Not My Usual

Car on the Road • © 2009 Diana Ting Delosh

• Ink & Watercolor Illustration for Safety Driver's Program.

Recently I took on an assignment for a local business, Paultec Graphics to provide an illustration for a 4-Color flyer for Safety Driver's Program to advertise the debut of their new NY State DMV approved online defensive driving program - easternsafetycourse.com.

The assignment was to create an illustration that was reminiscent of the art on the online site but with more pop. Now, if you've ever taken a gander at my portfolio you'd know that automobile art is not part of my repetoire, however as I've created all types of art for Paultec in the past he trusted me to come through. I accepted the challenge to find a way to meet the client's specs while remaining true to my style. I'm happy to report that both myself and the client are happy with the results.

Now I'm not embarking on a portfolio filled with machines and urban scapes but it was nice to venture out of my comfort zone and explore new territory.

IF: STRONG!

ANT & SNAIL
• © Diana Ting Delosh • Marker and Watercolor

Ant is very strong for her size. She likes to show off to anyone who comes along. Snail is quite impressed. Here is my illustration for this weeks Illustration Fridays' challenge.

IF: CAUTION!

HIPPOPOTAMUS & CROCODILE • © Diana Ting Delosh • Marker with Watercolor Wash

Hippo knows that her hide is too tough to entice a croc to take a bite but she still proceeds with caution when she eyes one close by. My entry for this weeks Illustration Friday Prompt.

Just for fun, please hop to Which Would You Rather Be? to play Game 9 - Hippopotamus or Crocodile?

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!

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.