I’m putting this here as another example of the beauty of crow quill, which I love. Isn’t it wonderful that we can see so much in a few scratches of line? This was an illustration for a poem published by Dimuendo Press. (Book titled Minstrel’s Musing by Sarah Ashwood.)

This is also the kind of work you might do for hire; I was paid $15 for this picture, did forty pictures for the book and was paid $350 for the entire book. Small Press! I would love to keep doing art for publication like this, but it would be nice to be paid ten times as much…hah!

I keep hearing people talk about talent—there is no such thing, really, seriously, and really again. If you do 300 pictures a year, you get better, or go somewhere, maybe to the loony bin. If you want to be good at soccer, you practice every day—why not art?

If you’re considering illustration, remember that you must do 40 illustrations in two months. Four or five a week. This picture took about five hours to do. The only way to get to this place is to draw—a lot!

When I started, I knew nothing and I scribbled in crayons, like everyone else. I think I’ve put in about 30,000 hours doing art, mostly because I’ve had to work full time while on this journey.

But I love crow quill, the scratching of the pen, the fine line (which doesn’t come across as well here) the white paper turning into something wise and fine and wonderful. Or it goes in the trash. About six out of ten of my pieces go in the trash and only one in 100 goes here.