running and drawing and scouts

It's been an emotional week. I had two funerals and my Cub Scouts graduated to Boy Scouts. As crazy as those boys made me and as much of a disaster my house was after a meeting, I'm going to miss the heck out of those days- showing up on the playground in my uniform and having them all cluster around like (spastic, monkey-like) ducklings. At one point during the graduation ceremony at the Blue and Gold dinner, they all had to come up and receive their award. I had this moment... as they saluted me Scout style (my eyes were blurring here) they looked more like young men than they ever had. I was proud.

Also emotional was the shutting down of the LA Times Kids Reading Room. I did the final illustration for it, and it ran last week. I am so sad to see it go; it is hard to keep up with what's happening to print media right now. I wish Jennifer James, the editor, all the best in her new endeavors.

Then there's the state of my manuscript. In an incredible show of Murphy's Law at work in my life, and due to the importance of a certain endangered species in my manuscript, that species actually CAME OFF the endangered species list. YES! I singlehandedly, by relying on said species' endangered status for a most important plot point, saved this species. Not only is it not endangered, it is not even PROTECTED now. So after a goodly meltdown, I figured out that (a) meltdowns are necessary and galvanizing and (b) I am intelligent enough to write myself out of a corner. So I did.

Lastly, my clan ran the Los Alamitos Race on the Base for my dad's 65th birthday. Dad was supposed to join us, but he hurt his back so he was photographer. My son ran it, my mom placed first in her age group, and I took third! To top it all off, Johnny Rebb's catered pulled pork sandwiches after... mmmmm- mmm!

Farfaria.com and broccoli

Okay, so maybe the title is a little disjointed, but I am very excited about a couple of recent occurrences. First, I illustrated an ebook for a great little company called Intuary. If you're a mom friend of mine and have a little one who is versed in the iPad (aren't all kids?) you should check out their launch of a new website called Farfaria.com. For a small fee you get new ebooks weekly which are viewable on your iPad. I illustrated an updated fable called The Wizard's Test. It was a little complicated in that I painted it traditionally in watercolor and colored pencil, and then cut it all apart in Photoshop and put it on different levels which may be animated in the future. A good fun project for sure, and they were lovely to work with. They even came and visited the Surfside Girls booth at APE when I was there (they're San Francisco based, and very young-and-hip.)

Only slightly less exciting is the fact that for the first time ever, thanks to my amazing Urban Gardener Supermom friend Cassie a few doors down, I put in my first winter garden, and we're eating fresh broccoli! So awesome! I realize that I am enough of a suburban girl that I am thunderstruck-amazed at growing my own food. People from the midwest must be rolling their eyes at my giddiness. However, it is so much more fulfilling to eat fresh out of the garden than make the daily trek to the market. I hope I never lose this wonder for the little plants! Speaking of friend Cassie, please do check out her blog, where she teaches even the lamest of suburbanites not only how to grow the food, but how to cook it as well. All with stellar writing skills and an artist's eye for photography. I'm just a teeny bit jealous... her blog is www.pocketsquarefarm.bloglovin.com

Not wanting to steal the thunder of both of these events, I will post again soon as tomorrow I have an illo out in the LA Times that I'm really fond of, AND I ran a 5K this morning and actually took third in my age group. It's been a good week!

Stand Up Paddle, asphalt style

Last summer I was driving back from Laguna along PCH. This drive always puts me in a creative mood. Driving, first of all, puts my brain in the proper level of distraction, kind of like gardening. Then of course is the fact that moving through Laguna, Newport Coast, Corona del Mar, Mariner's Mile, Huntington Beach, Bolsa Chica, Sunset, and then Seal Beach is just about the best coastline/ people watching you can hope for. I count on this drive to remind me why I pay ridiculous prices to live here.

Anyhow, I was in the inevitable traffic where PCH meets Huntington Beach Main Street, right at the pier. Surf City USA. Duke Kahanamoku statue with live leis around his neck on the corner. I live for this crosswalk; ALL TYPES move across it and it gives me endless character reference. Out of the corner of my eye I see a cute boy in the bike lane, probably 17 or 18 years old. Wearing striped beanie, tank top, backpack, low riding jeans and Rainbow sandals and PADDLING his way up the bike lane. Yes paddling. I fell hopelessly in love with this character (don't tell my husband) and needed to document the awesomeness of the embodiment of the surfer. Commuting down PCH on a longboard skateboard, with Stand Up Paddle (SUP) paddle fitted with a rubber tip on it. Total surfer ingenuity.

This painting is a nod to this unknown surfer boy- Sam and Jade cruise the bikelane on their own longboards.

Story Beat Boards

At my Illustrator Group meeting a couple of weeks ago, I explained how I was digging into some rewrite changes on Surfside Girls. I mentioned how I put all of my plot points on flashcards, numbered in pencil, and then made a story beat board to have a visual representation of my story. A lot of people there didn't know what I was talking about, and I realize it's something I picked up by spending my early formative artist years in an animation studio. So I figured I'd share how I did that, at the request of the Schmooze Group friends. This works for whatever kind of story you're writing.

We're all visual types, us arty types, right? If you're faced with restructuring a story, sometimes this can seem really daunting, especially because the words on the paper don't always accurately portray the timing of your story. Eventually this will be solved with the dummy book. Before that, however, you can see your emotional points clearly with this.

I took a large corkboard and stretched a piece of yarn across the middle, held on both ends by thumbtacks. Have a bunch of string and thumbtacks standing by.

Next, I went through my story and wrote all the major points on flash cards. For Goldilocks and the Three Bears, this maybe went something like, "Goldilocks wanders in the woods sad and lonely." "Goldilocks spies a cottage (exciting!) It's cute!" "Goldilocks peeks in the front window and sees no one home." "Goldilocks lets herself in the front door." "Goldilocks spies porridge." "Too hot!" etc. Try to figure out how your character is feeling during all of this. When Goldi starts out wandering in the woods, she is (for my demonstration purposes) sad and lonely. I would take that little card and pin it to the leftmost point on the board, slightly below the middle yarn line. That line is emotionally neutral. As Goldi encounters things, she could become scared, happy, etc. Negative emotions put her below the line, positive put her above the line. How far above or below depend on the depth of feeling. For instance, Goldi finding the porridge too cold is going to bum her out, but no where near how bummed out she's going to be when a giant Papa Bear discovers her in the bed.

Your story emotions should rise and fall, gaining momentum until the pivotal moment at the end, and then resolve. In a happy story, the character ends up emotionally above the emotion neutral line.

I have attached a photo of how I'm using this to keep track of stuff. It doesn't replace a dummy, but it can be a faster way to see which points could be punched up. More danger! More at stake!
Hopefully that helps if you, like me, are in the midst of reorganizing thoughts.

The other picture I posted is a poster I made for my church. The preschoolers picked a service project for their year, and brought in little fistfuls of change to buy a needy family a farm. Yes, a farm. Through the organization ELCA Good Gifts, $715 buys a cow, two goats, two pigs, a duck and ten chicks, along with a pitchfork and a hoe. The little kiddos came up a little short, and church members pitched in and provided the rest. I couldn't resist making the poster fun...

I just finished an illustration for the LA Times Kids Reading Room that I'm really happy with. It will probably be the last illustration as the paper is cancelling that section. Thanks, Jennifer James, for those great opportunities for both myself and the SCBWI group. I will post it after it's published.

How SoCal Goes Sledding and Artist Playdate results

It has been a most magical week... writing (rewriting) is going well, and I was able to finish up what I started at Marilyn Scott-Water's artist playdate last week. I am so hooked on this concept!
Free creating! Woo hoo! I told my illustrator group at our monthly meeting last week how much fun this is, and they convinced me to have an ARTIST PLAYDATE at my house. It is going to be one heck of an estrogen fest (although men are welcome, we were definitely women-heavy that meeting- especially since Jennifer Olsen brought her two-week old baby!) Probably twenty intensely talented illustrator ladies, some cardboard, bubble wrap, sparkly paint... I can't wait to see what magic this yields! I will have to post our group result.

So anyhow, this is my Elf and Ermine; I brought a National Geographic photo, as well as my boarding pass folder from Frontier Airlines, the cardboard from a Hickory Farms gift from best-friend Melissa (she wants to make sure my husband gets red meat at least once a year!), Sharpies and scrapbook paper. When I do this at my house in February my goal is to work BIG.

On a totally different note, our Long Beach schools get out early on Thursdays, and I decided to take my son and his buddy California Sledding. Seal Beach, my favorite little beach town on the planet, uses earth-mover machines every Fall to put up a big sand berm on the South side of the pier to protect the beachfront homes and boardwalk. We took skimboards and boogie boards and surfed the darn hill. Too much fun! I have cute photos and videos of the boy and his friend, but I have to admit I did rock the hill surfing as well, but photographers never get in the pictures...

EXPLORE

Happy New Year!

My word of the year is EXPLORE. It is my motto and resolution. Note how nicely that resolution does not have anything to do with not eating cookies or keeping my office tidy? NOT a coincidence! I figure, know what you're good at and go with it, right?

Anyhow, the kid is back in school, the husband is back at work. I even put the dog out. My family is lovely and I adore them, but they took turns being sick all vacation. By the grace of God (or the fact that I'm a woman and who else would make them food?) I didn't get sick myself. However, not much drawin' got accomplished. Therefore, here I am, chompin' at the bit to redo the Surfside Girls website, thumbnail out my daily 10 pages for fairy godmother agent, and start the KidLitChat picture book challenge (see my facebook wall if you're interested.)

I wish all of you a delightful 2012 full of energy and creativity. Yes, the economy is icky, but historically this is when opportunity is born, right? Put on your creative beanies, take some deep breaths, and let's dive in!

Tomie de Paola contest

Back in high school my dad thought it was obscenely funny to determine my status each day by asking, "Hey Kim! Are we stoked? Or bummed?" Proud of himself that he was using surfer lingo and knowing that as a teenager I was always at one extreme or another, he was able to get an accurate reading of my life.

I have thought of those days a lot these past few weeks, as I went from "bummed" to "stoked" in very short order. I almost feel like visiting the doctor for whiplash.

First I found out that I lost both of the classes I was slated to teach at the both universities I teach at. Ouch. In the same day. Double ouch. And I found out too late to go find other work. BUMMED! Then, just as I wondered how I was going to structure my non-semester (I am like a migratory bird and am instinctively directed by semester ebb and flows) this wonderful agent called me and wants to represent Surfside Girls and get it sold! STOKED! I will now actually have the time and ENERGY to thumbnail out the rest of the book and do some editorial changes. I adore the young people in my classes (they know how much I love them) but they do require massive amounts 0f my energy.

So I am happy Kim, feeling like I have a fairy godmother. Someone else to help me steer the ship. Thank you thank you.

Here is my Tomie de Paola Competition piece, which got done against all odds as I dealt with the most hyperdramatic group of college students yet getting their finals in. Seriously. I had one student (you know who you are!) who actually sent me a photo of herself from her phone with her artwork standing outside of her car on a shut down freeway, in front of a giant fireball. See what I have to deal with? The poor creature did not fear for her life, as the tanker truck on the 60 freeway caught fire and took out a bridge. No, she had a panic attack that she wouldn't get her final project in.

Enjoy the piece and enjoy some peace! Merry Christmas!

happy holidays...

The semester's winding down... I can't believe it's here already. While I'm terrifically happy to get some rest, it's also a little sad. I really do enjoy the classroom and it's always sad to know all those young people are launching out into the world. I guess it's just the mom in me, maybe it's too close to home with my own.

I am looking forward to a whole ton of stuff, which when I really think about it is not going to get me much rest. Painting the porch, organizing my office, relandscaping the front, creating a new personal website, doing some experimental art stuff, and maybe even working in some morning surfs! Cuando muerto, duermo, right?

Here's a piece I did as a demo in class working in shaved graphite. I borrowed the subject matter from another of my paintings, but the treatment gives it a whole different vibe.

Merry Christmas everyone!

page 40 part 3

Okay,it's late, but it's up!

Surfside Girls page 40 part 2

So I had an art playdate with my good friend and collegue Marilyn Scott-Waters (the Toymaker, see her at thetoymaker.com.) She hosted a lovely afternoon of apples, bread, cheese and painting. I really needed to shake things up artistically, and have wanted to experiment with painting on wood. It was so fun to bust out some paints with no game plan and play! This is the result, I will definitely be trying more!

Here also is the ink and type stage of page 40. I will paint after this, and post tonight!

Surfside Girls hits page 40!

So it's Friday, TG as they say... and today is totally totally momentous in that Surfside Girls has hit page 40, which to me is an awesome milestone. To celebrate I figured I'd chronicle the making of this page. I've never posted a pencil before, so here it is. I noticed in scanning it- it has to be scanned in two sections and put together in Photoshop- that there is (?) moisture condensed under the glass on part of my scanner. Yuck! This may account for the icky blue color I'm getting.

I didn't spend much time dealing with the blue color, as I'm off to ink now and then paint this afternoon. But anyway, I'm always fascinated with how people work, so hopefully you'll enjoy this.

By the way, since we're sharing, I'm considering starting a post somewhere, maybe facebook, where all of us arty types post pictures of our workspaces. I will edit out anyone who looks too neat and organized, as it may fuel my insecurity about the state of my desk! No, kidding, what I may do is ask you organized types how you maintain that!

Happy Friday. :)

A little of this and a Little of that...

So. The holidays are here. Turkeys, shopping, grading final projects, making pictures. I think I need about a week curled up in a sand dune with a cheesy supernatural romance novel.

I'm posting bits and pieces of what I've been up to. A little Flash animation, Ethan's shoes, the logo for my Christmas party (complete with family self-portrait in monster.) I can't post the e-book stuff I just finished because of NDAs, but hopefully once it's out they'll let me. Some fun stuff there. My life feels a little fragmentey, like my posting. Little bit of this, little bit of that. Not a bad thing, just a little spread out.

I feel like 2012 is going to be a good year. I would like to start the year with a clean office and some giant canvases. Breakin' out. Gettin' crazy. I want to paint big, sculpt mantises. My friend Katie wants to build robots. It's gonna be a good year.

Twin Cities rises from the recycle bin...

The problem is, I'm creative and I'm a sucker. When the boy names the year's outlandish Halloween costume, I feel obligated to rise to the occasion. Well, maybe obligated is the wrong word. Inspired, excited... not that I don't have anything else to do, so it's ALWAYS last minute. I am definitely grateful for this time as a mom...

The photos are in the daytime, and then at night with the lights glowing. Next to him is a Chinese emperor, courtesy of creative supermom Millie (dig back into blog history, she posed as a gossiping bug for one of my paintings...)

more! more!

I couldn't fit this in the first posting, but it was such an awesome day spent with my Studio 5 friends Marilyn and Katie, sketching in the park...

more! more!

APE sketches!

I promised to put them up, and I've been swamped. You know things are not right as a beach girl when you go in to your twice-yearly visit to your dermatologist, who routinely berates you for your outdoor lifestyle, and he is PLEASED to see you haven't been in the sun. PLEASED! It is not for lack of want, I have just been glued to my chair (buttglue!) bustin' out projects. My NDAs don't let me post work, so it looks like I've just been lazy. NOT the case, as my pasty skin confirms.

Here are the sketches of characters I found roaming APE in San Francisco. Since we're close to Halloween, I figured they'd be relevant. I will post both my boy's Halloween costume (made by mom) and also Sam and Jade's from my book.

By the way, I'm battling back from the pastiness. We had a highly competitive family gave of Bocci Ball down at Seal Beach this morning...

APE!

APE was awesome. For those of you who haven't been to San Francisco's Alternative Press Expo, I highly recommend it. Everyone was really nice, Surfside Girls did great and had a great response, and the minute the Con finished everyone broke out into applause. I'm so glad I got to be part of it.

Enjoy the photos of my booth. I did some really funny quick sketches with watercolor of some of the more interesting outfits, but I'm pressed for time and can't scan right now so I'll post them next time.

If you're checking out the blog for the first time and I met you at APE (you all know who you are!) welcome and it was great to meet you.

bookmarks!

I've been working quite a bit actually, and have had NO time to post. I thought I'd throw these up on the blog, they should be here next week. Bookmarks to hand out at APE! So excited! The Sam and surfboard one will also be my banner. It'll be so cool to see it 6 feet tall!

San Francisco here we come!

It's been quite a month, and it's going to be quite a month.

Summer finished with a bang; there was the SCBWI Summer Conference and all that comes with that- friends, inspiration, connections, portfolios. The following weekend I roadtripped with my best friend Melissa, driving her recently relocated mommy's car from Mission Viejo to Denver via Las Vegas, Moab and Glenwood Springs. Arches National Park is just plain ridiculous. I need to spend more time there.

The following weekend (!) I taught leathercrafting to 125 Cub Scouts up in the mountains at Camp Tahquitz. LOTS of mallets punching holes in leather...

Came home Sunday, started teaching Tuesday at CSULB. At that time I still had luggage strewn about my bedroom from three successive weekends of being away.

Now this month. Our Studio Group, Studio 5, is having a show at the USF Thacher Gallery. Need a vacation? Come visit me Sept. 21-25, and Oct. 15-16. THEN I will be back in SF Oct. 1-2 for the Alternative Press Expo (APE) introducing Sam and Jade at booth 545. I've had the first 40 pages printed up as a teaser and will be on sale for $5 along with buttons, bookmarks and prints.

The rest of summer has meant HARVEST! I'm so stoked on my veggie garden this year, I tried some things I hadn't before, and we've been eating so well- tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, potatoes, peppers, strawberries. I'm looking forward to my fall garden. There's something really cool about cooking from your own garden that is very different than running to the market.

Please do stop in, especially if you are a San Francisco friend I don't get to see enough!

San Francisco here we come!