Bunny Post #11 - Surprise!

The Egg Artist © Diana Ting Delosh Ink & Watercolor

Sometimes when you least expect it, your work surprises you.

Bunny Egg Artist design is available as an Easter card in my store, www.gcuniverse.com/dianascards.

Posting bunnies from February 3rd - Feb 17th to celebrate the Chinese New Year 2011. 11 Bunny Posts down and 4 more hopping up. Happy 11th day of the Year of the Rabbit.

Life after tax day

OX, © Diana Ting Delosh, ink & watercolor illustration

Whew - tax day has come & gone... and at least it's all done & filed. Now to get back to life. It's April 16, mid-point of the 1st month of the 2nd quarter - what's up?

The Year of the Ox is proving true to it's promise that good fortune will be acquired through hard work and patience. Well at least I've got the work and patience routine down and a few proposals pending. Create, promote, submit, wait....wait....wait. Repeat steps 1, 2, 3, many many times.

On another matter - I officially gave notice at my part time job this week. The job had dwindled from 20+ hours to 4+ hours a week... which made me wonder why bother among other questions. Sure I could've stayed on until the inevitable no hours on the schedule. At anyrate I felt the monies lost could be easily replaced by my freelance activites and the 4+ hours could be put to use working on artbiz stuff. The PT job had lost it's purpose, namely to give me a regular funds, so I wouldn't be taking art jobs from hell. Well the regular funds dwindled to a joke and I was back to considering art job's from hell. Now the onus is to make it work without any back-up - again. Not sure if I did the right thing in this economy, only time will tell. So what was I saying about the Year of the OX? Yup - hard work and patience.

Brush Strokes on Squidoo!

I'm currently a featured artist on Sherry Holden's Squidoo Lens. How exciting! Moi and 2 other artists will be featured for about a month. So if you have a chance please take a gander at: www.squidoo.com/ArtistsAtImagekind.

Happy 2009

2009 Scribble Type - © 2008 Diana Ting Delosh
I begin 2009 with guarded optimism, despite all the gloomy news around me. For me 2008 ended on a hopeful note that better things may be round the corner art biz wise. So here goes: What worked in 2008 that I plan on doing more of in 2009:

• ChildrensIllustrators.com/DianaTDelosh - made a point of doing monthly tweaks that led to increased site exposure, several job leads and work. Will continue with the monthly tweaks.

• New in 2008, my website dianadelosh.com - gave me credibility and exposure which landed the assignments. Continue tweaking & updating site.

• Targeted Submissions - resulted in contracts. Must do more!

• Promo Postcards - Did 2 mass promo campaigns. Did see increased traffic to my website. Yay! As well as direct replies to my mailings. Shoot for 4 campaigns in 2009.

• GreetingCardUniverse.com/dianascards - focused on creating cards for holidays and quadrupled my sales from 2007. New goal: double my sales. Add new designs weekly.

• WingedRabbit.ImageKind.com - updated to a platinum account in Nov 2008 for the premium site exposure and gallery space. Images are definitely getting more views - which hopefully will lead to more sales!

• Networking via forums, listservs, IF, etc. I get the most referrals to my website and POD stores via SCBWI discussion board and CBIG.

IF: CLUTTER

Hamster/Mind Clutter © Diana Ting Delosh Marker

My mind is cluttered: brilliant ideas, daily minutiae,
distracting fears; all muddled together in a mental goulash. The trick is to remember: I am not a hamster.My mind is not my wheel.

IF: WRINKLES

Tortoise © Diana Ting Delosh

Wrinkles look good on tortoises. I don't like them on me - unless of course I could turn into a tortoise or walrus - nor do I like them when they turn up in my plans.

This is a style I am experimenting with. It's still ink line and watercolor but it's a fatter, simpler, looser line with lot's of washy color. A bit of a vacation from my usual more detailed style. Please let me know what you think.

Illustrator's Art Prints & Cards

Fine Art Prints make unique presents for mom or anyone else on your gift list including yourself. Browse my Gallery for whimsical story art and decorative florals available as fine art giclée prints and art cards. Prints are available in various sizes and grades of fine art papers. Custom matting and framing is optional. Your choice of fine art papers is also available for cards. Please click on my ImageKind Ardwerx Scrolling Banner in the right side bar to view all images.

ImageKind is offering Free US Ground Shipping in honor of Mother's Day. Please use Promo Code: MDay2008 at check out. Limit 1 order per person. Offer ends Mother's Day May 11, 2008 at 10pm PDT.

Thanks for looking and shopping at: wingedrabbit.imagekind.com/ardwerx

Artist's - Mother's Day Card Sales Promo!

Greeting Card Universe is offering Free Postage and Shipping for Mother's Day Cards. No minimum card purchase. Please use Promo Code: MOTHER08 at check out. Hurry - Offer ends April 30, 2008. Please click on my Diana's Cards Widget in the right side bar and choose from any of my 6* Mother's Day Cards.

Diana's Cards features my ink and watercolor, animal and floral illustrations for holidays and all occassions. These are real, high quality, PAPER GREETING CARDS! Please note that the inside text is fully editable. Pick your font, color, size, write your own message or even make into a blank note. To date, there are 159* card designs in my store. *New Cards are added weekly. Thanks for looking and shopping at: greetingcarduniverse.com/dianascards.com.

IF: FAIL

UGH! - © 2007 Diana Ting Delosh

The Illustration Friday - word of the week is: Fail

To FAIL, To be a failure - to be a Loser, to be a Reject, etc. Introducing Fern Messy, a character from a picture book proposal I'm currently shopping around. She epitomizes how I feel when one of my proposals is rejected. Even though I know not to take it personally - my gut reaction is to feel like I've failed.

Awhile back I had asked my mentor and friend, the great children's book illustrator and author, Robert Quackenbush if he had any advice on dealing with rejection/failure. He shared his 2 favorite mottos ( borrowed from Winston Churchill):

"Always pass from failure to failure with enthusiasm."

"Never give up! Never give up! No, never, never, never give up!"

My Illustration Promo Postcard

Here it is - my promo postcard design - well the front anyway. I know the usual wisdom is to use your best already created image but I got this great idea. Originally
I was going to have Skunk say "On the internet, we can pass as people!" It tickled my funnybone. But common sense prevailed. It is after all supposed to be my postcard to launch my illustration Website. And it was getting way too type heavy and cluttered. So now Skunk is just shouting dianadelosh.com - in big letters. It works better design wise too, I think.

The back will just have my return address and will feature a small ink/line drawing of a girl chalk doodling on the pavement. Yup - I do draw people - animal and nature is just a specialty.