Does It Come in Chocolate?

Check out this perfect holiday gift for that map-loving-person-with-a-wicked-sweet-tooth in your life. (Can you actually eat marzipan all by itself?)

Paved With Good Intentions

I really did intend to complete and post an Illustration Friday piece this week for the theme "Backwards." Well, that's not going to happen. (Why I waited until the week before Christmas to attempt to finish by the deadline for the first time ever-- I have no clue...) I'll post the finish another time.

Many Writers, Many Paths

I never get tired of reading about how other writers work. Now that the year is winding down it's the perfect time to settle in with a hot cup of tea and peruse this roundup of great interviews with different authors.

The Visitor

6 Reasons Why A Writing Group is a Girl's Best Friend...

1) We give each other support.
2) We encourage each other.
3) We give each other honest feedback (without throwing tomatoes.)
4) We learn from each other.
5) We kick each other in the pants, when necessary.
6) We laugh, A LOT.

And, look! Here is an article about my very own group!

A Winter Day

Perfectionist Paralysis

The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas.
–Linus Pauling

A helpful quote for when you're stuck on that one great idea, trying to make it just perfect. Put it aside. Take a break. Make some tea (or eat some chocolate if you're lucky enough to be able to keep it in the house without eating it all in one fell swoop.) Relax. Then let yourself loose and crank out a bunch of others. Worry about sifting the good from the bad later.

Here's another article about generating ideas.

Vicarious Travel

Greece sounds lovely right about now. (Especially since they're predicting snow for tomorrow.) This is a map of different wine regions. Oh well-- it was fun to do, even if I won't be going there anytime soon!

Deadlines: Good, Bad, Ugly?

Last week I worked on a spread-sized illustration assignment for a magazine that was very detailed and complex. (I'll post it after the issue comes out.) I had only a few days to complete the final art. Hunching over my drawing table all week was not great for my eyes, wrist, back or brain-- but I was pleased with the finished piece, and the sense of satisfaction when I shipped it out on Friday felt great. (Not to mention leaving the house for the first time all week. Who knew grocery shopping could be so much fun??) This I have learned: I am much more productive when I have a deadline.

When I'm not busy I set deadlines for my own writing and illustration projects. For some reason it's easier to focus when I have a lot of things on my to-do list. I take these self-imposed deadlines as seriously as a paying assignment-- they help quell that gnawing anxiety about not having created enough.

So, how about you-- do you set your own deadlines? Do you work better with them or with wide-open spaces of time?

Ideas...

... are everywhere. It's just a matter of figuring out what form they should take.

Art and Life Intersecting

One of my favorite things to do in the summer is to spend time working in the garden-- digging, weeding, planting-- and getting completely covered with dirt and exhausted. Then taking a nice cold shower at the end of the day and admiring how everything looks. I love to garden.

This is a garden plan I did recently for Woman's Day Gardening & Deck Design. It is just plain fun to do these, since I get ideas for my own garden, and I get to create art around a subject that I love. (Plus, I learn new plant names-- which I am usually brilliant about forgetting.)

Dept. of Illustration: How to React When...

... your stomach drops to the floor upon receiving a complimentary issue of the thick, glossy magazine that had been a regular client who always told you how much they loved your work and seeing that they are using another illustrator whose work is amazingly, uncannily similar to your own.

First you will wonder: Why did they send me this? Then: Was it that this other person worked for that much less money? And then: If so, how on earth could they afford to? (Not that you blame this other illustrator-- having taken assignments for grocery-store-money when necessary, yourself.) But your mind will continue toward: How depressing how much fees have dropped in the 15 years that you've been freelancing (not to mention: How'm I gonna pay my oil bill??) And then perhaps you'll get to: Will we ever live in a society that values the arts as much as overpaid sports-stars and CEO's?

The answer: You will pick your stomach up off the ground and move on. And not take it personally. It's just business.

I Love Thumbnails

Sometimes I find it hard to shift from writing the text of a story to working on the pictures. This is where thumbnails come in. Thumbnail sketches are like a shorthand in my own secret code for how each page will be composed, what I will include in each illustration, and how the overall story will flow across 32 pages. They also give me an idea of what text I can cut from the story because something will be shown in the pictures instead. Even though the sketches are tiny and quick, I like to spend a while in this stage. It's like the master key for what the book will be! And also a bridge to the next part-- doing full-size drawings.

Windy Day

Yesterday the wind was howling outside my studio. It's the same this morning-- a bit too much for my comfort!

I've Been... What?

Tagged for a meme. I had no idea what that meant until a few days ago. I was tagged by Wizards Wireless to participate in a meme called "7 Things About Me" after I commented on her post called "Advice for Beginning Bloggers." (That would be me, a beginner. And it's a terrific post.) It sounded like fun, so why not?

How it works:

1) Link to the person who tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
2) Share 7 facts about yourself.
3) Tag 7 random people at the end of your post, and include links to their blogs.
4) Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

So, here goes:

Seven Things About Me

1) I am an early bird. I love getting up really early in the morning (say, 5 am) with a cup of coffee and a book, before the rush to get the kids off to school.

2) I like people with weird senses of humor. (Especially my kids.)

3) I think that all the answers to everything can be found in books. Which is why I keep reading.

4) I adore foreign things. (Music, languages, people, accents...) Even got married due to the accent...

5) My least favorite word is-- intolerance.

6) When I was two years old I was sick with meningitis. (The bad, in a coma kind.) I don't remember anything about it, but I often think about how hard it must have been for my parents, who were very young at the time. And also how different our lives could have been. (I know people who are deaf and blind because of it.) But then I think about how many things can change the course of a person's life. I find it strangely fascinating.

7) I buy notebooks almost obsessively. Not expensive ones. Just cheap, everyday, grocery-store-type ones. They're so... tempting.

So, here are seven blogs that I'll tag, in no particular order: Children's Illustration, Through the Studio Door, Wordswimmer, Revision Notes, John Nez Illustration, Greetings From Nowhere, Reading, Writing, and Chocolate.

Some I know and others are blogs I've come across and like. I have to admit that I feel kind of funny tagging people I don't know. But if they don't want to take part, that's okay. You'll still get to check out their blogs. And if anyone else wants to join in-- feel free!

Happy Monday!