I'm pretty sure that I have too many unfinished projects floating around. Let's finish some, shall we?
Let's start with the "Adan the Tiger" book.
Then move to a Benny the Baboon graphic novel.
And, oh. There's still "Alby..." to think about.
And what ever happened to that baby blanket I was crocheting for Adan? Ugh!
Showing posts with label concept art. Show all posts
Showing posts with label concept art. Show all posts
Friday, August 19, 2011
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Tuesday night I did a piece of concept art in watercolor, a medium I have been considering using for the book. Either that or watered-down acrylics. I've been hesitant about either one because, while I know how to paint, I don't consider myself very good at it on a traditional level.
The idea that I'm not good at something I know HOW to do well is just the tip of the self-confidence iceberg. Here's a video by Ira Glass that a facebook friend posted a few weeks ago that basically reinforces a point that I have always understood about creation, but never realize applies to myself: That one has to be persistent when they create and understand that there's going to be a lot of awful stuff before one lays their golden egg.
I decided to use the concept art as a "Thank You" card for my baby shower. (Cards you can buy here.)
After looking at the painting a few days removed, I actually like the style.
My next step is to render some backgrounds, which has been a life-time challenge for me, on all artistic fronts. I've always trained myself to be a character designer or animator. My focus in life for a long time was to solely be in charge of the moving elements in animation, the characters in a book. I never had any concern for where they came from, how they came to be, or the visible background they would be laid upon during production.
Looks like I made a huge mistake.
The idea that I'm not good at something I know HOW to do well is just the tip of the self-confidence iceberg. Here's a video by Ira Glass that a facebook friend posted a few weeks ago that basically reinforces a point that I have always understood about creation, but never realize applies to myself: That one has to be persistent when they create and understand that there's going to be a lot of awful stuff before one lays their golden egg.
I decided to use the concept art as a "Thank You" card for my baby shower. (Cards you can buy here.)
After looking at the painting a few days removed, I actually like the style.
My next step is to render some backgrounds, which has been a life-time challenge for me, on all artistic fronts. I've always trained myself to be a character designer or animator. My focus in life for a long time was to solely be in charge of the moving elements in animation, the characters in a book. I never had any concern for where they came from, how they came to be, or the visible background they would be laid upon during production.
Looks like I made a huge mistake.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
My hiatus from this blog came quickly, I know.
I recently recovered from an illustration gig with a start-up multimedia company. The job would potentially pay, but the fact that the process itself would bulk up my portfolio was compensation enough if the contracts and talk fell through. The alternative family children's book consisted of twenty-two pages and, while colored in Adobe PhotoShop 7, was hand drawn and inked with three different Micron Archival Pens.
The job took what I saw as a devastating blow when the producer overlooked available printing dimensions and my full-page, 10"x8" color images (some meant to span over a 2-page spread) had to be shrunk to fit onto an 8"x"10" book print. I was obviously frustrated considering that the producers had worked on a pretty nice book prior to the current series and I had made the assumption that they had already looked into the printing options with Amazon's CreateSpace. Luckily for us, there will be other books in the series and I can work with the correct dimensions from the start. But in the meantime the premier book is set up to be presented in a less-than-flattering light.
The actual, human Adan can come any second now. Because of maternity leave, my time has become abundant and I've been spending it working on Adan the Tiger-related writing and drawing.
If you or anyone else is looking for something similar to this for friends or family (think of the babies!) then you can make your way over to my Etsy Shop!
I recently recovered from an illustration gig with a start-up multimedia company. The job would potentially pay, but the fact that the process itself would bulk up my portfolio was compensation enough if the contracts and talk fell through. The alternative family children's book consisted of twenty-two pages and, while colored in Adobe PhotoShop 7, was hand drawn and inked with three different Micron Archival Pens.
The job took what I saw as a devastating blow when the producer overlooked available printing dimensions and my full-page, 10"x8" color images (some meant to span over a 2-page spread) had to be shrunk to fit onto an 8"x"10" book print. I was obviously frustrated considering that the producers had worked on a pretty nice book prior to the current series and I had made the assumption that they had already looked into the printing options with Amazon's CreateSpace. Luckily for us, there will be other books in the series and I can work with the correct dimensions from the start. But in the meantime the premier book is set up to be presented in a less-than-flattering light.
The actual, human Adan can come any second now. Because of maternity leave, my time has become abundant and I've been spending it working on Adan the Tiger-related writing and drawing.
If you or anyone else is looking for something similar to this for friends or family (think of the babies!) then you can make your way over to my Etsy Shop!
Friday, December 4, 2009
Letter of Intent
Around month 6 of my pregnancy with my first child, Adan Julian, I decided that I wanted to write a children's book for him. What better way to jump-start my art life again than to create a gift especially for Adan and Adan only. Books are something that most children have, but very few have ones specifically written about themselves; few have the excitement of opening a book past the title page and reading "For my son, Adan."
As a young child, long before my interests spilled from simple images into the words of authors like Roald Dahl, my favorite books were anything Suess, The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Corduroy. Colorful and creative, vast picture books printed on glossy big pages, with simple stories and memorable characters sandwiched between library-laminated hardcovers. As I grew older I often fashioned most of my school projects into books I had written and illustrated. Some involved animal detectives, some parodied my favorite cartoon as a youth, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
I finished each one. ...and have not been able to complete such a project since I was around 9 years old.
I'll be 27 in January and if my son decides to be born a few weeks early, he will be born on my birthday. I'm certain that a book cannot be completed in that amount of time and be as breath-taking as I like, but the idea of completing a project in time for him to sit-up and stare and drool at my drawings. 18 years is entirely too long to be finishing things that I start.
The synopsis is simple: Adan is a tiger (my husband's favorite animal) who asks a lot of questions and goes exploring to find lots of answers. Along the way he meets a handful of animal friends that he learns from. At the end he reports back to his parents all of the fun things he's learned.
As a young child, long before my interests spilled from simple images into the words of authors like Roald Dahl, my favorite books were anything Suess, The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Corduroy. Colorful and creative, vast picture books printed on glossy big pages, with simple stories and memorable characters sandwiched between library-laminated hardcovers. As I grew older I often fashioned most of my school projects into books I had written and illustrated. Some involved animal detectives, some parodied my favorite cartoon as a youth, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
I finished each one. ...and have not been able to complete such a project since I was around 9 years old.
I'll be 27 in January and if my son decides to be born a few weeks early, he will be born on my birthday. I'm certain that a book cannot be completed in that amount of time and be as breath-taking as I like, but the idea of completing a project in time for him to sit-up and stare and drool at my drawings. 18 years is entirely too long to be finishing things that I start.
The synopsis is simple: Adan is a tiger (my husband's favorite animal) who asks a lot of questions and goes exploring to find lots of answers. Along the way he meets a handful of animal friends that he learns from. At the end he reports back to his parents all of the fun things he's learned.
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