AAHHHH Trucks

 Finished the truck commission! I had fun with these, they'll be my background for awhile XD

Four Trucks for Christmas~

Another commission! A simple one, but still fun~ Four sketches of different trucks for a 6 year old boy who loves trucks for Christmas. I will post the finals on here~

Commission for My Boss!

Just a graphite drawing. Will I make this into a color final? Nah, I think I'll leave it the way it is. I'll have enough forest pieces anyway haha.

Building a Portfolio? Uh Oh

Out of my entire website, I found only three pieces that has done anything to get into my actual portfolio. I guess they're right in saying it takes a lot of failure to gain any kind of success (whoever they are ha.)

My illustration work has disappointed me.

But! When I look and compare the work I was doing just a year ago, a lot has changed. I have gotten more accurate and I pay more attention to detail. I had thought, and this is a silly thought, that illustration was supposed to be "made up" or something that my mind has poured out on a surface without any reference. Well, it's not too surprising that I thought this. Going to college with many different artists, the fine artists and the illustrators were almost at war with each other in the ideas for what is a true art piece. As a fine artist and oil painter first, I thought that if I used reference the image would be too realistic and traditional to be an illustration.

Blah no!

Again, silly thought and perhaps thinking this way has made my art suffer. Any readers out there, if you have a stable idea of what art is rethink it! You might find a whole new reality.

To keep myself from spiraling down into a dark abyss of the stereotypical, almost archetypal, artist defeated depression, I started looking around for simple explanations for building a portfolio. I found this blog post helpfully breaking down what my portfolio needed to accomplish. I've read this one before however it's still helpful. Both of these illustrators seem to have their stuff together, and if there's any way of learning how to put a portfolio together and be professional, looking at successful illustrator portfolios is the best.

In the end, out of the 23 pieces on my website, and many others not on my website, these three are the only ones that are close to portfolio worthy. That's okay. If I can make three already then I can make three more.

Finished challenges for the Month! (almost) WOOOOO

I'm done!!!! Also, I fixed this piece. XD The hand was messed up and I was looking at it for hours and realized it in time to change my submission lol. Oh WELL.

This month has been very difficult but I accomplished almost everything...it's just the last few picture book ideas... I can do it in two hours, yeah? YES! Pullin' out the mentor books! Also spamming the blog posts on the SCBWI pages I follow. This one in particular gave me an idea. 

And for the last update, I completed the NaNoWriMo challenge with blood, sweat, tears, and lots of coffee. 

Characters are Useful to a Story Right?

Still behind! Who else is?

I'm also very behind on PiBoIdMo, but I believe I've met a breakthrough in my story and as I'm figuring out characters for Lil' Red, I'm also learning more about the characters in my PB manuscripts. Characters are the main focus for PB and Middle Grade manuscripts as the reader MUST connect with the characters to enjoy or even pay attention to what the plot is or whatever the moral is for the story. As a reader I have to connect with the characters or else even I won't pay attention to the plot, unless of course the author's writing is so fascinating that I forget about characters (usually doesn't happen.)

Speaking of characters, every character has a basic archetype. According to Carol Jung, who created the archetype concept and was amongst the other early 1900's psychologists who dug into the human psyche with dream interpretations, everyone has a handful of basic archetypes that they've fallen into. Same goes with characters in a story. However, not everyone is a cookie cutout of stereotype, even Jung didn't think this way as he says within his writings that the archetypal list is a never-ending list of personalty possibilities. This little article got me thinking of the archetypes of my characters, specifically the idea that it's not what the character does, but why the character does what they do.

No, No, No Negative Nancy

I've reached passed 15,000 words and I'm so behind in the word count. I think what is truly destroying the creativity is the word count and the deadline. As soon as I get a deadline, I freeze up and can't get anything done!

On the plus side of NaNoWriMo, I've never  been dedicated to a story as much as I have with this one. Each time I go and write a story, my creative and non judging self disappears and out comes the critic, the negative Nancy (who've I've started calling Bethany Jones in a super annoying illustration doodle) the editor that says I should give up on writing and illustration because I'm never going to be quite good enough, not with the competition out there. What chance do I have? With this month challenge, I've been able to go past the editor and the critic. I have 15,600 words and that is more than I had about two weeks ago, I should feel accomplished!

I also finished my little red riding hood piece! That is another goal I met for the month, and maybe with the contest piece finished, I will have more room to write.

More Update! and a Useful Article

There was a moment today while I was at work trying to come up with a picture book idea and I said to myself, "It's really hard to think of something creative in a lab environment...wait, did I really just day that? What am I thinking! There are plenty of fun and kooky things to write about in a lab environment!" Then funny enough I grabbed a sticky note and began writing, "It was a dark and gloomy day, a dark and gloomy day for a lab assistant. It was a dark and gloomy day for a lab assistant who is an owl? It was a dark and gloomy day for an owl's lab assistant who just had to come to work and stumble around in the mud because of course it has to be thundering and lightning for this lab project to work...whatever that is."

Out of all that blabbering...I still looped around to Frankenstein. Whoops. I also like owls. Yeah it didn't go well, but that's okay! Maybe it's day will come...

I made it past 12,000 words (12,355 as of now) and if I write at least 1723 words every day this week, I will be caught up.

In the meantime, I've been wondering if I should update my cargo website as it seems pretty dead because I put a lot of my focus to writing this month, or if I should just buy my website instead. My friend in an online critique group posted this article here  about the don'ts when it comes to building your website and making it easy as possible for publishers, art directors, agents, and just pretty much anybody to navigate. Good reminder, maybe I'll work on my website...next month.

Made it Past 10,000 Words (and the start of a color sketch)

I made it over 10,000 words! Yippee!

I'm still very behind though, but I know I can make 50,000 by the end of the month. In the meantime,

I've started color planning the contest piece in photoshop so I can start the oil painting for it tomorrow.

I feel like I've been working on this piece forever, but it's coming along. I'm pretty sure my boyfriend Sean will be happy once I've finished this piece too. (pretty sure he's tired of me going, 'could you look at this one? What about this?' haha) 

Now for today's excerpt:

After a long, grueling math session with the ever-so-boring Mr. Perry who had a pet peeve about electronics and made everyone empty themselves of any such things on his desk to be picked up after class, next was science with Mrs. Rosas and to the misfortune of Mel, Ben was in class with her along with Greg and their friend Devon.

“Meeeeel! Sit with us!” Ben said excitedly as Mel rolled her head back to look at the ceiling.

“Oooooh they made you take your hat off” giggled Gregg as she covered her head with her arms. “Well at least your hair adds height to yah a bit, still short though.”

The classroom was by far the most interesting to look at. Environmental science was the what the class was called and many posters of animals and forests covered the walls. On the shelves looked like animal bones and some other items Mel couldn't quite see.

Mel flew passed Ben, Greg, and Devon were and sat down at a table she noticed the girl with the book on the bus sat. She was still reading then looked up and waved hi. Mel waved back and for the rest of the class time pretended to be preoccupied re-reading the handouts Mrs. Rosas gave out.

The rest of the day went by in a haze. Mel ended with Mrs. Penny’s English class where she promptly handed notes with certain parts highlighted in a color code and encouraged the class to buy color note cards and highlighters for homework and discussion classes for furthering everyone’s organization skills all the while Mel kept thinking, this is going to be a long year.

When Mel got home she found Ari, the babysitter, re-watching the Once Upon a Time episodes on netflix. “Oh hi Mel! Your mom just left and won’t be back until late tonight so I’m watching Lue.”

“Looks like you’re watching netflix” Mel said under her breath as she went straight back to her room. Louie came out of the bathroom just in time to jump scare her and rush into a bout of arguing before slamming the door to her room. She sat her hat back on the corner of her mirror and looked at her own puffy-eyed glare. Having no homework allows her fall face forward onto her bed. She looks out the window, seeing the patch of woods and considered taking another walk to her favorite spot. Lifting herself from the bed, she thought of the last time she was there and plopped her head back down, rolling on her back to stare at the old and worn out glow in the dark stars on her ceiling that somehow have stayed up there for five years, she started to wonder if her dad must have used some kind of super glue for them or something other than the putty that came with, but stopped mid thought and rolled to her side to stare at her closet door slightly ajar. Slowly blinking to a close, Mel dozed off and dreamt of trees growing towards the sky, lifting her and her bag full of stars to super glue to the universe's ceiling.

The Weekend is My Friend

The Weekend is my Friend!

Not only does the weekend give me more time to write and illustrate without silly lab work to get in the way (just kidding, I actually do like being a QC technician) that saying is the PiBoIdMo for the day. Could I get a good story out of it? Perhaps, actually I probably could if I'm creative enough. I might draw something later if I'm not buried in NaNoWriMo word count.

I finally finished the final sketch of Lil' Red, now all I have to do is make an oil painting out of it!

I hope I finish it in time...I think I made a portfolio piece! (...finally)

What's on the Other Side?

Bam. The title says it all. The PiBoIdMo for today is the question, "What's on the Other Side?" I don't know what's over there yet, but it's something.

Going fairly strong today, until I lost my note cards I was writing on at work and now I have to re-write almost everything I've done so far... that's okay. I know what to write now at least and I will not dwell on the fact that I'm horribly behind and I will need a full two days of nothing but writing to catch up... yeah right, like THAT will happen haha.

In the meantime, I need coffee or tea or maybe ddr exercising...or I just need to type an updated excerpt. I think I'll do that.

It didn't matter whose side she was on, Mel's butt was just tired of sulking on the bleachers, her feet aching to run around the bases. "Come oooooon!" she pounded her fists.

"We're not having a shorty like you on our team. Greg wants you though." cackled a kid named Ben.

"We don't want  her, she can't hit the ball" Greg spat on the ground, "besides," he kicked dirt over his loogie, "she's token Dog keeper watcher."

"UUUHHHH fine. Y'all can't catch him anyway. Too slow" Mel waved them off.

"Whatever" Ben said.

"Yeah, my turn to bat. No more distractions." The other kids ran out to the field, Mel threw down her red cap, determined to stomp the crap out of but she stopped, sighed, and placed the hat back on her wild haired head where it belonged. She glared over at the panting husky named Dog and growled, "You better not..." Dog stared at her, then his attention focused back on the game. 

None of the kids knew where the stray came from. He was just there one day and happened to sit on the part of the bleachers that some kid tagged with spray paint and a smirk flipped the word"God", tossing the empty can over his shoulder. But to everyone, and to Dog, it labeled the spot for any random teams' mascot. 

PING! The ball was hit over to left field, landing Greg's team a double. Dog's ears perked up, ready for the PING of a home run. The next hit earned a single. As Ben dug his cleats in the ground, pitched the ball, a strike and a base stolen for second. Dog makes a small growl and a little start."Dooooon't" Mel growls back. The batter holds a tighter grip, the pitch, and a last minute change of hold on the bat makes a bunt and another base loaded. 

"COME OOOOON RITCHIE!" yells the team from the dugout as a hefty kid makes a couple tough practice swings. 

"GET BACK! GET BACK!" yells Ben to the outfield. Ritchie swaggers up to the plate. Dog's ears perk up.  

The ready, the pitch,"STRRRRRIIKE!" the catcher yells.

"Let's go batter!" taunt the boys in the field. 

Ben turns around to them, "SHUT UP!" then turns back. 

The ready, the pitch, the perk of Dog ear, "STRRRIIKE TWO!" 

"Come on batta batta batta!" mock the boys.

"I SAID, SHUT IT!" Ben screams as he pitched a wild one that gave Richie a ball and slammed against the back fence. Ben took a deep breath, relaxed his shoulders. Ritchie taps his cleats on the plate. 

The ready, the pitch, the perk of Dog ear, the PING! "NOOOOO" . Dog tears after the little grand slam gold nugget, Mel shouting, chasing after him.

Okay, that was probably more than I intended to share but oh well! Gotta get back to writing.

OH I'm REALLY Behind Now!

Only 1000 words laid down on the page yesterday. At least the first 700 words were flowing easy, but I could not for the life of me get to 1667 words last night.

What I did manage to accomplish was another PiBoIdMo idea and I got started on the final sketch before the oil painting of lil Red.

Because I like this image so much, I make make a final piece of artwork out of it. MAYBE, and it might be a picture book haha.

As for the Lil Red piece, I need to find a better way to scan! It is pretty big, square but big. Gotta find better ways to scan this one. 

I WILL post again tonight (I didn't post last night, I blame American Horror Story ) and type up another excerpt.

OI, another day of creativity. 

Fourth Day (and third day) of Challenges

Yesterday I totally failed to get 1667 words in. In fact, I found myself falling asleep in the middle of writing (maybe it was the relaxing spotify piano music...or the lack of coffee) and only managed to write 624 words.

Now I have to catch up!

In the meantime, I'm going to add a bit of an excerpt from what I did write, as I found myself writing in pieces more than an actual flow of order.


Grandma Gertti, or Gertrude was what her husband referred to her when he was alive, took her time answering the knocking at the door."That better not be no solicitors soliciting at my doorstep." 

"It's us grandma, you know, your gran kids?" Mel transfixed her eyes on the simple iron door handle, waiting for it to turn as her brother squirmed on his feet. A little window above the knob blocked out by a black curtain flipped up the slightest bit and cluh-chink of unlocking pushed the door open. 

Gertti walked out with her arms spread wide, " Awww look at you two! Mel, you haven't stumbled into the back of my little cottage in a quite awhile, have you?" she chuckles and pulls the brother and sister off the rickety old porch. 

Grandma Gertti's cottage was something out of a fairytale it seemed to Mel, being one who has lived in apartments all her life. The smell of mashed potatoes, fried chicken, carrot cake and cookies seeped into the wooden floors. Photos covered the walls that told the tale Mel's father's childhood. It was those photos she's stared at for years that gave away clues as to where her unruly wild hair came from. Her father always wore a hat to hide his balding spot, so she never seen his head in full fro. 

That's all I have time to type now, it's back to the lab at work for me. I will do a PiBoIdMo update later tonight!

Over 2,238 Words and Counting

I don't think I've ever written so much in such a little time that wasn't a research paper on an artist or some sort of interesting fact. It's day two of NaNoWriMo and PiBoIdMo. So far I have over 2,238 words and counting for Lil Red and three different ideas for picture books. 

Here's an excerpt from the first draft, the hardest part to get out.

Mel tears through the woods on nights when the stars' light can't reach the forest floor, crashing through warn paths made during the day. For years she's flattened, molded the pathways to fit her own feet beating the earth. If she had been paying any attention that night, the crunch beneath her feet would let her know the floor was littered with glass bottles, taking the spots where only decaying leaves would lay. If she was paying any attention she would have heard the loud "Pooowhhrr" and a few more gun shots after that. The sound of pounding feet and angry breaths filled her ears and fueled her need to find the spot crowed with bushes, eating whatever moon light managed to get it's way past the greedy leaves.

Mel reached the bushes and crawled her way through, plopping down, blinking away furious tears. She begun pulling off bush berries and leaves, tearing them apart, tossing them in the already decaying pile beside her. Crunching of leaves forced her to stop the destruction and peek out. A plastic bag floats by like a small ghost. "Wait, I thought I heard...shouldn't he?" Mel whispers to herself and crawls back to safety.

The sun wakes Mel sleeping on a mound of torn berries and leaves. "Why is he not here?"

The First Day of Challenge Month!

The first day is almost done ( I still have 500 words to go to reach 1,667 words but I still have four more hours...) and I have one idea for PiBoIdMo though it is just the phrase "put some pizzaz on your pepperoni pizza" that seemed to stick out today. I'm fingering that story out at the same time I'm writing Lil' Red. 

During the weekend I was sketching to try to figure out the position of Mel for the contest piece as the sketch I have, this one, 

just wasn't cutting it. So I got my cousin to pose for me on the steps of my grandparent's camper while we went to our yearly halloween camping trip. 

I figured I could try a few more poses, one being me posing in a picture to how I first imagined Mel climbing through a hole in a fence and this is the other sketch I'm looking at for reference.

I haven't done a self portrait in awhile sheesh. I'll have more updates on this and hopefully I can complete this image I've been messing with for two months now...yeah. TWO MONTHS and I only have a SKETCH. Oi. 

A Ramble about Reviewing Children's Books

My deadline for the for the Children's Lit reviews are at the end of this week! EEEEEEP! I'll always be plagued by deadlines!

Anyway, if anyone is interested in reviewing for them then just go to their website for more information. They're looking for positive and sometimes negative reviews (if you think a particular book needs to not be recommended.) I've given them a couple of negative reviews before but I try to give my most honest and helpful opinion and this is what I want to ramble about!

In my experience, giving an honest opinion is the best you can do for an author or illustrator or cook or dancer or whatever that person does in life. If that person really wants to improve their craft, they need to face criticism. Sometimes criticism can get out of hand and downright dishonest, but the more they face criticism's rearing ugly head, the more courage they'll get to either take that critique and apply it to the work or even to know what criticism to keep and what to throw out. Besides listing the summary, characters, the books cohesiveness with illustrations, age group, and what setting the book may be appropriate for, honesty is on the top of that list for me when I write my reviews.

Being apart of the 12x12 has been helpful in several different ways and one of them happens to be the Facebook group where people link many helpful blog posts, experiences, books, and various inspirational material. One of the links today just happened to be relevant to what I'm trying to accomplish by the end of this week, which is to write five good reviews. If you are not apart of the 12x12, Facebook group or SCBWI, and are interested in reviewing, here's a link to that helpful and relevant post.

I'll end the rant with another pre NaNoWriMo sketch

Lil Red Contest

The NaNoWriMo novel I'm working on was inspired by the Tomie dePaola contest that's due on the 1st of December. The challenge is to create an illustration based off of the Philip Pullman’s version of “Little Red Riding Hood” from FAIRY TALES FROM THE BROTHERS GRIMM.  With both November challenges, family projects, and this contest it's going to be an overloaded month ahead of me.

BRING IT!!!

Anyway, during the time I was experimenting with acrylic, digital, tea/coffee staining, I realized that the medium that I work best with is and always will be oil paint. That wouldn't be too bad if oil paintings didn't take so long to dry. The more I draw and work on my own projects the more I find that all my work has a sense of realist whimsy and I personally can only achieve that through drawing and oil painting.

Oh well, it is what it is and I should focus on what I'm good at instead of trying to work with something that just doesn't work with me.

Another November countdown image!

Lil' Red

I've been working on a middle grade (?) for about two months now which I've been calling "Lil Red" because it's a Little Red Riding Hood spinoff. Writing things here and there, character building and sketching, world building and figuring out the theme before NaNoWriMo begins. I figured if I have   an idea to start with,  50,000 words will be a bit more manageable (maybe?)

Anyway.

I found that drawing the characters and settings forced me to get to know these people and places more than I ever could if I just wrote about them.

Here is an example I would like to share, apart of the PiBoIdMo and NaNoWriMo count down.

PiBoIdMo Next Month!

So I've stopped the contests for now but I have plenty of work to do this month and the next.

This month I've been preparing for PiBoIdMo by gathering past ideas on notecards, sketchbooks, random pieces of paper or material...and mashing them altogether as a reminder that I DID come up with 30 picture book ideas in 30 days (no matter how good or bad haha) and can do it again!

I'm pumped!

Now for a challenge that I haven't tried before. I find this challenge super intimidating but of course that just makes me want to do it even more.

NaNoWriMo!!!

50,000 words in 30 days. AHHHHHH I don't know if I can do it...but, I think I can. Yeah, I CAN DO IT! I can complete BOTH.

Hahahahahahahahaha. Ha.

As for the blog background change, it's the gathering of notecards, scribbles, and pieces of paper with old ideas written down. I thought it appropriate.

Wish me luck! (I also wish all those out there working on either or both challenges!!!)

Enchanted Contest

Yay! Another contest! No! I haven't won any yet!

Annnd that's it for the exclamation points. 

The next SCBWI Draw This theme was "Enchanted". If there are any members out there who just so happen to see this post and have not entered into the Draw This yet, DO IT. Just look at how much I'm flailing around trying to get decent work together each month, you should be able to do it no problem!

My idea was an enchanted dress and I personally loved working on this piece. The painting is completely digital with my line work (I'm starting to really like working this way) and because this was digital I was able to paint different color themes quickly to see which one I liked the most. What I have here is just the blue and the final yellow. I might make a pink and a green one for more digital painting practice. 

Not What I Normally Do, Fun Though

Recently I landed myself a small illustration job designing a logo for someone's auto shop. Logos are not something I'm real comfortable with but I went for it and it turned out pretty darn good! 

It's also the first time that I've completed a finished piece completely in photoshop paint so here's what I did:

after a great deal of sketching fonts and getting the image right, I came to this general idea and the next step was a bit tougher...

Then...

this piece just kinda came together. :)

Is It Ever Finished?

I don't know if I'll win, but after showing some people and getting feedback on small things it was well worth going back to this piece. Just a little lighter, eh?

Moar Space Theme!

I've been working on this piece for some time. With my overwhelming pickiness getting in the way, I think trying to work digital and traditional is clashing a bit. 

Maybe I just need some critiques! 

Space themed! :D Yay!

Another contest! Due the third thursday of for this contest here! I love science fiction and hopefully that'll show in the final piece. If I don't win again, hey, I'm getting my process down pretty well. Starting out I thought I just had to make a few sketches, think about a plethora of ideas that I'll never complete and then paint.

WRONG.

It takes a process.

So of course I always start out traditional but I have found ways that digital has helped me, especially with value and color planning. This first image was the beginning to an end. I like that space ship and the character slowly creeping off into the unknown land.

Then after this I added more to the story. Can you see the little guys near the bottom? Very rough sketch (I'm miss my tablet! poor broken tablet...) but I just really wanted to know where that light was going to be and how dark the mountains should be against the night sky.

Will update on this piece! Illl probably change a dozen times before the finish, but I'm as confident as I can be in where the work is going. ^_^

Only one contest this month...

 I didn't do the Jack and the Beanstalk contest :( but I'll do the next one! It is space themed so I feel that I must!

I did however complete the Diverse contest (but may not have turned it in on time! gosh I'm bad with deadlines this month!) and here is the process for this piece.

I decided to mess around with photoshop again by creating a pencil sketch/digital sketch. Fast forward through more thumbnails and I got this next image. I think still think this is the best drawn here. If only I could just re-draw the final...but alas the contest is over. ;)

This next color sketch didn't work out as planned and ultimately I hate it. What it did do for me was make me backtrack and plan the colors a bit more.

Again I used photoshop to mark out these colors in the original sketch. This was helpful! I think I may start doing this with my color pieces from now on. Saved me a lot of mistakes and some (SOME) frustration haha.

Aaaaannnnd the final. Again, it could be better! My painting and drawing are rocking in some places but crashing in others. Moral of this story...KEEP PRACTICING THE CRAFT...and make deadlines.

So I have a long way to go

I've been wondering if I should try mixing digital with traditional again. I did that with the experimental portfolio, "The Boy and the Changing Being" maybe I could explore that again with this piece. 

Anyway, this was for the 3rd Thursday contest. I didn't win this one either, but now I look back at it, definitely wasn't fun enough, or finished enough. So of course I add it to this blog. Maybe I'll do better next time. 

and the final...

Definitely think I could go darker on the right side. Still, I think this piece wasn't fun enough for kids. I'll try for a little more light hearted scene next time for the Jack and the Beanstalk spread. 

Discovery Draw It Again

Like every piece of art I make I had many hiccups so I needed to hold my breath while submitting it to the contest. I think it was fairly successful but it could be better!

In the meantime, here is the process...

I always start with thumbnail sketches, but I already posted those on my other website for the 12X12 month. Here is the sketch and the color sketch. I think the problem lies within not making a full, fleshed out sketch before making the color sketch, a mistake that I managed to avoid in another piece for another contest. I'll post that later.

Only a few pictures taken. I think I may need to upgrade to video to just to make this look recent, I kinda feel like I'm going old school here. Anyways, here are the images that I did manage to document and will be going for a more update look in the future :)

Discovery!

This little piece here is the for Susanna Hill's awesome illustration contest that is pretty much world famous, Discovery. If any illustrators out there sees this post and want to enter, you should definitely go here for the rules.

After the contest I'll post normal Draw It Again posts...which means all my mistakes and treacherous (lovingly treacherous!) journey to get to the final.