2020: Looking Back, Looking Forward

2020 was a doozy, not sorry to see it end. With all the challenges of politics and the pandemic, it was difficult to stay focused on the artwork. I won’t go into my own personal hurdles because we all went through them. I will say that despite some setbacks I was able to get some things done so in this post I’ll be looking back at 2020 and looking forward to what 2021 might bring.

2020 Looking Back

Coloring Book

I spent the last year breaking down my process from nearly photoreal 3D graphics to basic line art that could be printed as black and white then colored over. The process is actually somewhat complex so It’s ironic that making something look simpler is also more challenging to do. The good news is that progress on the coloring book is moving faster now that the prelim work is complete. The Kinara’s Children Kwanzaa Coloring Book will be 32 pages of fun with coloring pages for all seven characters. It will also include their vital statistics along with the basics of Kwanzaa and Nguzo Saba,

Kuji Costume Closeup

From this…

Mkeke

…to This…

…to this

 

KinarasChildren.com

Also important this year was the introduction of this website, a dedicated site for Kinara’s Children: Everyday Heroes. If you’ve been around for a while you know that Kinara’s Children was first introduced on Facebook and my portfolio site Created by Crosby in 2014. Both have dedicated sites now so don’t miss Kinara’s Children on Facebook either. Moving the Children to their own sites will allow viewers to see Kinara’s Children content more easily but also allow the addition of more information and resources regarding Kwanzaa, the Nguzo Saba, and everyday heroes in general.
 
KinarasChildren.com header image
 
I’m not exactly sure how the two sites will work together. At the moment there is one sign-up sheet handling both sites. Maybe that’s OK but for the time being you may end up getting two notifications for the same content if I post them on both sites. Right now I’m focusing strictly on Kinara’s Children but may use Created by Crosby for things not related to them and some links will redirect to this site. So bear with me, We’ll work it out.
 

2021 Looking Forward

Instead of setting goals for next year, I think I’ll lay out a mini roadmap of things I’d like to do with the Children going forward, listed in order of interest.

  • Finish the coloring book. I’d like to have it finished and available by spring.
  • Clean up the website and add more usable content.
  • Kinara’s Children can’t be fully understood without the stories that fill in the details of their lives. I have a bunch of story ideas that need to be done up. Look for multipanel stories of the comic strip variety as I work my way up to a fully illustrated storybook.
  • It’s time to get a move on, so expect some simple animation and motion graphics as well. 

Before I go, I wanted to thank all who came by this year (2020) to share the spirit of the Kwanzaa season. Don’t drift off yet though, the Nguzo Sabe is 24/7/365 and there’s much more to come.

Peace
DC

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