Big Day

It has been a busy month with the preparation of my manuscript and dummy for the first trip to a publisher. There are no guarantees that anything will be published but as an extension of the conference I recently attended, Chronicle Editor Melissa Manlove promised to look over each of our manuscripts and make comments.

It is a little like getting an audience with the pope and having him say, "Hey, how about we go out for drinks?" (This is a humorous way of saying that it is hard! I don't even know if the pope is allowed to drink anything but sacramental wine. But I digress...)

Editors are some of the busiest people in the business. They are also inundated with submissions on a daily basis so any chance to avoid the slush pile is not to be missed. I plan on making a copy of the book available in PDF format to my blog's Three Readers as soon as I figure out a way to make the file manageable.

I'm looking for an appropriate way to celebrate this milestone beyond marking it done in my time management app.

Today also marks the last launch of the Space Shuttle Program. Atlantis launched at just before 11:30 this morning and unfortunately, I had to work. I did get to watch the launch while streaming on my iPod. Something I never would have dreamed of when I was a kid.

I remember getting up early that morning and, with my parent's permission, I turned on the TV before the sun came up in California. I don't remember if I got my sisters up or not. They generally weren't as excited about such things as I was. But I especially remember thinking about the exciting future when shuttles would launch every two weeks and space flight would be routine.

Obviously it didn't turn out that way but it was still fun to imagine. Because of the shuttles we have great technologies and understand out world better. And because of them we understand that space flight is not as routine as we were led to believe. I will always remember where I was when Challenger exploded and when Columbia broke up. Columbia especially since it was my birthday and it seemed that she tried so hard to keep her passengers save. Read the accident report and you'll understand.

Now that the program is ending I understand why but I still wish the magnificent vehicles were not obsolete. It's hard to watch something I loved, end but I think the future of spaceflight looks even more exciting.

We're not going to hang around in low earth orbit anymore. We're setting our sights on the asteroids and Mars. The shuttles were never designed for that and they have become too expensive to keep flying while trying to get to these new destinations.

So now I say farewell to the shuttles and thanks for the great ride!

Columbia
Challenger
Discovery
Atlantis
Endeavour

Conference Notes

This last weekend I had the great pleasure of attending a fantastic conference. The Northern Ohio chapter of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators put on a great program about picture books featuring Laurie Knowlton, Judith Enderle, Stephanie Gordon, and Melissa Manlove from Chronicle Books.

I have come to expect great things from the Northern Ohio Chapter and they delivered yet again. All of the speakers were vastly knowledgeable and completely generous in sharing. I am still digesting the pages of notes and handouts and I find myself guarding them like gold.

I felt like years of knowledge were condensed and poured straight into my brain. In fact on the ride back to Dayton, from Cleveland I found myself going over the things they said to the point of having to pull over a few times to make notes.

Northern Ohio has a very active chapter and they have numerous programs leading up to an annual fall conference. I can't recommend more the need to attend at least one conference. It made a huge difference in my sense of motivation and accomplishment.

On another note. My gallery website has been down for a few days. I am hoping to have it back up soon but until then there's always this blog and my the Jouan Illustration Facebook page.

SCBWI
SCBWI Northern Ohio
Jouan Illustration on Facebook

Whole Lotta' Updates.

Sorry to not have written here in a while. I have been working up a few things including my children's book and more illustrations for the Ruins site. I've also been working up my Illustrator CS5 skills. I found that I really enjoy the program more than I anticipated. I think it is because I can create a more finished product more quickly.

One feature that I can't say enough about is the strangely-named "Blob Brush" It allows me to create shapes more like I paint. The precision of the tools also gives me a fine edge that I so enjoy.

There was a time when I was less than happy about creating digitally. I felt it wasn't ready for the type of imagery I wanted to create. Now, with the suite of art programs I have, I feel like I can create the images I want.

For example:


This image went through a few shading changes before I hit upon the dramatic back-lighting. I can say I am rather pleased with the results.

In a few weeks I will be attending a children's book conference. After that I may post a few images from it. I am reluctant to give too much away since I have had copyright problems.

I have also started a Facebook page for Jouan Illustration to give more immediate results on my everyday work as well as links to pages I find useful. Click over and join up for the latest.

Of course, the primary portfolio website is due for an update but I don't foresee that being accomplished before the conference. However, the latest art has been posted to my deviantART page.

-Jouan Illustration on Facebook
-Jouan Illustration on deviantART

Maquette Making

Following the lead of James Gurney I decided to work on creating a maquette of one of my aliens in the Abandoned Worlds story. Once I put all the materials together I found that the simple process of creation was very stimulating.

I am looking forward to using the maqette to get a better understanding of the anatomy of my creatures. I also found that I draw better from life than I do from imagination. Or at least I enjoy the results better.

I'll post photos as I get them prepared. Right now I have progressed to the point of detailing the creature and will be ready to "cook" it to hardness.

The techniques I have been learning from Mr. Gurney's blog feel like pieces of a puzzle I have been missing from my training as an artist. It has been hard stumbling around in the dark of ignorance.

Abandoned Worlds

As an exercise and a way to get my creativity going all the time I have launched a separate blog to publish stories about a universe I have been creating for decades now. Abandoned Worlds is about a future earth and what our existence might be like if the only evidence of alien life we found were ruins.

Admittedly, I just want to draw alien ships and planets but I feel that if I can create stories and turn this into a regular exercise I can only improve my artistic skills. In fact, I have been reading several creative people who encourage others to draw all the time.

Create, create, create!

What better way to improve than to do something creative that I enjoy. It happens all the time in life where those who repeat and work at the same thing all the time get better at it. It reminds me of a quote from M*A*S*H where Hawkeye is speaking to a dejected Winchester after his first "meatball surgery" and says. (I may be paraphrasing here--you get the idea.) "It's not that we're any better than you. We've just gotten good at it through sheer repetition."

Look for illustrations on a regular basis which will include sketches, paintings, and maps. I plan to call on all my skills to fill out this universe I have been placed in care of.

In Memory

I just heard that the world lost Arthur C. Clarke. I keep a copy of Childhood's End on my bookshelf because when I finished it the ending rattled around in my mind for days. When people speak of the visionaries of science fiction, he was definitely one of the greatest. Who else could have envisioned the world we would have today, so many years ago.

After reading his works I felt that we were so far behind the curve in exploration and advancement. He made it all seem possible and present.

I'm sure that this quote will be repeated often in the next few days but it rings true. He said, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." It is one of my favorites of any writer.

Thank You for the great journey Mr. Clarke. Hopefully we can one day live up to your vision.