Thanks for all of the lovely responses to Part 1 of this blog post! I’m quite excited to share Part 2—all about the art—with you. Again, this post might be clipped by your inbox, so click “Show Entire Message” at the bottom, or read on Substack. One disclaimer: I do have to keep some of the work I made during this time close to my chest. I hope and believe that these will eventually be published projects, so I can’t too share much in order to maintain both the privacy of the ideas and the potential for publication. But, I’m giving ya all I can!
Proposing Projects
The work I did at TLC was determined before I arrived there. In my application, I had to provide a few key things, all of which felt pretty natural and were carried through the whole life of the residency:
What I wanted to work on during the residency: I knew without question what I wanted to make progress on, and I followed this through from start to finish. First, a picture book about tents and being in nature that I’ve mentioned here many times, and that I’ve been working on for about two years. Second, a middle grade novel (that I’ve also mentioned here), and that I started in August of 2022.
A sample of my work: In this case, I provided both a writing sample and a visual arts sample. I felt lucky that the application didn’t have too many limitations; I was able to share ten illustrations and a whole chapter from the novel.
Why TLC was the right place for the art I wanted to make: In a lot of ways, this was the easiest answer. In the years I’d been working on the tent book, I always had the most energy for it when I got to spend time in nature. Normally, this was a trip somewhere, then a return to my home studio with the inspiration I needed to make progress on it. I was betting on the opportunity to take this a step further—working on it in a place that would be a steady stream of inspiration. Writing the novel felt similarly—I was writing it piecemeal in coffee shops for a few hours at a time. What would it look like to work on it consistently, and in a place that was giving to me instead of draining me? I also applied with my sketchbook in mind (and included four sketchbook illos in my sample)—I really like finding new subjects that offer inspiration for unbounded play.
Sketchbook
I was surprised in some ways that everything played out just liked I’d applied for it to. On the first day, I discovered a wildflower nature guide in my cabin and immediately felt drawn to it. I wanted to start by loosening up, and painting these wildflowers became a touchstone for me the over the whole residency. I picked flowers I saw around me, and especially loved these tansies (yellow)—which I also learned are a dye flower! The other two pictured are red clover and bull thistle. These are all painted in Holbein traditional gouache and colored pencil.
The Tent Picture Book
A little bit of picture book background. I’m the author of two picture books, both of which I love dearly. But after the completion of the second one, back in 2020, I took a step back and did a lot of thinking about what I wanted to be making. I knew that one day I’d want to be illustrating too, so I found the courage and the confidence to make this pivot. I decided to make a dummy (a sample version of the illustrated book) with the plan to eventually look for an agent (I published the first two books un-agented).
I wrote the manuscript for this picture book right at the beginning, and though it has certainly shifted and grown over time, it is quite similar to the words I started with. So, what I spent these years on is the illustrations. They have gone through many, many iterations. What ended up being most challenging for me was blending a combination of dummy sketches and full paintings, and finding a cohesive and attractive style for both. Because a dummy is a sample, you need only create a few pages of finalized illustrations. The rest should just convey the vision of the book. This was hard.
But a few months before Tofte, maybe around the time I was applying, I had a breakthrough. I finally landed on a sketch style that felt right to me. It was a massive relief. So I came into the residency with the dummy a little less than halfway done. I ended up finishing 18 (eighteen!!) pages, completing the dummy in my time there! Here’s a zoomed out storyboard version for you, all worked traditionally.
I do want to zoom in on one spread in particular. It is a bit difficult for me to share the progress of this, but I think it’s worthwhile because I’m so happy with the final piece.
I painted the below spread early in the week. This was the second time I had tried painting it, and I can’t count how many times I drew it. It can be really hard to revisit a piece that you failed at before, so I’m proud that I felt ready to take this on again, and it set a nice tone for the book work while I was there.
Here are early attempts and sketches, from 2021 I think (click to see the full images). What growth!
The Novel
The truth is that there’s very little I can say about the novel! I have found it’s pretty hard to describe it in any way that sounds compelling, interesting, or good without giving a taste of the plot, characters, or world, which I’m not ready to do. But, I can describe the process and the progress. It’s a fantasy novel for ages 10-14+. It will likely be in the 60,000-80,000 word range, and my hope is that it will be a series.
When I arrived at the residency, I was 40,000 words in. I had gone through one round of test-readers and edits, and I was ready to dive into the second half of the book. In the end, I wrote a little more than 30,000 words, and am now closing in on the last 5K or so. It’s almost complete! It will then go to a second round of test-readers, another round of edits, and be ready to go. The first 40K words took me ten months, and the 30K at Tofte happened in ten days.
I do also have a few juicy images to share. I’m hoping that this book will have about 20 illustrations throughout. I’ve been wanting to make image tests for this for so long, and just haven’t had time. But, one morning I indulged for hours and made this meticulous graphite drawing that I then colored on my iPad.
This is not a piece that would actually appear in the book (they will be scenes, not just portraits), but it’s a first go at one of the book’s characters, and it was SO FUN. I’m also so proud of the line work. I love graphite.
Camp Northern Lights
I also did a tree-drawing workshop at a nearby family summer camp (See my samples in the top left.). I’m really glad I did it, and for the opportunity to get out of my studio and connect with other people. The camp was also just a really inspiring and beautiful place. I appreciated very much what they were doing, their mission, and the people who came to draw with me.
What’s Next?
And in summary, my life is changed! Sort of joking, and sort of not. This art-making experience really altered how I’m thinking about my practice. I’m not clear on the details, like I said last month, but I’ll certainly be keying you in once I figure out what’s going on with me.
I am also so close to moving to the next step with these projects—the steps that are out of my control. Once I finish the novel, I’ll be querying both it and the picture book to agents. I’ll be hoping to find someone to represent my work in both arenas (picture books and novels), which is a little unusual but hopefully not impossible. I’ll send the work out, and I’ll wait in silence and suspense until someone connects with my vision and wants to join me on the path to publication. Hope for me!
I’ll also certainly be hoping to attend more residencies in my future. I have limitations on attending more right now, and will be mostly focused on getting settled in my new home over the foreseeable future. But, it was an invaluable experience. Who knew I could be so happy, productive, calm, and creative all at once. Whew.
Thank you for sharing all of this! The night scene painting is Gorgeous ♥️. You are just AMAZING!!🥰