Artsy Fartsy Thursday

So I have been doing an attempt at illustration of a children’s book. I think I overestimated my own art.

I did some images in canva to see if I can do better and I think I did better there.

I managed to hire the same person to do Dylan and the Hotel Zombie as I had for Dylan and the zombie pet. I don’t see the person being willing to do another job (She dragged her feet on this job) so I don’t know if I will be writing more in that series. However, I will be releasing Dylan and the Hotel Zombie for kids week December 2025.

This year I will be releasing Pip, That is not yours! And Where is my Sugar. I don’t know what the second one is going to be next year… If I am even going to be releasing a second. I have a year to decide.

It was suggested that I should make a third one in Dylan’s series but make it a middle grade. Then I could use the same images from the previous books and allow older children to follow Dylan’s adventures. I have to think about it. I can see where it would allow me to broaden Dylan’s world a little bit.

I have a middle grade in the bedtime tales series. It might be a fun thing to do it for most of the series. I don’t see Pip ever getting a middle grade. That one is always the early readers.

Time to ask

So I am nearly done with Human Shaped Verse. It’s Time to ask again. What do you think should be my next volume?

Artsy Fartsy Thursday

There is so many forms of art. It makes it harder to acknowledge the label of artist.
A person who bakes beautiful cakes is an artist.

A person who draws using charcoal is an artist.

A person who aranges the words to form poetry or prose is an artist.

A person who paints in watercolors, acrylics, or oils is an artist.

A person who weaves is an artist.

A person who works with clay, resin or stone is an artist.

Perhaps any person who just creates something to bring beauty or Joy into this dismal world is an artist?

Today I am philosophical. Because I am too tired to create art.

Artsy Fartsy Thursday

Today I want to discuss book covers.

This is in some ways a very commercial art. And it is regulated by genre. People expect each book in a genre to have similar covers. To the point that unique covers in the industry are the stand out instead of the standard.

When I started my journey with publishing, I was sure that I had to follow those rules. My original covers were very bland. As most poetry volumes have…

Then someone I respected quite a bit told me that the only thing wrong with my books was the covers didn’t match me. (next week on publishing demystified I will be talking about the covers and the tools I use to deal with them).

I think my covers have become more unique and I really enjoy the making of them. Here’s some of the ones I have made.

Artsy Fartsy Thursday

So I spent a lot of time refusing to call myself an artist, mostly because I saw it as a station I could not reach. I struggled to find value in my creations when words were not involved. I feel like most artists feel like this.

I once told a therapist that my brother was the artist in the family because he got all the talent. I remember the smile she had. She said perhaps he did get the talent, but I had skills. Skills are developed by the constant use of the ability. I had never thought of it that way before.

I am at a point in my life now where I realize that labels matter, both the ones that we give each other and the ones we give ourselves. We will hear that we should not call ourselves artist and we take it to heart. We will call ourselves worthless and we will take it to heart.

Perhaps the best way to handle the problem is to ignore the label and follow your heart. If you want to create… Create.

Artsy Fartsy Thursday

Today I want to talk about Resin Art… and what is that?

Some call molded resin less than art. Art often implies some kind of creative touch added.

Crafting with molds usually means adding stuff to the molds and then pouring resin in and letting it set.

The stuff you add can be beads, or colorants, or other things that you think would make the items look good.

I have a large collection of molds. no two pieces are ever the same.

so what do you think? is molded resin art?

Artsy Fartsy Thursday

So, here is another change. This week has been so many of them, right? Picture heavy posts are hard to continue. And though I enjoy the convenience of Just posting my own art and going with it…

Time to pivot.

Part of art is… for me… understanding what makes it art. Is it just pleasant to look at? If so then that would prevent the majority of modern era pieces.

I’m going to be continuing to upload my own work but I will be posting it as a patreon link. It’s going to be mostly on a free tier there and linked here for the sharing. Though I have plans for some things to be behind the paywall.

The other question I want to discuss over the course of time not only what is art, but are there any limits on it? And why are there said limits?

The thought behind this line of blog posts is when are you an artist, and why? The discussion is of course one that I have been doing internally for many years… so now I think that I should take y’all along with.

Oh, and the last thing I will be discussing during my topic is AI art. I’m not going to pretend to like anything AI but I will be able to do a polite discussion about it.

Choices

So it’s time to ask for the next volume for both Serena and myself. Since I do it on Facebook publicly and I don’t want to blow up my media here… I am putting it in as links.