Story Books, Art & Too Much Computer

It's been a busy last few days. Months ago I got the email notification that 2007 Nanowrimo "winners" were being gifted with a free proof copy of their novels through Createspace (a self publishing dealie affiliated with Amazon), and I thought "Cool! I'd love to have a hard copy of my story in my hot little hands for free" and then promptly forgot all about it. So in typical E-style, with only a couple of days to go before the offer expires, I finally got to work on it.

Lemme tell you, formating your own novel for publishing is not for the faint hearted. You have to know stuff about PDF files and copyright, and you have to make all sorts of decisions from font size to what colour to use on the back cover, each of which make a surprisingly large difference to the tone and readability of your book. And then last minute I realized that I absolutely needed an image for the front (I was going to go with just text, but that looked horrible for a children's story), so yesterday afternoon found me at my art desk, wracking my brains for ideas.

The idea of the tree eventually came from one of my sons. And no, my last name isn't "Gecko". It's been changed for public posting (internet safety, kids!). So anyway, done. I opted not to make it available for sale on Amazon at this point. I may still query an actual publisher about it someday, and don't want to eff up my chances by self publishing. For now it'll just be cool to have copies available for friends and family.

I have also been working on loads of art. I started a new art journal. This one will be specifically for my favourite quotations, and then exploring and interpreting them with abstract mixed media. So far I love it! And I love working in it. It's not ready to show yet though, because one page flows into the next... I may try to do a video or slideshow or something when it's all done.

It is Georgia O'Keefe month over at Mixed Media Arts (formerly known as Gary Reef ning), and I've tried my hand at a couple of O'Keefe inspired works so far. It's hard to tell in the pic, but the green one has some really great texture created with Liquitex gloss super heavy gel applied with a palette knife under acrylic glazes. (paint is so fun to play with!)

Green Glass Flower, 9"x12" acrylic on canvas board

Georgia Shell, 10"x12" acrylic on manila paper

And I've been working to combine some of the techniques from the whimsical art style (girly, folk art) that I was doing in the course I recently completed with Tam at Willowing ning, with my own slightly rougher, darker, messier preferred style.

Clogging Up the Works, 9"x12" mixed media on canvas board

Dream-Caught 16"x20", mixed media on stretched canvas

Other than that, some ATCs, a mum's day painting in the works and a challenge for the colour brown at Willowing. BUT I have been on my butt in front of the computer working on the book for 3 days, and it is Spring out there peoples! I need some sunshine and some fresh air and some frolicking...or at the very least a little Spring cleaning and some asparagus for lunch. No more sitting or computer screens! ...for a few hours at least.