Picture Book Marathon, Day 10

Finally I'm back on track. I wrote two picture books today, one that obviously has to do with stuff happening in my life right now, and one that's not so obvious and I actually came up with the idea for before it applied to my life.

But before we get to that, I have exciting news (to me anyway). My computer is all better! Apparently the mac store called while I was at school and said my computer was ready to be picked up. I'm so happy because I thought it would take at least until Sunday. I went straight from swimming (with my brother's carpool in the car) directly to pick it up. It made my day to have it back. But anyway, now getting back to PBM--

Picture Book #9: Mike and Millie
Millie was a very nice girl. She had a lot of friends. One of her friends was Mike. Mike was not a very nice boy. In fact, he was downright mean, but he pretended to be nice because he wanted to be Millie's best friend. But Millie saw that he wasn't as nice as he was pretending to be, so he stopped pretending and acted like the horrible jerk he was. Millie was furious at him, but being a very nice person, she didn't want to do anything mean. But when Mike started being mean to Millie, her friend Haley punched him.

Moral: Violence isn't always the answer, but you should stand up for your friends. Also, don't be a jerk. Seriously, don't.

Gahh, high school drama. I obviously changed some stuff for the book, but this is an event that recently happened to my friend "Millie". I was outraged when I heard, and although I wasn't going to punch "Mike", I was going to go yell at him. But "Millie" and I decided that since "Mike" lived on attention, It'd probably not be the best thing to do. I did a great illustration that I'm want to post without messing with it on photoshop first because I don't want to ruin it.

But you can't really see it cause scanning doesn't work with pencil drawings. So,

I don't like the photoshop tracing nearly as much as the original, but at least you can see it. 

[EDIT: I just figured out that you actually can see the pencil drawing much better if you tilt your screen back and look up at it, so I didn't have to do the tracing after all, oh well. It was fun even though I don't love the end result] 

And now, onto the 2nd book of the day.

Picture Book #10: When I Grow Up

Every day, Kacey went to her 1st grade class. This week, the kids in her class were talking about what they wanted to be when they grew up.
On Monday, Darren talked about how he wanted to be a doctor.
Kacey thought that being a doctor would be fun.
Teddy bear with band-aids in Kacey's hands, Kacey with doctor's kit.
But then she remembered that she didn't like being around sick people.
On Tuesday, Maya talked about how she wanted to be a teacher.

Kacey thought that being a teacher would be fun.

Stuffed animals in rows w/ paper in front of them, Kacey in front, teaching.

But then she remembered that she didn't like little kids. (Panel on side, 4 yr olds running around)

On Wednesday, Jack talked about how he wanted to be a detective. 

Kacey thought that being a detective would be fun.

Kacey in hallway with flashlight and dark coat, hallway is shadowed, clock in background reads 8:30.

But then she realized she didn't have anything to detect.

On Thursday, Jane talked about how she wanted to be a writer. 

Kacey thought that being a write would be fun.

Kacey sitting at desk with crumpled paper in wastebasket behind her - see cover drawing.

But she didn't know what to write about.

On Friday, it was Kacey's turn to speak. She stood up in front of the class, took a deep breath, and said, "I don't know what I want to be when I grow up, but right now I want to be a KID!"

I drew this cover when I was preparing for the marathon, before I got some photoshop strategies down (scroll down to see some of my other more pathetic photoshop works) and I was going to edit it after I wrote the story but before I posted it, but I kinda like it now. The more I look at it, the more it grows on me. (That and the fact that I can't really spare an extra half hour to edit this.) So I'm keeping the original for now, but if I end up changing it, I'll post that version too. Now that I have my computer back, hopefully I'll be better about doing the art for my picture books.

I thought up the idea for When I Grow Up as one of my pre-PBM qualifying ideas. When I actually started writing it this morning, I realized that it was more relevant that I had originally thought, because this week is placement testing week, and we've been asked to think a lot about what we want to do next year, which will dictate what we do the year after that and so on and so on for what seems like the rest of our lives. I just don't think that these tests can possibly be that important, but it is a bit of pressure. But I'm just taking tests for everything I can and deciding what I want later.  So anyway, that's the connection.

Well, that was an excellent way to procrastinate. Now, back to work.

Until tomorrow,