Did 2011 seem ridiculously long and trudging to anyone else? Like a muddy walk uphill? Both ways? It’s silly, I know, but I feel such a huge sense of relief that it’s finally 2012. I am awash in the newness of the year. Giddy, even!
I spent the whole of December trying to better myself, preparing for all the things I want to accomplish this year, and reviewing other artists’ accounts of how they finally broke into a full-time art career. Heeding their advice, I’ve been working out a gameplan of all the things I need to do this year to make my goals a reality. So what are my goals? I’ve tried to keep it simpler than past lists and am focusing on these five:
- Create and submit a new portfolio to at least fifty publishing companies.
- Add at least thirty new illustrations to my gallery.
- Get my work featured in at least three magazines.
- Get at least five good publishing and/or licensing contracts.
- Quit my dayjob and go full-time as an illustrator and crafter.
There is, of course, much work to do in order to achieve these things but I’m excited and feeling more motivated than I have in… well, ever!
As mentioned in a previous post, I love EMG Magazine‘s monthly themes and I’ve decided to create my own monthly word-prompts for an extra bit of inspiration; I figured it might give me some ideas for content and illustrations when I’m staring blankly at my screen, wondering what to write or draw next…
So, the theme for January (as picked by The Random Word Generator) is “Crown”- and here are a couple of sketches it’s already inspired. I still haven’t chosen which one to clean up and ink but I’ll post the finished illustration later this month.
Oh, and if anyone decides to follow along with these monthly themes/prompts, please let me know! I’d love to see how you interpret them!
~Dalliann
I haven’t had much time for drawing lately but I wanted to post at least one more illustration before the year ends… so here it is.
This is actually the third version of this same picture. The first was done in traditional inks and ruined by a shaky hand and the second was finished digitally but lost in a computer crash– but the third has survived long enough to finally be posted (and saved to an external drive for peace of mind *fingers crossed*)! ^_^
I’m not sure if I’ll have anything else ready to show this month but there will definitely be some new pieces in January…
~Dalliann
EMG-Zine is an interesting artists’ and writers’ resource I discovered this year. It’s an e-zine that features illustrations, fiction, and instructive articles based on monthly themes. I’ve submitted work a few times times this year and below is my latest illustration for November’s theme of ‘Frogs.’
I love working from word and theme prompts; frogs are not something I usually draw (or would think of drawing) so it’s fun to take on a project that pushes me to try something new. I wasn’t sure that I’d be able to convey enough ‘emotion’ without making him look too cartoony but I think his irritation comes across fairly well.
I’m also very proud of the background. I don’t have much practice with drawing environments but I need to improve quickly for the sake of my comic (among other things) so I spent a lot of time on this one and studied tutorials and experimented with different brushes and opacities and a bunch of other things I’ve never done before. I still have a long way to go but, yay!, progress!
So, if you’re in a creative rut, check out EMG’s monthly themes (they’re posted several months in advance). Might just be the spark you need!
~Dalliann
In highschool, I took a creative writing class, hoping to refine some of my story ideas and turn them into viable plots. But I found that some things were easier to express in pictures than words so I’d fill the margins of my rough drafts with doodles, planning to return later and translate them into proper literature.
However, my instructor eventually realized that I was spending more time drawing in his class than writing and suggested that I pursue a career in the comic book industry. I wasn’t a big fan of comics (too much spandex!) but he introduced me to manga and I was blown away by the varieties of genre and art style. I was instantly hooked and started re-imagining several of my stories as full-fledged comics.
One of those stories, Sink, is a project I’ve been working on since that creative writing class almost eleven years ago. It takes place in a fictional cluster of islands off the coast of Venezuela shortly after the Golden Age of Piracy. It’s about a boy, Paolo, who wants to join the Spanish navy but is refused because of his father’s treason against the crown several years prior. Paolo sets out to clear his family’s name by locating and raising the sunken treasure ship Gloriana, whose demise his father was partially responsible for, and returning the haul to Spain. But he’ll need help from his estranged siblings, a pearl-diver, and a pirate (or twenty)– all of whom have their own agendas and shifting loyalties.
Here is a sketch of a few prominent characters from the first chapter: (Left to right) Paolo, Miri, and D'ego. These are their final designs but I'm still playing around with color, hence the lazy sepia wash.
This project has amassed reams of sketches and notes and has undergone so many plot changes that it’s not really even the same story I first wrote. But it’s finally reached a level I’m satisfied with and I want to start releasing pages by the end of this year. I’ll be posting some character designs, scenery sketches, and a bunch of random content from the comic over the next few months. I’d really like to get some feedback as these posts continue so that I can improve elements that need it and clarify issues that may be confusing. I’ll also be posting helpful comic-creating resources as I run across them and I’d love to hear from other artists who are tackling their own comic projects!
~Dalliann
Not even halfway through and 2011 is proving to be the worst year of my life. In March, after a long month of struggle, my dad died of kidney failure. He was only a couple weeks shy of his sixty-third birthday and thirty-fourth wedding anniversary.
I miss him so much. Things were never quite as scary when Dad was around because he was knowledgable and capable in so many ways; he had endless stores of confidence and optimism; he wasn’t afraid to take chances and he could always see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Above all else, my dad was a teacher and he made every experience a lesson. Every experience. Even the bad ones. So, as Dad would ask, what have I learned over the last few months?
Well, I’ve learned that time goes by really fast and we never get enough of it to be satisfied. We have to use it wisely. And I’ve realized that I haven’t been using mine wisely at all. I’m lazy and unfocused and floundering. I have so many dreams but I’m not on the right path to reaching them. I need to take control of my life and fix what’s not working.
I’m starting this blog as both a record and a source of motivation on my journey to becoming a full-time, professional artist and crafter. It’s not the most practical career choice and there’s no guarantee of success but I want to spend the rest of my life doing something I love and growing in the process. And I don’t want to waste any more time waiting for the right opportunity to show up– I need to create my own.
My top priority is to turn the remainder of this year into something positive and worth remembering. Let’s see where it goes from here!
~Dalliann