Hello Friends!

So this is my painting and Chinese ink drawing (which I just did yesterday) for my entry into the Golden Ticket Contest for my illustration class! Whew! The deadline was this morning at 9:00 a.m. to get them to the lady who is stacking them for us! I couldn’t get a little bit of the sidewalk outside cut out of them, but I take my pictures in sunlight and didn’t have much time. I think she can fix that, though.

It’s a Sea Party!

Mr. C. Turtle Makes New Friends                                                                                                      

SO! Yesterday was a LONG day. On Friday a friend in our Facebook group for the class told me I got a critique on my first pieces by Claire Easton who is a children’s book agent from Painted Words. Her website is here: http://painted-words.com/represents/about-2/

I couldn’t view the webinar on Friday, because of our crummy internet connection which didn’t reset until yesterday. For some reason I assumed my friend was referring to the painting I posted where the hermit crab’s shell was yellow (which I thought was the one she critiqued and looked better than the crab’s first lavender shell.) However, she was critiquing the one where he had the lavender shell! She said there wasn’t enough contrast between the color of his shell and red body, which I agree! That’s why I changed his shell color to a bright yellow in my second or third revision (I’ve lost count,) but I ended up getting it too dark in this final piece. It is too late to do anything about it now, but I am just thankful for Claire’s critique!

Well, getting back to what I did this time in the painting…I used watercolor instead of the Inktense pencils for the background. I also made other little changes, too, adding detail to the sea turtles which she suggested in the critique.  She also said my characters were fun and the scene was energetic. And she complimented my composition. That really encouraged me!!!

This morning I went to check out her website and was surprised to see that another person who has stepped up to become an agent as well, is an author/illustrator whose class I did online a few years ago at Craftsy.com!! Her name is Shadra Strickland and taking her class online is what sparked my interest in writing and illustrating children’s books in the first place! She’s awesome! You can check out her Craftsy class here: https://www.craftsy.com/drawing/classes/the-art-of-the-picture-book

And again, getting back to this revision, Friday night I spent the evening redrawing the composition onto my heavier watercolor paper which also made a huge difference. Then Saturday I began working on the painting around 9 or 10 a.m. and finished it and the ink drawing around 10:00 p.m. last night! And amazingly, because I got up frequently and did some stretches, I am not in pain today! I still can’t believe it. I really enjoyed the process.

I feel like I have learned a lot from this class. The instructors are super encouraging and kind. I still have a lot of material that they posted in the Bonus 6th week that I haven’t had a chance to even read yet. I watched a couple of the interview videos, but I am glad we have 6 months of access to all of the materials, because I want to go through it again SLOWLY!!

I plan on getting back to doing as much of the Inktober ink sketches as I can. I will be going through a free Photoshop course at the Children’s Book Academy soon which was a free bonus given to me when I signed up for the illustrator course. A different instructor has posted tons of videos teaching how to use it. It is very different than the program I had years ago. I plan to wait a week or two (if I can) before going back to that. I really need a break but am so excited about all of this! So that is all for now, my friends!

Have a wonderful day, and give someone you love a big hug! 🙂