, because I never finished any of them!), but it was a real confidence booster overall—actually writing something, being happy with it, working through ideas and story structure, getting it critiqued (by friends and an editor!)… it's a whole new avenue for me and I'm super-excited to keep going! On to revisions!!

Congrats to all the other winners as well—it's a long haul, but WE MADE IT!

Happy New Year, Let's Celebrate!

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.

PiBoIdMo 2013 - Winner!

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.

PiBoIdMo 2012 - Winner!

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.

Drawing Morning Pages (Doodle Edition 84)

May 04-07, 2012

Some Behind-the-Drawings Thoughts:

5/04 - An homage to Carter Goodrich, who I discovered randomly from an Amazon spam-mail. His background in in animation, but he's done a ton of illustration all over the place, from picture books to New Yorker covers. Really, really impressive work. In this particular piece, I love the monochromatic color of the background & the subtle textures. Lovely.

5/05 - My morning coffee in a giant M cup. Just playing around with markers and drawing from life. This happen to be the very last page in this, Sketchbook #7 of Drawing Morning Pages.

5/06 - A new Sketchbook (#8). I like to feature text a bit more on these first pages of a new book, mainly because this is were I put my contact information in case the book is lost or misplaced. I also like to note the time span the book will encompass (I've never actually counted, but it's 2+ months total - spanning 3 calendar months). So, often this layout ends up being very 'designy'.

5/07 - Illustration Friday, "Hitched". Two concepts I wasn't really wild about, but drew anyway. Just playing around - I never posted them.

Drawing Morning Pages (Doodle Edition 83)

Apr 30-May 03, 2012

Some Behind-the-Drawings Thoughts:
4/30 - Didn't have any ideas today, so I just started making marks on the page. I remember I was watching Bones on tv… and somewhere along the line it started to look like a board game. Where the mind wanders…


5/01 - April Photo-A-Day Challenge, my complete (Instagram) photos. Some of my favorites are the 'moth before the storm' (NM had record numbers of moths this year - swarms of them - I took this picture before the onslaught), the progression of my blooming amaryllis flower (I took TONS of photos of it, 2.5 made into the challenge themes), awesome NM Skies (always), Younger Me with the tomboy bowl-cut, and the stark electrical lines at sunset.


5/02 - This was an interesting one. I decided to try and draw without looking at the page. Instead, I felt my way around with my hand/palm. I wasn't trying to draw anything specific, just trying to get covered age around the page. They turned out to be pretty interesting abstractions… perhaps I should try it with color sometime.


5/03 - Watercolor. I don't often use it in these Moleskine sketchbooks (the paper just doesn't accept it well, coated), but every once in a while I like to play with water media. These are various items in and around my living room (including the amaryllis seed-pod… after the bloom). I really like how the watering can turned out… I like the idea of watercolor sketches, and the fact that I'm so-not-good at it makes me think I should try it more often

Drawing Morning Pages (Doodle Edition 82)

Apr 26-29, 2012

Drawing Morning Pages (Doodle Edition 81)

Apr 22-25, 2012

Drawing Morning Pages (Doodle Edition 80)

Apr 18-21, 2012

Drawing Morning Pages (Doodle Edition 79)

Apr 14-17, 2012

Mind numbed - busy, busy, full-time drawing work days mean I just don't want to think during my DMPs. And yes, I actually, inadvertently drew Apr 16 upside-down.

Drawing Morning Pages (Doodle Edition 78)

Apr 10-13, 2012

Drawing Morning Pages (Doodle Edition 77)

Apr 06-09, 2012

Missed a day due to delay on starting a specific sketch… UGH the need for perfection is ANNOYING sometimes!

Drawing Morning Pages (Doodle Edition 76)

Apr 02-05, 2012





Some Behind-the-Drawings Thoughts:
4/02 - Honestly, I didn't have any ideas on this day. I did a blue and red border and left it for two days… then I started drawing in these banners. I'm working on a private commission that includes a flag with a message in latin, I love banners & flag messages, so that's probably where this came from… but still I didn't know what message I wanted to put on them. I finally visited the "Quotes of the Day" page and found a Paul Gauguin quote at the top of the list for April 2. I don't necessarily agree with the statement… but I guess I did technically plagiarize this quote. LOL ;)


4/03 - I was mentally exhausted on this day as well - I started doodling with my markers with no real idea where it was heading… when I finished I had a very nice "background" and considered leaving it as is. But it didn't feel "done" so I let it sit for another day and randomly lit on the idea of silhouettes - as I thought they were something that would work nicely with the decorative patterned background, without coving it up completely. I chose to do children because I have a goal to get better/more comfortable drawing people, particularly children. With photography such a ubiquitous tool these days, I miss the tradition of family silhouettes. I say, bring 'em back - handmade by a family member/s, people!


4/04 - Got some new inks today and just played with them. I made a little informal chart to document what the colors look like on paper and lo and behold, the Teal and Aqua are practically the same color - so I'll be returning the teal and getting either another purple or a brown - DECISIONS! Anyway, I pasted that paper into my sketchbook here, and did a wash on the opposite page. Later in the day when it was dry, I let the colors guide me in the direction for the drawing I did over it.


4/05 - Last weekend I did an observational drawing demonstration at a local independent bookstore. I've never taught drawing before - I didn't understand how to TEACH something I just DO everyday. I never thought about breaking it down into parts, from the beginning. So, in order to prepare, I read some online articles on teaching drawing, I found this one particularly useful. It served as a reminder for myself as well… and this day I decided to draw from life, an amaryllis bud I've been admiring everyday with multitudes of photos on my iPhone. I started with several overlapping blind contour drawings in shades of red - each one a slightly rotated version of the buds. Then I drew a detailed sketch on the facing page (using col-erase red & regular graphite pencils)… and used up a dying brown marker for the background. Lots of notes here too. Almost feels like an official nature journal!

Drawing Morning Pages (Doodle Edition 75)

Mar 29-Apr 01, 2012


Some Behind-the-Drawings Thoughts:
3/29 - I've been very busy and distracted with concepts and heavy thinking over the last few days… when that happens, lots of patterns & scribbles start showing up in my sketchbook. Less thought, more line.
3/30 - I drew this while watching some friends play poker. I'm not a poker player myself, but I was invited and I went. It was actually very interesting to watch and listen. It was also very warm weather, so my thoughts were of spring (or the lack there of - seems to be either summer or winter here).
3/31 - More heavy thought - I just wanted to fill a page here - I was playing with the line quality of my brush-tip fountain pen, then went back in with a charcoal colored brush marker. I just love the 'flaws' of a brush.
4/01 - I've been keeping up with the fat mum slim monthly photo-a-day challenges on instagram. A bit irregularly, but keeping up nonetheless. This is my third mini-photo spread of a month's worth of photos. I'm a very nostalgic person, I love looking at moments in time - and I'm actually really looking forward to rediscovering these collections years from now… and the sketchbook drawings too. LOL!

Drawing Morning Pages (Doodle Edition 74)

Mar 25-28, 2012


Some Behind-the-Drawings Thoughts:
3/25 - Didn't have a plan for today's drawing, so I decided to work on figures. I don't do that much, and I tend to draw very tight so I wanted to combine the practice of loose, expressive sketching with child figure poses.
3/26 - I decided to draw with a limited color palette today - three marker colors and and no pre-sketching with col-erase - and I just let the colors determine what I drew. I started out with the border and for some reason I felt a boat needed to be inside it… the boat led to the mermaid on the next page (that and I was drawing mermaids a few days ago … I'm toying with a more refined idea, and I think it's subconsciously coming out on these sketchbook pages).
3/27 - My neighborhood got new (massive) recycle bins today, that came with a specific list of recyclables and non-recycleables. So, in an effort to learn them, I started drawing and writing the DOs and DON'Ts here. Although I'm frustrated that I can't recycle glass anymore… that seems stupid.
3/28 - A long day left my mind blank today, but when I sat down to draw I flipped on a PBS show about new Mayan discoveries, it just inspired me to start doodling in that very distinctive mayan carving style.

Drawing Morning Pages (Doodle Edition 73)

Mar 21-24, 2012


So, on my last post I got some good questions from my friend John Lechner about my process on these sketchbook pages. So I'm going to try to answer them here…

How do you think of what to draw each day?
Well, usually it's pretty random. Sometimes I try to take the day itself into consideration… is it a holiday? Is it a special occasion? Sometimes I pull from things I heard or saw that day (on the radio, on tv, driving around town). Sometimes I start with a kind of theme in mind and just let the pencil go and see where it takes me… for instance, on 3/22 (the lounging girl above), I just started with a nouveau style border and NO IDEA what I was going to draw inside it. Sometimes I have an idea of something I want to practice, that's why I've been drawing a lot more people lately. I LOVE drawing animals, people have never been as interesting to me, but I'm trying to change that.

How do you decide what medium to use?
I really just try to keep things mixed up. I do admit, I prefer dry media - pencils, markers, etc. I break out the paints and ink jars from time to time… but I do have a tendency to be impatient with wet media. There's a certain lack of control that frustrates me… for instance on 3/23 I got the bright idea of drawing with some waste printer-ink (inkjet printers waste SO MUCH ink). I recently installed external waste-ink reservoir bottles on my printer because it's gotten to the point where the internal ones are filled and ink was regularly spilling out the front of it when I printed. These bottles make it really easy to see how much ink is being wasted and they're easily removed - so I can dip in brushes and fountain pens. It was kind of fun, but the ink SOAKS into the paper, have to be conservative with it on the page… it bled through in a couple places, so I was forced to use an acrylic foundation painting on the next page to cove up the spots. And of course, on acrylic I couldn't sketch out ideas first, so I just had to give a go at drawing some stuff out of my head in marker, with nothing to follow & no erasing (I'm listening to the Mansfield Park audiobook and went on a bit of a Jane Austen film binge over the weekend, LOL).

How much time do you spend on each one?
This is where things vary greatly… I can spend anywhere from 10 minutes to several days on each page. I think the average is between 1 & 2 hrs though. Guestimates for these:
3/21 - under 2 hrs
3/22 - 2+ hrs
3/23 - under 2 hrs
3/24 - under 2 hrs

What I find really interesting, is how I can develop ingrained associations with where or when or what I was doing while drawing some of these pages. Others I completely forget. When I reach the end of each book, sometimes I'll go back and make a little note on the pages that have strong memories of where I was or what I was doing (watching/listening to a specific tv show or on a plane, for instance) while I was working on it.

Drawing Morning Pages (Doodle Edition 72)

Mar 17-20, 2012

Drawing Morning Pages (Doodle Edition 71)

Mar 13-16, 2012