Michelle’s Art Blog

I am humbled at the outpouring of support from friends, acquaintances, and even people I’ve only just met. Teachers, bloggers, mothers, gamers, I’m honestly surprised by the different people everywhere who are willing to follow that link and vote for us. I have had an absolutely dynamo partner in this. The author, Tracy Mesuda has been hitting the pavement from California to New York spreading the word. Sending out PR after PR. She has been doing fabulous, and I have been trying hard to keep up with her. Wallflowers we are not, and that is a good thing. Because in this contest you can’t be a wallflower and expect to win. 

So, from the bottom of my heart, I want to say thank you to all of those who have voted each and every day for us. Keep up the good work until the 4th when at midnight you can finally stop. I hope we’ll know pretty soon after that. 

http://www.abcbookcompetition.org/5th_comp/HelloMyFriends.html

I’m just fooling around with the new themes for wordpress. Last one I tried, I couldn’t figure out how to take the pictures that came with it off to put my own in. Some lady in the corner that wasn’t me. I thought this one was cool because it has a cup of coffee, which you will always find me with, and my iphone. And the pen looks kinda like my cintiq pen, so it works. Doesn’t much match my home website, but who cares. The old blog was boring. So, give me a thumbs up if you like this theme!

Okay, I have been sending to every newspaper I have in my area, every PR site online, every group I am part of, my facebook event, etc. PR is one of the hardest things I have ever tried to do. It forces you to get yourself out there, to get yourself noticed. I have to say that I am kind of a wallflower at heart. I really don’t mind keeping to myself. I am not unfriendly, mind you, but I just don’t go poking my hands into people’s faces saying, ‘hey, nice to meet ya!’. Maybe I should. I mean, what is the general problem with sticking myself out there to meet new people? Rejection? Nah, unless they’re just terribly rude, no one is going to snub their nose at an outstretched hand. The uncomfortable silence? That is probably it. ‘Nice to meet you…..hmmm.,,,er….well….uh…gotta go!’ They need to teach communication skills starting at a really young age. Like say, first grade. Kids can learn early on how to ask general things about someone else. Instead we learn how to play quietly with someone else, or just avoid not getting beat up at recess. Those skills are fine for children, but they don’t make for good adults. Because transferred to an adult mind, playing quietly is working by yourself (which I do well), and avoiding the bully at recess is avoiding eye contact with anyone new (because who knows what they could do to you…wedgy anyone?). 

I’m generally pretty trusting, and accepting of new people. But it’s hard to be open to so many when so much is on the line. 

On another note, my little girl keeps bringing me these itsy bitsy tiny flowers she is finding in the yard. I’ve collected eight of the little microscopic things, each with it’s own teeny little scent. Pretty soon I’ll have a doll size bouquet.

Hey all! Voting started for the ABC Book Competition so please hop on over to the website and vote for us! You can vote everyday until October 4th. We could really use everyone’s votes to win this, there are a lot of really good entries, so please vote for us! Thanks!

http://abcbookcompetition.org/5th_comp/HelloMyFriends.html

Here is a blog for artists where you can list your own blog address.

http://www.art-blogging.blogspot.com/

Well, it’s almost here, so I thought I would share. I’ve been busy trying to promote the contest. Made several youtube videos which are just too funny. Tonight I am trying to revamp my website but I am at work so that is slow going. At least I only have to work two nights.  

Anyway. The contest is ABC Book Competition. Our page is here. We seriously need your votes come September 20th. Voters can vote once a day per computer address (which means if you vote from a company that uses the same general address, only one person can vote from that company.) Which kinda sucks because I work in a hospital, there are at least 12 computers per floor, because they have that many employees. But, they don’t want someone going from computer to computer voting for themselves I guess. Have to use your home computer. Which means only one in the family can vote for you. Hmm, that kinda sucks too. They should have made it a sign on type of thing where you sign on with a password that links to your email address. But then I guess it would be an unfair advantage with people who have 5 or 6 email addresses like me. Hmm….Well, if you’ve read through this ramble, you can vote once a day from September 20th to October 4th. So please get to A computer and vote!

Winner gets a publishing contract for the book. I as the illustrator, would be illustrating the rest of it. Which I think would take anywhere from 6 to 9 months. It took almost 2 weeks for just the one illustration. About 12 hours per child illustrated. Plus not all the pages are going to contain every character, so it shouldn’t take longer than 2 weeks per page. 32 page book, that would be…hmmm over a year…oh wait, I forgot, you only use 28 pages in a 32 page book so that’s under a year. Whew! I thought I was in trouble there for a minute. 

The youtube videos are funny.

Video 1 is a teaser. My son had to pick his nose for about 100 pictures. So I could use them as references to illustrate for the animation. It is more a stop-motion than actual animation. 

Video 2 is about the book itself. Book trailers have become big, so I made it similar using the art I had from the illustration. Then I strung it together using iMovie. Which I love. My kids are always making magic shows with iMovie. They’re really good at it. Some of the things they do leave me scratching my head. How’d they do that? Even my 5 year old knows how to make movies with it. Ah the generations to come.

Video 3 is a stop-motion stick figure movie promo piece. Took about 5 hours to draw all the stick figures and them put them together but it all came out pretty cool. 

More later as this post is getting long.