Blogs

Still behind on blogs, I finished my project last night and thought I was done until I realized I still don't have the minimum amount of blogs. I think blogging was one of the biggest challenges of this project for me, I never found the time. Which is a pretty lame excuse considering we only needed three a week, but I fell behind so I ended up doing like 5 a week and still being behind! It was tough.

Done!

I am completely done scanning them in and adding text and editing! With all my materials due 6/2 I'm just in time. Although I wont have my publication done in time for my materials due, I still plan on having the publication done by my presentation on the 9th of June. Here's a sample:

Computer problems

Technology is so unreliable. My printer is broken, it won't scan or print. Gotta go get a new one so I can finish this project! The universe is against me finishing this project right now :( 

Book Dummy

I finished all of my finals and started putting them into the computer, I made a little book dummy and I'm starting to get that feeling of success!

Thanks Dad

I was having a really hard time continuing my project, so much to do in too little time. I called my dad (he's illustrated before) and he told me to take a couple deep breaths and remember this is supposed to be fun, and to enjoy it while I can. He told me it would all be worth it in the end and he told me how to better manage my time with upcoming deadlines like this, like laying down the water color on one, then while that one dries, start the other.

I had painted this entire painting except the dock. Then I messed up the dock by putting the wood lines in the wrong direction!! I was so angry and I wanted to crumple up the whole thing and start over but I wouldn't have time, so I tried fixing it. Hope its not too bad..

Coral Painter Problems

I wanted to use Coral Painter to edit and touch up my paintings, but my account expired and I'm not able to log on unless I pay a ridiculous amount of money :( but! I do have another program called Sketch Book Pro. I don't really know how to use it, but I will learn just in time for my presentation. This definitely puts a damper on my work flow, but I will get past it and finish.

June 9th- Backwards Planning

The date of my presentation has been switched a bunch, which isn't anyones fault! But I'm happy wit this date, I have a little more time to prepare but not too much that I won't be motivated. Because the senior trip is this weekend, I need to have the majority of my project done by Thursday, then I can edit and finalize Sunday before it needs to be turned in Monday.

June 6th- Backwards Planning

I saved the date, my presentation will be June 6th. Which means I will need to have all of my materials handed in on May 30th. Which gives me 2 weeks to get everything done. Right now I have 6 Finals done with leaves me with 8 more including the cover page and some wiggle room for dedication pages. Each final takes about 2 hours to make generously, so this will take about 16 more hours. 45 minutes every day during art will take off about 4 hours so I will need to spend about 12 hours of my own time. Then when my finals are finished I will need to transfer them into my computer and edit which I predict 20 minutes per final to do. Time management will be my biggest friend right now.

Red Flag

I have spent over 10 hours on my project this week, learning that I will be presenting June 6th, I have been working a lot of hands on. What has really helped is that my AP art teacher has given me permission to work on these illustrations during class time as her final grade as well, which helps me because I need all the time that I can get!
This week I have continued to work on my final copies, I have also researched painting computer programs and exchanged emails with a children's book expert, I like to think I have been very6 productive this week thus far.
last Friday my mentor and I made a list of things I can journal about, and once again I am behind on my journals, but I do have a solid list of things to journal about if I can find the time to just sit and get it done.
In class this week we picked our time slots for our presentations, I am June 6th.
Next week I can work more on final pieces and scan them in to my computer to add text.

Computer Painting Programs

I use Coral Painter as a computer editing program, you can also use a tablet and draw right on the program to fix any imperfections. I researched other programs because my prescription is almost up and they are all 80-100$ so I think I will just renew my prescription.

Emailing Kimberly Palombo

My mentor had given me the email of a woman Kimberly Palombo, my mentor said Kim has a lot of knowledge on the subject of how illustrations relate to the text, and aid the text for childeren. When I first emailed her I told her about me and my project in the WISE program, I explained the story line and the age group targeted(6-7). 

She replied with:

"For this age group, I think it is best to reiterate the story in the pictures.  In other words, the reader should be able to have a pretty close understanding of the story from doing a "picture walk".  A "picture walk" is when we teach young children to look at the pictures before they read a book to preview it and get an idea about what the story will be about.  For this story, I see a young boy who is living impoverished (you can show this through physical characteristics and his begging) at the market.  Then the pictures should show the fisherman (again, use physical characteristics to show the reader it is a fisherman, maybe with bright yellow overalls and a hat and fishing rod, etc.) watching the boy.  Maybe have some type of image that conveys the fisherman having an idea (a thought bubble with a picture of the boy putting fish on a family table or something).  And then continue to connect the pictures to the story in this way." 

This was VERY helpful in that I was having a hard time clarifying my illustrations. This may mean I'll have to go back and fix some illustrations, but it will be for the better. 

Quick Tip

Earlier I had described using a window as a "light box". I have a picture to help clarify what I mean!

Out of the Rut

*7 Things I want to accomplish by next Monday*
-Paint more pictures
-Research Painting Programs for the computer
-Get a new printer/scanner
-Talk to John (Author)
-Pick text font
-Try scanning a picture into the computer
-Cover page picture sketched

*5 Things I need for my project*
-Printer/Scanner
-Painter program
-Different fonts to choose from
-More watercolor brushes
-Advice from my dad
*3 Things I should talk to my mentor about*
-Emails between me and a potential interviewee
-The research on other computer painting programs
-Progress with the Cover Page

*7 Things I want or Need to Know More About*
-Computer programs
-Illustrations involvement with text
-Kids favorite types of illustrations
-How colors affect mood
-Can I write a Grant to get money for a program?
-Will I finish?
-How will I need to arrange pages for the book dummy?

Water color

What I like about watercolor is that it spreads really easily and is easy to mix colors. It's basically pushing around colored water into shapes. I also like that you don't need expensive watercolor on order to get good results! I usually use crayola and it works really well. The only thing that one should be cautious about is the paper. Because it's water, you can't use normal paper, but specifically watercolor paper

The process: step 3

For step three, use your step 2 sketch as a reference. For really good results I held both peices of paper up to the window so the light could be used as a "light box" which makes it very easy to trace.

I then used water color as a base of color, not drawing any solid lines.

Once the watercolor paint is dry, then I went through with colored pencil to out line and define certain areas.

The process:step 2

Then you play around in finding your characters physical features. For me this is the most fun. Once you have a character you like then keep that as your reference for step 3.

The process: step 1

The process of making a final page is quite time consuming. First one must divide the story up into pages then draw a VERY rough sketch

This is my new puppy by the way. He's fat and his name is Ruxin

Spring break

During spring break I finished all my sketches! I wasn't sure if I would have time considering my AP art portfolio is due very soon and I wanted to spend all break doing that. I found time for both projects and it worked out very nicely. I wanted to do more with my WISE project but my mom decided to get a puppy over break and I spent all week cleaning up after him and taking him out every 30 minutes. But finished my sketches was still a big achievement for me!

Friday before break

On Friday 4/11 I was once again unable to meet with my mentor. Which I'm not at all angry about, I gor to leave for break early! She did however send me an email telling me to catch up on my journals.

Thursday class 4-10-14

I just wrote a reflection in my last couple entries so I won't repeat myself but! I have spent many hours since I last spoke with ms lord and my mentor, definitely more than 14. I got all caught up on my sketches and almost on my journals.

I have yet to meet with my mentor, last week I was sick and the week before that I was having trouble with my life and project so she thought my time would be better spent trying to work on that. 

On Monday we went around the room and shared how our project was coming along, and talked about our fund raiser coming up. We also received articles from other students and were asked to journal about them, which I did! By next week I will have more than the required journals and speak to the contact I was given by my mentor. 

Half way done!

I finally reached my half way point with my sketches! I had predicted I would be done by now but Iv'e realized that was a rushed prediction, just as that kid said in Barnsong, "Everything always takes longer than you expected." Now that I have reached this point I feel great about my project, like it's actually really going to get done!

Vinny's article for me, and my article for Vinny

I know absolutely nothing about Vinny's topic so I had just googled a whole bunch of techy words like: 3D, models, tech, computer programs, etc. I found This article that seemed like it would have something to do with programs that help with creating 3D models, so I stuck with it!
The article Vinny gave me was pretty straight forward, it was called How to Illustrate Children's Books: 7 Top Tips, sooooo you can imagine if fit right in with my project... 
It was actually very helpful! it talked more about being inspired and persistent and it reinstated that every draft wont be perfect and I will have to be be patient with myself. THANKS VINNY

Task force journaling

In class on monday we received feedback on our journals from a community member, mine just happened to be from Andrea Hazard! my first ever interviewee for the project. I was thrilled to hear she had enjoyed reading my journal, and things looked to be going well and were clearly explained through out my blog. She did say she would love to see some sketches up on here and after some thinking, I have decided it would be fun to do so!

Sick days

Being sick suckkkkksssss. I was out all Thursday and Friday, missing both my Red Flag Class and my Mentor meeting. We had tried to reschedule the meeting but both of our agendas wouldn't comply. With migraines and nausea all weekend, it was hard for me to leave my dark room. Once again, time to catch up.

Getting Caught up for ME

Work and research wise I am all caught up, I do need a few more journals but it shouldn't be a problem considering the work I have done and would like to share with everyone. When I spoke to Ms. Lord about my set back last week she said a lot that stuck with me, she had also noticed I tend to fall behind when there's a personal crisis in my life. She told me to take control of me and admit to myself what was happening so I could then know how to deal with it in a way that might help ME. Although there are still some issues in my life I decided to not let them affect my school work, which is then better for me and also my grades.

Kindle Store

When I spoke with Andrea Hazard, the woman I had interviewed before the start of this project, she had told me that I would be able to sell the book on Kindle and make 100% profit.
I wanted to look into this, and what I found was:
-it would cost 99$ to publish a book on the Kindle Store
-eBook will help me to convert a word document or book into a PDF or HTML etc.
-the book and profit is 100% yours, ZERO cut sales.

Where are the People of Color in Children's books?

My mentor suggested this article written by Walter Dean Myers, called Where are the People of Color in Children's books? When she told me the title I was excited to read it, because even though I am really white looking, I'm Mexican and have been interested in this. Myers gave the incredible fact that out of the 3,200 childeren's books written in the year 2013, only 93 featured people of color. Myers mentions as he was growing up as he saw only white kids in his books, he wasn't able to humanize them, they didn't feel real and the lives of white people were not meant for the lives of people of color.
I found this article to be very helpful, because the book that I am illustrating is featuring a kid of latin american culture.

Falling behind, and Catching up

This week has been rough, with family drama and catching up, I haven't been able to blog and work on my project as much as I had hoped. At my mentor meeting we planned this productive week and I feel bad I couldn't keep up. I've realized in stressful situations I tend to fall behind on work and I've decided to not let that happen this week. So this weekend I'll catch up completely. Tonight I plan on at least finding this article my mentor had brought up to me so we have things to discuss tomorrow. This weekend I'll have 8 sketches done and the research on the Kindle Store, I will share this with my blog.

Thursaday Class 3-20-14

-I spent about 4 hours so far on my WISE project. not including my mentor meeting and the weekend on the way.
-Hands on, iv'e been working on my sketches, I have 3 done and I'm working on two right now.
-I met with my mentor on Friday but we didn't talk long considering we had already spoken on Tuesday to make up for the cancellation before.
-I have 9 right now and after my mentor meeting I will have 10 then on Sunday I will blog specifically on my project and how my sketches are coming along.
-Yes, we watched Barnsong, a documentary made by a WISE student, about another WISE student's project. We were also given past WISE projects like our own to evaluate/ comment on.
-Next week ill have about 6 to 8 pages done and will be completely caught up on my journals.

Commenting on blogs

Vinny and Feeney both have very different projects and very different ways of journaling. I don't know anything about either of their projects, so they did a good job in breaking it down in a way that someone like me can understand. After seeing both of their blogs, it made me want to add pictures in my next entry!

Barnsong

What I liked most about viewing this, was that it was two projects in one. The whole time I was watching Austin cut down trees and do all this manuel labor, I was like "oh jeez thats a lot of work and in such weird hours of the day" but then I thought, "wait the camera man would have to be with him through out the whole experience." Another thing that caught my attention that has brought a new view on the WISE project process is when he said "Everything takes longer than you think." Because so far even just a few weeks in, I have noticed this to be true. Also things don't always turn up the way you want them to, like when the trees didn't fall the right way and he had to bring out the tractor to help take it down. The camera man would have to have a lot of patience, and I really liked how he used other students to write songs or sing or play an instrument through the video, it was a team effort in both projects.

Sitting down with the Author

I met with the author of my book and discussed how he wanted the illustrations to be done. He's a family friend and is really easy to talk to, which made the experience fun. We went page by page, splitting the story up and discussing how he envisioned the illustrations in his head. We discussed the process a little and he gave me a lot of free reign. Which can make things complicated or a lot of fun, he and I made REALLY rough sketches of each page. He gave me a reference book, so I can see how detailed he wants the art work. The book is The Salmon Princess by Mindy Dwyer, it's quite simple so I don't thing it will take me too long. I'm trying to get 3 sketches done per week so far I have 3.

3-13-14 Thursday Class
-So far this week I have spent a total of 5 hours on my WISE project, not yet counting my time I will spend journaling. I also got some extra time with that half day we so graciously received yesterday.
-Last week on Friday was supposed to be my first mentor meeting, but Ms. McCormick had to cancel due to a last minute meeting. So I had my meeting on Tuesday, and will have another this Friday, the meeting was very helpful, I got the chance to explain my project, and she asked a lot of really useful questions. One point that she brought up was that when I do decide to journal on my process of illustrating, to make it understandable to people liker her, who don't go through that process normally.
- I had my meeting with John Norman the author on Sunday which was very helpful, we reviewed notes and created very rough sketches of each page. We discussed style and he even gave me a reference book.
-My WISE fulfillment this week was good, I got a lot of the foundation done that I needed in order to really start the work of this project.
-By the end of this week I plan on having 2 page sketches done.

3-6-14 Thursday Class
-This week I have spent about 4 hours working on my WISE project. Before I can finish the 8 hour minimum I would have to talk to the author of the book John Norman which is arranged for Sunday March 9th at 3:00pm. So far I have taken notes on how I think the book should look and when we meet we can compare and compromise.
-Before I can make the storyboard I need to make sketches on each page, which I still need to figure out after my meeting with John.
-I have not yet met with my mentor, she is a woman I have not yet had a conversation with, but I have high hopes.
-Journaling is a interesting process for me, I have a lot of notes written down but I have yet to transcribe them into journals.
-In class this week we received a packet on how we can keep our journals interesting for readers. We also got into small groups with people we don't normally talk with, in order to talk and learn about other's projects.
-My WISE class fulfillment this week was adequate, I was exited on Tuesday 3-4-14. As far as my project is concerned I worked on what I could without the guidelines I needed from the author.
-Next week once I have had my meeting with my author, I can begin the actual process and research of my project.

2 Week Plan

For this two week period I will get my story board done. I will need to have a conference with John Norman, the author of the book. When I do this I hope to learn what style of illustration he wants, I know I will use watercolor but I don't know how detailed he wants each drawing to be. I also need to ask him where the text will end on each page before I can start the storyboard.

As references John will show me the works of other illustrators that I can use to build off of. I will also contact my dad for quick advice and answers to questions I might have along the way.
My goal by the end of these two weeks is to sit down and chat with John and finish my storyboard.
My time will be broken up as:
Monday: 45 minutes class
Tuesday: 45 minutes free 1 extra hour to work on sketches and placement
Wednesday: 45 minutes free to blog
Thursday: 45 minutes and 1 extra hour to work on sketches
Friday: 2 hours to transfer sketches onto a storyboard
Saturday: Another chat with John to make sure my sketches are going in the right direction
Sunday: Off
Monday: 45 Minute class
Tuesday: Blog and sketch 1-2 hours
Wednesday: "                 " 1-2 hours
Thursday: 45 minutes sketch into storyboard
Friday: sketch finish storyboard 2-3 hours
Saturday: finish storyboard and present to John 2 hours 

Dear Reader

As my WISE project I have chosen is to Illustrate a children's book and also to do the foot work in getting this book published. There is a question as to whether I want to publish this electronically or through a hard copy. My goal is to get the story board done by the end of these two weeks. And all of the illustrations and sketches done before the middle of March so I can begin the publication process. My interviewee told me that the illustrations take a long time so I will need to manage my time during that course. That is a fear of mine, in the past I have had a hard time finishing projects that I have started. Therefore I am fearful that I won't have enough time to publish if I take all this time to perfect the illustrations.

I chose this topic because I love everything about it, I love kids and I love art. I couldn't picture myself spending these 16 weeks on any other topic. As a child I had made my own illustrations to my favorite books and admired the work of other illustrators. It has always been a dream of mine to have my art in a children's book because I know how much kids love pictures and are moved by fun art. My interviewee stated that it's very hard to make a living off illustrating. So it's better as a hobby, and because I really enjoy drawing I found this to be the perfect project.