REFLECTION ON PROCESS - BEST PRACTICES

It's Fall now. A lot has happened since my last post - death, moving, selling a house, a new position at work. Coming up - more moving (to Olympia from Seattle) and a change of jobs. Regardless of all this, I do my best to direct energy into the book. Our last meeting which was early in October, let us see we were ready to attack colorization - to start working with color in earnest towards finished art.

Looking back at my process and the evolution of my artwork for this, a few things stand out:

· IT'S BEEN AN ORGANIC PROCESS - I had some strong influences along the way but mimicking isn't my wont and I how they were going to influence me I wasn't going to dictate. After some early explorations, I decided on the level of cartoonishness but beyond that I have been mostly feeling my way.

· FIRST IMPULSES ARE OFTEN CORRECT - I struggled plenty with the face and head of the toddler and some with the mom but Dad, Sister, Grandma, and Scout worked right off the bat. Also, the look of the pages; the art was a very natural development that established itself at the very beginning. Blue Colerase pencil on light blue paper. I'm not sure anyone in the group understood why I was doing it - maybe thought it was some eccentric artist silliness - but, eventually, they grew to accept it.

· STAY TRUE TO YOUR ESPRESSION EVEN IF OTHERS DON'T GET IT AT FIRST - If you are working within a group that gives you leeway to explore, the best choices get a chance to prove themselves and eventually be embraced. If you don't have that freedom, well, that is unfortunate. The best books are often by creators that are given (or insist on) creative final say.

I feel very fortunate to be working with this group. They have brought out some of my best work.

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