This week's coloring page

Every once in a while I think it's great to multi task. Another art of life is knowing when to push yourself and when to let what's given be enough. I'm so loving the class on visual story telling I'm taking. It has cemented some of the things I've done and am doing, and opened up others. A very exciting thing. I have a bout a dozen projects in various stages (and the AWFUL thing about when the creative juices flow, is new ideas and concepts waft their way to fore, and it becomes a sifting/organizing thing as well. Note to self: Clean up your internal files!). Anyhow, there were two additional assignments, and I wanted to do them, but how to justify the time because the goals of getting my books out there in the next few months is a looming thing?

MULTITASK! So the character assignment of the kindly grizzled, peg legged sailor has become a coloring page (I will post my colored version next week, I would love it if people shared!). The scene will end up being my new blog header (remember the promise to change the illustration out every few months? This way I can keep that promise to myself, and practice what I've learned in class. Incorporating your art is a part of your job as well. Prioritizing is important, and it shouldn't take precedent over family, but it has to be one of your major considerations. One of the things I've been able to embrace in the difficult last year, I can make my work, my art a priority again. I hope you enjoy it!

The pas de deux part of the two fer (and a coloring page)...

This may seem off topic to a blog on art, and I've had people sometimes defriend me in the social cyber sphere because I've got opinions and share them. Okay sometimes A LOT. But that's what an artist does, I think.

Artists, whether they be into music, paint and pixels, words on a page, movement or any other expression are meant to EXPRESS. I'm arrogant enough, I want what I manifest to be worth my time in this place called Earth, so I work hard not just at that whole art thing, but the people thing as well. So this might SEEM off topic, but for me it is intrinsic to art--- especially my art. And this is from someone who is very uncomfortable with feeling and fearful of just about everything. I just work every day to get over it, sometimes more successful than others.

I've said this before, I will keep saying it, because I keep forgetting it. In order to create anything worthy of art, I embrace my fears. Sometimes I'm ham-handed in my efforts, sometimes it takes me a WHILE to get it. But anything worth creating has taken that wrangle and effort. I could say the same for my life.

This was recently brought home to me again, after another particularly brutal time, prior to these events.

I had complained of a hurt a bit ago, because I'd shown up at one of my favorite libraries and received the kind of reception I often get, and dread. In all fairness, it was bad timing, it was a hot day, there was a whirlwind of activity (which is true of most libraries nowadays and they work UNDER BUDGET, most of them are stressed, because they are a dedicated lot. Really, because of my movement around the last few years, I've visited a few libraries and I had been worried about the libraries. Now I'm worried for the librarians. The economic stresses have reached well into their structure and the full time job they used to do they must do in less than twenty hours, and still be gracious to people and meet all the public needs of their job. Usually with less staff.  So if you can, VOLUNTEER, your library will love you for it! But I digress).

In another life I might have gone off on such a thing (more likely it wouldn't have happened, we would have both been in a much better place). Instead I walked away hurt and vented a little at home and online and felt bad.

When I found an old friend volunteered at the library, I almost didn't go, but I have determined I was going to give people the opportunity to make their interaction with me about something other than appearances. And I needed to confront my fears, again. And besides, I could just ignore the offending person. Except a BUNCH of wonderful things happened. First I found my elder daughter's first teacher worked there. Then my friend came in, and I got to thank her so much for mentoring me when I really needed that beginning push. She encouraged me along the way, and I was able to give her a hug for having missed her for so long.

And that wasn't even the wonderful, WONDERFUL thing. The person who hurt my feelings came up and asked if I illustrated, I informed her that I wrote and illustrated and we'd met. Her whole demeanor sagged. She'd thought she'd recognized me, and she felt horrible for the way she'd treated me and apologized. She wanted to take the time to view the book I'd wanted to share before Nana's Gift, and the things she said more than made up for the initial hurt. I left the library bolstered, elated and mostly restored.

Except I'd not been gracious and had been extremely defensive. At first I felt exonerated and happy, I'd been right, I really was someone she would find good in and want to have around (have you noticed I love kids and books?!) But it quickly wore off and flattened. I really didn't like the way I'd dealt with her, even if it was still too raw and she'd originally been off to a bad start. Goodness knows I've done that so often. The best is when people could see my humanity and not only forgave me for it, but embraced me. I determined I would not only apologize, and explain to her how it hurt, and that what she did MATTERED. I want to know that about myself, so why not do that for someone else?

Then the truly great thing happened. It was work, hadn't planned on taking the walk, it threw a wrench in my timing, but it was exactly what I needed to do.

In the course of the apology I found we had so many things in common, I had been correct, I'd caught her not only at a bad time on that particular day, but there had been struggles on lots of levels that immediately made me glad I felt the remorse. She told me about an event, that I ended up attending and the speaker was inspirational. The speaker needed help getting her book published, and I'm happy to have met her and hope to help her in her goal.

The librarian was a fount of information, I know she'll help in some of my goals (I want to be able to get my e-books into the libraries, but it's a process, as well as get the word out about my books and efforts). I had an idea for a book I hope to work jointly on with her, because I know absolutely it's a necessary thing, and I have a feeling we'll have a great time working on it.

So what's this got to do with art? Art is about feeling, taking chances, bracing and then embracing your fears,  and then articulating all that so you can take others on a similar journey. Art is about empathy. If your life is not empathic to a certain degree-- how can you hope to make art? That doesn't mean to run out and become Mother Theresa (though we probably could use a few more like her). But it does mean, suspending judgment and ask more questions. Don't take things at FACE value (you'd not talk to me, because truth be told, the thing I hate is people who used to know me wanting to know whatever happened to me-- lack of funds and care darling-- and others dismissing me, because I've lived close to the bone and after 56 years, it shows. I don't need pity but I'll take your empathy and I will return that gift polished and shined).

Doesn't matter how fearful you are, learn and push yourself to live fearlessly, and you will be able to create something that people will respond to. It will make you an artist. I thank everyone in my life good, bad and even the indifferent (you haters, you know who you are!) because you've made me the artist I am.

For those of you who read this and are disappointed, I'm sorry.  You can see more of my work on my Facebook Fanpage or at agywilson.com. For the others, live fearlessly (not stupidly, don't do anything that will imperil you!) but by all means let me know if and how it affects what you create.

And now for something completely different, this weeks coloring page...

Judging a book by it's cover--- my process

I can't speak to how others commit art, and goodness knows I commit it in different fashions on a regular basis, but there are a few givens in the process. I thought I'd set this down, for those who have the tendency of liking to see how others do it (I'm one of those myself, I find it inspiring). Or to inform those who have no idea, especially those who may be foraying into the self-publishing realm, for what to look for, what to expect and what's realistic. It's difficult to know whether a price you pay for the artwork is fair or not without knowing the process 

Some of my covers I've done already:

I think you can tell these are my work, right?

What even constitutes a good cover? Harder than you think. A good cover not only embodies the spirit of a book. It needs to be eye grabbing, clear, reduce down to a small size and be legible and exploded up and still hold the design. Simply eloquent visually with a minimum of clutter. A friend with a BRILLIANT cover, Cynthia Lord's RULES is a great example of an exceptional cover. Intriguing, colorful, humorous, it conforms to all of these things.

I hand render my work. Keep in mind it will look like my art. So if you want a certain kind of cover, you need to find out who does it, or EMULATE (do not plagiarize, or you could get into a world of hurt on that!) Think about the character of the book and the character of the cover, not only the imagery, whimsical does not a horror story make, for instance.

Ingredients for your cover: You need to have the title, byline. Personally, unless your book is an award winner, any blurbs, etc. I believe should be on the back, for the most part.  The less busy ness the better!

I just finished a cover for my friend Margot Finke, and she's given permission for me to share the process. I will not only explain the reasoning, but will also be upfront about the expense end of it, because I'm not the only one doing this for extra credit, and if you're an author buying someone's services it may help you to decide if the money is worth it or not. Again, realize this is MY process, so if you're doing this, you need to talk with the illustrator you hire, so you don't have many glitches.

The first thing I do is talk with the author. Some authors are so specific, they can tell me exactly what they want. There are times I won't take that particular job. Just as authors need to own what they do, barring critique and editorial input, illustrators are alike in that regard. If it feels as if there's no room for me, there are other artists as well as Photoshop and Clip Art out there for the author to make a cover exactly the way they envision. Personally I want them to want ME with my style.

Also if they balk at my price (covers range from $100-300, depending on the detail and time involved, more often than not it comes in at under $150. Sounds like a lot but when you realize I'm not working on my stuff, and it works out to less than minimum wage most of the time, and other than my promoting the cover as my work- which also helps the author-- they own the artwork in my eyes. The only thing I ask is if they need to make changes to it, they give me the opportunity to do it, because my name is on the work as well.

If I take the job, it's one third - one half down, depending on the resources available and what the author is comfortable. Next I  read the book. I'm a slow reader, have difficulties with my eyes, so it can take upwards to a couple of days if it's a longer work.

 Then I will sketch it out, keeping in mind the original conversations. This is the first sketches I showed Margot for her upcoming book, Down Under Calling:

This wasn't what Margot had in mind so we spoke a bit more and I reworked it to this:

and a colored version fleshed out a bit more to give an idea of the palette:

 This is usually where I get the author's approval to go on. In this case, talking further, we lost the clothes line, and I put a pair of kookaburras in, then edited further:

Now we start playing with the titles, Margot liked my calligraphy from Nana's Gift. I haven't got my pens with me so I play in Photoshop. In the end I used a combination of Photoshop rendered and hand rendered-I can make a broad edge with a couple of pencils, papertowel and rubberbands for a small amount of text-- and Photoshop edited Title and byline. Here's the playings with:

Decided to lose the Kookaburra, then the Frilly, the color of the shoes, a few little details.... 

And VOILA! We have Achieved Cover!

 There is still the adjustment of the title so it's not hitting the top of the page to make, but over all I like this, composition and the color.  If someone has paid me one third, they will pay the second third when I give them the color study. Final payment is due with the finished art. I send them the 350 dpi and a web version of 72 dpi. I tell them I can resize specifically (it's better to do it in Photoshop, the resolution is far superior) if they give me the dimensions they need. 

P.S.

Another trick to see if things clearly, if your composition and forms are working,  but you have to do it to a COPY, is to DESATURATE the work. Rendered in grey you can see if the work holds and reads well. Here's the study I did for that:

Hope this helps!

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.