Here is the promo I submitted for my 1/2 page I get in the 2010 CTN-X Animation Expo in Burbank in Nov.
This Expo is dedicated to animation only and is the most unique and well put together and best talent and industry attended event/expo of it's kind in animation period. I'm so happy I will have the opportunity to have a table at this 2nd annual event once again. Last year was great and I know a lot of animation folks that missed it last year will be hitting it this year.
DISCOUNT
If you would like to attend you can get a 10% discount by using my promo code: HAFRX10
This will give you a 10% discount on any 1-day or 3-day general pass at CTNX when registering online. Register
If you like animation, work or want to work in animation this is the event to go to. Check out more information on their website. This event is created by animation folks for animation folks and the whole animation industry. CTN-X Animation Expo
I went to a figure drawing session at Gallery 800 in North Hollywood co-organized by Gallery Girls and Hollywood Art Director Guild. A fantastic session with great people, food, and amazing models dressed to the theme of Gone With The Wind. Most poses were 20 min. I used Marker & Ink. I had a lot of fun experimenting.
I have no clue what drove me to illustrate this except that there was some tools and inking concepts I wanted to experiment with in Manga Studio EX. Maybe I'll do more in this fashion ink style. Hope you like.
I came up with this silly idea one night while I struggled over what to draw a comic about. I penciled it out and decided to redraw it in Manga Studio but keep it very simple & organic looking.
Here are my notes from day 4 of the SCBWI summer conference in LA:
DAY 4
I went to a workshop by John Parra. I did not take any notes but I was struck by his talent, kind nature, pragmatic approach to his career in illustration and it was easy to see from his work and personality why he is successful in illustration. See the link below to his website:
http://www.johnparraart.com/
I also went to a workshop by Loren Long where walked us through the creation of his book “Otis” and talk about the children’s book industry as well. Here are some notes I thought were worth sharing:
Get your work in front of the people who have the power to hire you.
Own your manuscript. Be fully invested.
If you are illustrating someone’s else’s words you need to believe in it and love it or at least some part of it that will inspire you and your best work. Doing it just for the money will show in your work. This can be hard for a first time illustrator because you want your foot in the door but this is very important.
Tackle huge task (like illustrating an entire book) one bite at a time.
Try to look for the grand design and mood first; not the details. Set up the emotion first like a movie.
Your relationship with your publisher is a 3 way relationship; you, the AD and the editor.
You can sometimes ask for the Editor to break up a manuscript for you page by page if you feel you need help.
You can start to break up a book by dividing the text into 16 or 17 pages as a start and or let the flow of the book come out as you do your sketches.
Developing the character is more about posture.
Worry about how your pages are going to layout in the final book later after you get your drawings down. The size, portrait/landscape etc can be determined later. Sometimes your sketches will help to determine this.
Some links Loren mention:
William Low’s work:
http://www.williamlow.com/index.html
The Do’s & Don’ts of building your illustration career - Steven Malk Owner of Writers House – An agency representing writers and illustrators of children’s’ books.
Steven lives and breath's children's book publishing and is the 3rd generation in a family that own children's book store. He has a lot of pragmatic advice to give.
DO
Do your homework:
a)What are other illustrators in the field doing
b)Learn what came before you.
c)What made the classics
d)Stay up with what is contemporary and popular (but follow your voice, heart)
e)Understand why something works
DON’T’S
Don’t look for short cuts (You need to make a long term commitment to illustrating for children’s books)
DO
Do think carefully about your portfolio.
Select your pieces carefully.
Every piece should count.
There should be logic to your portfolio. It should make sense.
Think about what you want to viewer to experience and feel when they look at it.
The whole is greater than the parts.
Consider the atmosphere of your portfolio.
Should have character & personality
Your portfolio and the pieces should have strong design and layout sense, perspective, etc.
DON’T
Do not use the same portfolio pieces for multiple fields. Know who your audience is and pick your pieces that make sense and show your unique voice.
Do not ask publishers to make big leap. They are going to be spending a huge amount of money to produce a picture book and they need to feel confident that you can pull off the art work that will bring the story to life with your unique vision in collaboration with the author and the publisher and it will make a profit. And hopefully this first book will be the start of a longer trusted relationship.
You need to show that you can clearly work with the principles of a published children’s book.
Good idea to illustrate from a public domain children’s story to show how you handle sequential storytelling and other art skills required for a publisher to trust in you.
Your Website:
Should be clean, organized, easy to navigate.
Does it represent you. IS it distinctly you or could it be any artist.
Try making your promo post card with sequential art
Attend as many conferences and professional workshops as you can about children’s book publishing.
DON’T DABBLE:
Is this a career or is this something you want to do on the side (dabble) while you work in animation, illustration, greeting cards, etc. Steven was very emphatic about this as he was last year when I heard him speak and he is right. Although he represents artist that do work in other art fields these artist are still committed to children’s book publishing and it is a serious part of their career path 110%.
DO:
Do develop your own point of view.
Have your inspiration and DO mention them in your query letter, but have your own point of view.
Query Letter:
Mention who you like.
Describe your work.
Be Professional
Link to your website
Publisher really DO like writer/illustrator’s these days.
SCBWI – DAY 2
(my notes from some of the workshops and main stage speeches)
Portfolio workshop:
Find out what the rules are and then figure out a fresh new way to break them.
The Shape of our Stories – my notes from a SCBWI speech by Marion Dane Bauer:
All stories are about desire.
Reaching for a climax.
Know what the resolution will feel like.
Stories are about struggle.
Your characters desire needs to be your desire.
It’s nice when a story rises up and comes through you.
The emotional resolution is your truth.
If something is a huge part of you or belief if will come up in your stories again and again.
Pursue Your Passion - my notes from a SCBWI speech by E. B. Lewis
What happens when inspiration dies. E.B. Lewis spoke about a period of over a year when he had no more desire to paint or do any art for himself. There was no more inspiration.
Fine artist take a problem and tries to work it out.
Being an artist means leaving something behind that someone can use.
Artist should fill ourselves to overflow and give it all back.
Graphic Novel – workshop by Nick Eliopulos who is an editor at scholastic:
Would rather work with writer/illustrator. Would make the negotiation and the creation of the published book easier.
Up to 200 pages is fine but they do go higher.
(sorry I did not write down much for this workshop)
Sweat & Magic - my notes from a SCBWI speech by Gail Carson Levine:
No idea is stupid within a list you make. Write them all down.
Some good suspense builders:
1) Time pressure (ticking clock)
2) Distance
3) Thoughts (looming thoughts)
4) Nonstop action
5) Setting
6) Separation from problem (what is the enemy doing while the hero is away)
7) Main character’s flaw (his or her flaw could be a ticking bomb i.e. character goes crazy whenever he is called weak)
8) Secondary character flaw
9) Expectations
10) Isolation
11) Disaster
12) Something is lost and the character must get it back or he thinks he must get it back
Predictability
Why do we re-watch and re-read stories that we already know the outcome to?
Random.
Have a character ask another about their thoughts and throw in a disaster to surprise everyone.
Character development
A good tool is to see how each character would handle the same chore differently, i.e. getting ready for school, packing for a trip, etc.
Revision exercise
Pick out a scene from a book you dislike and re-write it.
What type of stories are you re-telling over and over.
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 1st 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.
Love can almost feel artificial with all of today's communication gadgets. I drew & colored this in Manga Studio. I tried to keep the lines more natural and had a lot of fun with all of the digital inking. This image is actually the revised illo. The other one had a text phrase that did not make much sense and was most likely incorrect. I think the text background works much better with the idea of the illo.
