Amelia and stuff

Well it's been over 6 months since I started illustrating my first real book and it's coming to an end now - just a few more illustrations left to do. Getting the chance to illustrate Amelia was like a dream come true - I had in my head an idea of what being a children's book illustrator was like and at times it was - other times it was so much more frustrating, annoying and hard work than I could ever have imagined - Would I do it again?........... definitely - just got to find a way of doing it while making a living ;)

Amelia and the Elf

Happy Twoodle Day

This week's #Twoodle is brought to you by the words Hippopotamus, Clown and Beach Ball 

A busy old week

Not posted all week - not because I'm lazy (honest) but it has been rather busy. With the fast approaching deadline for Amelia and the Elf I've been a busy bee doing the final artwork for that - still loads to do but I work best under pressure (gulp). I've also applied for a 'real' job this week - not something I wanted to do but something I have to do. The problem with being a single mum is that I have to do it all and that includes earning enough money to feed the little darlings so as much as I would like to sit and paint all day it is getting harder and harder to earn a living from painting alone. Not wanting to do a 'real' job isn't me being lazy - I think it's probably an easier option because at least I can guarantee money coming in and won't have to fight for every penny we get. I'm not having to work for little or no money just to get my work seen in the hope that someone recognises that maybe I'm a reasonably decent artist out of the millions of other reasonably decent artists all fighting for  the same jobs.

My big worry now is that once I'm working it will leave even less time to paint - as well as working full time I will also have the kids and house to look after so I suspect I will be falling asleep with paintbrush in hand most nights. But I will hopefully still dream of getting the break that allows me to earn a reasonable living out of doing something I love (I think that must be the same dream that most people have but one that very few get to achieve)

Anyway enough of this babbling and wallowing in self pity - here's a few pics from this week :)

A rough sketch I did while waiting in A&E - quite like this little guy 

My #twoodle for the week - using the words gnome and tortoise 

A birthday picture I made for my very dear friend Kate 

Homework for a course I'm doing in computer painting  - had to use lots of new techniques  for this  which i still don't fully understand lol 

A Monster in my Head

Today's doodle is a bit later tonight but got there in the end - Meet Sydney - this little guy lives in my head and tries to fix things - he lets me know when he thinks things need fixing and will take out his trusty hammer and hammer away at my thoughts, ideas and concepts - this would be great if he was any good at it but he has a knack of trying to fix stuff that isn't really broken and then I start to doubt what I'm doing and then eventually decide it was a crap idea - when it probably wasn't to begin with - not until Sydney started to bash it at least - I suppose we all have our own Sydneys (don't we?) We start out feeling confident in what we are doing - whether it's painting a picture, writing a story or singing a song - anything creative really and then all of a sudden we stop and think maybe we are doing it all wrong and we aren't really that good at it anyway - well it's all Sydney's fault and he needs a good kick up the arse!!

Sydney thought that i shouldn't post this picture of him because it doesn't show his good side - so i kicked him up the arse and published anyway ;)

Saturdoodle

Despite being fairly old I am still learning life's lessons and this is a doodle of today's lesson - stick to what you are good at!! 

A Friday Doodle not a LabraDoodle

Today's doodle was inspired by the weather - although it's mid-May it feels more like mid-November - on the upside I managed to do this one in under 10 minutes so had time to do a few star jumps to warm myself up again before posting this. I dedicate this one to my friend from over the pond Katie who has just moved house and has yet to unpack the box with all her art materials in and it's driving her nuts!!

Thursday's Doodle

My Thursday doodle sums up my day today - I've spent the day under a big black rain cloud - it's a bit like a scene from winnie the pooh and I'm eeyore with lots of inanimate objects conspiring against me - on the upside though I have managed to get a few Amelia illustrations done today :)

Twoodle of the Day

Today I've combined my 'Doodle of the Day' with this week's Twoodle - it's based on the new member of our family - Wilson the Snake and uses the words Snake, Bow-Tie, Hat and Antlers - and it's my first Twoodle done in photoshop

Birthday Bash

A couple of weeks ago I was asked by my son Karl if I would mind appearing in a film he was making with the wonderful YSP Media team - It was to be entered in the 24 hour film challenge at ID Fest in Derby - the film was to be written, shot and edited in just 24 hours - Why did they ask me to be in it? - well I was just part of the package - they just wanted a couple of child actors and I could provide them in the form of Harry and Louie - we had no idea what the film was about and all we had to do is hide behind the sofa holding cakes and pressies and imagine there was an argument upstairs (not quite what was really happening) - well this is the result - Not only is it a funny film but it also won the film challenge - so well done to all concerned - I'm really proud to be part of it - Just click on the link below  :)

 BIRTHDAY BASH

Tuesday

This is my doodle of the day - today I have so much work to catch up on so this is how I'm feeling this morning - this one took me 15 minutes to do *must-work-faster-must-work-faster*

Of course I can get it all done and have time left over to make a cake ;)

Visual Diary

I've decided to set myself a challenge - to produce 1 doodle a day that says something about what I'm doing or feeling or what has happened that particular day - To make it harder I'm going to time each one I do and hopefully do them in less than 10 minutes each - This was a doodle I did this morning after getting the kids to school - Monday mornings are always the worst of the week - something always goes missing or some homework isn't done - I didn't time this one but I would estimate it took 5-8 minutes

This is how my youngest looked this morning when I reminded him what day it is 

21st Century!! Here I Come.......Weeeeeee ... plop!

I spent all day yesterday just drawing with the graphics tablet in photoshop - for some reason I have never been able to do it before but it's now my new favourite thing in the world - I only have the basic Wacom tablet - nothing too fancy but it certainly does the job - I feel like I'm slowly moving into the 21st century with all this new fangled technology

This is Erivon from the Amelia book I'm illustrating for film maker Si Wall - pop along here for more info :)

These two are for my own story that I'm illustrating and looking to get published - I think I've finally found the style I'm happy with for these - just hope I can get a publisher interested at some point :)

Using Photoshop

I don't usually use a lot of photoshop with my illustration - not because there is anything wrong with it but mostly because I don't really know what I'm doing so I thought it was about time that I learnt - I'm going to do a little bit every day - I will watch some tutorials, do some practicing and hopefully in a few weeks I'll have some idea of what I'm doing

This is yesterday's effort - I had done a cute little robot in ink and watercolour

then decided to have a play around with it in photoshop - I added a background - and some texture - and played around with levels - this is all really basic stuff and within my knowledge but I think it made  the original image so much better

My next challenge will be to put him into an environment - Though I will probably need to watch a few tutorials for that one but I will post the results on here as I do them 

If anyone knows of any really good 'basic' photoshop and illustrator tutorials that will relate to book illustration then it would be great if you could link them - I managed to find some great ones on here http://www.simplymessingabout.com/ and would recommend these to anyone in my position of not knowing how to relate photoshop to your own artwork. 

Sherwood Forest

No drawings - just a nice picture of a little chap we met in the forest today - didn't find Robin Hood just this little guy - he was quite happy basking on anyone's hands and arms and just absorbing their heat - First time I've ever met any of our native lizards so was quite a surprise to find him sitting on the tree

Say hello to George

Time Is Running Out

My apologies in advance if this seems like a more than usual rambling post but it is Sunday morning and I tend to ramble more on a Sunday than any other day of the week!!!

At the start of the year I promised myself I'd give it 6 months to try to make a career out of my art - over half way through and things aren't looking too good - I wasn't expecting to and didn't need to be making a fortune at it but needed to see a light at the end of the tunnel - The problem with trying to do this as a single parent is that the kids rely on you to provide for them - already we know there will be no holiday this year and we have started to make cut-backs as the savings are almost gone - I must say though that it's not all doom and gloom - I now have a better idea of what sells and what doesn't and I think if I could afford to spend longer making this happen then at some point it would - but this isn't quite an end to my dreams yet - I still have a couple of months to go (although getting a 'real' job has become a priority)  - I have a book to illustrate and I still have Colin the Sheep to try to sell to publishers - but it's the everyday bread and butter jobs that are letting me down - I'm not too sure how other illustrators manage this - people love my work when I'm giving it away (which I do often to try to promote myself) but artwork is not a necessity and most people can only afford to buy necessities at the moment - maybe I need to change my target audience and find one with a more disposable income but it's finding a way to connect with these people - I don't have the funds to advertise is Horse and Hound and Country Living so I'm left with Facebook and Twitter to do all my promotions for free - I'm hoping that once I'm published I will be taken more seriously as an illustrator - I have some magnificent supporters and I'm sure some of them have probably bought far more of my work than they could afford just to help me out - So, do I have a conclusion to this post - no I don't think I do - I will continue to do what I'm doing for a bit longer and then it will be as and when I get time to paint once I have a job - I will hope that 'Amelia' and 'Colin' will be the springboards to more work (and hopefully some advances) and I will continue to draw cute but strange animals for my own amusement in the hope that they can make me a few bob!!

If any other illustrators or artists do read this and can offer me any advice on any of my ramblings I would be so appreciative - plus it's always nice to hear from anyone who draws nice pictures ;)

#Twoodle Day

Every Wednesday is #twoodle day on twitter - a bunch of illustrators suggest words during the week and then each Wednesday they have to select a minimum of 2 suggested words and illustrate them - my #twoodle for this week uses the words grumpy, shark, clock and party