I have been super neglectful lately of pretty much everything because I’ve been juggling finishing my own projects while also finishing up some client work. It’s never ending lately. BUT, I did finish my animal alphabet. They turned out much better than I had expected. The original plan was to turn them into flash cards, but it turned out trickier than I thought. The normal print companies I use for business cards and post cards couldn’t accommodate what I needed at a price I needed. So I took a trip down the rabbit hole that is Google and ended up finding a printing company that could allow me to turn my alphabet into a board book for surprisingly cheap, which is even better because not only will it give me a way to get my work out there myself at local stores and vendor events, it will give me an actual book to put on my resume. It’s been my plan since spring to accomplish that, but my other book is taking quite awhile to bring along because it’s a lot more illustrative work and I keep getting interrupted by client work and other life matters. So here now I have 26 finished pages ready for print.

Now the problem is getting it funded. I would love to use this project to launch my next couple of projects, but to profit off of it I need to be able to buy at least 700 copies. As a single parent, I can’t really justify spending $2700 on a risky book publishing venture. So what does a person do when you have a project you need funded but have no funding? Crowd sourcing. Scary stuff.

I launched my Kickstarter campaign on Friday. 5 days ago. I did the first natural thing and share it on Facebook hoping for support from friends and family. They are responding positively but also slowly. I then reached out on Instagram and Twitter. I have some other plans as well. Still, 40 days to go. As of right now, it’s at 13%. I’ll let you know how it goes.

If you’d like to contribute here is the link: http://kck.st/2uY7eJ5

Flash Cards.

I am loving these all together. I can’t wait to see all 26 finished. I’m also really loving the back side of the card. It will be amazing to see them printed and packaged as flashcards and a matching game. This was supposed to just be a warm up project to keep me sketching as often as possible but it might be one of my favorite projects ever so it’s getting really hard not to be completely distracted by it.

Flashcards.

When I’m feeling stuck or down or whatever I find a simple project and commit to it. Lately, I’ve been awfully bogged down by illustration and design work to the point that I can’t even do warm up sketches because I just can’t think of anything to draw. I can’t think. Last year when I was feeling like this I started a 100 days of sketches project. I finished it and it went great. I even managed to raise some money for my efforts and made a donation to local animal shelters. It was great. I couldn’t believe the difference in my work from day 1 to day 100.

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I can’t commit to that this year. I follow Jillian Michaels on Facebook and three times now I’ve tried to follow along when she does a 30 days of squats, planks, or whatevers challenge, but every time I only make it a week or two before something happens and I end up falling asleep in the middle of the floor waiting for the dogs to finish eating or something. So no. No 100 days of anything.

Instead, this time I went for something a bit more flexible and with some color. I’m working my way through the alphabet with animal sketches. I use the sketches as warm ups for other drawings. Then I come back to them and add color as warm ups for other work. I’m not sticking to an everyday plan. Just as often as I can. I am trying to dedicate a few days a week to drawing and my illustration work and leaving a couple days for the two blogs I’m working on and other design work. I’m not sure how that is working as of now, but I’ll let you know. I will say though that having a plan like this alphabet thing keeps me working and keeps me excited to keep working. The added bonus is that a small printing company and I are working together to turn these into flash cards when they are finished. It is always easier to actually finish a project if you know you make eventually get paid.

So if you’re stuck, make a plan. Pick a thing and work it through to completion. You can take your time, but just follow through and let me know how it goes. Love to hear about progress.

Tired.

You know that kind of tired where you feel like if a bus hit you it’d be okay because then you could just lay down? That’s how I feel. Hit me with a bus tired. And I’ve been preparing for our big family vacation, and trying to ride horses again, and still trying to do at least one good business thing a day, but I can’t draw. I just can’t. My tired brain can’t tell my hands what to do. This used to freak me out, but now after years of insomnia, I just roll with it. It’s no excuse not to keep working. I can still paint, maybe not as precisely, but at least the base shadow layers are doable, so I’m plugging away at that. I also have dug up some old art. I have a lot of illustrations that I just haven’t known what to do with, but I keep them because I love them and want to come back to them later and put them to work. It has been hugely inspirational. Some of them are just terrible and it is really cool to see how much I’ve progressed. Some have pieces that are just great but the entire illustration is crap. The really nice thing about collaging in Photoshop is that I can pretty easily remove the good pieces and discard the not so good.

I also have dug up some old art. I have a lot of illustrations that I just haven’t known what to do with, but I keep them because I love them and want to come back to them later and put them to work. It has been hugely inspirational. Some of them are just terrible and it is really cool to see how much I’ve progressed. Some have pieces that are just great but the entire illustration is crap. The really nice thing about collaging in Photoshop is that I can pretty easily remove the good pieces and discard the not so good.  I painted this water monster a couple years ago in Photoshop as part of my first attempt at making a pop-up book. The book turned out pretty meh, but several of the monsters are super fun. I pulled this photo from Google and really it is just awesome together and it’s actually led to a pretty fun new project that I’ll talk more about in July. I guess the point is to keep working. Even when you can’t. Eventually, I’ll have to address the fact that I can’t draw anymore, I can’t keep recycling work forever, but it’s been a nice break.

Crushed.

I spent a lot of time this weekend sorting things into piles. I have 6 or more of my own projects going and I’m trying to prioritize them and come up with some deadlines for when I would like them finished. With that comes the tough choices. Which ones will I actually finish? Which ones will likely die in a box in my studio? And what will they be? It can be hard to be objective because I love them all. Some just aren’t meant to be and some might just need to sit out of sight for awhile so I can come back to them with a new perspective. It can be hard to be realistic about your work. Everyone is looking for that one big idea, but often it’s actually a lot of little ideas and not all of them get to grow up.

 

 

One of the first big rules that you learn when going to children’s book conferences is that if you are going to submit your work to publishers then you need to be ready for a lot of rejection. If you are lucky enough to hear anything be prepared for it to be the word no over and over and over again. A lot of times you might not hear anything at all. If you are extremely lucky you might hear a maybe, but most likely with that maybe will come a long list of changes, which can also feel like rejection. It can be very crushing.

Every SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators) conference I have ever been to has been incredibly inspiring and encouraging. It is typically a very safe space where they encourage you to just keep at it. That’s lovely, but to do that you have to develop a pretty thick skin and on top of that a good sense or realism. I think they could stand to talk more about being realistic. You need to be able to take a step back and look at your work and judge it without bias. Does it hold up? Is it in the realm of good enough? Am I willing to change it enough to be appealing to the masses?

Sometimes the answer to those questions will be no. The book project I’m working on now is something pretty personal to me. It’s a bit sappy and maybe a bit cliche. I know this, but I want to pursue it anyways and I’m not really willing to hand over control of it to anyone else. I also really want to experiment my way through the illustrations without guidance from an art director. It is a project I need to do alone. So for that project I know I’m heading for the tough path of self-publishing and I’m okay with that. I know it won’t have the reach that it would with a traditional publisher. I know I won’t make a ton of money off of it. Having done the self-publishing thing before though I am fairly confident that I can sell enough copies to break even. It will have a pretty strong appeal to moms. I’m also blessed with a lot of family and friends that support me and the work I do. And if nothing else I know it could be a great portfolio piece if I take my time and do it well. I’m excited to see what I make of it on my own. I have another project that I have just started that I think would be more marketable to a traditional publisher and I’m excited to start pitching it.

If you keep working and developing multiple projects it’s easier not to get crushed by the industry. If one isn’t working then set it aside and come back to it later with fresh eyes. Not every project is the same and they can’t all take the same path. This is the kind of realism I find necessary in this business. Know your work. Know the industry. Know where they come together. A lot of people know how tough traditional publishing can be, but really self-publishing is just as hard. It’s getting easier with new technology and ebooks. It’s getting more excepted as some larger publishers are seeing the benefit in partnering with printing companies. A lot of people go into with really high hopes of being discovered, but self-marketing is really hard. SCBWI has some great resources for self-publishing authors if you are just starting out. I also really recommend checking out a conference. On top of all of the valuable knowledge to be found there it is really comforting to be surrounded by other people who are in the trenches as well.

If you keep working and developing multiple projects it’s easier not to get crushed by the industry. If one isn’t working then set it aside and come back to it later with fresh eyes.Not every project is the same and they can’t all take the same path. This is the kind of realism I find necessary in this business. Know your work. Know the industry. Know where they come together. A lot of people know how tough traditional publishing can be, but really self-publishing is just as hard. It’s getting easier with new technology and ebooks. It’s getting more excepted as some larger publishers are seeing the benefit in partnering with printing companies. A lot of people go into with really high hopes of being discovered, but self-marketing is really hard. SCBWI has some great resources for self-publishing authors if you are just starting out. I also really recommend checking out a conference. On top of all of the valuable knowledge to be found there it is really comforting to be surrounded by other people who are in the trenches as well.