Weekly Update: Making Character Sheets
This is more of a Not-So-Weekly update since I missed a week, but I’ve successfully made some more progress in learning how to illustrate picture books! I moved away from the first idea I had - (I will come back to it at some point, I swear) - and am now learning how to make watercolour art on my iPad.
I’ve been trying my best to only draw from my head without any references. Sometimes I’ve been looking at a reference for a specific type of hat, or if there's something very particular that I can’t picture as easily in my head. But mostly, I’ve been focusing on just trusting my instincts and making whatever it is that I’m seeing in my brain. That includes the lighting and shadows. It’s going pretty good so far, however, everything I end up making has this cute/eerie vibe to it?
I decided to go along with the cute/creepy vibe and I made a few weird monsters. Here is the first one I made in all her glory…
After the first monster, there was no stopping me. I made a few more.
I’m actually not the biggest fan of the last bird guy, I really struggled with his shadows and will probably scrap him, but I wanted to include him anyway! After making these monsters, I tried my best to create a character sheet. I’ve never made one of these before, so it’s a little wonky, but I like the idea and where it’s going. I also successfully turned her head!
Here she is as a creepy/cute spider.
Annnd that’s all the progress I’ve made so far on the picture book side of things. I’m having a lot of fun learning how to do this, and I can definitely see myself continuing to making picture books alongside my novels in the future.
In other news, I’m working on a new cover for The Beauty of Dawn and releasing it as a hardcover. I want to move it over from strictly Amazon KDP to IngramSpark so bookstores can theoretically purchase it. This will take a while, as I unfortunately have other things on the go like school (boo), but it will happen eventually. If Our Souls Were Flowers is also still trucking along. I’m thinking I’ll have more time to work on IOSWF over the summer.
I have one more year and possibly (?) one semester of school left, then I’ll be done! I’ll likely save up for a year and focus really hard on these projects. I have some thoughts of doing a Master’s in a city, but we’ll see. I’m thinking either an MFA abroad somewhere, or just travelling around for a while, working on projects and networking.
If that doesn’t work out, I was thinking about potentially getting certified as a school teacher at UBC in British Columbia. J.K. Rowling, Stephen King, and Rick Riordan were all school teachers at one point, and I love teaching kids, so why not?
I guess I’ll see how it goes. Before I think that far ahead though, I need to successfully post a weekly update on time!
See you on the next page,
Willow
