INKTOBER2016: Inks 10 - 19

October is two thirds over, which means inktober is too. I'm finding the inking to be going well enough. I'm up to ink number 22. However the scanning or shooting and actually posting it on twitter, never mind then doing a blog recap of them is where I'm tripping up.

10 - Bear & Bunny are frightened of the ghosts in the forest - Biro Sketch
© Diana Ting Delosh

Ink no. 10: This Biro, ball point pen sketch is the sketch for my illustration for the SCBWI October Draw This prompt, FRIGHT. I will post about it in a later post.

11 - Cupcake - Brush Pen quickie © Diana Ting Delosh

12 - Weedy Bits © Diana Ting Delosh 

13 - Oak Tree © Diana Ting Delosh

14 - Scared Bear ©Diana Ting Delosh

Numbers 12 - 13 are some of the line art for the FRIGHT Illo based on the preliminary Biro Sketch number 10. Promise I'll be show the final color art soon on this blog but it may have to wait until after Inktober.

15 - Girl on the train - Biro Sketch
© Diana Ting Delosh

16 - Guy on the Train - Biro Sketch
© Diana Ting Delosh

Ball point pen sketches 15 & 16 were done on the train of actual people who of course had to move.

17 - When in doubt, draw a critter - Biro Sketch
© Diana Ting Delosh

18 - Side View of critter - Biro Sketch
© Diana Ting Delosh

19 - Back of Critter - Biro Sketch

Biro sketches 17 - 19 are more critter sketches for a character in a picture book idea I'm working on. Still not sure if this is going to be it. HM-m-m you may be seeing a few more assorted critters and beasties before October is over.

INKTOBER: doing 31 Inks in 31 days and sharing it on social media (my choice is Twitter) is definitely challenging. Even with my lowering the bar by including sketches as long as it's done with an ink bearing implement and saying 31 in 31 vs 1 ink per day for 31 days, is not easy. But I am finding a way to do it as part of my process vs an added activity. And being part of the community doing it is very enjoyable.

Web/Portfolio: dianadelosh.com

Twitter: @dtdelosh

Product Blog: arthareswares.blogspot.com

Group Blog: D2PB

ThumbNailer a book of boxes for your creative process

INKTOBER2016: Inks 1 - 9

INKTOBER: 31 inky illustrations in 31days. Posting on twitter with #inktober #inktober2016

Inktober 2016 started off on a weekend with houseguests and the new scanner had yet to arrive. SO I started late, on October 4, meaning I was already 4 days and 4 inks behind. While a part of me thought of not beginning because it was late, another part decided to just jump in. After all I've been thinking of starting a daily sketch habit. Might as well begin with Inktober! While some of the artists doing Inktober are doing themes, my rules will be very open: as long as the sketch or finished illustration had some ink involved I was counting it. Click on images to enlarge.

1 - Beast Biro Sketch, © DianaTing Delosh

2 - Beast BiroSketch, © Diana Ting Delosh

3 - Beast BiroSketch, © Diana Ting Delosh

Inks number 1 - 3 were quick Biro. ball point pen, sketches for a beastie character for a personal project. My current fave is the 3rd Rhino-Boy beast. On the other hand the 1st sketch has a vulnerable quality to him. Hm-m-m may have to do a few more beasties before I can make a decision on how/what this character will look like. 

4 - Fern Ink Line art detail, Micro Pens © Diana Ting Delosh

5 - Wildflowers Ink Line art detail, Radiograph Pens © Diana Ting Delosh

 Inks number 4 & 5 are details from 2 illustrations from an inky project on my drawing board that I can't show too much of - yet. Taking a page from my fellow illustrators when they're in this situation and just showing a DETAIL from the illustrations. 

6 - Tomato Biro Sketch © Diana Ting Delosh

I find drawing from life first thing in the morning to be very calming. A nice way to begin the day on a positive note.

7 - Bumble Bee, Micron Pen fun © Diana Ting Delosh

8 - Rhododendron, MicronPen Line art detail, © Diana Ting Delosh

9 - Morning Tea & Vitamins, Biro Sketch, © Diana Ting Delosh

Ta Dah! Nine inks in nine days! Think I'm getting the hang of making Inktober part of my daily ritual just like my morning mug of tea & vitamins. 

Web/Portfolio: dianadelosh.com

Twitter: @dtdelosh

Product Blog: arthareswares.blogspot.com

Group Blog: D2PB

ThumbNailer a book of boxes for your creative process

  

2016 Illustration Promotion Pages

One of my favorite pet projects for my local illustrators group, CBIG is to put together the annual Illustration Directories, the COLOR and the BLACK & WHITE to showcase our member illustrators. And if I'm designing the things, I sure as hell going to make sure I have a promo page in both of them. Personally, I think it's a good practice to make your own promo page annually anyway.

2016 Black & White Promo Sheet

The challenge to designing a promo page is deciding which illustrations go on it. Feature one or multiple illos? Definitely only 2016 work. This may sound easy but some years if I'm working on hush, hush projects this could be tricky. I went with three images for my BLACK & WHITE page: an ink and wash, an adult coloring book line art style and a grayscale version of  a hand lettering piece.

2016 Color Promo Sheet

For my Color Promo Page I decided to keep it simple and only one image.

Why should you create a promo page or two? You can add the PDFs to your website for your potential clients to print out. (next on my to-do list) Hand out the print outs to Art Directors & editors you meet at conference one-on-ones or other opportunities. You can also e-mail them as an attachment or give them the link on your website. Share them on your social media sites etc.

YAY! My BOY was selected for the cover of the BLACK & WHITE directory by a vote by the CBIG membership.  Very honored to be amongst my talented colleagues: Stephanie Ruble, Sharon Holm, Mike Ciccotello.

Web/Portfolio: dianadelosh.com

Twitter: @dtdelosh

Product Blog: arthareswares.blogspot.com

Group Blog: D2PB

ThumbNailer a book of boxes for your creative process

It's Illustration Self-Promotion time: Postcards

My original plans for this summer was to take a"vacation" away from kidlit art and work on my projects that had been put on the wa-a-a-ay back burner. After all I had just OD'd on kidlit prepping for the SCBWI NJ Conference and I couldn't think of another PB anything. HA!

Postcard for mailing: Front & Back of card
click to see bigger

But wait a moment, I had created a hand out for the  conference.  Seemed like a brilliant idea at the time BUT it meant that after the conference I didn't have a postcard I could just mail off. Drats! Now I'd have to create a postcard for mailing out. I knew which image I wanted to put on the front - my current Fave, Boy meets octopus, the illo that came out of the conference illustrator intensive. But what about the back? I  didn't want it to be too similar to my conference hand out. My solution - create art to to put the front illustration in context. I had always thought of the front illo as a dream or fanstasy scene. Hence my illo of a boy in bed with a book and his cat for the back of card. If you look closely at the book you can read a bit of the title "Twas... It's a nod to the illustrator intensive brief to illustrate a line from Lewis Carroll's poem, Jabberwocky, which begins, "Twas brillag and the slithy toves..."

Conference handout Front & Back of card
click to see bigger

Snoopy -my studio guest.
Ahem - helping me update my mailing labels. 

About the No Kid Lit Art Vacation and those back burner projects? Well they've moved up a bit on the burners and are simmering nicely. A few have even come to a boil.  You can peek at a few on my ArtHaresWares blog. There's a lot more but they're not ready to share yet.

My posts on the D2PB Blog In case you missed them:
• What I learned when I sprained my ankle: Celebrate the Small Steps
• My NJ SCBWI Conference illustrations: NJ SCBWI 2016 Aproaches

Web/Portfolio: dianadelosh.com

Twitter: @dtdelosh

Product Blog: arthareswares.blogspot.com

Group Blog: D2PB

The Beauty of Deadlines - D2PB

Embrace the deadline! Yes. They're not all bad. They force you to do things. Case in point: Me without a deadline, I was all loosey goosey and never got around to posting this post. Or posting any post for awhile on this blog. I for one definitely need a deadline even if it's a self imposed soft deadline that I know I can ignore with no ill effects. Just keeps me all fired up to finish stuff. Just in case you missed it, over at the D2PB group blog I wrote a post on the motivating effects of deadlines. Here's the link if you want to take a gander.

 Drawn To Picture Books: The Beauty of Deadlines - Diana Ting Delosh: I'm always amazed at what I can accomplish with a deadline breathing down my neck. It doesn't matter if the deadline is a sale for ...

ZEN RAM © Diana Ting Delosh
Ink, Watercolor, digital

OR just take it from the Ram. Get your Zen mode on and embrace your deadline.

To Share or Not to Share?

Recently at an SCBWI event, the speaker, Grace Maccarone, executive editor of Holiday House warned never to share ideas as someone else could take it and get it out and in the stores first. To wait until you have it in a tangible form before sharing it. After all ideas can't be  copyrighted. Only the specific tangible form inspired by the idea can be copyrighted.

Of course mum's the word when it comes to commissioned art. Unless the client is OK with you sharing. So that leaves sharing sketches and other personal art but not too much of it. Must leave some of it in the bag.

Bag Head © Diana Ting Delosh - Biro sketch

But... but... but if you don't share you're invisible. Plus sharing on social media is fun and gratifying. I'm a twitter girl myself so I know participating in one of the many art challenges and getting all those faves and Retweets is very, very nice. Addictive even. And you never know whose looking. It seems like every other day you hear of someone getting discovered/published/agented due to their Twitter, Instagram, blog, whatever activities. 

To share or not to share could be the digital era's equivalent of to be or not to be. There is no question that you should share your art despite fears of copyright infringement. The question really is how much, what and when?   Quite a few of my illustrator colleagues share some piece of art daily via Twitter or whatever. In fact that's how I discovered a lot of them via their daily art practice of creating and sharing.

So I am wondering if I should make this one of my daily art biz habits. I'm also in the throes of  prepping for the NJ SCBWI June Conference - which means hyper focusing to make  lots of art. Yes, currently creating lots just not sharing yet. Guess I'll be working on my "sharing" after the conference.

web: dianadelosh.com

 twitter: @dtdelosh

 

In Case You Missed It... The Art & Fear of Crit Groups

One of the lovely things about finding the right for you crit group is the feeling that you've found your tribe. The right critique group becomes the trusted, safe environment where you can share your creative experiments, revise and edit work, all to the shared goal of not submitting crap.

Whispering, sketch - © Diana Ting Delosh 

 Over at the D2PB group blog I shared some of my art and fears of crit groups. Please click on the following link to take a gander.
Drawn To Picture Books: The Art & Fear of Crit Groups - Diana Ting Delosh
 

  website: dianadelosh.com

twitter: @dtdelosh

Hoppy Easter!

Golden Bunny Green © Diana Ting Delosh - Ink brush pen, watercolor & digital

Wishing everyone a very 

HOPPY EASTER!

Website: dianadelosh.com

twitter: @dtdelosh

Happy 1st Day of Spring!

Purple Crocus © Diana Ting Delosh - Ink Brush, watercolor

Ah-h-h-h Spring. The trees are budding. Crocuses are blooming. The birds are singing and there's even been a bunny sighting in my backyard. What's not to love?

Not sure why they made January 1st, mid winter, the beginning of the New Year. It seems so arbitrary. I think someone was bored and wanted an excuse for a party. The Vernal equinox seems a much more appropriate day for beginnings of any kind.

The first signs of spring always puts me in an optimistic mood. Makes me want to start new things or restart old projects, create and submit because all things feel possible.

Cheers to Spring and all your hopes and endeavors!

Website: dianadelosh.com

twitter: @dtdelosh

In Case you missed it...Groundhog Waltz, Illustration Process

Just in case you missed it, over at my D2PB Group Blog, I shared my illustration process behind my Groundhog Waltz illustration.

My tools from L to R: mechanical pencil, 0.7mm HB black lead, kneaded eraser, Micron  Brush Pen, Higgins Black India Ink, brush, 00 Rapidiograph pen, Black India Rapidiograph Ink Universal waterproof for paper &; film, assorted brushes, paint palette for mixing my colored inks.

Please Click on the link to read all about it on Drawn To Picture Books: Groundhog Waltz, Illustration Process: Diana Ting ...: Here's a peek into my illustration process.

BTW: Notice the rough sketch behind my illustration implements? It's a very sneaky peek at a personal project currently on my drawing board. Sh-h-h-h.