Reworking a Character

Hey there folks,

I know that most of the recent posts have been for my editorial work, but don't think I've forgotten my children's book whatnot. Perish the thought!

I've been doing quite a bit of children's illustration - some work on a project I can't yet talk about as well as a bunch of personal projects. After returning home from the conference, I made a list of goals for the coming months. At the top of that list: revising and reworking. I decided to return to older projects - projects I've let sit for a while - and begin the long revision process. And I don't mean changing a comma here and there... I'm working on complete overhauls. First the text - scrapping manuscripts and rewriting from scratch. Then redoing the art - reworking old sketches, tossing said old sketches, and developing new scenes and new characters.

The first story I decided to tackle is an old favorite... one of my thesis stories.

The first order of business was to get to know my character again:

I did a whole bunch of sketches. Pages and pages. In some she's too tall, others too old, or too pointy, too round, too chin-y... and in others, just right. Somewhere along the way, a friend evolved. And finally, when I thought I knew her again, I did a full-color character study.