CHRISTMAS...A time for Discovery and Making Memories

Christmas. So much preparation leading up to "the day" and then it's over. I set a goal to make the most of the season. Of course, that comes with the cold days of December, some snow and cold rain and ice. I have found concentrating on the positive keeps a smile on my face and joy in my heart. (Shovel away and hum "Joy to the World?")  ...and Make more Memories!

Besides making oodles of Christmas cookies with the help of Mom's old cookie gun, I have spent the last month making winter/Christmas illustrations of my newest characters, Rosie & Magee, in hopes of discovering inspiration for a Christ-centered story. The picture posted here is pretty self-explanatory. Time again to go up to the attic to get the Christmas decorations. In Rosie's discovery of the box marked "Nativity," she shuffles through the tissue paper and finds Mary, Joseph, shepherds, sheep....BUT the baby Jesus is missing!

How I get from "lost" to "found"  is still processing in my head, but ultimately, I want the reader to know that Jesus never left. He was there all the time. All we have to do is look for Him.  He is the GIFT of the season.  "Seek and you will find."

May you find Jesus Christ this Christmas...May you come to appreciate the FREE GIFT of eternal life God gave us by His sacrifice of coming down in the form of a human, Jesus Christ, and ultimately dying a sinless death, as payment for us. Amazing. Jesus said, "I and the Father are One."

Have a BLESSED CHRISTMAS!!!

Winter is Just Around the Corner!

Time to buckle down and grumble about the coming season, or is it time to anticipate the joys of winter and embrace it? ?? Today is the last day of November. Thanksgiving is over and families are eager to decorate their houses and lawns with all sorts of lights and decor. Even I am starting to get a bit of Christmas spirit as I "embrace" my new characters, Rosie and Magee and think of a new adventure.

Winter is a time for cosy fires, grilled cheese sandwiches and soup, and making hot cocoa, and baking cookies after shoveling or exploring the new fallen snow. Maybe even time for tasting snowflakes and making snow forts and snow angels...or just getting nostalgic about what you used to do as a kid.

May your December be inspired–"embroidered" with love and anticipation as a child. May it be infused with the real reason that we celebrate. Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matt 18:3)

 Search your heart for that childlike awe for our God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who came to earth as a man, to be the ultimate sacrifice for us. Remember He is in charge and is sovereign. He knows the beginning and the end, so rest in that knowledge. 

Make Lemons into Lemonade!

My first "adult" reaction to the First Snow of winter 2016 was, "OH NO, I AM NOT READY FOR WINTER!" 
An artist friend from San Diego, replied in a Facebook post, "Get out and enjoy and make Snow Angels!" So instead, on that Sunday morning, November 20, 2016, I took up my pencil and sketched out my new characters, Rosie & Magee, experiencing their First Snow with their tongues. (Sketch to be colorized and may be used as a promotional postcard)
The magical quiet that comes with snowfall is awe inspiring.  OK...enough of that dreamy drivel...I had to bundle up and clean off the car and get to church. (Oh such a Scrooge!)
My prayer is, "Lord, help me to enjoy and be in awe like a child of this upcoming Christmas season."

Darkness of Night Holds Mysteries and Fright

Here it is October again. I am not a fan of Halloween and all it seems to stand for.  Each year gets creepier and creepier. This year CLOWNS are jumping out of bushes and scaring school kids. There have been some arrests, but even I was "accused" of being a clown when taking a walk in my white hoodie after dark with my flashlight. I thought the initial news of scary clowns was a publicity stunt, but it's not! What next? No clown illustrations here. Just Imogene, who likes to read scary stories late at night.

BOOKS help us GROW!

Of course, we have heard this before, but I am convinced that books, reading, etc. certainly can broaden the mind. The "How-To" books of writing and illustration still "talk" to me.  I am especially convinced we are never too old to learn as long as we maintain a teachable spirit. I continue to put on paper the stories from my own childhood experiences and meld them with the quirky stories of my own 4 children. My attempts at writing children's books are heart felt, but time and again I am reminded, "you are an illustrator."  Is this going to discourage me from trying to be a writer? an author/illustrator? Maybe? maybe not. 

If nothing else, these tales and characters I create will supply fodder for illustration in order to compile a dummy for submission. Despite other mundane jobs, I will attempt to create my fantasy world and to hopefully grab the attention of an agent or editor. At the very least, I continue to entertain myself!!! Still finding my niche.

My First SCBWI conference was an EDUCATION! Let the WORK begin!

School may be out, but now the work begins. My recent "education" was my first SCBWI conference in Princeton NJ in June 2016. Being an attendee, I have special privileges to send work to agents within a window of 1 month to 1 year. I am self-examining and say, "Do I have anything ready for submission?"
At the conference, I displayed my portfolio and viewed the displayed portfolios. There were illustrations submitted for judging...my spot was an empty space on the ledge–Just not enough time to even think about it before leaving on "the California Tour."  Having just returned from 3-plus weeks in CA promoting PLAYMATES FOR PUPPIES© by Roz Silva, published by Dayton Publishing, LLC. I flew by the seat of my pants and drove to Princeton for two days of listening, exchanging ideas, absorbing like a sponge, and frantic note-taking. As I perused the displays of various portfolios, I saw that I was lacking certain elements. Time to make "to-do" lists, and GET TO WORK!

The Journey of Creating a "VOICE" within the Development of a Children's Book

Above are Tank and Topo from Playmates for Puppies to be published May 2016, prequel to Three Tales, Four Dogs ©2015.  Below them are their "co-stars" from this second children's book by author Roz Silva and publisher Dayton Publishing.

Seems like I have been working on this second children's book "forever," but in reality, from conception to finish, THE JOURNEY is months of changes, tweaks, and just plain fortitude. One ebbs and flows through the excitement of creating the characters to the tweaking and tweaking and TWEAKING to get the characters to appear the same on each page. I don't think I realized how hard this would be over a period of months. I even find I am doubting myself by saying, "Are you sure you really want to be an illustrator of children's books?" And another exasperated "self-comment" is "I am so OVER THIS!"

This book has had me combing through reference material on drawing all kinds of houses, trucks, people, and DOGS! A good training, I suppose, but I still question, "Where am I?" My art toggles back and forth from cartoon images to realistic watercolor images, as I am also a trained fine artist. I bring some of the fine art skills into my cartoon images, and sometimes lose my way. My schizophrenic mind of silly to serious gets confused sometimes. Still, in all, I have created, or am in the process of creating, my "voice."