IF: Fierce (Meet Norton!)

Heh, we've come full circle. Mouse meets Lion. And Mouse finally has a name, thanks to my wonderful name-giving husband. Mouse hence forth shall be known as Norton! I sketched this in pencil, and then "color" in photoshop. About an hour of work.

IF Hoard part 2

Look! Mouse has a trinket hoard too. All those things that go missing in the house...now you know where to find them! First picture

IF: Hoard (more mice!)

Another mousey in my sketchbook. He is hoarding some cheese. Mmmmm, cheese. Part 2

Mice!

Since I can't show you what I'm working on, I thought I'd share some recent sketches from my sketch book. As you can see...mice! I feel like its a natural transition from Lions to Mice, but maybe I'm just crazy. I think mice are adorable, especially field mice.

A project on the tablet

I may be a little absent from the blogging world for the next couple of weeks as I work on some projects that are keeping me busy. The good news is, I'm busy with some very fun things. I'd love to give you a sneak peak...but you will just have to wait!

Snow White and the seven drawfs WIP

Here is the sketch for a new painting I'm working on of Snow White. I always loved her character. Probably because we shared the same condition: fair skin and very dark hair. As a little girl, that made me free very special. Now that I'm an adult, I just thinks its a little creepy for a young woman to be living with seven short men. Here are two quick color studies. I'm going with the purple dress.

Final: The Horse and His Boy

Here is the final version of the Horse and His Boy cover. I added some text to so that we can see exactly how it would look. I am really please with how it turned out. But I will welcome criticism if you guys see any ways it can be improved.

More progress on Horse and Boy cover

A few more hours of work. I think I'm finally happy with the horse. I changed the perspective a bit.

Beefing up the portfolio

One new painting finished this weekend, and a new WIP started. The WIP is a book cover, for my portfolio, of one of my favorite books in the Narnia series: The Horse and His Boy. I will also be doing three gray scale illustrations to go with it.

I've been doing much better at over coming my fears. I've been putting myself out there more often, and biding for as many jobs as I can. Problem is, I'm still not getting the amount of work I need. I took another step today, and contacted a local created recruiting company called Creative Focus. Clients contact them when they are looking for designers, managers, illustrators, etc. They take care of the rates, contracts, etc. I'm hoping that they will help me bring in a more steady stream of income, and experience.

Fear

I've been thinking about fear a lot lately. I thought I was getting better at not letting my fears hold me back, but I've realized that I've still got a long way to go.

Tomorrow, I'm going to an oral surgeon to have three wisdom teeth removed. I couldn't have it done at the dentist office, because one of the teeth was too impacted. And why was that? Because I waited too long to go to the dentist. In addition to that, I have to get two root-canals, a crown, and additional cavities filled. Why? Not because my dental hygiene is all that bad, but because I knew I had problems...and waited to long to get them taken care of. Why? Because I was afraid.

I was afraid that things would be bad. Which is pretty ridiculous when you think about it. Of course things are going to be, the longer you wait, the worse it gets. But I let my fear control me and waited forever to get things taken care of, and now, they really are bad. A self fulfilling prophecy.

And now, as I embark on my artistic career, fear is getting me again. I thought I had mastered it when I decided to give my notice at work. See me? Aren't I brave? But now...fear is getting me again. Its time to look for work, to get some clients lined up, so when D-day comes and that steady paycheck is gone, I will already have work coming in.

But I'm having a really hard time. I'm spending a lot of time on job forums, looking at work, and yet I'm applying for hardly anything. Because I'm afraid I'm not up to the task, or I'm afraid that I won't actually get the work. Freelance job boards are a pretty completive market, some times you have 50 different designers bidding on the same job. So I don't bother.

See the problem with this? If I don't ask for any work, I won't get any. Plain and simple. So what if I only get 1 out of 10 contacts I make. I need to looking for those ten, so that I can score the one. But I have excuses aplenty. And I think its not only fear, but also pride. It sucks to get rejected.

So now, its time to just suck it up, ditch the excuses, and really start digging.

Some more things up for auction

A few more art up for auction.

Art Sale!

I am having a BIG sale on a lot of originals art over the next week, as I try to raise money to attended the annual conference for the Society of Children Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) in LA. Bid early and often and help send this starving artist to the conference! Here are a few of the items already up for sale. You can view all items for sale here.

Starting at $25

new Art: Come Play with me!

I finished a painting today, called "Come Play with Me!" I painted it in photoshop. I had started this painting quite a while ago, but got stuck on it. On Saturday, I attended my first meeting of the OC Illustrators (the Orange County chapter of SCBWI), and got some great advice on the painting from Bob Singer, a really awesome animator. I just joined SCBWI two weeks ago, and so far, I've been very happy that I have. I would like to attended the summer conference here in LA and sign up for the portfolio review, but I have to figure out how we can afford it. But I think it would be worth every penny.

New Art Doll: Skawril

I was out in my garden, and I stumbled across this little creature in one of my planters. She was a little startled to be caught by me.

She is about 14 inches tall, made of Puppen Fimo, and is posable (even her tail!). She has big black eyes, little horns on her head, and a furry brown tail. She is going to Expo in August.

Egbert, new doll WIP

Here is Egbert. He will be holding a dragon egg. Making him has been so much fun, he kept me up til 11 last night, even though I had to work today...

Special kudoes to Susanne, for lending me her camera so I can take pictures again!

Trying to find my priorities

The last couple of days, I've been trying to figure out what is the best way to spend my time, what things should I be focused on, as far as marketing, production, etc. There are so many things I do, and want to do, some times it is hard to know where to spend my time.

So I thought I would put it down on paper. First I listed off the things right now that I am doing art wise. Then I rated them on a scale of 1-5 on the amount of money they typically can bring in. Then I rated them on how much I enjoyed doing each activity. This is what i looked like:

Activity Income Enjoyment
Art Dolls:
Illustration:
Web design:
Graphic design:
Original art:
Stuffed animals:
Prints, etc:

So sitting back and looking at it this way, it was quickly apparent the there is one thing that I really enjoy doing, and has the potential for bring in a decent amount of money at the same time: illustration. Web and Graphic design have good potential for bringing in money, but I really don't enjoy it as much as other things. But selling original art could bring in some money, and I really enjoy it. Looking at the list thusly, I ordered them by priority:

Illustration:
Original art:
Web design:
Graphic design:
Stuffed animals:
Art Dolls:
Prints, etc:

I still put web and graphic design high on the list, because lets be real, we must pay the bills, yes? BUT I can be selective on which projects I work on, which will increase the enjoyment factor.

This was really helpful for me. Now I know I need to spend much more time sending out promos to publishers, updating my illustration portfolio and such. In the last few months, the illustration side of the biz has been a little neglected. But no more!