Ah, nice new pen for these guys. The other one was becoming quite the hassle. I wish I could buy these pens individually. They come in sets of 5 and I am always using up the same two sizes. I end up with the larger nibs in mass quantities and none of the smaller nibs in my favorite sizes. Guess that is in the company’s best interest cause they sell more sets, but how inconvenient! I have to find someone who likes the large nib sizes and trade!

8-27-09

8-28-09

I tried to use human expressions on this animal, I don’t think it quite came across as more animal than human. Have to work on that.

I’ve been at this daily doodle challenge for nearly 3 months now. I don’t really see any improvement in the individual doodles but I do see more ‘ease’ in doing my work related drawings. I still have the awful habit of thinking a drawing to death before I ever put pencil to paper. I am coming to the conclusion that I need a ‘planning’ phase before I start working. I guess many artists would do this planning in lots of thumbnails but doing a bunch of thumbnails has always frustrated me beyond belief. I like to do my thumbnails in my head and figure out how things should look and how I will accomplish the end product before I start.

Planning in my head sounds weird, I’m sure. And usually, what I envision in my head tends to change once it hits paper and the real world, but for the most part, I am pretty much set on what the basic layout and shapes will be before I start working on a project.

I think this comes from my years as working as a graphic designer with I-gotta-have-it-yesterday deadlines. When I was working in an office environment the concept of doing thumbnails was frowned upon as a waste of time. 9 times out of ten, I had to produce a finished product the same day I got the assignment. Sometimes I was even handed a new graphics program to install at the same time. Granted, the programs came on 1 MB floppy disks at the time and were not nearly as complicated and involved as the same programs today, but still.

Working on such circumstances got me out of the habit of doodling and thumbnails. I guess I will have to work on relearning the thumbnail process now that I have started doodling again. You know what? I find I actually am having fun doodling and not worrying about pleasing some client or customer, known or unknown. How cool is that?

I am so thankful to have you all here. As an artist and a writer, I spend most of my time alone with nobody to talk to but the cats. They may talk back but I have no clue what the various forms of meow mean, so conversations tend to be rather one-sided. They are also no good for bouncing ideas off.

This year has been especially solitary because of my medical snafu in January. It has kept me house bound much of the year and not out-and-about at festivals and events throughout the country like most summers. I have put the time to good use. There are several new books in the works. I cannot talk about them yet, but soon I will tell you all the details. I can say that one is a book for adults. It is a Pagan parenting book unlike any other out in the market so far.

Even though I still have some healing left to do, I am back on the road beginning with Labor Day Weekend. If you are in the area, please come out and see me, I’d love to meet you if I haven’t already and renew our acquaintance if we have already met.

Here is my schedule through October:

• Harvest Homecoming & Ozark Avalon’s 13th Anniversary, Sep 3, 2009 12:00pm, Sep 7, 2009 3:00pm, Ozark Avalon Church of Nature Boonville, MO
• Mid Missouri Pagan Pride Day, Sep 27, 2009 12:00pm, , Peace Park, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO
• Our Haven’s October Gathering 2009, Oct 2, 2009 3:00pm, Oct 4, 2009 12:00pm, Our Haven Nature Sanctuary, French Lick, Indiana
• WytcheHaven Weekend #10 – Riding the Winds of Change, Oct 9, 2009 1:00pm, Oct 12, 2009 1:00pm, ISIS Foundation Community Church – Salem, Arkansas
• Summerland Grove’s Festival of Souls, Oct 15, 2009 3:00pm, Oct 18, 2009 12:00pm, Meeman-Shelby State Park, Millington, Tennessee

This month’s FREE coloring page is the “Q” of the ABCs of Lesser Known Goddesses. Quinoa-Mama is a grain Goddess from Peru. During the harvest of the quinoa crop, the leaves of the plant are collected and made into a “corn-dolly” which is dressed in traditional Peruvian costume. The doll is saved until the following year when it is burned to ensure a bountiful crop and harvest.

Q was a tough one. There just aren’t that many Goddesses whose name starts with a Q. I eat quinoa on occasion, so I was excited to find there is a Goddess just for this small and tasty grain.

Have your children gone back to school yet? Did you know that the publisher has free teaching guides for each of my books on their web site? If you are friendly with your school librarian or even the local public librarian, why not suggest they add some of my books to their collection. Libraries across the country have. Help spread the word.

In addition to the newsletter, please friend me on
http://lyon-martin.livejournal.com/ LiveJournal,
http://www.myspace.com/wlyonmartin MySpace,
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/376137.W_Lyon_Martin GoodReads,
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/wendy-martin/3/812/93b LinkedIn or
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/kidsbookartist?ref=name FaceBook.

The publisher also has a fan page on
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As always, my books, ‘An Ordinary Girl, A Magical Child,” “Aidan’s First Full Moon Circle,” “Watchers,” and “Rabbit’s Song,” are all available from the http://magicalchildbooks.com publisher, at your favorite online or brick and mortar bookseller and possibly even you local public library. I know times are tough all over, but dollar for dollar, a book is one of the best deals for your entertainment budget.
In closing, I thank each one of you for joining me on this wonderful and wacky trip of mine. It is because of your unending support that I am living my dream. Your friendship is a true blessing and I am honored.