littlecrow

So that's it for the Odyssey II project, that's the final deadline. There's still winners to be announced for the various remaining entries, but that's it for me, it's done. Although it's nice to see something through to its completion, I do feel a bit sad.

This has been a massive, months-long project that got me way more involved than I had ever thought it would, way back in October. At the time I wasn't familiar with the previous Odyssey project, and to be honest, I didn't really care. The only thing that piqued my interest was the involvement of Clive Barker, an author I enjoy. And in fact, that almost wasn't enough... I was one of the many people complaining about the donation to PETA, and had decided to not participate. When there was a last-minute charity switch, I whipped something up in three days just for the hell of it, and then decided it might be fun to commit to make an entry for every single chapter. What the hell, right?

And now it's February. I have a ton of new watchers. I've had a few -extremely- interesting job offers. I've had a lot of enjoyment interacting with the various people in the project, sharing and commenting on each other's work, which reminds me of the crits and camaraderie that I really miss from when I was in college. I've really enjoyed the challenge of a regular, long-term assignment.

And perhaps most importantly, I've had a great response to the style and subject matter of the pieces I have done for the Odyssey. I don't know if you've taken a look through my gallery, but for a long time, I've had the pretty narrow focus of children's illustration for my work. This is not because it's the only thing I like doing. It just seemed that that was the only thing that ever really got much response out of anyone. I had peers at school who were amazing illustrators and did very mature and thoughtful work. I believed it was better to work with my own strengths, and try to improve on what I did best, instead of trying to do things that I would never be as good at, and compete with the people who could do it much better than myself. But I've had... such a strong response to what I have been doing lately. It's really made me rethink my art and my decision to focus solely on children's illustration. It's really made me think that I shouldn't limit myself in that way, because I do have something to offer that people can appreciate. That's been a great feeling.

And it's really given me the momentum to get myself going again. My work was put on hold for almost two years after I had a daughter in 2010. It's been difficult to get myself back into a creative place, and into a motivated, self-confident place, to be able to get back on the horse, as it were. But I think... I think this has been... a really important turning point for me. It's really opened a lot of doors, and opened my eyes.

I hope that I can keep up the momentum I've picked up and keep moving forward. I'm thankful that I decided way back in October to participate in this odd little contest/project/whatever the heck this thing was, and decided to stick with it the whole way. And I'm thankful for the support of my family, who had to deal with me being busy working constantly on an unpaid hobby project!

It has really been an Odyssey. Thanks for all of the comments and support you've all given me.

So art deadlines for the Odyssey Project are done until January, and now I'm busy busy busy working on holiday presents for my friends and family. Protip: don't marry or befriend artists. They always give you drawings for presents instead of buying you swag. (although I guess you guys on DA all know this, right? haha)

So there probably won't be any updates from me for a couple of weeks, which is unfortunate, because due to the Odyssey Project, I now suddenly have all these brand new watchers! Hello all. I'm glad you've liked the chapter art I've been working on, and I hope you stick around. The fact is, and I'm sure you noticed this if you dug back through my gallery, that the bulk of what I work on is children's style illustrations. This isn't because that's all I'm interested in. It just seemed to be what I was best at. I remember quite vividly a friend of mine telling me once that everything I ever did was "cute", and I had to admit, it was true. So I focused on "cute" and assumed that was all I could really do.

But the response to my Odyssey submissions has been really surprising and encouraging. I've really tried to challenge myself and do something more dark, and people seem to like it, and that makes me happy.

I love this time of year. I love the cold weather, actually I do, and I love how beautiful and quiet everything gets. I love the beautiful frost on the trees in the morning, and the blue shadows on the white snow. And I love the *FOOD* , all the snacks and the fancy meals and the candy and chocolate... and I love going to parties with my friends and my family, and chilly evenings with glasses of lovely wine in hand and spending hours being with the people that make my life special. I like that the days start to get longer, and I try to think about that and try to have hope that the problems in my life might be like the cold winter nights, and similarly have an end in sight. I hope you all have a great year end and spend lots of time with loved ones.

I've decided to start making some of my artwork available as prints through the DA store. The prices and shipping can be a bit steep, and it's real a struggle between fair to me and fair to you in deciding what royalty percentage to charge. But I dunno. The fact that you just submit your work and then they worry about everything else... that's great. And I mean, it doesn't cost me anything to try it out and see if it's worth it, so what the heck, why not.

So, over the next few days/weeks/etc, I will be uploading larger images and adding new prints and things. If there is something specific that you really want, note me or make a print request or whatever and I'll see what I can do. (some of my older stuff doesn't have a high enough resolution to make into a print)

Any feedback is appreciated.