What is this Image

What is this image?

If you said a scribbly mess that perhaps one of my grandchildren did, you'd be wrong. That right there is me gone back to school. And I'm pretty darn excited about it.

I've always loved learning... if, and only if, it's something I want to learn. Like art classes or meteorology or forensics.

Ok, I haven't actually taken a meteorology class with the exception of a short unit in a Gr 11 geography course.

And I've never taken anything remotely in the forensics field, but I did find Forensic Files a fascinating show on TV a couple of decades ago. Oddly enough I find it fascinating to examine bugs and rot on a long dead body. However, if they show a surgery scene on TV I have to close my eyes. Go figure.

On the other hand, if it's something I'm not interested in learning I don't really have a lot of stick-with-it power.  I recently came across my Gr 10 math report card. I loved my math teacher and somehow managed to get into his classes in all my high school years. But math wasn't something I was particularly interested in. And in one term (half a semester) I had 17 absences in the 52-day term. Art in the same term 3/52 absences. Something didn't add up. :)  I did manage to pull off a B+ in both classes so I guess Mama figured there was no need to call me to task on the numbers.

Oh my goodness, I had no intention of talking about any of this stuff when I sat down to blog. Sometimes the words just run away from me.

But yeah, I've signed up for a 20-session online course on Adobe Illustrator.

It started out with me committing to The 100-Day-Project and determining to do something, anything, for a minimum of 10 minutes a day toward my goal of publishing a kid's book.

I've written and rewritten the story and edited and re-edited it a number of times. I've done some research on publishers and self-publishing, illustrations, design layout, digital format and other such intriguing topics.

Some days I have spent an hour or so just doodling before I throw down my pencil and say, "I think I'll just hire an illustrator."

While I have dreamed for many years of seeing my name on the cover of a book one day, I never imagined it would be a kid's book. People have occasionally suggested it, and honestly, I kinda thought "throwing out a kid's book" would sort of be cheating. A quick way to throw my name on a cover without having a lot of substance to the content.

Guess I didn't really think that one through.

There is so much more involved in producing a picture book. You are writing for children while marketing to adults. And there are so many more details; the layout, the design. How many words on a page, how many pages in the book, what illustrations would best enhance this page et cetera et cetera.

Most authors have someone else illustrate for them. But I know I CAN draw. And I am semi-proficient with photoshop. And I am a watercolour artist. So really it doesn't make sense for me to pay an illustrator anywhere from $1200 to $15,000 to illustrate a 28-page book for me.

But gosh-darn my vision is beyond the pencil drawings and the doodles that were transpiring on my reams of paper that are beginning to pile up on my desk.

Enter the world of Adobe Illustrator.

This is a program that, while running in conjunction with Photoshop, is a completely different entity. One that I have vaguely dreamed of mastering for about 10 years.    

And so, yesterday, while weighing the options and costs, and without being aided by the consumption of wine, I decided to jump right in with both feet.

I'm sure I'll keep you updated as to the progress. And, if my book hits the stands with credits to an unknown illustrator from India or Japan and I've started a GoFundMe page to finance them, well then you know my Adobe Illustrator attendance rate has probably been comparable to my Math10 data.

100 Day Project

When I started the Writing and New Media programme at the college almost 17 years ago, one of the instructors made us go around the room and introduce ourselves and say why we were there.

"My name is Liana and I want to write a book.  I have no idea what the subject matter will be, I just wanna see my name on a cover one day." 

I practically looked around behind me to see who was saying the words that were falling out of my mouth. I had no idea where they came from. I had never consciously considered writing a book before that moment. I signed up for the programme because I simply wanted to go to school. 

I had poured over the college calendar to find something that piqued my interest, and I liked what the Writ Programme offered. But it was mostly the graphic design aspects of the course that nudged me to sign up. 

However, from that first day of class forward I have continued to say, "I'm gonna write a book one day." And truth be told I have started many versions of it and have just never followed through with any of them. 

Over the years I've had a number of people suggest I write a kid's book. My response was always, "No. I'm far too sarcastic and foul mouthed for that." 

However...  

At Christmas time this year I wrote a story to share with my grandkids that was inspired by Papa. And I determined in my heart that 2019 is the year I will see my name on a cover.  

I did some more serious investigation and googling in January to educate myself on the process of writing a kid's book and getting it published. Then Maui distracted me. 

Then I returned from Maui and I kept bumping into references, blogs and posts that mentioned "The 100 Day Project." You can google the details if you want more info, but basically it's a movement to encourage people to commit to create, if even for 5 minutes, each day for 100 days.  

Commit to spending at least 5 minutes a day for 100 days working on a creative project.
And part of my creativity for the day included painting this little sketch to include with the blog. 

With my past successes at sticking to my prompt-a-day to make a piece of art each day in February I thought this project might be just what I need to keep me focussed and determined to get my name on a cover.  

I registered. I joined the Facebook group. I'm all in. 

And so, from April until early July, I am committing to do something, anything, each day toward my goal. And I'm putting it here in writing so you, my adoring public, can help to hold me accountable. 

Today's entry in my 100-day journal will include: Doing a bit of editing on my original story and watching a tutorial on writing a successful kid's book. My takeaway from the tutorial is this quote: 

And with that, I may have to go back and rework some of the story tomorrow.