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

"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.

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.

"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!

"Out for a Morning Ride"

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.

"Quiet Moment"

"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!

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)

Update:

Hey guys, plans have changed. Long story short, my best friend is Jesus. We talk everyday. Since I've been trying to pick this book back up to finish for the US Bank show these past several months, I've not felt full peace about it. But I wasn't willing to talk to Jesus about it because it was something I really wanted to do. I didn't realize trying to rush to get it done was causing such a burden to my heart. So when that was brought to light, I realized that is the opposite of what this book is to me; to help my heart heal. So I've decided to slow it down and take my time to enjoy the process

Here is something else I've been working on:

So now I'm entering these into the US Bank show instead. I got about 30 of these I'm going to print and patchwork sew together I'll prob be turning these into a book too lol

Scanning the rest of these babies today!!!

I'm scanning them black and white (I just want the textures). Then, i'm going to pop them into my Procreate files and colorize them. Only two more weeks to go!

@eriberart Awe! Thanks I would love to know how your experimentations go

@Jenna-Jenks Hahahah! Thanks I'm excited about getting them out there

Finally getting around to coloring my book again. Its crazy how much time school can take. I have until Feb 15 to have this thing colored and printed out. I still have some watercolor textures to make and I need to work on "About the Author" page too. Hopefully I can kick some butt this weekend

I added the water color texture to this spread. I still need to do some lining up on the leaves, but I really like the natural messiness it adds to the digital coloring.

This is a great thread! I I bought the 10.5 iPad pro 256 G from Best Buy on Black Friday over two years ago. I think I got almost $300 off the original price I love it! I use it way more than my 8 year-old PC and Wacom. I travel a ton, so the smaller size and lighter weight has been a good fit for me. I don't have the cellular version. Like others, I just use my iPhone hotspot. I've only used about 80 G so far but I also have Cloud back up. Good luck Laura!

Love the colors! Welcome Kali!

I'm doing an experiment. I used a light table to watercolor on blank paper over the printed copies of the outline of my drawings. Bwala! I created some cool watercolor textures to imbed into my digital procreate files. Here is an example:

All the colorizing is done digitally, but I used the watercolor textures to add some real-lifeness to it. I find it difficult to manipulate digital brushes to look like legit water color. Although there are a lot of super nice digital watercolor brushes out there. At some point I need to try to experiment with making my own brushes. Have any of you all done that, made your own brushes?

I got like nothing done during the holidays! Ugh!
I think I’m going to have to do another art hibernation in order to reach my next deadline. My next deadline is Feb 15. I want to enter it in the local US Bank show in Bowing Green, KY. (I have to give myself deadlines that involve other people lol). Sooooo, I’m gonna get this baby colored!

I’m playing around with some coloring ideas here.

I’ve also been playing around with some water color textures I think I may try embed into the layouts.

@CLCanadyArts Awe, thanks Yeah, If I sent it to a publisher, I would leave it mostly as is, just a few spreads in color.