Past Monday Questions Posts

Welcome to Monday Question Time! The day of the week when I answer a question relating to my writing and/or artistry. Today's question was submitted to me on Facebook: Where do you find your inspiration for your art? This is a loaded question because I have different sources of inspiration for different things. Such as getting ideas for my art, techniques, colors and so forth. So I'll just cover all aspects of my inspiration. A lot of my artistic inspiration comes from a number of wonderful artists. Each one has inspired me either by their use of technique, color, style and/or subject matter. They are the following: Stephanie Pui-Mun-Law

This woman is incredible! I seriously don't know how she does it being a wife and mother and do so much art so often and so beautifully! She, by far, inspires me the most when it comes to my art. A lot of texture and technique I learned was from her Dreamscapes book. You can find her work here, here and here! Jenny Dolfen

Another incredibly talented watercolor artist. I don't know what her personal life is like, but she paints almost every day the most beautiful renditions of Lord of the Rings artwork and more. She takes a more realistic approach in style and the colors are beautiful! She can really express the mood of the scene through a single color pallet and she continues to inspire me to this day. You can find her work here, here and here

Those are the top two artists that I gain the most inspiration from. Other forms of inspiration I glean from authors as well. The following authors inspire me the most:

Brandon Mull

What can I say about Brandon Mull without sounding like a fangirl? His style of writing as well as the stories themselves do nothing, but inspire me every time I read any of his books. He is an amazing author and my favorite because he goes out of the way to remember details about people whom he meets. He's only been to my area twice with a year of time in between, but he remembered details about me that I didn't think he would. When I first met him it was like an instant friendship to me when we talked. I don't know if it's because we're of the same faith, but he is genuine and fun. I highly recommend reading his work. Its fun, clean and great for kids and adults alike. You can learn more about him here and here!

Beatrice Potter

Beatrice Potter is a children's book author and illustrator who is close to my heart. When I learned about her life I couldn't be more inspired. She accomplished so much and all at a time where it was unusual for a woman to become as successful as she did while being single. She didn't marry until her later years and she wasn't miserable when she was single either, constantly pining over a man. When I was single, she was of great inspiration to me, proving that I can be successful on my own if I work hard enough and practice, practice, practice!

I hope you enjoyed reading through what inspires me the most in my art and writing. If you have any more questions feel free to leave a comment and your question could be answered next Monday! Happy reading!

August 24 2015

Today's question comes from my childhood friend, Natalya Kahmann. That question is: Which Narnia book is your favorite? I actually have two favorites. The first is the Magician's Nephew. I love prequel origin stories when they're done right. I love reading about how things came to be. How characters became the way they are. A lot of times the origin story is far more interesting to me than the main story line of the series itself. Its been many years since I've read it, but I do remember the enjoyment I got from it. The Narnia series has a lot of Christian references in it that I didn't recognize until I reread them as an adult. As a child you don't think of things like that. As an adult you notice parallels, implications, and symbolism that were always there, but you just didn't understand yet. All of the books are good, although I didn't care for A Horse and His Boy, but its the beginning that I really enjoyed. I loved finding out how the wardrobe came to be. How the laws that Aslan spoke of came to be as well. The council that existed before Narnia was. It has a lot of parallels to my faith when it comes to the Creation. That fascinates me! Everything has a beginning of some sort and it was a great read to find out how Narnia began. The second book that I would say is my favorite would be the Final Battle. This book scared me, but also brought me so much joy at the same time. I cried a lot towards the end of the book and again its because there are parallels to my faith in this book as well. It was interesting getting C.S. Lewis' take on the last days through a fantasy series. A series written in a way that children could understand without knocking them over the head with religion. Yes, like I said it has religious parallels, but C.S. Lewis doesn't go and state: Aslan is Jesus! or anything like that. No, C.S. Lewis does very well to take situations and events that would have happened regardless of religious orientation because that is the way of the world of Narnia. Its great on its own as a fantasy story because it holds to realistic principles. Good vs Evil. Sacrifice to save another. Wars, deception, confusion, the hope for far better things, temptation, greed, justice... All are things that already exist whether you believe in a god of any sort or not. Just look at history alone. Look at the wars that came from a group of people fighting injustice or struggling to be free. Look at the sacrifices that are made on behalf of others to save their lives. That is what I love in a good fantasy book series is realistic realities that apply even when you have fantastical creatures. That even in a make believe world, there is imperfection and so long as there is good and evil, there will be chaos that comes from imperfect beings trying to justify which is which. Thank you to Natalya Kahmann for today's question. She is an awesome person and she'll be heading off to England soon! Support her work here, here and here :D Happy Reading!

September 8, 2015

I was given technically two questions by Scott Davel, but I am going to answer one of them this time around and the other I'll answer next week. So this will be part one of two :D Question for the day was: Where do you find the time to write with young children? Truthfully... it's incredibly hard to find time to write. My kids are at an age right now where they can play on their own with each other, but as soon as I leave the room then they follow. As soon as I get a phone call, they think it's their daddy or one of their grandparents and they want to say "hi" to that person. So when I do attempt writing while they are still awake and alert, its with a pad of paper and a pen instead of on the computer, which I prefer because I type faster than I can free write. Fortunately, when it comes to the book series, the first and second book were completely written before I had children. The third book is really going to be an adventure since its currently just an outline. So all that really needs to be done is editing and I've had a lot of help in that. What has been working best so far is to be doing all my work at night after the kids are asleep. Which means... I'm surviving with very little sleep most of the time. This is probably not the best thing for my health, but I'm used to being up late working on artwork and writing since my college days and even after graduation. I do not recommend keeping late hours, but in my situation, its the best that I can do in order to ensure that I have my full attention on editing and rewrites of the second book. :) Speaking of edits, forgive me for neglecting to update on Wednesday and Friday. Life happens and also I was unable to make much progress this week as I would like. However, the great thing about having a hubby who loves the series is that he can act as my plot bouncing wall whenever I need to just think out loud on how to proceed in the edits and rewrites. I'm currently waiting on some medical information as well that is going to change up some things in the second book and I'm very excited for a change that is being made that I think is going to make the second book even better than it was before. I shall discuss this later on Wednesday. Happy Reading!

September 15 2015

Last Monday I had answered part one of a two part question. Forgive me for being a day late, but I will be answering part two today. :) Part two of the question was: How do you handle the needs of your children when you are writing? I handle my children's needs when I'm writing by writing when they don't need me. I write when they are taking a nap. I write when they are asleep for the night. I write when my husband is home and playing with them outside. I write at church if inspiration hits me while my kids are in nursery. When my children are in need of me, which is basically when they're awake, lol, I see to their needs. There was one Saturday not too long ago when I was able to go to the library to just write without interruption while my husband watched the kids. I got so much writing done! The nice thing about these current projects is that most of the work has already been done. Book three is the book that will need to be started, but book two is already written and already is going through rewrites, but that's a part of editing. To add to my challenges, I just started school once again in Family History. I try to get all homework done as early as I can so I can give myself more free time for art and writing, but sometimes it doesn't always work in my favor, but that is life.

Happy Reading!

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