DJ Geribo

I've been doing a lot of drawing, mostly of illustrations for my books. I am determined to complete several in 2014 and for at least a half dozen or so of the stories I've written, all I need is anywhere from one illustration to a dozen or more. With so many stories written you would think that I would be motivated. I am...mostly. What I have to realize and learn is a different way of looking at art. Illustration is different from painting a picture. So, I'm using a few reference books that I picked up along the way and searching the internet for help with getting started.

My first project will be for a children's book that I wrote and I'm going to have just one illustration for the cover. I thought about doing an illustration for each chapter (there are 33 chapters in this book) but then I realized that it would take me most of the year to complete this project. So I decided to stick with one for the cover. Wise choice!

I spent the day at my friend Shirley's house yesterday and I got a good start on my cover illustration. I've also had to think about drawing a child's face (the main characters are 10 and 13). Not only have I not painted children before, I haven't painted people at all. I did one or two quick self-portraits over the years but nothing that I would share with anyone.

In my next blog I will share the illustrations that I've been working on. I need to fine-tune them a little more before I put them out there in the public.