Doodle Days 1.28.10

What day is it today? End of January? This can really only mean one thing. My senioritis levels are at an all time high at the moment.

I always carry a sketchbook around with me in case inspiration hits, but for the last couple of weeks the pages have been slowly filling up with notes about Gregorian chants and monophonic musical textures. But I found myself doodling scenes from Bree Despain's The Dark Divine a few days ago, which led to this slew of sketches based on novels I had recently read.

I always like seeing fanart of books I read, making my own never feels right, but as I sat and sketched these...well it made me happy to create a physical being for the images in my mind. It's one thing to draw something everyone can recognize such as an anime character or a movie star. But drawing from text without illustrations is just so much better, nobody can criticize you because "it doesn't look like them!" You really have to love the creative license.

Anyway, today what I'm showing you guys are the images that come to mind when I read certain books. And it's actually things that I can't put into the words of a simple book review. These are drawings inspired by The Dark Divine, Shiver, Sea Change, and Eyes Like Stars. You can click on the image to see it in better detail, but I ask you to please be cool about it. Don't steal.

Along with this however I leave my piece to say goodnight to one of the greatest minds in literature, J.D. Salinger, who passed away yesterday January 27th. This is a four page comic based on a scene from his masterpiece The Catcher in the Rye which I dedicate to his memory and his legacy.

"That's all I'd do all day. I'd just be the Catcher in the Rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be. I know it's crazy."

Lorena

We're Back! A Reviewer's Story

First off, we'd like to apologize for our absence these past weeks (besides weeks in YA of course). This summer has been surprisingly hectic seeing as no one seemed to be in one place for more than a week. But now with barely a week to the beginning of school, the YAthenaeum Team is back and ready to bring you even more contests, reviews, and everything you need to know about YA.

So, to slowly make our way back into the scene of YA, we'd like to show you this animated trailer of Maggie Stiefvater's upcoming novel Ballad. Maggie did a great job, didn't she? (On both the trailer and we're assuming the book.)

Also, while we're on the note of videos. Listening Library's Fantasy Road Trip Contest has come to an end, and while there are many great entries, we'd like to single out Lorena's entry because it's just too cute. We're rooting for her!

-The YAthenaeum Team