Let's Begin!

It's been a pipe dream of mine to be able to publish a book. Equal to that, to have any of my artwork published. I am currently pursuing a Digital Multimedia Degree at Penn State and this semester (Summer 2022) I've been given the opportunity to do both by creating a children's book!

I have been stuck on an idea for a children's book for years. Just a simple story of an alien showing a young kid how big and wonderful the world is. I decided not to overthink this endeavor and go with this plot!

Although when it came to having an actual narrative conclusion, there had to be more to the story. I had to do an exercise for class and it fit perfectly for this assignment; In thirty minutes I had to come up with a children's book idea and plot! This isn't very pretty, but this is where I brainstormed and solidified what story beats the book would have.

I still have a lot to do with how to make the story run smoothly, but at least I know what will be included! I have a horrible perfectionist problem on important projects like these, and this was a great exercise to not think so hard and just to get work done.

That will be an overarching lesson through this 12 week project, going with my gut and getting stuff done instead of procrastinating from perfectionism!

I'll be honest, I really have a confidence problem when it comes to writing so choosing the story beats was most likely going to be my biggest obstacle (other than the overall goal of completing this on time!). I am very happy to have this part mostly figured out and am much more excited to hopefully make some dynamic illustrations for the book. The story could always be better and more succinct, but once again this project is a practice in not overthinking things. Thankfully if there's one place to not worry so much about a complex, riveting, world-changing narrative... it's a children's book (at least that's what I'm telling myself).

I already had an idea of what my main character might look like and I think I may have nailed my alien design in one (it's a miracle I know, but also little green men are pretty easy). For breaks in-between story planning and writing, I've been doing some character creation and concept art for fun. Hopefully starting next week I'll:

1. Have the whole narrative fleshed out

2. Will be ready to finish the writing portion

3. Will have my character designs solid

4. Decide what medium to use (completely digital, multimedia, gouache, watercolor... to many options!)

Here are some fun sketches so far. Thanks for following this journey and I hope this book ends up being something fun (and readable😬)