Dinosaur D Day - An Update on The Art for my Upcoming Book

in Hive Book Club3 years ago (edited)

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Dinosaur D Day


I started on the following post, days ago, but then life happened...


A mere day after feeling completely stuck, my creativity returned to me ( not an unusual thing to happen )

I was on my way to the river ( a 20 minute walk on a dusty hilly dirt track ) for a swim and had brought a notebook, paper and some pens along.

This is what I penned down:

(I considered adding a picture of my notebook, but it looks too messy and pretty unreadable for anyone but me so I decided otherwise)


MAKE 'MRS MOSQUITO' Book #2 ---> Add Mosquito Art to that book

Add more Mrs. Mosquito to the story.

I am referring to my upcoming book Hypersensitivosaurus and Cold Turkey, where I say 'the story'.

Tiny bits/ pinches.

The bits/ pinches part was a word joke metaphor for mosquito bites. I realize they don't pinch though ( I guess I was thinking like adding a pinch of salt haha ).

For instance: end of chase, at sunset ( or end of book )
fig tree scene...

(Mosquitoes like sweat and CO2)

I learnt the latter recently. The same goes for flies. This is why they often hang around your face, mouth/ and nose, especially when you're physically active.

...or both ( chase and fig tree / end scene )

Briefly during chase
finally, at end
when they are about to fall asleep
( perhaps they aren't even bothered by it )


Fun Fact ( for you, not really for me ):

A mosquito has been bugging me ( pun intended ) in the last couple of nights and disturbed my sleep. It was a tiny mosquito that I can't seem to keep my hands on.

In other words, Mrs. Mosquito has been visiting me, as if she stepped out of my story.

In case you didn't know: Mosquito males don't sting and are silent. As mentioned before, the one in my bedroom was a tiny little bugger and I didn't manage to catch her or swat her with my pillow, no matter how often I tried.

By the way, In case you missed out on this in the past or you would like to give it another watch. Mrs Mosquito ( and the inspiration for this character ) came to me about a year and a month ago, as described in this little mixed-art-with-voice-over-video that I posted back then: Mrs Mosquito, June 2020

It's fair to say that a bunch of replies/ feedback on my earlier write up Fast Food - An Illustration for my upcoming Book - both online and offline - also helped a bunch. The current me makes decisions based on how I feel/ intuiton mixed with feedback from others. The latter does not just motivate me but sometimes gives me new ideas. Thank you @selfhelp4trolls @justinparke @anafae @ryivhnn for your ongoing support! I really appreciate it :<)

Today, after a bunch of days spent with loads of people, mainly outdoor, I am back to my introvert creative alone time in my house on the hill. I can't wait to start focusing on my writing and dino art once again!

P.S. The colorful dino piece at the top of this post was actually created ( without thinking much ) in my twin sister's kitchen yesterday afternoon, surrounded by a bunch of people. I made use of some awesome 'pencils', belonging to my niece and nephew, that are some kind of mix between crayons and coloring markers that I never used before.

Later that night, my 7 year old nephew Miko asked his 7 year old friend:

Do you Like the art that my uncle makes? ( referring to this dino piece )

and his friend replied with:

Yes, I do!

That was pretty cool haha!
My 5 year old niece also told me she liked the drawing and wanted to keep it.


I have been pointing out, repeatedly, that I am creating a book that is meant for both children and adults and feedback like that confirms, once again, that I should stick to this kind of mixed art.

The first two words on the following page from one of my many notebooks tells you half of the story related to the illustrations for my book:

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I really wanna add both sketch type drawings and more colorfol, elaborate art to my book. How I see it now, is sketches among the story itself and 'art' pieces in between the chapters.

I really can't wait to show you the final result but please bear with me!

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Tired Hypersensitivosaurus, chasing Cold Turkey



To quote a fragment of the ( start of my book):

Hypersensitivosaurus felt pretty much out of breath. It must have been all the running. It sure wasn’t caused by smoking too much. After all, we weren’t in volcano season. 

His giant lizard tongue hung out of his mouth, making him look a lot less intelligent. And believe me, raptors are clever giant lizards so you can only imagine how dumb he must have looked.
Your favorite velociraptor decided to pause for a bit…

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I would say there's nothing wrong with mixes of artworks/styles in the book but I am a person that just does things and not always in the way that they "should" be done or how pros would do them so it's generally safer not to listen to me ;D

I reckon you could have added a shot of your notes even if they were illegible to everyone else, I always think there is something particularly cool about raw notes and the initial super quick idea sketchy before it turns into a more refined sketch or a full blown art piece.

Your lead image looks like it was done with oil pastels. Your description of the thing sounds familiar but I can't for the life of me place it, I haven't done analogue art in the better part of forever now though ^_^;

And nice to know the style is appealing to children XD it is rather cute.

I had a period of time where there was this mosquito (I decided there was one though there may have been a couple) living in the house and while we could hear it and it constantly harassed us when we were trying to sleep, we could never find the damn thing!

Don't stress about the book, get it done right :)

I say freely because of how long I've been taking to do anything

would say there's nothing wrong with mixes of artworks/styles in the book but I am a person that just does things and not always in the way that they "should" be done or how pros would do them so it's generally safer not to listen to me ;D

Part of me totally agrees with you and another part screams for some kind of consistency and balance. It's probably the ongoing battle between the perfectionist inside of this Libra and its unbalanced, imperfect, polar opposite.

Talking about the crayon marker thingies that I used,they might very well have been oil pastels.

Don't stress about the book, get it done right :)

Thank you and please keep repeating this every now and then ;<)

Consistency and balance is also good, it's how you get things done (if you're not consistent it takes longer, if you're not balanced you burnout and then you can't work).

I will repeat it quite regularly if just because it's why I don't have anything worthwhile to show after 20 years, hence also suggesting not listening to me :)

Man, if kids liked my work I think I’d be pretty excited. It’s hard for kids to relate to what I’ve been working on though 😝 not damaged enough

Man, if kids liked my work I think I’d be pretty excited

Hahaha! It is pretty nice indeed.

You mean to say that most kids aren't damaged enough to like your art? I guess I get your point and wish every kid to go through life as undamaged as possible. Not an easy thing, I know.

I've always got your back my friend, but I'd never sting it.

Well, a definite upside is at least a few kids think your art is cool, and this is your intended audience after all. One thing I know about kids is most of them hate art, although quite often enjoy making it.

I can remember how much I hated going to museums for school field trips when I was a boy. It was merely a battle to stay awake on my feet for the duration, and I could never understand why some art was priceless, even though it looked like something I could scribble.

Well, needless to say, your unique style is apprecialoved by both big and small humans.

I've always got your back my friend, but I'd never sting it.

Well, a definite upside is at least a few kids think your art is cool, and this is your intended audience after all. One thing I know about kids is most of them hate art, although quite often enjoy making it.

I can remember how much I hated going to museums for school field trips when I was a boy. It was merely a battle to stay awake on my feet for the duration, and I could never understand why some art was priceless, even though it looked like something I could scribble.

Well, needless to say, your unique style is apprecialoved by both big and small humans.

I've always got your back my friend, but I'd never sting it.

Haha! I appreciate that, buddy :<)

Wise words about kids liking my art being a positive. I used to find art museums boring too and wanted to know whether there were benches to sit down on. I still find some art museums boring these days. I don't necessarily like modern art and I'm not always - to say the least - impressed by art from the so called 'Old Masters'. My taste in art is probably as unique as my taste in movies ;<)

Well, needless to say, your unique style is apprecialoved by both big and small humans.

Nice to hear this.

I didn't know most of what you said about mosquitos. As you know, they don't bother me as they used to, but these past few weeks, I've been grateful not to have many to deal with in my room (there's always at least one and I have no idea where they come from).

Kids liking your art is probably THE best sign that you're doing the best work you can at the moment, with the ideal vibration too. The fact that they're made with materials used by your own nephew and niece make it all the more powerful.

Sorry if I don't provide feedback more often on your work, my friend. It's only now that I'm starting to use the Following Feed, it's easy to get bogged down by the community concept here. Un fuerte abrazo!

Thank you for your kind words, my friend and no need to apologize. With my hypersensitive skills it's easy to pick up whether someone is a selfish ***** or just using all their energy to improve themselves and the world around them, if you get what I mean ;<)

Kids liking your art is probably THE best sign that you're doing the best work you can at the moment, with the ideal vibration too. The fact that they're made with materials used by your own nephew and niece make it all the more powerful.

This makes a lot of sense!
I should have taken those oil pastels home with me ;<)

Hahaha! That music/ band reminds me of a guy I made short films with, almost a decade ago. Cheers!