Houston We Have a Problem

I’ve had a sore throat since Sunday and so I went to the Minute Clinic this morning. (I don’t have strep or Covid, just a cold) I didn’t really start work until 10 am. I decided to finish up the pdf in InDesign for the Tassy Walden Award and submit it first then maybe go climb back into bed so I will be well rested for Art Club tomorrow.

As I was checking the submission guidelines I realized I had a problem. The guidelines say I need two spreads of finished artwork. I had only done two pages. Two spreads is four pages. I was so glad I had “finished” a whole day early.

I chose the first spread where Paige is smiling. I needed to fix some perspective lines on my drawing and call in the perspective police (aka my husband). After lunch, or maybe the kids were home from school already…not sure it was fuzzy. I printed out the purple grey rectangle with the black line drawing and began to paint.

Someone else made our traditional Wednesday night dinner of beans and rice. I only emerged to put some in a bowl and get back to work. My husband took our kids to their evening activities. I was so grateful that today was a Wednesday. Everyone else is gone on Wednesday nights and I can work uninterrupted.

The painting went well. I had some tough decisions to make. I like what I did with the applesauce. I like the flowers in the corner. I like the pancake flipping action Paige has going on. I even like the effect I got on Paige’s neck. I especially like the last minute addition of red paint to the stove top. It really makes the stove top glow.

When I was all done with the painting, I scanned it in, added it to the InDesign file and started tweaking. I redrew at least one sketch. I researched more submission details. I changed the manuscript a little bit, tweaked drawings, and figured out headers and footers in Word. I am amazed at all the minute details that I needed to change for the submission. I was wondering why it is so hard, but then I remembered being on the other end of this thing. When applicants take the time to submit it right, it is so much easier to judge and keep yourself organized. And in this case, not following the guidelines will result in them throwing my submission away.

Finally around 8:45 pm I finished and submitted it to the Tassy Walden Award. Phew. I can honestly say it is my best work at this time. I’m proud of it. I know when it gets published it probably won’t look anything like it looks like right now. And that is ok because I have a little sign on my wall that says, “You are allowed to evolve.”