Shamless Self Promotion?? I think so.

So I have debated whether or not if I should post this or not for reasons that don't make much sense. 

But I am doing it anyways! ha!

So for my Senior Project in high school I wrote and illustrated a children's book titled "Better Than One". The story emphasizes the fact that people were made to have fellowship and friends to rely on and that God made us that way for a reason. I formatted it into a quirky, simple rhyme pattern and had Mrs. Johns, my mentor (who is the 4th grade teacher that I interned at for my senior project). 

The best part of making this small children's book was that I was able to connect and bond with the children because of it and inspire them. In fact, 3 boys named: Harrison, Reese, and Wyland loved to draw and Mrs. Johns suggested that they could help illustrate and ease the burden for me. And of course I said yes, because I did a quick storyboard and figured that I needed to do over 20 illustrations in just one months time! Plus, how could I have said no?! I love being with kids and I find that they are my inspiration much of the time. 

Here are some character sheets that I did and printed them out for the boys to reference off of. 

I would come into the 4th grade class every Tuesday and Thursday for about 2 hours or so and help out the Mrs. Johns and meet with my boys to spend some time and just draw with them whether it was the pages from the book or just have fun. When we first met and they saw my drawings of the characters and some of my sketchbook, their eyes were so full of awe and wonder because they thought that my art was so awesome (my art isn't though haha) but they saw that art isn't just for kids but that it is for everyone and that it has purpose. They were so inspired by me all because I like to draw and am a senior in high school. You know that feeling when you were a kid and you though high schoolers were so cool that you thought everything they did was awesome. They were so sweet and fun to be around! I love and treasure every moment that I was with them. I think they impacted me more than I did them ironically. 

Here are some excerpts from some of the pages that the boys and I did:

Artwork from left to right: Me, Wyland

 

Art from left to right: Harrison, Reese

On the day that I presented the final product to the class, my sister baked cookies for the class and the parents of the boys came by to see the finished book. Its funny because after I read the book to the class, everyone praised their classmate's talent and art and payed me no attention! It was great. haha.  In the end, this experience changed my outlook on life, motivated me to continue to pursue my dreams, and more importantly I believe that I got a glimpse of what God wants me to do with my talents and passions. For the longest time until halfway through high school I wanted to be a teacher because I loved children and helping them out. But since I discovered my love for art, I began to doubt my path to becoming a teacher. Now though, I think that God has given me a passion for children and art for this reason - to make stories/art/films for children or something similar. 

Oh, and if you were wondering, my book is free on the iBooks store and if you would like to download it for free, then just search the title "Better Than One" and it should be the first thing you see in the search engine in the iBooks store. :)