July Oh My

Here we are more than half way into the year, and I now have a new fond respect for anyone who works a full time job and also does illustrations for books, editorial, picture books, board books or any art for that matter!

Time. I tell ya. It’s a helluva thing. This isn’t about me being behind or anything like that, it’s the sitting for long periods of time! I used Behind and Sitting in one sentence if you happen to notice that.

An update on the Mom Son project-

The much needed stars for the opening scene here. Elaborated on the terrain as well…

I found since February, that I work best in chunks or hour and a half time frames. I have kept to my morning commitment before the day job, also squeezing in an hour before bed some nights, and for sure more chunks of work on the weekends too.

Almost to paint phase, which I intend to do that most likely mid-August to late August.

Turning the big Four Zero in a little over a week now, and because of all the sitting…is it time to get a chair pillow!? Nah.

 I am realizing as I am thinking about my age now, my time as an artist spans way back to when I was 6ish or 7ish years old. Copying favorite characters, and drawing silliness. As most other artists think of how long they’ve been an artist, I like to think that at this point in my life I look forward to how much more of an artist I will become. It took a great Christmas poem based off of the Christmas story written by Mom, to get me to really understand the workings of a picture book and the time it takes to create one, the research, the character development, the Title (which is still in the works by the way, we have narrowed it down we think, but title still pending) the self-publishing part, the selling part, the cover! Oh gosh the cover…the layout of the book, the color scheme, the placement of hands! Or the character’s pose, or the type of sheep I’m creating and putting in the book…the Awassi sheep breed were the types of sheep around the journey to Bethlehem. At least that’s what a quick google search told me.   

I’ve mentioned in my past blog post about the headaches that have came in regards to this project. Mainly the line work from my dummy sketches of this story have been the issue, but next book for sure the line work will be more solidified before going to color. At the same time though my style seems to be found when I figure it all out.

Yes school or videos online tell me all these necessary ingredients for making a picture book, but until you truly jump in, really sink into the story and commit to creating…that is when the learning happens. They say don’t self-publish? Don’t work with family? For me and my situation, it’s been the best way to start and to learn.

Read my past blogs to get an idea of this project if you want! I will update again here late next month with the hopes of final files (keep your fingers crossed) …until then! -TRA