PiBoIdMo 2012 - better late then never

YUP I'm a PIBOIDMO-er again. 30 picture book Ideas in the 30 days of November. As this is my third year doing this challenge begun by Tara Lazar I had been looking forward to it since October. In fact I signed-up for it almost as soon as you could this year. And then didn't do much about it assuming I had time to gather my index cards and write a blog post on it etc. Then Sandy hit on monday, Oct 29th and I lost power for 13 days which taught me a few things about my creative process.

Ok OK  - I know you don't need electricity to think or write down your ideas on index cards etc. And sure I even got to read an inspirational post or 2 on PIBOIDMO when I was at a lucky friend 's home with a generator. So why couldn't I even gather my index cards and a pen and just begin? I mean I wasn't one of the unfortunates that was totally displaced. I was just inconvenienced and uncomfortable for 13 days.

Apparently my muse decided to go on vacation to a more convenient and warmer locale. It seems I needed to not be worried to be creative. Whether it be about my cat's meds going bad along with the food Or if I could gas up so I could get to my friend's. We won't even get into my fear of not meeting deadlines. There was also the shortage of available daylight hours.  Showed me how much my strategy for getting things done depended on electricity. This is not to say I got nothing done. I was able to do the traditional watercoloring part of an illustration job and a new piece from sketch to finished art for an upcoming group show.  However the difference is that both these concepts had been thought out before and PIBOIDMO was challenging me to come up with concepts. Apparently until I got my power back, I couldn't relax enough to let my mind wander off and come back with good or bad ideas. I was stuck in the here and now with no time leftover for daydreaming.

Glad to report that on the last and 30th day of PIBOIDMO I finally caught up and completed the challenge. YAY - I have 31 ideas and who knows how many more I'll have before the day is up. True most of them are plain silly but they all still count. By the way, I'm already looking forward to next year.

Published - Farmer's Field of Gold

  
Cover and Page 9 illustrations by Diana Ting Delosh
- The Farmer's Field of Gold
© Farfaria

I'm happy to announce that another of my illustration project from last spring has now been published. THE FARMER'S FIELD OF GOLD, written by Brett Hendricks and illustrated by yours truly, has been released by Farfaria as a book app for the I-Pad.

Once Upon a Midnight - Illustrated Title Type Process

One of my hush hush projects is in the final stages and with permission from the author, Kelly Morrison Handerhan, I thought I'd give you a sneak peek by showing you how I designed the illustrated title type.

I could've used type that's available on my computer for commercial usage But the title of this project is very evocative, ONCE UPON A MIDNIGHT. OOH this title is begging for some special treatment. So I begin to doodle and refine. And Hem and haw. Type Style - small caps, all caps, upper and lower case?  Should I add crows? Will they read as crows or just look like blobs?

Decided against crows - too busy. Went with All Caps as I felt the small caps had too much white space between the lines and lowercase letters didn't seem to work as well.  Refined the sketch. Enlarged sketch, transferred to paper via my lightbox and then the inking begins. I use a rapidiograph pen for inking and scan.

Voila - here it is in place on the wrap-around cover art. Once Upon a Midnight is about Andy the Pug on a midnight romp. We just loaded this book project to CreateSpace.com and we can't wait until it's in the marketplace.

Once Upon A Midnight Book Cover art for a story by Kelly Morrison Handerhan
 with cover and interior pages illustrated by Diana Ting Delosh.
Copyrighted material!!!!
For info about Andy please see www.facebook.com/andy.pug.9
You may Now order Once Upon A Midnight on Amazon

Moon Dancing Bunnies win Design of the Day!

Turned on the computer this morning to the lovely news that my latest design, Mid Autumn Moon Festival Dancing Bunnies card was awarded the Design of the Day by Greeting Card Universe. YAY! I think I'll do a hoppy dance myself. Thanks GCU!

For this design, I have a group of rabbits doing a hoppy dance under a very full autumnal moon. The moon is a pale yellow to balance against the pale to medium browns of the hares. The art is created with ink, watercolor and Photoshop.  I don't know if real rabbits dance in the moonlight but I do see more of them on moon lit nights.

The Harvest Moon Festival is a Chinese holiday celebrated on the fullest moon of the year in September or October. Sometimes the moon even has a golden autumn glow to it. Rabbits in Chinese mythology are associated with the moon. Sometimes the hare is is said to be living on the moon under a tree, where he must make medicine for the princess that also lives on the moon. Sometimes he is shown pounding medicine with his mortar and pestle. In other stories the hare lives on the earth and gazes up at the moon where the princess lives. It is celebrated today by eating moon cakes and visiting family.

FYI - the Autumn Moon Festival or just Harvest Moon festival is celebrated this year on September 30th on the full moon of course. If you want to see the inside of the card or to purchase please just click on the card image. If you want to see my other card designs go to gcuniverse.com/DianasCards