Children's Book - Day 30

Last day of drawing L I didn’t think I’d be sad, but things were finally starting to go somewhere, so now I feel like my momentum will be stopped. Maybe next year I’ll work on a project until I finish it ;) I think I made some good progress this month, and although I didn’t get as far as I thought I would, at the same time I still feel like I did more than I thought I could. I’m happier with the pictures than a lot of other things I’ve drawn. I don’t know how much potential this book has, but I think it has a little bit at least J

Children's Book - Day 29

I drew on the way home today, one more drawing done. I can’t decide if I should split this one up since I had two ideas for the picture or just leave it as one. I still need to decide if I should try for the 32 page goal or not. Only one more day of this, so I know I’m not going to finish so it doesn’t really matter I guess, but I still feel like I should have some final ideas in mind.

Children's Book - Day 28

Back to working while in the car again. I got one more page done . . . nothing much to report, just a little more progress.

Children's Book - Day 27

I drew earlier in the evening again and made more progress, not quite as much as yesterday, but still something I’m rather proud of. Oh course, this happened at the end of the month when I can’t really harness it and use it for the rest of the month . . . that figures. Perhaps I’ll have to try and work more on it next year, but I still have a few days left, we’ll see how far I get J

Children's Book - Day 26

Wow, doing this at 5:30 instead of 9:30 makes a world of difference!!! I wasn’t falling asleep when I was drawing and I actually had some motivation. I don’t know what clicked, but suddenly, I was producing stuff that I actually thought was quality work. I saw some rather gory stuff at work today so I had this inner drive to create something beautiful and I think that came out in my drawings (and my subsequent choir practice and flute playing). I’m very happy with what I did today and I wish I had gotten to this point much sooner. I don’t think I’ll have enough time in the month to finish the book, but at least I have a little bit to show for it now.

Children's Book - Day 25

I don’t know why I’ve been so tried lately. I’ve been getting enough sleep, but being bored at work and then bored while drawing leads me to have very heavy eyelids when I need to be getting stuff done. At any rate, in the times when I managed to keep my eyes open, I tried my hand at cartoonish drawings, and they were very poor. So I went back to my sketch drawings and they looked a little bit better. I think I have a better handle on what my main character should look like now, so that’s progress J

Children's Book - Day 24

I’m frustrated and tired again today. I began by looking over my drawings and trying to brainstorm what to do next. The drawing I’ve been working on is okay, but it’s just not fitting into my plan. I knew that I couldn’t possibly do a detailed, realistic-looking Jan Brett style book in one month, so I really need to stop trying to do things like that. That’s not what I’m trying to draw, but for some reason my perfectionist brain can’t figure out how to draw simple, cartoonish figures like what I need to be working on. For most of this hour I just felt like I was in a kid’s “time out” and it was just punishment to sit here and look at my drawings and be disappointed by them. I think one of the reasons that yoga was so good for me was because I got away from home and to a special spot dedicated for that where I could just focus on it and do it well. Here, at home, surrounded by a million other things that I need to be working on, I have a very hard time feeling like drawing and writing is what I should be doing. Plus, I have mediocre supplies and no place to really put my stuff to work. So I end up reclining on the futon, and that probably is not helping my tiredness . . . I just want to go to sleep. And being tired does not promote hard work and dedication. I don’t want to be lazy, I really do want a finished product (since I got none of that during scrapbooking month), but I don’t feel like I’m equipped for success here. I did spend a little time studying some more cartoonish drawings and my husband advised that I should make my drawings using simpler shapes and exaggerate the features I’m trying to promote in the particular drawings, so I need to work on that. I think it is really good advice, now I just need to figure out how to find my easy-going side somewhere and try to apply it to drawing . . . wish me luck!

Children's Book - Day 23

I just did a little bit more work on the scene I started yesterday. I added a giraffe, a little bit of a lion, and a stone wall. The giraffe is too small, but at least it’s there. It’s difficult going to this medium now after I’m so used to working with everything on computers and being able to change the size of pictures with just the click of a button . . . if only that were possible in this case.

Children's Book - Day 22

I think I finally started working on something that might be worthy of being in my book. I studied a little bit in a drawing book my husband found and actually added some depth and landscape for one of my scenes. It’s not great, but it’s much better than most of the other stuff I’ve drawn this month.

Children's Book - Day 21

Wow, I don't think that I’ve ever fallen asleep drawing before. It was a really long week and I did not want to draw at all. I drew some more wombats from pictures I found on Google . . . they are okay.

Children's Book - Day 20

I realized that I am much better at copying other pictures than I am at creating my own, so that is what I did today. I just Googled pictures of wombats and cartoon wombats and sketched some of those. They were okay. Some were cute, some were not, I don’t know if it really counts as progress though.

Children's Book - Day 19

This is hopeless. I had so many aspirations for this book at the beginning, and I thought this would be a fun month, but I’m not enjoying it at all. I just feel really inadequate. I read a bit about publishing today, and I don’t think I’d ever be ready for that. And if I was, I doubt anyone would read my book. And if they did, what if they expected a second? Have I told you that I don’t write much? I only feel inspired to write once or twice a year, and in those moments, I write something I really like, but once the moment passes . . . it’s over. After I was done reading (and getting more discouraged), I looked back over all I’ve drawn and written this month, and I’m happy with some of it, and mostly unhappy with the rest. Then I just stared at a blank piece of paper and tried to figure out what I’m going to do. I don’t know how much I believe in my story anymore . . . it seems to me that it lost its focus or subject when I expanded it. So do I just try and draw stuff for the remainder of the month, start on something new, or just sit here at the wall, not sure of what to do? This is not how I was hoping this month would go L

Children's Book - Day 18

I don’t know if I worked on it for an hour today or not. I know I had it sitting on my lap for probably a good two hours, but there was a movie on and I didn’t get as much drawing done as I thought I would. I’m just so caught up on not being able to put out a decent product that I’ve halted all production. I don’t know how to get past this…it’s like writer’s block and artist’s block all at the same time . . . any ideas?

Children's Book - Day 17

Tired, yet again, plus a migraine tonight. I’m so not pleased with my drawing. I need to find a way to make this simpler, and I also need to rework the story a little bit I think. Let’s see if I ever find the ambition.

Children's Book - Day 16

I’m tired again. I need to do this earlier in the day, but we had a very busy day today with our church’s Fall Festival and volunteering there and then a friend came over for dinner. I didn’t start my drawing until 9 pm again, and I’m not looking forward to going to work again tomorrow . . . I need another weekend. So I only drew for 45 minutes tonight, but I’m frustrated, I am not an artist, I am not an illustrator, and I am completely lacking confidence in my book. I hope whatever next month ends up being, it’s something that I’m better at than this. I know the point is to get better, but I’m really struggling with this one.

Children's Book - Day 15

More drawing lessons today . . . I worked on shading and a little more on my main character. I’m not getting very far on my book am I? Somehow I don’t feel like my heart is in this project and it’s not driving me as much as many of the other challenges have. I’m doubting my decision to add more to the story and thinking I need to do some more rewriting. I don’t think this project is going anywhere.

Children's Book - Day 14

I am very tired again tonight. Plus, I’ve been reading policies and procedures, every day, pretty much all day, for this whole week. I am really not in the mood to do more reading or even draw anything. Just frustrated tonight, but I still worked on it a little bit anyways. I’m trying to focus on keeping it simple, we’ll see if it works.

Children's Book - Day 13

Today was a little more intellectual than yesterday. I took a look at a book I got for learning how to illustrate and studied the pictures. I made note of and studied the pictures that I liked the best and that I think that I would like to emulate. I think this will help me in figuring out how to go forward. It also had some helpful tips on how to make a professional looking “dummy book”, which I think will hopefully be my finished product. Then I got out my “Drawing for the Terrified” book (which I really like the way it’s written . . . I wish I could take a class with this guy, I think I would learn a lot), and ran through some of those exercises. I think they were helpful and I feel more accomplished now . . . yay J

Children's Book - Day 12

Ugh, I’m sleepy. I did about half an hour of drawing. I managed to get some perspective drawing of the inside of the burrow, but it took a lot of brain power to figure out how to do it. Much more than I wanted to put into this project. Maybe I need to make my drawings simpler? After I was done drawing, I read some more in my “How To” book . . . interesting information, but now it’s making me wish I was writing a YA chapter book that didn’t require pictures! Anyways, I need to go to sleep now . . . good night J

Children's Book - Day 11

I know I am creative . . . I just can’t seem to channel it into drawing. I did some doodling today just to try to loosen up, I am far too tense and have no 3-D vision to try and rotate my drawings. I tried to replicate something I did yesterday but make it more my own, and it just looked flat and boring and seemed to get worse every time I tried. Somehow I doubt I'll get anything close to a book ready by the end of this month, but I really am trying.

Children's Book - Day 10

So I’m tired and it was a really long day (first day at my new job) and I didn’t get to this until 10 pm . . . I want to be in bed instead. I just took to doodling today, something that I really never do (which could be why I’m not very good at drawing). I made multiple drawings, and I found aspects of my character, but not his entirely. I also copied a cute wombat sketch, just to see how it would turn out when I drew it . . . cute, but not as cute as the original. I modeled some of my doodles after a picture of a real wombat too. I think I made progress, but not much. At least it was good practice.

Children's Book - Day 9

Today I decided to do some research. My favorite children’s books are written by two outstanding authors/illustrators, Jan Brett and Bill Peet. I love so many others too, but Bill Peet is probably my favorite and I wanted his illustrations to be my inspiration. So I read up on him today and studied lots of his books and pictures. He had been drawing for his whole life, which would explain why he is so good and I doubt I will ever be able to create something like what he did, but I’m sure going to try. This is my favorite Bill Peet book: The Wump World, but I have many to read yet, so I’m looking forward to doing that sometime in the future. For now, I will just try and feel inspired J

Children's Book - Day 8

So today I wrote out my story all on one page and it looks longer than I thought it was. Unfortunately, I read another chapter in my book about writing and illustrating children’s books, and it said that most children’s books have 32 pages with a few of the first being the title and copyright pages, but I fall six pages short even when I include those. So do I write more verses, or just try and go for 24 total pages which is unusual, but not unheard of, or just leave it the way it is? Any suggestions? I guess it’s not like I’m really going to publish it anyways (even though that would be great), so I shouldn’t really care what a publisher’s standard is, but somehow I feel like I should take that into consideration and do it right. Anyways, I still can’t figure out my main character’s styling either . . . I need to work on this more.

Children's Book - Day 7

I did my drawing in the car today. We are on our way down to Chicago to see a concert of one of my new favorite artists, Ramin Karimloo (I love this song: Cathedrals haha, I had a hard time picking just one) . We are staying with my cousin tonight who was gracious enough to let us stay with her so we didn’t have to get a hotel . . . hooray. So, I’m drawing in the car and trying to figure out what in the world my main character looks like. I’ve looked at quite a few pictures of wombats, but I just can’t figure out my character. The secondary character came right away, for some reason I had no problems with her, but the main character is elusive. I am also being stopped by my belief that I can’t draw. I’m sure I can draw something, I just need to figure out what that is.

Children's Book - Day 6

Okay, I think I finished my story now. It’s not perfect and I still might change it a little bit, but I think I have most of it all fleshed out now. I still should get some more feedback from some people before I finalize it, but I feel like I made progress today. Of course, if I’m done writing, that means that the rest of the month is going to be drawing, but that is probably good to give myself that much time because now the story is longer and requires more pages. Next step: figuring out a base character so I can build all of the settings around him . . . wish me luck!

Children's Book - Day 5

I was feeling a little more creative today, so I tried my hand at trying to fix my story a bit and create a few more verses. I had a little success but since I wasn’t truly inspired, it took much longer than it should have. I am happy with where the story is going, although I’m a bit worried it’s getting to be too much and not as simple as I would like it to be. We’ll see what happens at the end I guess.

Children's Book - Day 4

It was my first day in “job limbo” (the transition period between my old job and my new job), so I got quite a bit of stuff done around the house . . . that was nice. Unfortunately, I ended up saving my project until the end of the day when I was tired, so I didn't make as much progress on it as I would have liked. I was feeling uninspired, so I just read more of my drawing book (a lot of their tips on drawing actually sound similar to the yoga relaxation stuff . . . coincidence?) I’m finding I’m not worried so much about screwing up, I’m just having a difficult time finding and connecting with my characters. I’m starting to get their expressions figured out, but materializing a body around a face is not so easy. I have a lot of work to do on my story too . . . maybe tomorrow.

Children's Book - Day 3

Back home again . . . and not really in the mood to write today. I got out my “Drawing for the Terrified” book (Drawing for the Terrified) and read through the first chapter. I don’t have all of the exact supplies that I’m supposed to have, but I didn’t want to make a special trip to an art store tonight. I just used my low quality paper and some colored pencils to try and start sketching my wombat. I looked at quite a few pictures on Google as well as some cartoon versions to try and figure out how I want him to be portrayed. He’ll be cute, I just need to figure out how (and not be so difficult on myself when he is not exactly like what I picture in my head, this month should be fun, not stressful) J

Children's Book - Day 2

I read the first chapter of my 8 lesson book today and I think it will be pretty useful, although I doubt my book will be ready for publication at the end like they say it will. They also say a chapter a week though, and since I only have a month I’d have to do two chapters a week, and I don’t think an hour a day is enough time to accomplish that all in. I’ll do my best though. Since we are staying overnight at some friend’s house, and they have four small children, I was surrounded by children’s literature, and test subjects J The mom was an English major in college too and has a love of reading even greater than mine, so I completely trust her opinion on this matter and decided to consult with her on my story. She gave me lots of good tips on how to improve the story, and fixed some of my grammar. We also discussed how some children’s books are so elaborate and some are so simple, but they can both be equally good. In case you haven’t noticed, I tend to be way too ambitious with these projects sometimes, so I’m going to have to try and strive towards a more simplistic but well done book instead of an overly complicated, rather shabby book. We’ll see how this goes . . .

Children's Book - Day 1

To prepare myself for this journey, I headed to my local library and picked up a few books, two on how to write and illustrate children’s books, and one on how to draw. I have a feeling that these will come in very handy. By the way, since all of my yoga practice last month, now I am seeing yoga poses in so many movements around me. It’s kind of cool, but it does make me miss yoga (and my yoga buddies). Anyways, I read the introduction to one of my books about writing and illustrating children’s books (Writing and Illustrating Children's Books for Publication: Two Perspectives) and I’m getting more excited about this month’s challenge. I don’t know if anything really will come out of it, but I don’t often practice being creative (unless I’m baking), so this is using an untapped portion of my brain, and that’s what this year is all about, right?

September Reveal

So by now, you are probably wondering what other crazy schemes I could possibly have up my sleeve. This next month is really going to tap into my creative side and try to unlock some hidden talents I don’t know if I have but if I ever did, they were lost in my childhood. As you might recall from my novel reading month, I absolutely adore books, especially children’s and young adult literature. My parents actually thought I would be a librarian when I grew up, but to their great surprise I became a scientist. I think it had something to do with me trying to challenge myself to study something I knew little about. Anyways, for my challenge this month, I’ve decided to get back into books and try and write and illustrate a children’s book. One day at work, one of my good friends was talking to me about some silly animal song and he said “now for a song about wombats”. I didn’t have much to do that afternoon, and inspiration suddenly struck and I found myself composing a song about a wombat. It turned out to be more of a poem and sounded perfect for a children’s book. He was rather impressed that I had written it in so short a time period, and so with that encouragement, combined with my visions of this book in my head, I am embarking on a new journey. I am not looking to get published or become a famous children’s book author (although getting published would be cool, I don’t think this endeavor is quite of that caliber), but just to devote about an hour every day to fine tuning my story and trying to figure out how to draw. This should be fun J