Blogging - a motivational tool?

Since January I have been blogging pretty much on a weekly basis. In the past I have always found it hard to keep up with a journal. I got bored. Somehow I was never comfortable with just writing down my stuff in a little book, and then putting it away in the nightstand drawer. In fact I found it downright embarrassing and oddly uncomfortable.

So why does it seem so much easier to blog? Is it because, on the odd occasion, someone, somewhere on the web reads my drivel and leaves me a comment? Totally narcissistic. But, you know, talking to what may (or may not) be an imaginary listener has really made me focus on what I am chattering on about. In the end of the week round up of news I look back on what I've achieved (or not)and what (if anything) I am looking forward to in the week to come.

When I re-read I have a real sense of what I was thinking about several months ago, and I can also see if what I planned went the way I thought it would or whether the tangents I zoomed off on have led me down a more interesting path.Perhaps this is just the same with a private diary, but blogging, well, you have to mean it somehow!

And therefore, in an odd way, the weekly blog is keeping me motivated. I like to have something to talk about and pictures to show you (and me!). And this blog-writing-time let's me gather my thoughts and gird my loins to get on with the tasks ahead.

When I started the blog I thought it would just be a way of letting people know about my illustrations and drawing. And 'something you have to do' in these technological days to build a so-called 'platform'. I had no idea I would ENJOY it.

I held out on Facebook for a long time too ... and now I love it (probably too much!) I have made some excellent contacts on FB, found new and sincere friends, and learned a great deal. It too is a source of inspiration and motivation.

Unlike a lot of bloggers, and many in the children's lit and illustration world, I am not good at gathering and sharing huge amounts of information and links and what-not. I just hope that my bumbling posts may help in some way other's on the same journey. I hope they make someone smile now and again and perhaps entertain.

But most of all I am thankful that I can make my art better and be a small part of this great tradition.

Right. Enough of the euphorics.

I went sailing this week! (Did you miss last week's blog?? TSK TSK) Here's a pic of the students I taught in an art cruise on Isaac H Evans Windjammer Cruise last week. They came from as far away as CA.


That's me in the middle with Capt Brenda. It was a great time ... we sailed around the Maine islands, but, oh, did the wind give us a good going over! I'll say! Here are few more of my sketches and photos ...





 
 You can find more on my FaceBook Fan Page.

I am still working on the 4 math PB layouts ... 2 down, 2 to go. I have had some great feedback from a few cool illustrators and writers and I thank them bunches for their help! It never fails to surprise me how nice folks in the children's illustration world are ...

Oh yes, the MANUSCRIPT is here for THE BOOK I will be working on this next couple o' months. So this weekend I will going over it and planning out the spreads. Really looking forward to getting my teeth into it.

Tomorrow off to see an exhibition of Whistler's prints in Waterville, Maine with some other artists, so that will feed the mind.

And before I forget, maybe you will tune in (or download) Red River Radio prog I am on next week chatting about illustration ... here is the link ....Dellanis Tea Time

Cheerio till next time!
Hazel
aka The Wacky Brit

PS .. nothing new on the bedside table ... oops.




Dummy (plural)

Dummy. It's a funny word when you think about it. The dictionary describes it as 'general style of a contemplated piece of printing.' Which is indeed what I have been working on this week. Of course it 'informally' can mean a somewhat stupid person, and sometimes that applies to me also. What a versatile language English is! 

So, yes, Dummy's. (Or should it be dummies?) Whichever, I have been working on the math book layouts (aka T'he Dummy' for those not in the terminology).  I have pretty much finished Bear -



And Aardvark -




Next the Dinosaur and then Dragonfly layouts. Each one seems to be taking 3 days to get into shape ... I already had a rough layout done and some sketches. I have been adding shading to the sample coloured pages and putting the text in speech bubbles, as it is all direct speech and makes more sense. Doing some revising and adding in bits and pieces like end pages and title page ideas and stuff. 


I was so hoping to get them finished and submitted by the end of September ... it's still doable, just. But next week I am teaching a sketching cruise on a Maine Windjammer (Isaac H Evans in Rockland). the weather is looking good, so hopefully we won't all be in the galley drawing bowls of fruit, and as soon as I get back I will have the MANUSCRIPT from the publisher for the BOOK and then it is full steam ahead on the illustrations for IT. So, maybe I will find a few late nights to work on the last two math books. I am SO ready to submit them. I am so fed up of working on them!! I thought I knew where I was going to send them. And now I might be having second thoughts. Well, whatever, they are getting off my desk in an envelope and on to some one else's desk.


And that's about it.  I haven't surfaced much from the attic. I see a bright thing rise in the East out the window, and set in the West so I know the world is still turning.


Just over a month until the conference in Nevada and first mentor session with Priscilla Burris .. looking forward to it, but there is another thing hurtling towards me at speed. What's up with time?? 


Looking ahead to next year I am considering applying for the Amhurst College Mass, Illustration Master Class in summer. That would be awesome (Americanism) and I hear Peter De Seve and Mo Willems might be on the faculty. Two of my fav illustrators. Not sure how much it might cost yet ... guess I will need to save my pennies and get some more work in!


Right, I am pooped. Going to watch some TV and drink some rum in anticipation of sailing next week. I will be taking my camera, so pics to come next time, I expect.


Casting Off!
Hazel
aka The Wacky Brit


PS ... Nothing new on the bedside table. Rereading 'Elidor' by Alan Garner, because if there is anyone I wish I could write like it is the old master.


PPS If anyone has a recipe for no-sugar and no-fat cake please send it to me!

Apple pie and wood fires.

Last week I was moaning about the heat. This week I lit the first wood fire of the year in my studio. Soon we will be shovelling snow. Unless we have a burst of Indian summer, which is highly likely. Ah, Maine you fickle state.

I think my memory is getting worse, or there is some weird warping thing going on with time. I find I have to go back and read last week's post as I can't for the life of me remembered what the heck happened, and don't want to repeat myself (lest I bore you and you stop dropping by blogdom.) The holiday weekend seems to cause swirls in the continuum.

Counter tops were installed (hurrah!). I'm tiling today. Only been 6 years since we started building the house and finally the kitchen may be finished. Which is nice. I like tiling. Very satisfying lining things up.

On the arty farty front I have been footling around with stuff. I finished a watercolour portrait for a client in Boston, which I enjoyed doing. Made a change to do something completely by hand.


 A drew a doodle of Sushi, my dog:
I got very excited about embedding Flickr in my website (see previous post). And found you can embed in blogs and who KNOWS where else, so that's impressive. I will be at it everywhere. So here's a preview below:


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

I got to Friday and found I had a bit of time to think about the math problem solving books and getting those ready to send out (groan ... I am tired of hearing myself repeat the same old same old!) ... I had, which of course you will remember, been doing flat, retro illustrations. And then I thought, maybe I should shade one? So here is one of the Bear and her friend. What do you think?


Oh yes. Apple Pie. A lovely lady in our local town runs a charity Welcome Table every Friday, and this week myself and another illustrator, his wife and a friend (is it a movie title??? Watch out Peter Greenway) cooked up a storm and fed the ravening (that word never looks right, I have an image of Alfred Hitchcock's 'The Birds'!) hoards. We had delicious ziti, salad, and a million apple pies. (OK, eight). But they went down very well. I even had some left over ... you know what I am snacking on for breakfast. It was fun and I think we should enter for Top Chef. (En mass.)

BBC Radio ran Roald Dahl's new biography in serial form this week. I enjoyed listening to it. A more real picture of the man and his somewhat eccentric ways. I will definitely be reading this. Interestingly when Dahl sold his first book to Disney, he bought himself false teeth. Even though he had all his own. You have to respect that. Personally I was just thinking of buying  a mini with a Union Jack on the top. (So I only need about $20k Mr Disney).

The sun is well up now and horses want to go to their field and munch, so I will away  ..

Ta ta!
Hazel
aka The Wacky Brit

On the bedside table this week:
Bats at the Ballgane - Brian Lies
The Junkyard Wonders - Patricia Polacco
How Rocket Learned to Read - Tad Hills


All author/illustrators for once!