ILLUSTRATOR!!!
Soooooooo, I wrote this story the beginning of last fall and then I was just liiiiiiike, now what???? I mean, we all know that with kid's books, 70%, if not more, is all about THE PICTURES!!! aNNNNND although God has blessed me abundantly with a writing talent, my artistic skills are basically right up there with my math and foreign language skills, which is basically, -10000, liiiiiiiiike stick figures are really pushing it with me!!!
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Soooooooooo what do you do when you want to publish a kids book buuuuut can't draw????
YOU PRAY!!! You pray and you pray and you pray and you ask God to lead you!!! And that's exactly what I did!!! Then I wrote up a text message that I copy/pasted to a TON of out of state people in my phone, asking people if they knew of anyone that could illustrate a kid's book!?!
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I specifically, really wanted a PENTECOSTAL illustrator because I felt like ONLY A PENTECOSTAL or a BACKSLIDDEN PENTECOSTAL could truly capture the Pentecostal culture in the illustrations. I don't want no charasmatic, holy spirit, half-hand-raising stuff- I want THE REAL DEAL!!!
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Sooooooo I sent out the text message to a TON of people in other states, BECAUSE I assumed that I KNEW EVERYONE IN AZ and there were NO ILLUSTRATORS HERE!!!!
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annnnnnnd then I sent it to a girl name Valerie Patton, annnnnd after i sent it, I paused and said to myself, wait, WHOSE VALERIE PATTON??? Then I was like, OH that's right, VALERIE, Glen's wife!!!! She goes to church in Glendale and I'm like thinking to myself, Oh I didn't mean to send it to Valerie, she's a mom and a nurse, and she lives in AZ, liiiiiike no way she's going to know of an illustrator!!! Buuuuuut I'm like OH WELL...No biggie!!!
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Weeeeeeeelllll MY ACCIDENT was ACTUALLY God's ON PURPOSE!!!
Ain't that JUST LIKE THE LORD?!?!?!
Valerie Patton was THE ONE PERSON TO IMMEDIATLEY respond back annnnnnd she was THE ONE to give me the name of my illustrator...
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THE ONE AND ONLY...
AMAAAAAAAZINGLY TALENTED...
CELIA AMAYA!!!
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Valerie referred me to her annnnnd THEN LATER ON...liiiiiiike 20 other people from her church suggested her! They're very loyal to you Celia!!! Buuuuuut Valerie was THE ORIGINAL ONE!!! Then I started asking other people from Glendale about her...I mean, I even asked several people before I contacted Celia, are you sure she's actually REALLY GOOD??? Cuz liiiiiiike, I really want amaaaaaaazing illustrations, buuuuut I'd feel bad saying, actually your really NOT that good!!!
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They're LIKE NO SHE IS!!! Our pastor even had her help design the carpet in our new church building!!! I was liiiiiike, OOOOOh ok, I mean, I suppose if Bro. Garrett trusts her to help design his church carpet...I can PROBABLY trust her to Illustrate my kid's book!! Hee, hee!!!
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I mean, HONESTLY THOUGH, I wasn't completely sure about Celia until we met up in person and she showed me her sketches...I was liiiiiiiiiike...HIRED!!!! There was just something about her confidence in her ability to do this project, yet still humble ABOUT her talent!!! Confidence with humility is a rare jewel but I found it with Celia!!! Don't ever lose that girrrrl!!!
Btw- SHE IS single if any of the brother's out there were wondering...late 20's!!!
She'll be at Heritage...Jus sayin!!! ;)
I actually had no clue who Celia even was, which I feel bad about cuz she knew who I was, HONESTLY I really thought I knew EVERYONE IN AZ!!! Apparently NOT!!!
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Long story short, CELIA could be making big time bucks if she used her talent in the world, but she committed her gift to God's use-perhaps we'll share her story more in depth sometime!!!!
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The Coolest part about this WHOLE STORY, is that while I was praying for God to lead me to an illustrator for my book, CELIA had been praying that God would use her artistic talent more for Him!!! We were LITERALLY THE ANSWER TO EACH OTHER'S PRAYERS!!!!
Once again...
AIN'T THAT JUST LIKE THE LORD???
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Sooooooooooooo she asked me sooooo many questions before we got started that I had NO CLUE what the answer was!!! Do you want traditional or digital? Line or watercolor? I was liiiiiiiike, HUH??? I just know that I want it to be superrrr cuuuuute and funnnn and AMAAAAZING looking...thats the depth of my artistical knowledge! So she was like, show me some books that you really like the illustrations in...soooooo I showed her like 10 different kids books that I adore the illustrations in and she was like, OH you like watercolor!!! Aparentley I was consistent with what I liked without even realizing it!!!
IN ACTION!!!
Here she is working on PETER!!! |
Thank you Jesus for leading me to the write RIGHT illustrator for this book!!!
GOD ALWAYS KNOWS BEST!!!
Part 3 tomorrow!!! See how looooong the one post was??? You sooooo wouldve stopped reading already if this was all one!!! I knooooow you!!!;)