getting back into the groove

I have been a real slacker on my blog this month...well I can't honestly say I've ever been very consistent. But I was listening to an interview yesterday on CBC where it was said that consistent writing makes you a far better communicator in general, and I could use some help!  At 42 I'm feeling like dementia is setting in already - words constantly escape me. Some say it's just mother's brain, and I hope they are right!!  But perhaps writing will help too.

I continue to find great little tidbits online that would be so helpful to go back to regularly as I educate myself in writing and illustration. This morning my surfing lead me to Brian Lies' blog where he focuses on sharing his characters and his process...really neat work!!

#PBDummy Challenge - Progress on Step 5

Three weeks into step five, and admittedly I don't have much to show for it yet. This is the step where I fell off the challenge last year, and non-completion is not an option this year! My boys have had spring break and we've enjoyed Easter which has been wonderful, but has put me off my regular schedule. However I'm recharged and hopefully mentally prepared to get things done over the next five weeks.

I re-read Mark Mitchell's 2012 post on the kitlitart blog which has put me in a better frame of mind. Mark is so good at encouraging his students/readers and offering baby steps through the process. So hopefully following his wisdom I'm going to be a proud owner of a full-sized dummy by May 5th!!

My biggest challenge is not letting the rest of my responsibilities take over my drawing time. Lately life continues to steal that time away. Where are you finding time to illustrate? Do you get up early? Stay up late?...I'm curious.

(loving this sketch by Mark Mitchell)

Wishing the rest of you challengers luck over the next 5 weeks!!

LT

An evening of fun and inspiration

Every once in a while if we put ourselves out there we encounter amazing opportunities to grow and to be inspired.

A number of months ago I was surfing the web, reading blogs of successful local illustrators. I came across this photo - it's a picture of the first inaugural 'sketch club' at Mike Kerr and Renata Liwska's new art studio, whose name is "sketch club" - how cool is that?   In attendance at this inaugural sketch club evening were five illustrators, Renata and Mike along with Carolyn Fisher, Jacqueline Hudon-Verrelli and Byron Eggenschwiler - all of them successful illustrators.  Additionally, Renata, Carolyn and Jacqueline are published children's book illustrators. I had crossed paths  previously with many of these fine artists- Carolyn and Jacqueline were former instructors of mine at ACAD years ago and Renata and Mike were guest speakers during those classes.  So, when I saw this image I couldn't help think to myself, "How does one get invited to a sketch club night??!!"

Apparently, all one must do is ask. I later summoned the courage to email Mike and express my interest in attending a sketch club night and guess what? Last week I got an invite.

What a fun evening! I was certainly out of my element being an amateur among these professional illustrators, but they were all so welcoming and encouraging. It was a similar group to the first sketch club - Renata, Mike, Carolyn and Byron. We sketched for 3 1/2 hours until I had numb bum (there is some physical training involved in drawing for hours, who knew?) and  had to excuse myself to get home and pack as my family was leaving for a 5 day vacation the next morning and I hadn't started the packing process yet.

I left sketch club on a high that has lasted all 5 days of our family vacation, and learned a bunch of priceless nuggets from the experiences they shared.  All in all an absolutely neat experience to spend an evening among illustrators. 

Wow this is challenging!!

To those of you participating in  2013 "Unofficial" #PBDummy Challenge, how is it coming? I am finding step two really challenging. I am not a writer. I love my idea and I think it has lots of potential, but this writing business is WAY more difficult that one might expect if you've never sat down to write a children's book.

So this week I turned to a professional for advice...Mem Fox. I love her books and her website  offers some great guidance for would-be picture book writers - 'So you want to write a picture book' and   'Twenty Do's and Don'ts'.  If you need some help yourself you may want to reference her articles too.

If you have been on our fb page you may have noticed Pia's question and link to Tara Lazar's blog whose guest blogger Tammi Sauer writes about common 'structures' used in picture books. It's definitely worth a read.

create your own success

Here is a really great post from The Visual Storyteller's Studio. It's an interview with Bas Waijers who among other thing turned a struggle with publishing a picture book into a successful experience creating a app.  I loved his advice at the end of the post. So much so that I'll include it here:

"Strive to be as good as you can be. And draw as much as you can draw. Each and every drawing makes you better as an artist, never worse. Always keep learning more and absorb the world around you because anything can inspire you. Sketch and save your ideas. And then sketch some more! Put your work out there in the world for people to see. Don’t keep it to yourself! Have a strong and clear online presence. Be objective and only show good work.

Define what you are most passionate about and focus on that, whatever it is. Because that’s most likely what makes you unique.
And most important: Make Believe!"

Character Design Exercise

One of my favorite character designers is Peter deSeve - how can you not!  Recently I took out a compilation of his character designs from the library, both me and my children looked through his sketches over and over.
I think that coming up with creative characters are so challenging. I suppose it comes with practice, but to really think outside of the box is even more of a challenge.On that note, today I came upon a post with an amazing idea to do exactly that - think outside the box and create unique characters.  Here is the exercise ! Thanks to Letters From Schwarzville for posting!...note not only is this a great exercise for illustrators, I think it would be a fun challenge for grade school kids. Heck, I'm going to save this for a fun rainy day activity from my children.

Creativity

Need I say more...

Marla Frazee

Tonight I discovered this interview with Marla Frazee where she talks about her journey to becoming an award-winning Illustrator. She has some other great video links on her website.

Patrice Barton

Patrice Barton is not only a great illustrator, but from some interviews of her that I have seen, she is so genuine, sweet and kind. Here's an article she wrote recently about her approach to illustrating a picture book vs. a chapter book.


In addition, here's a link to an interview she did with Mark Mitchell where she talks about her process as she created her new book Sweet Baby Moon.

Video clips on illustration

I happened upon a great video this week, an interview with Polly Dunbar with was both interesting an inspiring. She talks about her process and offers some advice for new illustrators.

One piece of advice was to draw all the time. She compared drawing like running, which I can related to, and said that as with running you have to draw all the time to get better. A week away on holiday and it takes a bit to get back to where you were in your drawing. And she certainly has taken that advice to heart herself, I was amazed by the stack of sketchbooks she had filled as she worked on her characters etc for her books.









And then of course, I can't get enough of Quentin Blake, so here's a little clip from him as well.

Visual Notetaking

Have you ever heard of it?? I wish I knew about this when I was in University. It's a cool idea that I want to learn more about. Especially for my kids - if they could master the skill of visual note taking it might make a real difference to their education - at the very least, their notebooks would look super cool!

http://sunnibrown.com/visual-note-taking-101/

Video of Sunni Brown's presentation
http://vimeo.com/15171177

How To Be a Children's Book Illustrator

As a part of this journey into the field of illustration I recently joined a new online class - How To Be a Children's Book Illustrator (HTBACI), a class built and taught by Mark Mitchell. It's been a motivating experience thus far and I am really excited about the things I will be learning there paired with my continued work at DTO which is a fabulous website so deep with video instruction that I think I will happily spend years as a member.

What I enjoyed this week at HTBACI was the sharing of information by both Mark and the other students of the online community. This week I watched a number of inspiring video clips and articles.

Here are a few and what I took from them.

A video of Alicia Padron painting one of her lovely watercolor characters. I was surprised to find her use so much pencil to shade her character after it was painted. It worked so well!




An article entitled "Why We're Still in Love with Picture Books" by Allyn Johnston and Marla Frazee which speaks to the future of picture books and why we will always want them around - the impact they have on us and our relationships with the children we read them to.

“As we share the words and pictures, the ideas and viewpoints, the rhythms and rhymes, the pain and comfort, and the hopes and fears and big issues of life that we encounter together in the pages of a book, we connect through minds and hearts with our children and bond closely in a secret society associated with the books we have shared. The fire of literacy is created by the emotional sparks between a child, a book, and the person reading. It isn’t achieved by the book alone, nor by the child alone, nor by the adult who’s reading aloud — it’s the relationship winding between all three, bringing them together in easy harmony.”



Members of HTBACI also had the opportunity to watch an interview Mark did with an illustration duo - Jeff Crosby and Shelley Ann Jackson. They talked about their experience as students and getting in to the business, shared some of the books they have published and the process they went through - the research, trying to get the books published etc... as well as offering some advice for those just starting out. Some of the take-aways for me were draw all the time - go to figure drawing classes and draw on the street. Draw what you love and make sure to include those subjects you are passionate about in your portfolio as publishers will ask you to draw then things that they see in your portfolio (if you want to draw dragons, makes sure to incl those kind of pieces in your portfolio). Join a crit group, go to conferences and don't be shy - network with the presenters as well as other illustrators, you never know what work can come from those important connections.

...so there are some tidbits of learning for the week. Not bad eh??!

Grandma Moses

One of my favorite blogs is Sugar City Journal. Lynne wrote a post about Grandma Moses that is inspiring. What an amazing lady - started painting at 76, lived to 101 and in that time became a rather famous American painter.

I loved this description of her process...

"Grandma Moses did all of her painting from remembrance of things past. She liked to sit quietly and think, she once said, and remember and imagine. "Then I'll get an inspiration and start painting; then I'll forget everything, everything except how things used to be and how to paint it so people will know how we used to live."

and her philosophy...

"I look back on my life like a good day's work, it was done and I feel satisfied with it. I was happy and contented, I knew nothing better and made the best out of what life offered. And life is what we make it, always has been, always will be."

How to Steal Like an Artist

Today I came across a really inspirational post entitled "How to steal like an artist" by Austin Kleon. I find it fascinating and encouraging when I read about the processes of others. Of course even the best artists get inspiration from others, but somehow we newbies think that others generate their ideas all on their own.

Lynne Chapman

Lynne Chapman posted another video, this one about sketchbooks and the love of drawing...I had to add this as well today since I find her inspirational!

Lynne Chapman on Sketchbooks from Open College of the Arts on Vimeo.

The Process

I find it amazing that artists will take the time to outline their process to tackling a project - it's such a helpful tool for newbies like me. This week I have come across two artists who have great information to share (and interestingly both Chapmans) - Katriona Chapman and Lynne Chapman who has two great videos posted. A big thank you to artists like these who are willing to share!!

How to illustrate a book - Part 2 from Open College of the Arts on Vimeo.

Emily Gravett

I just can't get enough of Emily Gravett. I think she is such a wonderful illustrator - I love her work, I love her stories, I love her personal story. Recently I came across a couple of YouTube videos that for me were both inspirational and instructive - I really enjoy seeing how illustrators work.



and from the Rabbit Problem:



In the Rabbit Problem video Emily Gravett uses a cool Photoshop tool to extract her sketch, a tool I had never seen used before, so I did some Google searching and found a tutorial here.

Stoked

I am starting a new project yet to be published, but the images in this cartoon so cool and inspirational.

Dear Maria Count Me In from hook music on Vimeo.

Sketchbooks

Well since the birth of baby boy 3.0 I have not had or taken the time to keep up on my blog. I certainly have the intention to get back into it, but right now it's still a little busy. I have been reading lots though and got a great book from the library yesterday which I am finding inspirational. It's called An Illustrated Life by Danny Gregory, and is a compilation of images of sketchbooks from various artists/illustrators etc... They have each written a little about their approach to sketchbooks and I am loving it all-just so inspiring.

I have always wanted to keep a journal but am very poor at doing so. I have also wanted to sketch everyday. This has inspired me to do both at the same time.

Daily Doodles

The weeks I came across a blog I hadn't seen before by Dani Jones. In fact Dani has a number of blogs, all of which are fantastic, full of info and inspirational. Her sketch blog is filled with "Daily Doodles" all of which she posts at the end of each week; something that I am going to start to incorporate into my daily activities in addition to my weekly IF posts.

As an additional note from Dain Jone's website - for a time when I am ever ready to try and get some professional work - she has found Hire and Illustrator (Hai) to be a worthwhile online portfolio service.