new thing, promotional piece perhaps?

(added 7 december)...It occurs to me that this also fits the Illustration Friday theme for this week- (4 December) (that snowflake is going to be a little crunchier than she was expecting, perhaps!?!?), so I'm adding a link to this one, too.

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So, here's another piece that I did over this past week- I was thinking of using it as a Christmas card, perhaps of making a series of cards for next year. We shall see.

I've been working on several pages of my book, although I took a bit of a break this week and worked on a few other things. I was getting a little too 'close' and hypercritical. Some of the criticism deserved, of course, some just a result of lack of perspective... Some of the pages I will almost undoubtedly wind up re-doing. By the time I am finished, I will probably want to redo all of what I first did! I've been working on, rejecting, and re-starting background patterns.

I listened this a.m. to one of Escape from Illustration Island's earlier podcasts that I had not already heard, the interview with Penelope Dullaghan. It was good; I appreciated her honesty. It's helpful to me to hear 'how others did it' and also, of course, it is always good to hear that those successful others didn't start out having all of the answers (as I think a part of me always worries is the case!). I wouldn't call it Schadenfreude, as I'm not delighting in their past lack of know-how; it's more the idea that well, they didn't know it all and look at them now, so perhaps there is hope for me also...

Ok, back to work. I WILL write the Ernie Zelinsky Adoration post later today (did I say today? I mean...soon!)... very very soon.

'music'; illustration friday

Ok, so not quite finished yet- I have yet to put the guitar strings on the guitars, and, more noticeably, I am going to replace some (all?) of the 'squares' on the lower half with some kind of patterned paper.

More soon!

Further aimless doodling

...a few more aimless doodles that I've done over the last few days. Not all that I've been up to, but...the rest I will post soon! Other things soon to come: I am going to attempt to document some pieces 'from beginning to end'; that is, from sketches all the way to 'finished'. Also, a post of praise for Mr. Ernie Zelinsky (of The Joy of Not Working and Real Success Without a Real Job fame.

unbalanced...

...is what I have been feeling. I've been concentrating on work on my book to such a degree that...it was as if I couldn't even SEE it, if you know what I mean... Hypercriticality (is that a word?), comparing myself unfavorably to others, doubt that I've EVER done ANYTHING good are among the results... So I've been taking time over the last few days to just do some aimless sketches in the a.m., something that I don't care about at all... the above are a couple. (And yes, I did take down that last book page- I've decided that it's not finished.)

One more thing- and I've been meaning to report this for a couple of weeks now (I am such a delinquent blog-ger!)- I am the lucky winner of a signed copy of Holly De Wolf's book, Breaking Into Freelance Illustration, courtesy of Escape from Illustration Island and Holly De Wolf! Thanks to both Thomas James and Holly De Wolf. I will indeed post a review when I receive it!

What I've been doing...

I've been working on various pages of my book. Here's one that is almost finished, more to come (although I think that I'll start taking them down before there are too many up- I want you to buy the book)!

The greatness of Jonathan Woodward

The second interview/podcast that I listened to on Escape From Illustration Island
was with Jonathan Woodward, who is not only an incredibly talented collage-based illustrator- look at his work here!- but who is also documenting his ongoing progress in his quest to transition to a full-time freelance illustrator on this blog, zero 2 illo. He also seems like a genuine, generous nice guy. Good luck, and thanks, Jonathan Woodward!

great site, great podcast, thank you Thomas James!

It would simply be wrong for me NOT to mention the great site that I recently came across, Escape From Illustration Island.
Experienced illustrator Thomas James has posted an exhaustive list of resources of all kinds that I have no doubt will be of great use to me and to many others starting out. He also hosts a weekly podcast (of which I have only- so far- listened to two episodes, both excellent) in which he interviews various personalities of the illustration world.

As I may or may not have mentioned (whined about?) before, I am occasionally seized by the unpleasant suspicion that 'everyone else' knows something about the illustration game that I don't- that there is something obvious, perhaps, that I am missing, that is THE ANSWER! THE KEY! (to success) etc. etc. A site such as this helps in practical ways ( to point me in directions that it might otherwise have taken me much longer to discover!) as well as psychological. I am grateful to its helpful and generous author.

His most recent interview/podcast featured Holly DeWolf , a successful illustrator who has written a book that I will be ordering, Breaking into Freelance Illustration.
She describes it as 'all of the things that she wished she had learned in school, but had to learn in the real world'. Perfect! Again, for both practical reasons and reasons of reassurance- I wouldn't call it schadenfreude, exactly, but I DO find it comforting to know that I'm not the only one who didn't leave school (I didn't do an illustration programme, rather a 'fine arts' programme with no practical reference to the real world whatsoever) knowing everything that I needed to know. I'll let you know what I think once I've read it.