Digital: Good news, sad news

Good news:
This isn't finished, but I wanted to show you what I've got so far digitally!  You like?  Here's the thing... I love looking through a sketchbook and at drawings far more than looking at paintings.  And I love drawing way more than painting.  So... wondering if I can preserve the drawing/sketching/penciling/lining part of the work and also bring in bright vibrant color at the same time.  Like I said this isn't finished... but this is certainly exciting, fun, semi-addicting... which WHO KNEW..., and I'm far happier with the results and process, and guess what... I've been dreaming about painting digitally at night.  I'm all excited.  I had no idea I'd enjoy it this much.  My tablet still hasn't even come in the mail yet but I used the school tablets to make this.

Sad news:
Sad news is... I talked to my respectable advisor yesterday, and looks like switching to digital like this is most likely not an option.  I might have cried a little in his office.  Poor guy probably gets that a lot because I discovered an appreciated box of tissues at arm's length.  I'm very bummed.  But, I must do what I must do.  At least I know something I didn't know before, that I can take with me to use in future work.  So I guess it still kinda ends with good news again.  But yeah... bummer.

Re-Evaluating this Children's Book thing...

Alrighty.  Time to be honest.
I promised you the whole trip, trial and error, everything going into this children's book "You Should! You Should!"  Challenges, fears, successes, process, mistakes, paintings, drawings, the whole shebang.  So today I'm going to share with you what's REALLY going on, instead of surprising you with sudden huge news, or telling you more fluffy "yay another painting" junk.

Okay.  So here's the thing.  How do I say this...

First, a confession:

I'm not passionate about painting.  I'm not passionate about art.  I like it and I'm good at it, but it's NOT my favorite thing.  That's another story though.  So here I am in this situation.  Get this....

YSYS Painting: Possum n Hippo / Relationship Pyramid

I'm very happy with this one.  I haven't shown it to my advisor Don yet so I'm sure he'll have a lot to say but so far I'm pretty happy!

Originally I designed this with green grass and more blue in the possum but Don pointed out as he looked at my tiny color composition that at sunset the colors lean far more towards purples and oranges.  So I threw a bunch of orange and purple all over, with pretty orange pink and yellow highlights.

Text will go above Hippo and some more below Possum.

So!  You likey too?  :)

The Sketch:

YSYS: Dancing Hippo

Tap-Dancing Hippo

(So I think my drawing is ready to paint, and then I realize I can draw it better!  Today I redrew the dancing hippo... check him out!)

"Spinning does not help my feet,

I move to a different beat!"

Here was my very first sketch of this scene haha...

Color Comps

Funny thing happened.  I took my painting and two others ready to start on into my advisor, Don Seegmiller, and he said, "Great, but, you need to do tiny color compositions before you continue on in your paintings.  Trust me, it'll save you loads of time in the end!"  Don is always right in these instances so... here they are.

Color Compositions!

(Done in prisma colored pencil... the images came out a little greenish on the computer but just work with me)

So here are different ways to do hippo:

(figuring out the sand color was hard... then I wasn't sure about the hat color, and then the hippo color!)

     And....

So my big questions are:

Pink or green hat?

Blue or purple hippo?

Hmmmmm...

You Should You Should thought of the day....

"Grown-ups don't have shoulds.  

They have CHOICES."

YouShouldYouShould: The Story Behind the Story AND Painting Number ONE!

(To read Codependency Symptoms, skip/scroll down to the bottom of the page)

Painting number ONE!!

(I'm starting from the middle of the book so by the time I paint the beginning and ending, they will look their best!)

"STOP!"

The glorious moment of first-born assertion!!!  You go, Hippo!

Acrylic on Canvas

YSYS: Dummy Book Re-Worked (part 2)

Here are some more reworks, redesigns, redos, and new sketches.  While I'm drawing a character over and over, I mostly just need the outline/sketch to know where to take it from there.  I'll worry about the detailed drawings when I start the paintings.  I have to admit, I had much fun doing these ones.

To see the first draft of the dummy book, you can look here.

YSYS: Dummy Book Reworked (part 1)

Dummy Book in the in reworks, fix-ups, and redo's process!

(see first original Dummy Book here)

After much thought and great feedback from all of you, I'm redoing a ton of it!  Here's what I have redrawn/replanned/redesigned so far:

I added hippo to the flamingo spot illustration so we can see them interact as Flamingo tells him how to walk.

YouShouldYouShould: Size Relationships

A friend I recently made, Arthur Nichols who is a renowned comic book and storyboard artist and designer, who has worked on several TV series, videos, and video games, gave me a great suggestion.  He pointed out the inconsistency of size relationships between my characters, and that the hippo ought to be much larger compared to many of the animals.  He said line them up next to each other in a drawing, and stick it on your wall to refer to as you draw.  So here they are!  On my wall!

I drew this up a while ago.  This is the final character design for Hippo!!  Isn't he cute??  He's also up on my wall.

This is what I have for the title page (not the book cover art).  The page on the left with blank space is there for all the important information stuff.  I feel like it starts the story off.

YSYS: Changing the Title?? Help

Big Question!

Someone left a helpful feedback comment pointing out the fact that the story begins "You should! You should!" and then suddenly we read "must," and "ought" out of the blue, and that they felt it may be a little inconsistent.  I personally don't think this is a big problem, but it has caused me to wonder if the story could benefit from a change in the title.

So what do you think?  What if this story was titled:

"You Should Must Ought" 

"You Should, You Must, You Ought"

"Should Must Ought"

"You Should You Should"

By Ginny Tilby      


...I still get a kick out of seeing my name there :)


Thoughts?  Comments?

YouShouldYouShould: Dummy Book

Here's the dummy book! 

Remember feedback is appreciated, especially in this stage--it's a critical part of the process.

I used Photoshop to edit and clean my sketches a bit (some are pretty scary still) and put them in Adobe Illustrator to insert text.

What?  You don't know what a dummy book is?  It's okay, this time you're not the dummy.  ;)

A dummy book is a sketched "rough draft" of the book, to check for:

• interesting page turns,
• make sure the story flows well and makes sense,
• consistency with text placement,
• variety in scenes (up close, far away, lots of characters, few characters)
• variety in design and compostion, (otherwise the book can get boring)
• make sure the pictures match the mood
• ETC!

Now without further ado:

YouShouldYouShould: Watercolor?

The critical artist in me hates that I'm showing you this.  You better feel very special. 

Remember this is still like a "rough draft."  Normally I'd put a lot more time and planning into it but this is just to get a general look and feel...  ya know?  Anyway.  So here's one example.  Not too bad...  I'm just not sure though.  Watercolor is just a whole animal of its own!  I was missing the way acrylic works, surprisingly enough... and I don't feel as satisfied with this... but maybe that's cuz it's a little messy compared to a real finished piece.  I just don't know!  lol

YouShouldYouShould: Choosing a Medium????

This choice has held me up for some time!

I have to pick between: 

pen and ink with water color, 

or ball point pen and water color, 

or graphite (pencil) with watercolor, 

or gouache paint, 

or acrylic paint.

I have the most experience doing children's book illustration in acrylic paint, but I really love making art that involves more use of LINE.  So I'm testing a couple things out.  These are small 8x10'' cold press illustration board.

TOMORROW:  I paint on these with watercolor!  Then we'll see how we like...

YouShouldYouShould: Thumbnails

A tiny small sketch used to put ideas down quickly on paper, as well as to figure out quickly the start of placement and design, is called a thumbnail.  So if you hear artists use this term, now you know they're not just strange "unique artists" who are obsessed with weirdo things like the dead ends of their thumb.

So today I spent working out thumbnails!  Some of my old ones were bugging me, and once I put pages next to each other I saw too many similarities in size relationships and camera angles.  Makes for boring reading and dull page turns.  I also hadn't finished the last third thumbnails of the story board so I got those knocked out today as well!  Yay!

As promised, here is my progress work:

(believe me, these ugly little sketches took a lot of time and thought)

YouShouldYouShould: Character Design - Possum, Giraffe, Bird, Croc, etc! Any tips?

For newcomers who don't know yet, this story is already scheduled to be published by "Familius."

Here is what I've got for my other characters so far; I think they're fun.  :)  

The tricky part is keeping a consistent style throughout, making them all look like they are coming from the same artist.  The design of these guys ended up coming out geometricky, if that makes sense.  It's a lot about shape if you notice.  Hope you like them!

Feel free to let me know what you think!  Good or bad.

YouShouldYouShould: ReWorking the Ending--any help?

Re-working the last 2 pages... any thoughts?  I took out 6 lines from page 30, because otherwise it would have been too much text in comparison to the rest of the story.  They were important, but slightly irrelevant and not absolutely necessary.

Now my questions are:

1.  On page 30, is the word bizarre too complicated for young children?  

2.  Does it seem like the hippo calling the others seemingly "bizarre" is a step backward after the lesson we just learned from the story?

3.  On the final line, which fits better?

"I am happy to be me"

or

"I am glad to just be me"

or

"I am best when I am me"
or
"I am choosing to be me."

4.  (5 hours later) WHAT ABOUT THIS for pg 30???--I wrote brand new last 2 lines:

Upside down is not for me,

and I don’t like to climb, you see.

Today I think that I would rather

swim and watch the fishes gather.

As I float on my backside,

you’re welcome to come catch a ride.

I won't say “You should you should!”

I'll let you choose it, if you would.

We're different, true, from near and far.

But I like you the way you are.

Original:

You Should You Should: The Story

***The first 40 people to submit their email address to "FOLLOW BY EMAIL" (found at top right of my blog) will receive a FREE digital copy of "You Should You Should" if you're still following me when it gets published.  If you already submitted... congrats, you get a free digital copy!***  

Now, time to share my story!

This book targets problems associated with low self-esteem, shyness, people pleasing, dealing with being bullied or bossed around, toxic relationships, developing the self, helping kids learn to be assertive, fear of expressing feelings wants and needs, difficulty recognizing one's own feelings wants and needs, etc.  Social anxiety, depression, codependency, addiction, and their psychological effects.  And yes, this book is very therapeutic for me.  :)  (I'll talk more about that later)

I'd love to know which lessons you pick up in this story, and how it affects you.  If you comment well on which parts of the story taught you which lessons the way you interpret them, you can help me know how to write the "discussion tips for parents" page at the end.

You Should You Should

Written and (being) Illustrated by Ginny Tilby

YouShouldYouShould: Character Design - HIPPO (and some story boarding)

***I'd love to receive helpful input.  Feel free to post comments and thoughts you'd like to share.  For example:  "I think the hippo in the bottom left corner on page 7 is the best, but maybe his nose is too small" or "I hate the hippo on page 9, too fat, what were you thinking!"***

As you probably know, this is the first time I've illustrated a book.  I was all set to start making a dummy book, but then did some quick research and realized I was skipping a couple important steps... Oops!

1. Getting to know your character

 =  draw your character over and over until you've got him down.

So I was drawing my main character and realized I still wasn't satisfied with him, so I researched hippos AGAIN and drew and redrew him some more.  Now I have even more "looks" to play around with and choose from!  Which means I'm coming closer to the perfect Hippopotamus, but also means I have more work to do.

1

Contract SIGNED

I SIGNED THE CONTRACT! 

(holy smokes, really?)

With new Publishing House: Familius

You can visit their website and check out their blog at Familius.com, where you can read daily messages focusing on the family.  

(One of my fav posts: Zombies and Babies)

Now in the editing and illustration process:

BIG NEWS!!!

Guess what friends?  I recently submitted children's book I'm working on, "You Should You Should," (written and being illustrated by me) to a publishing house and they've responded with interest in publishing it!!  I'm pretty excited and nervous, and will be posting details about this journey as this process unfolds!  So keep in touch!!

Thanks to all who have supported and believed in me and this long lived dream... I think it's about to happen!