April 2023: What I'm Working On (Literally, Like the Surface!)

​I’ve been taking time off for the past several weeks. I was a bit burned out on writing and art. I played Hogwarts Legacy. Epic! One of the most fun games I’ve ever played. Everything I ever wanted to do while reading the books, I got to do in this game. I’ve finished that (100% achievement on the challenges and 98% of the collections, which were so hard to find, I finally gave up on the last few things).
 
Now I need to get back to business and caught up on the things of life along with miscellaneous tasks not associated with writing or art. The rest of this week will be spend doing those things. Next week, I need to incorporate a critique I got a few weeks back for an old book that will hopefully be reissued in the coming years. I also got some feedback on one of my critique partners that made me see I need to write an extra scene in LOST, Book 8: Bloodmoon Cove Spirits Series. Once I’ve finished that, I plan to start brainstorming on the book I’ll be outlining next month (HELL HATH NO FURY, Book 10: Bloodmoon Cove Spirits Series).  Simultaneously with those projects, I’ll get started on the next section in the How to Draw course. There are eight “complex” drawing lessons concentrated on light and shadow and value scales for this study.
 
In the meantime, I got my first artist’s desk! It wasn’t too difficult to put together, though twice the directions lacked information and we ended up having to go back and redo sections until we got it right. Also, on the final page of instructions on putting the desk together, we realized it was missing a screw so we couldn’t finish. That’s a form of torment right there! We searched my office and couldn’t find it. We finally had to conclude that they just didn’t include it. {much grumbling} Tim went to the hardware store the next day and got that size screw in silver, which doesn’t match, so he put that one in a less noticeable spot on the desk and put one that matches the final piece that’s on the front.
 
Having an art desk in my office, something that’s not small, did mean rearranging the space. Up to this point, I’ve been working off the kitchen table, and our dining room was a mess because of it. All my art supplies were strewn all around the room and we couldn’t really use the kitchen table much during those weeks or months. Now I have a surface to work on art that has a built-in lightbox that tilts, and I have space for all my art supplies. Everything else I need is in two rolling carts that can be pushed back into the corners when I don’t need them (or when Tim needs to get to the flowers he puts in the window boxes outside my office).
 
I have a section of my office for my writing now and a section for my art. There are Venetian blinds on the two windows, so, if need more contrast between light and shadow, I can get that. Right now I think I can use the same chair for both sides of the office, since this is a chair that can be adjusted height-wise. I’m getting carpets made especially for office chairs so I can roll back and forth between the two sections of the room. I may need a lamp, but I’m waiting to see how it goes once I start working at the art desk. The pictures I’m adding to this post show how my office looks with the writing desk and the art desk. I feel like it’s still open and not cluttered, so it remains a workable space for me.
 
I had to get rid of my story cupboard. This is something I’ve been talking about for probably the last 20 years of my life. It’s where all my WIPs are stored, where my story idea folders are kept, along with miscellaneous stuff to do with my writing. It was very important to my overall progress as a writer. But, as I’m coming to the last of the books I plan to write (just two more that need to be outlined and three more that need to be written!), I’ve found I really don’t need the cupboard anymore. I was able to put all the things that were in it on shelves in other parts of my office that were basically empty.
 
I’m gearing up to make the transition to children’s book illustrator maybe mid-2024. I can hardly wait. But, until then, I want my last few books to be my best ever so I need to stay focused on that instead of making art too much of a priority in my life at this time. I expect I’ll be posting some of my new art projects in the coming weeks again. I appreciate all the comments I’ve gotten. I’m early in the process of learning how to be an artist so the feedback really helps me and makes me think maybe I’m actually capable of doing this.