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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.
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.)
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!
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…
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!
…with my inspired-by-Coraline tortoise.
He’s got his shell attached now and I just need to do a couple little nit-picky things and then he’s done. He is very handsome, I think you’ll agree:
Aww! Isn’t he cool? I wish the colors in his shell showed up better, but you can see the texture of it at least.
This one gives you a better view of his face (while kind of making it look like one of his back legs has disappeared–it hasn’t, it’s just my elite photography skillz at work again):
And I didn’t want to post a million views of him because I’m trying not to be TOO boring, but he has teeeny little vertebrae for his neck, and a little bone tail, too. ^_^
Well, as usual I’m doing this instead of doing schoolwork so I guess I’d better get back to it–*snivel*–but The Other Mother drawing is shaping up nicely, so hopefully I’ll get a chance to post a scan of that soon.
Just thought I’d post some photos of what I’ve done so far for the Coraline mystery box swap that my little mochi organized. I just got my cigar box today, and it’s so much cooler than the photos on eBay made it look! I was really nervous after I ordered it that it was not right for this project, but as soon as I saw it in real life I totally fell in love with it.
So now that I’ve built up the suspense, here’s the box (my photos don’t do it justice either–the colors are richer in real life):
Isn’t it great? Douglas Fairbanks! *squee* It’s going to look so good with red velvet inside…I still need to hit some thrift stores and find some red velvet, of course–this week sometime.
I’m planning on doing at least one little sculpture for it, maybe two if I have time. Here is the first one in progress (please excuse the horrible photos…I don’t know why I always take such awful blurry pictures. Anyway…). Here’s my little tortoise, all sad and shell-less and nuuuude:
And his shell, the top half, anyway:
Ugh, those are blurrier than I thought! >_<
They’re the only ones I have, though! Anyway… Let’s just move on and pretend we didn’t see those horrible blurry things, shall we? :)
Here’s a really rough sketch for a pen and ink drawing I’m planning — I don’t know how much it’ll look like this in the end… I have some plans for adding some little 3-d touches (kind of pop-up book style), so this is just kind of a concept drawing.
So that’s the news for today–back to schoolwork, I guess. I’m coming to realize that I’m going to have to tag every single post I make with “things I do instead of schoolwork”. Sigh.
Yay!! I’m so excited about it…I’ve already got stuff planned and sketches going. I just need to find a box & some red velvet, but I have everything else I’ll need. That’s what I’ll be working on for the next few weeks because it has to get in the mail on March 16th and that timeline is making me just a wee bit nervous…
Oh, and and and–yay again–I saw Coraline for the second time last night! It’s so amazing…well, words fail me. Everyone just has to go see it for themselves. I was just as enthralled the second time around (except for when I was distracted by the persistent smell of neem oil [which smells kind of like weird, not-so-yummy Chinese food] which was squidging its way through the theatre. Maybe someone actually brought Chinese takeout in with them?? That would be an impressive new level of movie-theatre-food-smuggling dedication).
I was looking around some more at the Coraline movie website and came across Bobinsky’s blog, which I hadn’t read before (really funny!). Anyway, it looks like I’m not the only one still wishing I’d gotten a Coraline box…(Even Bobinsky wishes he had–poor guy, you’d think he’d have been a sure thing!)
Some bloggers are organizing their own Coraline box swap (that’s a really wonderful crafts blog that link goes to–my little mochi, it’s called–look around at all her neat teeny dollies and stuff), and I keep wondering if I should sign up for it. I reeeally want to, I’m just nervous about it. I wouldn’t want to disappoint anyone! Still……
I think I will. Or try to, anyway–only the first fifty people to sign up tomorrow get to do it, so even if I try I might not get in. But I think I’ll give it a shot. Eek, I’m scared! (but now that I’ve decided to try you just know I won’t get in, heh…)
Oh, and look, here’s my kitty with button eyes (scary!):
You can make your own button-eyed picture at coraline.com–go to the Other Mother’s Workshop!
I decided a while ago that Owen’s Uncles would be illustrated after all–I hadn’t thought I would do illustrations for it because it’s aimed at older kids, but then I thought, nah, it’s too perfectly suited to some lovely little weird pen and ink drawings not to have them. And they are turning out to be a ton of fun to do, so I just have to share some of them now, even though they’re not done yet!
So here are some works in progress…
“Owen meets the Uncles” –still finishing up some background details, the door, etc…
“Arrival at Cragview Manor” — this one I’m not too sure about…it needs quite a bit of fiddling still before I’m happy with it–if I ever will be. I can’t quite come up with a view of the house that seems like I picture it in my head.
“Strange Figures in the Standing Stones”
–See that poor doggie? Yeah…he’s going to be edited out of the story :( I feel awful about it! Tsk! It’s hard to switch from Doting Creator to Ruthless Editor mode.
