Orange Monster

I finally finished Horace The House Dragon and am now starting to think about what sort of style I want the illustrations in. I’m thinking colouring pencils to be honest. These can give a lovely soft texture but I still want the images clear.

I also need to think about practicing drawing dragons and maybe dig out pictures of Dragons I’ve drawn in the past.

The story itself needs to sit for a couple of months and then I will edit it. I normally do 10 ‘drafts’ before I show it to my husband who will proof read it. I will then send it off to my editor for a finial spruce but that’s far in the future at the moment 🙂

Ok well I got stuck – it was actually a longer story than I thought and then I realised I’d taken the story in the wronge direction and that I hated the middle bit I’d just written – it was too in the realm of synical paranoid adult so I’m having to think and re-write that bit.

Hopefully I’ll have some more news on this project soon.

I have started writing Horace The House Dragon – this is actually from a game my little girl plays and so unsuprisingly it is about Jean finding Dragons in her house 🙂

The only thing is that my husband was abit upset that there is no Mummy in the story. But part of what I wanted to do with my childrens writing was to represent real sistuations that children can relate too. I therefore am showing in this instance a child actually coming to terms with the fact Mummy is not their anymore – this obviously is not Jean’s situation as me and my husband are still together but for many children this is not so. In this instance I am writing with the idea that the Mummy has gone off somewhere though I never state that so the children can make up their own mind. The bit I written went down well with Jean and she didn’t even notice there wasn’t a mummy which I think is good thing.

I’m hoping to get the rest written this coming week.

You may have noticed that I am talking a lot about producing books myself – why am I doing this rather than going for a pub. company? There are many reasons not least the fact that one small/medium sized company is still sitting on some stuff I’d done and are not likely to do anything with it. I therefore want more control over the pub. process. The other thing is that the Spoogy and Festive Poetry books are really only for people who know us – I’ve had other people express an interest in buying copies for their kids so I’ll produce an e-book version and a POD version (print on demand).

If demand ever gets high enough I will go and get a batch printed and distribute to actual book shops.

And there we have it – Print on demand is another reason – as far as I can see it is more environmentally friendly as if they don’t sell they wont be pulped and they wont be moved around in big lorries from one place to another etc…

I don’t think this is the right route for every body but it’s what I’m choosing to go for and don’t worry I have an editor for the books as I am well aware my spelling and grammar are in a world of their own!

I submitted my first Palaeo-Art to Art Evolved, it is of a Benthonic Upper Ordovician Seascape and is actually only the rough idea I sketched out in Biro at the back of a note book as I run out of time!

I have already started reading up on the creature they want for the next gallery though so hopefully I will be a bit more on the ball next time.

Well I have been doing some more pondering on the direction of this blog and of the drawing/writing/illustrating side of things.  But firstly a few New Years Resolutions:

1) All the ideas I had during PiBoIdMo I will have at least rough drafts of by the end of 2010. Gulp – that is like 30 books though I do already have three of them written!

2) I will take part in NaPiBoWriWee (National Picture Book Writing Week) which is in May and will hopefully see me produce seven picture book drafts in seven days!

3) I will do the illustrations/clean them up to The Little book of Festive of Poetry, It’s Raining and What Can You See Under the Sea, and also one that’s not a PiBoIdMo The Little Book of Spoogy Poetry.

4) I will publish The Little Book of Spoogy Peotry and The Little Book of Festive Poetry before their ‘events’ happen i.e. Halloween and Christmas.

5) I will write the Easter Themed stories before Easter so I can test run them on kids 🙂

6) Take part in the Paleo-Art Galleries

7) Finish my art journal which does indeed contain illustrations 🙂

8) Illustrate some of my poems for a postcard set

9) Get my Wiggly Pets blog/stories up to date

10) Get my work exhibited (this is probably more straight art than illustration but there does tend to be cross over subject matter for me!)

And there I have a nice round ten that I shall stick too! (hopefully!)

Well Christmas came and went and New Year is round the corner and I am briming with new ideas – I have been thinking about the sort of direction I want to take this blog in as well as the writing and drawing and I think I am going to mention all sorts of illustration on it including stuff I do graphic novels, roll playing games, web-comics and paleo-art.

I have found a site looking for paleo-art contributors which has me very excited as I actually a trained geologist 🙂 They are called Art Evolved and their next Life Capsule is going to be Paleo-Environments.

Anyway hope the festivities are going well 🙂

Part of my idea for the cards is to make hand made covers, I love card making which I sometimes write about on Salaric Art and Craft.  However, I have come to the realisation that I am not actually going to get this project done in time for this Christmas 🙁

But I think I shall still do it for next Christmas along with hopefully producing the poetry collection itself as something people can buy.  To be honest though I am wondering if I could offer a limited edition of the collection with hand made covers – it seems like a good idea to me but is obviously more time consuming for me :/

My plan for the illustrations is too scan them, tidy them up a bit, add text and then print them as cards for my family.  I’ve been reading them to my little girl whislt flicking through my hand drawn pictures.  On or two of them I’m thinking of printing for Christmas cards anyway – this was actually my husbands suggestion, he really likes the stockings 🙂

However I’m still not entirely happy with a few of the poems as they are still in scary raw state.

Some of these are a bit rough and I’m not completely happy with them – this one however I like though being me I cen give you a list of things that are wrong with it – my husband thought it was going to be a Christmas Card design which I’ve taken as an encouraging sign. When I said it was for the Poem Mummy’s Socks he said ‘Oh that’s why they look familiar!’.