Above is the second sketch from last week that I worked up as a digital painting. I am toying with the idea of making my outlines smaller. I am enjoying experimenting with more texture in the painting process. I have had a good week this week as far as getting to think about my creative projects a bit more and also getting some encouragement for continuing on.
Tonight I watched two short videos called 'The Long Game' by Adam Westbrook, that were very encouraging to me. I have been feeling a lot of fear and regret lately about my age and the amount of years that I have not been working hard toward a real goal with my skills. This 2 part video really alleviated some of those feelings... It's all about how the greatest achievers in history normally went most of their lives without much success. My favorite part was a quote that Westbrook displayed in the video that a man named Robert Greene had written all about these dry times of these great men and women who spent years working without great progress, he called them 'The Difficult Years'- "A largely self-directed apprenticeship that lasts some five to ten years and receives little attention because it does not contain stories of great achievement or discovery" When I read this quote, I was very excited. A "Self-directed Apprenticeship" Is there such a thing? If there is, then I am in one. Ha. My mission over the last year or two which began in a fit of ambition and creativity and has become more focused and intentional over time can be described as nothing else! In fact this blog is a sort of record of this apprenticeship. This is my progress report. Thanks for reading! MM
0 Comments
I chose the seahorse to be the first of the latest sketches to be painted because of it's simplicity. I love doing hugely detailed drawings like the recent dragon but it seems for painting (and for children's illustrations) simpler is better. The focus is on the form and the definition of character. I like how the texture came out, sort of a soft plastic shiny look. This image is on behalf of my little Buddy Bear who is four years old and who has spent most of those four years keeping track of his bed partner Mister the Seahorse. A formerly light-up, musical toy that is now tattered and in need of batteries. I don't know for sure why this one ended up with glasses but I thought it was super cute. By the way, I am working on painting the dragon I mentioned but it is taking a considerable time investment. I've had to break it up into smaller chunks of work so maybe sometime I will have it ready to post. Thanks for reading, MM
I went to our city's Art Crawl this week and met quite a few people. I like to hand out my card and ask them to check out my work on the site. After handing out my card at two River Markets and two Art Crawls I am convinced... nobody keeps the card and checks out the site. I never get extra traffic that same week. I believe most of my traffic comes from the pins on Pinterest. If you are joining me from Pinterest, thanks for checking out the site! I was telling someone at the Art Crawl that I never thought I would try to do children's books. I have always wanted to avoid it actually. The reason is that all my life people have been approaching me with their dreams of publishing children's books. I know that most will never be able to be published. I know that it is a serious long shot to even try. This is one of those cases, however where my mind tells me it doesn't make sense to try it but I can't avoid it, I have to admit that this is what I am most cut out to be. I love creativity, I love imagination, my style seems to suit the Children's market, and I can't help being driven to getting published. Over the last couple of years I have been discovering many more resources to help me and the culture of the publishing world is changing so much that an outsider with no connections can manage to do well if they just develop skill and hit the right place at the right time. I am hoping to squeeze in a few more sketching sessions in the next week so hopefully more drawings will be posted soon. Thanks for reading, MM |
MistyThanks for stopping by. I'm a published illustrator working on getting better every day. My goal for my work is for it to be charming, bright and endearing. I share my ongoing work progress online because I welcome all the encouragement and feedback I can get as I try to improve my skills. I currently have a children's book project that I am nearing the end of. Archives
February 2017
Categories |