ellenmillion | Entries tagged with junicorn

I have always unabashedly loved unicorns. (Okay, a LITTLE abashedly...) Every year since 2016, I've drawn 30 little unicorn art cards in the month of June as part of the Junicorn challenge, but long before that, I was drawing and writing about unicorns...and a lot of them had keys.
I couldn't say exactly when it was that this side-passion solidified into a goal, or when it took its final form, but I am so excited and delighted and even a little terrified to announce that it is DONE. I hit go and uploaded an oracle deck and guidebook to a printer and I should have copies of my factory prototype in about two weeks.

Eeeeeeeeee!

I'm still working on the full-sized companion guide, but the deck itself is finished and all of the text is written, the book just needs formatting.

This deck includes 55 2.5 x 3.5 inch cards; some of the artwork is brand new for this deck and some of it you may have seen in previous year's Junicorns. I've gone back and revised several of the older pieces.

I wasn't satisfied with one word per card, so I invented my own system and each card has four related guide words, an action, a reaction, a reflection, and a shine. More than anything else, the guidebook is full of hope and love, much like my books. I really wanted to bring the world a little beauty and optimism right now and I hope you get joy from it.

I am planning to crowdfund a print run of this deck with premium features (gold edges!) through Backerkit, a trusted crowdfunding site much like (and linked with!) Kickstarter. They have very robust features and strong support for original artists and authors. My planned campaign will be in June (as a nod to the Junicorn challenge that inspired so many of them!), but you can sign up for notifications now and I'm going to start sharing some of the individual cards and their meanings there!

https://www.backerkit.com/call_to_action/dd78de0e-e1ac-49a5-8415-a59c4f631500/landing?ref=dw

The webpage is also updated, and is current with all claimed cards (including those from previous years at the bottom!): https://www.ellenmillion.com/junicorn2021.php

Crossposts: https://ellenmillion.livejournal.com/1867282.html

Who stole June? Seriously, wasn't it JUST here?

We worked on the woodshed this weekend, and got it braced and all the purlins on. The only things left are roofing and siding. (We also found out that someone stole a bunch of stuff from my yurt, which was less wonderful. :/)

The three of us also braved the fourth of July madness at Pioneer Park (Alaskaland!), and that was a very mixed bag. We went to hear the 1812 Overture, which is Guppy's very favorite song, and the band was not bad. While they were playing Sousa, there was a bald eagle cruising around overhead, which was pretty epic. We had ice cream cones first, and then of course, Guppy did not want to sit still, and later there were tears because we went hunting for a balloon after they had given them all away. It was a billion degrees and there were so many people it made my skin itch.

Lots of art things to share over the next week or two! So many! Let's start with the all-#junicorn round-up:

(Photo updated to show sold cards, and also the four that were on my scanner bed still...)

Many originals are still available, plus bookmarks, magnets, and signed prints! For a larger look at each image, and pricing, the landing page is here: http://ellenmillion.dreamwidth.org/1604777.html Just let me know what you'd like via email or PM, and I'll send you an invoice which you can pay by Paypal or credit card. I'd also take a check, if you want to mail one.

Crossposts: http://ellenmillion.livejournal.com/1624277.html

Last week I was a featured artist for a Facebook event, and instead of doing a coloring contest, I did a crowd-sourced coloring page. I asked for ideas, and tried to incorporate all of them into one piece, then showed progress shots and even livestreamed some of the process. It was a lot of fun, if a lot to cram into one piece and one week, but I'm very happy with the results:

Prompts included: A forest scene, fairies in the forest, a baby dragon on a toadstool, baby creatures, fae, wands and crystals, and angels. The original is available for $400 and available as a digital download at Etsy.

And because it had a unicorn in it, it counts as my #junicorn 30! Yay!

Got a little over 1k written yesterday, more of the sloggy in-between stuff, but I like how it's all coming together. I think the end will be really fun to write now, because I know how it all ties together!

Today is the last day of summer camp, and I don't have any others lined up. However, my parents are in town, and they are talking about taking Guppy to the library some mornings next week, so hopefully I can continue to plug away at this and get it finished in the next few weeks. I'm doing camp NaNo, and my goal is 15k for the month. That seems reasonable! I'm pretty close to hitting that this month - I actually think I can get there today. (I actually woke up about 5:20 this morning and debated getting up to write... but the bed was sooo comfortable. It didn't happen.)

This morning was exciting in all the wrong ways. Velcro expressed her displeasure at seeing the bottom of her food dish by throwing up on the rug, and down the backside of her bed (which then required laundering), and for extra credit, the one spot on a colored throw rug where it blended in, so I stepped in it and then had to spend time tracking down all my footprints. We were a few minutes late to camp. On the plus side, the other kids were really happy to see Guppy, and our hand-off was basically painless.

Now to try to get that workcount up! Not-a-book is at almost 29k!

Crossposts: http://ellenmillion.livejournal.com/1623892.html

Here are the last four cards!

But waaaaiiiiittttt, you're saying. Wasn't #junicorn supposed to have 30 pieces of artwork? Like last year, one of my #junicorns this year is a little different. I will be officially releasing it tomorrow! (Patreon patrons got a sneak preview!)

See all of them together here: http://ellenmillion.dreamwidth.org/1604777.html

Crossposts: http://ellenmillion.livejournal.com/1623619.html

I've been slogging at the writing, about 2k over the last few days, but it's hard stuff, filling in gaps and working on scenes I skipped for a reason. Some writing is like uncapping a firehose. This is more like trying to get those last few iotas of toothpaste out of a tube. But I've soldiered on, and the not-a-book is up to 27,700 words. Unfortunately, my stupid muse is telling me all these awesome ideas for book 8 or 10 (this is book 3). NO BRAIN, STOP.

I have WON #JUNICORN! 30 pieces, finished yesterday. I haven't, however, gotten to scan them all yet, so I'll share this one, now up at Torn World:

This is one of last year's #junicorns, but I wasn't happy with it, so early this month I went back and revised it extensively.

Have been suffering more than usual back pain this week, because I am an idiot. Today is better, but I'm being super diligent about taking breaks and stretching, and I'm going to go do that before my next writing window. Just two more days of summer camp!

Crossposts: http://ellenmillion.livejournal.com/1623081.html

I got five more #Junicorn pieces finished for Sketch Fest (so far!) and updated the landing page: http://ellenmillion.dreamwidth.org/1604777.html

I also scanned last week's cards. I'm still not done with #13, but that will get finished eventually.

I've also added the option for magnets and bookmarks! These are also ACEO-sized, 2.5 x 3.5 inches. The magnets are flexible magnets, laminated and durable. The bookmarks are laminated, with a silky tassel in a random color. Both are $4 each or 5/$15.

(I've signed Guppy up for another week of summer camp, which is not cheap. Buy #junicorns!)

Crossposts: http://ellenmillion.livejournal.com/1621783.html

I've gymed every morning this week, and it feels great! Day 2 was not quite as productive as Day 1, but I still got 1800 words written and a bunch of admin-type things, and I felt refreshed when I picked reluctant monster up from camp. (She tried to run away instead of getting ready to go, because she wanted to staaaaayyyyyyy!) Day 3 saw about 1300 words, but I also finished inking two more pieces for a project I've slipped to my Patreon patrons, and then squeezed in 2 junicorns when I realized I'd written and deleted the same paragraph twice and my brain was just not wrapping around story anymore.

These are three junicorns from the weekend:

The greenman unicorn was an experiment on birchbark, which was only semi-successful - the bark flaked as I worked, and is still really fragile. A sneeze would peel off the colored part. I will have to apply some fixative to it, now that it's sunnier.

The garden is exploding. The potatoes are just peeking up, but the lettuce baskets are gorgeously frilly and full, and the delphiniums are eager to take over the world. I planted some garlic cloves I had that had sprouted, and they merrily shot up several inches over the last few days.

The voles seems to have given way... to ants. It appears that they have moved into the rocks around my garden, and while they don't appear to be damaging anything, I have had to squish more ants in my house recently than I am happy to.

Speaking of happy, Guppy yesterday came cheerfully to the door while we were outside working on the woodshed. "I have a terrible emergency!"

Then she hands me a warm, stinky pair of underwear and flees back into the house. "I have to finish pooping."

Yes, my daughter had handed me a pair of poopy underwear. BECAUSE PARENTING IS AWESOME.

We're going to go have ice cream sandwiches on the porch now and I'm going to just pretend that never happened.

Crossposts: http://ellenmillion.livejournal.com/1621454.html

So much to do, and ALL of it fun, inspiring, and amazing. I am in a tailspin of indecision of what to tackle first!

Among my things to do:

*Pick up coloring books (if I get the email telling me that they are done, as I'm expecting!)
*Reply to an amazing art offer (SO EXCITING)
*get a new dog run tether
*send payments
*Last #junicorn piece. (Though I do plan to go back and replace a few of the first few that weren't as good as the later ones got... I leveled up!!)
*Pick up copyedits on my not-a-book. They don't look too hard! Formatting stuff, mostly, and a handful of typos. Easy peasy! And formatting was far less painful the second time through.
*Work on sketch for another amazing art opportunity.
*Work on another sketch.
*Work on that OTHER sketch.
*Start thinking about a kickass 5 minute presentation strategy
*schedule next Sketchfest
*PDF Kickstarter fulfillment.

I've been kicking butt on #junicorn:

There's an ACEO of Bran Stark snuck in there, too, from Sketchfest this weekend.

Of these, the following are available: 28, 22, 5, 19, 7 and 8. $15 for a single, 2/$20, 3/$25, 4/$30. Several of the previous batches are still unclaimed, too.

I went to the botanical gardens for a playdate and brought my camera to play with.

I went ahead and bought a year-long membership - it pays off in seven visits, and I hope to spend a lot of time playing and taking photographs and sketching there.

And I finished two more #junicorn pieces:

All #junicorn originals are for sale - message me if you'd like to claim one. It's a sliding scale: $15/1, $20/2, $25/3, $30/4. A set of all 30 ACEO prints is $50, individual prints are $5. All shipping included.

I am officially throwing my hat in for #junicorn - a month long challenge that is June + unicorns. I'm aiming for 30 in 30 days, not necessarily one per day, because my life doesn't work that way...

#1 was a pencil sketch in my sketchbook, but #2-7 have been colored pencil on ACEO cards. I want it to be a bit of a stretch, and color is always hard for me. Not to mention horses. (I originally thought this would be a good way to get some new work at Torn World, but only one of these is even remotely Torn Worldish.) So! Watch me doing hard things!

And in hard things I'm not doing much - social media. This is largely because I have amazing help with much of the EMG stuff right now - if you are subscribed to my email list, this won't be a surprise, but I was lucky enough to get Deborah Brannon of GeekDame on staff.* She's been running weekly featured artists and spotlights on the archives that have been just wild fun. It's been eye-opening how MUCH there is to enjoy at EMG. Years of archives and stories and artwork! I lose sight of that, when I'm nose-to-the-grindstone, and it's enabled me to get a lot more done and keep me on track having her keep the energy up and help me keep a regular appearance at tubmlr and twitter and Facebook. I am SO, SO grateful for her help and organization. Thank you,