A Lengthy Endeavor

I am in the process of trying to create my own book entirely from scratch. I've always had lots of stories floating around in my head, but this one lent itself to a sort of Stardust-esque fairy tale, only not as racy. It's called "The Blind Queen," and I've already finished writing it except for some minor editing.
The next part is the layout and illustration. Anyone have any pointers on how the heck I even start the whole layout process? It's quite daunting and I feel stuck. I have a general idea of what I want the book to look like, and I still have to start on the illustrations, but I feel like I shouldn't waste time with drawing until I know exactly what I need to draw, how big, etc. If anyone can point me to some helpful website or tutorials, that would be greatly appreciated!

Artprize is TODAY

Please stop by 86 Monroe Center at 6 PM tonight to vote for my Tarot Cards!!
All the info you need for locations, voting booths, and venues is here
Directions to the bank are here (Just change the starting address to wherever you are coming from)
I really hope to see lots of people there tonight! Wish me luck!!

Important artprize Update!

Sorry about the lack of posts to the one or two people who actually check my blog! Anyways, I wanted to take a minute to inform you about artprize and how I fit into it.
Artprize is basically this huge art contest where the public votes on who should win. It's based solely in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan, where the artists display their works at different businesses, local parks, or buildings that paid to become official artprize venues. Thousands of artists are taking part, and I am one of them.
My venue is the Independent Bank at Monroe Center. The address there is 86 Monroe Center, Suite 101, Grand Rapids, MI, 49503. I was lucky to find a venue at all, and the only reason I secured the bank is because I work there. (At a different branch) My completed Tarot card deck will be on display as my artprize submission. (The cards are all printed into decks and I will take some pictures soon.)
Artprize begins September 23 and runs until October 10. The first week, the public has to register to vote at one of many registration booths, and after that they can vote for as many artists as they like. (Only once per artist, however.) You can either vote online at artprize.org or via text messaging. Voting works like this:
"To vote online, an attendee can search your name or the name of your work and vote right on your profile.

To vote by text message, each artist will have a 5 digit code that attendees can type into the body of a text message to either vote up or vote down your work (read more about voting up and down below).

Attendees will send all votes to 878787

Your voting codes to include in the message:

vote32111 (vote up)
vote32110 (vote down)"

I really hope you can all make it out to the bank to see my artwork. I would really appreciate your votes!
Here are some helpful links:
map to Independent Bank Monroe Center
locations of voter registration booths
voting information

I'm done!

Yes! I finished my Tarot card set this week! The work isn't over, however; I have to get them printed (and based on my first quote, it will be quite costly) into decks. I also have to find someone on the artprize venue list who is willing to host me. :( I'm getting depressed thinking that all of this work will be for naught ...
Anyways, I won't bore you with the sad details of my life. I'll save that for a later date, hehe. Firstly, here's a "Christmas face" shot of Ona as she got her birthday present, a light up, music playing shopping cart for her to walk around with.
And here's the last of the major arcana cards. Next week I'll post the Aces, then the Twos, etc. If you really want to see them all in their colorful glory, however, click here.

So where did I leave off ...?

Oh yes, Tarot cards, of course! I'll get to the images in a second. Firstly, some news. I've only got FOUR MORE CARDS TO GO! That means I'm all the way to the Kings, and rolling right along ahead of schedule. Now, to pay the 50 bucks to enter artprize and find myself a venue ...
After the cards are done, I've got come commissions on deck to get started. There's one more pencil illustration to be finished for Heroes of the Jade Oath, and then I'm working with Chris Field once again for Black Tokyo II. No rest for the wicked, eh? It's fine by me. Because of all of this commission stuff, I haven't fallen into my yearly art funk. That's cause for celebration.
On a different note, my equally creative (only in the film field) husband Rory is hard at work on his latest movie, T.A.R.D.S. I've read through the script and it is hilarious. I know as soon as he's all finished, he'll be posting it in segments on Youtube. (Currently the script is 45 pages long, which equals about a 45 minute movie.) You can check out his progress at the T.A.R.D.S website here. (The site is also a work in progress so check back often for updates!)
Now, back to the Tarot-carding!

Heroes of the Jade Oath

I'd like to take a little break from the Tarot cards to showcase a set of commissions I've recently worked on for Rite Publishing's Heroes of the Jade Oath. It's a Chinese fantasy setting that I was asked to illustrate in pencil, which is a slight deviation from my normal, stark black and white inking. I haven't done pencil shading since college, so it was an interesting step to take as far as remembering my skills. "White Hair of the Deadly Lotus." "Shenxue Adventurers"
"Monks of the Jade Oath""Sutra"
I have one more illustration from this batch, so look forward to seeing that in the next few weeks!

more more more ...

Been a sorta crappy past few weeks for me. Family stuff any what not ... I'll just say the next four months are going to be the longest in my life. :(
Anyways, to keep my mind off of things, I've been diligently scribbling away at my cards. I've only got 23 more to finish!! Here's a few that have been done for awhile, the next batch of three that come in line with what I've already posted here.Korgith and Astraea have one of those sappy, sorta dramatic love stories, so they fit well in the card "The Lovers."
What's more badass than a half-demonic man wielding a scythe? Nothing, as far as I'm concerned. Zane is featured on "The Chariot."Here we have Rayne, the saucy piratess, gazing off into the distance on the "Strength" card of the series.

All of the finished cards can be seen, as usual, here: http://www.mandapandarawks.com/current.html

Next batch of cards

Here's a few more Tarot cards, as promised:Thesa, instructing a young, large-chinned Rufus decorates "The Empress."
My friend Joy's boyfriend, the evil Calidor looking imposing on "The Emporer."No, he's not accepting an Oscar. This is Nestor standing inside of a crappily-illustrated temple. I hate drawing backgrounds; it's my biggest weakness.

More next week! You can see them all on my website: http://www.mandapandarawks.com/current.html

Artprize!

Just so you can check it out yourself: www.artprize.org
It's an exciting time for artists in Grand Rapids! I've been working like a madwoman trying to get my nearly-decade long project finished in time to submit to this art contest, an entire set of tarot cards illustrated by me, of course, and featured characters of my own (and my husband's) design. I did a little calculating, and based on how many I have left to complete, (I've got about half of them done out of 78 total) I have to completely finish 4 every week from now until July 31, the contest deadline. That's fully inking, coloring with pencils and markers, scanning, and touching up a half of a deck. Needless to say, I'm a bit overwhelmed and burned out; I'm trying to accomplish this AND stay (barely) on top of my few unfinished commissions. But I've never been more determined in my life to get something of this magnitude finished. Even while in college, with big projects due and my grades on the line, I was never as fully invested in something as I am with this Tarot card ordeal. Perhaps it's because I care about it more than I did a self-portrait for my painting class. (Heck, who the hell wouldn't?) So far I've been able to keep up with my self-imposed pace.
My next step, which will probably be a hurried and frantic one if I manage to complete all of these cards, is to find a decent printer to actually create my images into a physical deck of cards. Any ideas, anyone out there who may actually be reading this? I'm thinking I want them over-sized, like 4x6 or 5x7, glossy, with images on the front and the back. (The back being the same design on each card) I can't wait to see them finished.
And what next? I'd like to bring the stories my husband and I have developed to life via a webcomic of some sort ... that's a mighty undertaking, but we'll see where that goes when I get there.
Anyways, I figured I'd post some of the finished cards here each week so you can see all the hard work I've done.

The one that started it all. "The Fool" is the first card of the major arcana, and my version features a melancholy Korgith gazing across the waves as he begins his search for his mute lady love, Astraea.
(A humorous side note: my friend and former co-worker Brooke developed a crush on Korgith and dubbed him "Nicholas.")


I think this is one of the better colored out of all of the cards so far. "The Magician" features The Prophet foretelling the demise of Rufus and Keldith.



Here's Astraea, and she's naked! She runs around like that lot. This card is "The High Priestess."

You can see all of my completed cards on my website if you're interested. http://www.mandapandarawks.com/current.html

zomgsquealsofprinceofpersiadelight!

Finally! My PoP fanart extravaganza. How I love this game so much.

Rupert

He's a bit early, but I'm excited and want to show him off. Look for him on the cover of the February issue of On The Town Magazine, the Arts and Entertainment Magazine of West Michigan.

Also, I just want to promote Hey It's Free! because I visit the website multiple times a day. I'm such a huge coupon and freebie addict now. Hey, with the economy being so bad, a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do, right? Anyways, the creator of the site, Goob, is giving away a bunch of gift cards and stuff for peeps who post about the site on their blogs. So, here goes my entry!

A couple new Tarot cards

Almost done with commissions! I even had some time to get a few Tarot cards scanned that I was able to finish during the usual slow Sunday at work.