hugs across the universe™

"from the deep black mud, blossoms the lotus"

a study inspired from one of my chinese paper cuts.

Working Day

Where have I been to???

Something funny is happening over here...I'm digging through piles of my old stuff~preparing files for my website and I'm revisiting my old life. And I'm realizing it was a pretty good life. 

I'm starting to feel excited about going back to work. And I wondered for the longest time if I ever could do that or if I would ever want to.  I feel I am coming back to me, coming back into my old skin--oh, but so much wiser, so much more mature, so much more aware. I've been on a journey, you see---a long and hard and amazing journey and now I come back with so many more tools in my toolbox, so many more crayons in my crayon box, so many more words to describe what I want to write about.

I found this piece of art today in one of my old storage suitcases. I was working on a story for this guy before I crumpled up in a ball and screamed at the universe for all the trauma it brought my way. And when I opened my eyes again, it all seemed too frivolous--children's books especially. I wanted to do something meaningful and full of purpose with my life. I've been all about meaning and I've been way too serious these last few years. I used to be a person who laughed a lot. What happened to her? I miss her.

This picture is frivolous--this story was frivolous--simple and fun. That's it. Not much else going on, except I was interested in combining more fabric into my illustration work and this was a sample I made up. This picture today made me remember what feels good about being alive.
Because I took a long journey to find out the real secret to life.
And that is that there is no big secret.
Life was meant to be enjoyed.
fully. completely. joyfully. that's it. period. hurry up and do it before the bell rings and your time is up.

Research the easy way

Cuteness abounds on the internet--it continually amazes me how easy it is these days to find inspiration and research material in cyberspace whereas before it was hours and hours in a library with fingers crossed. I can go to China in a heartbeat and see things I wouldn't be able to otherwise.

How cute is that?
;-)

Satisfaction

Nothing like the feeling of finishing a illustration--especially a hard one. You get so worried about the glue and the placement and you fiddle with each little piece and every little detail and the minutes go by and the hours until...it's finally done.

It's after 7:00pm here and I can finally take a shower, get dressed and get out of my pajamas. I've been working on this sucker all day. Time to veg out with a good film for my wild and crazy Saturday nite....or perhaps a good book. SNOWBEAR'S CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN, anyone?

Road Block

Today I had big plans. I was going to finish my website illustration. Little one wakes up with PINK EYE. Oy! This is like the fourth time in just a couple of months. So he's home with me today and my plans are foiled. I can barely get this post out as every two seconds, he's asking me to play with him. Why oh why didn't I have a second child for a playmate?
LOL
I think I'm going to have to set him up with the electronic babysitter later today or the whole work day is a bust.

This illustration has been sitting on my desk for well over a month. I don't know what the deal is but it's taking me forever to get it finished. Maybe I'm just a little rusty.

We had some of our friends over for the 4th of July and I was happy to have some help on something I wanted for this illustration but had no idea how to do. It took my friend just a few minutes in photoshop to create my original desire for this illustration. YIPPEE! I was so stoked!

He transformed my Snowbear book to fit! Now these pandas have excellant taste in children's books, don'tcha think? And the chinese lanterns are coming along nicely, I'm happy to see. I finished those yesterday. I just need a little butterfly to complete the picture and then I can move on to the bamboo forest and the finish line! Oh, and surprise; baby panda was always going to be in Mama's lap.

Oh, and the mailman delivered these yesterday for my etsy shoppe.

And I'm working on a nice cut-paper font that Amy is helping me to create (it was part of my swag package from her). I hope to utilize that for the new website--I just have to tweak some of letters as the registration was off on some.

Well, back to paper airplanes and other frivolities today. The studio is going to be closed for most of the day I'm afraid unless I come up with some mastermind plan....

Too bad Roo here isn't like the dog Nana in Peter Pan.

The day I Became an Official Illustrator

It was St. Patrick's Day, 1999. I had cried myself to sleep on the pull-out couch in my old studio lamenting the fact that trying to break into the business was just too hard. I had quit my full-time job at Warner Bros. two years earlier and had given up a nice weekly paycheck, a pension and union dues. I had spent those past two years taking numerous classes on writing and illustrating, art therapy, going to SCBWI conventions, art techniques, greeting cards--a full curriculum. But it was getting very discouraging--I had already had the semi dream experience where I was told to "DO COLLAGE" but I didn't listen to it right away--didn't trust it. Rationalized it all away...
So, I was sleeping on the couch, after this pity party session, when suddenly the phone rang, and woke me up. An art director was on the line, she liked one of the greeting card submissions I had sent her months earlier. They wanted to buy it. She just wanted me to redo the art. Make it more valentiney. I could do that. I had come up with this card in my greeting card class. It was a die-cut too. Fancy.
Oh, and it was a watercolor too. Surprise. Like I said, I hadn't started collaging yet. I didn't think it was serious enough. It seemed too simple, too fun.
Little did I know.

I ended up doing a few more designs for this company. Didn't make a whole lot of money and the effort was far greater than the reward. So soon after I was finally taking the leap and doing my collage style and having far greater results.

But, this was an important day for me--it was the day I became an "official" illustrator and became more in control of my destiny. I'm so grateful for that call on that day. It gave me the hope and the faith to go on. And it showed me that persistence wins out and above all, not to be afraid to change your gears for something that suites you better. Watercolor was not really my thing after all.

Oh, and I guess it was also the day I become an official writer--that's my old worn out cheesey copy up there too (groan).