Part 1: Do as I say, if you want to do as I do, at least a little bit...Newbie 101

A while back I wrote an article for SCBWI on "The Syns of Writing",  the title being a mash-up and pun all at once. For the longest time, I felt guilty for needing or wanting more for my creative self. I will say that a part of my writing process has been giving myself permission to create.

Taking yourself seriously brings on a whole host of thoughts.

If you write for yourself alone, there is no one or nothing other than yourself to please. But writing for publication is a totally different animal. It's a fine line between writing for a particular audience--- your audience--- and simply crafting for the crowd. I say that knowing there's a rainbow inbetween as well. To some people writing (or illustration) is a living, so taking a self-fulfilling job may be lower on the list than generating an income. Others, of the Stephen King variety their shopping list will find a loyal readership. Only YOU decide what this means to you and your pocket book.

But if you do it "fer reals", you must take it seriously. That means the discipline of working (and sometimes hacking) at it every day. It also means keep learning and preferably from the best, especially as THEY are your competition.

At least that's not as hard or as expensive as, say, becoming a doctor. A library card, time and practice is on your side. You cannot improve without investing yourself. Another great investment is finding at least one, or a few people who you trust with your creative self and opinions can tell you when you need to work on something or can beam at  what you set down. Nothing like a great critique group or beta reader to keep you honest about your work. And consider it practice at the reviews you hope to get when your work is published and people flock to view and read it.

Many people know the above, many people don't. I add this because there is a beginning to writing and it's easy to lose sight of that. I revisit lessons not nearly as well-learned and it really is a consideration to becoming conscious about your process. If I had a dime (inflation) for every time someone said "I'm thinking about writing, illustrating," I'd not monetize this account. So redundant is good (hey, Will Terry OFTEN says stuff that I "know" but for one reason or another have not fully complied. His explanations really got through when all the other,"you must do A to be B to get to C " *said in drone voice*, hadn't. So there may be a drip drip to some of the posts I share, but it's the confluence that gets the momentum and I appreciated this kind of stuff when I was starting out, even when I didn't do it).

Today I'll talk a little bit abut my present wip, and ongoing about the illustrations for this, as well as some of my design work for my online stores. Who knows? Perhaps one day they'll take off, lol (Till then I'm practicing what I preach and learning some great stuff). In a few weeks, I'll be able to write/edit my midgrade, so I will talk about longer works. I've also thought I'll illustrate this book now, and if I have the resources, ability later, this (Annie) would make a wonderful app). If I do that, I will be sharing that process, as well. I'm moving this week and starting an intensive class next week, (when it rains it pours, don't it!) So will blog twice today (another TWOFER!) plan a review or two, learn to schedule posts to post their ownselves and hopefully even if I'm offline next week and perhaps the week after, the habit of JOURNALING which really helps clarify and adds to my discipline will take root

 My next post will be my process of writing Annie and I will take one stanza and show the changes and thinking process.

When does learning become procrastination? I know I'm borderline at the moment, so within the next couple of days I will be getting right back on the horse. The first problem was banging my head against new technology. Usually I don't mind a good whack or two upside, because it often loosens things I hadn't thought of, and after a good sinus cleaning, I "get it". The second there are enough other things that I felt wonky about, on a professional level and it interfered with my processing the info. The insecurity fed the infernal editor.

With holidays and other events (that are not quite over), the decision for me was to zag. Instead of immersing myself in the new technology, I reviewed things from art school, thirty years ago, and a lot of it was overlooked. Ah such was the education of a prodigy and a renegade. Often times the core was skimmed or left out entirely. There's a lot you can do with raw talent, but it really only goes so far.

I finished the snake painting, did a caricature entirely from scrap on the Wacom and though it wasn't a best effort, it was decent for a first time and more importantly I did something new and something I didn't hate. Heck I wanted that feather boa. I presently have a couple of past drawings I want to rework in Photoshop, before I reengage Oscars project. The reason again is two fold. I need to feel comfortable and conscious of what I got from the two tutorials (Designing a Drawing and Working with color, Folio Academy). Yes I knew most of it, but I hadn't actually been DOING it, and a lot of it's easier said than done. I can see a couple of things happening within the exercises, as well as getting more adept. I tend to work busy, so more than likely it'll not only make me more considered, but simplify. I think one of things I also really like about Will's tutorials, we come from similar aesthetics. I think it's about the story and communicating first.
THEN it's about the art, which isn't to say art is secondary, it's just that if it doesn't fulfill it's purpose, doesn't matter how pretty or colorful it is.

I hadn't realized as well, as autocratic, dictatorial as I am (come on! I have to write, draw and sometimes even calligraph, and now I'm publishing?! Course my caveat and Achilles is I want to do it all well enough so no one will ever pooh-pooh it with well she did DO it by herself, sniff, sniff!) I'd not really given myself permission to design my drawings. It was a strange thing to come to me, because I get images that pop in my head all the time. What happened was Will completed some of the thoughts and questions I had and it just zinged, connected.

The other reason to take the time to be comfortable with the process, Margot's book is a bit "more". Adding action as well as the considerations, of image, color, value, line, space, form, etc. to a story, and the challenge of different sized devices ranging from 7-8 inches down to about 3.5 inches, having those concerns not be a misunderstood distraction, I'm most definitely glad for the review.

In doing,I gain bits of confidence I misplaced along the way of my life as well. I have a short story in adult land that needs to be published this week and will be visiting a friend for a few days. The holidays are pretty much over, and I'm knee deep into trying to figure out how to make the animated GIF. I know once I master that I'm finest kind for a while. Then the only other hurdle will be the actually publishing of the project. Who knows what skill I'll renew or learn then?

Anyhow, this is the very rough reworking of Beauty Shop, the beginning. Will post this redone here, and if I do the two drawings from my Whateverafter, will post those as well.

The bottom will be the reworked one. The upper one , I liked the concept, but couldn't render very well, and was playing with materials-- the plastic-y paper that others make look delicious, I made caca-de-poopoo on. It will be interesting to see the differences, when done, I think.