Because I do not have the room for a hobby which I have always wished I was able to do, is to build little houses, shops and single rooms. I thought  I know I will make it my character Chris' hobby as I can see him being into something like this, with him being a very quiet, patience and skilled young man when it comes to making fine jewellery. In the story I have Chris customising them, which is also something I would do when faced with one which is all pink and flowery I would give it a more tasteful appearance. 

I have made my own dolls house in the past, with lighting and everything, but the lack of room makes it really hard to show it off, and it is just left in a corner collecting dust  That's why I would like to do these instead as they are a lot smaller and can be placed easily on a shelf, which I have Chris doing in the story and has rigged up the lights to wall switches which will look really sweet.

Why did I have to pick characters that have lovely membrane wings getting them right is never easy. I realised this morning Bǎihé's left wing should be showing in this shot, however I knew what I was doing wasn't quite right  so I contacted the expert Kiyoshi for his artistic advice and we managed to come up with this.

It looks all right, now all I need to do is paint it. どうもありがとうございました to my awesome editor I could not have done it without you.

 It is really nice to have the side story of  Bǎihé and Liúxīng finished. All I have left to do is to paint one picture and and finishing off another, then I will be able to scan them all in and add them to story. 

I am so pleased with the way the Water Guardian's hair turned out, it has a lovley shimmer to it which cannot be captured very well in a photo, it is going to be interesting to see how it scans, fingers crossed it will look all right.

Of course once everthing it done I will be sending the story off to my proofreader and editor to see what they think of the five mini stories. Whilst they are doing that I will be continuing to write book two of the trilogy.

I have been having fun all this week learning how to paint with these acrylic artists ink ^_^

Thanks to my editor Kiyoshi, as he uses these with his work, he told me to use fox hair brushes as I was using synthetic which do not hold the ink the same way as real hair, since I made the switch my art work has turned out amazing.  The only one ink I have stuggled with is the flesh tone, it is a real nightmare it is so frustrating to get the colour you are wanting, most of the time I thought I had mixed a nice light colour only to see it's not when it dries it looks like character have been sunburnt   After having a chat whith Kiyoshi on how best to mix it, I was so pleased I managed in the end to gave the lovely Bǎihé her soft skin tone.

 
I still cannot believe the differencehow smooth they look and the level detail I can achieve when using ink is just amazing. I am going to continue using them with all my airt as I have to say they are a lot better to work with especially in hot weather they don't dry out like paint does.

I am so pleased to have Master Guardian Part Three Book one Secrets uncovered completed

It has already been through my editor Kiyoshi, twice, he decided to take out a few scenes to help the story flow better and helped me put in the scene with baby Elliot celebrating his second birthday, told me oh you have got to put that in, he is so kawaii. My editor was laughing at him calling everyone who is not his ma or grandparents aunty and a soft toy is baby regardless of what it is and found him to be adorable when he is saying, présent, présent and sitting on his mother’s knee so he can help him to open it. He told me he really comes across as toddler and cannot wait to see more of him in the next book.

The book has now gone to the proofreader, I hope she likes it just as much as Kiyoshi has as it kept him gripped from beginning to the end.

All I need to do now is come up with a cover and blurb for the back which grabs the reader. But the weather is starting to get too hot and sticky in the day to work, 28c but feels more like 30c. So I am only working first thing and at night when it is a little cooler. I just hope this heat won’t last too long, roll on winter.