Category Archives: Drawing

Art Nouveau and Aryneth.

One of the most notable after-effects of a trip to the Art Institute is that it never fails to inspire me to try my hand at art again. Now, writing has always been an obvious choice for me. I love it, I’m fairly good at it, I can’t imagine doing anything else with my life. However, I’ve also dabbled a little bit in other artistic forays, including drawing and such…nothing much, but I like to think I have a decent enough hand.

Decent enough to produce my own cover art? Probably not. Then again, I’ve been wondering about that recently, in light of seeing some covers out there that easily make me think, “I could do that/better than that,” if I may be so bold. While I’ll most likely turn all my cover art to friends more capable, the thought of at least sketching a draft for them to go off of has crossed my mind, and, heck, maybe with a little work, I could make it good enough myself.

In considering the potential covers for Serpent in a Cage and subsequent Aryneth novels, an interesting thought came to mind. I want something a little unique and different, and, to this point, I had been considering just a really simple, stark design, much like the designs for the A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin. But that wouldn’t be very different, would it? I got to thinking that I’ve never really seen Art Nouveau style covers for much of anything, much less fantasy novels, and thought that would be such a cool design.

What do you think? I’m a huge fan of art nouveau, though I’ve never tried the style myself. Last night, after my foray into the Art Institute, I got out my pencils and papers, pulled up some reference images on my Kindle, and started to sketch a few potential designs for SiaC. The one I really took to still needs a lot of work, but I’m really stoked about this approach, the cover to SiaC featuring a stunning design with Auferrix and a serpent in a sweeping art nouveau style, not dissimilar from this image.

Do you think this design is a good move? Would you be intrigued by a fantasy cover in this style, or turned off? I know it’s becoming pretty popular to see all sorts of characters done up in art nouveau style (I even own a nouveau Samus Aran shirt). Is it too much of a fad, or is the style classic enough that it can rise above the current popularity? Any thoughts would be welcome. I thought of taking a picture of the sketch so far, but it’s no where near completion enough, I’m afraid.

RoW80 Check-In: June 3rd.

“She remembered everything. But she was starting to forget what the sun felt like and her favorite stars in the night sky, and she was starting to wonder why they hadn’t just killed her then, why they hadn’t killed her yet. She had been more valuable to them alive, that was it; if they had killed her, they would have been down one plaything. They thought a swift death would be too good for the likes of her.”

I’ve been complete rubbish about keeping up with my Round of Words in 80 Days updates, and I realized that it was because I’m sort of in limbo for the next step of Bowlful of Bunnies‘s journey toward being published. And that waiting game is necessary, but throwing me off of everything else. So I’ve really got to sit my butt down, refocus my goals, or at least chat a little bit on what I’ve been doing to keep myself occupied while I wait just a wee tiny bit longer on edits and my cover.

I’ve been productive, just not to my usual level and it’s been a little scattered. Little pieces here and there. But I’m going through these truly fantastic spurts of inspiration. I even got out some of my drawings last night and did a little sketching. If I can figure out how, I might try to include some of the sketches into BoB, but that’s a bridge to cross once I get into the thick of formatting this thing.

I’m not going to break things down the way I usually do today. I’m just going to give a general overview. I’m still plugging along with Serpent in a Cage and the various other projects I have right now. I started a new short story, but I doubt I’ll be able to finish it before next Sunday, so I started another one I hope will be quicker. That said, I’ve returned to updating the Featured Story, and will thrive to keep doing so every Sunday, which means writing a new short story every week since I’ve dried out my BoB pool. It’s a good challenge, but one I’ll have to make sure I stay on top of, because I’ve been slacking off these last few weeks.

The new Featured Story, “A Song for the Underworld,” was the only thing that really came out of my now-defunct Closing Lines challenge. It’s a modern Orpheus story, and I kind of like it, but I worry that it’s too melodramatic. Please let me know what you think, what could be improved, or anything else that comes to mind. Once it’s switched out with a new story, I’m going to start sending it out.

The readings is going well, as always, finishing up more books, starting new ones, getting inspired and feeling encouraged. As I mentioned, I’ve been sketching more, which is great, because my drawings always inspire me, remind me of things I wanted to do, and help me to express my creativity through channels other than my writing. I’m hoping to either get the chance to use a scanner at my roommate’s parents’ place or get my own scanner fixed soon so that I might share some of these sketches.

That’s mostly all for today. The posting was a little delayed for a case of “there’s a cat sitting in my writing chair again.” If you get the chance, be sure to check in on my other RoWers here. Until then, happy writing!

Return from C2E2.

I am back in the ‘burbs of Chicago on this windy, blustery day, chilling out and cleaning up what remained before I left for the city to partake in C2E2. I adore these conventions, though all the walking, carrying heavy bags, fighting through the crowds, and terrible convention food leaves my body pretty worse for wear. My mind, on the other hand, has been buzzing with great ideas all weekend, and it’s exciting to be back home and eager to put some of these great ideas to play. I won’t say much about them in this post, though. This post is mostly just to announce that I’m back, I had fun, and I’m glad to be home.

The highlights, as always, are all the amazing costumes people put together, though the costume highlight definitely had to have been when three wee tiny children took the stage, one of them a wee Captain America, one a wee Thor, and a third a wee Ironman. If only there was a wee little Hulk to complete the picture, but I think many ovaries in our group of mostly female fans burst at that moment. I was disappointed that there wasn’t more A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones stuff to be had, but I quelled my disappointment with other souvenirs: an Aquaman bobblehead, a Samus Aran t-shirt, and a Ninth Doctor pin (the Ninth was my first Doctor, and therefor will always be my favorite). There was also a booth that was giving away free science fiction and fantasy books. Free. And they didn’t care how many you took, either. I felt like an alcoholic at a convention and there was a booth offering free booze. I restricted myself to a handful on the first round and one (or sometimes two) more whenever I passed the book. I think I wound up with about ten all together, and I’m super excited to read them. I also attended a panel about kickstarters and freelancing for comic books, which I intend to use in helping me in kickstarting and freelancing my writing, too. I got a lot of great story ideas, as well as an urge to pick up a drawing pencil again. Also, Serpent in a Cage would make a kick-ass graphic novel, and I blame my roommate entirely for leading me to a blossoming crush on Reilly Brown. Thanks, roommate.

Needless to say, much fun was had by all. One day, I will have my own booths at one of these things. One day.

And, of course, since it’s a new week, the first thing I did when I got home was prep a new Featured Story has been posted! It is the much-anticipated (holy unbelievable, Batman, I have much-anticipated work!) “Black Stones,” extended from a Flash Fiction Friday done ages ago. So, if you don’t mind, I will just slip on over here and curl up in a ball in fear of disappointing expectations.

Sketchy Actions and Drawing Conclusions.

I used to draw a lot. Most of my drawings were either fanart or sketches for characters and scenes in my writing. Some of it was pretty good; most of it was fairly bad. I posted often to sites like Elfwood and deviantART but it’s been a long, long time I since I really seriously picked up a pencil and started to sketch. Lately, though, (and it started out simply), I’ve been keeping a sketchbook in the living room so when I got bored with either the computer or television, I’d draw a little. Nothing impressive. Nothing to brag about. But it did get me started again. Then, last night, due to my roommate’s brilliant suggested, I started something I was actually proud of and wanted to show to the world when it was finished. So I rooted through my room, found the software for my printer/scanner, uploaded it, and spent the rest of the evening drawing instead of reading.

Now, this might not seem to have a lot to do immediately with writing, but the majority of sketches I made are what fuels inspiration behind a lot of characters, stories, and plot points were these character drawings. But, also, in a sense, what fueled me to really connect with the characters and get excited about writing them was also the feedback from the various (albeit small) communities I had built up through those websites. I’m the type of person who thrives on feedback, on conversation, and that’s something that’s generally been missing in the past few years, since I graduated college and tried to make my way through other aspects of the world.

So I’m going to try drawing again. I might even post character/work related pictures here. I’ve been feeling a disconnect for a long time with the fantasy/sci-fi world I write from, Aryneth, and I think this lack of drawing, this lack of visually getting the characters out onto paper (as apposed to just lyrically) will bring a real benefit in delving myself back into it. I am trying to write more “non-genre” fiction, sure, but I definitely don’t want to let the fantastical slip through my imagination just yet…or ever.

I do think that it’s interesting that the real thing that drove this new commitment to sketching home was getting my scanner to work. Essentially, the thing that drives me to do something is knowing that someone could look at it and appreciate it. Through and through, I write for others just as much as I write for myself. That’s probably a fault, but I think it’s probably a common one. We like to know that people can get as invested in something we created as we ourselves are; it’s a validation that all that time and energy is not entirely wasted on ourselves.