Doubt and Inspiration

Hey there blog readers,

I had a bit of inspiration tonight. After a long day, during which I went through approximately a ream of paper making completely unusable sketches--yes, unusable--I finally had a breakthrough on a story I've been working on. The manuscript clicked and the sketches started to make sense.

It felt a little like this:

And then, after a day of not getting things done and a long evening of productive work, I took a break to scan facebook (grooooan, I know) and listened to this:

 

It really struck a chord. 

It's Ira Glass (of This American Life fame, and if you've never heard of Ira or This American Life, stop right now and get thee to the website, browse the vault, and subscribe to the free podcast in the iTunes store this instant... I promise you won't regret it)... ahem, Ira Glass talking about people who tell stories and who do creative things. It really struck a chord. We all experience doubt about our choices, our careers, and the things we make, and in the  process of learning, we all make things that fall short and disappoint us. But, as Ira says so well, the best thing to do is to keep working, to keep at it, and to fight through it.

It feels good to look back at the day knowing that though the first stack of sketches wasn't what I had hoped for, I couldn't have produced tonight's drawings without all of that work. 

Tantrums

Dearest blog readers,

It has been one of those days, nay, one of those weeks. Yes, it has. Just a parade of indignities, marching one right after the other. I'm not going to indulge myself with the full list, but let me give you a single example; I exploded my fave cooking dish last night. Seriously, it exploded. I wish I were joking. I was boiling water in the aforementioned dish, and all of a sudden, KABLAM!!!!!! Glass and a flood of hot water across the stovetop. It was awesome. I know, sarcasm doesn't always work in print, so lest you think I'm being serious, I am not. It was the worst. 

So, to summarize, the week felt approximately like this:

And now, it's after 11pm on the eve of my 31st birthday, and I'm still working. You'd think that my birthday might perk me up... but it's just been that kind of a week. So I took a break from this current job, and I threw an art tantrum.

And you know what? 

I might actually feel a little better.

Of Doodles and Sock Monkeys

Hey there blog readers,

I recently had a skype-date with an excellent writer friend (who I met at my first SCBWI conference) who read me one of her manuscripts. It was amazing. I am consistently bowled over by my talented peers. In any case, I couldn't get her story out of my head, and as I was between gigs, my itchy fingers grabbed for a pencil.

I filled up pages of my sketchbook with character doodles and thumbnails.

 And without much more prep, I transferred a couple of the sketches onto some good paper and added a wee bit of color.

After I had finished, I realized that I had never drawn a sock monkey before. I'm adding a check to the ole bucket list.

New work for April

Hey blog-readers,

Happy Spring! NY is finally starting to warm up... it's still a touch chilly, but there's an undercurrent of Spring in the air. Apologies for the slow updates. Between design work, freelance gigs, wedding planning (gasp!), and maintaining some semblance of life outside the studio, the days are just packed.

Rather than bore you with  my crazy days, how about some new work, eh?

I've been having so much fun with the character I developed for the $5 Promo, she's shown up all over the place, including in a new painting. I imagined Rosie careening all around her house; she's not much of a sit-still kind of kid. In any case, I had such a good time making this impromptu piece that I decided to use it for my Spring promotional card.

Until next time!