But, now, I’m back! The main thing fueling my creative juices at the moment, is that I’ve decided to stop making excuses, and participate in Camp NaNoWriMo this year. I hate that NaNoWriMo is in November. I have to many things going on at the holidays to even consider taking a month off to write a novel.   But then my friend Joi pointed out that they have started Camp NaNoWriMo, which takes place in June and August. Alas, there go my excuse.

So, I am in the midst of finished up an outline for a book I plan to write in June. I really really just want to complete at least one book before I die. Many if I have a chance, but I’ve got to get over my block and finish the first.

My notes have been filled with sketches of the characters and pieces. I’ve worked out a thumbnail for what I would like to do for the cover, when the book is done. (Note, I have no idea what I’m calling this book yet.)

I will probably work on the cover after finishing the outline, to give myself a break. I would like to have it done before I start writing, so I have some visual motivation/inspiration for the story.  In addition to the cover sketch, I started painting a picture of the main character. I won’t give away any details, but I will say she is pissed off in this picture, I don’t want to be in the shoes of the person she is glaring at.  I may get it done tomorrow.

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I was inspired by the Grimm version of the story, this scene in particular:

“Arriving home, the man gave his stepdaughters the things that they had asked for, and he gave Cinderella a twig from the hazel bush.

Cinderella thanked him, went to her mother’s grave, and planted the branch on it, and she wept so much that her tears fell upon it and watered it. It grew and became a beautiful tree.

Cinderella went to this tree three times every day, and beneath it she wept and prayed. A white bird came to the tree every time, and whenever she expressed a wish, the bird would throw down to her what she had wished for. ”

This is what it looked like in 2008 when it was “abandoned.” Obviously it went though a lot of changes. I liked the color scheme, but the layout was very boring.

I added her mother’s tree, and tried to make her pose more natural looking. When I started, I thought this picture was very nearly done, but I spent probably another 12 hours on it.  Painted in Photoshop as usual.

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I was excited a few years ago when I heard that Disney was going to make a Rapunzel movie.  But when I finally saw the trailers for it…I was very underwhelmed.  I had no desire to see it. The trailers made the movie seem very silly.  I wasn’t interested in seeing a movie with a girl with hair that seems to have a mind of its own (I have enough problems with my OWN thank you very much).  Disappointed, I didn’t plan on seeing the movie when I came out.

But then my friends started watching it. And raving about it. All of them. And I thought, well…maybe I should see it.

I was totally blown away with how awesome it was. The trailers…they sucked. Big time.  But the movie was so much better than I had dared to hope.  The visuals in the movie took my breath away.  And the story was amazing.  The characters very well written.

I immediately went home and started looking up the concept art from the movie. There is some really beautiful art from this movie. I particularly fell in love with the art of Claire Keane, who designed the look of Rapunzel.

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I sketched it in ArtRage with the pencil tool in about an hour and a half. I couldn’t decide if I wanted to just leave it as is, or to add color. I really liked how the sketch turned out, but I decided to go ahead and color it.

The sketch was done on a top layer, so I just started to lay the oils down underneath it to add the background. I used the big roller  brush to lay down a lot of color, and then smoothed out the rough parts using the palette knife.  Then I used the square oil brush.  Since I liked the sketch so much, I decided just to leave it visible as the top layer.

Here is the finished colored version.  I still can’t decide which one I like the best.

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Recently finished watching all four seasons of Doctor Who, so I have Who-brain right now.  I’m dying cause we just down graded our cable service, so no more BBC America. So I’m missing the final specials of David Tennant.  Stupid Sci-Fi (er SyFy) Channel.

Yes, I am sad, very sad to see David Tennant step down from being the Doctor.   But I am willing to give Matt Smith a chance. I hope that he will wow me and make me forget all about David Tennant.  I loved Christopher Eccleston as the 9th Doctor almost as much as Tennant, so I’m willing to believe it could happen.

I just don’t know yet how I’m going to watch the new season when it comes back.  Sigh.

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