New work, and full of plans for winter break

This is another new piece I just finished for the show I have up right now–I finished it weeks ago, but I had to scan it in parts and I only got a chance to go into Photoshop and piece it together today…no time for anything art-related the last few miserable weeks, thanks to the million (read: three–but they were three REALLY BIG, mean projects) giant school projects I had to finish up. But another semester down now, hooray! So, anyway, here’s the picture…

Jenny Greenteeth. watercolor and pen & ink, approx 12"x16"

And now that I have some time, I really want to take some photos of the show before it comes down…it turned out looking pretty cool.

So, projects for the break are: submit “Owen’s Uncles” to the next publisher on my list; research how and where to submit my illustration portfolio; work on the new story idea that’s been bugging me for weeks with no time to work on it; keep working on illos for La Belle Dame Sans Merci (totally stalled out on that before, but I have better ideas on how to do it now); and do some work on “The Lettuce Rancher.”

I gave up on that last one there for a while because I kept seeing advice for would-be children’s book writers saying, “Don’t bother with that cute story you wrote about your pets, you sentimental dolt” (the last part was only implied). But while I was reading zillions of picture books for one of my library school assignments, I kept coming across cute stories about the author’s pets, and I learned two things from this:

1. Nuh-uh, advice-givers, those crappy pet stories totally do too get published; and

2. Yes, they generally do suck. So the advice still makes pretty good sense.

But MY cute-story-about-my-pets doesn’t suck, so I’m going to work on it again…

The Well Witch

So I’m having a show this month at Pangaea Cafe and Pub here in Quincy, CA, and I’ve been working feverishly trying to finish up a few more pieces for it. Just got this one done a few days ago and have been meaning to post it.:

The Well Witch. watercolor, 9"x18"

It’s from a book I just read (which I highly recommend if you enjoy children’s books–it was fantastic), Well Witched, by Frances Hardinge. (Although I prefer the original title from the UK edition, Verdigris Deep–it suits the book much better, and is so much more atmospheric and eerie. Silly US publishers, renaming things for no reason!) I loved the book so much, I just had to do an illustration for it. I did change some details from the book, but it’s inspired by it, anyway. One of these days I’m probably going to totally dork out and send Frances Hardinge a giddy fan letter…

Anyway, I’m hanging the show this Saturday, so I’ve got a ton of last-minute things to finish–including a whole ‘nother painting I want to get done (eek!)…I’ll have another post with pictures soon.

Family Portrait

Got another new piece completed for the show I’m doing in November, so I thought I’d share it. I think this turned out kinda cool, and I had better luck with scanning it than usual, too, so yay. Plus I’m KIND OF getting the hang of seeing where the colors are off, and knowing what I need to do in Photoshop to adjust them. (Although I really cannot emphasize “KIND OF” enough here.)

Anyway, check it out:

Isn’t she cute?! I love my weird, unpleasant-looking little kids…she would so be friends with the little boy in the Silver Key.

Now back to what I should be working on, which, as always, is an assignment for library school.

*pities self*

[eats some potato chips out of boredom and despair]

*loathes self*

see, I don’t JUST do pen and ink

I’m getting ready for a show next month and hoping to get a bunch of new things finished for it; just got this one finished up last night & thought I’d share it.

Malevolent Spirits. 12"x18"; pen and ink, watercolor.

I would explain the story behind it, but everyone who has ever known a cat understands anyway…

I wish the scan did the colors justice, but watercolors are SO tricky to get to scan decently. My strategy now is just to adjust the colors in Photoshop using the selective color tool, and the results are passable, but I sure wish I knew of a better way of going about it. I had found a tutorial with some tips, but the site’s down now… so if anyone out there has any suggestions, let me know!

I think I dozed off and missed the summer.

I’m really not sure how it suddenly got to be almost September all of a sudden. So much for posting more regularly during the summer, huh? Well, I had a tough summer class, okay?! Sheesh! (And of course I’m addressing all the masses of people who’ve been awaiting new posts from me with bated breath.)

Anyway, so I have actually been doing creative things, it’s just a matter of not posting about it. Like, for example……<drumroll>…… I submitted my manuscript at last!!

*cheers and applause*

And I have another copy of it ready to go out tomorrow to another publisher, so that’s cool. I feel very accomplished, because if nothing else at least I’ve finally moved beyond just talking about trying to get a story published.

The hardest thing about the whole deal is just finding a publishing house that still accepts manuscripts from dorkuses like me who don’t have an agent. And then a couple of times I had a publisher all picked out, but then when I went to their website to double-check their contact information I found  that just since the last time I looked they’d changed their submission policy and no longer accepted unagented submissions! Oh, how I’d laugh and laugh…

Anyway, it’s a very frustrating process.

But meanwhile I’m doing very well at keeping busy with other projects and not obsessing over whether I’ll hear back about my submission. I’m honestly not even secretly, deep down, in my heart of hearts thinking that I’m going to get an acceptance letter–I’m really managing to be realistic about it, through and through! (Not being delusional is such a big accomplishment for me that I have to reinforce it by giving myself lots of praise and affection for it.)

So anyway, other projects: For one thing, I’m getting ready to submit my portfolio just as an illustrator as well — I know my writing isn’t as strong or as developed as my artwork, so I’m not kidding myself too much about that, but I really think I might be able to get some work as an illustrator. So for some illustration practice and just for fun, I’m doing a series of watercolor paintings for the Keats poem “La Belle Dame sans Merci” — I hope I’ll be able to make a hand-bound book out of them when I’m done, though I’m not sure how I’d print them for that yet. Here’s the first finished piece:

watercolor and pen and ink; 8" x 10"

It goes with the first verse of the poem–

“O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,

Alone and palely loitering?

The sedge has withered from the lake,

And no birds sing.”

(Or something like that? I should totally look that up.)

New illustrations!

See, didn’t I say I’d be updating soon? It’s so helpful to have a real workspace now–I love being able to go up to my studio and work and have everything organized and accessible… So in just the last few days I’ve gotten four things done that I’d been working on for months, which is very satisfying. Anyway, these are the sample illos I’m planning on sending along with my manuscript:

So, there we are–what I’m hoping is that this bunch shows my best work, and also shows that I can draw characters consistently from one scene to another, show people in motion, and do outside and inside settings… I don’t know if it’s really the best strategy to send my sample illustrations with my story or not, but I’d really love to write AND illustrate this story, so I’m just going to chance it. I do keep seeing submission guidelines for various publishers that sound like they are interested in people who both write and illustrate, so I think if I just keep at it eventually I’d find someone open to both… Anyway, I’m going to give it a shot. We’ll see!

a new drawing

What a hectic couple of months! First getting ready to move away from foggy, cold Humboldt County, while dealing with finals at the same time; then actually moving (that was a hellish weekend, for sure); then summer classes started just a week after we moved into our new house. The good news is that the new house is great, and I actually have a studio, and it’s all sunny and roomy and lovely. And it’s SO nice to be back in our hometown, where summer is just gorgeous and we can go creek swimming all the time, and our family is here and everything. I just feel so much better about everything, now that I’m back here with the beautiful mountains I grew up with all around again. Here’s a photo of one of my favorite places in the county, so you can see I’m not exaggerating how nice it is here:

Spanish Creek, Plumas County, CA

I feel so much happier and more creative and inspired being back here… I know, I’m sickeningly happy, aren’t I? ^_^

Anyway, the real reason for posting: Finally finished a new drawing, and here it is…

Woman with Mask. pen and ink, 11"x14"

I’m also just about ready to start submitting a manuscript & sample illustrations to publishers, and I’m serious this time…I even have the cover letters written, THAT’S how serious I am! Will be updating soon…

The Silver Key

Just finished a new drawing last night, finally. It’s been so hard to get time to work because it’s that part of the semester when everything is due all at once, and it’s really frustrating because I have a lot of ideas floating around that I wish I could work on–not to mention a story completely finished but for a few little bits of editing that I can’t seem to get time to do. Arrgh!

Oh well, at least this one drawing is done, that’s better than nothing–and I’m always amazed what a difference it makes to my mood and outlook on days when I get time to draw, even if it’s just for a little while. Anyhow, here’s the point of this post:

The Silver Key. 11"x14", pen & ink

One of my favorite H.P. Lovecraft stories is “The Silver Key.” It’s about a man who has always had these wonderfully vivid dreams where he travels to other worlds and sees all these fantastic things, but as he ages, he finds that he has “lost the key to the gate of dreams.” (Isn’t that a nice phrase?) Then he finds a strange key hidden in the attic of his house, and he hopes if he takes this key back to the home he grew up in it will somehow allow him to get back to his dream worlds… it’s a really good story. The ending revolves around the main character’s ten-year-old self — hence this drawing.

another Coraline-related post…

Do I talk about anything else these days?!

I just thought I ought to post some pictures of my finished box for the swap, because if nothing else I know my mommy wants to see them…

So here we go:

Outside of box

the latch is made from two old earrings and a copper wire (that I annealed and shaped wif my own two hands in jewelry-making class *smug*)

–detail view of latch, and Douglas Fairbanks’ handsomely be-buttoned eyes…

outside of box

opened, with everything packed inside

–Those are handmade teeny tiny clay buttons Douglas is sporting, in traditional black.

Unpacked.

The finished Other Mother portrait. I have to find another picture of it where you can see her articulated arm better–there are tiny brass eyelets that let her arm move when you pull the thread, so she in turn pulls the thread that she’s sewing the doll’s eye on with. She also has a very tiny real needle in her hand…I was pretty happy with how she turned out.

Tortoise and little box

And finally, the seeing stone, in its little velvet-lined box–it turned out really pretty (it’s polished polymer clay). I might have to do one for myself, too…

So that’s it! It was so much fun to make…I even tea-dyed the paper for the labels and burned the edges to make it look old… I really think I’m going to look for another vintage cigar box and make another one soon–I have more ideas!

received my Coraline box!

You know how every time you see a box on the doorstep you have that instant where you think in the back of your mind that maybe, just this once, it’s not going to be something like new filters for the vacuum cleaner or a car part or whatever, but instead a mysterious present from a stranger? Well…

fig. 1--mysterious box from a stranger arrives.

Ta-da!

Here it is, Box no. 34 in the Coraline Mystery Box Swap (just to clarify, this was a swap of handmade boxes inspired by the ones the makers of the Coraline movie sent out to various lucky bloggers–these aren’t “official” Coraline boxes). Thanks so much to my little mochi for organizing this, it was such fun to participate, and thanks to Carmen of Carmenland for making this amazingly cool box.

It was *so* much fun going through all the lovely little bits and bobs Carmen made… So here are a bunch of pictures of everything so other people can enjoy all this neat stuff too (I struggled mightily to take decent photos for once, to do the box justice!).

fig. 2--mysteries revealed

fig. 3--beautiful mittens!

fig. 4--delightful notecards, with mice, buttons, and jaunty black cats

fig. 5--a seeing stone, a ghost child's eye, and a kit for buttoning one's eyes