Funtastical Studios: A Story To Be Told From Doodles

The picture that started the idea for my book.

Lately I have been putting a lot of my creative time into creating my first children's book. I have ventured out into this new thing and I am learning some valuable lessons. When I first decided to do this I thought, how hard can it be? I mean, you can write and illustrate some pretty basic books if you want to. Kids like simple! I sat down one afternoon and wrote my whole 32 paged book. I had an idea that was inspired from a doodle and went from there.
The first part seemed fairly easy. Then I began to illustrate, and well, this has been a whole other story! The first thing that happened was I noticed myself beginning to strive. I was trying to come up with pictures that would fit the text that I had already written and it wasn't as easy as I had hoped. The more I tried to fit the text, the more frustrated I got and the more I got on the striving wheel. Bye Bye fun, which isn't good because the book was supposed to be about having fun! (thankfully the record button wasn't on).

I felt like a machine trying to plough hard ground.

I don't know about you, but after I have a run on the striving wheel I feel unmotivated, uninspired and really don't feel like continuing. Trying to create when you are not inspired is very difficult. I decided it was time to take this matter to my prayer closet. After pouring out my heart, I realized there was a lot surfacing. My striving wasn't just happening in my creative time, but also in my day with the kids, homeschooling, and trying to keep the house somewhat tidy!

So what was the solution? How did I get off this striving wheel? I needed to let go! RELAX!! Go with the flow! As much as I may think I am somewhat a free spirit, I can get caught up with my agendas! Who am I fooling? Just because I don't write them out, that doesn't mean I don't have one in my head. I decided to go back to my daily doodles, colouring in pictures that I liked, and I started to get some ideas for the book. It meant being flexible with the text and even being willing to let go of what I had previouly written. As I did this guess what happened? I said hello to inspiration again! I saw a new dynamic happening! I had a creative story, but now I had a chance to bring even more creativty to it by seeing what unfolded in the drawings. It reminded me of peeling an onion and each layer was getting to the very core. I realized that I had formed a box around what I had written, and my doodles were taking my story out of the box to the next creative level. And through all this my spirit came alive again and I began to have FUN, the much needed component for writting a childrens book that is called ON TOP OF THE WORLD!

My bubble blaster coming to life.

I also began to pay attention to things around me that were catching my attention and inspiring me creatively. I recogonized that God was planting things all around me to help direct and inspire me for this book. I just needed to slow down and notice.

The bumblebee buzzer done in a doodle.

Here is an example of me trying to fit something into my text. I was working on illustrating a page about a scene with an elevator and that's what I had written and I really liked the concept of what I had written. I went through pages and pages of doodles but there wasn't anything that remotely looked like an elevator. Instead there was one doodle that kept catching my eye. I really didn't know how to use it with the elevator scene. It looked like a giant bumble bee. Later that day I was outside with the kids when I noticed a big bumble bee. I began talking to the kids about this big bumble bee. The picture of the doodle came to mind and there, in that moment, I got an idea an idea for my elevator! As much as I liked the elevator, I realized it wasn't part of my story. But the giant bumble bee buzzer was! Really, who wants to ride an elevator to the top of the world when you can ride a bumble bee buzzer. I re-visited my doodle and was amazed at how fitting this doodle was for the illustration. Yes letting go is a good thing! Can't wait to see what will come this week!