Always Deny the Apocolypse

"Always deny the apocalypse, John. You’ll usually be right, and when you’re wrong, no one will be left to say, 'I told you so.’”

A brilliant quote in an article I read on the evolution of technology and how it will effect reading in the future of our society. 


It is called:


The Future of Reading: Don't Worry. It might be better than you think. By John Green

and is a very intelligent ramble that comes from many directions at once and addresses them equally and satisfactorily. He compares the future of books to Youtube, which I found strange at first until he used examples, such as "Charlie Bit Me", to scare the hell out of me. Basically he predicted that it is likely that there will be billions of books with very few readers and very few books with billions of readers.

If one has explored the world of Youtube in depth they will discover that this analogy is very accurate. But in no way do these numbers equal the quality of which these videos or books are! I know for a fact that there are a number of videos out there that are worth viewing and they don't have the recognition. This is true for a number of websites as to how they operate. It is hard to find good/interesting things unless you dig, and often the ones with the most recognition will always pop up first, leaving other works that are either equally deserving--or more--of recognition in their big black shadows.

And it's scary. To think that we will be reduced to reading books of equal quality as this:

This is cute. Really. But I do not look forward to reading books that are of...THIS...'quality.

John Green then went on to address the importance of a story in relative to how Video Games and Blockbuster movies.

He makes an excellent point when saying when you read the the written word, a story, you are in a way making it your own. Either with how you imagine the characters or in the way you relate to it. It makes me wonder about children's picture books.

Am I cheap for wanting to express something without words? Do I take away that something which makes a connection between the story and the reader that make reading worth while? In one section Green compare the The Very Hungry Caterpillar with a book about a really cute dog. The title described exactly that, and I couldn't help but grimace at the idea that that book might be real. My Puppy Is Adorable and These Illustrations Prove It. UGH.

But does that lower the quality of my book? Yeah, the story kinda sucks, I got that...I don't really like the idea of writing an actual story....Ah well. But was it bad I focused on the illustrations? Was I focusing too much on myself rather than if the reader could understand the story?

I guess I should just accept people are going to interpret my book in different ways since there is no clear cut definition. I hope that is good enough.

God...I look back on these journals and I'm like "what do these have to do with my project again?" And then I read and I'm like "Oooooooh~" So all this did have a point. :D

Formatting A Children's Book Research

In searching for ways to put my book together I have found few options. Often it takes putting everything into a PDF file but no specifications on how.

http://taralazar.wordpress.com/2009/02/22/picture-book-construction-know-your-layout/

This article I read addresses some of those issues, but it goes more into how to make it visually appealing.

The article talks about balancing illustrations and the words, but also mentions examples of books with solely illustrations to tell the story.

This other article dictates why it is so hard to find things on formatting children's picture books. http://stason.org/TULARC/writing/misc-writing/1-6-How-do-I-format-a-picture-book-What-about-illustrations.html The reason being, that most people who submit children's books for publishing send in the text first and then get assigned an illustrator once the story is signed off.

This is frustrating.

What I will have to do is either mess around in page maker or make the physical book by hand. I'm feeling that this may be the better option now...

Imaginism Studios

The way that I see it, this studio...is awesome. I've been following their blogs and stuff through a website for a few years now, and it's incredible just how amazing they are. The main guy I think his name is Bobby Chu. The studio is Toronto Canada. I feel like all these amazing artist are in Canada.

Like ktshy (internet name). Her stuff is brilliant and awesome. Check it out. http://ktshy.deviantart.com/

Or like Bryan Lee O'malley who wrote the comic book sensations Scott Pilgrim! Also incredible....and Canadian...

But to the point. Imaginism Studios...they are just too cool. I mean...look at his stuff!!

It's APPA. Who doesn't love Appa? (And for those who are unaware, Appa is a flying bison from the hit TV series Avatar: The Last Airbender. But how could you not know that?)

This is titled "Beam Me Up Scotty" What's not to love?

Winnie the Pooh Winnie the Pooh...Cuddly Fuzzy...What are the words?

They also have did the designs for a good number of the characters from the Alice In Wonderland movie from last year! I'm not exactly a big fan of the movie, but the visuals were indeed incredible.

Sooooooooooooo detailed...Just looking at the art is so motivational. I don't know what to do with myself...I've seen over live-streaming videos works in progress come to life with incredible detail that seems effortless...it's scary!

Bobby Chu does these online classes where he gives a topic out over his feed and people have to draw it in a hour or two. Limited time frame is the point. And then he chooses which one he likes and he'll give them a the piece he was working on at that time as well. Sometimes it will be guest artists who are well known for the their styles in movies and such. They've had Chris Sanders who was worked on Lilo and Stitch and How to Train Your Dragon, and others I can't remember. (But that last one blew me away.) Oh and the guy who directed/designed for Ice Age. Meh. But anyway, there is a huge following...it's great..:P

Here's the Blog! http://imaginismstudios.blogspot.com/

And this is so brilliant as well...

Well...Good night. :)

One Day One Sketch

Page 16 Sketch

So THIS was completed today.

My tribal warriors look AWESOME. WHAT.

I really am in love with the staff. But to get to the point. This, was completed in one day of work. It doesn't seem like a lot. But it is to me. I'll need to trace this on to my good paper and then ink it, but it is progress. If I can do one of these each day for the next week, I'll have 9 pages in detail sketch. Then inked (because I won't want to stop) and then sorta colored. Still waiting on that...

Detail stinks, but I must learn to love it. Learn to love it....learn to love it. Guh.

MOTIVATIONAL POSTER.

It's a little sad because I'm not doing crew anymore....but the message is right. :D

Mentor Meeting 3/29/11

Hmmmmmmm....not much to talk about. We went through the steps. Asked me how I was doing. I shared my worries. I got suggestions on that tree-man I drew.

I asked her about my worries about have the pieces sync. We I see all the pages together, I don't want the colors to be so drastically different that they don't look good together. I'll be waiting until I can look at all the pages together to decide on set color pallets.

Mrs. Spence suggested printing thumbnails of the pages together (when they are done) and just messing with water colors to see what works. We'll see what happens.

Write Fuzzy Research (Not Fuzzy Publishing)

Now THAT is Awesome. Who wouldn't want to read a book with a whale and a little boy holding hands/fins?

This is really important. This is just an image from one of the pages on Write Fuzzy's Website.

And so is this.

I'm kinda scared of this.

So let me explain. Write Fuzzy is independent publishing company that focuses in children's books (poetry and picture books) that they choose through a process that is sorta like, "Wow. This is awesome. Who wrote this? Whoa, I'll never forget it. Let's publish it for them." :D With much smiles and giggles.

This was suggested for me to check out by friend of mine, which I thank her dearly for. But this doesn't seem to be the way for me. I don't think they have a slot opening for submissions for children's books anytime soon (there is for poetry from what I understand). So it still looks like it's Lulu for me.

  Also it seems most of the children's books are written by this Derrick Brown and illustrated by some else...meh.

In Other Fabulous News...

Finished with inking that second page. Which isn't really the second page because I'm not doing these in chronological order at the moment....Perhaps later.

BUT. Here it is.

I think it looks pretty snazzy.

As I was looking at it though, I thought to my self, "Hmmmm...I should add some building in the background over the treeline."

And if that isn't a great idea, I don't know what is. But we'll see if that actually ever happens.

In other fabulous news (heh, my title) I was flipping through the book Marley has lent me and it brings to attention my need for a color pallet. Hurrah. I have one page that actually has color. But will those colors work for other pages is the question? I will find out in a month. Need to have 12 pages complete No matter what. :/

Looks super cheery right? I love it. For serious. My brother doesn't like the dragon's colors though....hmmmmmmm. I'll probably ignore him.

But as I was saying, the book Marley lent me brings to attention the importance of a color pallets and the importance of how I want to color the piece. I probably will finish this with simple shading, but I have to keep value in mind as well (contrasting colors, lights dark, the works). It also has some neat tips on character design.

Now I need to get moving.

Sooooo Behind It isn't Even Funny. Ha.

So. I have been lost on the road of life. It....is not a pretty road to be on, but it is twisty and turny with many forks in which people tend to end up in ditches if they follow. But it is probably....OK for me to come out now. Stop slacking. Stop being lame in general. GET INKING DONE. I have to have twelve pages (AT LEAST) done by May. I got a month. ONE MONTH. GOTTA GET-A-MOVING.

Frustration.

One word to describe my current and continuous state of mind. I feel....the need for rant. But since I have already provided a little tiny one (that is all about my faults and failures with little detail) I will instead provide a list.

• 3 Sketches this week
• Finish Inking 2 (at home)
• Photograph/Scan works in progress
• Look through Book given to me by Marley (lovely girl there)
• Go to that Fuzzy Publishing website (you know, I think it is actually called something else, but for the life of me I can't remember) and do some research on the type of publishing they provide. (It's not self publishing)
• Get Colors on One more Page. 
• Meet up with In Shik Lee (Perhaps she'll be nice and firm and tell me to move my butt)
• Finish Research for Rain Warrior Design (and upload)
• Research squirrels.

The Drawings Are coming Along

So to show people I actually indeed am doing things, HERE are some pretty  pictures.

Sketch of a Page (I forget which one)

Inked Page

The Coloring for this last one is pretty much done (need to do some shading) but I think I will leave it incomplete until all the inking is done so that I can make sure the color schemes are compatible on each page. :) The Dragon was fun.

Lulu Research

Lulu...is cool.

For those who do not know, Lulu.com is a self Publishing website. It lets the author choose all the stuff. Yeeeeeep.

I really thought I would be lost.

At first I had NO idea what to do. I'm doing a children's book. Does that make it a different category? Does that put it under a photo book? GAAAAAAAaah.

And then...I watched a tutorial video. It made me smile. It was so eaaaaaaasy. I still wasn't sure what category a children's book would be under but....you know....Whatever. I decided to mess around. And you know what?

This...is one cool website.

I know, I know. Already said. I just needed to emphasize.

I was all worried about the cover design. Turns out they got an app for that. FOR REAL.

It's sooooo colorful.

Anyway, I went through the process of starting a project and got all the way up to the place I am supposed to upload my files. Of course I don't have any at this time so...eh.

So here are the facts:

•  Free publishing (you pay only when a print is ordered) On copy of my book will cost about $60 for 40 pages. YIKES
• I set the price and if anyone else buys it...I get 80% profit. What I set the price to...I dunno. Would anyone buy the book? Probably not. I'll just make the one copy.
• Cover Designs are easy. 
• Have to use InDesign or Adobe Acrobat to set up pages.
• After the Book is completed and officially published it can be shipped in 5-15 business days. 

This is cool. Though there may be something different about how soon I can get it after I finish it.

This little research made me think about something.

I don't have a title for my story. I need to get on that.

Next up: Compare to Publishing Companies.

Mentor Meeting 3/8/11

Had a meeting with Mrs. Spence today. It went super fabulous. We looked at my story board, while I explained the story to her. She had some suggestions about the view and angle of certain panels/pages. I'm still conflicted about using text in the story. She suggested that I use quotes. The one she had going through her head being from Alice In Wonderland. "Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

Luckily...my story wont be half as scary as Alice in Wonderland. 

Actually wouldn't mind if I didn't intend this for children.

Just brilliant. :)

She likes that I will be combining digital and traditional media for the pieces. I will be inking the drawings on 8x12 pieces of watercolor paper and then scanning them to digitally color them. Experimentation is encouraged.


Mrs. Spence also suggested that I try and contact the Family Reading Partnership about getting some interviews. Apparently I can just drop her name...AND THEY WILL DO MY BIDDING. Well...I'm not sure about that, but they would be willing to help out. 


Also, she encourages me to check out Lulu.com soon so that I can get an idea of a deadline. Probably a good idea. Should do that tonight.

Clarrification

It has been brought to my attention that people may find it odd that I am working on my project during my art class. Due to this confusion, I feel the need to clarify some aspects for some people.

This year I am talking an AP Art course. This requires that you complete 24 works by the end of the year to be submitted for evaluation. Twelve of these pieces will be in the Breadth Section. A section where the artist is supposed to show their ability and diversity with works. Either with media or with the subject the works consist of. The other twelve pieces are part of the Concentration section. The concentration is where the artist takes an idea and creates a series of works that follow this idea. For this, I am it as an overlap. The theme I am using is the story for my book. The story about the over-imaginative little girl who has adventures when she walks home from school.

Twelve pages from my illustrated book will be part of my AP Portfolio. You must understand, my story is not 12 pages long. Nor is it merely 15. My story is, as of now, over 30 pages long. And I still feel their are gaps in my story board I may fill in later. So I am not double dipping. I will be working the same amount on each page and I will choose my favorite and most well composed for my portfolio. But this is an art project, and I am doing more for WISE than I am for my AP Art, which is extremely important to me.

I hope that clarifys some things.

Weekly Review 2

How much time did you spend on your project?
I spent the minimum 8 hours. Mostly through the use of my Art class as work time, and writing my three blogs. 

What did you do for hands-on?
Redesigned the main character of my story. Almost done with the story board. Started on sketches of pages.

What Research did you do?
I looked at works of other successful children's book writers (Leo Lionni). Shared some videos that were animated versions of the books. 

Did you meet with your mentor? What did you talk about?
Mrs. Spence was sick most of the week. Will talk to her 6th period today (Friday). She has it free so well do the meeting then. 

Were you in class this week?
 Yes, we watched the documentary by previous WISE students. Barnsong. And we got packets to look over for next Monday. Related works by previous WISE students.


What do you think your fulfillment of WISE requirements was?
 I could have done more. I need to go look at more children's books. And I only did my journal entries in the past few days. Beginning of the week was slow.

What are your plans for next week?    
 Have other character designs completed. Share the story with some friends and get input. Talk to Barry Deutsch (Graphic Novelist) who is coming to the high school next week.  Decide what medium I am going to use for final pages: Digital or mixed media? Size?

Leo Lionni Research

For you Gwen.

So, Leo Lionni has been recommended to me, by my lovely sister. :)

And to tell the truth, I thought I had no idea who he was. But now that I have seen his books....I REMEMBER!!!

Though I don't remember the stories, his style is burned in my mind. Here, have a video!

I feel as though I am Frederick....HE is poet and he knows it. :D Though....I'm not a poet.

And this one is very good too...:)

Inspirational works are very important...:D

Barry Deutsch

Next week I've been informed that there is a graphic novelist (Barry Deutsch) that is coming to the Ithaca school district. I was originally informed by Mrs. Gergley. I thought I would have to go to Fall Creek Elementary to meet up with him. Turns out he's also coming to the high school, which is awesome. I can more easily talk to him this way. That is one thing to look forward to next week!

I finished the character (re)design for my story, I'll upload that later today, after I edit it on the computer.

Other wise...I need to get a start on the sketches for each page. I need to think logically from now on. Yessssssssssssss. Planning...

MOTIVATIONAL POSTER!!!

I feel better already. :)

Weekly Review 1

To describe what I have done this week would be the same as describing drawing.
As I said in my last journal entry, I have decided the story that I am going to do for this illustrated story.

For the past week I have been working out the story board for the story. Similar to how story boards work for animations, this story board is just showing how the story flows visually. I have yet to figure out if I am to include text at all. I have been suggested to include sound text. As in onomonopias.

BAMF.

Probably not a word I will use...unless I work teleporting into my story somehow...hmmm...that is a thought.

Anyway, I have about more than half of the story board done. It has been described as to look like a train. I spent my time in class, in art class and my free time designing it. Obviously I will have to go through some revisions.

I've looked at some authors. David Wiesner's books were the ones I looked at most in depth. Some of his stories have the most in depth look into textless story telling. It was fascinating how engaging I found the stories though they lacked at words to actually be engaged with. I will post more in-depth research journal sometime this weekend. Here's his website. If you have read his books, please share what you thought of them!

I have at least three journal entries. Fabulous.

I see my mentor everyday, but I have yet to have completed an actual meeting with her yet this week. I have planned to have that done tomorrow.

Next week is break. I plan to spend a lot of time with some children. I may be over at CSMA working as a councilor for their "Arts Break" thing. The kids there are always willing to give me feed back and request little drawings for them. 

I aslo plan to meet up with Anne Mazer, seeing how I haven't been able to do that for the last two weeks. 

So my last thing to say will be a request. 

Could people please comment below (if they read this of course) what their favorite picture book was? Or an author? Or if you don't remember, describe what you liked most about it. It would be very helpful.

Convinced

For the last week I've been teetering on switching to a new tangent for a story. I sort of wanted to go the more dark story thing. But my sister referred that to be like graphic novel-ish. I don't want to do a graphic novel....So I need to stay with my original story.

So what was my original story.

My original idea was to tell a story about how a girl's imagination got away from her as she walked home. It would be full of fantasy and armies of squirrels...but I couldn't find a plot for it. So I decided to abandon it.

The reason I couldn't find a plot for it...mostly has to do with how I designed the main character. She was designed based on me as a kid. I used to walk home and imagine things to entertain me, make up stories for why the white picket fence was falling apart and so on. So the reason I couldn't com up with a plot has to do with it being to closely related to my actual experiences. So I need to distance it from me. I am currently working on redesigning the character and actually giving her her own personality.

My sister Clair was here this past weekend, and we started talking about it. She was the one to convince me to stay the course and make the plot. If I were to not write a children's book, it would make a lot more of what I'm reasearching a lot less meaningful. I intend to use children for feeback. I'll tell them the story, show them some pictures, and maybe they can give me some suggestions. It will be great fun.

So the story...(I actually have something!! YES!!)

It suddenly came to me during Econ today. With much inspiration from my sister's suggestions...yeah.

Here we go:

It starts out with a little girl walking home from school. She's got her back pack full of books and is in about 3rd or 4th grade. As she walks, she starts to imagine things. Like all the houses are castles, the dogs in the yards are dragons and the cats can talk and they sit in the sun with jewelry decorating them. Things are suddenly magical. I hope to have reminders of reality every once in awhile.

Anyway, she ends up rescuing this squirrel creature (I have him designed from my previous attempt at the story, he's very cute.) She either rescues him from a trap, or awakens him from a sleep he couldn't wake from on his own. This thing is a lot bigger than her. In reality, he either doesn't exist at all or is an actual squirrel. I want it to be an actual squirrel. Suddenly they are attacked by the sky/water knights! They come down from the sky, and the girl and her squirrel friend must best them!! It might be through might or perhaps some trickery, I'm am not sure yet. Or they might just runnaway. Considering that in reality this is just rain, I would assume running to shelter would qualify as winning. Or perhaps use of an umbrella sword? I don't know.

Finally, they arrive at the goal, her (house) Castle! But as they are appoaching they go under the gate (perhaps this is where they escape the rain) and go up to the courtyard (front porch) and are ready to open the castle doors...when a ferocious monsterous BEAR appears. And there is no hope what so ever as the bear throws a bag over her...then black. It then reveals a scene of a bemused parent (father or mother? I want it to be father! Then I can make him humongous, cuddly, and adorable. As well as squinty.) who is drying off their daughter after she got caught in the rain. She is protesting. The End. :)

And perhaps there will be an extra page showing surprise at the squirrel who is either freaking out or relaxing in a rather humane way. Maybe perhaps a hint that what she imagined could be reality. Yes. I like this. Now to physically design her, her dad (yes, I have decided, and the fuzzy creature). I must remember to make her have an actual personality!

Be prepared for art dumps sometime soon.

The Plan...

By plan I mean "What I hope I will accomplish within this set amount of time."

The set amount of time being...two weeks.

So what shall I do for the next two weeks? I have a feeling, that actually deciding on a story would be helpful. If fact, in order for me to get anywhere with this, I need to write that story. Shoot. I still feel queasy just thinking about it.  I still feel I have no sense of plot! What am I going to doooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo....?

Well. I best get to it. There really isn't any point in waiting. I should just go and read some articles on writing stories or explore some of those websites I found when I was making my Bibliography (that thing was SIX pages long). It actually looked very helpful. Ah ha. Here it is. It is extremely crappy looking, but...I read some of the articles. They were very helpful.

So...I should write the story. "What story?" you might ask? I shall answer...."I have no idea."

Which...isn't completely true. I have a story idea. But it seems rather dark.

The general gist of it is that there is a girl who has lived underground and secluded her whole life. The place she lives is either a science facility or some cave. It depends on how badly I want there to be a clear 'bad guy'. One day, she either escapes to the surface or decides to explore. As a girl who has spent most of her time alone, she is completely unable to relate to anyone in the city. The city will either be extremely technologically advanced or they use magic in a way that it very common knowledge and basic. She will notice she has none of this "magic" (if I choose to go that root) and she'll feel that even if she were able to relate to the people in that world, she would be shunned for being different. The closing argument for her to stay away will be her discovery that in this upper plane....there is no water. No pure water. The society has discovered a way to hydrate themselves, but what can no longer be found as just H2O. This bothers her because she has a strong connection with water. Down in the cave, it was the source of her joy and wonders. I might add that she has some actual magical connection. She won't realize that she does have magic when she chooses to return to the cave. There she will continue as she always had before...perhaps in the story she can make a friend...hmm....

Anyway, I need to get the fine details put down on paper. Perhaps I'll upload it here. Actually...I like that idea, that way I can get feedback.

And now I am supposed to include that I am supposed to talk to a person about said topic. Hmmmmmm...I'm not sure who I want to talk to. I could talk to Anne Mayzer, but I don't really have any contact information on hand, so I'll need to ask my parents. I think I'll do that as soon as I have the story written. Which means I should get it done sooner....hmmm. I could also, perhaps, talk to In Shik Lee. She is a teacher at TC3. My brother had her, and I took a water coloring class with her a couple summers ago. She's a lot of fun. I think she would be interested in helping me. Though she is probably someone to consult about the actual drawings, rather than the story. It might be best to leave her for later.

But anyway, that is what I hope to have done by the time two weeks have passed.

Now see what inspired me for this story idea. I drew it last summer, I still haven't really finished it. :)

Dear Reader

To start off this project, I present to you a theory of mine. My theory is that this blog will actually be used. As a person who does enjoy writing, I do very little of it. Hopefully forcing me to use this website will help me grow out of this inane habit. That is also one of the goals of my project. See, I am in a class called WISE, if you didn't already know. WISE is an English program in which one participates in class for one semester, and then they design a project for themselves and actually DO IT the second semester. The purpose of this class is to help senior High School students to start working in the community and using and acquiring resources that will help them with their goals.

At the end of it, we students, have to make a thirty minute presentation about how we went about completing our project. Thirty. Minutes.

This scares me.

But luckily I have a project I find worth doing.

One of my most favorite things to do in life is to draw. If you find a piece of paper in my possession that does not have a doodle on it, then that piece of paper is either extremely important, or it has not sat idle in front me long enough. I pride myself in my ability, and I love finding ways to incorporate it into everyday things. I thought it would be a perfect talent to use to my advantage in this project. But I had to come up with something to challenge me as well. I then realized one thing. I have never written a story. Well...that isn't completely true. But I haven't written a story that was completely for me and without boundaries. I also realized that if I were to attempt to write a story, it quite possibly my lack a plot. Even children's books have plot.

So it is with this that I have my project. Over the course of the next couple months my project is to write, illustrate and publish a children's book.

This process will include composing the story, and than matching it up with a story board. It is quite possible that I will be telling the story completely without text. I will then use the people around me (children, librarians, piers, family, teachers) for feedback. Hopefully with many points of views I can move along a path that will make me happy as well as those whom I will force to read the book. After the story is rock solid, I will work on perfecting the illustrations. I'm still unsure of the media I intend to use, but hopefully by experimenting I will find one that I like. Since this process will take quite awhile I will be researching and looking in to how I could publish my book. I am aware of the self-publishing website, lulu.com, and think it is a definite option, but I still need to look into other options to make sure it is the right choice.

So, again, hopefully I won't hit to many rocks on my way. It's very hard to draw anything if the table isn't still.