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)

My New Website is Up and Running!

I finally got my new website up… as is the case with a lot of websites, there are things I really like and things that are not-so-great, but it's clean and organized and pretty easy to work with and update. Now I just need to work on some new stuff to update it with!

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!

New Postcard Promo! (Spring… technically)

I have a new promo postcard ready to go! Okay, I've had it ready to go since mid-May… I've been a little slow this year. Prepared, but slow. Trying to catch up on my blog posts too. I won't even bother to postdate this one, LOL.

Here's the full piece. I call it Polly and Sunny (polar bear & sun bear) and it's the piece I completed for the SCBWI-NM Enchantment Show earlier this year.

This piece was a lot of fun, The original is pretty tiny, but I enlarged the final piece to about 10"x 20". All the line work was layered in digitally.

My goal this year has been to push myself and develop a more blended style of traditional & digital techniques. This was definitely a step in the right direction… but I think I'd like to loosen up even more,  push the characters even further. What say you?

New Postcard Promo!

(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.

See the Unofficial Gallery to look at other entires!

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.

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.

New Work: Masterworks Miniatures 2013

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

4.85" 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

4.75" 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 my 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

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.

PiBoIdMo 2011 - 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 second year of participating in Picture Book Idea Month 2011 (#PiBoIdMo) was another success. Once again, I find myself thinking… this is really something I should do everyday, keep this list going all year long… or at the very least, find a way to make it a more regular practice. Of course, I've got two long lists to work through, and this year I'm more interested in the follow-through of the these ideas. The next step… turning these ideas into real books!

F is for Fandango** / Illustration Friday: VANITY

If the fancy Fandangos seem stuck-up and snooty,
It is because of their exquisite beauty.
They're most often seen with smug smiling faces,
By a crustal clear pond in a jungle oasis.
There they linger for hours with nothing to do
But sip the sweet water and admire the view.
And the view they admire, as you might well suppose,
Is their own reflection, right under their nose.

from NO SUCH THINGS, by Bill Peet

*This week I got to combine my extracurricular blog posts, and it was all do to kismet! I originally thought of doing a Dr. Suess creature (I still am, working on it!), so I ran to the library to grab a couple of the books I didn't have - and on display were a couple Bill Peet books I was not familiar with (I am a true Bill Peet fan from childhood - when we went to the books store, I was always asking for a new Bill Peet book), so I snatched them up and brought them home not even really paying attention to what they were about.
One of those books, NO SUCH THINGS, just happens to be a book of made up creatures! It was just perfect. I looked at the cover thinking, I really hope those horse-like creatures start with an F, because they are just so cool -- and they DID. And apparently they're extremely vane creatures, which totally fits in with Illustration Friday's theme this week: Vanity. Such lucky and fun discoveries this weekend. :)
**and also FANART

E is for Enfield

The enfield is a mythological beast most commonly (when seen at all) used in European heraldry especially in England and Ireland. It is most famously used in the heraldry of the London Borough of Enfield.

The enfield it has the head of a fox, the chest of a greyhound, the body of a lion, the hindquarters and tail of a wolf, and forelegs like an eagle's talons. The enfield is a creature of Celtic cultures, which has given meaning to the various parts: the head of the fox represents craftiness or cleverness. The chest of a greyhound suggests swiftness and endurance. The body of a lion means royalty and bravery. The hindquarters of a wolf implies fraternity and loyalty to family. Finally, the forelegs of an eagle's talons conveys strength, nobility and hunting prowess.



The creature had a role in legends as being a guardian of chieftains or leaders who had fallen in battle. The Celts believed strongly in making sure that their honored members and loved ones received what they considered to be proper funeral rites so that their spirits could rest in peace. Enemies would try to carry away bodies, especially of enemy leaders, so that they could tear them apart and use them to demoralize the enemy and serve as a warning. This was distressing to Celtic peoples and they believed the spirit of people debased in this way would haunt the world of the living until they were avenged.

Exerpted from Squidoo

*Gotta admit I struggled with this one… it's taken days and I really had to force it along in the end. Pretty happy overall, but only a scratch on the surface of where I initially wanted to go with it.

D is for Demiguise

The Demiguise is found in the Far East, though only with great difficulty, for this beast is able to make itself invisible when threatened.

The Demiguise is a peaceful herbivorous beast, something like a graceful ape in appearance, with large, black, doleful eyes more often than not hidden by its hair. Demiguise pelts are highly valued as the hair may be spun into Invisibility Cloaks.

quoted from Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, ©J.K. Rowling

B is for Byangoma (Part II)

Long overdue - Byangoma are supposed to have the ability tell a person's future, it's their magic… so when I drew the original group of them standing around, or "at rest") - I intended to include an imagine of one ACTUALLY performing this feat, or "on display". It took an week, but here he is at last.

C is for Capricorn

Sea goats came from the first sea goat, Pricus, who was created by the god Chronos, and they could speak and think and were favored by the gods. The legend goes that eventually all the sea goats made their way to up onto land where they became the four-legged goats that we know today, leaving Pricus as the sole sea goat and the figure in Capricorn mythology.

This, naturally, explains why there are no sea goats today.

* abbreviated, from Gods-and-Monsters website.

Mood Music: Sting, The Soul Cages

B is for Byangoma

Byangoma are birds who can tell fortunes, though they are renowned for their finicky nature, helping only those they deem worthy.  Scholars have debated for centuries whether the Byangoma are intelligent beings, or if they merely have a magical instinct.  The species originated in modern Bangladesh.
Every person experiences this fortune telling differently.  Some claim to hear a voice, others receive visions. The most common experience is to hear the birds song, and suddenly have an intuition about a future event.

These are my "resting" byangoma… I have plans for a "fortune-telling" byangoma as well (in other words, "on display"), but as usual I am up late working on this because I can't seem to work ahead of schedule. LOL

A is for Alphabeasts

A is for Amphiptere
I don't really know where this project originated, but it's right up my ally. :) Hope I'm not too late for today's deadline!
Check 'em out: Alphabeasts

Just for Fun: World Oceans Day

Today is (or at this point, was) World Oceans Day so I thought it would nice to do a little ocean / sea creature themed drawing… late in the day I realized I hadn't done it yet and I kept seeing John Lechner's tweets about World Ocean Day, one after another after another (the ocean is obviously very important to John ;). They served as a reminder and I followed through for myself… for a changethe. I also watched Disney's Oceans while I was drawing… can't say I conserved much by doing that, but I raised my own awareness I guess. LOL

I like my line drawing, I'm not quite there with the watercolor yet… I mostly use it as an underpainting tool in my regular work and I think that shows here (flat!), maybe with practice…

New Work: Aesop's Follow-Up

Just finished this little guy for the back of my new promo card, such a little cutie. I was drawing for a good part of the day and I didn't even notice the time going by - I LOVE that feeling. :) Tomorrow, I'll be figuring out where/who to send these to… while trying to not to breathe in the smoky haze drifting over us from a forest fire in Arizona!

NESCBWI: Aesop's Fables -- Award Winner!

Wow.
I mean… WOW.
What a whirlwind of a weekend at The NESCBWI Conference: Celebrating Milestones. This was my second visit to the NESCBWI Regional Conference and I have to say it was the most fun, the most informative, most everything SCBWI Conference I've ever been to - and I've been to some great ones. It really does make me feel like New England is my home and I belong there… I've just gotta move back some day because these are my people. (they like me, they really, really, like me!)

Not only was it just an awesome conference experience: the gathering of like-minds, meeting awesome people, meeting several twitter friends in person, learning-learning-learning, absorbing, retaining (hopefully)… but I also earned myself some recognition! In the past, I've always been one of the many attendees, a face in the crowd - a face on an extra-tall frame, yes (I usually have a good view of all the other faces)… but for the most part, anonymous. And for the most part, I like it that way. It was a challenge making myself speak-up and meet strangers. But this year…

I knew a few people going in - People I met last year, people I met via email volunteering to help out with the conference promo art and registration banners (my name was on EVERY FOLDER label at the conference, how cool is that?!), I knew several twitter people that I had met previously, or I just knew would be there so I could look out for them… and I made myself do NEW WORK before I got there - especially my submission for the Poster Showcase Competition.

I've done these competitions before: Everyone comes in with big hopes and dreams (which is great, it's inspiration)… but (speaking for myself, of course) very often, I go in unsure of myself. I forget that there's limited room (submissions), limited time (for viewing/judging), and overall it's all hugely subjective - it has to be. I've often been completely deflated when my art didn't win or wasn't recognized. I've ended up walking away from conferences feeling hugely inspired, by also incredibly down on myself and my art. I was constantly setting myself up for this massive let down - I was taking it personally. The simple fact is, everyone can't "win".

And then I won. I got not one, but two awards. I received 2nd place in the unpublished category from the conference judges, and the HUGE honor of 1st place People's Choice - meaning everyone from the conference that looked at all the poster art submissions and cast a vote for their favorite. I mean, WOW. I could not believe it! I still don't think it's sunk in.

But really, overall… my conference experience was not much different than it's been in the past in the best possible ways: still great people, still awesome presenters & faculty, still making new contacts, still learning… always learning/absorbing. I think the reason I had such a great and what I consider, successful conference is not because I won some awards, but I felt more confident in myself and my work going in. I worked hard (even if it was last minute) and I truly liked what I'd accomplished (which doesn't happen every time - come on we all know every piece we work on isn't always our best) I wasn't afraid to speak to people (I couldn't hide from them really, I had what felt like minor celebrity - so many people stopped me to congratulate me and tell me they'd voted for me - I still don't have words!). I can't quite describe it, but I just felt like I belonged… and I'd actually done quite a lot to get to that point: being on twitter and cultivating relationships there, volunteering, joining a crit group of AMAZING illustrator peers (all of whom at any given time I consider better, more experienced, more confident, or more successful than myself (it's great to have your mentors all around you, calling you a peer. What a major confidence boost, right?).

It wasn't any one thing, but it all made a difference, and I can still feel it all changing me and how I look at things. And I'm still reminding myself that the 1st place winner in Unpublished also, won 3rd in People's Choice, and ALSO won the "Best in Show" award from R. Michelson Galleries, as well as a spot in their upcoming illustration show - Jeanette Bradley was a TRIPLE winner with her beautiful cover submission! ;) Congrats Jeanette, and all the other winners and participants as well! A bunch of brave souls that put themselves OUT THERE!