Concept: Awareness

For my ‘entry’ for the art contest, I decided to do a simple sketch.

So… SPOILER WARNING!

In The Loss, Jair becomes aware of his insanity, and has to face it. Though maybe it isn’t a major plot point in that book, it is significant to me. I decided to represent his moment of awareness, adding a mirror to reflect what’s going on inside him: how he now sees his mind as cracked and broken.

You could say the concept represented is “Mental Illness.” However, I think of it more as “Awareness.” Throughout Tales of the Diversity, various characters become more aware of their weaknesses, who they are, and where they want their lives to go.

It’s a theme that continues into the third book, which I’m still busily writing.

The art contest is open for submissions until June 15th: create an art piece (it can be a photograph, painting, model, whatever!) representing a concept from Tales of the Diversity, and send it in to author@karlissaj.com.

Art Contest Take 2

How about another art contest? This time, we’re going to do things a little differently!

One, art pieces should represent a CONCEPT from Tales of the Diversity. Sailing, exploration, discovery, cultural diversity… or whatever you pick out from reading the books!

Two, I’m looking for PICTURES. Paintings, drawings, posed photos of toys: as long as the final art piece is an image of some kind!

You can submit as many pictures as you like between TODAY and JUNE 15th, to author@karlissaj.com. No crude content please.

Two winners this time: Author’s Pick and Best Representing the Book (i.e. using characters or a scene from The Quest or The Loss to illustrate the concept).

Contest winners (and possibly runners-up) will be shared on my blog. (Click here to see the winners from the last contest!) Winners will also receive a $10 Coles gift card.

This time around, I’LL be submitting an art piece or two myself! Though obviously I can’t win, I can share with you my images during the contest, and a little on why I chose to represent those concepts.

I’m looking forward to seeing what you create!

Looking Back: Art

I happened to be going through some old notebooks, and I discovered these: early concept art for the different races in “Tales of the Diversity”!

First of all, some context: the concepts, stories, and races now found in “Tales of the Diversity” have been on my mind for a long time, and therefore, been through many changes.

At one point, the stories were set in space, across multiple planets. I’ve had alternate races. And many of the creatures have changed over time.

This concept art, then, is a look at how I’ve imagined these races in the past… not necessarily how I picture them now.

Above is a few attempts I made at drawing Scavgans. That second image, labeled “MaiX,” was probably my inspiration for Jair’s current look (though I don’t imagine him quite like that).

I’ve never drawn a Scavgan that fully satisfied me. I’ve made lots of attempts over the years, but never really settled on a final look. I always knew I wanted them to look alien, but to what degree, I still haven’t decided.

I actually came up with the design for the Athai as part of a school project. For a later art assignment, I invented the Reea as their adversaries. In the books, I described the Athai as “lizard-squirrel people,” which is the best summary I could come up with for the design I’d chosen.

Above: this was an old concept for the Mocjoa… I certainly don’t imagine them this way anymore, though I do find this picture cute!

And finally, these are some Kamai sketches. The one on the left is mine. After giving some concept art to an artistic brother-in-law, he came up with the middle image. And the one on the right is one that I drew and he shaded.

All this to say… feel free to image and draw these races as you see fit for the art contest! You just might inspire me to reimagine the looks of the different characters once again!