How I’m ending the summer
I’m only 5 months into starting my blog, and I’ve already missed a month. July went by way too fast, and before I knew it I had two days to think of a topic to write about. I was so stressed out, I was trying to put something together but it felt so strained and forced. On the last day, I took a deep breath and realized it wasn’t worth stressing about it, and that if I missed a month the world would not end. After all, my intention for this blog was that it would be a casual chronicle of my work, of trying to become a full time illustrator and all the ups and downs that will surely happen along the way. As soon as I made up my mind that I wasn’t going to post anything, I could hear that nagging voice we all have – ‘That’s a bad idea’, ‘It won’t look good if you miss one’, ‘You need to come up with anything to look like you’re working’ and the best one ‘What does it matter anyways, nobody reads your blog’. After some time of doubting and still stressing (lol), I had to shrug it off. As I get older, I find it easier to let things go and know that some things are just not worth my energy.
So what have I been up to these last two months… I started a new Make Art That Sells (MATS) course called Character Play. The course is for three months, so I have one more month to go. We managed one family trip (though it was only a long weekend), camping for a few days as a cook and driver to my daughter and her friends (it was actually a really nice time), and becoming a chauffeur in the summer for my two teenagers who worked hard and played hard. I also managed to get in a few picnics, days with friends and lazy days on our deck. Unfortunately, I’m ending the summer with one of my dogs recovering from two hernia operations, so I’ve been stuck in the basement with her. It’s already been 12 days, only about 30 more days until we can go for a proper walk and up the stairs to join the rest of the family. It’s been a roller coaster of a summer, I’m sure a lot of people can relate.
Here’s our sweet Zya recovering. She has been through a lot in her 1.5 years, I can only hope it’ll be a smooth ride from here on.
I wanted to share the latest work I’ve created for the MATS course this month. I’ve enjoyed the course a lot, the instructors Zoë Tucker and Riley Wilkinson have been amazing! The class is set up so every Monday you receive content and on the last Monday of the month there is a live call with both instructors and Lilla Rogers (owner and instructor of MATS). The first Monday Zoë sends copy that she has written for some children’s book. On the second Monday, Riley assigns some type of children’s toy that you design based on what characters you’ve developed during the previews week. The third week you get some type of bonus content related to the assignments and on the last Monday, you upload your assignments to the gallery and have a live zoom call. On the call, the instructors chat, give great advice, talk about the industry, etc. and in the last 45 minutes, everyone in attendance gets put into a group of three and you get an opportunity to meet and talk to other students.
The bootcamp (which is what it’s called) has been great, and I’m so glad I signed up for it. It’s been a fabulous way to build my portfolio and to work on subjects that I know I wouldn’t have even thought about. I’ve learnt a lot! But I will be honest, and the one thing I was disappointed at was that there isn’t any feedback on any of the work. I knew that they wouldn’t give feedback to everyone (there is way too many people in the course), but I thought they would at least talk about a few of the stronger pieces so that we could all learn what works and or what doesn’t. I get now why they don’t, the bootcamp is not one of their bigger courses (where you do get feedback) but in my mind, because there was a live chat component I thought there would still be some minimal feedback. This is just a warning for anyone who is thinking of taking the course and might expect the same thing. Despite that one thing, I would completely recommend the course to anyone.
Of course, what I write here is only my opinion, and I hope to give honest reviews on things I try in case it might help someone else along the way.
July’s assignment was for a picture book, and it was about a flower named Minnie who had just been born. I did some very quick warm-ups referencing lots of different flowers so that I could find a shape I liked. Then I started playing with shapes, trying to find my characters and face. Once I started to find my characters I was trying to work out my composition and what section of the story I wanted to illustrate.
I apologize for the quality of the images, I didn’t have access to my scanner and I took the pictures in some very poor lighting.
And here is Minnie finalized
The second assignment was to design puppets based on Minnie and the Sun. I decided to design paper puppets, I loved the idea of creating backdrops and making a ‘mini theatre’. Something I used to love as a kid.
These are my final pieces. They were done with mixed media, gouache and pencil crayons and finished on Procreate.
August’s assignment was for a non-fiction book about the Ostrich. A very quirky animal I hadn’t drawn before! This was a really fun assignment, and it made me realize that I hadn’t even considered doing work for this genre. I’m definitely considering it now, and I’m excited to work on more portfolio pieces for it. I loved doing the research, and I love the idea of illustrating educational books that would inspire young readers to learn about our world.
These are some of the quick studies I did, trying to figure out the shape of the Ostrich and the environment it lives. As well as a few rough layout ideas and the other cute birds I got to draw for my spread.
The second part of the assignment was to design a seek-and-find board game. I was having so much fun with the birds that I wanted to keep drawing animals, so I branched out from just the Ostrich and illustrated an African Savanna theme. I illustrated both pieces on Procreate, so I don’t have any sketches for the board game, but here are my two final pieces.
I’m ready to establish some routines as we get back into the school year, and finishing the MATS course. Also, I haven’t contacted any new agencies or publishers during the summer at all, but now that I have some new pieces I need to get back on it. Just today, I wrote on my goals list to contact 5 new people a week!! Is that realistic? I’m not sure, but I’ll update you next time.
If you stuck around till the end, thanks for being here.
Until next month –