#PBDummy Challenge - Step Five: Render Tight, Full-Sized Sketches

Today we start step five of the Picture Book Dummy Challenge.  I feel like this is the point of the challenge where things get serious....and I guess it is. These are the drawings that are going to make up our #PBDummy. There are 8 weeks for this step. Last year, somewhere during those 8 weeks I lost my mojo and didn't make to step six. This year I am bound and determined to keep up and make it through.

How is everyone else doing on the challenge? Let us know in the comments below or tell us about your progress on our facebook page.

As with the previous steps I encourage you to read the step five post from last year's challenge at the kidlitart blog where Bonnie Adamson gives some great links to resources that will help us through this phase of the challenge.

If you would like to learn more about the 2013 #PBDummy Challenge you can learn all the details here. 

And please check out our participants here.

#PBDummy Challenge Step four - half way mark

Half-way through step four and I have a rough storyboard down. I am sure I'll spend some more time tweaking it this week, but I'm feeling pretty good about the majority of the pages. This morning I spent some time going through the spreads, making sure that my compositions left enough room for the text.

Here is a snap shot of what I've accomplished thus far - my story is written, my characters are coming along and my storyboard is nearing completion. It's pretty amazing, when one lays everything out, to see all the work we have done in just a couple of months.

For some more inspiration, please check out last year's post by Julian Hector at the kidlitart blog.

Here are the other participants in this year's #PBDummy Challenge.

#PBDummy Challenge - Step Four: Storyboard Text and Art

Is it possible we are already at step four??!! This is going way too fast for me. I did not have time over the past fourteen days to draw hundreds of sketches of my characters, but I think I have 'found' them. They may need a little tweaking here and there, but that's okay. We must press on, so on to storyboard text and art!

Here's the link to last year's entry on the kidlitart blog. Be sure to read the link to Tara Lazar's blog entry where she explains the construction and layout of a children's picture book, it's really interesting and helpful in clarifying why we typically make a 32 page storyboard.

Also, once again I'm going to draw on the wisdom of Lynn Chapman who was interviewed by Shoo Rayner  about creating her storyboards.

Finally, for some inspiration check out the blog of illustrator Carolyn Fisher, who has posted her storyboard map (as shown) for download here.

This step is also just two weeks but sets up the framework for everything that comes after, so good luck my friends!









If you would like to learn more about the 2013 #PBDummy Challenge you can learn all the details here.  If you would like to join us in the challenge, please do! Join us by commenting on this same page.

Also, please check out all out participants here.

Lastly, a big thanks to everyone who participated in our tweet chat last week! There was lots of positive feedback and many expressed a desire to hold these regularly. So let's try again this Thursday at 7 MST. If you feel you need some guidance on how to participate in a tweet chat, please refer to this post.

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. 

2013 Official #PBDummy Challengers

I have been thinking I should make an easily identifiable list of all those participating in this year's challenge. So please find all our challengers below...
(I have enjoyed looking at your blogs and websites as I've collected this list. What a talented group!)

Pooja Srinivas
Sylvia Liu
Di
Gina Perry
Dorothy Dinnigan
Donna Jeanne Koepp
Male Salas
Pia Drent
Mark Mitchell
Joanne Roberts
Joy Corcoran
Nadia Luv Roldan
Robin Howard
Michele Katz
Shawna Tenney
Jenn Bower
Kendra Shedenhelm
Charlie Eve Ryan
Sheri Cook
Tiglizzyclone
Blissful Pumpkin
Anne Fraker
Becky
John Garrett
Jim Larson
Akiko White
Jehanne
Iwan Peter
Screenwriter
Mary Flynn
Amy Blake
Mary Livingston
Felicia Lilley
L-marie
Monica Izvanariu
Laurie J. Edwards

 Total challengers: 37

Tweet chats

This Thursday (February 21st), I will be hosting a tweet chat for those participating in the 2013 #PBDummy Challenge and anyone else who wishes to join us. We'll be focusing our chat on character development.  Please follow the conversation with the hashtag #kitlitart, from 7-8pm MST Thursday evening.

For those of you who just read that sentence and much of it sounded like gibberish, let me explain how a tweet chat works...

Firstly, anyone can follow a tweet chat, but to participate you must have a twitter account. If you don't have one, please take the opportunity over the next few days to set up an account so you can participate in our discussion.

Secondly, a hashtag like #kitlitart or #pbdummy is simply a topic tag that is included in a tweet (a message).  Hashtags allow followers (other readers) to quickly find these topical tweets/messages on Twitter. During our tweet chat, everyone participating will need to add the hashtag #kidlitart to their tweets (twitter messages) so the rest of the group will be able to search and follow them.

Regarding searching for #kidlitart tweets during our chat, you can manually search for messages using our hashtag, but it's much easier to use tweetchat.  Tweetchat is a web application linked with Twitter that does all the searching for you. All you need to do is sign in using your twitter log-in and password and enter our hashtag where it says "enter hashtag to follow" at the top of the page. Tweetchat will automatically search twitter and populate your screen with all current messages using the #kidlitart hashtag, it's that simple. Additionally, Tweetchat will add the hashtag #kidlitart to the end of  your tweets so you don't have to manually type the hashtag.

You may find your first tweet chat a bit frustrating, it's what I imagine a conversation must be like when one is completely wasted - you have to piece together responses but you'll get the hang of it, so be patient while you adjust to it.

Between now and Thursday please think of any questions you have regarding character development and add them to the comments below or save them for Thursday evening.

Looking forward to our first 'chat'.

Lisa

Step Three: Character Development

Congratulations on drafting your story! And now on to one of my favorite steps in the process...character development.

In preparation for this step I have been collecting some YouTube videos of my favorite picture book illustrators sharing some of their wisdom and experience  developing their characters.

Will Terry 
Lynne Chapman
Patrice Barton
Emily Gravett


Additionally, please check out the #kidlitart website for two wonderful blog entries character development, first here, then a guest post here.

And of course for more information and links on this and all other steps in the PBDummy making process for $5 you can snag a copy of Wendy Martin's "How to Make a Picture Book Dummy in 9 Easy Steps" on her website.

Do you have a favorite website or videos that provides guidance for character development or is just simply inspirational? Please post links in the comments below. 

As an extra note, I think it's time to start thinking about tweet chats at #kitlitart. I am out of town this Thursday, so let's plan to have our first tweetchat session on Feburary 21st at 7pm MST. For those of you who may be new to twitter, I'll post some instructions next week.

Have fun creating!!

Winter Chickadee

I am not yet ready to call myself an illustrator. It still feels dishonest to me. But perhaps I've come one step closer.  I have been a member of 'Drawing Tutorials Online' for a couple of years now, it's a fantastic site and if you are looking for an online art class it's absolutely the place to be.  In January I entered a DTO contest. The theme was "Winter" and the only rule was that the image had to be a black and white image drawn in graphite or col-erase pencil.  I participated simply for the experience, with no expectation at all of winning.  

The winners were announced a few weeks ago and the three finalists' work was AMAZING! I wish I could share them on my blog, but alas they are on a private site for the students at DTO and I don't think I'm allowed to snag them.

The most amazing thing about the contest for me was that I received an honorable mention!! I am still on a high from Matt's comments about my image - so complementary and encouraging. Best of all he thought this image/style really fit children's book illustration.

So thank you Matt Archambault for your encouragement and making me feel like I might just have it in me to be a children's book illustrator one day...

2013 'Unofficial' #PBDummy Challenge - Week three of Drafting the story

Well, my story is coming along but I continue to struggle with the the wording...too many words...too little words...the balance of words and pictures....

This afternoon I received an e-newsletter from Julie Hedlund. You may be familiar with her 12x12 challenge. You can visit her website for more details on it. It was a fabulous experience last year and although I am not participating this year, if you are a serious kidlit writer, don't pass up the opportunity to avoid the 'slush pile'!...I digress...this afternoon her e-newsletter left me inspired. She wrote about an experience meeting an agent at a SCBWI conference last year and the advice which she received.

Juile wrote -
"One thing Stephen said more than once at the conference was that he needs to be able to “see” a picture book before he can take it on. That doesn’t mean you have to be an illustrator, but that he likes language that is so vivid that it creates a strong visual impression. When I asked him if he had any particular guidance to give 12 x 12 members in their submissions to him, this was his response:

“For me, I am always looking for craft in language. Beautiful language gets me every time. The picture book market is tough right now, so writers need to know that their picture books need to be one-of-a-kind, original, fresh, strong, and inventive. Most publishers these days are looking for character-driven stories. And, please keep in mind, as Maurice Sendak said, you need to ’leave room for the pictures.”

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.