Art/product

I don't know about you - but I need to create on a fairly regular basis or I get very cranky. Must have that creative fix or else. To make matters worse, lately the creative fix is getting less satisfying. I think the need to make a living with my art is making it all feel like product. Need to put the fun back in creating without loosing sight of my big goals.

Making art for art's sake is 1 way to go - but it still doesn't take the pressure away from the need to be art smart and make it all count. So I'm going to really lower the bar for myself. My goal will be to create "bad art" and lots of it! Take the stress out of creating: sub worthy, portfolio worthy, award winning, saleable, marketable, will they like it, etc. creations. It can be trash worthy. Maybe I'll post it or maybe I'll just toss it. Enjoying the process again is what's important.

Feeling totatlly in awe of the guys on http://pageadaysketches.blogspot.com/
If you're not familiar with this blog I reccomend taking a gander... and they call them mere sketches! Not too intimidating. Yes I know visiting this blog may be totally detrimental to my bad art goal.

WHAT"S UP?

PORCUPINE & SKUNK • © Diana Ting Delosh • Ink & Watercolor

These 2 friends are the current featured creatures on Game 7 - WHICH WOULD YOU RATHER BE - PORCUPINE OR SKUNK? This odd blog of mine - well - I'm wondering if it's a mistake. Definitely a distraction and fun for me. Gives me a purpose to do quick doodles, sketches, looser art styles and a place to show more of my art and hang my widgets. It also has the weekly wednesday deadline so it gives me structure. However - have I just given myself another vehicle for procrastinating? As if I didn't have enough of those. I guess as long as I'm having fun with it and it's not getting in the way of anything what's the harm. Now if only I could get the auto post feature to work. To date auto post worked 1 out of 5. Not a very reliable feature!
Note this blog has ads. I wonder what Google ads will be relevant for Porcupines & Skunks?

What else?
Just subbed a new poem (manuscript only - no art) to a kids magazine. Keeping my fingers crossed that they will accept for publication. Now I need to dive into something new. I made a long list this morning of what I can work on besides the above nuttiness, so it's just a matter of making a decision. I hate this in between projects stage.

Last week I blew a circuit - fixed it right away - but decided to stay off the computers, etc for the day - which resulted in the rough draft for the above poem. Realized that sometimes what I need is to be away from all things "E" to get the creative juices to flow.

Animals with or without clothes

I recently showed my portfolio to an art director of a medium sized trade children's book publisher . Her comments in general were good but she did have a thing about animals wearing clothes. In her opinion animals should not wear too much clothes. It made them too human and a wee bit creepy. She also felt that the totally dressed animal was a mass market look.

This comment made me realize that the majority of my animals are dressed. Few are au naturalle. I should also add this was the first time I've heard that trade pubs prefer naked animals. I have had comments that my animals should dress in more trendy garb as opposed to a classic look. Now I suppose I should make sure I have more naked animals.

Which brings me to my next thought - why do most of my animals wear clothes? My decision is based on the text - are the animals really stand ins for people characters or are they behaving like real wild animals? I also like to use clothing as a prop to further enhance the character. And of course it's just plain fun to design patterns and outfits for my characters. Take my Ox or Rat, Game 5 of my Which Would You Rather Be? blog, their robes enhance their character. I guess my next project should be something that calls for animals behaving like animals.

SKIP & SCOUT, STORY PUBLISHED!

Announcing the publication of my story, Skip and Scout in the August 2009 issue of
Highlights High Five magazine - Bonus Pages: Make Your Own Mini-Book. Illustrated by Anna Currey.

To read about the story behind the story see my April 2, 2009 blog entry - Mice by another name and view my August 18, 2008 blog entry - Pip & Squeak!