About

This blog is a celebration of novel, novel characters!

I love reading novels, and as an artist I know a great exercise to stretch one's illustration skills is to portray characters from a description in a book. This blog is a challenge to myself to do just that so I'll be posting illustrations from whatever book I'm currently reading. Feel free to add comments and send me your fan art for these great titles too!

Monday, April 29, 2013

It Happened at the Fair by Deeanne Gist




I mentioned in my last blog post that I’ve had some surprises this month.  I’m very excited to share with you another one that came just this past Friday.  I logged onto my e-mail to find a message from author Deeanne Gist about doing some promotional illustrations for her upcoming novel, “It Happened at the Fair,” hitting shelves- tomorrow!  The results are now up on pinterest, check them out & share them with your friends.  Enjoy!

Pinterest:








You can read an excerpt here:

 Discover more fun extras and find out where to buy the book here:

 

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Spring Reading & Other Random Thoughts


Just like the Spring weather which jumps from hot to cold, snow to sun, dry wind to wet rain, so my life has been a series of successes and stresses, surprises and… here’s where I give up on being eloquent, let’s just say, it’s been an interesting April.

One of my surprises was a trip to house/kid sit for my brother near Kansas City, MO for about a week.  I live in Wisconsin so driving there took me 9 hours!  I passed the time by listening to Short Straw Bride by Karen Witemeyer which was an excellent choice.  I only listened to about half of the book and I’m eager to read through the rest.  Upon arriving at my brother’s I looked up what there is to do for fun in the area and was amazed to find so many interesting historical places I could visit.  I had time for one, and visited the Vaile Mansion built in 1881.  It was an excellent choice.  I have more great photos to share with you soon, as well as a drawing that was inspired by the setting.
 
 In addition to that, I’m working hard on a few other exciting new blog posts that will be up over the course of the coming weeks.  I recently read Sushi for One by Camy Tang, and am about half-way through reading Undeniably Yours by Becky Wade!  After that I’ve got a book queue which includes a mix of genres.  I love mixing it up!
 

My Current Book Queue:

In Honor Bound- DeAnna Julie Dodson
Swept Away- Mary Connealy
Submerged & Shattered- Dani Pettery
It Happened at the Fair- Deeanne Gist
Heartless- Anne Elisabeth Stengl
A Hope Undaunted- Julie Lessman

Poll Update:
The poll isn’t working.  It seems to be losing votes more than gaining them.  I’m going to take it down, and if I do any polls in the future, use a different method.  But, for those of you that did take the time to vote, thank you!  I am sorry it didn’t work the way it was supposed to.  I will still be posting a special picture or two based on the theme.  I’m in the middle of doing one for the “Clumsy Catch” right now!

My troubles with the poll brought back some old feelings about my relationship with my computer.  When nothing works, I feel like this:


When it works, of course I feel like this:
 Most of the time, it really isn’t the computers fault.  It’s usually the software that needs an attitude adjustment… or me.  I’ll admit it, sometimes it’s just me.
 
Ephesians 4:26
“In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, -NIV

Even though it’s an inanimate object, I still think it’s good to not go to bed angry at my computer, so next time we have “relationship issues” I’ll do my best to forgive Macro P.  Yes, you read right.  I named it.  I built it, and I named it.

"Marco P." is the name of the monkey character I painted on the case you see there.  He was the main character for my thesis project which was an animated short film.  How cool is that?  No papers for me, just lots of time animating on the computer to earn my degree.

I almost forgot to mention, another of my surprises this month was an offer to do a special project (which I just finished) for one of my favorite authors!  Not telling who, but I'll be posting on it as soon as I'm allowed to.

 Have a great Sunday, relax & read a good book!  I've heard very good things about this one called, "The Bible."  ;)

-Monica