My First Picture Book – Harold Hark – Release Party!

I don’t think I can describe how it feels to write this. A huge part of me is psyched, yet it feels unreal.

About a year ago a silly question popped in my head. “We have Hark the Herald Angels Sing, but what if there was an angel named Harold Hark who couldn’t sing?” Usually I get stuck in the idea phase, but this one refused to stay there and it’s the picture book that I’m releasing today!

My Mom is wonderful. On top of everything else she encourages me to reach for my dreams. So when the idea for Harold Hark popped into my brain, and out of my mouth, she loved it and reminded me from time to time that I should really turn it into a book.

I’ve always wanted to be a writer, and illustrating had seriously caught my interest last year, but even though I agreed I probably should turn it into a book I had no idea what to write.

Most of my ideas don’t come as a complete package and filling in the blanks isn’t always easy. So I put it on the back burner.

To be honest, without Mom’s prodding it might have stayed there, but her gentle encouragement came to mind when I was trying to decide what to get her for Christmas last year.

I thought it would be cool to give her the completed book as a present. I could imagine Mom’s face lighting up when she opened the box so my creativity kicked in.

And so with no story, no idea what Harold would look like, only an iPad to do my digital drawings on, and a 4 day deadline — I set to work.

 Can you say pressure?

You’re probably thinking I’m crazy right now, but where I can get something done for others on time I tend to be a procrastinator when it comes to my own ideas. Knowing I had a locked amount of time I looked for an idea and sat down to write.

I wrote the story in a few hours and spent the rest of the day sketching ideas until Harold’s face appeared on the page.

Then with the help of my sister the book was edited and we decided 16 simple images would work best. I sketched into the wee hours and for the next day and a half I turned them into digital images with my iPad. And when every image was complete I uploaded my book. The next day I found out the “deadline” was a misunderstanding on my part, but looking back I’m glad because it gave me that push to complete it.

Harold Hark was carefully wrapped and under the tree well before Christmas, and on Christmas morning it was so special to watch my Mom’s face when she opened the box and saw it sitting there. She had no idea I’d actually made it.

It was an amazing moment to hear her read it out loud for the first time.

And now Harold Hark is published! (Click to Tweet)

 Click Here to buy a copy of Harold Hark at Amazon.com.

amazon button
I’m so happy and blessed to have my first picture book out, and I hope that the story will mean as much to you as it does to me.

 “Harold can’t sing. Which would be okay except he’s an angel, and angels sing… right?

Instead of doing the best job in heaven Harold’s stuck with a little job. But then an idea strikes — why not try more important jobs? Walk with him as he tries building the golden cities and picking up a sword to join the warrior angels. It isn’t until everything seems hopeless that you’ll both learn a secret to serving God. And how a change in attitude makes all the difference.”

And those of you who buy a copy, from 10/7-10/14/13, can email me a copy of your receipt I’ll send you a small thank you PDF package! One you can print as many times as you want . (Just can’t sell them.) ;)

final-pinterest-collage

Please tweet, post on Facebook or your blog, and pin about this! Harold Hark’s success depends on you!

I’d like to see how many people we could tell, who knows maybe we’ll reach the #1 position in Children’s Books at Amazon (wouldn’t that be so cool?!).

 Want to have some extra fun?

Check out the Harold Hark Pinterest Board and come back Monday for links to cool projects you can do with your kids!

Have a question? Drop me a line, tweet, or comment on this post and I’ll get back to you.

*The amazon link in this post is an affiliate link.

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Happy Fall!

Okay, I admit it. I like cold weather. Don’t look at me like that.

It never fails I tell people I like fall and winter – still like snow though shoveling mounds of it isn’t that fun – and they get all arms crossed “I’m shivering because I’m cold just thinking about it” kind of look.

Anyway. I don’t mind what weather you like, but me and my sis thought this sketch would be an appropriate “Happy Fall!”

happy-fall

For this sketch I used my new cyan colored InkJoy Pen. (Affiliate)

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Picture Book Update

Well, next month my picture book is coming out and have I been learning a lot about self-publishing lately. I must say there’s more then I ever knew (or expected) to it. It’s been quite a learning experience, including having to redo my art a couple times.

Can anyone tell me why computers decide to randomly loose things?

Yeah, I know it might just be me, but i have to tell you that sometimes I think my computer’s hiding stuff on me.

Anyway. It’s all coming together amid writing, fixing,  and twiddling my thumbs while I wait for proofs somehow it’s all getting done.

peanuts-writing-is-hard-work

belongs to Charles Schultz

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When Self-Publishing Gets You Down

by mintyfresh

caption mine, photo by mintyfresh

Well, self publishing my picture book – which comes out later this month (Yay!) – has been an exercise in patience and has stretched my knowledge to the max. I’ll admit there were a couple times I wanted to pull my hair out, but in the end it’s been worth it.

Yes I’m still surprised I feel that way. But then it all comes back to how crazy I am about books. And that makes perfect sense.

So what do you do when you feel down about your writing or illustrating?

Watch this cute song by Sue Fliess — seriously it made my day that much better.  (Thanks Sue!)

Still down?

Then take a moment and watch Nathalie Lussier’s video on feeling like you should give up.

Feeling better? I hoped you would. That’s one of the best parts about the internet all of us who are in the same boat can connect — an knowing there are people working through the same things I am makes me feel a ton better.

By the way. I misspelled illustrating as luustrating and spell check wants to know if I meant strangulating — creepy how a program can guess how you feel when your computer keeps hanging up.

What helps most when you feel like quitting?

Picture from flickr by mintyfresh.

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Sketch – Lieutenant Gret

Hi, everyone! Don’t have much more time then for a brief sketch. And the picture that inspired the brave, Lieutenant Gret. With a wave of his super feather finger he moves armies to do his bidding. (you simply must read that in an impressive voice)

Gret

He’s based on this cool picture I found of an egret – hence his highly imaginative name I might add!

If you like fun, cute animal images (with no snakes or spiders EVAH) look at or follow my Animals – Cute Pinterest Board!

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5 Unknown Facts About Little Red Riding Hood

In every story about me people seem to leave some things out – important stuff.  You’d think since I’m such a well known character they wouldn’t, but there you’d be mistaken.

5 Things that weren’t in the story.

  1. 1. My name is not exactly Red. My name is Poppy. Yes, Poppy means red, but writers didn’t think Poppy Riding Hood had the same ring. I don’t think so – Poppy Riding Hood… sounds quite nice.
  2. My grandmother wasn’t sick.  She loves to say, “I’ve never been sick a day in my life!”. And scary thing is she’s right.
  3. If she wasn’t sick what happened? Come closer, that’s right get you ear against the screen. She twisted her ankle chasing a rabbit. They’d been getting into her garden and chasing one she missed one of it’s holes and wrenched her foot something awful. Grandmother isn’t one to sit still so I was sent to make sure her foot stood up.
  4. The wolf never swallowed me. That would just be disgusting. (People believed it?) But he was about to turn us into a nice dinner over the fire.
  5. This is what I really look like:

littlered-websm

 

Hope you enjoyed this post. This sketch of Red Poppy Hood was done digitally on my new tablet. Still getting used to everything, but I had fun making up this post. What do you think?

 

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4 Illustration Tips I Learned from Cheer Up, Mouse! by Jed Henry

A librarian friend told me people ask her if they can go into the Children’s section. I want to stand up and shout “yes!” What better place to learn neat things, read thrilling tales, or enjoy great illustration?

Some treasures are hiding in the kids section of your library. Tweet it!

Like this picture book.

Copyright Houghton Mifflin Books for Children

Cheer up, Mouse! had me at the cuddly animals, honestly who can resist animals smiling? Okay, maybe you, but not me. Besides I wanted to know one thing.

Why was the mouse sad?

By the end of the book that question wasn’t so important. In my opinion the whole message of this book is what we generally do when someone’s unhappy.

“Do what makes me happy and you’ll be happy too!”

I don’t know about you but I’m guilty of that. Yes all the animals mean well, but the story gently leads you to this conclusion:

Helping a friend is not about what I want, but what they NEED. Tweet it!

Big difference. So necessary.

Copyright Houghton Mifflin Books for Children

Since I’m still new to the world of illustrating picture books I’ve been picking up several of them when I go into the library. And here are 4 things I gleaned about illustration from this book:

1. Pictures convey everything — Mr. Henry made every picture count, and to tell the truth your could remove the words and still have a great book that makes an awesome point.

2. Use every inch of your character — The animals use every ounce of their body to tell the story. How? By revealing their emotions in the slight change of the eye, the way the ears sit on the head, even the action line through the body.

3. Intelligent backgrounds — I struggle with backgrounds, but this book simplifies the backgrounds in a way that leaves the story perfectly set with just the right amount of white space. Plenty for the eye to see, but not filled to the gills

4. Small Perspective — Each drawing gave me the feel of being the size of the animals in the book, which just made it more fun to read! It drew my attention to how much the perspective plays in a book.

I’m definitely going to keep my eye out for more books by Jed Henry — have any suggestions of ones to try?

For readers — what got you to pick this book up?

For illustrators — what tip would you draw from this book?

If you want a more in depth (*spoiler warning*) review check out this one at Kirkus.

 

Cheer Up, Mouse! is Written and Illustrated by Jed Henry, and published by Houghton Mifflin Books for Children. The pictures are not mine, and fully belong to the publisher.
The views are my own and unsolicited.
*The Amazon link is an affiliate link.

 

 

 

 

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Fabric Pattern Design – Cupcake

FYI – this post is just me having fun and challenging myself (I wasn’t hired to do it or anything).

I call this pattern group cupcake. Based on the cupcake liner I drew in the Design-Seeds Cupcake challenge I gave myself.

cupcake-pattern-collage copy

I liked some of the patterns I was finding while sketching it out, so much I had to make them bigger. On top of that I’ve been watching what people in the Make Art That Sells e-course have been posting. (Like this one from Chicken Girl Designs.)

It looked like so much fun I thought I would challenge myself to make a bolt fabric portfolio piece.

My rules were the whole collection could have up to 8 colors, but only 6 colors per piece. It had to include only the color family I found in the cupcake photo, as well as the patterns I came up with from it. (I had a blast by the way.)

cupcake-pattern extras copy

Couldn’t resist sharing the extras! Which do you like best?

What do you think?

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