Monday, February 3, 2014

Continuing the journey into illustrations with less than a brave heart. Oh, for an agent of sorts!


 
The designer with whom I work, (she worked on The Ring and the Roaring Water and produced the illustration for that cover), looked at my painting of the illustrations from Things I Like ( previous post) and thought we could work with them. So I should be thrilled, right? I was, but being thrilled only lasts for some time, I’ve found. Being thrilled can so easily be followed by doubts. Is this  part of the artistic temperament?

So I’ve done two more, which are shown here. One is a night scene. Big challenge! I approached it by looking at other illustrations of night scenes in children’s books, and have come up with what I think may work. No, I haven’t shown it to my designer yet. I have two others to do, and one of those is a night scene inside. Source of light, etc. and how that throws light onto  the scene, to be taken into consideration. All very interesting, fascinating even.

The plan is to produce a CD from which we could produce a couple of hard copies to be shown to prospective sponsors. Excellent idea! Then ‘faint heart never won fair lady’ syndrome creeps in, that is, not about to win fair lady. How does one promote oneself? I really find it very hard. And this is why I wish for an agent for Jamaican/Caribbean children’s books, to market them, look for sponsors, set up readings, etc. and etc. and etc. The person would have to have some other source of income, decidedly. We have tried versions of this with great expectations, like someone going around to book/craft fairs, etc. for a percentage of sales.  Not even remotely sustainable.

Actually, I wish one of the young social media whiz kids would take this on while pursuing his/her other more lucrative sources of employment. Ah, well. Meanwhile I’ll continue trying with Things I Like.

 

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