Bon Voyage, Silver Spider!

10/27/2016 By Mishka in Children's, General, Other Challenges, SCBWI, Writing 12 Comments

For some reason, this year has been busier than usual. I haven’t had a lot of time to work on personal projects, and so this blog as well as my Twitter and Instagram accounts have been dormant for a few months. So I’m not doing that well in the social media/follower departments.

Apart from managing our household and the lives and endless paperwork (overnight diapers still included) of the 3 and 5 year old Jaegerlings, I can’t complain that it was paying contract work from my main client, k12.com, that ate the remainder of my free time! Whatever higher power placed me with K12 14 years ago sure has a sense of humor since, once again, I’ve been working in my worst academic subject – math! Trust me, it’s a lot more fun for me to graphic design and code it than it ever was for me to study it. Ah well.

In addition to the craziness of this year, my husband got laid off from his proposal manager position this week. Well then! It’s certainly going to be an interesting next few months as he very well might be joining me in the consulting and contracting world. For right now, if you need any freelance writing, editing, resume formatting, grant application or proposal work, he’s your guy. If you need graphics I’m your gal. Hmmmm maybe we could work together? That’s so crazy it just might work! What could possibly go wrong? Check back with me in a few months.

In spite of all this, I HAD to make time for my favorite muse, Susanna Hill’s 6th annual Halloweensie competition. This is the 5th piece I have written for Susanna’s competitions. The parameters, restrictions, and deadlines are great for exercising the puzzles of character, plot, and wordcraft for me. So for this, I will make time! And then… back to geometry for the remainder of November.

The Contest: write a 100 word Halloween story appropriate for children (title not included in the 100 words, children here defined as 12 and under), using the words spider, ghost, and moon.

Read the other entries in the comments beneath Susanna’s contest post. Or on the Linky List Page!

Bon Voyage, Silver Spider!

“Silver Spider’s spinning her web sideways,” burbled Buff. “Why is she so weird?”

“She thinks she can catch the moon,” scoffed Umber.

“Can she do that?”

“Of course not, bonehead. She’s dreaming!”

Silver kept spinning. “I can do this,” she said. “I’ll finally leave this place. Nothing’s impossible on Halloween night!”

“Your magic moon is rising.” Umber sneered.

Silver spun faster.

Umber snored…

“Umber!” Buff shouted, “The moon is high. Where’s Silver?”

The spiders looked up.

Silver’s web had bridled the harvest moon! She ghosted across the sky in its wake.

At last she was off to see the world!

New England SCBWI Conference 2016

5/8/2016 By Mishka in Children's, General, PiBoIdMo, SCBWI, Work, Writing 2 Comments

It’s hard to believe it was only a week ago that I was in Springfield MA, attending the NE SCBWI conference. Wow, what a fantastic weekend! I met great people, connected with “internet friends” (in person!), learned lots, got inspired, and now have quite a lot of work to do. I made a a bunch of mental notes to try and remember to blog about — I probably won’t get it all but hopefully I’ll get the interesting bits.

There were sooooooo many wonderful workshops to pick from when I registered. I had a hard time choosing them as I couldn’t be in two or three places at once. My only disappointment was not getting more time with Patrick Carman. He’s doing some amazingly innovative work integrating media but his keynote didn’t really go into this and I unfortunately had to chose other workshops over his.

Randomly (because if you know me, I often toss in something totally random) the best out-of-context quote I overheard all weekend was “Yes! She found her dongle in her chamber pot!” (I can only assume they were talking about Sarah Albee)

20160429_120414-1 — A pre-conference visit to the Dr. Seuss garden.

Tips for Storytelling

I’m not sure if anyone talked about “what does this character want more than anything in the world?” but I heard a few people mention it as something we should already know and then going on from there. Maybe that focus is already old news?

From Anna Staniszewski (The Emotional Heart of Picture Books)

Be careful that you don’t write an idea instead of a story. You can have a great concept but it’s nothing without an arc.
If your story has an emotional theme (heart), it should boil down to one unifying emotion overall. (This ties in nicely with a parallel through-line of action)
“This story is about x, but it is REALLY about Z” (for example, Little Blue Truck goes out for a drive but it’s REALLY about the virtues of being a good friend.)

From Tara Lazar (Beginning, Middle, End – I’m bummed I had to miss the MIDDLE of Tara’s workshop for my portfolio review. Only slightly ironic.)

Give the who, what, when and where but lead your reader to ask “why”?
First sentences are your hook but a resolution need not be the end. What happens after “happily ever…?” (not strictly necessary, but it leaves room for a sequel) Also, don’t give away the farm. It’s ok to leave some things ambiguous.
A great ending is inevitable – audience cannot imagine it ending any other way (this was repeated by several other presenters over the weekend).
If your ending isn’t satisfying, the problem is probably in your middle.
Children need to solve their own problems. No Parent ex machina.

From Aubrey Poole (Getting Outside Your Zone of Comfort: The Hero’s Journey applied to Character Development)

Using the Hero’s Journey as an arc, a character enters an unfamiliar situation and has to adapt to it.
Going outside the character’s comfort zone creates tension.
Character wants something (it may not be his dream), pays a price for it (sacrifices his dream for it), and maybe gets a different version of it than he thinks he wants, concluding with a return to a “new normal” (falling action), the resolution having changed the character.
Exception to this is the “steadfast character” who re-commits to who they are rather than changing who they are.
Echoing Tara, If your ending feels flat, without emotional response, your resolution is unsatisfactory (again, a great ending is inevitable).

From Wendy Mass‘ Keynote (Getting from Here to There (and Back Again) with your Sanity Intact)

(She used a lot of quotes and references)
The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now. (chinese proverb)
Ideas come from 3 places; experience, observation, and imagination. – Paula Dansiger
In order to write, you need to have faith in humanity, (paraphrasing Ray Bradbury) don’t watch the news.
Writers write the kind of books they want to read.
Interview your main character.
Cut out unnecessary words (thank you, Stunk and White) and avoid any form of the verb “to be” (can someone please remind me which play that was in? I can’t ever hear that without being reminded of a play I saw in middle school…)
“Substitute ‘damn’ every time you’re inclined to write ‘very;’ your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.” – Mark Twain.
“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” Gandhi
“Don’t look back, you’re not going that way.”
And then she gave us all awesome waterproof notebooks made of stone because of course we all do our best thinking in the bath or shower.

From Partick Carman‘s keynote

Neil Gaiman’s 3 things are not really correct.
Don’t wait around, be an entrepreneur.
Collaborate. You’ll often get where you want to go faster in a team.

Pitch Notes from Pitchapalooza

A verbal pitch should last no more than 1 minute. A 30 second pitch is too short and tends to be too generic.
I can’t wait to see what Rajani LaRocca does! That was quite an intriguing pitch (yes, she’s an MD).
David and Arielle are fantastic at what they do.

Tips specifically for Illustrating

From Jarrett Krosoczka‘s keynote

“Don’t do a $50 job like its a $50 job. Do a $50 job like its a $500 job and eventually you’ll be doing $500 jobs.” – Oren Sherman
I’m a writer because I’m telling stories with my pictures.
“Who pays you for that?” (What a great way to be a supportive grandfather (or parent)! Much better than “Get a REAL job!”)
Send your postcards to the editors, not just the art directors.
Words AND ART flow from left to right.
As a kid, every year he was given a storage bin and told to save what was important to him (what a great idea).

Portfolio Notes

A quick thank you to Talia Levitt of Studio Goodwin Sturges for reviewing my work and giving me thoughtful and constructive feedback. I have a lot of work to do.

From Sarah S. Brannen (Draw Them In)

Sarah gave us A LOT of great information on how to present our work to optimal marketability.

There is subjectivity as to whether or not you should put your contact information on the front of your postcard. Some say you MUST in case you get pinned to a wall. Others say it’s not a big deal to just turn the card over.
Be careful not to include “portraits” in your portfolio. They don’t tell stories.
Avoid showing character’s backs for sample art.
An illustration needs to tell a story, make the viewer ask questions about what is happening in the illustration and what is going to happen next.
An illustration needs to show emotion and relationship between characters (keep an eye on the eyes. The eyes have it!).
Use motion and gesture.
Details! Plenty of details (this was also mentioned in the First Look panel as well as Brian Lies’ workshop – see below)
Details are even more important in fairy tales because we already KNOW the story.
The technical execution of the piece and it’s medium is less important than the story it tells and the emotion it conveys.
If an image is meant to be a postcard, make sure it works in a small scale.
For a portfolio piece, it may be a good idea to leave room for text – a space where the text will obviously go.
Be aware of the gutter. Don’t put important stuff in the middle of a spread (1/2″ at least).
If submitting to magazines, review their formats and submit with those formats in mind (tall and skinny? side panels?)
If there is something out there that you really want to illustrate, put samples of that in your portfolio. Show the work you’d like to do more of.
Keep the style consistent. Push a style that is your signature. You will be hired for predictability.
Another thing you are showing off in your portfolio is your design sense.
Send postcards 3-4 times a year when you are first starting out, then twice a year when you’re more established.
Don’t forget to send to junior editors and art directors. They keep boards too.

Illustration Games

Exercises similar to theatrical improv games that are meant to spark your creativity and enhance your skills.

Picture Dictation with Sergio Ruzzier

In which we created 30 sketches in 1 hour. Wow, that was painful. Sergio gave us verbal prompts that we had to draw and timed us. I think some of the participants got a little frustrated but this was an amazingly liberating exercise.
Our last assignment was to take 3 of these sketches and combine them into a 3-panel story or logical sequence like three mice meet a hippo and then go off to watch the sun set. I actually kind of like what I came up with and plan to finish it.
This is a great exercise which, of course, we can all do at home, or over Skype, or something like that. We just need to make a list of 30 prompts.

From Dan Moynihan (Spark New Ideas with Drawing!” and “Pictures First! Draw Out Your Story”)

“As I draw the characters, I learn about the characters.”
Both of Dan’s workshops consisted of games. The first was really an after dinner game where we all drew in magic marker colors and passed our work around the table embellishing each other’s sketches.
Our second game was constructing an illustrated story by passing work along after each spread. The results were hilarious. I pretty much forgot how to draw entirely right about then. Some of us presented these monstrosities to “the class” afterwards.
The second workshop the following day was similar to Sergio’s in that Dan had us draw, but instead of different things we drew to the same prompt word over and over and over again in order to help find the story within our illustrations.
And then we drew the same character over and over and over again doing different things. This is one way to learn about the character.
I’ve always been more linear and had never thought to “draw out” a story this way but it totally works. You draw different sketches until they connect, piece them together until the story arc makes sense, then put them into the dummy and proceed to tighten them up.

From Brian Lies (The Angel’s in the Details: Going Beyond First-Order Thinking in Illustration World-Building)

Sidenote – I could just sit and listen to Brain read the phone book (if I still had one). He has such a great voice!

Details give us information (historical, geographical, demographics)
Details puzzle and delight us.
Details take us away from the generic and tell us stories about the characters. Like props and costumes. We know people and characters by their “stuff.”
Name (and nickname) your characters.
Put in things for the “grown-ups” to find – especially when they have to read the book over and over again (and you want them to, right?)
Convincing details lead to a convincing illustration – Mice wouldn’t have cheese wallpaper any more than humans have pizza wallpaper.
Scale is important – A bear would write a BIG letter. A mouse would write a LITTLE letter. A bear’s letter in a mouse’s house would be pretty big.
Brian gave us an exercise where we were to populate a portion of a character’s life with thoughtful details. This exercise taught us a little more about our characters (If you are a writer and don’t want to draw, you can simply make a list).

Finally… About the (my) Creative Challenge

And this one was definitely a challenge.

Before the conference we had to do the usual promotional prep work (cards, portfolios, in come cases buttons — I’ll have to remember that for next time! They’re just jingly fun to share). But we were also tasked with an illustration challenge to “Re-Invent Jules Verne. Choose anything written by Jules Verne and reinvent it, bring it into the 21st century. Anything goes, as long as it’s kid through teen friendly” at a double page 16″ x 10″ size. I picked From the Earth to the Moon. As part of my updating, I rewrote the quote.

I don’t consider this piece finished. I just ran out of time. And it’s got a lot of problems (hopefully I see more of them than you do!) but I do like it. I challenged myself to push a little more into the abstract layout than I usually go, mostly because of the Folger Theatre’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Seriously.

I realize that there is absolutely no obvious connection here. But it had to do with the stage set and the placement of a wedding cake high up in the back wall ABOVE the wedding scene. But it made the point. This was a wedding. And we didn’t question the placement. I had an “aha” moment. I’ve always been too straight-forward with my design. My set designs back in college were also always too… literal? I’m not sure when I got that grounded. I used to draw flying people like Chagall when I was a kid… Aha.

SO, I decided to try and break out of this a little and loosen up on this project. At which point the illustration started fighting with me. I wanted to do it in colored pencils, it wanted to be digital. We wrestled our way to a happy medium around an agreement on the concept. You may notice there are windows in the sky and stars on the background buildings? I’ve always been fascinated with city windows. Every time we drove over the 59th Street bridge at night, I would gawk as best as I could into the apartment windows at eye level, then look past them at the twinkling lights of Manhattan and think about all the people behind all those lights. The distance makes musing more poignant until it doesn’t matter if we’re looking at windows or at stars…

Next, I wanted to stay true to the concept of the story; that a group of people are trying to plan a trip to the moon. So my kids are out on the rooftop in various stages of planning or dreaming about how they’re going to get to the moon. Also, all the roof-top water towers of the city look like rocket ships. I’ve always thought so, anyway. Here’s where my Aha moment came in… I wanted to break the reality of my illustration and have the children’s plans and ideas floating above their heads to try and convey that this is what the illustration is really about. And I also wanted to make the plans LOOK like plans. So I inversed the graphite and added a grid to the water towers on the left that looks like graph paper. Continuing with the inversed graphite for the children and foreground was an experiment, and I’m afraid I cleaned up the lines too much on the right-hand side. I like the idea of what I did here better than my execution, but as I said, I don’t consider this piece done.

All in all, it was a good exercise for me. But it’s not the portfolio piece that the challenge suggested it might turn out to be. But I did get to scan a slice of bread for the moon texture.

In Conclusion

WHAT A FANTASTIC WEEKEND! I got to hang with some great people – I now have at least 30 new Facebook friends, enjoyed dinner with strangers who are strangers-no-more, Sharon Abra Hanen (who invited me to dinner by overhearing me say I didn’t yet have dinner plans), Sarah Ignatius, Lin Norman-Lyman, and Heather Steffens. I was privileged to spend quality time with folks who have been inspiring me from afar for years including Jane Yolen and Tara Lazar (who are BOTH hilarious in person), and Kelly Light and Heidi Stemple (whom I also know from social media and who are ALSO hilarious in person. I’m fairly sure Kelly and I crossed paths in college, and Heidi reminds me so strongly of my cousin that I’m quite positive we’re related), Jannie Ho (whom I “met” doing Illustration Friday 10+ years ago and finally got to meet in person!) Courtney Pippin Mathur (the only person I’d met “in person” prior to the conference because she lives near me!), Vita Lane and Jason Hart (for one of the most wildly coincidental lunches I’ve had in a while – Not often I run into someone who remembers seeing a play that I designed in college!) all my #KidlitArt friends (@emilywayneart @AutumnSeybert @reneekurilla @ClarElizabeth4 @ioanahobai @APSabourin @scillabert @juliaanneyoung @erniedelia @fultonbeal @matusic @sarahlynnereul @ClaireLordon @IllustratorPG1 @PSWCreative @AJSmithillustr, joshfunkbooks) and Marlo Garnsworthy (I’m sorry Carlyn couldn’t make it but happy she introduced us!), Jennifer DesAutels, and Roya (so lovely to meet you!!).

I know I’m still leaving many, many people out!

I got tons of inspiration and advice and some conflicting feedback about what I need to do next work-wise that I still need to parse… But now… back to my reality where I’ll be spending the next 8 months parsing this all out!

Come In For the Cold

2/11/2016 By Mishka in General, Other Challenges, Writing 12 Comments

And now for my latest entry to Susanna Hill’s latest writing competition, the very first ValenTINY writing contest with additional entries here.

The rules: Write a Valentines story appropriate for children (children here defined as ages 12 and under) maximum 214 words in which someone is grumpy!

Susanna must be my writing muse because so far, the only writings I’ve completed have been for her competitions! Perhaps it’s because I write better with specific assignments and rules so I don’t ramble on and on, writing “like an illustrator”? I’m not sure. But I DO know that these competitions are wonderful learning experiences for me.

I feel like a rock tumbler, polishing and polishing until the final little piece emerges. And no matter how much I really liked my original draft, I see how much better the final piece really is. Working with the word count constraints makes me have to think long and hard about which words I absolutely must keep in order to convey the precise story, what bits were just entertaining chaff, and what I don’t have to write out because it is implied by the other text, and/or would be illustrated.

This story was a painful edit for me because my first draft was 455 words long! Just for fun, and because I like exploring the process, I’ve included two earlier drafts in the drop down’s beneath the final so that if you’re curious, you can see how the rough bits got polished. I will not include my instant messenger log wherein I texted my husband the descending word count as I chiseled away as a matter of score-keeping which he smartly ignored until I hit 214. He then offered a 5 word edit that, I feel, brilliantly completed the story.

A quick side-note on the illustration atop this post: The topic for the kidlitart chat on February 4th was all about finding your voice as an illustrator, and a challenge ensued involving a quick illustration each day for the month of February (you can read more about that here). I included a quick illustration for this story as part of that challenge, though I have not been drawing every day as I did for the kidlitart28 challenge last year. By doing up this little illustration, I also discovered that the front side of Strathmore’s “Colored Pencil” pads do not work well with Prismacolor colored pencils. What the what?

And now…

Come In For the Cold

“Hot chocolate is for kids who get to play outside in the snow!” Sheena yelled back down the stairs. “I’m not cold and I don’t need warming up!”

“Sounds like you do,” her mother replied cheerfully.

“Sorry. I’m missing ALL the fun.” A deep Valentine’s snow had fallen and everybody was sledding on the driveway beneath Sheena’s window. She puffed on the pane and drew a frowny face. “Stupid broken leg.”

Sheena heard the door open and the stomping off of snow in the hall. Her brother came up the stairs.

“Go away!” She snapped without turning around, then shrieked as Joey dumped handfuls of snow over her head.

“Lighten up!” he laughed as Sheena frantically dusted icy flakes from her neck, “I can’t let you miss ALL the fun!”

“What ARE you doing?” Sheena sputtered, reaching for her crutches.

“Since you can’t come out and play, we’ll make a snowman here,” Joey chirped as he emptied a bucket of fluffy snow into the bathtub.

Sheena grinned. “You’re nuts!”

“I love you, too!” he retorted, smiling broadly.

Sheena hobbled to the bathroom shaking icy drops from her hair.

Joey returned with more snow.

The cold felt wonderful in Sheena’s bare hands. “Mom,” She called, “I’m earning my chocolate! But first… I need a carrot!”

Drafty Drafts

Draft 1 (455 words)

           “Hot chocolate is for kids for kids who get to play outside in the snow, mom!” Sheena yelled back down the stairs, “I’m not cold. I don’t need warming up, and I don’t want hot chocolate!”
            “Well, sweetie, you COULD have just said no thank you!” her mother replied cheerfully.
            “Sorry, mom,” Sheena set her elbows back on the window sill and puffed a little frost cloud on the pane, “I’m just missing ALL the fun.” She drew a frowny face with her finger.
            It was the first big snowfall of the year and all of the neighborhood kids were out sledding down the neighbor’s long driveway right beneath Sheena’s bedroom window.
            “Stupid broken leg,” she grumbled.
            “Well, maybe your brother would like some,” Mrs. B sauntered back into the kitchen and slid the window open, “How’s the sledding?” she called out to the kids on the snow covered driveway next door, “Is it good snowman-making snow? How come none of you are making a snowman?”
            “MOM QUIT IT!” Shouted Sheena, mortified.
           A few minutes later, she heard the front door open, and whispering, giggling and stomping off snow in the front hall. He brother was coming up the stairs.
           “Oh you go away!” Sheena snapped without turning around. One second later, she wished she had. “GAHHHHHH! JOEY!!!!” she shrieked as her brother dumped a bucket of snow over her head.
            “Lighten up, sis!” Joey laughed as Sheena frantically dusted the icy flakes off her neck and shirt, “I can’t let you miss ALL the fun!”
            Max, Carly, and Morgan were in the upstairs bathroom, laughing. “What ARE you guys doing?” Sheena sputtered, reaching for her crutches?
            “Well, since you can’t come out and play, we’re bringing the snow to you!” Carly chirped as she dumped a bucket of fluffy snow into the bathtub, “Come on, guys, let’s go get some more!” The three tramped down the stairs.
            Shaking drops of icy water from her hair, Sheena hobbled into the bathroom and eased herself to the floor next to the bathtub. Joey followed her, opened the window, then clomped down the stairs with some beach towels to lay down in the front hall.
           Sheena snorted, “You guys are nuts!” she called, biting her lip to conceal a budding grin as the kids returned with more and more snow for the tub.
“I love you, too!” Joey retorted with a grin.
           Sheena pulled a towel from the bar, then started balling up the snow in the bathtub. The invigorating cold through the window and the icy snow in her bare hands felt wonderful.
           “Everything ok up there?” Called Mrs. B.
           “Yeah, mom,” Sheena replied, “I’m earning my hot chocolate… but first I’m gonna need a carrot!”
Draft 2 (318 words)

            “Hot chocolate is for kids who get to play outside in the snow, mom!” Sheena yelled down the stairs, “I’m not cold, I don’t need warming up, and I don’t want hot chocolate!”
            “Hot chocolate is also for Valentine’s Day,” her mother replied cheerfully. “You COULD have just said no thank you!”
            “Sorry,” Sheena set her elbows on the sill. The first big snowfall of the year and everybody was out sledding on the driveway beneath her bedroom window. “I’m missing ALL the fun,” She puffed on the pane and drew a frowny face with her finger. “Stupid broken leg,” she grumbled.
            Sheena heard the front door open, and the stomping off of snow in the hall. Her brother was coming up the stairs.
            “Go away!” She snapped without turning around. A second later, she wished she had. “JOEY!!!!” she shrieked as her brother dumped handfuls of snow over her head, then headed for the center bathroom.
            “Lighten up, sis!” he laughed as Sheena frantically dusted icy flakes from her neck and shirt, “I can’t let you miss ALL the fun!”
            “What ARE you doing?” Sheena sputtered, reaching for her crutches.
            “Since you can’t come out and play, I’m bringing the snow to you!” Joey chirped as he dumped a second bucket of fluffy snow into the bathtub.
            Sheena bit her lip to conceal a budding grin “You’re nuts!” she called, as Joey tramped down the stairs.
            “I love you, too!” he retorted with a wide smile.
            Shaking icy drops from her hair, Sheena hobbled to the bathroom and eased herself to the floor next to the tub as Joey returned with more and more snow. The invigorating cold through the window and the icy snow in her bare hands felt wonderful.
            “Everything ok up there?” Mrs. B. Called
            “Yeah, mom,” Sheena replied, “ Thanks to Joey, I’m earning my chocolate… but first I’m gonna need a carrot!”

Edit 2/26/2016:

Doin’ the happy dance AGAIN this morning! The winners are posted and I placed 4th!

Another big THANK YOU to Susanna Leonard Hill for hosting this fantastic Valentine’s competition for the first time this year (I seriously don’t know how she does it!) and for once again encouraging me to write!

Sending out a big thank you to everyone who entered the competition. You all write so wonderfully well! I love reading as many stories as I can, even though I can’t always leave comments.

Now I need a few more hours in the day to get some drafts out of my head!

12th Night Has Passed. Let’s Get This New Year Started!

1/7/2016 By Mishka in Children's, Crafts, General, Women, Work 2 Comments

Happy new Year!

Ok so I’m a little late. The holidays snuck up on me as I was buried beneath work from a new client as well as the usual end-of-year to-do kinds of things, and of course, the care and feeding of the Jaegerlings (now aged 4.5 and 2.5). The ridiculously warm weather didn’t help. It only started to really feel like Christmas on its 12th day. Hanukkah is already a distant memory as Tu B’Shvat is at the end of January this year. Seriously?

Now that the loose ends of 2015 have been mostly been tied up, I can get on with it being 2016.

Of course I have a few new resolutions for 2016. I was thinking about these as I was sorting out my kids’ artwork the other day. I went through LITERALLY hundreds of my 4-year-old’s drawings from Sept through now, thinking she’ll hit her 10,000 mastery hours LONG before I will at this rate. Picasso was seriously on to something. I realized I have much to learn from watching my daughter progress while “wasting” tons of newsprint paper.

So I resolved that in order to really practice and progress, myself, I’ll have to try and “Art” a bit like a child again. That is to say:

Don’t be afraid to waste materials.
Don’t think too hard about it (the sketching will lead you where you want to go).
Don’t edit while you sketch.
Work quickly.
Don’t overdo it. Stop when it’s done.
Make it sparkly (this is the kid version of “make it pop”).
Move on to the next.

The natural progression of this resolution is also that I need to stop worrying about the consistency of my media choices and if everything works in a series. I just to make more “stuff” the way I used to when I was a kid. Throw those ideas and creations out into the world and see where they lead.

On my way upstairs, I stopped to check in with Facebook (as you do) and caught some of the first 52 Week Challenge posts in my feed. By the time I’d got up to my studio, I was pulling out a bunch of “stuff” to “make something” for the “Fancy Dress” challenge, and this lady (above) emerged. Ok I went a little crazy with the glitter, which is also hard to photograph, but I felt better. I did it. Baby steps.

Another of my resolutions is to get more of that “stuff” out on social media and for sale without worrying too much if it’s “fitting my brand.” I think the definition of “personal brand” may actually be more or less the same thing as Giuseppe Castellano’ definition of personal style. It’s often hard to be objective about the way one actually looks. I have been told that my personal signature should shine through whatever I create as well. Looking at Fancy Dress Lady, I see that’s probably true.

Last year on Instagram I met a fellow artist and mom named Anna who lives in Sweden. Her children are roughly the same age as mine but she is somehow managing to create complete pieces of dynamic art, illustrations, and intriguing Tangles daily, posting them out on the interwebs and in her etsy shop. I am in awe as well as inspired that she is able to do this. I want to be able to do this, too. I know there are only so many hours in a day and that I sometimes have graphics work that takes priority to my personal work, but it’s a goal.

Like Anna, I don’t want to just wait around for people to hire me. I can get my work “out there” myself. My young self had hundreds of personal, creative obsessions. While I don’t fall in love with things as easily as I did when I was 9, I still have my own stories to tell and projects to complete. Another resolution is to get my own projects started (if not completed) without wondering if or how I’m going to earn money from them. I believe that if there is a true passion shining through in the work, an audience will come. We can’t all be J.K. Rowling, Johanna Basford, or Jacquie Lawson. But we can certainly try. So for starters, I put Fancy Dress Lady out on the interwebs and on Etsy for sale: http://tiny.cc/eppx7x Ok that’s something. Not a large project, but another baby step. On to the next.

Last year I surprised myself by falling in love with the media and world of colored pencils. And here I’d thought I was supposed to be a painter. I discovered this love while working on my 100 Days project (which I also resolve to finish in 2016 – I need to continue working on simplifying). This year, I aim to improve my colored penciling skills and techniques. I also plan to work on improving gesture in my illustrations. I resolve to pay a bit more attention to contrast (didn’t we call that chiaroscuro in art school?). And maybe get into a workshop or master class later in the year…

20160106_133821A — The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Jaegerling #1’s New Year resolution (no, we didn’t look at each other’s work before doing these). She’s holding her Artsplay maraca in this drawing.

Of course, finding creative representation in 2016 wouldn’t hurt either!

Apart from my creative resolutions, I resolve to manage my not-so-spare time a bit better, de-clutter the house, spend more time with my family, lose about 10 pounds, and get back to the gym – you know, all the usual stuff.

Just signed up for an 11 week yoga class starting next Tuesday. Let’s get this year started!

Entering the Tomie Depaola award 2015

12/1/2015 By Mishka in Children's, Deco Era Fairytales, General, Other Challenges, SCBWI, Series 1 Comment

Red Riding Hood

This year I swore I wasn’t going to enter the Tomi Depaola competition again. It was too much aggravation and hassle the last couple of times. I’d put it off until the last minute because it wasn’t a priority – until, of course, it suddenly was. Like many of my peers, I also got the distinct impression that “Tomie just doesn’t like my work” (don’t ask why we all feel that way – chalk it up to artist’s insecurities). Lastly, Mr. Depaola has been frustratingly less than punctual on his end of the deadlines as the quality of the work always makes it hard to pick a winner. It’s his competition. *shrug* So I wasn’t going to do it.

And then I read the prompt:

One of the biggest and most important challenges the Children’s Book Illustrator faces, over and over again, is the UNIQUE VISUALIZATION of the MAIN CHARACTER.

So often, I have seen illustrators resort to generic depictions of the star of the story–too “designed,” too ordinary, too much like characters already seen in media, especially on TV and video games.

The assignment is simply to illustrate a moment from the following passage from Philip Pullman’s version of “Little Red Riding Hood” from FAIRY TALES FROM THE BROTHERS GRIMM (Viking, 2012). (You may want to read the entire story. It is an excellent book.)

And immediately sketched a rough draft inspired by:

Once upon a time there was a little girl who was so sweet and kind that everyone loved her. Her grandmother, who loved her more than anyone, gave her a little cap made of red velvet, which suited her so well that she wanted to wear it all the time. Because of that everyone took to calling her Little Red Riding Hood.

One day her mother said to her: ‘Little Red Riding Hood, I’ve got a job for you. Your grandmother isn’t very well, and I want you to take her this cake and a bottle of wine. They’ll make her feel a lot better.

My rough draft inspired my last couple of fairy tale illustrations set in the 1920’s/’30’s. This time I tried not to leave it until the last minute, but life interfered and my idea of what I wanted to draw wasn’t jibing with how the characters wanted to be drawn. After a bit of arguing, I gave in (the characters usually know best anyways).

My setting is 1920’s northern England, though the cottage is much older. I wanted Red to look a little more modern as she wants to someday become a “woman of the world,” while her mother is comfortable wearing the older, rustic fashion. Red’s world is comfortable, happy, and cosy. The world beyond the gate begins the misty, ominous forest.

Mr. Depaola has an excellent point… we all think of Red Riding Hood looking the same way in an 18th century travelling cape, no matter what time or place she’s set. The last time I drew Red back in 2008, this is what she looked like, captioned, “This is my rather standard treatment of Red Riding Hood.”

So far, a number of my colleagues have shared their entries to the competition in the PB critiquie group on Facebook. All I can say is that once again, Mr. Depaola is going to have a seriously hard time picking a winner. I’m personally blown away by my competition. Winning would be nice, but I really entered because the topic was inspiring. And I think I produced a pretty darn good illustration.

The Little Trick-Or-Treater

10/28/2015 By Mishka in Children's, General, Other Challenges, SCBWI, Writing 15 Comments

This year, I didn’t need any convincing to enter the 5th Annual Halloweensie Writing Contest.

Working within the “weensie” constraints was a great experience for me last year. I had to give it a go again (and I couldn’t resist doing a quick little illustration for #Inktober 2015 as well).

As most of you know, I’m primarily an illustrator and have been spending most of my not-so-spare time this past year working up better illustration skills (my wee ones are still in preschool). Small writing challenges like this one give me exactly the right push to work on wordsmithing. Thank, again, Susanna Leonard Hill for hosting.

Here are the rules: Write a 100 word Halloween story appropriate for children (title not included in the 100 words), using the words costume, dark, and haunt.

She haunts the streets in search of treats.
Her costume is a jaunty bell.

Green eyes that sparkle in the dark,
The moon winks back and all is well.

She tumbles, nips, and almost trips
A witch, two pirates, and a mouse.

They stroke her fur, laugh with her purr,
As they progress from house to house.

But one by one they have to run,
It will be bedtime all too soon.

Atop a Jack-O-Lantern’s back,
She mews, then howls up at the moon.

Edit 11/1/2015:
This happened again last night before the kids put on their costumes. Little Kiki, the neighbor’s cat, is the inspiration for this poem (and my son’s costume – he adores her). She has been coming to our door all week to for Halloween treats.

Edit 11/5/2015:

Doin’ the happy dance this morning! The winners are posted. I won an honorable mention again! That’s a Halloweensie two-for two for me. And I’m listed first. I’ll totally take that.

A big THANK YOU to Susanna Leonard Hill for hosting this fantastic (and tough!) competition once again this year and making me believe I can write.

Congratulations to all the winners, my critique buddy, Johnelle DeWitt for placing as well for her super-creative main character, and to everyone who entered. Honestly, y’all are tough competition!

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