It's great to be recognized with so many other great sites for the second year in a row.
I have some plans to grow the blog even more over this year and will be introducing some new features in the coming months.
In this weeks Ask Jo video I answer the question "When and how do you set your goals for the year?"
This week for my Disney illustration study it's two of my favourite characters from The Little Mermaid (Sebastian is actually one of my all time favourite Disney characters).
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| Sebastian |
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| Flounder |
This weeks Quick Tip is to ask fans to share a photo of them with your book. It gives you some awesome marketing material but also gives you a way of connecting with your fans.
Time for another Ask Jo session! In this weeks episode I answer the question "What TV shows do you like to watch?"
What are some of your favourite TV shows?
I've been doing some more sketching as part of my Disney illustration study. Still on the theme of Disney animal characters, this time it's a few from Bambi.
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| Bambi |
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| Flower |
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| Thumper |
Which is your favourite Disney character and why?
It's Tuesday and that means it's Quick Tips time!
This weeks quick tip is to reply to comments left on your blog. In today's busy world, taking the time to leave a comment on someones blog is a big deal. Make sure you reply to all comments on yours. The post is just a launch point for engaging with your readers.
That's right, next week I'll be busy with revisions. I have plenty draft versions of children's picture books to choose from and hope to have them in much better shape by the end of the week.
Let me know if you're taking part in the challenge too so we can cheer each other along.
Ask Jo is back! More questions get answers in this "get to know me better" video series.
In this weeks Ask Jo I answer the question "What are your favourite foods?"
As always, this is a two way street so, what are your favourite foods? Let me know in the comments section below.
I decided to start with my favourite characters from The Lion King:
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| Pumbaa from The Lion King |
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| Timon from The Lion King |
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| Rafiki from The Lion King |
Which Disney animal character should I sketch next?
My 2015 Goals
My Plans for the New Year
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Another year ahead full of plenty of opportunities for awesomeness! As always around this time of year, I'm busy working on my list of goals for the year ahead... it's going to be a busy one folks!
My Goals
This is a sneak peek at some of this years goals:
- Publish the updated kindle version of Italian for Tourists. (This was actually on last years list but life got in the way and so it got moved back. I'm almost done with the final edits now though and so the new version should be released in the next month or two).
- Publish La Scatola (Italian version of The Box). I'm formatting this one at the moment and so can happily say it is scheduled for release end of January/beginning of February. This will be my first book published completely in Italian and so super excited!
- Finish writing How to be Pinterest Perfect (2nd book in the Writers and Authors Guide to Social media series) and publish Spring 2015.
- Finish writing Quick Tips (subtitle to be confirmed) and publish Spring 2015. Yes Spring is going to be busy!
- Finish The Bedtime Book and publish (no fixed schedule for this yet. In 2015. I started work on this project ages ago but then it got left aside. It's time to dust it off and get it done.
- Write and publish How to be Facebook Fabulous (3rd book in the Writers and Authors Guide to Social media series). Release scheduled for summer 2015.
- Finish The Big, Scary Monster and publish Autumn 2015. This is a fun children's picture story book I'm writing and illustrating.
- Finish writing Twice (my WIP chicklit and NaNoWriMo 2012 project). I put this one aside to work on other projects but the time has come to pull it out again. I had a dream about it a few nights ago which resolved some of the big problems I was having with it. Looking forward to getting back in touch with these characters.
- Finish making and publish my ecourse about virtual book tours. Last year I did loads of research into online courses and have decided I'll be doing mine through Udemy. If this one goes well I have plenty more ideas for courses on file. Really looking forward to exploring this new area.
- Make Promo Day 2015 (#PD15) even more awesome than last years event. Every year I aim to beat last years results and improve the event. Saturday 30th May 2015 will be a day full of super-tastic awesomeness! (yes it really will be that good :)).
- To start making money through my Writers and Authors blog. I launched the site back in 2006 (when I decided to go from "hobby writer" to "professional writer" and make it a career). Since then I've developed the site loads and learnt a lot about blogging, and a lot about the writing industry. It's time to turn my "not so little baby" (I get nearly 30K pageviews per month) into a real business. In 2015 I will make the move from "hobby blogger" to "professional blogger".
If I get time, I'd also really like to work on revisions for Vengeance (my NaNoWriMo 2013 project). So many projects, so little time.... At least I have a whole year ahead to try and fit it all in ;)
Oh and not forgetting plenty of collaborations too. I'll be teaming up with clients for some new illustrating projects too. If you'd like to work with me please get in touch ;)
Well, I think that's it. I have a few other smaller goals too but if I list everything on all of my goal lists for this year here this will become the longest blog post in history!
What are your goals for this year?
I've been continuing to sketch as part of my Disney illustration study (you can check out my last update post about it here). Today I'm sharing with you the rest of the character sketches I've done so far as part of my study into what makes Disney characters so lovable.
Here's a few of the things I've noticed whilst sketching:
- One of the things that really stands out is the eyes. The style differs between the characters but the eyes remain the focal part of the face.
- The nose, in general, is understated.
- Lips tend to be full.
- Necks tend to be long.
Here's a closer look at the sketches so far:
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| Anna for Frozen |
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| Cinderella |
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| Pocahontas |
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| Snow White |
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| Tiana from The Frog Princess |
Which is your favourite sketch so far?
I'm going to be moving the study over to other Disney characters now. I'm particularly interested to explore the animal characters and how they stay true to the breed whilst also giving them "human like" expressions.
Which Disney character would you like to see me sketch?
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