Thursday, June 9, 2011
Inside-Out Exhibition!
Thank You to everyone who attended our exhibition! It was quite a hit! Here are some pictures from the event! And make sure to check out this Monday's Union Tribune for more information about this exhibition and our project!
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
A Monster Tale Process!
Hello Everyone!
Recently I posted a flier and some information about our upcoming book release, which we are very excited about! And even before that, I posted some brainstorm sketches of my book. But between the two posts, I have been working very hard to complete my recently completed book, A Monster Tale: Being Comfortable in Your Own Monster Skin! In this post I will give you readers a break down of my process!
Writing Wonderland.
I took out a full week to write both of the stories in my book. I am not too fond of writing, but with my book I was able to be in control of everything that was said, I was allowed to write down anything that I felt was necessary. The writing process was not as challenging as I anticipated it would be. It was actually an enjoyable experience. I was able to do this at my own pace, and be as creative as I wanted. While writing, I had to make sure that my writings, correlated with my drawings, which also effected the flow of the stories. I think that finding the right flow was the most challenging, I mostly worked on this through the editing process. I wanted to make sure there was enough repetitiveness to connect to children, but at the same time, it needed to sound intelligent, so it did not speak down to a kid, making them feel too little. In the end, I feel like the writing in my stories turned out successful and it goes hand in hand with the drawings.
Sketchy Sketching.
After my writing was complete, I was able to begin the sketching process. I started by having all the words for each story organized by page, and I used my brainstorm sketches for guidance. I spent around 10 hours sketching both of my books, this totaled in approximately 23 pages of drawings. Not only did I sketch pictures but I sketched all the words of the stories as well. This took a lot of focus so it was often times draining to work for continuous hours on this. I sketched all the pages in this week with pencil and on thick pieces of paper that was durable enough to endure water colors, for the next step of my process.
Painting Potato People.
After my sketching process was complete, it was off to the next phase, painting! I was really excited for this step, because it really made my sketches come to life. It helped the characters become real, whereas before they seemed dead. Although very worth it, this step was at time dreadful. It took even more focus than sketching, because there was not any room or time for mistakes. This step took a little longer than I thought I would, if I could go back, I would definitely want to start this much earlier so I did not have to rush in the end.
“When it’s Time to Change You’ve got to Rearrange!”
I took a week dedicated to digital editing. I was able to scan each image into the computer, which made it possible to edit each page digitally. This made it much easier to refine every image, leaving each image close to perfect! Going into this step I anticipated the editing to take much less time than it did. I thought it would be very simple, however I was mistaken. This step also took longer than I thought it would. I had limited time because I only had access to the materials I needed for 2-3 hours a day, for only about 4 days.This made things difficult, and stressful, but i powered through, and this step made everything look refined and like a real book.
Laying Out Shelby & Friends
The final step in my 5 week process, was the digital layout. I used a template from blurb.com to create my book. This was a challenge because I was not too familiar with the program, so I had to teach it to myself in 2 days. It ended up being simple to use, just a little tedious. This step helped me see my book come to life, and it proved that even though I am just a high school student, I can still create quality work, that might even have the potential to compete with the big guys!
-Audrey
Recently I posted a flier and some information about our upcoming book release, which we are very excited about! And even before that, I posted some brainstorm sketches of my book. But between the two posts, I have been working very hard to complete my recently completed book, A Monster Tale: Being Comfortable in Your Own Monster Skin! In this post I will give you readers a break down of my process!
Writing Wonderland.
I took out a full week to write both of the stories in my book. I am not too fond of writing, but with my book I was able to be in control of everything that was said, I was allowed to write down anything that I felt was necessary. The writing process was not as challenging as I anticipated it would be. It was actually an enjoyable experience. I was able to do this at my own pace, and be as creative as I wanted. While writing, I had to make sure that my writings, correlated with my drawings, which also effected the flow of the stories. I think that finding the right flow was the most challenging, I mostly worked on this through the editing process. I wanted to make sure there was enough repetitiveness to connect to children, but at the same time, it needed to sound intelligent, so it did not speak down to a kid, making them feel too little. In the end, I feel like the writing in my stories turned out successful and it goes hand in hand with the drawings.
Sketchy Sketching.
After my writing was complete, I was able to begin the sketching process. I started by having all the words for each story organized by page, and I used my brainstorm sketches for guidance. I spent around 10 hours sketching both of my books, this totaled in approximately 23 pages of drawings. Not only did I sketch pictures but I sketched all the words of the stories as well. This took a lot of focus so it was often times draining to work for continuous hours on this. I sketched all the pages in this week with pencil and on thick pieces of paper that was durable enough to endure water colors, for the next step of my process.
Painting Potato People.
After my sketching process was complete, it was off to the next phase, painting! I was really excited for this step, because it really made my sketches come to life. It helped the characters become real, whereas before they seemed dead. Although very worth it, this step was at time dreadful. It took even more focus than sketching, because there was not any room or time for mistakes. This step took a little longer than I thought I would, if I could go back, I would definitely want to start this much earlier so I did not have to rush in the end.
“When it’s Time to Change You’ve got to Rearrange!”
I took a week dedicated to digital editing. I was able to scan each image into the computer, which made it possible to edit each page digitally. This made it much easier to refine every image, leaving each image close to perfect! Going into this step I anticipated the editing to take much less time than it did. I thought it would be very simple, however I was mistaken. This step also took longer than I thought it would. I had limited time because I only had access to the materials I needed for 2-3 hours a day, for only about 4 days.This made things difficult, and stressful, but i powered through, and this step made everything look refined and like a real book.
Laying Out Shelby & Friends
The final step in my 5 week process, was the digital layout. I used a template from blurb.com to create my book. This was a challenge because I was not too familiar with the program, so I had to teach it to myself in 2 days. It ended up being simple to use, just a little tedious. This step helped me see my book come to life, and it proved that even though I am just a high school student, I can still create quality work, that might even have the potential to compete with the big guys!
-Audrey
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Exploring the World Outside-The Process
Hi Bloggers!
It's been a while since I've updated everyone on the status of my book. I am very excited to announce that Exploring the World Outside is finished and making it's way through the mail! I cannot believe that after months of work I am days away from being able to hold a finished book in my hands!
I want to take some time to tell everyone about the creative process I went through. So I've broken down the process into a few of the steps. Hopefully, the next few paragraphs give you some insight to what I was working on during the past couple months!
So I may have made that sound like a breeze, but there were times I didn't feel confident. Just about the time that I was finalizing my poems we began to study poetry in my English class. However, the sonnets by Shakespeare, Wordsworth and Keats are far from the style I was going for in my little project and I began to feel pretty unworthy to call my book a "book of poetry". But with a little Dr. Seuss therapy I was able to boost my confidence. I tried to keep in mind that it was simplicity and a more of a storybook prose that I was going for. How many teenagers get to say they wrote and published a book? Not many. I should feel proud and I am!
Change and Rearrange
It's been a while since I've updated everyone on the status of my book. I am very excited to announce that Exploring the World Outside is finished and making it's way through the mail! I cannot believe that after months of work I am days away from being able to hold a finished book in my hands!
I want to take some time to tell everyone about the creative process I went through. So I've broken down the process into a few of the steps. Hopefully, the next few paragraphs give you some insight to what I was working on during the past couple months!
The Right Write.
Writing was a bittersweet experience. It was the most fun, but at times the most difficult. I believe my best
Writing was a bittersweet experience. It was the most fun, but at times the most difficult. I believe my best
writing came from when I was in a peaceful, stress-free environment and wasn't trying too hard. Just simply free writing. Try to think of it like doodling. Drawing pictures somewhat subconsciously. I think we all can agree that once in a while some of our most impressive pictures come from doodles in class! For me, writing this book was a lot like doodling. I didn't think much about it rather, I just let the words flow. I wanted the sound and structure of my writing to be simple and childlike with lots of imagery. You could find me writing most of my book under trees in the grassy parks of Point Loma's Liberty Station, at the beach, and in my own backyard-pen in my right hand, smoothie in the other!
So I may have made that sound like a breeze, but there were times I didn't feel confident. Just about the time that I was finalizing my poems we began to study poetry in my English class. However, the sonnets by Shakespeare, Wordsworth and Keats are far from the style I was going for in my little project and I began to feel pretty unworthy to call my book a "book of poetry". But with a little Dr. Seuss therapy I was able to boost my confidence. I tried to keep in mind that it was simplicity and a more of a storybook prose that I was going for. How many teenagers get to say they wrote and published a book? Not many. I should feel proud and I am!
Change and Rearrange
When I would finish writing my poems I would share them with my awesome Outside the Lens mentor, Rachel! Rachel would read them and let me know rhymes that didn't really work and punctuation that needed to be fixed.
Sketch
Sketch
I didn't begin sketching until until I was completely done with my writing. Originally, I made a lot of illustrations and each couplet had it's own picture on it's own page. But I took a step back and realized that not only was that a ton of work but I was also making it too complex than I wanted. I made many, many drafts of thumbnail sketches, which are mini, simple sketches. Finding the perfect illustration to accompany my writing was definitely one of my biggest challenges. I found myself making thumbnail sketches of each page over and over again until I finally came up with designs that I liked. Luckily, I have experience with this process as the cover design artist for Graphic Novel Project http://dp.hightechhigh.org/~hthcv-graphicnovel/ . Otherwise, this process could have been quite frustrating. I was super eager to be finished with my thumbnails so I could make my final sketches on Bristol board to prepare to paint!
Painting
So that's a summary of my process! It's hard to believe I've come this far. Don't forget to stop by The New Children's Museum June 9th from 4pm-6pm and check out my book in person. It's going to be a fun exhibition and I hear there will be cupcakes!
Talk to you soon!
Painting the illustrations for my book was so fun! It took a lot of patience though. Some of my sketches were pretty simple, but a few of them had a lot of detail-especially this one:
the tiny flowers took forever to paint because they are made up of so many different colors. My patience just about ran out!
Most of the time though, painting is really relaxing for me. It's sort of a mindless thing for me to do and allows me to escape from the stress of everything I have going on. I am very happy with my artwork, it's just how I imagined it would be!
Digital Editing/Layout
Most of the time though, painting is really relaxing for me. It's sort of a mindless thing for me to do and allows me to escape from the stress of everything I have going on. I am very happy with my artwork, it's just how I imagined it would be!
Digital Editing/Layout
When I got to the digital editing and layout part of the process, I was really excited. It meant that I was coming to the end! I scanned all of my artwork at a high resolution so that they would be good quality and then did all of my editing in Photoshop. I fixed any mistakes I made painting with water color (there wasn't too many!), added the text, and converted my files into jpegs so that I would be able to easily upload them to the site I used to publish my book.
So that's a summary of my process! It's hard to believe I've come this far. Don't forget to stop by The New Children's Museum June 9th from 4pm-6pm and check out my book in person. It's going to be a fun exhibition and I hear there will be cupcakes!
Talk to you soon!
Selah
Monday, May 23, 2011
BOOK RELEASE PARTY!
Hello everyone!
Inside-Out is throwing a release party at the New Children's Museum on June 9 from 4-6 pm! Join us!
Maggie the Potato!
Hey everyone! Long time no post! Here are more brainstorm sketches for my second story:Maggie the Potato with a BIG Imagination!
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Your Own Monster Skin - Storyboard Draft
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
The Outside World Around Us-Storyboard Drafts
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