Vacation

We're off for vacation, so I'll be incommunicado for a few weeks. As soon as we're back, I'll start posting again! Have fun, and talk to you all soon!

Thanks

I just wanted to give a shout out to Alicia Padron, Vanessa, and Nancy Lefko...

Alicia, thanks so much for your very candid comments! I'm going to take your advice, and make that change to the site. I really appreciate your taking the time to look and write!! (I love your work by the way - you have such beautiful linework, and the colors are lovely!)

Vanessa and Nancy, thanks so much for the pep talk. It's a wonderful feeling to know that there are others out there, going through the same thing!!

Watercolor Wednesdays - Thumbelina

This week's prompt for Watercolor Wednesday is from Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale Thumbelina: "Perhaps this was the one who sang to me so sweetly in the summer," [Thumbelina] said; "and how much pleasure it gave me, you dear, pretty bird."

This is such a sad, sweet part of the story - where Thumbelina finds a dead little bird and she cares for it in it's death. Mouse and Mole are too busy carrying on with business to even bat an eye at the misfortune of the bird.

A member of the club

Yesterday, I received my first rejection letter (email):

"It is obvious you have invested a considerable amount of time and energy into your artwork. However, we look carefully at issues such as quality, marketability, and originality which force us to be selective in our publishing decisions. I am sorry to inform you that we are not able to accept you as an illustrator at this time."

I have confused feelings about it. Obviously, I'm bummed. I'm not sure what to make of it - do I just pick myself up, dust myself off, and carry on, or have I been deluding myself in thinking that anyone would want to publish my art. I realize rejection comes with the territory, and that not all rejections are saying that your art bad, sometimes it's just not the right fit, but how do you know? Are the pieces you've worked so hard on, and are proud of, being seen by everyone else as amateur schlock? What I do know, is that I enjoy drawing.

I draw inspiration from a quote by Henry Van Dyke: Use what talents you possess. The woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang the best.

I hope there is a place for me somewhere out there.

Illustration Friday - Enough

There is never enough of me to do all the things I'd like to do...

Watercolor Wednesdays - this little piggy

Santa brought the girls finger puppets for Christmas a few years ago. My favorites were the Fairy Tale puppets - Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and The Three Little Pigs. The girls never get sick of hearing the stories, and I never tire of seeing their performances!

Illustration Friday - Foggy

I'm not very happy with the fog in this one, so I think I will submit another one next week, when I have time to work on this a little more.

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Here is the quickie I did of Illustration Friday's "Foggy." I'm not going to have time to work on this other than tonight, so I wanted to get something up. When I was little, I always loved the "fog" after taking a shower, and then wiping a zig zag across the mirror.

Watercolor Wednesdays - It was a dark and stormy night

"It was a dark and stormy night" is the theme for the new Watercolor Wednesdays group. This is a great opportunity for me to work with other children's illustrators in drawing to a theme.

I've been wanting to add pieces with anthropomorphic characters, as well as show story sequences so I'm going to work on some classic fairytales pieces.

Since the theme is "a dark and stormy night" I thought I'd place Little Red Riding Hood in a dark and stormy woods. I found the stormy part a little hard to do. Any suggestions for how to achieve the look of "stormy"?

I also wanted to make Red a little hispanic girl. I'm not sure it really looks like that.... Thoughts?

Illustration Friday - Sour

I love lemonade, but tend to like the sour variety... with fresh squeezed lemons. Mmmmm. Although, not everyone agrees with me.