SCBWI - Summer Conference in LA - DAY ONE

As many do I took notes if I ever attend any art related conference.  I went to the SCBWI Sumemr conference in LA that end last week and wanted to share some of my notes from the 2 workshops I went to and just a few words about Loren Long's keynote speech.  So here we go:

SCBWI Day 1 - Putting Together your Portfolio for Children's picture book publishing.

This work shop was run by Lauren Rille who is a Senior Designer at Simon & Schuster.  Please note that some of her tips are based on her opnion and may not apply to others in her position in the industry.  Either way I think there are some excellent tips:

3 things she looks for in a portfolio:

1)      Technical ability

2)      Composition

3)      Narrative quality

Technical Ability:

Draftsmanship

Command of drawing

Age accuracy

Consistency

Hands

Believability

Composition:

Perspective

Fun

Different

Narrative Quality

Charming

Unexpected

Remember that 3 people need to be convinced of your ability to illustrate a book; the Art Director, the Editor and their Boss.

For Lauren Rille it comes down to 1 or 2 pieces that sell you as the illustrator although all of your pieces need to be strong.  She needs to feel that she can successfully push 32 pages out of you.  Simon & Schuster does some times ask 1^st time illustrators to do spec work BUT if they are not hired to illustrate the book they will pay their artist for their spec work and if the artist is hired to do the book it is considered a wash.  They never expect an artist to work for free.

Your Website:

Keep it simple.

Less is more.

Images should load fast

Blogs are good to show the fun side of the artist or process and learn something about the artist as a person.

Contact link on every page of your website is a good idea.

Tireless self promoter

The section with sketches can be fun and revealing but it is most likely only icing on the cake not the main thing that sells you to an AD.

Agents/Reps

Sometimes Art Directors prefer to work with reps because they can make their life easier, but if an AD does not like your rep and this can work against you too.  You need to weigh the pros and cons.

Postcards:

Lauren Rille  is personally not a huge fan of them (but most other people who spoke at SCBWI did like them).

Freebies are cool.

Something new and unique to you.  An artist newspaper for example can be fun or some other tactile visual experience.  These type of things can be hard for an AD to toss out because they can see the personal unique touch.

Do NOT do shotgun emails.

Do the research and hit the AD’s that have a history of hiring artist that you like and fit your voice or style.

Your email should have a clickable single image of your work on it that promotes you and make it easy for the AD to click and be taken to your site.

ART TECHNIQUES FROM DAVID DIAZ

David demonstrated a fine art piece that he had started on masonite that was really fun to watch and gave me a lot of ideas of new things I could try in my work that might help give some of my work different look.  It was also cool to see him use some things that I already use that I stumbled upon myself.

The piece he work on in the workshop already had a few dry coats of paint on it.

He then drew on it with charcoal, sprayed varnish, painted ink on it (Radiograph ink), painted over that with clear Gesso, let it dry and continued to add more layers.  The point of this demo was to show some techniques and the ability to layer your work that folks might not be aware of that will hopefully inspire you in your own work

LOREN LONG

Great inspirational and funny key note speech.  The one line he said at the end that I really liked was: “What do you want to give this world.”  I love that quote and it is important because that is what we are doing as artist.  I think some of us have a tendency to treat our art as a self indulgent thing, but if you are expressing yourself you are giving to the world.  And even if the world does not care for your art the feeling or emotion you give out in doing your work is important in itself and in my opinion makes the world a better place to live.  The more we are all doing what we were put here to do the more freedom we give others to do the same.