'Shopping Expedition

QUESTION:
Where has InkGypsy been for the last 6 months?!

ANSWER:
Desisting from participating in all non-essential tasks in an attempt to stay sane during some trying times.

QUESTION:
So what, if any, creative work have you done?

ANSWER:
I've had many false starts, including: not-finishing my novel (no chunks of time to concentrate = a wash), not-NaNoWriMo-ing (one idea & no time - that was a hard one to give up), drawing practice (yes I've managed some. Not much I'm proud of but Jackzilla got lots of truck and animal drawings!) and other little things.

(I did learn something about my organic writing process in a post-NaNoWriMo-failure-anti-funk-writing-attack but that's another post...)

Then Christmas was over and I thought it about time I did something properly.

So I took on a project which I thought was impossible:

a book cover for a podcast novelist's book.

Not being a professional artist or having half the photoshop expertise necessary I took on the project with a great deal of disclaimers. After two weeks of barely any sleep, working in the dark on my laptop next to my restless and wanna-be-nocturnal toddler, I managed a miracle and created a book cover I was actually surprised and pleased with.

Then I got a couple of notes from the author. Small notes. Reasonable notes. Should be easy, right?

NO!

Turns out it wasn't as straightforward as it seemed and I spent as long trying to find a solution that I was happy to have my name on.

BUT...

I did it!

Wanna see my artwork for the podcast novel 'Scouts' by author Nobilis?

Here is a wallpaper version:

Here is a link to the full (textless) artwork on deviantART-

http://tiny.cc/qx1wO

& here's the book cover (text included) -

http://tiny.cc/ZnsdS

I've included some additional comments at the deviantART site in case you're curious as to my creation process but suffice it to say it evolved from one thing to another and I was both surprised and pleased at the result.

It's my first time making any of my art public so I'm a little nervous about it but if I don't risk putting it out there then nobody will see it and I probably won't get any better. So out it goes (gulp!).

I don't think of myself as an artist. Rather I'm a writer used used to be a dancer who likes to draw/photoshop a little, but I'd love to be 'a well rounded person, ably creative and proficient in multiple disciplines' (yes - Leonardo da Vinci is one of my heroes!) so I'm working on improving the 'art' side of me.

The piece has a slight comic book feel which I'm pleased I achieved and although my original version was a little moodier (which I prefer) this version works well too, to suggest a story.

Check it out and feel free to leave me a comment here or on deviantART!

If you'd like to know more about the book you can go HERE to find the 'Scouts' relevant episodes from Nobilis' podcast which consists of the author reading one chapter (per episode) and additional commentary about his book, his writing and other topics relevant to podcasting and Nobilis Erotica in general. [Please note the book's genre is sci-fi/erotica and the audio contains explicit adult content.] Nobilis has told me his website is currently undergoing a redesign but that my artwork should be up there soon (yay!).

Have a creative day. Hey - if I can, YOU can too!

In the meantime - anyone have any suggestions as to how to convince my toddler to sleep for 12 hours straight so I can too? :)

PS If you have problems with the links please let me know and I'll post the full ones. Merci!

NOTE: While I can't promise to be blogging regularly again yet, I will attempt to keep you up to date on any creative endeavors I take on. Not doing anything creative isn't good for my soul so I have to do 'something'! The trick is not take on too much, not to promise more than I can realistically (and sensibly) do and to only do one thing at a time. It's hard to choose that one thing and inevitably I wish I were doing something else along the way but it works.