Tag: art

24 Days of Art

Posted on by in Alice, Babylon 5, News, Psi Corps
Congrats on Another Successful Orbit of the Sun, Earth!

Join me in congratulating Earth for making another successful orbit around the sun. Good job, Earth!

I made up my own challenge and decided to do 24 days of art last month. The goal: draw/paint something or work on an unfinished piece for the first 24 days of December, and I am happy to report that I DID IT! If you remember my post in May when I lamented over the fact that I wasn’t as prolific as I used to be, 24 days of art helped me overcome that difficulty.

With out further adieu, here is the result of December’s challenge.

Sketching Through Those Hot Summer Days

Posted on by in High Castle

How is everyone’s summer so far? I feel like Summer is always the shortest season—probably because it’s my favorite. Time flies when you’re having fun!

I’ve done a lot of drawing over the past few months. It’s crazy to look at art I’ve done just a few years ago last year!?!?!? and see how different my style is now. And no, I didn’t realize I did that Kathy drawing last year. I thought I did it in 2016! Mind blown.

I don’t know what spurred the change. I just remember having a severe case of art block sometime last year. On a whim, I started sketching a photo as it appeared because I couldn’t think of anything to draw (I can’t remember which one, but it was probably High Castle related. I’d bet money on it, ha ha!).

I enjoyed shading and sketching like that, so I kept doing it! It’s honestly therapeutic, especially after a long day’s work. I’ll normally find a documentary on YouTube, have my reference picture up beside it, and start sketching.


Other things I’ve been up to over the summer include expanding my antiques/WWII era collection (albeit, very slowly) and working on Sisters. I realize those aren’t the most exciting things in the world, but hey, I’m happy.

What have you been up to this summer? Finish any exciting projects? Travel anywhere?

New Years Eve

Posted on by in High Castle

 The future belongs to those who change it.

31 December 2017

Reflections

On a personal level, this year has been good to me. I got to travel to places I’ve never been before, I got to see my sister on the West Coast, and I’ve managed to improve my art.

I know I mention Amazon’s The Man in the High Castle in every single post, but I want to give the creative minds behind it, the actors and actresses, and all of the people who work on the show credit. Without them, I’d have never branched out into unknown and untested artistic waters.

I’d have never met some wonderful people whom I now consider friends.

I’d have never gotten into making black and white photo aesthetics.

So thank you.

Thank you a million times over!

A few highlights from 2017:

What will 2018 bring?

I know it will bring more travel (I have an awesome job!), more artistic endeavors, and new experiences (that goes without saying).

My goal for 2018 is to finally—once and for all—to crack out of my shy Internet-self shell! I’m not a Marvel character with a quick, witty quip for every occasion. I’m not the most hyper active conversationalist, especially on the fast-paced platform that is Twitter (home of High Castle happenings).

The challenge for me will be jumping into a conversation my way. In years past, I’ve tried to be that hot-shot comic book character with an instant, witty answer for everything, but it never worked for me because I either thought of nothing or posted something bizarre. [ lol ]

So here’s to 2018 cracking my shell and figuring out how to dive in!

My other 2018 goals are
1. Taking my art to new levels
2. Getting my novel, Sisters, polished and ready to publish
3. Creating more black and white photo aesthetics

Top quote is from (you guessed it) The Man in the High Castle. 

Sisters Progress Update

Posted on by in Sisters

I finished writing the first half of Sisters! Parts Zero (Innocence) and One (Survival) are done. Now comes the most difficult part of their lives yet.

Part Two’s theme is destiny. Allegiances are made and loyalties are tested. I am looking forward to powering through this section. If Innocence and Survival gave me FEELS, I can only imagine how Destiny is going to be! 
A window into their world
This is what their nightstands would look like in real life (click to view full size)
Here is a closer look at my Kathy and Ann peg dolls

The Final Countdown

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So you’ve made this awesome thing–you’ve followed all the Ps, went through the grueling revision stage, and are pouring through the feedback you got.

This is the final post in my series on the creative process!


Now what?
You’re probably asking yourself, “How will I know when it’s ready?” We have a tendency to get so caught up in the revision process, that we start making too many little tweaks. How do you figure out when your project is polished and ready? I’m going to briefly touch on what to do after feedback before jumping into that.

After Feedback
The great thing about getting feedback from trusted sources (see Part Four), is that you’ll see a trend. When I sent The Year is Now to several beta readers, they all had similar things to say without even knowing each other existed!

Common themes I received:
1. I used the word armpit too much (lolz?). They all said that the word was awkward whenever I used it.

2. They did not like a short scene where Elly was stuffing her skirt into her environmental suit. They all felt it was out of place and pulled the reader out of the story.

3. I kept getting idioms wrong. I can’t remember which ones, but I remember that being a theme with the feedback I got. For instance, instead of saying “Well, the cat’s out of the bag,” I’d say “Well, the cat’s out of the hat.”

Focus on the trends
Fix those first. Once you’ve tidied those up, go back and peek at the other things people said about your work. Weed out personal opinion vs structural improvement. What do I mean by this? Years ago, I had someone beta read a story (one that was never published). They didn’t like how it was set in the 90s and wanted it set in the 80s because they were a huge fan of the 80s and 80s pop music.


How do I know it’s done?
There will be a point in time when you keep making minor tweaks to your project. You’ll start stressing yourself out because you are so focused on making it PERFECT. Making minor tweaks here and there is okay, just don’t let yourself get into a tweaking frenzy! Only you can determine if the project is done. I normally know it’s done when I’m out of logical tweaks to make and changing anything else would just be pointless. Other times, it’s just a gut feeling.

Conclusion
I want to thank you for taking the time to read my short series on the creative process! I had fun writing it and hope that you found it helpful.

If you have an idea or would like me to cover something, feel free to send it my way!