A Place Of My Own

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For the last few years, my own little place in the house has been the back corner of our sun-room. It is four metres long but less than two metres wide, separated from the rest of the room by a couple of bookcases. My “office” is actually a step up from what I used to have so I can’t really complain.
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Sometimes it is hard to concentrate on my writing because the other three quarters of the room is taken up with my wife’s sewing table and the kid’s electronic corner. This techno-marvel contains the stereo, the latest in games machines including Rock Band for the Play Station - complete with guitars and drums and the kid’ computer. It is a rare occasion when I am in the room by myself. I’ve also come to the conclusion that there isn’t a single activity my boys enjoy that does not involve lots of noise.
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The other problem with my current work space is that there is not enough room to set up my painting equipment and leave it out until the project is completed. Packing every thing up at the end of a session is a pain in the creative process.
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Now for the good news. The council have approved the development application for my new studio. We ordered it today and it should be ready in four to five weeks. I can hide up the back yard in my studio to write in peace and set up my paints with a table to cut matt-boards and for my light-box. I’ll even have enough room to run some small art workshops and to set up an evening writer’s group.
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Life is good. A place of my own!
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Painting Workshop

So far, my leaf painting project at the local primary has been an unbridled success. The students involved have been more than happy with the process and the results.

The process being, those children selected to participate search for a leaf they want painted and then request a picture - usually their very favourite thing in the world. That is where my part in the process starts.

I trace the leaf shape onto paper and sketch my interpretation of their request for their approval. Once I get the go-ahead I paint the design onto the leaf.

Of the six leaves I have painted so far I have only had one request for changes at the design stage. And all the children have been delighted with their finished leaves.

The only problem I have encountered is that at this stage, I can only commit to doing eight paintings for each of the Stage groups. So four female students and four male students each from Stage 1 (Kindy, years 1 & 2), Stage 2 (years 3 & 4) and Stage 3 (years 5 & 6) have been selected for my project. This has left a lot of kids disappointed at being left out.

The best solution I could come up with was to run some workshops to teach the students to do their own leaf paintings.

Last week, I held the first of the workshops with the two Year 6 classes at the school. As they were in the middle of their Aboriginal studies, it was decided to combine the two by designing and painting the leaves inspired Aboriginal art.

I started the workshop by explaining how I did my paintings and giving them examples of my design sketches and finished works to look at. My biggest piece of advice to the class was to keep their design simple because without a lot of practice, trial and error, complicated paintings rarely turn out as well as you imagine them. Where simple designs usually turn out at least presentable even for people who insist they don't have an artistic bone in their bodies.

The kids then picked their leaves and went to work.


Due to time constraints we had to paint the background colours on the leaves before doing the designs, to allow the leaves to dry enough to complete their paintings.

The kids worked brilliantly and had heaps of fun during the workshop. As did I.

You can see for yourself the results of their efforts.

I’m planning a second workshop with Year 5 in the last week of term. The only change I think I will make is trying to source some better quality paint for the kids to use. The acrylic poster paint we used for the first workshop was serviceable but not exactly ideal.

Here are a few samples of the students work.

2nd Leaf - Fairies

I have just finished the second of the five leaves for the Year 5 students. I won’t repeat the full brief for this painting here; it is listed in the last blog post. Basically, Alanna wanted three fairies in a garden on her leaf.

The only part of the brief I couldn’t manage was the baskets full of picked flowers they were supposed to be carrying. The baskets would have ended up about 1mm tall. She did however approve the preliminary sketches.

Preliminary fairy sketches

Design sketch on leaf shape.

So, this is the final product and I'm fairly certain she is going to like the result.

Time now to start on the Mermaid and the Cat. Actually, for a project that started as an accident - me not paying attention to the kids speaking to me - this is turning out to be quite a lot of fun. Plus it has opened an oportunity for me to design an art for kids workshop and may even turn into a book proposal if I can find the right spin on the idea. There is not quite enough there yet but my brain is working overtime looking for that unique bit of magic.

Leaf Art

Turning fallen leaves into works of art.

Some of the Year 5 children at my local primary school were looking through my artwork portfolio and become incredibly excited about three paintings I did while on holidays a few years ago. I had run out of watercolour paper so the paintings were done in acrylic directly onto dead leaves picked out of the resort's garden. There were two simple little seascapes and a silhouette of a Whistling Kite on a sunset background.

One of the girls asked, "If I find a leaf, can you paint a pictur for me?"

I was a little distracted at that moment and without really thinking about it said, "Yeah, I probably could."

A few minutes later five of the kids had returned with leaves for me to paint.

Now, I have orders for a butterfly, a mermaid, a cat, a surfboard with a tikki on it, and a fairy - actually three pretty fairies in a garden, one with blond hair and a purple dress, one with brown hair and a pink dress and one with black hair and a blue dress, all holding wands in one hand and a basket of cut picked flowers in the other. (It's nice to know exactly what you want) Mind you this is all to be painted onto a gum leaf less than 20cm long so the fairies will end up being about 15mm tall.

I had to call a halt to it there or half the school would have turned up with leaves for me to paint. As it was, there were quite a few disappointed kids. One commented that she wished she could do leaf paintings herself.

Not a bad idea.

The technique is simple enough for children to pick up and you don't need a wealth of artistic tallent to do them. Some very simple designs can be very effective. I started to put together a step-by-step tutorial on leaf art, gearing up to run a workshop for the children interested in learning how to do the paintings themselves.

I soon discovered, it wouldn't take too much more effort to expand the tutorial into a fully fledged how-to ebook. Along with the basic techniques, I'm going to document the process of painting the leaves for my Year 5 kids - from brief, to design, to finished painting - as part of the book.

I have completed the first commissioned leaf, the butterfly and its new owner was ecstatic with the result. Her mum is getting it framed for her so it won't get damaged.

I will post a link to the tutorial, one it is complete.






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Making It Good Enough To Publish

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It is often said that writing books is hard. In a way it is. On top of the necessary technical skills required, a writer needs commitment, determination and persistence to write a book. Many, probably most, books never see completion. Quite a few of my own attempts, especially the earlier ones, have died a natural death and never reached maturity. Many more books though completed by their writers, will never see publication – BECAUSE – they are just not good enough.

Writing the book is realistically the easy part.

I could probably build you a table and it would be suitable enough to eat off but because I don’t have the carpentry skills to finish it off, to sand and polish it to a professional standard, I could never hope to sell it in a furniture store.

Books are the same. The hard part of writing, well for me at least, is turning the metaphorical diamond-in-the-rough into a polished gem of a book that will dazzle editors and readers alike.

Knowing what to cut and how to polish, I am learning, is a complete skill set in itself. And one I am not entirely confident I possess – YET.

I have a number of completed manuscripts at present; several picture book texts, a couple of chapter books, a mid grade and a young adult novel. During the editing process of these, I am often overcome with the worry my rewriting is actually detracting from, rather than improving the work. As my confidence wains, so does my effectiveness as an editor.



So, this weekend I have enrolled in the “Making It Good Enough To Publish” workshop at the New South Wales Writers’ Centre with YA novelist Melaina Faranda. (Author of The Circle series and a further six books coming out this year).

The spiel about the workshop states;



Often it comes down to a few simple mistakes that mark out the amateur from the pro. Race through a dynamic, non-stop self-editing workout that gets results! Learn how to keep up pace and hurdle common literary pitfalls, as well as push-up pointers for creating three dimensional characters and enriching stories with sensory writing to achieve a personal best. Train yourself to recognise flaws in your writing and troubleshoot in order to win the trifecta – an addictive story with a great plot, pacing and characterisation. Strenuous self-editing exercises will enable you to dig beyond stereotypical story slush to find true gold.

Hopefully, the workshop will point me in the right direction and give me the confidence to finish editing the manuscripts I have mounting up beside me.


I’ll let you know after the workshop.
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