Behind the paintbrush- "The Star Fairy"

So a few people know that I was recently contacted to illustrate a children's book (this will be my first published book). I've worked on some but haven't been published yet so this is pretty exciting. YAY! I thought I'd share some of what I've been working on. Here are a few sketches I've done (pretty much reference sketches and character studies).

The book is called "The Star Fairy" written by Chris Zuschlag. I don't want to spoil any secrets just yet... :P so I'll just say that it's about a girl who works hard and is granted her wish. Without further ado... here is a sketch of Thyme Robin (a girl from Colorado... that enjoys working in her garden), the Star Fairy (a fairy of human size and who lives on the moon), and some plant studies for the different types of fairies that are in the book as well. Thyme has a hat when she's in her flight form but I haven't decided on how it will look; but here are some sketches... feel free to tell me what you think... more soon to come.

Le Sigh

So I turn 25 this year (5 months actually)... and sort of feel a bit stuck. I know that's a bit away but honestly, I've been losing the concept of time and day. My brain seems to just follow a ghosted routine to the point where all it knows is 5 days 9/5... 2 days off. So it tends to go a lot faster than I think.

I know I'm doing "okay" career wise for my age. Like my day job is as a designers which makes the bills, and I just started working with a client on illustrating a book so I have an illustration thing going. 

It just seems like the difference between office hours and after hours go at entirely different speeds. So I feel like I never get anything done and always have something to do. So time balancing feels like it doesn't exist at all; and there are things I want to do... have fun and stuff but it seems to completely escape me. Sometimes it's like I see no progress so I feel as though I have 70 years of just this. I really want more than just this but I don't know what to do and can't manipulate time and existence.

Trolleys and Drabbit

So I tried working on the Boston Trolley Contest... but really they were horrible at planning it. 

A: They gave no dimensions... not even a ratio. They simply said that they needed a design for a partial wrap for a 13 ft tall aquatic trolley... 

B: They wanted high res images sent as attachments. To send a high res image.... large enough for a Trolley... or so you could blow them up to fit a Trolley... it wouldn't be through an attachment. Most emails can only send between 10 to 20 mb... (10 for the more common emails). So attaching it is literally impossible.

I made sketches and planned... went all the way to color sketches. Then I got sick and I said screw it... I was getting frustrated with guessing  and was sick so I decided to draw a Drabbit instead... hahaha. It's spring so it gave me an excuse. Spring involves bunnies, chocolate, and eggs... and drabbits like chocolate and hatch from eggs so it works.