good dog, bad map
There's a possible new family member coming to meet us on Friday all the way from Yakima! A sweet sweet shelter dog looking for a home. We found him online and thought he was in Bothell at the Lil' Waif Puppy Rescue but he's actually waaaaay out East. Some wonderful people are bringing him to Seattle to meet us and see our house and determine whether we are a good match.
The application process was very very thorough--this dog knows more about me than my family or the government! But Aaron and I are very serious dog people so we'd expect nothing less. Hope Bebop doesn't have a heart attack when he meets his new baby brother.
The pup's name is Logan and he is almost two. Someday I hope he will want to be a part of this.
Illustration-wise I've been banging my head over a project that is now overdue. It will be a mini-site with art and animation for my new favorite fantasy book. Most things--the animation and the illuminated letter art--are going quite well or are done. But I've been trying to make a map of the setting and maps are HARD.
I painted it last night and this morning and now it looks 8,000 times worse: the illustration board buckled; I can't draw mountains; and my color theory and painting skills are in the toilet.
It would be great to follow the Danny Gregory model of sketching in black and white for a year to get really comfortable with drawing. Meanwhile he took some color/paint classes and slowly brought those elements into his sketchbooks and now he’s a tiptop color theorist and painter to boot.
I keep hoping to read that my favorite illustrators had enormous self doubt and felt like they'd never make it. Or if, like me, when they do get a job, are they ever afraid they won't be able to fulfill the project to its potential? Ludwig Bemelmans was really hard on himself but I'm no Bemelmans. Tomie DePaola and Maurice Sendak have pretty healthy art egos so I'm still looking.
Maybe I SHOULD lock myself in the basement for a year while I sketch only in black and white and my only friends are mice and anthropomorphic brooms.
Walking is going well, though. Last night I listened to Al Franken's Lying Liars book while doing my 3 miles.
Comments
Whether they admit to them or not, they all had times of self doubt. If you don't, I don't think you're really working from the heart, like any good illustrator should. You'll learn from this and be stronger.
Dear Jaime,
Yours is the first blog I've ever read and I am thoroughly charmed! Like you and yours, my man and my boy-kitty Odin and I have a new little stranger from Yakima in our lives. It is day three for us here at Villa Oggie with 7 week old "baby Grace" (new name Luna). She's a bit younger than she should be to be out in the big world with us, but her mom got mastitis and the pups were weaned early. She's part of Sierra's 6 pups, if you were to check Lil Waifs' page right now you'd see her sibs. My best friend Chris Sharp is a watercolor artist, and I'm going to refer her to your blog too for all the great painterly/drawerly stuff on it too. What a talented and just plain nice person you seem to be. I'm finding it fun to google "Lil Waifs" and see what Luna's fellow rescue pups are up to. Our plans are to be a therapy pets team with the Delta Society and if she's into it, FLYBALL or agility fun. She's thoroughly mixed, so her eventual size and socio-athletic preferences and aptitudes are a mystery. But our other two dogs were both dumped from moving cars (five years apart), and were complete mysteries, so just knowing what Luna's mom and sibs look like is big info for us. Well, I went on more than I meant to - just wanted to let you know I read your blog and found it tons o fun and very sweet. Good luck to you and your new career! Vivia Boe, Seattle