IF: TANGO

THE SUNFLOWER CROWS
© Diana Ting Delosh
Ink & Watercolor

It takes 2 to Tango and Mr. & Mrs. Crow do it so well. They love to dance among the golden sunflower heads all summer long. Here's my illustration for this weeks Illustration Friday prompt - Tango.

FYI: You may buy this image as a greeting card at GCUniverse.com/DianasCards. Put the keywords: Sunflower Crows in the left sidebar of my store.

It's a real Pewter Plate!

The Pewter Plate shown on the July 2008 Highlights High Five magazine open
to pages 12 & 13. Bubble Trouble poem by Diana Ting Delosh - Art by Holli
Conger - © 2008 Highlights.

Yes - It's real pewter plate! And as you can see hard to photograph - at least for me! Now aren't you glad I don't subject you to more of my photos. See previous post for more about the award.

The Pewter Plate Award!

Yay -The Pewter Plate Award! - © 2009 Diana Ting Delosh, Marker

I'm happy to announce that my poem, Bubble Trouble- July 2008, just won the Pewter Plate Award from Highlights High Five for Puzzle Poem of the Year! YAY! What a lovely surprise.

We had been alerted to look for a gift from R in the mail. Needless to say when the above package arrived we just assumed it was the gift. B thinks it's chocolate when we open the outer package and reveal the inner white box. Surprise, surprise it's the Pewter Plate Award from Highlights High Five magazine! I think it's better than chocolate. B on the otherhand probably prefers a nice yummy box of assorted dark chocolates.

Glitches Galore

Dandelion/Rose
© 2009 Diana Ting Delosh
Ink & Watercolor illustration

Hm-m-m. Experiencing lot's of glitches today. just tried to upload an image but just keep getting the Bad request warning. Also having mucho probs with my speklling. So what else is up? Game 2, Which Would You Rather Be - dandelion or rose? is posted - finally. Had it scheduled to auto post at 8am. Needless to say it didn't. At 8:45 am I checked it and ended up manually posting it. I'll have to investigate to see if I had done something wrong. Anyway the gremlins are definitely active today. Arg-g-g why doesn't anything work the way it should?

Well heavens to betsey it finally worked! Now about my spelling... hm-m-m.

BETWIXT & BETWEEN

Bouquet Ink Line
© 2009 Diana Ting Delosh

I am betwixt and between projects. Recently finished my PB manuscript/dummy and now it's making the rounds. Sent out all my promo postcards - not too many returns. Even set up my writing game. So now I'm doing a lot of waiting. Keeping all my digits crossed & hoping for good news. I hate this phase. Need to get busy. Which means I'm trying to figure out what's next. Should I revise an older book dummy? Work on my early reader mystery manuscript that I put aside when things got hairy? Start on totally new ideas? What?

Well while I'm trying to figure out my next big project I've been keeping busy doing mini projects. Working on the weekly games for Which Would You Rather Be? Created a few new GCU cards. The Bouquet line art above is the base for 1 of my cards. The concept: a bouquet of red, white & blue flowers for all the patriotic holidays. I was just about to start painting when I realized that if I scanned the line art I could paint it multiple times to suit many occassions. Trying to keep busy but still need to be art smart.

So many projects to do but which one first?

Which Would You Rather Be...?

Tortoise/Hare
© Diana Ting Delosh, ink & watercolor illustration

I just started a new weekly Blog Game, Which Would You Rather Be?, for your amusement. The first game asks you to decide if you'd rather be a Tortoise or a Hare. To play please visit my new game blog at: http://whichwouldyouratherbe.blogspot.com. Come and join me for some fun on my other blog.

IF: CRAVING!

Rose Cupcake
© Diana Ting Delosh
Ink & Watercolor illustration

M-m-m-m! I'm craving a cupcake with chocolate frosting and pink buttercreme roses. This illustration was inspired by this weeks Illustration Friday prompt. M-m-m-m.

Promo Postcard - Mouse Dreams

Mouse Dreams, detail used for front of May 2009 Postcard
© Diana Ting Delosh
Ink & Watercolor

Received my self- promotional postcards from VistaPrint and I'm quite happy with the printing. Now I just have to update my mailing list. Ugh! With all the recent comings and goings of Editors/Art Buyers it is quite a headache. At any rate I only have a few days to work on it before the postage rate goes up this Sunday. Don't know if I'll get it all updated/posted but I'll definitely give it a shot.
The last time I did a Postcard Promo Campaign I landed an illustration contract. It would be lovely if the same happened again. I'm crossing my fingers and toes!

NEW - CBIG Blogzine!

Have been busy working on the official blog for CBIG. As usual nothing is as simple as it seems and it all takes longer than expected. BUT it is up and running and after a S-L-O-W start it is all starting to gell.
Please visit CBIG-nyc.blogspot.com, where members will be showcasing their illustrations and announcing their professional children's book publishing and related industry news.

Creative Stumbling Blocks

SEED PACK © Diana Ting Delosh

I'm in the midst of a creative block - hopefully towards the tail end of one. I first tried just working through it. If I was stalled on my picture book idea, I'd work on my various other projects. At least this way I was still creating and producing. No problems creating new card ideas for GCU. My sketchbook was overflowing with other ideas. I'm already daydreaming about my next book idea. I'll just take a short hiatus from my PB and comeback refreshed. Right? Wrong - I soon discovered I was fine on every front accept my current PB. The solution? Just grit my teeth and force myself to work on it. Did it work? Yeah - finally! And I'm happy with the art and I can chug along on the next illustration in the SF series. (Seed Pack is 1 of the illos from my PB that's giving me a headache!)

So what's the problem? Is it the idea? No -at least - I'm fond of it. And I'm happy with the sketches and the finished art when I finally finish them. So what is it??? Hate to say it but I believe it's the field of publishing and picture books that has me blocked. Lately there's been nothing but bad news - editors and art directors being laid off, whole divisions merging, folding. Here I'd just made their acquaintance and now, POOF no more. Combine that with the brutal competition even when the economy was good and my recent bad experiences of loosing dummies. Well is it any surprise that I wonder if my efforts are for naught?

Any solutions? Should I just rethink my ambitions? Sure - I've considered it many times. Even left the field a few times but unfortunately I've always come back to it. So now what? No real answers - but keep on doing my best work as well as looking into other fields and possibilities for my creations.