Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Ema

This is Ema.
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"Char wears enough color for the two of us." -Just Ema

That is all.

Saturday, December 13, 2014

Possible New LDYH Covers

Okay. So I have this minor obsession with powerpoint (this has already been established). And the other day, I was like "maybe I should switch up the covers of LDYH and WTF (on powerpoint, of course) so they correspond with the colors of the disney versions!" And I really a lot enjoyed the new WTF cover:
And then I set to work making a LDYH cover that corresponded with the Tangled color scheme, and it just ISN'T HAPPENING for me. There's this one:





Then there's  the one below it, where I pretty much just reversed the colors.




AND there's the original, which in my opinion is the best so far:

But you see, the issue is that even though the original one looks the best, I really quite a lot (I think we already covered this) like the new Who's The Fairest one. And I can't have one cover be the color scheme of the movie and the other one not be. I NEED HELP with these covers. Color suggestions, things that look super weird (I know there are a LOT of those- it won't offend me if you're blunt), things that might possible look good...
Give them to me. Please. I'm really quite desperate here.

Thanks guys! You're the best.

Holly

Inspiration Board #5: The Apartment

So, awhile back I posted something that was... um... concept art? for the many houses of Elisabeth. But I actually went really into depth in a couple of them, specifically the apartment. For the first 5ish chapters of LDYH, I wasn't planning on her ever living anywhere but there. She was going to get to know Timothy and there was going to be some dramatic thing where Mother got home while they were in the apartment together. Then she (Mother) was going to go to jail, Elisabeth was going to find out she had some wealthy Danish relatives, and her and Timothy were going to go live with them in Denmark in some fancy palace and that was going to be the end of it.
Talk about lame.
HOWEVER, this terrible original idea did lead to the formation of a super-crowded slide all about the apartment- the only home Elisabeth was ever going to know.

 
I realized after awhile that I'd made a sort of line almost halfway across the page filled with pictures that reminded me of the apartment. On the left were soft, girlish, friendly-looking (can rooms even be friendly?) rooms, like how I picture Elisabeth's room. On the right were sharp modern lines, mostly in grays and muted natural tones- like how I picture Mother's room. I imagine the house overall was more like Mother's side of the slide, but the kitchen was probably lighter and airier, and possibly one of the living rooms.
 
Anyways, this is the place Elisabeth called home for 13 years.
 
You've been enlightened.
 
Enjoy :)

I like Max

I'm a fan of Max. A lot. I would date him.

If he were real.

This is sad, guys. I have a crush on a fictional character I made up in my own mind. What is my life.

Seriously, though. We're just going to talk about Max for a minute. I don't have an inspiration board for him because I really don't know that much about him, and he's also not a girl, which means less pretty things apply to him than I'd like- and I really only enjoy making things out of pretty things.

Back to Max, though.

It might seem like him and Josh are polar opposites, which is a little bit weird considering they're twins. In reality, though, they're really similar.

They both have the capability to be a leader. They're both really smart. They both have crushes on girls who they've known for years. Max is just better at controlling himself.

He found out about Elisabeth's past at the same time Kiana did. Kiana flipped out. He took it in stride and dealt with the issue that needed to be dealt with. He'll never really ask why she didn't tell him everything, because he knows that he'll find out eventually.

Patience is virtue, and Max has it.

He reminds me a little bit of Timothy. He would walk a little bit faster to open a door for a girl. He does his homework on time. He works hard and doesn't complain when Julie asks him to babysit on the night of a dance- even though he probably wanted to go.

Max made sure "Rose" was comfortable at school on her first day- and checked, without her knowing and without any prompting from Julie, to make sure she made it to where she was supposed to be every day for the rest of that first week.

Max noticed Sarah liked him, after he and Kiana started dating (Actually, pause. I was so super sad when I realized he liked Kiana and I'd have to make him not be single anymore. Because he sometimes acts REALLY stupid when things involve her. He wants her to be happy and she's completely perfect in his eyes. Which, I mean, is sweet, I guess. But come on. They're only in high school. ALSO, as I mentioned before, I have some weird sort of crush on this fictional character I created. He checks all the boxes on my figurative (did I use that word right?) list of things a guy needs to have to be perfect. And now he has a girlfriend. *cries*. Okay... un-pause). 


Max is a compromiser.

Max is patient.

Max is a great big brother.

Max is cute. :)

I like Max.

And you should too.

Inspiration Board #4: Meet Sarah

Sarah's actually one of my favorite characters in Who's The Fairest. She kind of reminds me of how one of my best friends used to act in, like, 9th grade, but she's really just a mix of everyone ever and at the same time totally her own person. She's super boss- the most boss person in WTF- with the exception of maybe Max (I'll talk about him later), and Julie and Krista and Lisa.

Anyway, Sarah's inspiration slide has just gotten messier and messier as I've gotten to know her and I see things and immediately think "Oh, Sarah would love that!" Hence the watermelon bike. She would think that's the coolest thing ever, hands down. There used to be a pair of cow socks on there until I realized those were something Kiley (from wayyyy back in Texas) would have liked. Sarah would hate Kiley and immediately shun cow socks as soon as she realized Kiley liked them, so naturally they were deleted as soon as I realized this.



Also. There's a picture of this girl with her hair all in these branches and stuff. It looks super intense. And Sarah would have totally done it- as a joke. Then called Kiana or Max and gotten them to come see her, and she would strike that exact pose and would say something like "I am one with my inner soul", then realize she was super stuck and Kiana would have to spend the next hour untangling her.

Sarah would never apologize, and Kiana would just sigh. But that's just Sarah.

The girl in the far right is what I most picture Sarah as looking like, but she also sometimes looks like the one on the far left.

She'd never actually put daisies- or any flowers- in her hair, but she probably struck that same pose on her bed, all exasperated and stuff, as soon as she got home after spilling Elisabeth's secret. Like "Shoot. What did I just do?"

Although she also might have struck it if Elisabeth or Kiana ever decided to practice their photography on her, and forced her to put those in her hair. She'd be counting the seconds until it was over.

Because that's just Sarah.

I just think she's the coolest person ever.

Elisabeth told her about the letters from M first, and she kept it secret- er, for awhile. She's a little crazy. But now Sarah's just toughing through watching her best friend date her crush. She does a sport... or two... or three a season and is just the craziest person alive.

I adore her. I don't think anyone in the story would be the way they were if it weren't for Sarah.

Keep rocking it, Sarah. You're the best.

LDYH Trailer!

So, I love PowerPoint. I'm pretty sure this isn't news to anyone. I've made countless covers and inspiration boards (or more, slideshows) on this wonderful program. If anyone ever contacted me asking me to be in a commercial for PowerPoint, I would agree. Hands down. 

What I'd never done on PowerPoint, however, was make a video. Until yesterday. When I spent the time I should have spent doing homework making a trailer for Let Down Your Hair!

We only had two songs available on our computer, so I picked Counting Stars by OneRepublic for the background music. It really doesn't correspond to the video AT ALL, but, you know. Whatever. I'm pretty proud of the visuals... I legitimately made a video on PowerPoint.
Kudos to me.

Check it out:

Inspiration Board #3: Krista

You're probably realizing by now that my inspiration board/powerpoint-things are PRETTY FREAKING LONG. So long that I have a page- or multiple pages, in Elisabeth's case- for virtually every character. You know, not so much for characters like David, Lisa's husband, because he's not that important to me. He has a little spot on her page, because he's important to her- just not to me. And some characters' pages, like Julie's, for example, are pretty blank. Veronica's, too. They just haven't told me very much about themselves yet.
And now I sound like I'm crazy... great.
Regardless though, it's true! I could fill ten pages with things that are a part of Sarah, easily, because she's pretty much an open book. I knew she had a crush on Max since her name first popped into my head. I know how she's going to end up treating her kids years from now. Me and Sarah, we're tight.
But this isn't about Sarah. I don't know why I told you any of that, in fact. This is about Krista.


Her page was the first one that I was able to fill- not finish, because these pages are constantly changing, but to fill. It's obviously lacking in art supplies, but maybe that's because to her, it's not so much about making the art as it is capturing the beauty of the world around her.
The picture of the bare feet on the sand was the first picture I put on this slide, and it's always been the same size- I've never shrunk it, even as other pictures, like the one of the frames, get teenier and teenier, because I feel like it's really KRISTA.
Mocha's on this page, and so is Krista's house- which would look a little bit like the one in the top left corner, except with considerably less trees since it's, you know, on the beach, and with a lot fewer fancy touches like the... embellishments (is that what they're called?) on the poles.
I'll probably find something next week that will take the place of one of these images, or make all of them- except the feet one- be shrunk down another bit, but for now, this is Krista.
She deserves more credit than I've given her so far. That'll make sense in the next few chapters of WTF... she might be even more awesome than Sarah.

Anyways, that's all for now. Homework time! I'll try to update again soon, because believe me, Krista's story isn't finished.

Holly

Inspiration Board #2: Houses

So we all know that Elisabeth has about a bazillion places she's lived- first with Mother in California, then with the Kresses in California, then with the Reids in Texas, then with Julie in Seattle... She has a habit of not being able to stay put, I guess. So, in honour of a new chapter being posted (chapter 20! What?) I'm also posting some of the things I've used to inspire me as I write about Elisabeth's homes.
You can probably tell which one is which. The Kresses actually have a lot more trees around their house, so you wouldn't be able to see the sky as much as you can there, and in the picture of the Reids' house, the garage is on the wrong side, and Julie doesn't have a dog or a porch like the one here, but it's pictures like these that help me get... in the groove?... as I'm writing.

Next up will probably be some of the inspiration for individual characters... I'm personally a fan of Krista, so she'll probably be first. Have a great day!

Holly

Inspiration Board #1: Covers

Some authors have inspiration journals where they paste pictures that remind them of their stories. I have one of those, but I never can find any pictures to put in it so it generally turns out to be a planning sort of journal. Which is great. But I needed a visual sort of thing, so I made a powerpoint (two, actually- one for cover-making and one for inspiration... and one for character pictures... nevermind, I guess I have three!). I love powerpoint :). Anyways, I decided to post slides from these powerpoints, starting with this one:


The slide where I put every cover LDYH has ever had... some are definitely better than others, and while some of them, like the bottom left one, are fine, I realized once I'd been writing for awhile that the color of the hair in that one is much more the color of Veronica's hair than Elisabeth's. And then there's a point where I downloaded a bunch of cool fonts, around when the first striped cover (probably one of the uglier color combinations, if I'm being honest) was made.

After awhile, LDYH ended, and I had the fantastic idea (if I do say so myself) to make a cover that kind of matched:


And at one point I even had the idea of making a third book (which may or may not happen, but it's definitely not going to involve Elisabeth taking on ANOTHER identity and becoming a thief in New York City). And I made up a cool cover for that one and put all three on this pretty slide:


No. A Whole New World does not exist. It never will. But it sure would have had a pretty cover if it did, right?!

Anyways, that's all for today, but I'll be posting more as time goes on! Next up I'll probably show you the concepts for all of Elisabeth's houses.

Have a great day!
Holly

Covers!

Let Down Your Hair

Who's The Fairest