Drawn to Picture Books - Group Blog

Current banner for the DrawnToPictureBooks blog

I'm really honored and happy to be a part of the DrawnToPictureBooks.blogspot.com bloggers. As you can see by the icons in our banner, there are 6 or us (from Left to Right): Barbara DiLorenzo, Mike Ciccotello, Patricia Keeler, Deborah Cuneo, (Me) Diana Ting Delosh, Jason Kirschner.  I hope you'll be joining us on wednesdays as we post from our perspectives in the picture book world.

Our Meet the Artists debut posts.

Diana Ting Delosh: Jan 13, 2016
Barbara DiLorenzo: Jan 20, 2016
Patricia Keeler: Jan 27, 016
Mike Ciccotello: Feb 3, 2016
Jason Kirschner: Feb 10, 2016
Deborah Cuneo: Feb 17, 2016

Make MORE Art

My 2015 #colour_collective illustrations
#MyCC2015
© Diana Ting Delosh

One of my personal challenges every year is to Make MORE Art, MUCH MORE and 2016 is no exception.  To that end, last year I started a Finished Creating list (included my writing as well as art). I had read somewhere that the artist, Vincent Van Gogh made over 200 paintings a year. Now I could have remembered it all wrong, but it got me thinking about how creatively productive I was in a year. No I didn't end up with 200 creations on my list, But I liked keeping the list and some of the art challenges I did to keep me on my toes. And I bet adding to that list motivated me even more. Yup - doing the Finished Creating list again - already have number one done.

Last year I participated in #colour_collective on twitter and above is a compilation of all the art I created for that weekly art challenge. I had started it with the idea that I could use this challenge to try out new techniques, mediums, practice and just explore in general. Wasn't able to do all 53 weeks but it spurred me to make more art than if I hadn't joined in the fun. I'll be doing it again in 2016. This year I'll be doing it, with an eye to practicing and exploring my brush pen technique or even using just the brush or a bamboo pen even. 

Here's to 2016 - and making MORE Art.

FYI: #colour_collective  @Clr_Collective is a weekly Twitter Art challenge started by @PennyNevilleLee. A color is announced on saturdays and everyone posts the following friday at 19:30 GMT.  The first color announcement of 2016 will be on saturday January 16, 2016. In the meanwhile some of the colour collective artists will be participating in the #MeetTheArtist challenge to be posted this Friday at 19:00 GMT. Will I be one of them? Perhaps.

And follow me at @dtdelosh

Looking forward to 2016

Winter Raccoon
© Diana Ting Delosh
ink watercolor digital

Here's to 2016 and all the hopes and promises of a shiny New Year. 

Wishing All a Happy and Creatively Productive, Prolific and Prosperous New Year

As for me I have my 2016 planner and my lists of things I hope to accomplish and how I plan to do it.  The how, I feel is actually more important than the end game. I could say I want to have picture book contract with a major traditional publisher in 2016. However it would be unrealistic as there are quite a few factors out of my control. I'm much better having as goals: 

• a few picture book dummies and /or manuscripts that have gone through the vetting process of my trusted illustrator crit group and/or my writer's group. One of my resolutions is to only submit my best. Which is why I really need the eyes and ears of my beta readers.

• Making a list of publishers/agents/editors that I feel would be most receptive to my projects.

• Submitting to the above. 

• Working on multiple projects/proposals at a time as I can't afford to put all my eggs in 1 basket.

• Revamping my website/portfolio dianadelosh.com so that it's as enticing as possible.

Instead of a "where I want to be by the end of the year" dream list. I'm making a list of specific projects and tasks that are steps towards my dreams and hopes for 2016.

Happy Holidays!

Peace Dove
© Diana Ting Delosh
Marker, watercolor, digital
some hand lettering fun.

Merry Christmas

and a

Happy, Healthy, Creative and Prosperous

2016 to all!

 

Little Red - Illustration Process Post

Little Red
© Diana Ting Delosh
Ink Watercolor Digital

2015 has been the year of experimenting with different mediums. To create Little Red I used  a Micron Brush Pen and assorted Rapidiographs for the finer lines on watercolor paper. The Rapidiographs are filled with Black India Rapidiograph Brand Ink: Universal 3080-F.BLA Waterproof for Paper & Film. Previously I had tried other brands of brush pens and found them not as waterproof as they claimed they were. The Microns are truly waterproof and I was able to paint right over my line art as soon as the ink was dry. I'm quite happy with the results.

Ink Line Detail for Little Red
©Diana Ting Delosh
Assorted pens

I used the Brush pen mainly on the Little Red and the Wolf as I wanted them to be the focal paint. Most of the finer details were put in with a double zero pen as well as some pencil. This way I could have my thick and thin lines and my details too. The background  forest is done in pencil as I wanted it to be very soft and fade. As you can see they were so fine they barely scanned in.

Gobble Gobble

Chicken Little
© Diana Ting Delosh
Ink & watercolor

Gobble! Gobble!

Happy Thanksgiving Everybody.

Flying Squirrel for Illustration Friday - Animal

Thought I'd share this illo I did with Brush pen, watercolors and digital for Illustration Friday. I mean how could I not do IF this week as the prompt is ANIMAL! So here you go: my Flying Squirrel gliding on a starry night.

Flying Squirrel by Diana Ting Delosh
ink & watercolor & digital

Just like this flying squirrel the weeks have been zooming by. I can't believe it's a week before Thanksgiving. Which means Christmas is right around the corner and 2015 might as well be over. Hold on there, there's still lots that can happen and things to do before the years up.  There's still lots to paint and experiment and create with. Not to mention the mess to clean up after all the experimenting and creating but later for all that. Right now I'm enjoying messing with my brush pen. It seems to have a lot of possibilities with it's ability to go from thick to thin in one stroke. So I'll try to be more like my gliding friend and enjoy the moment of being and doing.

#NerdyChickDraws Contest Winner

Nerdy Chick Draws
Ink & Watercolor
© Diana Ting Delosh

I'm Happy to announce that my entry for the #NerdyChickDraws illustration contest won Honorable mention! Woo Hoo! You can read the post and see the other winning entries over at NerdyChicksWrite

Click HERE to see all the other entries

The 2015 CBIG Illustration Directories are Live!

YAY - the 2015 CBIG Illustration Directories are now up on the CBIG website. I am so proud to be amongst so many amazing illustrators. Please click on ILLUSTRATOR DIRECTORY to flip through the pages and see for yourself.  Go take a peek. Did you find my promo pages in both directories?

I'm honored to say that my  Bear & Hare illustration made the cover of the 2015 CBIG Color Illustration Directory The cover images were picked via a vote by the CBIG membership. By the way, my  promo is on page 10. 

Did you spot my promo on page 7 and my spot illustration on page 31 of the 2015 CBIG Black & White Illustration Directory?

FYI - The individual pages are also being posted on the CBIG blog.

Happy viewing.

In case you are wondering. Yes, I did design both directories. Just like any other other CBIG member, I could submit a cover for each book that I had a page in. And just like any member I could vote for the 8 illustrations I felt deserved a place on the covers. Yes, we were allowed to vote for our own art. No, I did not tally the votes.

Illustration for Lucky 2 B Quilting Logo

Lucky 2B Quilting Logo illustration - signage

This summer, I was hired to create Clover, the logo mascot for the Lucky 2B Quilting store. Originally, Cassie the new owner of the shop had inquired about usage of one of my dancing bunnies but I pointed out that my original art for that piece was barely 3" tall. For her store signage she needed something sharp at 14 inches high. Furthermore and perhaps even more importantly, I am using my dancing bunnies for all sort of things and was not planning on stopping. The  solution was to create a bunny dancing with a lucky 4-leaf clover in her mouth just for her store signage. Note I only created the Clover illustration. The logotype and quilt background is someone else's handiwork.

The challenge for this job was that the line had to be sharp and crisp at about 14" high and still clear when reduced for use on a business card or letterhead. Since I work in traditional ink & watercolor vs digital vector art, I had to make sure my ink line would maintain its integrity at both ends of the  spectrum. To figure this out, I enlarged my 3" bunny to 14" and matched pen widths to the blurry outline. Than I reduced the test lines to business card size to see which looked best. 

This was a fun commission and Cassie was a pleasure to work with. If you're into quilting and other fabric arts, please visit Cassie and Clover online or at the store:

Lucky 2B Quilting

421 Main Street

Pecatonica, IL 61063

2015 Color Illustration Promo Page

All Art © Diana Ting Delosh
Bear hugs Hare illustration
Bearish  Fuzzy Initial Caps: D T D
ink & watercolor

Here's my Promo Page in the soon to be released 2015 CBIG Color Illustration Directory. One of the reasons why I've taken on the Directory project for our group is that I believe a group of talented illustrators makes a louder  noise than an individual artist.  More immediately, being part of a group project means that I have to create my promo pages  by a real deadline. Of course you should still promote yourself as an individual illustrator every chance you get.

One of the problems I have with creating my promo pages is deciding on the art. For 2015, I finally decided to showcase my new fat ink style and my hand lettering. I chose my Bear hugs Hare illustration, from my picture book dummy, Bear and Hare, for it's emotional heart. Which in turn led me to design bearish fuzzy initial caps for my name.

The objective of any promo piece is to intrigue the targeted viewer to take a gander at your website. Hope this page does the trick and  leads them to: dianadelosh.com

In case you missed it, click 2015 Black & White Promo Page to view my page.

Note: When the CBIG Directories go live they can be viewed at cbig-nyc.com and cbig-nyc.blogspot.com

Happy Labor Day!

PENGUIN BEACH
Ink & Watercolors
© Diana Ting Delosh

Here's to the last Hurrah of summer!

For me, Labor Day has always signaled the end of summer and the start of the fall. Even if it still reaches 90º - autumn is in my head along with all the promises of a new fresh season.

My Kathy Temean Illustrator Saturday Interview

Nicholas Bunny Blowing Dandelion Seeds © Diana Ting Delosh
Fat line style - Ink, Watercolor and Photoshop

In case you missed it, I was interviewed by Kathy Temean for her popular Illustrator Saturday series on August 8th. You can read all about my process and more at Illustrator Saturday - Diana Delosh.

For this interview I answered a lot of questions and gave a behind the scenes look at my new fat line illustration process, Nicholas Bunny. She also wanted, gasp, a picture of me. I mean the last "portrait " I had taken was on my drivers license. I was half tempted to send a pix of me at 3 but decided I should really grow up and asked a friend to take a proper photo. It was a lot faster and had much better results than weeding through family photos and cropping everyone else out. Kathy chose all the illustrations for the article other than the art for the process part. To be honest, I was really curious what pieces she would pick for the article. All in all it came out as a lovely illustration career overview. Thank You Kathy!

2015 Black & White Illustration Promo Page

2015 B & W Promo Page - Panda / Wildflower
All Art © Diana Ting Delosh

I belong to a local illustrators group and one of my favorite CBIG Projects are the Illustrators Directories: Color and the Black & White. Here's my Black & White Promo page for the upcoming 2015 directory. And of course, I make a PDF version for my own usage. Handy for handouts or as a digital tear sheet.

For my Black & White promo page I wanted to show my grayscale art and my line art. I also wanted to show that I do people and with all the fuss with adult coloring books, my line art. But I didn't want to show too many things. And of course they had to look good in a vertical format. Here's my solution. 

Book Buddies illustration : ink with ink wash on Canson 120 LB  watercolor paper. greyscale art.

Wild flowers illustration: ink on vellum paper. Line art. 

Here's to hoping it's enough of a taste to get the powers that be to click on dianadelosh.com to see more.  And Golly Gee Whiz  - land me an illustration commission.

Make Money from Your Art - 3 Steps

Jester Pig, ink & watercolor ©Diana Ting Delosh

From my perspective it seems to boil down to 3 actions you must do to make money from your art.

1 - Create the Art. Butt in chair routine.

2 - Show and Tell. Add new art: to your portfolio, submit, e-mail, mail out postcards, blog, tweet, FB whatever.  No one knows you created something until you tell them. To expand on this concept, no one knows you exist until you help them discover you. If you want clients with wonderful illustration projects to commission you, they have to know what you do and where to find you.

3 - Do both of the above routinely and on a regular balanced basis. Yup, the old 2-step, Create and Promote with the added crucial 3rd step: routine and balance. Create followed by Show and Tell on a regular, weekly if not more frequent basis.

All well and good in theory, BUT what happens when you're working on a commissioned piece OR a personal project that you want to submit/propose that must remain hush hush, then what??? Sure you're creating daily but you can't do step 2 until it's published. Ah -this is where I trip up.  Here's a list I've made for myself to keep on task: show other work, talk about other projects, tightly cropped sneak peeks*, toss out a hint, if possible - do other art that you can  show off**, etc. The idea is to keep promoting your art and to not totally drop off the radar.

*It may be fine to show sneak peeks of personal projects but I'd be hesitant to do this with commissioned work... unless you've gotten permission to do so.

**This is where all those online art challenges come into play.

OR if you're so busy due to whatever life is currently dishing that one if not all steps are out of whack than what? This one is more complicated but I think the zen approach is best. Don't beat yourself up and just do what you can. When you can... and keep at it...at your current pace. Create, promote, repeat.

Happy 4th of July weekend everyone!

Ice Cream Soda
© Diana Ting Delosh
watercolor

Hope you're all having a lovely summer weekend.

Personally, I'll be doing the family, running around bit - seeing everyone and wishing there was more time and I had more energy. At any rate - I hope to be coming back from all the family fun refreshed and ready to create anew. Sometimes I feel like all the family stuff just bogs down my creative flow and then I realize that without my family, life would be so dull. Sure I might get more done but would the art be as rich without the life to inform it?

You can read about the Ice Cream Soda Art Process HERE.

The Ice Cream Soda Giclée is available at my Print Shop, wingedrabbit.imagekind.com
Unframed Prints come in various sizes and paper selections. Custom framing is also available.  

Thumbelina -CBIG Brooklyn Public Library Fairytale Exhibit

Thumbelina
© Diana Ting Delosh
Ink, Watercolor, Digital

Thumbelina, my illustration in the CBIG, Fairy Tale illustration exhibit at the Brooklyn Public Library.

The exhibit is currently up and on display until Sept 25, 2015.

Fairy Tales Exhibit

Brooklyn Public Library

Central Library

10 Grand Army Plaza

Brooklyn, NY 11238

June 11- September 25, 2015

Featuring the Fairytale inspired art of CBIG members

Curated by Donna Miskend

Thumbelina is also available as an art print at: 

wingedrabbit.imagekind.com

Assorted sizes and finishes.

Custom framing is also available.

SCBWI Draw This - BOUNCE

Bunnies BOUNCE for joy!
© Diana Ting Delosh
Ink, Watercolor, digital

Here's my entry for the June SCBWI Draw This prompt, Bounce. I've created it in my new Fat ink style.
Direct link to My Illo on the New SCBWI online Gallery.
To see more of my art, both old and new styles: dianadelosh.com

July's Draw This Prompt is: ADVENTURE and I've already got an idea for it. Now I just need to sketch, ink, paint, etc. and  upload it by the June 20th deadline.

Hoppy Easter!

Bunny Wishes © Diana Ting Delosh
Prismacolor pencil & watercolor  WIP experiment
for #colour_collective #emeraldgreen

Bunny wishes everyone a very 

Hoppy Easter!

Twitter & Creativity: #colour_collective

Ballerina Bunny
© Diana Ting Delosh
Ink & Watercolor
for #colour_collective Pale Pink 3/6/15
I will probably be making this illo into product designs for my POD stores

One of the things I love about Twitter is the art challenges and artist community. I'm currently doing my best to keep up  with #colour_collective, the brain child of the talented illustrator, Penny Nelville Lee, @PennyNevilleLee .  #colour_collective is a weekly art challenge where participants create an illustration any media/subject - based on the weekly "it" colour and post their illo on Fri on or after 7:30pm GMT (2:30pm/3:30pm NYC time depending on daylight savings time) or as close to it as possible. The next week's colour is announced on Saturday. So you have a week to come up with something to share with your fellow illustrators. From the looks of it, the majority of participants are creating fresh works vs sharing already created art.

Cupcake Fox
© Diana Ting Delosh
Ink & Watercolor
for #colour_collective Flame Orange Light  2/27/15
Think this will make a cute birthday card.

 I've only done a few weeks of #colour_collective here and there but I'm finding it a lot of fun and a bit addictive. I've decided to do whatever comes to mind. Could be a technique I want to try or my old stand by. My thing is to create something fast and furiously, stay loose, enjoy the process. Even if I can't do an illo for the week I find I must check out everyone else's pieces. I am always amazed and inspired by all the great art.

Thumbelina
© Diana Ting Delosh
Ink & Watercolor & Photoshop
for #colour_collective Powder Blue 2/13/15
Liked the way how this one turned out may use this on my promo postcard.
- Made the portfolio.

 What I've found is that's it's helped boost my creative productivity. Sure not everything I've done is portfolio worthy but I've brought doodles to finish that I wouldn't have if I hadn't decided to participate. Experimented versus just thinking of experimenting. Best of all I've worked on more personal art than I normally would have. All good stuff.

Puppy Love
© Diana Ting Delosh
Ink & Digital Color Experiment
for #colour_collective Flame Red 2/6/15
thought this would work as a fun Valentine so it's in my POD stores - ready for Valentine 2016

If you're curious and on twitter, check out: #colour_collective

Follow: @PennyNevilleLee @dtdelosh

Please feel free to join in the fun.

Penny announces the new colour on saturdays

Everyone posts their illos on Fridays after 7:30 pm GMT

Opera Rose Girl
© Diana Ting Delosh
Experimenting with Black Prisma Color Pencil & Digital Color
My first #colour_collective Opera Rose 1/9/15