Yesterday was a very special day for me. The kind of day where I had burst out from the doors of the post office singing, "I'm walking on sunshine--WOOOoooOOOOOOaaaahhh!!"Okay, not literally.But yesterday I was on cloud nine. Why? you may ask. Well, yesterday was the day that I finally mailed my submission for SCBWI's (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators) Don Freeman Grant. In a small 11x14 package fit many months work of editing, drawing, and painting the pieces required for the submission. The results: a dummy suitable for submitting to publishing companies and two finished paintings from the book. It may not sound like a lot, but it is a huge step closer to finding a publisher for my little baby.Note: For those who don't know what's going on, I have been working on writing and illustrating my first picture book about a gardening cat who moves into the city. Fresh from the county, she initially finds herself lonely without a place to express her green thumb. However, she finds creative ways to overcome her challenges (and no, I can't tell you the entire story yet...that's a surprise! :))Here are the results of my submission!
And the two paintings...
The dummy itself is smaller than the size of the finished book and is printed on 80lb paper. I created the images as pencil sketches, which were then scanned and edited in photoshop. We glued the whole thing together with epoxy and the aid of a wooden bookbinding frame that my friend graciously made for me. In the end, I am very pleased with the results--it looks and feels like a good quality dummy.The paintings are each 11x13.75 on 300lb Arches watercolor paper. The black and white picture was done in inks, while I used watercolors and acrylics on the second. The color image was the best I could do for the submission, yet I can't say that I am completely satisfied about it. I'm not sure what it is that leaves me a little unsettled...perhaps it's that the cats look a little too stiff and posed (not as natural as they were in the sketch). Maybe flower frame seems out of place, or that there are too many objects in the composition. I don't know, but perhaps if I leave it be for a while and come back to it I'll figure out what it is.Regardless, I am just so happy to be done with the submission. I won't find out the winners until August, but I'll have a lot of art and craft projects to keep me busy until then. :)