Tami Moore

Amateur Artist, Aspiring Author, Professional Slacker

Mr. Moore and I are working on a children’s book, codename Sundrop Acres. I can’t remember if I mentioned it here or not, but the general gist of it involves a ridiculous amount of cute and requires that I be able to draw a character multiple times.

Having never really managed to draw the same character multiple times while maintaining a uniform character design … this has been an interesting project for me.

One of the main characters is a dragon. I’m still finalizing the design, but I thought you might enjoy a sneak peek at my sketchbook.


Original dragon concept. His body style has changed from this, but I still love it.


Somewhere in my sketches, this angry fellow developed. Mr. Moore promptly fell in love with him. He won’t do for the primary character, but he might make an appearance if we do further books. The text that you probably can’t read came from Mr. Moore and says “Do you have any idea how much it pisses me off to not have any fists?!”


Working on body designs. We’re thinking he’ll lose his arms, but I haven’t quite settled on one design yet.


Working on the design of the head.

24
Aug

Some new friends are having a baby (is there something in the water?).

When I asked them to pick a cute animal for some baby gift art, they chose hippos.

Despite my original bogglement at the animal choice, I did a set of hippo sketch pages and promptly fell in love with their curvy, adorable bodies.

Sketch Pages of Love

The Actual Gift Art

Luv YA

Bria Quinlan at Luv YA has started a fascinating project.

She’s calling it “Paid Writer” and I just adore it. She is paying herself to write.

Dreams

How many times a day do you dream about being a paid, full-time, published author?

Don’t answer that question. If your answer is anywhere near mine, you’ll run out of fingers and toes in no time.

Actions

We WANT to be paid writers … but how often do we ACT like one?

How often do we buckle down and write as if our grocery bill depended on it? How often do we edit and revise and think to ourselves, “if I don’t make this synopsis work, I may have to drop that netflix account.”

By CONTRAST, how often do we think idly about writing before logging into the video game of the week? How often do we buy chocolates and movie tickets and treat ourselves to a relaxing few hours in front of the television while our manuscripts silently gather dust?

We tell ourselves that if it were real – if we were getting PAID to write, surely we would act differently.

Secret

The secret to getting ahead is getting started.

We will take much longer to become paid writers if we don’t start acting like paid writers.

So … why not start paying ourselves? Start being a paid writer NOW. Today. This instant.

Pay Scale

Set up a pay scale.

  • $10/hr – writing/editing/revising
  • $5/hr – plotting
  • $50 – bonus for completing a large project

Make the scale work for YOU and keep it reasonable. Whether you’re dealing with Monopoly money or actually budgeting out real world dollars, you don’t want to go crazy. (Also, don’t think too hard on working 8 hours at a day job only to work hours AGAIN to earn the right to spend that money. This is an exercise, not necessarily a way of life.)

Track Your Progress

Use a spreadsheet (Google Docs has free spreadsheets, as does Open Office) and write down your progress. Calculate out how much money you have in your virtual piggy bank, and keep tabs on what you spend. How close are you able to keep your expenditures and your writing dollars? Do you really NEED that expensive chocolate bar? (yes!) What about those cute fingerless gloves you bought this weekend? (they were on sale for a dollar! And super warm! And the perfect color!)

Okay, how about the honey candy and the caramel sea salt cookie from the farmer’s market? (hmm.) And you want to buy the next season of House on dvd at the end of the month, don’t you? (*squirm*)

Two In One

Not only does this method make you feel like you’re earning something while writing (I can’t be the only one who sometimes feels like a hamster on a wheel) but it’ll also make you sit down and think about your purchases from the standpoint of a limited budget. (Some of you already do that last one because of economy woes. =[ )

I am a big fan of finding new ways to encourage folks to write. Try new things. Find a method that works for you. Maybe this will be it!

<3

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