Busy as a bee

I have been very productive lately. I have completed projects that have been waiting to be finished - some for as long as 15 years! Finally 3 full dummies are complete, and I am really going to be shopping them to agents over the next while. In the meantime, you can take a peak at some of my work in the illustration folder. Here are some tidbits to whet your appetite.

From Liz & Pip - an illuminated tale of sharing vs. greed. View more images from this book and read a synopsis here.

Some of my favorite things about the image above are the whole boardroom layout with toys and dolls in the chairs. I also love the way their expressions turned out too. Liz really looks like he is trying to work out some kind of angle, and Pip looks like such a huckster! On the TV's are 2 game shows - Let's Make A Deal and Wheel of Fortune.

The names in the the portraits from L-R are: Count Da Money, Duke Em Out, General Mayhem, and of course Liz Wiz!

Below is the cover design based on heraldry. I really did my research and there was a little magic too - so this coat of arms is pretty legit and really suits the story if you know a bit about heraldry. I really enjoy doing heraldry and coats of arms. I think I have a talent for it. It is a very interesting subject matter.

For those interested I have added the blazon for the coat of arms below the image. A blazon is a worded description of the coat of arms and was used by heralds to identify the knight jousting by describing his insignia to the crowds.

Blazon – Liz & Pip

Arms:

Argent a cross throughout Gules surmounted by an escutcheon of pretense charged with the title of the book.  Clockwise from dexter chief:  Azure a bend dexter Argent charged with 3 strawberries Proper cotised potent/counter-potent Or.  Vert a bend sinister Ermine corner 1 charged with a cane proper, 2 with a cup Or; Vert a bend dexter Purple fimbrated argent seme of mullets Or, 3 a cornucopia dexter Or, and 4, an annulet sinister Argent; Azure a bend Chequey Sable and Argent sinister, dexter base 1 charged with scallop shell Argent 2 charged with St. Bridget's Cross Proper.

Crest
Helmet facing closed Or, collared with the Garter of the Order of St. George Or and Purple. Surmounted by a Naval Crown Or showing stern center with  sails furled, bows on either side with sails full Argent and flags dexter Gules and sinister Vert. Mantled per pale dexter Gules and Chequey, Sinister Vert and Ermine.

Supporters
On a bag Chequey in perspective dexter, a mouse (Pip) sejant erect Proper, sinister a lizard (Liz) rampant regardant Proper. Base of broken columns Argent and Or Dexter charged with a Real MacAwe addorsed proper surmounted by a heart Gules, Sinister a brick wall Or mortared Sanguine charged with a pair o' dice (little jo logo) Proper.

(in place of motto: the sub-title and credits.)

 If I have made errors in the blazon and there are experts out there to correct me - I welcome the edits!

began redrawing of Liz & Pip

I began the 3-4th redraw of this book last night. First page is more-or-less done in line art now.  I was able to save the vast majority of the work that I have already done on it. I think it will look much better than before so I am not feeling so bad about the work ahead. I get to revisit with the characters that I have come to love so much. Now, this is page 1 - so you might have to check back when I am on page 28 to see how I feel.

It might be fun to show you the history of it all - so stay tuned - I will gather the evidence.

3rd time's the charm for Liz & Pip?

Well, I have been avoiding submitting one of my stories (Liz & Pip), though it is a personal favorite, as I have not been able to figure out a suitable layout for creating a dummy. What does this mean? Well, I have finally admitted to myself that the whole illustrative concept will have to change.  To get a sense of what I have gone through on this project, this has been my journey:

1. Story idea comes to me! I write the whole thing in 5 minutes. Made a couple of small edits a few years later.

2. Begin illustrating. Complete about half of the book as a combination of collage and watercolour. The pages look pretty dull as there isn't much 'action' in the story, and I feared for rights management in the images I had appropriated.  I put it away for awhile.

3. The whole batch vanishes from my parents home. (Likely thrown out.)

4. Decide to begin developing layout - and start with little illustrated drop caps. Love them so much and it brings the necessary 'action' to the pages - begin illustrating the whole thing in giant illuminated letters. Have completed the book mostly with about 46 pages of ridiculously detailed drawings.

here is a sample

5. Very happy with most of the letters - however can't get a book layout to work. Put it away again for awhile. Did some submissions - but I wasn't quite happy with it yet.

6. Realized I must redo the whole thing. But I think I can salvage some of the letters and still use a few of them. I also think that the process of creating the last set gave me a way to make the book work. In other words, I won't lose all my work, I have a ton of my own reference material now - however, I will need to redraw it completely differently. I am actually looking forward to that now.  

All in all, 10 years of work...but this time, I will get it right.