Friday, May 23, 2008

21-Day Challenge Update: Full Plate

Know how sometimes you put too much on your plate and you can't manage to eat it all? (Or maybe you do, and feel sick afterwards...oh where am I going with this metaphor??) Well, that was me this month with the 21-day challenge.

Between the mega-map job (which will be wrapped up next week!) and regular work, it was just the one thing that I couldn't manage. But the good news is that not all was lost-- in the time that I would have spent on the challenge I was able to put together a rough 1/4 sized dummy of this story-- the one that I had been struggling with for so long to find a voice and a direction for the illustrations-- working at it little by little, every day. I am feeling very good about that!

So after next week when things calm down around here I plan to resume-- with the (at least) 15 minute a day writing exercise and regular sketching. (Might even find my way to doing a little more experimentation... I've never seriously tried my hand at gouache, and would really like to give it a go...)

In the meantime it's been so much fun (and inspiring!) to meet new people and see everyone's progress with the challenge. That's something I'll certainly keep up!

7 comments:

Tom Barrett said...

Definitely don't want to overload yourself! You just have to decide what is most important, and the book dummy was that for you.

I have a bad habit of want to do too much in a day (everything always takes twice as long as I plan for!)

Good luck with finishing the book.

Jennifer Thermes said...

Thanks, Tom! Yes, I feel relieved to have gotten this far with the dummy-- now it's just a matter of cleaning up the drawings, which will be easy in comparison.

And I have that habit too. It's not good-- leads to frustration.

Hey-- I like your new avatar!

Anonymous said...

congrats on breaking through the wall on your dummy! yay!!!

it is so important to know how much we can handle, isn't it? so many times we bite off too much and then feel that guilty, nagging feeling too much!

that is one reason why I think the 21 Day Challenge is so helpful to so many. Baby bites of that elephant! :)
xoxox
teri

Alicia Padrón said...

Oh wow, I missed this post Jennifer! That is great that you got that far with the dummy!! Good for you Jennifer! Now is all (like my daughter says) "easy, easy japanese" :o)

Christine Mercer-Vernon said...

there are only so many hours in the day, sometimes you just have to get done your priorities then come back to what you were doing. happens to me all the time (been almost a month since i have painted).

i am so excited to see your post for this new book! i've been dying to ask how it was coming along but didn't want to put any stress on you about it!!! i'm glad to hear you stuck it out versus abandoning it. good job!

MayY . C 五月媽媽 said...

Don't take too long!
We urge to see you resume soon!
Happy days!

Jennifer Thermes said...

Hi Teri-- Thanks! And yeah-- guilt is not productive, too. I agree about the challenge, and I think it helps somehow to have so many others participating!

Thanks, as always, Alicia! :-)

And thanks, Christine! I have to tell you, your comments on the post about the story way back when really stuck with me-- they were immensely helpful!

Thanks, Mayy!