Samples of the dummy book
July 26th, 2010
At long last I have a sample for you of my book! I’ve developed all of my small sketches into final, full-sized drawings like this: 
I have just a couple left to finish. My book is a little long, I ended up with 38 pages even though I was going for 32. (Clearly I need an editor.) I painted this one so I’ll have a color sample:
(Click for a larger version. The real images are 9 x 18 inches.)
The Progress Continues
June 28th, 2010
Hello! You still here?
(crickets chirping…)
Um yes, I suppose it has been a while. I’ve been busy! Partly because I now have a day job, one of those necessities for the so-called “pre-published” like me, and partly because I’ve been working on my dummy book.
I’ve finished the “writing a hopefully cohesive plot with hopefully interesting characters” part, and worked out the “storyboard of little illegible scribbles that are hopefully well paced.”
After that, I read in a book that the Great Howard Pyle used to do fifty thumbnail sketches for every illustration he made, in order to make sure that the composition was right. FIFTY! That would mean that, with 36 pages or so, I’d be drawing 1800 of them. That was a little too much dedication for me, considering I want to finish by July 30th, so I did two. (Sometimes three.) And then I arranged my “winners” on cards so I could easily shuffle everything around.
Like this: (pages 6-23)
Flight of the honeybee
June 7th, 2010
This is for a contest put on by SCBWI-RMC. The prompt for this was “Let creativity take flight.”
I think I got the idea from weeding the garden.
blue
May 26th, 2010
There are usually two or three of these blue jays hanging around the yard hoping for a handout. I like to call them “bloogs,” I’m not sure if that’s real slang or just my own personal weirdness.
What I’ve been doing
May 23rd, 2010
Lately in lieu of the weekly illustrations I’ve been working on a story of my own that I’m hoping to develop into a sort of “dummy book” by the end of July, with full-sized sketches showing where the text would go and so forth, and maybe a few finished paintings as samples.
I first got the idea for the story when I moved to Berlin. I sat with a cup of coffee on a drizzly November day and watched an impromptu dramatic performance by an assortment of animals on the street. They were all the sorts of animals that we don’t usually pay much attention to: sparrows and pigeons, mice and magpies. I made some illustrations for the story and pieced them together into booklets to serve as makeshift gifts for people. In the process I realized that storybooks are harder to make than they seem, and if I were to ever make a decent project out of it, I would have to start at the beginning.
Now a year and a half later or so I’ve decided it’s time to break out the old drafts and storyboards and give it another go. I’ll post more as it progresses. For the moment this is the most visual thing I have to show you:
Until next time,
Jess
IF theme: “Ahead”
April 30th, 2010
The inspiration for this weeks Illustration Friday painting came from a recent visit to a friend’s farm. (Her house, however, is not quite so small and her llama is not quite so determined to escape.) She lives in northeast Colorado and her small farm is home to an assortment of creatures including sheep, ducks, geese, hysterical chickens, and a dog who miraculously has no interest in attacking any of the other animals. Perhaps this is because the llama keeps everything in order, and will kick him if he so much as thinks about having a chicken dinner.
Welcome!
April 22nd, 2010
Welcome to my new site! I’m still working out the bugs, so if you notice something by all means let me know. I’ll update the links in the sidebar so they are not the defaults, possibly tomorrow. I’m also going to change the permalinks to something more descriptive than “?p=517543153″.
In the meantime I’d love feedback on how it works with your computer/browser, and any changes you’d like to see.
Now that the new site is up, I’m going to get back to regular posting and some more Illustration Friday stuff. I swear!
Until next time,
Jess
The 12-week challenge begins!
April 5th, 2010
Today is the beginning of the “12 week challenge” over at the illustration blog zero2illo. It’s described as “an opportunity to make amazing progress towards your goal of becoming a full time professional illustrator” and will involve fun stuff like weekly assignments to help us along. You can even follow our progress on the zero2illo blog! I’m not doing this alone: See all the participants here. And now, since I can’t bear to post something without a picture, here are some swans inspired by H.C. Andersen’s “The Wild Swans”~~ click for a link to a larger version!
