#Twoodle - Carrot+Custard

Bunny has made a big bowl of her fave dessert - carrot custard. She can't wait to dig in. M-m-m-m-m.
This is an quick pen sketch digitally colored in Photoshop. © Diana Ting Delosh

Here's my 1st Twoodle using the words; CARROT @DiandraMae and CUSTARD @johnlechner.

So what's a twoodle? A twoodle is a tweet/doodle. More specifically it's a fun Twitter activity started by the illustrator, Alicia Padron last wednesday. Please read more HERE to find out more and to particpate. And if you're on Twitter please go to #Twoodle to see all the wonderful twoodles being posted today.

So what's the purpose - none other then the best reason - for fun.

2013 New Year - new possibilities

Here I sit with my brand new wall and weekly  calendars, happily anticipating the future that the pages represent. The possibilities of what's to come and what I can accomplish in 2013. Which brings me to that annual tradition of making goals and resolutions. And yes there is a difference between goals and resolutions. Goals are where you want to be by the end of the year. Resolutions are HOW you plan to achieve your goals. 

2013 Animal Fair Calendar by deloshdesigns
Look at other Animals Calendars at zazzle.com

The problem with goals is that if your's are like mine: make gazillion dollars or get a big fat contract with dream client, unfortunately reaching said goal is not 100% within your control. You can not wish it to come true. Sadly other parties have a big say in whether you get that dream assignment so you make mucho bucks etc. Goals are only your north star. Something to focus on so you don't get lost.

Resolutions on the other hand, are something you have control over. Here are mine for 2013:

• Create 10 pitch-ready projects

• Pitch/Submit to 10 different places

• Send out 6 promo-postcard mailings

• Create Seasonal products for my POD stores 2 - 3 months ahead

• Series of Grimm's fairytale inspired illos

• Illustrated type -perhaps a series of sayings or famous quotes

I could go on and on but I think that's plenty to work on as well as plenty of fodder for future blog posts.

IF GLOW & Mother Goose Re-imagined Exhibit

This is going to be a dual purpose post. Firstly - here's my illo for this weeks IllustrationFriday prompt - GLOW. Secondly - I am currently in a CBIG group show - Mother Goose Re-Imagined at the Flinn Gallery in Greenwich CT. The show runs from December 6th to January 16th 2013. Twinkle Twinkle Elephant Star also happens to be one of the 3 illos I have on exhibit.

Twinkle Twinkle Elephant Star
© Diana Ting Delosh
Ink & Watercolor

Elephant and bird stroll on the savanna at night. Guided only by the glow of their candles and one twinkling little star. The ideal of this illustration was inspired by the Mother Goose rhyme, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and my desire to do an elephant. It was created from sketch to finish during the 13 day power outage caused by Super Storm Sandy.

3 Bold Mice
© Diana Ting Delosh
Ink & Watercolor

Three bold mice see how they sing! This illo was created inspite of the original Mother Goose rhyme, Three Blind Mice wherein the poor mice are blinded by brambles, driven crazy by their misfortunes, and had their tails cut off by the farmer's wife. By the way, notice how bright this piece is? Well this was the first piece I painted after the power came back. Tah Dah... and behold there was light and much rejoicing! 

Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater
© Diana Ting Delosh
Ink & Watercolor

And finally my third piece, Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater was created last spring. I had previously blogged about the work in progress.

Hoppy Holidays!

Ugly Christmas sweater Bunny
© Diana Ting Delosh
Ink & Watercolor illustration

Wishing All Much Hoppiness!

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

Children's Literary Salon in Retrospect: Illustration on June 2, 2012 | The New York Public Library

Earlier this summer I and my fellow CBIG officers were panelists at the New York Public Library, speaking about what we love: illustration and the Childrens' Book Illustrators Group. Read all about it in this nifty article!

Children's Literary Salon in Retrospect: Illustration on June 2, 2012 | The New York Public Library

A Ghost of a Wedding Cake

A Ghost of a Wedding Cake
© Diana Ting Delosh
Black Medium Point Bic® Pen 

Miss Havisham's wedding cake has been standing as it was the day she was jilted. Over the years the frosting has hardened and now the cake is inhabited by spiders, centipedes, noseeums, rats, ants and is festooned in cobwebs and dead roses. A ghost of a wedding cake for a ghost of  bride. This illustration is inspired by the Charles Dickens novel, Great Expectations.

Something about Dickens made me think of doing a black and white illo. Originally I thought of using my trusty double zero rapidiograph pen to ink and brush on a wash but then I thought how well a ball point pen could do whisper thin lines -great for cobwebs. That clinched it. I decided to use a Black Medium Point Bic® Pen as my medium. I frequently use ball point pens to sketch with as they're just so handy and flexible. Depending on your pressure and the tooth of the paper you can get a variety of strokes from barely there to bold black. However using this as my medium on a Finished piece of art required me to shift my perspective on this everyday tool. I mean was it really OK? Sure it was fine for impromptu sketches but serious, planned, finished art? Sure, I mean why not? What do you think?

The above illo is in the CBIG Illustration Exhibit, A Celebration of Dickens in Pictures at the Yonkers Riverfront Library Gallery. The show will run from August 25th to October 31st, 2012.  The artists reception will be on September 13th. For a complete schedule of events for this show please visit cbig-nycexhibits.blogspot.com/ .

If you can't make it to the show my fellow exhibitors and I  will also be posting the art over on cbig-nyc.blogspot.com during the run of the show.