Kickstarter

Thank you to everyone who came to the art hop! I'm trying to make sure everyone has received your rewards from the show. If you have not, would you be so kind to send me a note so I can get it out in the mail?

Those who were not at the show, your items are being sent out this week. Thank you again for your support!

Hello my wonderful friends and supporters of my project!

I wanted to give you an update on events that have impacted the project. This past summer, I had the great honor of spending my creative time with a young friend who was battling his 3 round with cancer. During this time, I shared ideas sketches, hopes and dreams with him as the final concept drawings were figured out. On August 20, my amazing 9 year old friend passed away after giving this world so much creative and imaginative joy. It is my honor to dedicate this book to him and his family, making him the first mate of the magical ship that sails through the night.

As I work on the illustrations of the Keeper of the Stars, I must tell you about my friend Phil Bolz and what he's been working on. Over a tough semester, Phil and I talked about his goal of making CG models and coming up with props to use. I talked about this Anna Project and how if only I didn't have to build the ship in the story, I would totally make this into an animated short. Long story short, Phil is building me a ship! I went back to the drawing board and redesigned the ship to be like a seahorse. As I spent more time with a young friend of mine named Shaurya, the ship was named inspired by his love of lizards and one of my favorite sea creatures, the Sea Dragon. I gave Phil my concept art and he has been spending his summer building a ship that is destined for adventure.

You can see more of Phil's modeling on his tumblr page, but know I keep him pretty busy with this ship of mine!

http://philbolzdesign.tumblr.com/

You'll get to see the ship fully rendered and in action this December at the Keeper of the Stars Art Hop on December 7th at the Public Media Network!

A little girl came up to me when I was working in a Montessori preschool room and said, “look, a made a bed full of stars.” She was a quiet child and rarely spoke to anyone at the time and I looked down at what she had been working on. She was playing with colored clay (green I think) and cut out as many stars as she could with a cookie cutter. I smiled at her and said, “Anna and the Stars…”

Who knew then that those stars would bring me here to this new creative chapter.

Right now 6 of the pages for the children's book are done. Done? Technically. What is happening now is I'm figuring out how to amplify the tone of the story. The character, Anna, has been developed fully, but now it is time to push her to her true potential. How to make the character strong, vulnerable, and magical? How do I make her more than a girly character? Or more to the point, how do I make a "girly" character empowering and endearing?

So I'm playing with thumbnails of the drawings, changing compositions, pushing for dramatic angles to build tension and making sure this is magic on each page.