A Journey Illustrated

PubSubPackMo DAY 11: SETTING UP A PUBLISHER DATABASE

2012-02-11T11:20:00.000-08:00

It's day 11 of PubSubPackMo and whether you're researching publishers to familiarize yourself with the many houses out there or developing a growing mailing list for promotion, it's probably time to think about creating a database. There are many ways to do this. Here's what I do:

Throughout the year I list publishers and notes about publishers in a text file for later research. I come across leads all the time and it's usually when I'm in the middle of a job. If I stopped to research every time I found something, I would never get any work done. This text file serves me well at PubSubPackMo time, but it would be a mess to have as my mailing list. That's where the database comes in.

You can see my column for notes in
this partial view of my database.
(Click for larger view.)

Developing a database allows you to organize your information based on different criteria that you specify. For my databases I have columns for publisher name, contact person, and address, but I also have an unlimited area to keep notes about each publisher. In this spot, I list my impressions, what types of work they publish, guidelines specific to the publisher, what work I have that is a good fit and what I want to send first. I also have categories where I list what I send each time and the date sent.

A big part of setting up the database is using it for mailing labels. When I'm ready, my software - the same software that houses my database - takes me through the set-up where I decide which fields from my database will print. I obviously don't want my notes and some of the other information to print. My software gives me options for which mailing label I want to use and then adjusts the text to fit.

What software to use? I use open source software for Macs called NeoOffice, but there is a lot of software out there to choose from. A great place to start is with the most popular office software recommended for your computer. Read the reviews and technical notes to make sure you know what you're getting into. Many programs give you options and "wizards" to help with your database set-up, but if you're having trouble navigating your database software, there are lots of tutorials and videos online. You can also pay $25 for a month at Lynda.com and take a mini-course to get up to speed really fast.

One caveat about databases - software changes, crashes, becomes obsolete and otherwise useless. I keep my original text only file of all my publisher information as a back-up and I also print it out and keep it on hand - just in case. Over the years I have had several instances where I've been glad I did. Don't let your time and hard work be wasted!

I'll be posting about different types of children's publishers next. In the meantime - keep on researching!

PubSubPackMo 2012

2012-02-01T16:45:00.000-08:00

Last month we had an unexpected death in the family and our lives have been in an upside down state of suspended animation ever since. As all freelancers do when something like this happens, I've modified my workload to fit the circumstances the best I can. Even though I'm getting a slow start, I'm determined to get going on PubSubPackMo and I hope you'll join me. What is it? It's a month of children's publishing research. Researching one publisher a day during the month of February will take you a long way for the rest of the year and beyond...

In 2010, after getting so much accomplished with NaNoWriMo and PiBoIDMo, I decided to create an entire month dedicated to researching and submitting work to publishers. I really like taking a bite out of big goals one day at a time. I call my month Publisher Submission Packet Month or PubSubPackMo and it has made submissions a lot easier.

In the past I found I would submit to 10 publishers at a time and then let the whole thing drop for months because the research was overwhelming, but it's best to keep submissions going out several times a year so you'll stay in front of the publishers you're interested in. If it becomes a part of what you do all the time, the habit should be as easy as brushing your teeth and before long you'll have a good list to send your work to. From there, if you're producing great work, sending it out consistently and continuing to grow your mailing list, your odds of being signed on for a project will go up considerably.

How to start? First take a serious look at your work and think about the type of assignments you want to do. Do you have a strong voice or are you more generic in what you do? Start looking at the books publishers are publishing to get a sense of where you fit in. Look online, in catalogs, at libraries, bookstores, on Amazon, etc. If you are having trouble getting a clear picture of which publishers fit you, your voice may not be strong enough or maybe you have several styles that need to be promoted separately. You might even need someone else to look at our work and give you some feedback.

It's a common notion for newcomers to think they should get the Children's Writer's and Illustrator's Market and send to every publisher in there. How do I know? About 16 years ago, I was illustrating botanicals and thinking about going into children's illustration. Not knowing anything about the children's publishing market, I approached a children's illustrator I knew and told her my plan to blanket the entire industry with my samples. The look on her face was one of amused pity as she patiently explained why this was a bad idea. It was clear that I would need to research each publisher individually to match my work to the right ones. Back then, this generally involved making a lot of phone calls. Horrified, I abandoned the children's publishing idea for quite a few years and stuck with the publishing opportunities I had doing botanicals.

These days it's a lot easier to research publishers. Phone calls to verify addresses are rarely necessary and most submission guidelines are online or in the Children's Writer's and Illustrator's Market. Always make sure to use the most recent information you can find. Even then, information will sometimes be wrong. In my last batch of promotional postcards I had two come back for incorrect addresses, but it could have been much worse had I not been so careful in my research.

I will be posting throughout the month about the submission process and different information I find during my research. Feel free to join me and share what you find or ask a question or two. In the meantime, I'm off to research my publisher for the day!

WORTHWHILE DISTRACTONS

2012-01-09T23:30:00.000-08:00

I have a very well worn copy of Alice in Wonderland. It was mine when I was a kid and it was my mom's when she was a kid. I love that book. In addition, I used to have a vinyl recording of Alice in Wonderland. I think I wore the grooves away listening to it so much. I wish I still had it. I can almost hear the masterful narrator and the voices of the characters. (It seems masterful in my head anyway.) The images of the story have swirled around in my brain for as long as I can remember. I've wanted to illustrate it for a while, but it wasn't a priority until last week when I finally began working on my Middle Grade Alice in Wonderland series. I started with a scene of Alice falling down the rabbit hole. Then one morning the phone rang. It was one of those phone calls that turns the world upside down. Now I feel like I'm in the rabbit hole suspended in time while the world spins out of control. I'm working as much as I can to keep myself busy while things are in limbo and I found some other worthwhile distractions to keep my mind occupied. Here are some of them...just in case you need a distraction too:

The winner for the Tomie dePaola Illustrator Award was announced. Click this text to see the winner and runners up. The entries for the Tomie dePaola Illustrator Award are fantastic. You can see some of them at Diandra Mae's Unofficial Gallery. The last time I counted there were 140, but more appear every day. Over 300 illustrators entered and hopefully all of them will end up in the gallery. Click the acorn to go.

This month I've joined the 2012 Comment Challenge and have discovered some great people and blogs. (This has been a phenomenally great distraction. Thanks everyone!) This is a 21 day challenge to build community in the kidlit blogosphere by commenting on other kidlit blogs.

January is also the start of the Picture Book Dummy Challenge - a 25 week picture book challenge with online support from a fantastic community of children's illustrators and writers. I've joined up to create and illustrate the story that intrigued Marla Frazee in my portfolio critique this summer. She saw an illustration I did from an idea I had a couple years ago and challenged me to write the story and submit it. Here I go!

February is PubSubPackMo (Publisher Submission Packet Month). I'm continuing the tradition to increase my submission list for my illustration postcards and future picture book dummies. This is the month that I research publishers to find the ones that are a good fit for me. My goal is to add one new publisher to my list every day, but I like to add an even 30...just because. Join me if you like! I'll be posting along the way.

In March I'm scheduled to do a workshop on children's publishing at Bona Fide Books - our local publisher. Details to come.

And finally, because I love seeing other illustrators in action, I've put together some links of other illustrators doing their thing in a little blog tour. Enjoy these links:

See a magazine illustration in progress by illustrator extraordinaire, Juana Martinez-Neal.
Illustrator Diandra Mae - organizer of the Unofficial Gallery of the Tomie dePaola Illustrator Award and Illustrator Coordinator for SCBWI Houston - shows a step by step of her illustration for the Tomie dePaola Illustrator Award.
Here is a step by step digital illustration by illustrator/animator Russ Cox.
Illustrator John Deininger calls this demo "...fast and fun and just messy enough to feel like a kid."
Illustrator Jed Alexander shares his experience illustrating for Cricket Magazine.
Illustrator Roberta Baird shares her process on several different illustrations in this Illustrator Saturday interview.

If you have any illustration process links to add, please feel free to put them in a comment.

I'm off to find another worthwhile distraction in Wonderland...

MY PROCESS: A PICTURE BOOK ILLUSTRATION FROM START TO FINISH

2011-12-31T09:00:00.000-08:00

I used to spend a lot of time trying to recreate the gestures and facial expressions from my initial sketches. I was losing magic every time I re-traced my work to head into a new stage of my illustration process. To remedy this, I now let my scanner capture the details so I don't lose what's important and then I continue scanning, enlarging and revising at each stage until I'm ready to begin the final illustration. I've spent the last few years making my process more efficient and it has paid off, not only in saving time, but I'm having more fun than ever. Here is an illustration from start to finish:

STEP 1 - THUMBNAILS:

Beginning rough thumbnails

I get my first batch of ideas on paper as thumbnails. I use cheap white printer paper and a Number Two pencil - nothing special. I don't want fear of wasting expensive materials to hold me back. I make my thumbnails the approximate proportions of the final. The thumbnails shown here are about 3"x2". They're super quick and mostly for my benefit. If I were doing work for a client, I would pick 2-3 of these thumbnails to work up for presentation. The client would then choose the preferred direction(s). In this case I was the client and chose the lower right thumbnail in this group to illustrate a single block of text.

STEP 2 - REVISED THUMBNAILS:

I picked this thumbnail to illustrate

I begin revising in miniature

This thumbnail is evolving, but it needs more work to get the POV (point of view) right. I want the little chicken to feel a bit left out and small because everything in his world happens over his head - in more ways than one. I take the image into Photoshop and start playing with angles and placement of characters. I also straighten up the overall shape of my drawing and erase areas that need to be revised by hand. I always scan at a higher resolution than needed so I can continue to enlarge and print at each stage.

STEP 3 - REVISIONS FOR BEGINNING ROUGH STAGE:

Revisions continue at a larger size

Here I made revisions to the image by hand after enlarging 10% and printing out.

STEP 4 FINAL ROUGHS:
I scan again, enlarge more, print again and continue revising.

Larger still - it continues to evolve

I continue in this way - scanning, enlarging, printing and revising in pencil until I have a full size rough (in this case 16"x10"). I lighten the image in Photoshop before printing whenever I need to. I'm using a higher quality inkjet paper at this stage. It is thicker and able to hold onto all thedetails I'm adding. It's about $10 per ream.

Almost full size, I finish smoothing out the details

Black and white full size final rough

STEP 5 - COLOR ROUGH:

This may seem a little backward, but at this point I take my 16x10 final black and white rough and reduce it by about 65%. Exploring color goes much faster at this size. I print it out on untextured, matte photo paper and make my color decisions. I write lots of notes so I remember what colored pencils and layers I used. This will be the map I use during the final illustration. The color and detail are as complete as I can make them at this size and on this type of paper.

This is the color rough at 25% of the final size.

STEP 6 - FINAL ILLUSTRATION:


On the left is what I enlarged and printed onto my drawing paper. The "color map" with notes that I will follow is on the right.

To begin my final illustration, I scan the 6x4 color rough at high resolution and enlarge to full size in Photoshop. This is what I will print onto my drawing surface. It will give me my basic drawing and under layers of color to work with. I have to complete far fewer layers than I did when I started my drawings on blank paper with a pencil outline. I also retain more details and gestures from the beginning stages. I'm not concerned with the roughness of the color I'm printing because everything will be smoothed out in the final process. Along with the color from the initial printout, I will be adding pen and ink stipple for the shadow areas and colored pencil over everything. All details need to be worked out before this stage, but minor edits can be done in Photoshop after the final scan. Start to finish this 16x10 illustration was completed within two weeks while working regular hours. (While I finished the illustration within two weeks - I was not working solid 8 hour days on this project alone. I finished it comfortably within this time and also made sure to take days off.) In the past this illustration, without the thumbnails and roughs, would have taken 3-4 weeks of working long hours - maybe even without taking days off.

The final illustration

So, that's my illustration process - getting better and more enjoyable all the time. My new method is far more conducive to completing a picture book whilemaintaining sanity - not to mention a relationship with my family.

Here's to the best in 2012!

ALWAYS STRIVING FOR MY BEST

2011-12-16T23:00:00.000-08:00

My interpretation of Chicken Licken for the 2012 Tomie dePaola Illustrator Award

In the past I have considered myself a skilled technician at what I do. Although my current work still shows technical skill, I have moved into a new realm and because of that, I can't really "see" my work right now. It is still uncharted territory. Even though this style comes naturally, there are times when it feels like drawing in the dark. There are no formulas or rules or much of a basis in reality - except that there is gravity - most of the time.

One thing remains the same. When I start a new piece I am still filled with hope that I will be creating my best piece ever. Along the way there is always a momentary feeling of loss as I perceive that I have slipped away from my goal. This is when I have to remember that my real goal is to produce my best, not the best illustration I have ever seen. There is a difference.

Along with creating the best end result, I strive to improve my process, shave off time, be more productive. Last month I cut weeks off of my process doing the above illustration in a new way. I'll share how I work in an upcoming post, along with my new drawing set-up which allows me to work standing up.

Until then - Happy Holidays and an amazing New Year to you and yours!

WHY I NaNoWriMo

2011-11-06T12:36:00.000-08:00

It's been a busy time around the blog. I've added a sale area to cut down on the distracting extras in my studio. Enjoy my post on NaNoWriMo and if you have time, I hope you'll head over to the studio sale on my blog and check out the cards and prints for my botanicals and Faery Medicine characters. They're going fast and I've heard a rumor that the gift giving season is right around the corner...

..........................................

I generally illustrate best on assignment from clients. I like the challenge and having a well developed story to work from makes a big difference. Right now though, I don't have any assignments. That's why I'm taking full advantage of National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo. It's time to take the challenge and write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. This is a great opportunity to create characters for my illustrations. By living with my characters and going on this journey, I really get to know them and it gives me plenty of material to illustrate in the slow months.

I won't have to illustrate a generic child swinging on a swing or running through a field to show that I can draw a child in motion. I'll have characters that are ready to go when I need them - all with names and reasons for doing what they're doing. Not only that, but I'll know all their idiosyncrasies like whether they're deathly afraid of kittens and whether that's a secret they're willing to share. All these details affect how a character moves in a scene and relates to everything around them. Yuyi Morales taught me that well developed characters can lead to illustrations with more depth. Feedback from my portfolio critiques definitely supports this.

Is it necessary to write a 50,000 word novel to get to know your characters? No, but it's a challenge I love. It also keeps my portfolio fresh and I'm always surprised at the amazing places my characters take me. Join me?

THE POWER OF THE RIGHT CRITIQUE: A PORTFOLIO CRITIQUE WITH MARLA FRAZEE

2011-09-18T09:30:00.000-07:00

In my past portfolio critiques I have received nice compliments on my technique, composition and palette. In the end I usually hear something like this, "Keep doing what you're doing. Soon you will be published." I must admit - I float away from critiques like this with a special shiny feeling, but that soon gives way to the nagging feeling that something fundamental is missing from my illustrations for the children's market and finding "IT" would set me free...

A good start:

My critique with Marla Frazee at the SCBWI LA Conference was different from any other critique I've had and it was by far the most useful. In 20 minutes Marla learned about my illustration background, assessed my work and gave me direction.

The tip of the iceberg:

Marla said, "If you hear something 3 or more times about your work, really pay attention to what's going on." I hear over and over that my palette is unusual, unique. I heard it again from Marla. It's always a relief to hear that my palette is alive and kicking. The many color theories I studied in college totally confounded me - as did every other art theory. Thankfully, my palette is a completely intuitive part of how I speak visually. Chalk one up to my quest for "IT".

The gift:
Marla went on to talk about the same aspects my other critiques have in the past, but then she gave me a priceless gift. She identified the best pieces in my portfolio (seen in this post), why they were the best and why I needed to do more pieces like them. She saw a departure from generic character development in them and said, "Elevate the rest of your portfolio to the level of these pieces." It was then that I realized what these three pieces had in common. I hadn't relied on photo references to develop the characters. I was inside every one of the characters as I drew them - making the movements, feeling the emotions and making adjustments until - as Marla puts it - I recognized them.

Afterward:
I left my critique with a little bit of that special shiny feeling, but it was different this time. I wasn't floating away. My feet were firmly planted on the ground. I received confirmation on my movement away from photo references and into a new world that resides solely in my head. I love this place, but I had no idea anyone else would enjoy it too. There is something fundamentally solid and comforting about that that isn't in the least bit shiny. In fact, it is a well weathered place with a rather unusual patina and the most interesting cracks. It's a place I want to hang out in...and draw...

GOT VOICE? MY UNEXPECTED TAKEAWAY FROM THE SCBWI LA CONFERENCE

2011-09-03T12:19:00.000-07:00

"Anyone seen my voice?"

My big unexpected takeaway from the LA conference was clarification of what voice is in illustration. Exploration began in a conversation with another illustrator on the hotel shuttle and it continued with every single speaker at the conference. I observed examples of voice over and over from every angle imaginable and it finally began to sink in. Although no one came out and said these exact words, I came away with the idea that voice transcends style. Style can be emulated, but voice is the soul of the illustrator's work that is totally unique.

In my portfolio critique Marla Frazee singled out my four best pieces and the departure she saw from generic character development to a deeper love and knowledge of the characters and their environment. This distinction made it clear that the way I use my materials defines my style, but my voice is just beginning to develop.

In so many ways I heard, "voice involves doing what you love and loving what you do". Especially important are the things we persist in doing, beyond reason, because they nurture us. I saw a wonderful example of this at the illustrator intensives when Marla Frazee applied color to an illustration background with a tiny tiny brush. Murmurs went up around me. "Why is she using such a tiny brush?" Her answer - "because". She said it's a bit like "emptying a swimming pool with a spoon". There are tools which would get the job done faster, but they wouldn't feel right and none would create the feeling of meditation that accompanies her tiny brush.

No amount of technique, palette or composition can take the place of the elusive voice that bubbles up from deep inside the illustrator. Can I illustrate without it? Absolutely, but I was craving to understand what my work was missing and this conference supplied that knowledge. My quest for voice has just begun.

2011 SCBWI LA CONFERENCE - FAVORITE SNIPPETS

2011-08-17T16:43:00.000-07:00

The 2011 SCBWI LA Conference was absolutely amazing. I've never experienced anything like it. I think that's why it has been so hard to summarize. It was 4 full days of events from 8am to 6pm and beyond. For now, I thought I would list some favorite ideas from some of the speakers. I think these are my favorites because they made me feel like I was headed in the right direction and although some are about writing, I found them to be interchangeable with illustrating. (The lack of quotation marks around most is because they are from my notes and I may have paraphrased here and there.):

Bruce Coville -
Art is dangerous. To stay poor is supposed to be doing your job correctly. Hogwash!

Don't be afraid to show your heart.

Libba Bray -
Make it better, not perfect.

Writing holds our DNA, our bones, our blood. It is a part of ourselves.

Laurie Halse Anderson -
Your muse is you and she deserves a lot of love and tender care.

Art disturbs the Universe! We are here to continue the revolution and make it grow.

Steven Malk -
Be 100% serious about working in the children's industry. It's a career. Be committed and proud.

Kadir Nelson -
A good painting is a conversation between the artist and the painting. A great painting is a conversation between the viewer and the painting.

David Small -
An artist's duty is to surprise himself.

Jerry Pinkney -
Discomfort is part of the process of making it work.

Judy Blume -
It is determination as much as any kind of talent that’s going to get you there.

This last one is my very favorite and most definitely a quote:

E.B. Lewis - "If you love what you do, they will find you." (It was my understanding that when he referred to "they" he was referring to publishers. Hopefully I was right and he wasn't referring to someone ominous...)

DRAWING THE DAYS AWAY...

2011-07-13T18:46:00.000-07:00

My latest Promotional Postcard

The only reason I know it has been a month since I last wrote for this blog is because of the date on my last post. It actually seems longer than a month. The days have gone by in a blur of hours at the drawing table. I eat, sleep and dream drawing. I head to my drawings in between every other activity - if there are any. It is the first thing I do in the morning and the last thing I do at night. The light at my drawing table is often the last light on in the entire house at night. I'm afraid to know how many hours I've worked. I sometimes spend 12+ hours a day, 7 days a week working on illustrations, sketches and roughs. I am determined to also spend time with my family and head into the blissful warm Tahoe sun before heat gives way to 6+ months of cold again. So...my blog has suffered.

I have to take full advantage of this conference opportunity without destroying the balance of my life. When the conference rolls around I know I will hear people speak of what they wish they had done to get ready. Hopefully I will feel I did everything I could. No regrets.

I finished another large color illustration and had the image printed as promo postcards and business cards last week. (I just got them. They turned out great!) In the meantime I started 3 new black and white spot illustrations to go with my Ghost Writer book cover. I let one of the 3 go in the interest of sanity, balance and doing my very best work. Doing the third would have jeopardized all of the above. The two illustrations I decided on will be done this week, leaving me time to scan and print all the new pieces for my portfolio, edit finished pieces, get them on my website, relax and of course, serve jury duty.

There is no time to waste...

COUNTDOWN TO THE SCBWI 2011 LOS ANGELES CONFERENCE CONTINUES...

2011-06-11T09:08:00.000-07:00

Book Cover/Portfolio Piece

It is less than two months until the SCBWI Los Angeles Conference. I thought I was going to start feeling rushed at this point, but things are going very well. I finished the first of my new portfolio pieces last week. In fact, I finished it in half the time by starting the piece differently. It was a big experiment, but I had nothing to lose and I ended up winning big.

Normally I dial in my final sketch on vellum and then transfer it onto bristol with graphite paper. I'm not very fond of that step. I always feel like I lose detail and line quality, so I decided to experiment with scanning my final layout and printing it onto the bristol with my inkjet printer. My scanning/printing tests turned out great so I decided to take everything one step further to save time.

After I transfer the layout, I usually block in color with an airbrush or brush thin layers of paint. This stage is very rough, but it saves time. I also spend a fair amount of time fixing things that didn't transfer well. This adds time. I often feel like I'm re-drawing what I had already spent a lot of time on. I thought, what if I blocked in color on the computer directly on my scanned layout and then printed it out? When I tested this technique by printing out onto bristol and using colored pencil over it, it worked beautifully. The final illustration turned out great and was finished in half the time. I wasn't struggling with all those lost details from transferring and I could erase without losing my base layout. I also had the psychological benefit of knowing I could print out a new copy easily if I needed to start again. (I've never had to start an illustration over, but it's always a dread in the back of my mind. It's nice to be rid of that.)

So, I'm cruising through my new pieces with the knowledge that my usual 8-12 hour days at the drawing board are going to yield even more. I even took a couple days off without worry. What's not to like? Back to it...

I'M A WINNER TOO!

2011-05-13T11:22:00.000-07:00

(My apologies to those of you who subscribe to my blog. You have already received this post and may have been sent some old posts too! Everything went haywire when Blogger made changes recently and this original post disappeared. If you care, you can read briefly about it here. The joys of technology!)

I am ecstatic to announce that last week SCBWI California North/Central awarded me a Conference Grant which insures my attendance at the Los Angeles conference in August. (The grant essay was the most challenging 250 words I've ever written!) I am very excited and will be using the next 84 days to prepare. I have been firmly positioned at my drawing table for the last two weeks and will continue to be until it's time to leave for the conference. I have two final roughs ready to begin as color finals and sketches for quite a few black and white book interiors.

Keep an eye out. I will be offering some great specials in the upcoming months for workshops, web design and art to help pay for the rest of my trip.

Back to work!

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE WINNERS!

2011-05-05T08:28:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone for entering. Drawing the winners this morning was a great way to kick off my birthday. I will be contacting the winners for their image choices. Congratulations!

Winner #1 - TERESA BERTRAND
Here are the choices for your cards:
A set of 6 notecards with Goddess of Autumn

Goddess of Autumn Abundance

OR

The following 6 images as a set of notecards:

From Left to Right - Phoenix Rising, Cave Rock Woman, Lake Mother,
Faery Peeking, Tree Faery, Tree Shaman

Winner #2 - ALISON BALDWIN
Here are the choices for your cards:
A set of 6 notecards with Tree Faery

Tree Faery

OR

The following 6 images as a set of notecards:

From Left to Right - Phoenix Rising, Tree Frog Faery, Lake Mermaid, Cave Rock Woman, Autumn Goddess, Green Goddess

Winner #3 - ANGELIA ALMOS
Here are the image choices for your Giclee Print:

Tree Faery

Lake Mermaid

Long Life Old Man

Tree Frog Faery

Winner #4 ALICE LEMKE
Here are the image choices for your Wisdom Print:


Goddess of Autumn Abundance Wisdom Print

Green Goddess of New
Beginnings Wisdom Print

Lake Mother Wisdom Print

Tree Shaman Wisdom Print

A CELEBRATION with FREE CARDS and PRINTS!

2011-04-29T19:51:00.000-07:00

To celebrate my upcoming birthday and further build my online community, I'm having a drawing to give away cards and prints of my illustrations to four lucky people! You can help make this an annual event by spreading the word. If it's fun for everyone and the response is good, I'll keep doing it.

To Win:

Enter by making a comment on this post or my Facebook Artist Page telling me...you want to enter. If you want your name entered more than once, you can do any of the items below. Just let me know what you're doing in your comment and your name will be entered into the drawing once for each of the following items you complete - up to a total of 5 times:

Comment on this post from April 29-May 4, 2011.
Follow or subscribe to my blog any time before May 5, 2011. *
"Like" my Facebook Artist Page any time before May 5, 2011. *
Comment on my Facebook Artist Page April 29-May 4, 2011.
Tell your friends about the contest and link to it from your status on Facebook, Twitter or a post on your own blog before May 5, 2011. Each one of these things can be worth another entry for you - up to 5 total.

*If you want to enter and already "follow", "subscribe" or "Like", your name will be entered for each of those things you have already done. Make sure to mention each when you make your comment to enter.

Winners will be randomly drawn and announced on this blog and my Facebook Artist Page on May 5, 2011. If you win, your prize will be mailed to you. (All prizes will be mailed FREE - provided you live on planet Earth and in the United States. If you are outside the U.S. or out of this world, we'll have to strike a deal for shipping.)

GOOD LUCK and THANKS for spreading the word!

THE PRIZES:

WINNER #1
will have a choice of:

A set of 6 notecards with Goddess of Autumn:

Goddess of Autumn Abundance

OR

The following 6 images as a set of notecards:

From Left to Right - Phoenix Rising, Cave Rock Woman, Lake Mother,
Faery Peeking, Tree Faery, Tree Shaman

WINNER #2
will have a choice of:

A set of 6 notecards with Tree Faery:

Tree Faery

OR

The following 6 images as a set of notecards:

From Left to Right - Phoenix Rising, Tree Frog Faery, Lake Mermaid, Cave Rock Woman, Autumn Goddess, Green Goddess

WINNER #3
will win one 8x10 signed and numbered limited edition Giclee Print from their choice of the following images:

Tree Faery

Lake Mermaid

Long Life Old Man

Tree Frog Faery

WINNER #4
will win one 10x8 Wisdom Print (image plus words written for it) from their choice of the following:


Goddess of Autumn Abundance Wisdom Print

Green Goddess of New
Beginnings Wisdom Print

Lake Mother Wisdom Print

Tree Shaman Wisdom Print

SCBWI SUMMER CONFERENCE - MAKING THE BIG DECISION

2011-04-17T13:55:00.000-07:00

Every year I put the SCBWI Summer Conference dates on the calendar. Every year, at some point, I cross them off. Maybe next year. The reasons for crossing off the dates? It's a long way to travel, a chunk of change and a lot of logistics, but even more importantly - it's a huge commitment I don't want to make unless I'm ready and the conference line-up fits me.

This year my portfolio is more ready than ever. Never have I anticipated the opening of SCBWI Summer Conference registration the way I did this year. I was so eager to see the line-up. Would this be the year? April 15th was the day to find out.

That morning I went about my business, but had my eye on the clock as it ticked closer to opening time at 10:00. The conference web page was already on my computer. Twitter was alive with the same kind of anticipation. And then…finally…it was 10:00. ACK! Nothing happened. I stared even harder at the screen while clicking refresh. Refresh! Refresh! Nothing. With some navigation I finally got to another page with the information I was waiting for.

The workshop that immediately jumped out at me was Creating Book Cover Art by Laurent Linn. Exactly what I've been looking for and as a bonus I know how great Laurent Linn is at presenting his expertise in an encouraging way. There were also speakers like Jerry Pinkney, Paul O. Zelinsky and Richard Jesse Watson - all illustrators who have elements in their work I greatly admire. As if that weren't enough - the list of illustrators, authors and publishers went on and on to fill up 3 full days. It was an amazing line-up, but I knew it would be the fourth day of optional illustrator intensives that made the final decision.

Clicking to the Intensives Page I found that 7 illustrators would be giving 7 hours of demonstrations with time for questions. HOLY SMOKES! As I saw the names, the dates etched themselves deeper and deeper into my calendar. For me, Kadir Nelson topped the list. His illustrations in Ellington Was Not a Street, Coretta Scott and Henry's Freedom Box are favorites of mine. If he alone were giving a demonstration, that would have been enough, but Jerry Pinkney, Paul O. Zelinsky, Richard Jesse Watson, Marla Frazee, David Small and Denise Fleming would also be giving demos. But wait! The list of demonstration moderators was equally impressive with E. B. Lewis, David Diaz, Priscilla Burris, Pat Cummings and Cecilia Yung. I couldn't see straight!

Everything about the conference fit, just how the Nevada SCBWI Mentor Program fit two years ago. And everything about the cost didn't fit. Just like the Mentor Program. Money can always be a reason for not doing something, but I don't think it's a good enough reason to give up before even trying - especially when the opportunity is so great. I pondered this as I stared at the registration form on the screen. It auto-filled from my SCBWI membership information. Just for fun, I clicked the conference options I wanted - Individual Portfolio Consultation, Juried Portfolio Showcase, Post-Conference Intensive for Illustrators. The cursor flashed, the submit button loomed large. I closed the window and walked away…four times. But I came back. And although I could feel that I was beginning to hyperventilate slightly, I hit the submit button, made sure my email receipt arrived and shut the computer.

A sense of elation filled me, along with a woozy hot feeling and the continuing urge to hyperventilate. (I think that woozy hot thing was because I was actually sick.) I still have to figure out how to pay for the conference, travel and lodging. Am I worried? Judging by the way I didn't sleep, yes. I was crunching numbers and formulating plans all night. I have some ideas and a month to figure it out before the penalties of canceling become too great.

So, here I am once again approaching a stream crossing like I did two years ago. Is it time to turn up the volume and take another chance on the unknown? Or will I dip a toe and go back to what's familiar? Stay tuned...

THOUGHTS ON THE 2011 SCBWI SPRING SPIRIT CONFERENCE

2011-04-10T11:46:00.000-07:00

Overall, the 2011 SCBWI Spring Spirit Conference was excellent. As usual - our North Central California team did a great job. Here is a summary of the day.

Highlights:

There was never a dull moment during Bruce Coville's talk. He moved around animatedly, kept the crowd laughing and at one point enthusiastically jumped up on a chair to make a point. He was definitely a dynamic speaker with a lot to share about his journey as a writer.

The Magazine Workshop with Appleseeds editor, Susan Buckley and illustrator, Domenic Catalano was excellent. The editor and illustrator processes for a project were seen side by side from start to finish. What a great idea. It was an excellent opportunity for illustrators to see another part of the industry.

Picture Book Master Classes I and II by Domenic Catalano were very good. He didn't jump up on any chairs, but he was engaging and humorous in all the right places. It was very course-like in structure, but I enjoyed the academic points he brought up and he made me want to revisit Joseph Campbell's work on archetypes.

My Social Media Critique with Greg Pincus gave me excellent information on all my social media venues with solid next steps. It resulted in a quick and painless launch into Twitter. I love it. More on Twitter in later posts. (In the meantime...follow me on Twitter!)

And of course, as usual, it was great to see old friends and meet great new people - SCBWI veterans and newbies alike.

Portfolio Review:

I already paid for a written critique with illustrator/instructor, Domenic Catalano, so I was looking forward to hearing what the editors had to say about my portfolio. That was where all my anticipation was. I had worked on my portfolio for several months with this in mind. Unfortunately, it didn't happen for me in the group portfolio review. There were just too many cooks in the kitchen. It was a great line up with Random House Editor, Christy Webster, Appleseed Editor, Susan Buckley, Grosset and Dunlap Editor, Eve Adler and illustrator, Domenic Catalano. I was on the edge of my seat as they went down the line of portfolios, but there wasn't enough time for them all to speak. Dominic Catalano's enthusiasm and knowledge swept up most of the conversation. Although he had great things to say, I badly wanted to hear more from the editors.

By the time they got to my portfolio, they really needed to speed things up. The pluses - I was happy I put more black and white in my portfolio and I didn't hedge on what I put in. I wanted response - good or bad. Not one of my pieces was singled out as a bad one. That was good.

The last comment on my portfolio was from Domenic Catalano - "Keep doing what you're doing." At the time, I was profoundly disappointed with this. I wasn't given a solid task. What next? Just keep doing what I'm doing? Once this bit of advice sank in though, it was great. It became decadent permission to continue on and pursue what I wanted to do for middle grade readers.

I know most illustrators at the SCBWI conferences are exclusively picture book illustrators, but there were numerous missed opportunities for discussing publishing opportunities outside of picture books. Now more than ever we all have to be more flexible if we want to illustrate in this industry. I happen to illustrate for kids 8+ which is already borderline for picture books. I'm always looking for information that will help me illustrate for the rarely talked about "older" kids.

What Next?

A few books to study.

I'm going for middle grade book covers and interior illustrations. No one has been able to give me solid advice on this, so I'm doing what I did when I was studying picture books except I'm in the older kid's section at the library. I'm driving the librarians crazy by checking out 20-30 books at a time. So far, I've looked at Tony Diterlizzi, Bagram Ibatoulline, PJ Lynch, Christian Alzmann, Sal Murdocca, and James Gurney because they are masters at what they do in middle grade books and their styles resonate with me. (Where are the female illustrators in this mix? I'm still looking.) I'll be seeing what each illustrator does that is different and similar to what I do. I'm looking at techniques, what POVs are successful, what reads best on the type of paper used, etc.

The Projects:

Six years ago I read the Unicorn Chronicles series to my daughter. She was 5 at the time. I decided I wanted to make an illustration project out of it and do a series of black and white and color illustrations. I wrote out all the descriptions of the characters and set to work sketching likenesses of them from all angles in the most interesting scenes. Shortly after that, I joined SCBWI and began to realize that the focus was on picture books. I abandoned the project. Now I'm going back to it. I will also be doing interior illustrations for Ghost Writer, my 2010 Nanowrimo novel featuring my character, Adriana Fernandez. I'm looking forward to seeing where she takes me.

The Presentation Book:

The final presentation book - an Itoya binder

What presentation book did the picky illustrator end up buying? Well, it wasn't the one I mentioned in my last post because the sleeves were too thin for the $60+ price tag. Instead I got an Itoya. I was surprised by their sleeves which were very clear and thicker than average with stiff page inserts to keep the bending to a minimum. The disappointment - the binder rings were the old style that snag pages when they begin to separate. They seemed tight at the store, but the permanent separation began after opening them the first time to put sleeves in. Because the separation was only on the top two rings, I was able to flip the book over so the pages didn't catch as badly. Of course, when I did that, there was an Itoya logo on the front. I covered it with one of my promotional postcards. Quality just isn't what it used to be...

A DIFFERENT KIND OF PORTFOLIO REVIEW

2011-03-26T20:13:00.000-07:00

It is one week until the SCBWI conference in Rocklin. I'm all ready, but I hit a snag last week as I loaded my new presentation book with images. I wasn't happy with the quality of my new book, so I reluctantly set to work searching for a better one.

It is nearly impossible to buy a presentation book without seeing it in person, but because I live 100 miles from the nearest art supply store, I often have to shop online for what I need. The most important thing to me are the pages. I don't like thin and flimsy and that's mostly what I'm finding. The thickest page sleeves I've found have been in Prat books. I've been using their books for almost 30 years, but they seem to have changed their sleeve quality more recently. Here are my latest findings:

My best presentation book - Prat Start with thick clear pages.

This is my old book - a 12 page Prat Start from several years ago. (Now I need more pages so I can show 3-4 pieces from each category of work.) The sleeves in this book are very thick, non-textured, clear as glass and they don't wrinkle. They show the illustrations without distraction. Neither the sleeves or sleeve inserts ding easily and stand up to repeated viewings and image changes. It was inexpensive which means it was a great and durable book to ship off to publishers. There is no ink residue left on the inside of the sleeves after images are switched out. The cons: After many showings, the cover is showing fingerprints and the pages are sealed into the book and cannot be replaced or added to.

This Robert Ware book has flimsy pages which ding.

This is the book I was loading my work into last week. It is a Robert Ware and on the outside, it's a nice looking book. The 24 sleeves aren't as thick as I like, but I thought it would be fine temporarily. I knew it would have a lifespan of about 2 conference viewings. My impression changed when I started loading it with images. The sleeves were showing dings just by putting prints in. You can see in the photo how the sleeve doesn't sit flat on my sample. Over time this will get worse and some wrinkling will become permanent. My biggest concern was the way the black paper in the sleeves was shedding black specks all over my work. The static from the sleeves made it impossible to get rid of all of it and new specks appeared every time the pages were turned. That was a concern I didn't want while my book was on display.

The new 24 page Prat Start with "linen" cover.

The best idea was to find the quality I wanted, so I decided to find another Prat book. Their pages had always been the best. After looking at all their books and every other brand available, I decided on a 24 page Prat Start. It was impossible to tell how thick the sleeves were, so I called customer service. They told me the pages were thick and heat sealed, so I ordered the book with a rush on shipping...just in case. Glad I did. I ordered portrait format. They sent landscape. The sleeves were also not like my other Prat book. They were a little thicker than the Robert Ware, but not crystal clear, they wrinkled and upon opening the book I noticed that some pages were already creased. (On the upside - the "linen" cover would wear well and hide fingerprints.) Even though my picture book spreads would look nice in landscape format, more than 3/4 of my work is portrait format. Having my book open the other way would take up too much table space and require awkward maneuvering - something art directors frown on. (Trust me, they do.) I can't use the book for the conference and replacing it by ordering online would be really risky.


Old style presentation book with page snagging feature.

So, it's Plan D. When I head into Sacramento the day before the conference, I'll be taking a detour to look at presentation books in person. Because it doesn't look like anyone is producing the sleeves I'm looking for anymore, I'm leaning toward a book with removable pages so they can be replaced as needed. I avoided ringed books in the past because they snagged pages and added bulk, but they've gotten better. So far the Prat Premium Case looks good. We'll see. If I don't find what I'm looking for, Plan E goes into effect - replacing the black inserts in the Robert Ware.

Please feel free to share your favorite presentation books. It's always helpful to hear firsthand experiences!

STAYING SANE AND ORGANIZED

2011-03-18T19:26:00.000-07:00


Brand new revised sketch for my picture book dummy.

Occasionally I'm accused of being organized. I say accused because there's generally a tone of betrayal that suggests I've done something horrible. The truth is, I wasn't always this organized, but with so much going on in my life, it's a necessity, and as a homeschooling mom, I also have to be flexible and free flowing. If I wasn't organized, I would feel like the character in my sketch. She is being swept up by the current and everything important is out of her reach and beyond her control.

My degree of organization depends on what I'm doing. Right now I've got web designs in progress, publisher packets going out, a conference to get ready for and a bunch of things in my homeschooling/personal life to tend to. To keep from going absolutely batty, I need to get it all down on paper to free my mind to work. My prioritized list and calendars provide the structure I need to sculpt my day.

My prioritized list is hand written on a letter size piece of paper which is broken down into sections. (I don't necessarily write a new list every day. I re-write it if it starts getting too hard to read with cross-offs and add-ons.) The left side of the page is wider and devoted to professional work in order of importance from top to bottom. Clients go at the top, followed by portfolio work and then promotional work. I also have a card and print business that appears occasionally according to urgency. The right side is narrower. Errands, bills, orders, email and phone calls go on the right.

Calendars provide the framework for the day. I have a calendar for events with time slots, a calendar for my daughter's independent study and the dinner calendar with shopping notes. (The dinner calendar is fairly new. Before I added that, I would sometimes forget about dinner until too late and was left to throw something together last minute. That wasn't very satisfying.) I look at all the calendars first thing in the morning so I know how everything on my list can fit in and around the immovable things for the day. (I have separate calendars because it feels less overwhelming to me.)

Sculpting the day. If an event on the calendar isn't a client meeting, it's usually one of my daughter's activities and I know I can get some computer work done while I wait for her. I can do writing, bids, design and correspondence in that time slot. (I'm at her skating lesson now.) I also consolidate my errands with my scheduled outings so I'm not wasting trips. The shopping notes on my dinner calendar tell me what ingredients I'm going to need. Most illustration work has to be done at my drawing board at home, so I know I'm wasting time if I'm doing anything else at home besides illustrating on a day that involves lots of scheduled activities away from home.

If I have time. I always have a few things on my list that are low priority. They're not things that really have to be done at all. If I have time after getting high priority things done, they're icing on the cake. The other day I added some character studies to the list for my conference portfolio. If I don't get them done, it's no big deal, my portfolio is just fine. If I do get them done...bonus!

Stuck? If I get stuck on something, I move to another area and come back to the troublesome item later. Maybe I need to write instead of illustrate or research publishers instead of write. Then again, sometimes my self-imposed deadlines are unrealistic. It's important for me to ask myself why I need to get something done by a particular time. Maybe I have a good reason and maybe I don't.

A tip - I make sure to break projects into stages when I put them on my list so I always have things to cross off during the day. That way I don't have to wait until an entire project is done to cross it off and I always have a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day.

So, that's a bit about how I organize my work. I definitely find it a lot easier than being disorganized and discombobulated.

If you have any tips for staying sane and organized, I'd love to hear them!

WriteOnCon AND OTHER WORTHWHILE TANGENTS

2011-03-13T10:06:00.001-07:00

I've been so busy I'm behind in reading the blogs I follow. Since I flew through picture book revisions yesterday, I got to redesign my blog and catch up with other blogs too. The blogging community is great. I'm always finding new tools and learning new things. I'll pass on a few:

WriteOnCon - I happened upon this one on the SCBWI Mentee blog. Summary from their website - The brainchild of seven writers who wanted to “pay it forward” and give something back to the writing community, WriteOnCon is a totally free, interactive online Writer’s Conference held annually during the summer. Our first Conference, held August 10-12, 2010, had over 11,000 attendees. What a great idea! You don't even have to go anywhere. Wear your pajamas! Here's a link to last year's line-up. (They had illustrator events last year, too.) Right now, they are doing a lot of promotion and giving away critiques of all sorts. You can see what their latest critique giveaway is by looking in my blogroll list to the right. Go check it out!

LinkWithin - Next stop - illustrator, Melissa T. Liban's blog. She is a children's illustrator and is at about the same stage as I am in sending to publishers. It's fun to see what she's up to. While I was there, I saw a really cool feature that placed post suggestions from her blog underneath each post. I saw that it was called "LinkWithin", so I clicked on it. It's an easy widget that seems to be working well so far. You can click on "LinkWithin" at the bottom of this post to check it out.

From there, my path isn't totally clear. My tangents took on a life of their own as I clicked link upon link within the blogs I was on.

Check out this post from illustrator, Victoria Jamieson. She worked at Harper Collins in the design department and has some advice to illustrators on their promo postcards. There are other great links there as well.

I ended up at NetworkedBlogs also. It sounds interesting. I'll be checking into that some more. Anybody have any experience with them?

OK. Back to my picture book dummy. I have one sketch for a two page spread to do based on my critique from Candlewick last year.

BOOK COVERS AND PICTURE BOOK DUMMIES

2011-03-11T08:43:00.000-08:00

I finished my book cover sample the other day. This is the cover for the NaNoWriMo novel I wrote in November. I'm still working on the title treatment, but that will be done on the computer. I can work on that anywhere. I have a list of other things to get done that require my drawing table.

My main focus at this conference will be getting feedback on my newly dialed in portfolio. My critiques last year were the best of both worlds. One publisher really liked my portfolio which did great things for my state of mind. The other felt my portfolio was too brief at 12 pieces plus a picture book dummy. This gave me some information I needed to improve it. I have expanded it to 20 pieces plus a revised picture book dummy.

The added pieces show more variety in subject matter and the picture book dummy has been edited according to a publisher critique from last year. I'm working on that now.

Work, work, work. I'll continue posting my progress...

MOVING RIGHT ALONG

2011-03-05T10:12:00.000-08:00

PubSubPackMo ended and I moved on to my next deadlines without a word. No fanfare - no nothing. It's just that there is so much to do this month, I had to keep going.

PubSubPackMo Summary: I completed my goal. All my research yielded 31 well matched possibilities to send my illustration samples to. I can't help but feel that I cheated a bit though. Not all of those possibilities are unique and separate from each other. Some are imprints with identical addresses. It was the same amount of research either way and I came out of the month with a better picture of where I fit in and what I want to accomplish. That's always a good thing.

Onward - April 1 I leave for my next SCBWI conference where I will receive two critiques and have my portfolio on view for Random House, Holt and Carus to peruse.
Stay tuned - I'll be posting my conference prep process and results...

HOW DO YOU FIND HOPE AGAIN?

2011-02-17T16:01:00.001-08:00

I've been dragging my feet in writing this post. I don't like feeling discouraged and now that I'm hopeful again, I want to sweep my prior despair under the rug. But it's important to talk about. We all feel hopeless in our pursuits at some time or another and I've been there way more than once!

Right around Day 10 I was having a hard time finding illustration submission guidelines for a lot of my publishers. I was getting really frustrated. Why was I so concerned about guidelines? Because I care and my time is really important to me. I don't want to waste it or anyone else's by sending something to the wrong place in the wrong format to be discarded before it is ever seen. So, instead, I ended up spending a lot of extra time trying to double check guidelines everywhere I could, including web addresses I already had from past research. In most cases the web pages I had previously been on had been removed. What's up with that? The submission guidelines for writers could still be found and were full of apologies that they would no longer be accepting un-agented work. Instead, submissions would be discarded. Everywhere editors were overtaxed with piles of submissions and didn't have the time to open them all. But what about art directors and illustration submissions? Was I wasting my time? They still need illustrators...don't they?

Suddenly my time felt very insignificant. The excitement and hope fully drained from my body. Why bother? So...I threw a pity party. Luckily it got too loud and obnoxious for my good neighbor, Rational Thinking and she quickly put an end to it. Since I had been to one of these parties before, I knew what to do. I closed my computer, put away my other research tools and got busy doing what I needed to do...none of which had anything to do with publisher submissions.

These are the general steps I follow to get out of the trap of hopelessness:

Reality check - Even though I really really really want to illustrate for the children's publishing industry and I dedicate hours and hours to that pursuit...that isn't all there is to my life. I have a family, friends, web design/illustration business, cards and prints to sell, I live in beautiful surroundings with amazing outdoor things to do...I was feeling better already!

Act on it - I checked in with my family. Hey! They were still there!

Get back in sync - For me this means doing everyday things that are really important to the enjoyment of life - like cooking delicious healthy meals and spending quality time with my family and friends.

Exercise - I had been staring at my computer in research mode and had barely moved for days. No wonder my thoughts had gelled into a quagmire of irrational ideas. It was time to get that blood moving and expel that icky residue. Out to the forest with the dog!

Start a new project using established strengths - Starting a new illustration is like hitting the reset button for me. All becomes right with the world. My last post reminded me how much I want to do middle grade book covers, so I started one for the NanoWriMo novel I did in November. I'm using all my favorite illustration techniques. I'll post it when it's done.

Positive role models - This quest for publishers is most often a solitary pursuit - so is being an illustrator. That isn't a bad thing, but as I move forward in this new terrain, my footing is sometimes unsure. In situations where I feel discouraged, I like to read about successful illustrators, writers and musicians who share their journeys in very real ways. (By successful I mean remaining true to themselves and doing what they love.) I like documentaries too - especially about people who have been unconventional in their paths. (Reading Editorial Anonymous while feeling discouraged is not a good idea.)

Feel that strength - This is the lion's roar where I declare, "Oh Yeah!? My time is important too!" and I get back up, brush off the debris and puff myself out a bit to continue my journey forward.

Clarification - With renewed conviction, I clarify my vision of who I am, what I can do and what I want. This results in stronger footing and a reminder of why I'm doing what I'm doing. A new plan is formulated from an informed place and new confidence to do what I need to do while being true to myself. I know my time is valuable whether someone else thinks so or not. If I fit the publisher, I'll be sending illustration submissions until I see something concrete that says not too. I take full responsibility for that.

Benefits to losing hope - Benefits? Yep. Clarification and renewed hope are the benefits I usually get, along with dispelling all those irrational thoughts that clutter my path and keep me from moving forward. That means onward to PubSubPackMo, Day 17! I've got to catch up a little, but I've got 15 publishers so far.

So, that's what I do when I feel discouraged. How about you? What do you do to get yourself out of that funk?

RIGHT ILLUSTRATIONS - RIGHT PUBLISHER?

2011-02-08T11:16:00.001-08:00

I started writing about publisher information this morning and realized I skipped a step. It's day 8 and I have 9 publishers confirmed to send samples to. I've crossed many more off my list, but why?

Reading about each publisher is one thing, but you've got to know what style of illustrations they're looking for, what your own style is and what areas you want to illustrate in the first place. I illustrate everything from picture books to non-fiction nature books, but I'm especially interested in middle grade spot illustrations and book covers for stories that feature cultural diversity. I'm not going to send middle grade book cover samples to a publisher that only prints picture books or illustrations of realistically drawn people to publishers who prefer cartoony animal stories.

Where to start - In the end it's always the impression I get from seeing what a publisher publishes that gives me what I need to make a decision. From reading the description in CWIM (Children's Writer's and Illustrator's Market) of the subject matter they print, my mind tells me that Barefoot Books is totally right for me, but visually, for the most part, my style isn't a match.

Catalogs - I don't like to accumulate catalogs, so I don't generally order them from publishers. If I happen to see one at a conference that is a good match, I will grab it. The ones that work best for me are the publishing groups with many imprints under their umbrella. Having all the imprints from one publisher in one place helps me get a handle on who belongs where. I don't keep the catalogs past a couple years. Yuck. They're dust magnets and there's no reason to keep outdated material. If I find something I need to keep, I rip it out and file it. This might be a publisher statement that sums up their "house" or a book cover that really speaks to me.

Bookstores and Libraries - I search online or in bookstores and libraries whenever possible. I happen to love books (That's a no brainer isn't it?) and looking through piles of books with great illustrations is really enjoyable. Check out the bestseller tables at the bookstore in all categories that pertain to you, but, in your excitement, don't forget to see who actually published the books. After a while, you'll start to get the "flavor" of each publisher. Some are more broad in style than others. You don't have to stick with bestsellers either. Not everything will be a bestseller. When I'm perusing, I gravitate toward colors, illustration style and fonts on the covers and spines that are similar to my style.

Digital - More and more publishers are offering catalogs to download - mostly smaller publishers. Publishing groups tend not to go to the trouble of having individual catalogs for each division. Having a digital catalog isn't the same as having physical pages to thumb through, but I can usually get the jest of whether my illustrations are right for them within a quarter of the catalog. I download catalogs and toss them right away when I'm done. I can always go back and get another one if I need to. I don't want dusty old catalogs filling up my computer either!

Websites - Bigger houses often have their books cataloged on their websites, but if they have many imprints, it's not often that I see them divided up that way. They are usually lumped together into one big listing and then divided by age group. Hopefully you'll be able to find the name of the imprint somewhere near the book title.

Publisher Blogs - Still not sure about a publisher? If they have a blog, check it out for the latest in what they're doing. What are their awards, new projects, innovations?

Amazon - Sometimes I have luck searching under a publisher name in Amazon. Sometimes not!

Magazines - The library and bookstore are also great places to look at children's magazines to find a match to your style. You can also order sample copies from the publisher. It's worth ordering a sample if you find a good match.

If you're still not sure if your work is right for a particular publisher, ask people around you for their impressions. Or it could be that your style isn't quite defined enough to be able to tell yet. Don't expect a publisher to see what you're capable of creating down the line by showing them a sketch from life drawing class. You've got to show them...now. For me, that meant getting to work on my portfolio.

Good luck out there!

UPDATE - WEBSITE CATALOGS - Simon and Schuster has digital catalogs available on their website for all of their imprints. They are very well organized. (I like Simon and Schuster a lot. ) I have not, however, found any illustration submission guidelines anywhere on the website...so far...

FINDING PUBLISHER INFORMATION - DAY 3 PubSubPackMo

2011-02-03T10:21:00.000-08:00

It's day 3 of PubSubPackMo and I promised to add details on the process of submitting illustration samples to publishers. I'll be adding more as I go, but I'll start with publisher information. There isn't one way to collect the information you need. It's important to do what works best for you. Because the world around me can be hectic, I like to keep things simple whenever I can by staying organized.

During the year I come across lots of information about publishers that might be right for me. As soon as I can, I transfer the information to a text file on my computer. Some of the information is from websites I find, some is from notes I take at conferences and some comes from SCBWI bulletins. By transferring the information that pertains to me directly to a file on my computer, it keeps me from wasting time trying to backtrack and find the information again. This file can be a simple text file or a more involved database.

I also have a copy of the Children's Writer's and Illustrator's Market (CWIM) on hand. It isn't always the most current copy, but I try to stay within a year of the current one. If you want to buy the new copies right away, you can get them from Amazon. If you don't mind waiting to buy, you can generally get an unused copy of the previous year for a really good price on Half.com. Things can change fast, so it's important to update records by going to the publisher websites, watching for changes posted in the SCBWI bulletin, and making phone calls to publishers when necessary.

There are lots of helpful articles in the CWIM too. My problem has been the copies from past years that pile up. It is a mind trap for me to think that I need to keep each year because there is information in them that I need. I'm never going to go through each one again and they take up valuable space. Instead, I mark them up freely with pen, pencil, highlighters and sticky notes. I transfer the publisher information I use to my database, cut out articles I need and file them and then recycle the books when I'm done. I started doing this when I discovered I had copies dating back to 1999 that I had never revisited!

My first pass through the book is quick. I mark publishers that look promising and put a sticky note on the page. This is something I can do anywhere, anytime - while waiting for clients, watching my daughter's Aikido or Ice Skating, etc. The publishers I mark at this stage are the ones I need to look closer at online. I'll be looking at their book art with mine in mind and if they seem like a fit, I'll make notes about what samples are best and any other guidelines I find. This is where I am right now. I'm double checking websites to see what kind of samples to send and to make sure I don't disregard any new guidelines the publisher may have. Once I have all the info I need, I transfer the address and notes about what to send to my database. The sticky note then comes off the page, but all my written notes are still on the page if I need to go back. If I find that a publisher isn't right for me, I put an "X" through it on the page.

I've got to go add some publishers to my list and finish my client work for the day. Yesterday I added Abrams to my list as a great all around publisher with excellent variety. Stay tuned for more information on finding the submission guidelines you need...

PubSubPackMo

2011-02-01T09:18:00.000-08:00

PubSubPackMo is here! "What is it," you say, "some sort of pub food special?" No, but that's not a bad idea. PubSubPackMo is Publisher Submission Packet Month. I had so much fun during NaNoWriMo and PiBoIDMo (okay maybe fun isn't the correct word, but I got a lot done and that was fun) I decided to create an entire month dedicated to researching and submitting work to publishers.

There is a lot of research involved in submitting work. In the past I found I would do 10 at a time and then let the whole thing drop for months. It's best to keep submissions going out several times a year to publishers already on your list and submissions to new publishers going out regularly. If it becomes a part of what you do all the time, the habit should be as easy as brushing your teeth.

How to start? If you're an illustrator, start by deciding what samples to send. This might be as simple as one image on a postcard, several postcards or several images on a tear sheet. If you're an illustrator/writer, you might be sending out a picture book dummy or a query letter depending on the publisher's guidelines. And if you are an illustrator/writer sending out dummies - beware of simultaneous submissions. This is where the research comes in.

Always make sure to match your work to the right publishers and follow their guidelines (more about that in upcoming posts). It's a common notion for newcomers to think they should get the Children's Writer's and Illustrator's Market and start sending to every publisher in there. How do I know? Before I got serious about children's illustration, I was toying with the idea. That was about 15 years ago when I was still illustrating botanicals. I had begun to play with adding faeries to my work. Not knowing anything about the children's publishing market, I approached a children's illustrator I knew and told her my plan to blanket the entire industry with my samples. The look on her face was one of amused pity and she patiently explained why this was a bad idea. I would need to research each publisher individually. Back then, this generally involved making phone calls. Horrified, I abandoned the children's publishing idea and stuck with the publishing opportunities I had doing botanicals.

It's a lot easier to research now. Phone calls to verify addresses are rarely necessary anymore and most information about the types of work the publishers publish is online or in the Children's Writer's and Illustrator's Market.

I will be posting throughout the month about the submission process, but for now, I've got to research my publisher for the day!

THE BEAUTY OF TAKING A BREAK

2011-01-16T10:12:00.000-08:00

It's a secret that many illustrators and writers know. Finish your project and put it out of sight. When you look at it again, you will see it with fresh eyes. Last week I put away my promotional postcards and began printing up a portfolio to send off for critique.

The printing process isn't always easy, mainly because I have my illustrations in several different forms on my computer. I have versions for 8x10 portfolio, full size for book dummies, cropped for some uses, lo-res for internet, and CMYK for print media. For the most part, they are labeled well, but sometimes it gets confusing and I have to go through a few files and sometimes a different computer to find the right one.

As I was doing this, I came across one of my first designs for my latest batch of postcards. It was clearly the right design for the batch. This happens a lot with my sketches too. In fact, I'm in the process of changing some of my picture book dummy sketches back to earlier versions after several comments from art directors. Ninety-five percent of the time, when I put that first design down on paper, it's good to go. It's when I begin thinking and working it that I complicate things. I can see my thinking process all over the postcards I posted on Monday. Good thing I wasn't having them printed in mass quantities. Another perk to printing at home.

I would love to post images of the new postcards, but blogger is not formatting well this morning. I'd rather not spend the time de-bugging the code to make the images behave. Maybe I'll come back later and try again...

UPDATE: Came back and switched my blog to the "Old Editor". I hated to do it, but I don't have the time to waste on images that don't stay put in my posts!

PROMOTING CHILDREN'S ILLUSTRATION

2011-01-10T10:49:00.000-08:00

This month I'm readying all my promotional postcards so I can launch into PubSubPackMo (Publisher Submission Packet Month) without hesitation. In the past, sending out samples has been laborious for a lot of reasons. For one, there isn't just one type of publisher out there and for another, I don't do just one type of illustration.

I used to spend a lot of time preparing custom packets for each publisher - sometimes more than an hour each - researching, writing cover letters and printing custom samples that I thought fit their needs best. Printing out custom letter size samples was always problematic. It was difficult to get illustrations for different applications to work together on one sheet. It could definitely be done, but to do this over and over for many different publishers took a ridiculous amount of time and in the end, I was only guessing what their needs were anyway. Instead, I've come up with a new solution.

My first batch of samples will be packets with up to four postcard for each publisher. It all depends on who I'm sending to. I have work for picture books, middle grade spot illustrations, book covers and the educational market. Then, for everyone I've already sent this initial packet to, I will follow up with one brand new sample every 3 months. These quarterly postcards will most likely be printed commercially. (The bottom right postcard is one I had printed in quantity by GotPrint.com a couple years ago.)

Picture Book Sample

Black & White Graphite Sample

Botanical/Pen & Ink Sample


Book Cover Style Sample

I picked the above samples because I've been listening to portfolio reviews from publishers for quite a few years now. Hopefully I've hit all the points well enough so at least some of my samples will stick around for future projects or perhaps my timing will be excellent and there will be a current project I'm right for.

But the samples are just one aspect of the submission process. There are a lot more considerations. I have asked all of the following questions multiple times, taken notes on what publishers and illustrators have said and added in my own trial and error to come up with the answers that work best for me. Caution: If you look hard enough you will always find the answer you are looking for or the one you fear most...

What do publisher want from samples? They want samples specific to children's publishing! They don't want to spend a lot of time on them. They want the samples to speak for themselves and an easy way to follow up if they want to see more work. This would be a portfolio by mail or a website. Some Art Directors put their favorite samples up on their bulletin boards, some put them in files, some pass them on to other departments. A lot of samples, GASP, get thrown away. This made me think that postcards of each type of illustration was my best bet. Each has my contact info on it and two examples of that style. They can be put up, passed on or filed and still have my contact info on them. Notice I didn't say they could throw them away?

Cover letter or no cover letter? This has held me up more than anything else in the past. Now, unless there is a specific project I'm pitching or interested in, I say no to cover letters and yes to my continued sanity. The number one reason for this is, who has time to read hundreds of cover letters from illustrators? They already have piles of book submissions with cover letters to go through and I spent way too much time customizing those letters anyway. I was frozen in my tracks many times, afraid I wasn't wording my qualifications well enough or succinctly enough. I was even losing sleep. What if I left out the one thing they were looking for? Forget it! Now I say let the illustrations speak for themselves.

Return postcard or not? I started out sending these and then I decided not to. Return postcards add expense and more work for me, not to mention more work for the publisher. Often times I didn't get them back for a year after my submissions went out and by that time I was already sending new work out. Instead, I do my research and I have a database where I keep track of all mailings - what I send, the date, publisher, who I directed the sample to and any responses. I take all the data into account when sending anything in the future and whether to keep sending to that publisher at all. As I see what each publisher is working on, I can look at my samples and send something appropriate.

It's important to keep up on what publishing houses are doing, what their current projects are and who is working where. It isn't a small job, but there are resources to help. Joining SCBWI is a huge asset. They supply updates on publishing houses that are invaluable and the conferences are a great way to stay connected. Another resource is the yearly Children's Writer's and Illustrator's Market. I use it as a prompt to find new publishers, but I don't rely on specific information too much. Things change so quickly. I always go directly to the publisher for any submission guidelines and addresses I might need.

PubSubPackMo anyone?

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ONWARD - HAPPY 2011!

2011-01-06T11:27:00.000-08:00

At times, 2010 was like running a marathon with rocks in my shoes. Right up until the very end, I was coming up with back-up plans for my back-up plans as obstacles came at me from every turn.

I'll spare you the details. Let's just say I've got some great stories. The important thing is, I met my goals to the end. I even got both websites up by midnight on January 1, 2011 despite two power outages. Check them out. FaeryMedicine.com is my e-commerce site which sells my illustrations as cards and prints. KristenSchwartz.com is my business portfolio for illustration and web design.


My business portfolio for illustration and web design.

Faery Medicine sells cards and prints of my work.

My plans for this month? I've decided to take a breather. I'm going to test and finesse my new websites, put together my designs for promotional materials and do client work. PubSubPackMo (Publisher Submission Packet Month) will have to wait until February, but I'll make 31 submissions anyway...

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PI A LA MUD

2010-12-10T09:17:00.001-08:00

The rain really got me down for a bit. Don't get me wrong, I love rain. I just don't like rain on snow. We got so much rain that the dirt came back...as mud. Mud season comes a couple times a year here. It's a lot of work and I'm always glad to see it go. We muddle through - pardon the pun - constantly wiping feet whether our own or the multi-footed creatures that traipse along, over, and through our lives. When mud season came back, my daily ski through the woods was over. What was keeping my blood pumping and productivity high was doused by rain that tempted me to curl up in a ball by the fire to nap for the winter. I just had to resist.

NaNoWriMo and PiBoIdMO were such a huge success. I exceeded my goals on both projects, contributed to Caps for Kids, and also redesigned both of my websites. I decided I liked the "x" per day challenge so much, I had to keep it up. So this month I'm taking my new website designs and writing a page per day in code so they'll be up and running in January. Why January? I assigned that month as Publisher Submission Packet Month (PubSubPackMo). I have a tendency to do 10 submissions at a time and then I'm toast for weeks. One per day is way more doable and by the end of the month I'll have 31! Those will not all be picture book submissions though. That many simultaneous submissions of the same picture book would be frowned upon by most publishers. Most of these will be bread and butter submissions to publishers to illustrate whatever projects they have that fit my style. Stay tuned to see the final websites and my progress on submissions.

MUD UPDATE - After days, the rain finally turned to snow - giving us about 6 inches. We're still not back where we were, but I'm hopeful...

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THINK LESS, CREATE MORE - NANOWRIMO WITH A SIDE OF PI

2010-11-01T23:45:00.000-07:00

My theme this month is...brainless or more accurately, "thinkless". I'm tired of the thinking process getting in the way of my creativity. Lately, thinking has been freezing me in my tracks and threatening to make my work stiff and lifeless.

Being someone whose brain is usually on overdrive studying, organizing, crunching numbers, scheduling, analyzing, problem solving, editing...I'm constantly trying to figure out how to make things work better, take less time, be more productive. It was time to STOP!

This all started last month when I decided to do an illustration for the SCBWI Spring Spirit Logo Competition. I had 3 weeks. No time to waste. After looking at all the roughs for projects I had done over the last two years, I was interested to see that I really liked the very first ideas I came up with on each one. Most of the time I didn't stick to the first idea when it came to making the final. Instead, I worked and worked and tweaked each one many many times. I decided for this project, I would do an experiment. What would happen if I didn't analyze my sketches to death and threw caution to the wind? What if I took the first idea and went for it - as is? So I did. It was liberating - much faster too and it was peaceful to do something without the inner critic chattering away during the entire process. "Lalala...I can't hear you..." The critic was annoyed at first, but she found something else to do.

After the illustration was finished, I wanted to keep going. At first, I thought (oops, it's a difficult habit to get away from) I would call this, "using my intuition to guide my work", but that didn't seem right. Intuition is derived from the Latin intueri which means to look inside oneself or contemplate. I already do too much of that. I wanted to abandon contemplation and empower the action part of the brain - more like breathing, which just happens if everything is functioning correctly.

(Stop right now and think about your breathing. Are you doing it right? Try to describe to someone how to breath step by step. Can you do it? It's enough to make you hyperventilate.)

So here's what I proposed for November - to work instinctively. Someone told me once that humans no longer have instincts. You know what? I don't care. When you look at the origin of instinct, it fits. Derived from Latin instinctus: inspiration; the act of drawing in a breath; to excite to urge forward. Perfect!

I couldn't have come up with a better time for my creative binge either because it's NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month. It has been 5 years since I participated in this challenge to write a 50,000 word novel, but the best way to do it is to write, write, write and write some more without letting the brain edit. Just go with the initial idea and play it out through the characters. They'll let you know where you've gone astray and you can take care of it later. It's a lot like sketching - only with words.

But what if writing 50,000 words wasn't enough to keep me from thinking too much? Well, it's also PiBoIdMo - Picture Book Idea Month - a challenge to come up with a picture book idea a day. It doesn't matter if they're amazing ideas. Maybe one of those imperfect ideas will lead to one that's even better.

My plan was coming together nicely, but I could still feel my brain trying to think. Then it came to me. November is also Caps for Kids month here in Tahoe and my daughter and I always challenge ourselves to knit or crochet a hat or two a day for that. Put a project in my hands and turn on a movie while it's snowing. More mindless creativity and for a good cause too!

Why stop there? I was on a roll. I pulled out an illustration I've been hating and not finishing for two years now! With the critic on vacation - it really doesn't look bad. And who cares? It's time to finish the darn thing. I can edit it digitally if I need to. I'm sure I have other illustrations on the back burner that need to be put out of my misery. Strike while the critic's out!

Two thousand plus words a day, picture book ideas, finishing illustrations, knitting and crocheting hats - who has time to think? It's going to be a productive month.

So, forget the Latin origins - the Greeks said it best. You know...Nike?

Just do it...

Edit later...

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DOG DROOL AND LEMUR TAILS or HOW I WRESTLED WITH REALITY THIS SUMMER

2010-09-23T13:20:00.000-07:00

Reality is a bendy thing. I often forget just how pliable it can be. I spend a decent amount of time making sure I'm presenting the facts accurately in what I say and what I illustrate. That's probably why I didn't last long in advertising.

One of the functions of an illustration is to pick up the slack where words can't go. Sometimes photographs or videos are necessary when a true story is beyond words. Take the story I've been telling about the dog we adopted this summer. I keep trying to describe the amount this dog drooled in the car, but I can't seem to do it justice. I have to show people - like this…

When I created illustrations for court cases or botanicals for books, the facts were really important, but now I'm illustrating an entirely different world - a pliable reality. Plodding through this new world has opened up many questions about how to complete the assignments presented to me. I explored this quite a bit in Mira Reisberg's illustration workshop this summer. As usual, she gave me an assignment designed to challenge me - "Two page spread, Mad Hatter's Tea Party, all characters are animals. Go!" (She didn't really say "Go!" I threw it in as an embellishment. I'm trying to use one of the things Mira taught us in class - "Don't let the facts get in the way of a good story." See how big my problem really is?)

I was definitely up for the challenge. I had never illustrated animals in anything but a true to life context. Even when I put a sea turtle in Yen and the Great Serpent, it was doing exactly what a sea turtle was capable of doing and nothing more. I had a surprising amount to wrestle with in representing animals at a Mad Hatter's Tea Party. I needed to become clear on how I would do this, so I began by studying many many picture books featuring animals and put together a list of things that were important to me: I was opposed to dressing animals in human-made items or having them in positions that were stiff and unnatural. The surface they were seated at had to be one that could naturally occur in their surroundings. All the animals had to be from the same geographical location. If they were eating and drinking it had to be in a way that could really happen given their natural way of moving. What they drank from had to be from their surroundings. My stipulations went on and on, even though I relaxed a few of them by the time I began sketching. With so many rules, I was stifling myself and making things more difficult, but I didn't realize it until I began going through the critique process.

I came up with a concept and composition that I liked and I was almost ready to begin the final when Mira offered a suggestion. "Those animals need to look like they're having more fun. Put some happy expressions on them."
(I think I may have gasped at that moment.)
"You mean…smiles?" I responded nervously.
Mira quickly put tracing paper over my sketch and demonstrated by putting a smile on my chameleon. Inside I think I may have been shrinking away in horror, but I put on a facade of easy acceptance and readied myself to add expressions to the faces of the other characters later. I thought, If that's all it will take, I can do this.

But that wasn't all. No…it got much more difficult for my feeble reality-based brain to grasp.
"And you need to show the lemur's tail…" Mira drew a tail on the tracing paper to show where it could go.
(I think I may have lost consciousness momentarily as all the blood drained from my head.)
"Oh no no no. This type of lemur doesn't have a long tail," I insisted. "It's an indri. I chose it because it is the largest of the lemurs and proportionally it fits best with the other animals. These lemurs also make a strange howling sound which…" I realized everyone in the room had glazed over. I sounded absolutely ridiculous. Clearing my throat, I said in a much smaller voice, "OK. I'll find a different lemur to use…one with a long tail." Now I had it…or so I thought.

Several days later I went to San Francisco with Mira to attend a gathering of children's writers and illustrators and she wanted to make sure I was clear about the importance of my lemur. "You know that lemur has got to be really cute," she said.
"I know. I changed it into another large type of lemur with a long tail."
"With a striped tail?" Mira asked hopefully.
"No. It isn't a ring-tailed lemur. Those are smaller. This is a sifaka."
"Put stripes on it's tail," she interrupted.
"I can't. Sifakas don't have striped tails," I pleaded.
Mira's disbelief and exasperation were pretty clear as she laughed slightly and commented, "You know, this isn't a scientific illustration. You're allowed to embellish."
"Oh," I said sheepishly.

I hadn't thought of it that way. The irony was that the entire time I was working on this project I had been disappointed that the kind of lemur I was illustrating didn't have a long striped tail. I had become a prisoner of a reality I had created. What Mira was telling me was obvious and I understood it, but like most extremely obvious things…it took a while for it to sink in.

I think I've got it now. This illustration took me on quite an interesting ride, but once I relaxed the rules I made up, a new world began to open up for me...one that is pliable and where anything can happen...

Next stop...completely imaginary animals...

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6000 PICTURE BOOKS LATER...

2010-07-17T12:18:00.000-07:00

"Magic Carpet" - one of my latest portfolio pieces

The other day I was wondering how many picture books I've read since my daughter was born. I started taking her to the library faithfully every Tuesday when she was just a couple months old. She rode at my side in a sling as I searched through the kids books, checking out 10 plus books per week to read to her. I figure we averaged 50 a month - sometimes more, sometimes less. That's about 6000 picture books over the last 10 years - give or take a few hundred.

My daughter abandoned picture books right around age 5 when she discovered all the Star Wars chapter books that were out there. That's when she took off reading with a voracious appetite and left me and my picture book habit in the dust. The librarians have long since figured out that my daughter isn't the one reading all the books I check out every week. They all know she is the one reading the big thick books and I'm the one reading the skinny ones with all the pictures.

There are so many incredible children's books out there. It is sometimes difficult to remember which authors and illustrators go with which books. I have a much easier time connecting the creators with their books after meeting them and last week I had the pleasure to meet some very talented authors and illustrators at a Bay Area Bookies gathering. (If you're new to the word "Bookie" being used in this way, it's kind of like a Foodie...only with books. And no - they're not eating the books!) Anyway, this exceptional group of people didn't know me from Adam, Sue, or Larry when I arrived, but they welcomed me and let me in on their session of project sharing. Everyone had something to share and suggestions of all types were eagerly offered whenever needed.

Then it was my turn. I was honored to be invited to participate and not at all sure what would happen. I figured, regardless of the outcome, it is good practice to present current projects to a group. So, I stood up and talked about my background in botanical illustration, my interest in the cultural uses of medicinal plants and then showed the picture book I've been working on over the past year. They very enthusiastically encouraged me to send it out to publishers.

This picture book project of mine was originally only intended to get my feet wet in the process of illustrating a picture book, but I have now had extensive critiques by my SCBWI mentor - Yuyi Morales, art directors, editors, Mira Reisberg and my peers in her workshop, and 16 additional professional authors and illustrators. None of these people are in the practice of saying things "to be nice". Okay. I get it. I keep saying I'm not a children's book writer...I'm an illustrator, but I'm willing to give it a shot. I've listened to every criticism and it's time to make some last revisions before sending this picture book I wrote to publishers for consideration...

...but before I do that, I couldn't resist...

Even though it wasn't Tuesday, I went to the library yesterday. I came home with about 20 books, all by some of the different authors and illustrators I met last week. Some of them I had checked out before, some of them I hadn't, but having met the people who created them, all the books somehow seemed more alive as I edged closer and closer to 7000 picture books.

I wonder how many picture books I will have read by the time my own picture book is published?

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If you're interested in seeing some of the amazing books created by the authors and illustrators pictured above, you can click on their names or search for more information:
Katherine Tillotson, Marissa Moss, Elissa Guest, Sarah Klise, Jane Wattenberg, Susan Meyers, Elisa Kleven, Mira Reisberg (who is also my children's illustration instructor extraordinaire), Wendy Lichtman, Julie Downing, Lissa Rovetch, Beverly Gherman, Jim Averbeck, Maria Van Lieshout, Ashley Wolff, and Bob Barner.

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FEEDBACK JACKPOT

2010-04-29T22:28:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I attended the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) Spring Spirit Conference in Rocklin, California. A week or two before a conference you will find me building and re-building my portfolio based on direction from the invisible Art Director that lives in my head. The problem is that this AD is currently overloaded with too much general information she has collected over the years.

Here is a portion of the collected guidelines on what to include in a children's illustration portfolio:

Children (This may seem obvious...)
well developed characters
movement
different settings
same character in more than one illustration from different views
interesting and unusual angles and perspectives
animals and people together
different ethnic groups
a pastoral scene
range of emotions
characters interacting
a story with images only
color and black and white images
people of all ages
male and female characters
people with disabilities
a mock up of a picture book with two finished color illustrations.
8-12 strong pieces

My AD drew from these guidelines, along with every bit of feedback ever received. She donned magnifying glasses as spectacles and as the days wore on, zeroed in closer and closer on areas which needed improvement. She finally short circuited.

It's no wonder that two days before the conference, I lost my insight altogether. I needed a fresh start with specific feedback on my work - directly from publishers, but this type of information is not easy to come by. Luckily, I signed up ahead of time for every critique possible that was offered at the conference. So, I fired my AD and closed my portfolio. I didn't open it again until I placed it on the display table at the conference. It was time to hear what the professionals had to say.

Critiques opened with samples of promotional postcards that a dozen of us submitted. They were projected on a wall as Kristen Nobles of Candlewick Press went through each one. It was incredibly informative. You can see the image I submitted at the top left of this post and, based on her specifications, my revised image on the right. Postcards are so small that she suggested most images be enlarged and cropped to show the most interesting portion.

Later on, Mary Rodgers of Lerner Publishing Group and Kristen Nobles graciously viewed our portfolios to give us feedback and reveal the ones that stood out for them. What made this feedback even more meaningful was that it was given to the entire group. They both went through their notes on each illustrator and gave strong and weak points as they pertained to each publishing house. We learned a lot from everyone's work.

It didn't actually sink in for a couple days that my portfolio was chosen by Lerner as Best of Show. It is very validating on a journey like this, after submitting my work to many publishers, to hear good news - or any news for that matter.

Kristen Nobles told me which of my pieces was, for her, my standout piece (shown to the left). The irony? It was a piece my crazy AD wanted me to remove from my portfolio two days before the conference.

I also signed up for and received a written critique on my picture book. I now have page by page comments to sort through and some work to do. I feel rich!

The other day one of my friends asked me what all this feedback meant. Nothing...unless I act on it...which I'm doing now. I've written up a plan of action and although I know that every illustrator isn't right for every publisher, I'm very hopeful that I'm on the right track. If she behaves, I might even let my crazy AD come back and help...maybe...

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HEY DIDDLE DIDDLE ON AN AFRICAN FIDDLE

2010-03-28T15:28:00.000-07:00

It's amazing how quickly things can change. Last week I felt hopelessly buried under an ever growing to-do list. Now I'm caught up and have time for things I didn't think I'd be able to participate in this month, like the Nevada SCBWI Postcard Project. The idea of the project is to take on assignments that are presented and create children's illustrations that will serve as promotional postcards. Through each stage of the assignment, illustrators post their work online for critique and discussions. Cynthia Kremsner and Dinh Chau-Kieckhafer, illustrator coordinators for the Nevada SCBWI, have set up the project to mimic the Art Director/Illustrator relationship as closely as possible. They've done a great job.

The first assignment is Mother Goose's Hey Diddle Diddle. In keeping with the cultural themes of my work, my illustration will take place on a vast African Savanna. A young goge (African fiddle) player, has scampered up a tree to get away from the animals that have wreaked havoc on the picnic scene below. (His friends have run off and left their instruments behind.) Unfortunately his fiddle has become a chew toy for a leopard cub (the cat), that sent some other items down the river (like a dish and spoon from the picnic spread). A nearby hyena pup (little dog) thinks this is very entertaining and can't wait to join in. Off in the distance one can see an elephant (a cow because she is female) jumping over the moon.

Here are the rough preliminary sketches for the characters in my scene:

The cat (foreground)

The little dog (foreground)

The cow (less detail because she is off in the distance)

And our fiddle player (up in a tree)

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CATCHING UP

2010-03-26T16:11:00.000-07:00

I've been away from this blog since Chinese New Year. For all of February at least one of us was sick at a time. It was like a fierce ping pong match without a winner and it felt as if the entire month was lost in an abyss. I've been trying to catch up ever since.

On the heels of being sick, I found a children's illustration workshop I couldn't pass up. Never mind that I only had a few days to prepare for the first class and I'd have to drive two hours each way every week to attend. It was with Mira Reisberg, a talented children's writer and illustrator who specializes in multi-cultural work. She also worked with Yuyi Morales and quite a few other very talented illustrators and writers who were later published. I signed up right away.

As I knew it would be, the workshop is fantastic. We are a small group of illustrators and writers with pretty decent critique skills. Lucky me, Mira is also working with me directly to assign relevant illustrations for me to do. My first assignment was this:

"Illustrate a two page spread for a picture book of an outside multi-cultural scene showing different relationships."

So what did I do? I designed a composition with a magic carpet flying over the Great Wall of China, picking up kids as it goes around the world on a sort of world peace expedition. The point of view is from up high looking down, so I'm working out some tricky angles in the final sketch stage. As with every challenging piece I do, I've hit several points so far where I think there's no way I can possibly do this illustration. It's too hard. But just like every other illustration, I sit down at the drawing board and chip away at it until I've pushed past the obstacles with my best work. Most of the time, when I put my sketches away after staring at them for too long, I return to discover that they aren't as bad as I thought.

So...time to get back to the drawing board and see if that's true this time. I'll let you know...

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HAZARDOUS MATERIAL

2010-01-24T10:25:00.000-08:00

Friday I finished assembling my Don Freeman grant submission. I made my own envelope to fall within size requirements and in it I put my 32 page picture book dummy, double-spaced manuscript, two finished illustrations from the picture book with one converted to black and white, and four copies of the grant application with career background and publishing bibliography. I took it to the post office with huge relief and the clerk asked me if my package contained any hazardous material. I laughed at the thought, but I've worked hard to take the hazardous element out of my work.

By hazardous I'm not talking about the postal definition, but the feeling of being chancy, risky, unsure. It is my job to present my work in a certain and reliable way, while at the same time highlighting the magic and value to the children's publishing industry. It is through repeatedly jumping through the hoops of submitting my work that my footing has become less hazardous.

It used to be that I struggled with even the most rudimentary parts of sending my work to publishers. Now I understand why. I hadn't solidified my own ideas about my strengths as a children's illustrator. There is a great deal of clarification I have had to go through with myself in order to present well and be understood in this arena, but it's getting easier and better every time.

Even now, as I prepare the same picture book for a critique from an art director, I am making improvements on the angle from which I present it. Am I looking back and wishing I could re-do my grant application? I could, but I would be wasting valuable time. It is better to move forward and know that I will always do my best, learn from the experience, and make a less hazardous presentation next time.

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CHANGE AND HOPE

2010-01-16T08:01:00.001-08:00

As I sit here writing this post, I'm watching large down feather-like snowflakes fall from the sky. Just a few minutes ago the snowflakes were small and ordinary, but something changed and in an instant a totally different type of snowflake was created. I wish I could change as quickly and effortlessly. It has been overwhelming at times to be a forty-something illustrator with a graphic design background starting over in the children's genre.

To aid in my transition, I have been preparing to apply for the Don Freeman Grant through the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI). The grant is geared toward picture book illustrators in an effort to further their understanding, training, and work in the picture book genre. If I get the grant, I will be able to seek more workshops and promotional opportunities. If I don't get it, at least I went through a very productive process to apply. Like any other grant, there are specific requirements to meet. I will be submitting 8 months of work - my picture book manuscript along with my 32 page mock up of the book, two finished picture book illustrations, and three copies of the application.

While assembling my finished work over the last week, I realized I knew nothing more about Don Freeman than the fact that he was a children's book illustrator who is no longer living. So, I did some research and found hope. It turns out he was a graphic designer and illustrator before he started illustrating children's books in his forties - just like me. Another example that change is possible at any time.

I'm almost done with my application now and all my experiences from the past year are finally coming together in my mind. I guess I've changed because this new genre no longer feels overwhelming. It feels like my new home.

More information about Don Freeman's eclectic life can be found at - http://donfreeman.net/

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NEW YEAR'S EVE GRINCH

2010-01-01T08:23:00.001-08:00

2009 was the most challenging year of my life. I think that was true for many many people. I really didn't expect to feel the way I did at the end of it. I thought I would be celebrating my accomplishments and the fact that I got through every single bizarre event right up until the very end. Instead, I felt exhausted, sad, and a little angry. At first, I assumed it was because everything that happened finally caught up with me, but then I decided that the New Year's Eve Grinch in me was surfacing because I somehow felt cheated in having to start over with a new year. I was really good at 2009 by the end of it. In fact, I was a master of absurdity. I had triumphed over everything that was thrown my direction with the best attitude I had, all the while keeping my goals on track. What do you mean I have to start a new year?

I'm not going to re-cap 2009. You wouldn't believe it anyway. The Grinch was gone this morning and it's time to get on with 2010. Because of the outcome of 2009, I know that if I keep my focus on what's important to me - I can handle anything that comes my way in 2010. So can you...

Happy New Year!

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CAN YOU EVER REALLY BE DONE?

2009-11-07T22:18:00.000-08:00

This week I innocently exclaimed, "I'm almost done!" The reply was, "Come on, we're never really done, are we?" I know it was a tongue in cheek remark, but I thought about it. Each illustration has a problem to solve with a myriad of solutions. Along the way smaller problems are conquered and many lessons learned. With each lesson, a new perspective is gained. If I took every new perspective and started over using the new found knowledge, I would never finish anything. In the end and the beginning and every step of the way, it's all about choices and decisions. So, I have decided that I'm done...for now...with this illustration. I'll be moving on to the rest of the book to further revise my sketches. Here's a recap of the work I created in the Mentor Program over the last 6 months. I've come a long way on my journey, but I'm not done yet...

"The World Through Books"
I completed this illustration right before our first meeting as a sort of baseline. Even though I had been pursuing children's illustration, I didn't have any illustrations of children. (Sometimes it takes a while for these important concepts to sink in.)

"African Market"
The first three months of the Mentor Program were filled with writing the picture book, something I hadn't planned on doing. It made the illustrator in me a bit restless. Between revisions I decided to explore technique and a quicker style. The color in this one was inspired by the unreal color of the dirt in this village. This image is cropped a bit, but the final illustration is in picture book format with space for text.

"The Apprentice"
In between revisions I thought about the kind of publishing projects I could pursue. I love the black and white illustrations at the beginning of chapters in middle grade fantasy books. I created this illustration with that in mind.

"Ocean Spirit"
After my first storyboard was done, I had a few weeks to wait. I still had Faery Medicine to run, so I created an illustration that could fit Faery Medicine and a children's folktale.

All of September I revised my thumbnail sketches hoping to get to illustration stage before the end of the program. On September 21, I got the go ahead to refine my sketches to the final size. Finally, after some revisions, I started my first picture book illustration on October 4th:

"Two Page Picture Book Spread"
I know. You might think it's a bit ominous, but I learned that even picture books need suspense and obstacles for the characters to overcome if they are going to be good stories. (You will be happy to know that the girl is not eaten. Were you judging the poor water serpent?) My first drafts had this really strong young female character who was good at everything and saved her village. The end. She was like a super hero, but even super heroes have obstacles to overcome. Important concepts sometimes take a while to sink in. Yuyi was very patient. This illustration is hot off the drawing table. I'm resisting the urge to go back in and continue working...

"Yen and the Sea Turtle"
Sometimes an illustration is done and then it isn't. I ended up having to go back into this portion of the illustration after I scanned it. When posted in smaller sizes, Yen's nose was much lighter than the rest of her face.

"Water Serpent"
Please get to know the Great Serpent before you decide you don't want to hang out with him. If you were far away from home he wouldn't leave you stranded.

It is interesting to look back at these illustrations, including the most recent. I am tempted to start each one over to improve it with what I have learned, but the decision has been made. This leg of the journey is done. There is much more to do. Onward...

If you are viewing this post from outside of it's originating blog, you can read it in its proper surroundings at http://www.aJourneyIllustrated.com.

SCBWI MENTOR PROGRAM FINALE

2009-10-17T08:36:00.000-07:00

After I made the final revisions to my storyboard and got the OK from Yuyi, I started on my 16"x10" refined sketches. The first step was to enlarge the actual three inch thumbnail sketches to the final size (shown here) and then begin refining them. Determined to finish all 15 sketches and start some final illustrations, I bought more duct tape (see previous post) and got to work. With the end in sight, I drew hour after hour in the last two weeks until my best work was on the vellum. I will elaborate on this process in upcoming posts and will show all completed work from the program in the next post. For now, here's a look at the finale of the Nevada SCBWI Mentor Program.

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The final gathering took place at SMAC - St. Mary's Art Center in Virginia City, Nevada. It was built in 1875 as a hospital and has since been restored and converted to an art and retreat center. It has approximately 16 guest rooms, a big art studio, and various meeting and sitting areas. Upon my arrival, I was welcomed and given my room assignment with fellow illustrator, Kjersten Anna Hayes, who was mentored by Laurent Linn. It was a good match.

As more people arrived, we played an ice breaker game and learned lots of useful information about one another. For one thing, there wasn't a tattoo in the bunch. What are the odds of that these days? We also learned who could fly us out of there if the roads were closed, who could light a fire without matches, and who could ride a unicycle. Despite the lack of tattoos, it was an amazing gathering of dedicated children's illustrators and writers from all over the United States and beyond.

That evening the entire group of 30 gathered in the studio for introductions and to listen to Simon and Schuster Art Director, Laurent Linn and Atheneum/Margaret McElderry Imprints Editor, Karen Wojtyla. The information was very good. Afterward, I noticed just how nervous I was getting. Without having time to step back and view my work as a whole, I didn't have a clear picture of how much I had accomplished. I was looking forward to a good night's rest.

The next morning we broke into our mentor groups to present our work. This is when we learned that, along with the three illustrators in the other mentor group, we would be making a second presentation to Laurent Linn and Karen Wojtyla. (Surprise!) We spread our work out on tables and began.

In my group were Abe Bern and Diana Monfalcone. Abe is a writer who was working on picture book text about a girl and her kite. It was a beautiful piece. Diana is an illustrator/writer working on picture book text and illustrations created from historical events of the local region. Her subject wasn't the easiest to communicate through a picture book and she had done a lot of work to bring everything together. It was interesting to see how different each of our projects were and yet how similar the overall process was. This initial session was valuable for each of us to gain perspective on our progress. We discussed our processes, triumphs, and what we needed to work on. Feedback from Yuyi was really helpful, as usual. The areas in my project that needed work didn't surprise me. One of the most valuable things I gained from this experience was the knowledge that my sense of what is working and what isn't, is on track. I can proceed with confidence knowing I'm paying attention to the right areas.

It was nice to have the first presentation as a warm-up and as Yuyi said, to figure out how we were going to present our work to an art director and an editor. You've got to be able to think on your feet! So we did. I presented a summary of my picture book along with my full size sketches, a dummy of my book, thumbnails, the start of a finished illustration, and a finished sample of my work so they could get an idea of my style. Yuyi also added information that she felt was important. Feedback was really encouraging. I'm not done yet, but I now have information from three professionals that I can use to take my work to the next level.

Using various references to define my grandfather character,
I begin to refine a sketch.

Every presentation was great to see and it was valuable for us to hear all the feedback. I really enjoyed the different styles and backgrounds that everyone brought to their projects. Laurent Linn's group interpreted three scenes from either Alice in Wonderland or The Wizard of Oz. My roommate, Kjersten is a papermaker/collage artist and used her creative and intricate skills on The Wizard of Oz. Jennifer Egan created an urban Alice in Wonderland with her bright colors and incredible attention to playful detail. Cynthia Kremsner brought The Wizard of Oz to life in a combination of colored pencil and digital work and also showed a picture book that she was working on. Everyone's work was stunning and it was so great to have conversations with these dedicated illustrators in fluent illustration language. I felt like I had found my long lost tribe. People of my own species at last!

Picture book author/illustrator, Jim Averbeck was available later to answer questions and give insights into the writing and illustrating process. Afterward, we changed scenery and finished out the day with a tour of the historical cemetery up the road and had dinner at Goldhill Hotel, the oldest hotel in Nevada (built in 1859). There were lots of entertaining ghost stories exchanged over the weekend. As you can imagine, everything in the area is haunted.

The last day, we were able to meet in our groups again and talk about what we all needed to do next. I still have one character that I need to sit with and develop some more. As with all stumbling blocks, there is great potential to create something amazing if the time is spent to push through the difficulties. Before I do that, I will finish one of the illustrations. It's an underwater scene that I'm really excited about. After that, I will complete the changes to my sketches in order to put the final dummy book together for my portfolio and future submissions.

I found myself overwhelmed with gratitude by the end of the weekend. My mentor, Yuyi Morales, had so much to share and went above and beyond to guide my progress throughout the program. I never expected to write a picture book and I wonder if she regretted that I did. If she did, she never let on. She was very patient all the way through. Even more important than patience, she didn't let anything slide. If there was something to improve upon, she pointed it out.

Of course, recognizing one gratitude lead to a flood of others as I thought of my family, supporters, the other mentors, friends I met, Suzanne Morgan Williams for lighting the fire under me in the first place and for putting great events together with Ellen Hopkins...I went on and on. Let's just say my goodbyes were not totally coherent and a bit sappy at the end. I still well up when I think of all the people that have been a part of this segment of my journey. Would I work those crazy long hours again doing sketches over and over until I couldn't do anymore? Absolutely! It was amazing. (OK. Time to go. I'm feeling grateful again.)

If you bought shares to help pay for my journey in the Mentor Program - the next post will have all of the Mentor Program artwork in it.

The end of the Mentor Program isn't the end of my journey into children's publishing. It's really the beginning. Stay tuned!

NOTHING A LITTLE DUCT TAPE CAN'T FIX

2009-09-18T16:55:00.000-07:00

I'm in the final 3 weeks of the Mentor Program -
the big push to make revisions in hopes of finishing full size sketches before our last meeting in Virginia City next month. Last week my storyboards went over well and were almost ready to become full size...almost...

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I was very happy about Yuyi's response to my last storyboards. My main character and her grandfather were pretty much good to go and my background scenery supported the characters. On the other hand, my water spirit was not playing her part very well. She was acting a bit like a diva who didn't want to go on stage and the Great Serpent needed to convey more intensity in a couple of the scenes. This was the most difficult set of revisions yet.

I read Yuyi's comments several times and then put them away, planning to get a fresh start in the morning. The next day I stared blankly at my drawings and then...did the dishes. I had 8 changes to make, but I couldn't seem to get started. I was hitting an obstacle and needed to figure out why.

Welcome to illustrator's block. It's really no different from writer's block. You can duct tape yourself to your chair and whittle away at your block or you can take a break and hope that when you come back the block will be gone. I usually do a little of both, employing music as needed to drown out the over-thinking that saps my problem solving skills. I also find developing a strategy to be important.

In order to come up with my strategy, I had to figure out what it was that I was having such a hard time with. I went through each of Yuyi's suggestions again and decided to put an asterisk by the most difficult revisions. Based on my reaction, I expected to put an asterisk by each one. Instead, I discovered that only two were asterisk-worthy. Most of my apprehension disappeared.

My next observation was that some of the scenes did not have to be completely re-done. Only a portion had to be changed in 6 scenes. At that point I knew that the revisions were still going to be challenging, but I knew I could do it.

Back to the library I went, checking out another 30 books or so to add to an even larger stack at home. Some had an essence of "something" that I liked and others played a larger part. I went through each book, putting slivers of post-its on anything that was inspiring or useful for reference. After they all had post-its, I divided them into piles for the water spirit or for the serpent.

Now, of course, I don't have photographic reference material for great serpents or water spirits. For my serpent I had books on many kinds of lizards and snakes and I also had references on other animals. In one scene my serpent had to let out a great roar with a wide open mouth and I wasn't finding anything in the reptilian world that fit. I finally found a bear doing exactly what I needed to get the correct feeling. For the water spirit I had books on goddesses, nature spirits, royalty, asian clothing, cultural traditions, and I had a mirror to fill in the blanks.

Music on, pencil to paper, duct tape in place and I was ready to tackle the revisions. I did all of the serpent scenes first because they were the most challenging. I drew and erased and drew and erased working out how in the world this serpent was going to look from the new angles I was creating. I looked at lizards and snakes and bears. One by one I solved each problem. The most frustrating predicament was the fact that the serpent kept looking like a sock puppet when it was roaring. This is where the duct tape was critical. I knew I had to sit there and keep making changes until it worked. Finally, I discovered, much like a sock puppet, my serpent's mouth did not go anywhere. He had no throat. What a difference it made to add that detail! From there, everything rolled right along. The water spirit quickly lost her diva attitude and stepped out on stage.

I scanned my new thumbnails, spliced them together with the old where necessary, and sent them to Yuyi on Thursday. Once again I did my best and I hope I've reached a new level. It is definitely challenging. It makes all the difference to have a mentor like Yuyi pushing me forward and guiding my work.

If you are viewing this post from outside of it's originating blog, you can read it in its proper surroundings at http://www.aJourneyIllustrated.com.

WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS - THROW A TANTRUM!

2009-09-07T08:36:00.000-07:00

If you've ever run long distance you know that you can't burn through all your energy in the beginning and expect to finish strong. Pace is important. During this program I have worked steadily - though I wobbled for a short period of time by not taking days off. The winning formula has been 12 hour work days with days off - completely off. The rhythm has been a good one; 4 hours client work, 4 hours picture book project, 4 hours current portfolio piece. Life gets even better when I can combine my work with my daughter's activities. Many days this summer I could be found at my outdoor studio on the grass outside the Rec Center pool while my daughter swam like a fish and made up games with new friends. Except for the bugs that became unwelcome characters in my storyboards, those were some of my favorite days. Swim days are over now and I'm back to my indoor studio exclusively. What does this have to do with tantrums? Read on...

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Two weeks ago, Yuyi and I connected by phone to discuss my first storyboard for the finished text. She had a lot to say. The pacing of the story and the way the text was broken down for illustrations was fine, but there was work to be done within the tiny thumbnail images of the pages.

Storyboards are not foreign to me, but the ones I did in the past were very different. When I learned how to create storyboards in college, we did them for commercials. (After all, I would be going into some sort of advertising career right?) After college I did them for court cases to take people through specific scenarios. There was no place for embellishment in these boards - just the facts.

I brought this mentality to the storyboard I sent to Yuyi. All I can say is she is being very patient with me while I shift gears from functioning in the adult world to communicating pictorially with kids. The images I sent her were a literal representation of the words in the story - period. I drew Yen, her grandfather, the water spirit, the Great Serpent, and the benevolent river turtle. Big problem. They existed independently of their environment. There was no sense of where the story was happening. I considered the surroundings in the story to be an inconsequential backdrop. Not so. Yuyi said I missed an opportunity to convey emotion. I left out a very crucial character. I remembered Jane Yolen talking about the importance of setting at the April Conference. She was speaking as a writer, but it is the same for illustrators.

Readers need to be pulled into a scene so they can go there. If there is no there to go to, the readers are gone. I concentrated solely on my characters and figured I would throw in background details in the big illustrations. Yuyi said the river, trees, and sky can all help convey the mood of the scene and in a sense are characters themselves.

Yuyi also encouraged me to throw a tantrum. Finally! Permission to do what only children have dared to do. OK, it wasn't literal...I don't think. This was offered as a way to get into my main character's mind so I could better position her entire body in line with her emotions. When I'm illustrating I often picture a character and their movements in my mind or move myself to get a gesture or expression, but there are a lot more characters to "be" in this project. Not only did I have to "be" the main character, but there was the grandfather, the water spirit, the turtle, and...the Great Serpent! I often listen to book audio while illustrating. This helps create another world for me to travel to while I work. For this project I made sure the book I listened to had serpent-like creatures in it to help with the emotional tone. This made it less necessary to "be" a giant river serpent on city property.

The other thing about my storyboard was that it was emotionally subtle. I hadn't realized that. Probably because I am subtle myself. I suggested that I needed to exaggerate to get the proper emotions. Yuyi was hesitant to agree. Perhaps she was imagining I would go overboard. We both agreed it would be better to tone down the illustrations if I went too far than to have them be flat. Knowing myself as I do, I didn't think that would be a problem.

I set to work, surrounding myself with dozens of beautifully illustrated picture books for inspiration and an equal number of reference photos to draw details from. I drew and re-drew and acted out each character's part in my mind. (No, I did not throw a tantrum on the Rec Center lawn.) Each tiny illustration took a surprising amount of time and even now, as I look at my finished revisions, I wonder if I should have exaggerated more!

I am posting the first storyboard I sent to Yuyi along with the revisions I sent a couple days ago, so you can see the difference between the two. I also made the thumbnails a bit bigger so it was easier to indicate the environment and the difference in size between the serpent and the main character. The first storyboard page spreads were 2.375" x 1.5" and the new ones are 3" x 2.875". Just that little bit made a big difference.

First Storyboard:

Revised Storyboard:

As usual, I showed my work to my daughter before I sent it off to Yuyi. She always likes what I do, but this time she became more animated in response to the new energy in the storyboard. Animated enough? I don't know. Stay tuned.

If you are viewing this post from outside of it's originating blog, you can read it in its proper surroundings at http://www.aJourneyIllustrated.com.

TICK TOCK...

2009-08-07T16:27:00.001-07:00

If you have been here before, you might notice that it looks a little different. The long wait for feedback on my storyboard has given me time to go into the code on my blog to customize some things that I have been wanting to change. Part of working freelance is doing things like this during the down time. It's nice to have the freedom to work it in when it fits best. But you're probably not here to read about the look of my site, so let's get on with the illustration...

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During my wait, I was also able to finish two more illustrations. My portfolio is lacking picture book scenes right now, so I created one of an outdoor market. As you can see here, there is an empty area in the upper right of this illustration. This was designed as a place for the story text to go (see below). The illustration can also be cropped and used without the empty area.

This market scene is a fairly quick study. The first step was to airbrush the entire background with the orange color. Over that I sketched in general shapes with Derwent Graphitint colored pencil and washed over them with plain water to blend. Next I went in with dry colored pencil to add some detail. I wanted this illustration to go quickly, so I kept it loose without a lot of detail.

The other thing my children's portfolio is lacking are black and white spot drawings. This type of drawing can fit many different situations from magazines to chapter books. For this one I started off with an overall gray wash and put the details in with graphite pencil.

Thanks for checking in. I'm working on my folktale illustration now and a new design for my portfolio site. I'm hoping that my next post will include the feedback for my last storyboard!

PAGE BY PAGE

2009-07-20T13:38:00.000-07:00

I didn't wait long for Yuyi's feedback and when I got it I was very excited. Hi Kristen, here are a few comments, very minimal. I think that you should start planning on breaking the text. Based on her comments, I made my revisions and when I was happy with them I was surprised by my subsequent inaction. I sat and sat. I looked at my text. I sat some more. I looked around the house...

This phase was throwing me for a loop. As I stared at my words, each sentence demanded an illustration. After all, I am primarily an illustrator. There are 834 words in my story and approximately 75 sentences. A 75 page picture book was not going to fly. No - I wanted to break my text into 15 illustrations (14 two page spreads and one single page). I decided to ask Yuyi for some tips. Here are a few things she offered to help drive the process:

• Break the text so that it makes the reader want to turn the page to find out more.

• Think of balancing the amount of text on each page spread.

• Think of what makes a different scene every page.

• Think of the different scenes that will develop according to how you break the text.

I printed my text out and began penciling in possible page breaks. It was pretty straight forward, but I wanted a better feeling for it, so I studied some picture books to expose this process even more. I looked at page breaks, observing my feelings at the end of each page. Did I want to turn the page? Did I care? Again this was helpful, but I needed to be more a part of the process. I decided to take "unbroken", published picture book text and see if I could break it down myself. Since I already had the answers - finished picture books - I could then see how close I came.

At this point, I was almost buried in picture books. I chose Stellaluna and The Great Adventures of Wo Ti for my page break experiment because these books are more story-like and have a similar format to the one I am creating. I typed each story into my computer in a big block and printed them out. It was a fun challenge. My page breaks were very close. Stellaluna threw me because I didn't realize it had more pages than a standard picture book until after I divided up the text. Even then I was almost right on. In areas where I missed the mark I was able to study the difference between my version and the published version. It was very enlightening.

This little exercise gave me the insight I needed to return to my own story. Once again I broke down my text while thinking about imagery and getting the reader to turn the page. When that was done I began my storyboard thumbnails.

While doing the thumbnails I discovered areas of emphasis that needed to shift. Sometimes an image seemed too similar to the image just before and I needed to focus attention on a different part of the text for that page. Sometimes I needed to move a line of text to the page before or the page after. All the while it was important to vary the point of view to make the images interesting. Creating a small storyboard is a great way to look at the overall relationships between illustrations. When things looked flat I thought about looking at the scene from a different angle - high, low, side, etc.

So, this time my feedback is going to take a little longer. Yuyi will be gone for a couple weeks. While she is away, I will be working on three other illustrations. I hope to post a finished one soon.

THE STROKE IS FINE - I WALK THE LINE

2009-07-02T13:30:00.000-07:00

In my last post I said I wasn't good at waiting. As it turned out, the alarm bells going off in my head were for good reason. I checked in with Yuyi to see how things were going and she never received my story revisions. She was sitting on the other end wondering what happened to me and if her comments and suggestions made it too difficult for me to keep revising. It took a couple more tries for my revisions to reach Yuyi. Interestingly enough, I had gone to great lengths to make sure my email wouldn't get bounced for looking like spam*. In doing so I probably did myself in.

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After Yuyi got my revisions, I was back to waiting again. So, I worked on a new illustration rough of a Japanese Ocean Spirit for a folktale and started a black and white spot illustration of a wizard's apprentice. I didn't get very far on these new illustrations before I had Yuyi's feedback on my story.

I felt very hopeful that there weren't very many changes to be made. Yuyi said I'd be ready to break the text down for illustrations after I made these revisions...successfully. In a way these were the toughest revisions yet, but I also knew they were the most important. I may make it with this story after all.

Just as there is a fine line between being impatient and knowing that waiting any longer doesn't feel right, there is a fine line between just enough detail and too much. That's what makes it so great to be getting feedback in this program. Often in editing, it takes only a slight change in perception to make things just right. It's easy to overshoot the mark.

Overall, I needed to be more specific in a few areas. In one part, my main character needed some guidance from her grandfather before she could continue on to a conversation with a water spirit. Originally the text moved on, but the lack of guidance was distracting, leaving the reader wondering what just happened. It was a mini dead-end.

In the next scene, the water spirit was a bit verbose and I actually got to cut out a sentence of dialogue! That was easy. Another simple shift followed that one. I needed to change the word "near" to one that expressed exactly how close my main character was to the angry Great Serpent as she approached on the back of a turtle.

The last revisions weren't as easy. I had to define an abstract concept in words that kids could relate to. You know what it's like when a kid asks you what a word means and you struggle to define it without using the word they were asking you to define? That's what I was dealing with. I could feel the meaning right on the tip of my tongue, but I was tongue-tied. I sat with the feeling of the definition for a while, looked at it upside down and inside out. I made many free-form attempts at defining it to get ideas flowing. I'm not sure if I've done it, but I'm hoping I'm close enough to begin breaking the text down.

In the meantime, I'll continue working on the illustrations that I started. I bet I don't get far before I get my next feedback!

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*In my business I correspond with a lot of people through email. People sign up to get my newsletters and there is a lot of back and forth between myself and clients. For newsletters and lengthy correspondence, I check the content of my email to make sure it doesn't look like spam to email filters. There are key things to check for and sometimes I run it through a spam check. Here's one that I use - http://spamcheck.sitesell.com/ It points out problem areas and gives suggestions for ways to fix them. Ironically, it wasn't working when I was sending my revisions off to Yuyi!

WORD WHITTLING

2009-06-18T08:45:00.000-07:00

I'm not especially good at waiting. As much as I try to stay busy, I eventually drift back to my email to check it "one more time" or look in my records to make sure I sent my original email to the right address. Here's a little bit of what I've been doing while waiting for feedback on my revisions.

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After I sent my revisions off last time, I set to work looking for a fully written fairy tale in case my story was still too far off the mark. As a place to start, I made a list of my favorite tales from childhood. Some seemed like they would be fun to illustrate and others didn't. Some of my favorites are Rapunzel, Beauty and the Beast, and Rumpelstiltskin.

There are a myriad of versions for each story. I wanted one that was already in the public domain so I didn't have to worry about copyright. One of the best resources I found was SurLaLuneFairytales. This site has a lot of information, including history and similar tales from different cultures. I was even reminded of stories I had forgotten about. It was like traveling to a far away land.

All of the original tales were very long, so I picked the one I liked best and challenged myself to an editing marathon. Could I edit away more than 4000 words and still have something that made sense?

I started by whittling away at extraneous language. That was easy - there was a lot of that. I even caught myself thinking it wasn't going to be as hard as I thought. After doing a word count, however, I discovered I had a long way to go.

My next plan of attack was to take out events that just weren't relevant to the progression or solution of the story. That wasn't so bad, although there were some scenes that I was quite attached to because of the cleverness of them. Beware of cleverness that has no other purpose! I decided that these ideas could become interesting details in the illustrations.

With each round of editing, the hill I was going up became steeper. I had only managed to take off 2000 words and it seemed impossible to take off any more. I kept going. It was actually becoming difficult to put it away.

That night my daughter had a sleepover and I was determined to get those last stubborn 2000 words off. While she was occupied and giggling away, I kept whittling. After each edit I read through to make sure the story was still making sense. Sometimes words I edited away had to come back.

Then at 1036 words I was at a standstill. It seemed impossible. I knew for my purposes, as a framework for illustrations, this total was fine, but there was something in me that was determined to get the total below 1000 - so I kept going. I became even more focused on simplifying sentences and condensing many words into one.

In the end the fairy tale went from 4991 words to 967. Still a bit lengthy, but I'm happy with it. The process was extremely gratifying. I have always enjoyed editing, but this exercise took it to a new level. I can't wait to do another one. For now, while I wait, I will turn back to illustration. I have a couple illustrations to explore and some characters to develop through sketches. I have spent too long away from my drawing board and I'm looking forward to getting back.

Stay tuned. If you have trouble waiting, I know a great way to pass the time...

ADJUSTING THE VOLUME

2009-06-08T10:58:00.000-07:00

I've taken notice of the fact that time is going very quickly. Long work days are adding to that. If you're used to seeing me around town - you're not seeing me these days! You may have noticed that I extended the contribution deadline. The first 20% of the total was of timely importance because fees were due for the Mentor Program. The next 5% paid for travel and lodging for the first meeting. The rest of the total can trickle in over the course of the program. Thanks to contributions I have been able to purchase the first round of supplies for illustrations. Continued contributions will help me concentrate my time in the Mentor Program with less of those 14 hour day/7 day weeks fitting in clients and program work. My family and I appreciate that greatly. Total contributions as of June 8, 2009 are $1235. I'm so happy to share my work with everyone in this way.

It's not too late to get some great art and help me in my journey. Purchases from Faery Medicine in any amount help as well.
Thank you!

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After I sent my latest revisions to Yuyi, I decided to look for a fairytale that is already written so I have a backup in case my story is too far from being illustration worthy. I originally set out to do that, but I went for a folktale that needed more depth. I will continue to work on the story I'm writing because I'm enjoying it, but my main objective is to finesse my portfolio for children's publishing.

Last week Yuyi sent me her comments on my revisions. Straightforward feedback is something I appreciate a great deal. I have been in critique groups where feedback is watered down for fear of hurting feelings and I have no time for that. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate good etiquette in critiquing, but I'm here to take my work to the next level and there isn't room to take things personally. When Yuyi points out an area in my story that's weak - I'm going to run with it.

Yuyi highlighted the elements in my story that held promise. It starts out pretty well, but it peters out along the way and there are some weak solutions. I needed to turn up the volume on my story ingredients. Once again I wasn't sure how or if I was going to be able to do that. Every time I send my revisions off I think I've got it. That's why Yuyi's experience is so important. She notes where I don't quite have it yet. When I get her feedback I go inside my head and look at everything from varying angles. I remind myself that I know what I'm trying to say, but someone who doesn't know my intentions has to get it right away also. I read things out loud a lot.

I would say that in all my work over the years as an illustrator, most times I am initially stumped for solutions when I get revisions from my clients. Collaboration with clients is a valuable catalyst for expanding my horizons and I love the challenge of looking at things from different angles while still being true to my vision.

Will I have the same experience in writing? I hope so. I sent my latest batch of revisions to Yuyi a couple days ago. In the meantime I will continue looking through fairytale ideas. I grew up loving Grimm fairytales, so that may be where I end up. If you have a favorite fairytale suggestion, let me know.

Signing off for now.

SIFTING THE SOIL

2009-05-25T08:29:00.000-07:00

The last two weeks have been phenomenally busy. May is busy anyway with a birthday, an anniversary, and Mother's Day, but I had to laugh last week (because it's so much better than crying) when every client I'm working with decided to move forward with their projects simultaneously and Faery Medicine retail orders began rolling in. The shifts were long and I was often seen sneaking off to work on my latest picture book edits.

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Yuyi suggested scheduling a phone call for the last batch of edits. There was a lot to go over. I had only planned on illustrating for this program, but Yuyi encouraged me to write as well and I'm glad she did. She is so knowledgeable. Not only can she write and illustrate a picture book, but she can pinpoint very well what is and isn't working in someone else's work. That's not easy. She often asked me questions to get the point across. Why is this part your main character's responsibility? Did this event happen because of something your character did? This put a spotlight on the loose ends in my story.

Writing a picture book has special challenges. At 500-1000 words, you can't deviate from the main idea if you want to have a cohesive storyline. No superfluous details. It is necessary to be thrifty with words without being stiff or simplifying so much that it's insulting. Believe me, kids know when they are being spoken down to. My daughter shuts a book with a snap when this happens, proclaiming, "This writer thinks I'm dumb!"

I digress. I did in my picture book as well. The area of growth for my main character was OK, but I had way too many other ideas working in the background. Each one of those ideas could become a story on its own. It was also clear that I needed to dwell on the conflict a bit more to rev up the tension.

It was a great editing session and my head was swimming when it was over. I will admit that I was overwhelmed and had doubts about my ability to do this. I'm committed 1000% to this program, so what else could I do? I started writing and cutting things out and hitting a lot of dead ends.

My daughter helped keep my sanity in check, pointing out that it looked like a good time to plant the vegetable garden. (Actually, she asked the question, "When are we going to plant the garden?" over and over and over. Same thing.) She was right.

The garden was a big job too. I wanted to do it right for an optimal yield of vegetables, so we set out to sift all of the soil in our 5 foot by 8 foot raised bed. We sifted and sifted, getting rid of the big clunky parts and making sure the worms stayed in with the fine fluffy stuff. That's when it dawned on me that gardening is a lot like writing a picture book. I felt renewed thinking of and feeling the process in this different way. Keep all the good stuff that makes the story flourish - especially the worms - and toss the rest. It was then that my picture book characters began to behave differently as I watched the interaction between my daughter and myself in this long and challenging project we were sharing in the garden.

Yesterday I sent my latest revisions to Yuyi. My hope is not for a perfect edit, but that all the elements will be in place to begin the next phase of the project. I didn't have the luxury of time to storyboard this version - too much overlap between clients and the Mentor Program at this point. Maybe I'll be able to do it while I'm waiting for feedback.

This post is about the length of my picture book so far. One of my goals was to keep it under 700 words so I had leeway in editing. Stay tuned for the next stage of my Journey!

ALL I NEED IS A GOOD OBSTACLE & MORE PAINT

2009-05-10T15:25:00.000-07:00

This is a new thumbnail storyboard for the latest version of my folktale. (If you don't know what thumbnails are check out the May 3rd post.) I expect to do another set of thumbnails when I get feedback from Yuyi. I really don't need to keep doing thumbnails until all the text revisions are finished, but I continue to redo them because it's good practice and reminds me that the lines I make on the paper are not precious. There are many different directions to go in. It's good to keep exploring.

Happy Mother's Day!

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Last week I got Yuyi's feedback on my folktale revisions. Some of the elements I needed were in place, but overall the story needed a more obvious obstacle for my main character to grow from. I guess I had a little conflict avoidance going on. Hopefully I included all the elements in the revisions I sent back.

While waiting for feedback, I've been testing new art materials and making sure I have everything else I need to begin the illustrations. I generally do 4-6 illustrations for Faery Medicine and whatever others clients need every year. Doing a picture book is roughly the equivalent of doing 32 Faery Medicine illustrations, so I need a lot more of everything to get the job done.

I got up before the rest of my family this morning to test out paint. My illustrations are done in multimedia layers. I start on Strathmore 500 Series Bristol by airbrushing general areas of color. Next I stipple with a .00025 mechanical pen to create the darkest areas in my illustration. Last, I finish detail with colored pencil. My aim this morning was to make sure that I had all the airbrush colors I need and to test out new paint that can speed up my process by yielding better color saturation.

My favorite paint to use in my airbrush is Golden Opaque Airbrush Colors because I don't need to use much to produce great color. If I apply too much paint, I can't work on top as easily with colored pencil, so this is important. Yuyi mentioned liking Golden Fluid Acrylics and I found that they yield nice results when I dilute them for my airbrush .

I did a lot of tests using different combinations of materials on various colors and thicknesses of paint. Afterward I placed a nice order to round out my airbrush colors, added airbrush medium and a new type of colored pencil, got bigger bristol board and masonite boards so I can easily begin several illustrations at a time.

I'm back to waiting, but I have plenty to do! I'm sure I will be posting another set of thumbnails soon. Stayed tuned!

WEEK ONE OF THE SCBWI MENTOR PROGRAM

2009-05-03T07:49:00.000-07:00

While I was getting ready for the beginning of the Mentor Program, I was very excited and quite nervous too. I could have done without the unexpected visit to the vet for a wounded cat and the car trouble the day before I left, but it all worked out. The cat only needed a "lampshade collar" instead of surgery and the car...fixed itself. Go figure. I guess it kept my brain occupied. Since my return I have been processing everything I learned at the beginning of the 2009 Nevada SCBWI Mentor Program. (Beetle illustration copyright by Kristen Schwartz)

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I don't know if it was the genius and authenticity of the faculty, the timing, or a little bit of everything that made this the best SCBWI event I have been to over the years. (Of course, Suzanne Morgan Williams and Ellen Hopkins did a brilliant job organizing it!) Overall the tone was hopeful and the information accessible with each presenter giving lots of examples for better comprehension.

I have read and read about illustrating picture books and gone to conference workshops, but there is nothing like being in a small group with the luxury of asking lots of questions. I was able to get answers to questions that had been worrying or hindering me in some way. Some questions seemed silly to ask, but from my roots illustrating botanicals, notecards, and logos, children's publishing is a foreign land with lots of mysteries. Each question was treated respectfully and seriously. (Not to say there wasn't plenty of humor.)

Yuyi Morales walked us through her picture book process from beginning to end and Laurent Linn, Art Director at Simon and Schuster, took us through his process of art directing a picture book. Laurent Linn said that children's publishing is an industry that truly cares about children. I would take it further and say that children's publishing also gives generously to the people that aspire to work in the field. No wonder it feels like home.

It's a humbling experience to start over as an illustrator in a new genre, but with Yuyi Morales mentoring me, it feels obtainable. In our first meeting I shared the "thumbnail storyboard" of my folktale. If you are unfamiliar with thumbnails or storyboards in this context, they are a very very rough and small map of the layout of a picture book. I wasn't completely happy with my first layout. I guess you might say it wasn't consistently magical. It became clear after talking with Yuyi that I needed to think from a different point of view to stir up the visual magic. That night I woke up and realized that I was in the middle of rewriting my folktale. I continued on - awake this time - taking out the elements I didn't like and emphasizing the ones that I did. In the end I felt more connected with the story.

Laurent Linn gave a presentation on the difference between picture book illustrations and non-picture book illustrations. He presented examples of both - comparing and contrasting - emphasizing the fact that picture book images are not static. They make an emotional connection with the viewer and tell a story. They are also not portraits. This presentations was pivotal for me. My illustrations for Faery Medicine are character studies for the stories that accompany them and are not necessarily for the children's book industry. They are definitely more in line with portraits. As I pondered more of my work, I had to laugh when I remembered that I used to call my botanical illustrations "botanical portraits". What Laurent said clicked. I get it. It's the big simple secret that was right in front of my nose...the one in the portrait.

I could go on and on listing every pivotal moment. The truth is, every moment was pivotal. Even listening to writer Jane Yolen affected my illustration process. I looked forward to hearing her speak because I like her work, but I was surprised at the outcome. It was truly an amazing conference.

Since I've been back, I sent Yuyi the rewrite on my folktale and I'm waiting for feedback before I do another thumbnail version of the illustrations. Well, actually I already did another one. I was too excited not to, but I expect to do another one after she reads my rewrite as she will probably have suggestions for revisions and pacing on the story. It's all good practice. So, I leave you with my most recent storyboard inspired by a Vietnamese folktale. Stay tuned for more!

(Horizontal lines on the page represent text placement. The vertical line down the middle of the illustrations represents the gutter or space between pages.)

MENTOR PROGRAM BEGINS APRIL 24th!

2009-04-23T12:29:00.000-07:00

Update: I have received several contributions by mail and I'm not able to update my Chip In Widget manually, so I will do it here. I am now at $1110 in contributions, which pays for the first leg of my journey. Thank you again so much!

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This is a quick study of some kids from different cultures I did to begin developing a style for tight deadlines. I will be doing some color work-ups along the way to pursue this idea.

The Mentor Program starts tomorrow - yikes! - and I have been quite busy getting ready. From here on out I will be adding posts more regularly to chronicle my journey. Here is what I have been working on in preparation for the program:

I picked a Vietnamese folktale to illustrate as a picture book.
I have done character studies of my main character.
I collected reference materials and information on the region and culture I am illustrating.
I created a small storyboard of the picture book to go over with my mentor.
I compiled a list of other children, animals, and scenes to illustrate for my portfolio which I will also be going over with my mentor.
I have been working on a quicker style for tight deadlines.

I will be in workshops all this weekend including one with Art Director, Laurent Linn from Simon and Schuster. He will be doing a portfolio review, so I've made sure that everything is in order. I'm looking forward to the additional feedback.

That's it for now. I will have plenty to say next time, after my first meeting in the Mentor Program.

MYSTERIES OF THE MIND

2009-03-18T12:44:00.000-07:00

I have spent a good deal of time over the years looking at the possibility of illustrating picture books and then running the other way proclaiming that I was just not a picture book artist - even though I have secretly wanted to be one for a very long time. I have gone to SCBWI conferences, read books on the process, and poured over stacks and stacks of picture books long after my daughter was interested in them herself. (There goes my alibi of checking out all those books at the library for my daughter!) I sat through portfolio reviews with children's publishing professionals and told them I was not a picture book illustrator. One reaction both puzzled and intrigued me. Several years ago children's illustrator rep, Christina Tugeau, answered my comment that I was not a picture book illustrator with, "Someday you will be." What did she see?

The process of illustrating a picture book baffled me. When I would attempt it, I always experienced this awful shift in imagery. Very different from the imagery I got when illustrating concepts for Faery Medicine. I always chalked it up to my not being right for the job.

When I was accepted for the SCBWI Mentor Program, I was prepared to declare my suitability to illustrate for older kids and stay away from the picture book genre. So, when my mentor suggested doing some picture book illustrations for my portfolio - I stood up and declared I was ready for the challenge - to face my fears - to conquer the process. What? That's right. I couldn't get away from the fact that even though I was not yet able to get through the process without losing my visual voice - I really really really wanted to be able to do it.

So, I set to work looking for stories that fit me - my voice, my style. First stop - folktales from around the world. I read and read. The ones that resonated with me the most tended to be Asian and I found one that featured a hardworking girl with skills in using medicinal plants. Bingo. I read through the story several times to get a feel for it. Four beautiful images came into my mind. Next I sat down to create small image ideas for the remaining 11 spreads and I hit the wall again. My first images were very dream-like and flowed well, but when I looked at the words again to work on remaining images, I felt a mental shift and got very stiff, mundane imagery. Baffling.

"Blueberry" a literal interpretation

Yesterday I finally figured it out. I have a sort of dual personality in illustrating styles. I work in two different genres that employ different parts of my brain. I illustrate both scientific literal ideas and abstract concepts. Words - if there are too many - put me in the scientific, literal area of my brain and the imagery is quite different there. It is devoid of dreamlike quality and definitely part of the real world.

Something I read in Uri Shulevitz' book Writing With Pictures helped me put it all together. He explains the difference between a picture book and a story book. A picture book needs illustrations to accompany the words to help them make sense. A story book can stand alone without pictures. Sometimes pictures books start with imagery and the words are written later. When I looked at the picture book equation in those terms - without the words - it all made sense. If I rely on words too much - my interpretation becomes too literal and mundane. (Interesting for me to have missed this correlation since I talk about brain function in my sketching workshops!)

"Tree Faery" a dreamlike concept

So, next I will do one of two things - isolate key concepts in order to illustrate the existing folktale or create the imagery and then write the words. I generally create imagery first and text second when developing characters for Faery Medicine. It's funny that I thought I was working backwards by doing this. All along I was working in a picture book fashion. Just like the Wizard of Oz - there's no place like home and I was already there.

GOALS AND DREAMS

2009-03-01T13:01:00.000-08:00

This was a difficult week for me. My friend, Melissa Lanitis Gregory, died suddenly on February 24th. As difficult as death is for the living, it brings valuable reflection that can result in profound gifts. We will all miss Melissa and her quest to bring the community together through art.

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As I finished this illustration of Nepenthes bicalcarata - aka Fanged Pitcher Plant - I also sent my goals and dreams off to my mentor, Yuyi Morales. I sat with my ideas for a long time and this is what I came up with - I want to inspire children with my art, make words come alive, and transport onlookers to amazing lands through imagery. I also want my income to come from doing this. What a concept. What a dream. As a concrete way of achieving this, I want to develop my portfolio enough in the Mentor Program for this to happen. OK. Seems pretty straightforward. : )

One of the objectives Ms. Morales suggested is to do some illustrations for a folktale or other type of story that fits my style. I'm drawn to cultural stories and I've been researching them all week. If you have a favorite cultural story that you would like to suggest, you can email me or leave a comment and I'll take a look!

Now I'm off to finish the other client illustration I am working on!

THE JOURNEY BEGINS

2009-02-11T14:48:00.000-08:00

Even though the Mentor Program hasn't started yet, the journey has begun. I am getting all my ducks in a row - finishing current illustrations and getting art ready to send to contributors. The contributions have made it so much easier to be focused and get ready for what needs to be done. (Thank you so much.)

My mentor, Yuyi Morales has given me my first assignment. Now is the time to go inside and look at my biggest dreams and decide what my goals are for the program. This is more difficult than I thought it would be. There is so much. It is clear that I need to prioritize and pare down what I want to do in that 6 month block of time. It will be here in no time.

Fortunately, I have one of the best occupations for thinking while I'm working. As I am finishing up Nepenthes bicalcarata and the castle garden, I will wander through my thoughts and dreams, completing my first assignment to help my mentor guide me to my goals.

For more information about contributing to my Journey, go here.

FUNDING A JOURNEY

2009-02-08T18:37:00.000-08:00

As an illustrator, I have always wanted to do more with my art - give back in some way by inspiring others - especially children. For the last several years I have been developing a portfolio to enter children's publishing in order to follow my dream. The work paid off. Out of a pool of applicants through the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, I was chosen to work with award winning illustrator, Yuyi Morales in the 2009 Mentor Program. It is an amazing honor and opportunity.

Perfect opportunities don't always come around when they're easy and I don't have the funds available for this one right now. I've never been one to give up, so I have come up with a creative way to share my journey, pay for the program, and replace income from illustrating when the program and work overlap. I am selling "shares" in my journey and will be sending more than double the value in my artwork to contributors at the $35, $50, and $75 levels. (Contributions to my Journey in any amount are very welcome.)

$35 LEVEL
6 - Notecards (Your choice of images from my online portfolio.)
1 - 8x10 Signed Limited Edition Print (Your choice from the images I produce in the mentor program. I will only produce 75 - 8x10 prints from each image.)
TOTAL VALUE: $87

$50 LEVEL
1 - 5x7 Signed Print (Your choice of images from my online portfolio.)
12 - Notecards (Your choice of images from my online portfolio or Mentor Program images.)
1 - 8x10 Signed Limited Edition Print (Your choice from the images I produce in the mentor program. I will only produce 75 - 8x10 prints from each image.)
TOTAL VALUE: $122

$75 LEVEL
1 - 5x7 Signed Print (Your choice of images from my online portfolio.)
12 - Notecards (Your choice of images from my online portfolio or Mentor Program images.)
2 - 8x10 Signed Limited Edition Print (Your choice from the images I produce in the mentor program. I will only produce 75 - 8x10 prints from each image.)
TOTAL VALUE: $187

HOW DO YOU CONTRIBUTE?
1. Click on the ChipIn button below and you will be taken to a secure payment page where you can pay by credit card or Paypal.

2. After payment, I will contact you by the email address you used when paying to find out which images you want so that available images can be shipped right away. (Images can be seen at KristenSchwartz.com) Mentor images will be available after the program ends in October 2009 and can be chosen as soon as they are posted on this blog from April to October. (Make sure to follow my journey!)

In addition, I will be asking contributors (of any amount) to name favorite objects, fantastical creatures, and other ideas to work into the illustrations I create in the Mentor Program. I will work in as many of the top 5 ideas that I can. I want you on the journey with me!

Please email me if you have any questions at all.
Thank you for your support!
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COST SUMMARY

Before I came up with an amount to raise, I had to get really realistic with just how much it would cost to participate. From April to October, I will be traveling twice and I am committed to working 20-40 hours per week on Mentor Program projects (at least 480 hours over 6 months). Here is a summary of my projected costs:
$1425 for the program, travel expenses, lodging for spring meeting, and childcare while I'm gone (5 days total).
$ 900 or $225 for every $1000 raised - to produce prints and notecards, shipping, and processing fees.
The remainder will help offset income from illustrating when the program and work overlap.

Please email me if you have any questions at all.

JOURNEY TO THE UNKNOWN

2009-02-01T17:10:00.000-08:00

Each of us is on a journey made up of ever smaller journeys that weave an amazing story. This blog will chronicle an odyssey - one that I have wanted to take for a very long time. I have been to the edge of this mysterious forest where the journey begins many times, dipping my toe into the cool stream, only to hurry back to the path I already knew, forever dreaming of what would happen if I ventured into the unknown.

December 2008 I jumped across the stream and headed into the forest to see what lie ahead...

Above is client illustration in rough stage by Kristen Schwartz.