Aug. 26, 2025 - Ta-Da!

After considerable sketching attempts, the child is finished! I am so happy to have this task completed! The child, named Taylor (Tay for short) has become gender neutral. I worked very hard to achieve this. I wanted as many children as possible to see themselves in the child in the story. I hope I have achieved that. If I haven't, please let me know in the comments. I will happily take your suggestions on board and re-do the character. This is the current illustration.... the blog continues below the picture.

I'm open to suggestions, so please don't hesitate to share your ideas.

Now that Tay is finished, I have completed all the main characters in the story: Devaro the wizard, Phildor the baby dragon bear, Bruce the spruce, and Taylor the child. This is what the cast of characters currently looks like. (The blog continues below the picture.)

The story takes place in the forest, so the background will be primarily in shades of green and brown. As a result, I tired to choose colour pallets for each character that would jump off the page. The only exception would be Bruce and he's a tree in the forest so I didn't have a lot of choice with that one. How did I do? What do you think? You're welcome to leave comments. I'd love to hear from you.

Tomorrow I'm going to begin researching what the agents are going to want to see in terms of illustrations for a children's picture book. I already have the text complete. It came in below the recommended 500 words. I've also written the blurb and the synopsis. I want to do some sketches of poses and I think the agents look for 3 illustrations, but as I said, I need to check that out to confirm it. I have purchased 2 great text books and 2 workbooks on how to create children's picture books. I hope to begin tackling them tomorrow. It looks like the next couple of days are going to be very busy!

Wishing you all the best...

P.S. Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog! My intention is to keep followers up to date on my latest writing adventures. My current focus is on fiction genres including children's picture books and YA/NA historical romanticies. I'm also preparing to write an epic fantasy for the young adult audience. As a debut author I face all the challenges of breaking into the traditional publishing market. I need your interest and support to do so! Please consider following me here and on other social media platforms, which you can access on the Home page of my author's web site. I'll be adding more in the weeks to come so please check back from time to time. Thank you so much, in advance, for following my blog. You are potentially helping me enrich the lives of future readers. I just need this break to attract my first agent representation! Your efforts will make all the difference! Thank you once again.