Mermaid Glade

Happy Friday! I had some fun this week in between a hectic and fairly dramatic week dealing with getting more work, tax problems, and family issues to paint one of my MerMay sketches, Mermaid Glade, for colour_collective. The color was iris blue. I'm enjoying expanding my abilities to paint backgrounds and settings as well as dramatic light and balancing textures and all that good stuff. I think I just might have pulled this one off.

If there's enough interest, I'll create a poster and other goodies in my Zazzle and RedBubble stores with this art. What do you think?

© 2017 Traci Van Wagoner, Mermaid Glade

On Twitter Pitch Parties and Perfect Phobia

 My thoughts on twitter pitch parties:

Love them. They're a great kick in the seat of the pants to get me to finish things. I suffer from what I shall call, Perfect Phobia, and these online contest, pitch parties, word wars, etc. are a good remedy. I have a debilitating fear (if I let it) of everything having to be perfect. When I was in high school, a teacher once told me to stop worrying about my report being perfect and just get it done. I could always revise it. These contests help jar me out of the fear of perfection. I know manuscripts are supposed to be completely polished and ready to send, but then I'd never send anything. I have to let go at some point. Call it done.

My writing and manuscripts have improved in direct result of having subbed to online and twitter contests. And to be honest, I have to admit to submitting things that were not polished. While I thought they were finished to a high level, I do feel guilty for going against the rules when I had inklings some of my manuscripts were not as polished as they could be. However, my manuscripts wouldn't be in the better condition they are now without having done this, without the push of a deadline to complete to a solid level finish, and without the critiques and comments from generous authors also participating who nudged me in the right directions, helping me to recognize those inklings, the ticklings in the subconscious that I didn't look at directly -- like monster's eyes on the dark, don't look and they're not there. Well, they are and BOO! Gotta face 'em sooner or later.

I have received some likes (hearts) here and there. I haven't subbed to all of those since I'm searching for an agent for both my picture books (writing /illustrating) and my MG / YA. Many only rep older. But I'm not necessarily in these contests to find my agent. I am querying specific agents for that. I know there are success stories with these contests, but I also know how numb I get going through the feed of so many offerings. I don't know how agents and editors do it without it all becoming a jumble in their heads. So I don't pin my hopes on being discovered within the feed, but I do appreciate the kick in the seat of the pants and the feeling of community while constantly updating the hashtag feed.


I'd love to hear about your experiences and thoughts on twitter pitch parties. Do you love them? Hate them? Participate or not? Any success stories you want to share?

Here's a few I know of and have participated in. Please add any more on the comments.

#PBPitch
#PitMad
#KidPit 
#Pit2Pub

Ugga Mugga Love

The world needs love, lots of Ugga Mugga love. I painted this on Mother's Day thinking of my Mom who is so far away. This also works for Illustration Friday's theme this week, Mother. Go give your mother a kiss today! Aren't ugga mugga kisses the best?

Ugga Mugga by Traci Van Wagoner ©2017

Girl in Pink

Sorry I haven't posted here in a while. I've been busy finishing the illustrations for Rest in Peace RaShawn, which is now available (see Books), as well as finishing some new dog toy designs, and game designs and illustrations. It's good to be busy doing creative work.

On top of client work, I've been having fun paint playing both in Photoshop and on my old iPad with Procreate (which I LOVE).  Lately, I've dived into the @colour_collective challenges each week. I love playing with color and this gives me a jumping off point each week and encourages me to expand my color palette. I have to admit that many of the colors I would not have picked, so it has expanded my art world. This cautious girl and her cat were in my to-do-someday sketch file from past projects, both personal and work related, which spoke to me when I saw the color for this week, Mountbatten Pink. I painted this in Photoshop using my wonderful Cintiq. Enjoy!

Girl in Pink © 2017 Van Wagoner

Spring Dreams

One night while vegging out to some TV,  I was paint playing on my old iPad with Procreate and my fancy-pants paint brush finger, and with one magical swipe, I discovered a whole bunch more fun and different brushes. Yay! So I set about playing with them, experimenting, doodling, dreaming, and this is what came about, Spring Dreams. My flowery painting also has a snail among other fun bugs, so it fits with Illustration Friday's prompt this week, Snail.

Happy Spring!

©2017 Traci Van Wagoner, Spring Dreams

Heroic

I think people who stand up to bullies, to those who hate, to the greedy, to the power-hungry are heroic. This is my paint play for Illustration Friday's topic this week (yeah, a bit late) Heroic. Stand up for the little guys, stand up for yourself and what you believe in. Be bold and brave people. I dare you.

© 2017 Traci Van Wagoner

Stomp

I had some fun playing with Procreate on my old iPad painting with my finger and created this for Illustration Friday Stomp. I'm enjoying working on a looser style of art, plus I have to admit that last week I found a bunch of new brushes I hadn't played with before in the program. Have some fun today!

© 2017 Traci Van Wagoner

Booker T. Bear Debut

I'm very excited to share the news that Booker T. Bear is making his appearance in the world with his Booker T. Bear's Website! Yay! Go check it out, buy a book or two, and have some fun exploring Juneberry Square. Books One and Two in the Let's Go Series are available for preorder and will be available very soon.

The series of four books (so far) was written by Jen Jellyfish, M.M., illustrated by the creative team at Imagine That! Design (myself and my husband, Kurt Keller) and brought to you by The Library Store, Inc.

This fun series took up a good portion of my time in 2016. It was a fun adventure traveling the world with Booker and his friend Dahlya Dragonfly.

I'd love to hear what you think of Booker's fun adventures.

Booker T. Bear Let's Go Series Book 1

Booker T. Bear Let's Go Series Book 2

Hug More

With all the craziness going on in the world and with an uncertain future looming in America with a President Elect who is woefully unprepared and unable to govern himself, let alone a country, I have painted. We need love. We need diversity. We need understanding and empathy.

We need hugs.

Please hug someone today and bring a smile, a spark of hope, or a moment of peace and understanding. It is a small world after all and love makes it go around.

Brown Paper Packages

Every year for many, many years now, my husband and I wrap our Christmas gifts in plain brown paper. We started with using green string as the only decoration with a simple gift tag. It has evolved into a fun Christmas tradition of drawing on the packages, at first with simple pen, then some color marker and then full blown art with color pencils. At some point in this process, I started to pick a theme for each holiday. One year was all about snowmen, another Santa and his elves, another reindeer.... And a new tradition was born.

This was something I did for fun and for the enjoyment of the receivers. I didn't take pictures most of the years, because I didn't really care, and as an artist of many years, I'm not that attached to every piece of art I do, so I let it go out into the world to suffer the fate of being ripped open, or whatever. Not until later when it became more of a thing that people always mentioned and loved about getting gifts from us, that my husband decided to start photographing the packages. I've shared a few of those with you. Enjoy!

 

I love creating these packages. Besides helping get into the festive mood, it's non-stress artwork, where I can draw whatever I want without any expectations of having to be perfect.

What are your favorite holiday traditions? Feel free to share in the comments what family traditions you enjoy.

Happy holidays!