Hey Art Smiths!
This was super fun! I've really enjoyed the challenge on this prompted. We need to do some more challenging stuff! Maybe do a book spread sometime?
The Wind in the Willows has always been a story close to my heart. When I was a kid, we had a VHS tape of it, I always wanted to watch it.
I love seeing what everyone has done! You all are great! Good Luck 
Hello wonderful Art Folks! I’m back! So now thats its been over a year since I’ve worked on this book project I’m picking it back up. (Old WIP book project thread link above if ya want the whole story and progress journey)
Here is the short(ish) back story:
It all started with this drawing:
I did this drawing about my mom, the moment before she passed away in response to the April 2019 monthly prompt, “The Moment Before. . .”
Link below of the WIP of this drawing:
https://forum.svslearn.com/topic/7343/the-moment-before-my-mom-left-wip
I lost my mom when I was 15 years old. Its been almost 13 years now. Somehow, that drawing I did for the prompt seemed to open a place in my heart that was closed up. And then a few months later, the whole story just dropped in my heart and I knew I wanted to turn this drawing into something more, something big, something like a kids book story. Its been a very difficult journey to say the least. Mostly because its my own story and its about a very painful part of my life. But looking back I can see how this project has truly been touching and healing parts of my heart that were untouchable because of the grief and pain from losing someone so dear.
Picking up from where I left off over a year ago. I had made it to my goal of having the Mock-up book done after the 6 weeks Art Challenge ending on September 1st 2019. And then had decided to go ahead and finish the project, coloring and final editing and what not. I had made it as far as the end of January 2020 before I had to stop. I did not have peace on finishing the book. So I had let it sit. . .
I friend told me around that time that, “this book is for your heart first before it’s for others.” And I realized that I was trying to finish the book for the sake of finishing and not listening to my heart and what it needed. My heart needed time.
Now time has passed and I feel the peace to start again. I’m doing another 6 week Art Challenge to finish the ending of the book and color it. Since the book project has sat this past year, I’ve come to realize my heart did not relate to the ending of the original Mock-up book story. Now I’ve added approximately 6 more spreads or 12 more pages to the ending of the story.
This thread is for the Work In Progress of those pages and the final coloring and editing of the whole story.
I’m open to any comments, tips or suggestions as this next journey unfolds here. Feel free to speak up! It’s because of all the friends, family and community speaking freely about this project to me that has allowed me to grow and change the story for the better. And also thanks so much to everyone who put in their two cents during the past threads of this project.
Below are some coloring I just finished this past week (this first week of the Art Challenge). And then a spread and the cover from the Mock-Up book version of the story:
"The Moment Before My Mom Left"
Thanks to everyone who gave tips, tricks, and suggestions during the Work in Progress (WIP) stage. I have learned a ton from this one. Usually I do more light-hearted work, but I changed it up this time to something a bit more serious, and close to home. If you want to find out more about the story behind this piece, Look up: The Moment Before My Mom Left (WIP)
I love all the post so far! great stuff art peeps! You all are great!
Hey art peeps! (Warning! this first post is super long, but I think its totally worth the read. Just might take ya 10 minuets though).
I did this piece for "The Moment Before" monthly challenge a few months ago. I've decided to turn it into a Dummy book and eventually a self published kids book using this art as a springboard. My official publication date is a month before Mothers Day next year (April). I will be posting my progress on this thread.
This book idea started when I was at my Freelancers Union meeting last month, and one of my colleges said they loved this piece so much. They wanted to know more about it; they wanted to know the story behind it (and boy is there a story).
Here is the WIP and the story of the art piece above in the link below:
https://forum.svslearn.com/topic/7343/the-moment-before-my-mom-left-wip
Anyway, so my goal is to have it made into a Dummy book by the 2019 SCBWI Midsouth Fall Conference (Sept 13-15).
Link to conference:
https://midsouth.scbwi.org/events/2019-scbwi-midsouth-fall-conference/
Also! Anyone else planning on going to this one? It would be super cool to meet up for coffee/tea!
Okay back to my master plan. So I have approximately 6ish weeks to get this baby done, and thats not counting the time it will take it to be printed and shipped to yours truly. I'm hoping, that you all will help keep me accountable. Oh! and also offer up any tips and suggestions as this crazy adventure advances.
So more detail on the actual book project. This is based off of a real story in my life. And this is going to be a very emotional difficult project. But I've never felt a passion for a book project like this before either. The WIP link will have a lot of this info in it already, but this book is about me and my mom. My mom passed away 11 years ago this month (July 2019). I was 15 years old. During the time my mom was sick I built this hug rock flower garden. Every spare moment of my time I spent planning, building, planting and tending the garden. It was the place I could hide away and be myself while many people came to visit my mom while she was sick. Often, I would pick my flowers and bring them to my mom. She always loved that. But because she was so sick, she never got to see my garden in person. I was so so proud of my garden, it still hurts to this day that she never got to see it. But in this book project, I'm gonna change that.
A few pics of my garden in its hay day:
Yeah, its pretty great, but since then, I've lost my green thumb, so let me know it you find it.
My goal for this book is to help others (and myself) remember our lost loved ones without the sadness or bitterness that is usually attached to our memories of them after they are gone. I want to be able to remember my mom and smile and not tear up every time. Wow, I just got real personal. Oh well.
I already told all my buddies and family that I would be in a type of hibernation mode these next few months getting this thing done. I've even gone so far as to go part time to my 9-5 job. So life will be interesting for a while.
So yeah, stay tune for more exciting stuff! I hope to post several times a week. Next will be the text and the story board.
Wow! this is a super long post! Maybe I need to get into writing novels instead of kids books.
P. S. Also I apologize in advance for any misspells or grammatical errors. If you spot them in my book project, feel free to let me know. Spelling is kinda my greatest weakness. I'm just happy I wasn't born before spellcheck became a thing.
"Mr. Croc Likes Watermelon Too"
I still want to work on this piece more, but I figured I would go ahead and get it posted before the deadline.
Cranky But Well Loved
Someday, I plan to live in the country were life can be slow and peaceful. With this old, cranky, well loved truck to drive down small winding roads and wave at strangers who wave back.
"Size Doesn't Matter"
This one had several steps: First started as a sketch, then in photoshop where Ivan (my foster squirrel) was photoshopped to a bike. Then text added around him. Printed out and transferred to linoleum and carved, printed out on the press, then back to photoshop for some editing and sizing, reprinted out and exposed to a screen and screen-printed. Lots of steps. It was super fun!
Hello fellow creatives! Its been a while, and good to see the familiar names and art styles Love everyone’s art! So Good!
I’ve been working on this one off and on for several months, I think its about done. The subjects are me and one of my good friends from art school (in animal form) in a coffee shop (our fav place to hang out).
We're late, we're late, for a very important Fall Date!
When your best friend has road rage (Based on a true story)
Awe man! I love everyone’s entries!! My dad and I have throughly enjoyed looking at everyone’s yeti renditions!
Here we have Yeti Little. She loves frolicking in the snow fields and picking flowers. Mama Yeti is becoming a little concerned with the abnormal Yeti behavior.
Spread 8 has been one of the first ones I've been working on so far. Mostly because it hasn't require too many thumbnails to start, hehehe. Its been a bit of a challenge to try to keep the same color palette as the original piece (at the top of this thread). I've been going back and forth trying to remember all the affects. I still have some tweaking to do on this one, but I wanted to post it and see if anyone had any thoughts.
I'M STILL ALIVE! I survived it you all, and I got the dummy-book and my portfolio all done at 3am in the morning of the conference. I must say i was chugging the free coffee at the conference. But you all, it was soo amazing! any of you who haven't checked out SCBWI (Society of Children's books writers and illustrators). You should totally check them out! They always have cool stuff going on. Here is they're website:
https://www.scbwi.org/
There is a membership fee but I think its totally worth it if your ready for the next level Its a good compliment to SVS. I heard SCBWI mentioned on the SVS podcast before too. SCBWI has a ton of resources available to members, and the community is so friendly, helpful and encouraging. I don't know if they do this everywhere, but down here in Nashville they also have monthly hang outs where we meet up and talk about our projects and get input!
I also got to meet @StudioLooong while at the conference too! She got honorable mention for the portfolio preview! You go girl!
I almost met @robinleigh49, but my brain was so full of fluff (kinda like Poo Bear) that I totally forgot to reach out ): I'm bummed, but I'm determined to find you next time Robin! Do you think your coming next year?
I'm going to be submitting my dummy-book to a few agents and publishers who were at the conference. I may not know anything till the end of this year, but I'm in no rush. And I'm trying not to put my hopes up too much. But its exciting to see where this project might go.
As of right now, I'm taking a break from drawing and I'm going to let this project pickle. The plan is to have people review it and give me their input on any edits I should consider before hitting the coloring stage.
Thanks to everyone who has helped me on this crazy adventure so far. It means the world to me to have such an awesome online community here! I've learned so much from you all! and if it wasn't for you all keeping me accountable, I'm sure I would not have gotten this done in time.
Go forth and be awesome art peeps!
Here are a few pics from the mock up:
"Love at First Sight"
When you are out for a nice sunset drive, minding your own business when suddenly, BAM! There in front of you is the love of your life popping a wheelie.
Textures Galore!
I added a wee bit of orange in the sunrise. Should I leave it? Yea or nay?
I'm still working on the gradients and I need to tweak the mansion and surrounding trees.
Anything else that pops out to you all that I should change or move around?
Week three of the Art challenge! Boy has it been challenging too. I've been trying to set aside 3 hours a day, 5 days a week to working on the book project. I had to do a lot of catch up this week cause I didn't reach my goal last week. Here are some coloring updates.
Got two new spreads colored, and tweaked some old colored spreads to update the colors with the new colors. Also redrew the squirrels in the original drawing of mama and baby squirrel in the bedroom (Now they don't look so much like goats!). Worked on the ending a lot this past week. Ended up adding another spread. Now up to 44 pages for this book! But the ending flows really good now. I'll post later on the updates of the ending.
Hey ArtSmiths!
I've played around with some ideas on what I could do for the prompt for this month, but nothing seem to strike a spark with me.
I started thinking about what was the biggest "Moment Before" in my life. I thought of some funny events with my siblings. But then I thought about my mom and the moment she left.
Typically, I focus on light-hearted work. But I'm changing it up this time to something more serious and close to my heart. This is something that happened to me when I was fifteen, my mom passed away from brain cancer.
It has been the main subject focus on all my 3D and sculpture work (Check them out here: https://www.instagram.com/squirrelsizestudio/?hl=en), and I think its time to bring it into my illustrations too.
So the subject is the moment right before my mom passed. In real life I wasn't by her side, but i want to capture the moment as if I was.
Its been over ten years since she flew off, but that moment in time has effected and changed my life forever.
My nickname is Squirrel, so I have us characterized as squirrels.
Here are the thumbnails. To me, 3, 4 and 6 seem to jump out to me.
Which thumbnails you all vote for?
