Stitching Butterflies is Far from Finished

I completed the Stitching Butterflies book dummy... or so I thought.

Turns out there is a contest out there for illustrators not agented or published who are writing stories about diversity.

I'm entering of course! SB is all about two girls with diverse backgrounds, two different points of views and different interactions with the world. These interactions clash until they realize they are more similar they than thought.

Do I think I'll win? No, I don't, but I'm sure going to make sure that I try my very best and I make SB the best I can make it.

 These three images never seem to go away
or be completed. I want to make them perfect
but I need to move on (I need 6 completed pages!) So my next three I must do in a short amount of time. Everything MUST look SPLENDID, fantastic, it's gotta be a like a delicious cake where all the ingredients as a whole make people want to consume my cake. This is the next one I'm completing. I hope I can do this fairly quickly!

And in other news, I'm trying to complete a book dummy for Hello Robot by completing Dani Duck's book dummy challenge. Oh yeah, it's also INKTOBER and next month NaNoWriMo and the last Tomi competition is due in December.

I have a lot of projects...THIS SOUNDS FAMILIAR.

So, Let's Go!

Lately I've been stumped on the many projects I've buried myself under (what else is new, eh?) and created what is known as a "writer's block" or "creative block." Some authors and creatives debate on wether this "creative block" exists. In these SCBWI conference notes, one author, Pam Muñoz Ryan, says there is no such thing as a writers block. On the other hand, Neal Shusterman on the same note page says writers block is very real. 

Is this creative block real? How does one overcome this wall blocking the way to the land of creativity and success? 

Well I for sure don't know... BUT...

Here's what I've been up to to help me through it, even if I'm doing everything to procrastinate:

• Read some topic related books to get my mind reeling. Favorites at the moment: Pete the Cat series, Where the Wild Things Are, Millions of Cats, How do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight, and Dragons Love Tacos. 
• Yeah, I read articles about Picture books too... Tara Lazar always has some good stuff. 
• Jot down ideas even if they're lame. This can also apply to the PiBoIdMo challenge as well as NaNoWriMo.
• Work on something other than my stories, like this postcard contest piece!
• Work on one Picture book at a time. WORK ON ONE PICTURE BOOK AT A TIME. Should I say it again. ONE PB A TIME. <3 This is probably the most important one of all haha.
• And, since I'm working on Nightlander continuously, I've decided to focus on character building until November for NaNoWriMo. ONE CHARACTER AT A TIME. 

And that's it! Personally, I don't believe in a creative block necessarily. I do however believe in a creative meltdown, consisting of a list of procrastinations/reasons why the creative force should pause because of "real life worries" (day job, bills, health, dealing with the "real world") Indecisiveness can also pause the creative force (what project will be more successful? Which project won't waste my time?) 

The only way is to power through. So, let's go!

Postcard in Progress!

The Maryland/Delaware/West Virginia SCBWI has a post card contest each year. This year's theme is From Dreaming to Doing. 

This is my take on that theme. 

I've never entered the postcard contest before so this is my first time. Will I have a chance? Ehh, maybe. I see this more of a chance to perhaps make a portfolio piece, or even just an activity that's not my own personal project. 

This is the original sketch (after a few thumbnails.)

The image below is a digital color sketch. After working on it, I see I need to go back to the drawing and re-work the fish in the back ground along with the underwater city background.

I have until october (I think? Got to check that...) to complete this piece.

Better get to working!

Completed 2nd Draft of Book Dummy

Drum roll please...

*DUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUUUU*

*PSHEEEE!* SMASH!

Okay, got too excited. I've never thought of how to write the sound of a drum roll...

Anyway, the 2nd draft of Stitching Butterflies book dummy is complete! Does it need tweaking still? Oh yes. Definitely, but I'm not going to let the incompleteness of a book dummy get me down. In fact it's better to not have fully fleshed out details sometimes with a book dummy. Fully prepared manuscript? Yes. Full, completed illustrations? Yes, but not the dummy. The agent or publisher might think you don't intend to change anything which isn't so as many things should be changed in the process.

Alright, so long SB for a little while! I've gotta start working on Lues and Sues. 

Book Dummy Update

Another post on this, really? Will I ever finish this thing? (HAHAHAHA...ha)

Anyway, the book dummy saga continues. I'm nearing the end of my second SB draft with it being critiqued (with most of the ones critiquing being confused) and have to say that my type of writing is very comic book-esque as a lot of the time I use only dialogue and onomatopoeia.

I don't want to change because the manuscript is a little confusing without the illustrations!

So for me this dummy is extremely important for Stitching Butterflies. I wrote about it on the wordpress. You can find some helpful links in there, as well as here and here. In fact, subscribing to these blogs help too.

Some pieces! Part of the reason this blog exists lies in the idea that an artist has to fail over and over and over again just to get what they want inside their heads on paper.  Still, that may not even happen.

Can I get what I want SB to be on paper? 

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. 

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.

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.