Exploration

In keeping with the theme of the blog, creative explorations, I thought I would post about an exploration I had recently. I'm pretty sure it does not fall under the creative category, but definitely an exploration. I took my husband to the airport, which I have been to a hundred times, on a clear beautiful dark morning, 5:00 A.M. to be exact. After I dropped him off, I noticed some serious lightening followed by some serious rain, so intense that I could not see the road well. Somehow, I took a wrong exit and could not figure out where I was. I have only lived in this city all my life so it is certainly understandable. I finally recognized an exit, or at least I thought so. After driving about four blocks, I realized I was in the  part of town that is often the subject of our local evening news. I finally found a highway and eventually figured out how to get home. What should have taken me 30 minutes, took me over an hour. I am blaming it on waking up at four in the morning and driving in blinding rain. Yep, I am.
On a more creative note, I have just finished about thirty sketches for a new project and I'm now painting seven drawings for my portfolio. I will post some pictures of everything soon.

March Chagall

March Chagall has always been one of my favorite artists. He was Russian born but studied art in France. Most of his work is an expression of his Jewish roots and childhood memories. In his words, "If I create from the heart, nearly everything works..."

Sketches

A couple of sketches for a series I am working on for my portfolio.  Gearing up for a whole new website I am super excited about.

Illustration

Rembrandt

Another subject I have decided to explore and post a little something about is artists. I love teaching children about artists!
Let's start with Rembrandt, one of my favorites!  He loved creating drama with light and shadow. I'm thinking he would probably be a movie producer if he lived today.

Non Profits Helping Children

I have started a series of sketches of non profit organizations that help children.  I wanted something more than just showing my work in progress when posting on social media.  I guess I want, need to say more.  So here we go..the first three.

Compassion International is a ministry that helps children all over the world break free from poverty.

Embrace Grace is a non profit organization that equips churches to love, help, embrace girls with unplanned pregnancies.

Samaritan's Purse, among many, many other things has a field hospital in Mosul saving the lives of wounded civilians, many who are children.

SCBWI Conference Texas Brazos Valley

I attended  the Brazos Valley SCBWI conference this past weekend in College Station. The speakers were illustrator, E. B. Lewis, author Kathi Appelt, editor Karen Boss, agent Jennifer Soloway, and author Donna Cooner. I missed Donna Cooner because I was in the second session of E.B. Lewis's presentation.  All the speakers I heard were packed with truly helpful information.  E.B Lewis shared a DVD called Everyday Creativity and told us about another one called Celebrate What's Right With The World. Both are on You Tube and are narrated by Dewitt Jones, a former National Geographic photographer. So good.

The main takeaways for me from the conference:
1. Care deeply about your work and the people your work is for.
2. Illustration and writing are storytelling. Both are treated in much the same way, starting with first drafts, on to revising and revising, taking things down to the essential story.  Every scene is moving the story forward and emotionally engaging.
3. For portfolios, in every illustration, show a narrative, action, emotion. setting.
4. Take every picture and look at it from a new way, push harder and don't just settle with the first few ideas. This holds true in both writing and illustration.
5. Hook your reader into the story right away.
6. Think about what you are trying to say and do it in the best way possible. Make it a truly engaging story both in words and in pictures.

Perhaps none of those things are new, but they were said in a different way and shown in a new way that helped me catch hold of them. I guess that was a good object lesson for writing and illustrating a story.

E.B Lewis also does mentoring classes on line. He showed us some of his student's work and the improvements they have made. I do not know the cost, but it looks really awesome, like he works his students really hard.