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.

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.