2012 Austin SCBWI Conference

The Austin SCBWI 2012 regional conference was a first for me—I’ve been to loads of conferences, but never in the capacity of a volunteer. My illustration critique group, the Girllustrators, sponsored the portfolio showcase. In addition to helping plan, prep and set up the portfolio room, we accepted portfolios and monitored the room throughout the conference. We also prepared goody bags for visiting faculty, shadowed Art Director Extraordinaire Patti Ann Harris, timed portfolio critiques and shuttled editors to their hotel. I had to miss some of the wonderful conference presentations, but it was worth it for the chance to get to know the faculty a little better. All in all, volunteering was quite fun and I was glad to have had the chance to participate.

Girllustrator volunteers: me, Emma Virjan and Lalena Fisher

There are already some great blog posts about the conference by Cynthia Leitich Smith, Nikki Loftin, Austin SCBWI, Salima Alikhan, ARA Carmen Oliver, and the Writing Barn. I’d like to focus on the less-covered illustrator’s perspective (although you can read C.S. Jennings’ report Illustrator Advice here).

Patti Ann Harris, senior art director at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, was absolutely wonderful. Patti Ann studied to be an illustrator (She’s illustrated books written by the fabulous Diane Muldrow, who also spoke at the conference.) and began her career in children’s books as a designer of novelty books (board books, cloth books, pop-ups, touch-and-feel, etc.) at Cartwheel, an imprint of Scholastic. I love that she has experienced book making from all angles! She moved to Little, Brown to head up the novelty division and also took over picture books. Her passion for novelty books informs her design of picture books, too, and has led to such innovative titles as Look! A Book! by Bob Staake, with its surprising and fun die cut design.  Patti Ann and her staff at Little, Brown work with their illustrators to develop ideas for new books, which is great to hear. She’s also dedicated to hiring illustrators at all levels of their careers and helping them find their path. I was lucky enough to have lunch across from Patti Ann and she described her role as a sort of coach to the illustrators she works with. She is a down-to-earth, hard working, smart, and super nice lady and I am honored to have had the chance to spend time with her.

Patti Ann Harris and Diane Muldrow discuss the art director-editor relationship.

Some of the amazing books that Little, Brown has published recently are: Peter Brown’s Children Make Terrible Pets, Shark vs. Train by Austin’s own Chris Barton, the Caldecott winning The Lion and the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney and Caldecott Honor Book Me…Jane by Patrick McDonnell.

Patti Ann spoke of the importance of keeping a sketchbook and researching picture books to see what’s selling in today’s market. She feels that drawing skills, the character and gesture in your style, and conceptual thinking, the meaning and message in each picture, are paramount to one’s illustrations. Patti Ann is looking for picture books with layers to them; ones that cover more than one topic, tie in with a holiday, or combine two beloved subjects.

On a personal note, I had a portfolio critique with Patti Ann and she was very supportive. I’m trying to reinvent myself as an illustrator right now, since the last several years have been spent collaborating with my husband on non-fiction books (with a tight, realistic style) and I don’t want to return to my previous work (a very time consuming, painstaking oils on scratchboard technique). I’m trying to find a fresh new style that I enjoy and is also marketable for picture books. Patti Ann thinks I’m on the right track and encouraged me to keep experimenting. She suggests working with 4 or 5 projects at once so that I can take a break from each. She felt the strong points of my portfolio were the expressive lines, the mixed media, and patterns that have been added digitally. It was really helpful to hear. Thanks, Coach! (She also gave props to the Girllustrators for being a support system for one another in this often isolated profession. Gooooooo Girllustrators!)

Illustrators at the volunteer thank you party: Girll Amy Farrier, Jeff Crosby, Girll Marsha Riti, me, C.S. Jennings, Diandra Mae, and Girll Lalena Fisher.

Added to my personal library at this conference: The Tiptoe Guide to Tracking Fairies by Ammi-Joan Paquette, The Crossing by Donna Jo Napoli, We Planted a Tree by Diane Muldrow, and Rosie Sprout’s Time to Shine illustrated by Girllustrator Patrice Barton (Patrice has a brand new website! Check it out here).

And lastly, the art raffle was a huge success. Here’s me with author Kari Ann Holt after she won my print!

Harness Horses, Bucking Broncos & Pit Ponies Launch Party

My newest book Harness Horses, Bucking Broncos & Pit Ponies: A History of Horse Breeds hit the shelves last month! And to celebrate, Jeff (my husband and collaborator on the book) and I threw a horse-tacular book launch, art show and po-neigh par-tay!

PHOTO BY BETHANY HEGEDUS

The party was held at The Writing Barn, owned and operated by author Bethany Hegedus and her fiance Vivek. Books were supplied by the local independent bookseller, BookPeople. (A shout out goes to Ann Hartman, a BookPeople employee and friend of ours who sold books—not in an official capacity, but just as a favor to us. Super nice! And also to my mother-in-law JoAnn Crosby, who took over for Ann when she had to skedaddle to work.) We had a great turnout with neighbors, friends, students (Jeff and I both teach art classes), the Austin kid lit community, and the general book and horse loving public!

PHOTO BY BETHANY HEGEDUS

But the most special of all of our special guests were seven miniature horses (and their owners and handlers) from the great organization Minis & Friends. These mini horses work as therapy animals, visiting adults and children with special needs. We were happy to raise some money for them while we celebrated!

PHOTO BY TODD BOYUM

We worked really hard in advance, organizing the event, framing art, printing out posters for sale, and creating stickers, coloring sheets and bookmarks as freebies. We also made stick horses for the kids to take home, and lots of food! Here are some more shots from the festivities!

First things first. The sweets: candy apples, pumpkin cupcakes and s’mores whoopie pies. Plus, below, some regular food…and a cow skull. The skull was supposed to be part of a lasso competition for the kids but it never made it onto the hay bale before the party. Oops. It works as kind of a vegetarian totem, I suppose. (Both the Writing Barn and I are vegetarians!)

Next, some art! Bethany cleared out some shelves in the Writing Barn to display originals. Many folks told us later that this was their favorite part of the event. I kind of wish we would have thought to bring sketches, too, to show our process. Phew, so much to think about before a book launch!

PHOTO BY BETHANY HEGEDUS

The view from the Writing Barn loft.

PHOTO BY BETHANY HEGEDUS

We signed books…

PHOTO BY BETHANY HEGEDUS

…unloaded some bookmarks and stickers…

…sold some posters…

..spotted some celebrities (Bethany Hegedus, PJ Hoover & Jessica Lee Anderson) inside the barn…

PHOTO BY BETHANY HEGEDUS

…and out (Julie Lake, Mark G. Mitchell, Patrice Barton & Mary Sullivan).

PHOTO BY BETHANY HEGEDUS

But most importantly, kids had fun! On the animatronic horse…

…playing horseshoes…

…riding stick horses…

PHOTO BY BETHANY HEGEDUS

…removing heads from stick horses…

PHOTO BY BETHANY HEGEDUS

…coloring horses…

…and drawing horses!

PHOTO BY BETHANY HEGEDUS

But the best thing by far, and the reason most kids probably came, was…

PHOTO BY TODD BOYUM

Mini horses!

PHOTO BY TODD BOYUM

Mini horses!

PHOTO BY TODD BOYUM

And more mini horses!

Turns out horses are popular with adults, too!

PHOTO BY TODD BOYUM

And, okay, the Harness Horses book gained a following, as well.

PHOTO BY BETHANY HEGEDUS

At the end of the day, the mini horses got some watermelon!

Brought to them by their biggest fan, my own little cowgirl Harper!

Thanks so much everyone who took part! It was a great day! We’re glad you helped us celebrate! If you missed it, pick up a copy at Amazon, and to tide you over till it arrives, here’s a free coloring sheet!

Girllustrators Good News!

My fellow Girllustrator Patrice Barton has had art from her book Mine! (by Shutta Crum) accepted into the Society of Illustrators Original Art show, which showcases the best illustrated picture books of the year. This year the society selected artwork from 150 books, out of almost 600 submitted. This is definitely an achievement to be proud of, and well-deserved by Patty. If you’re in New York between October 26 and December 29, be sure to stop by the Society to see the show. It will definitely be worth your time! Click here to see the book trailer for Mine!

By the way, The Girllustrators (my illustration group) now has its own blog! Exciting, right? Now you can keep up with the group even if I forget to tell you about it here!

The Girllustrators Night on the Town

Amy Farrier (left), Marsha Riti (right) and I (the middle of the Girllustrator muscle sandwich), celebrated Marsha’s fantabulously exciting news: she has signed with an agent at Prospect Agency! Hooray, Marsha! It’s no wonder Marsha got signed, since she has the biggest muscle of the three of us! (Does anyone else suspect that she is pushing it up from behind?)

Marsha’s new picture book The Picky Little Witch will be released in August. And on October 15th, just in time for Halloween, she’s going to have what is certain to be an amazing launch party in Austin for the book. I better start working on my witch costume! For more details on the launch, check here.

So why are we flexing in this photo, you might ask? Well, being in this group of mighty women illustrators reminded brand new Girllustrator Emma Virjan of Rosie the Riveter, so we decided to play off of that great moment in girl power for our upcoming blog. Obviously, we’ve all got the right amount of enthusiasm, but do we have the muscles? At least one of us (me) needs to hit the gym before the real Girllustrators photo shoot. I’ll keep you posted! It’s gonna be great!

Goooooo Girrrrrllustrators!

Awesome Austin: 1st Installment

I feel so honored to live in this city that is filled with creativity and humor. I’m fairly new here, as I may have mentioned, and I see things on a daily basis that make me laugh and get the creative juices pumping. They aren’t necessarily related to children’s books, but I thought I’d start a regular feature on the blog called Awesome Austin to share some of those quirky Austin sights. Here’s the first installment…

Every time I drive by this car in my neighborhood it makes me smile. I love that the owner of this car took what was probably a stressful situation and turned it into a moving homage to comic book sound effects. Genius. And they actually did a pretty skillful paint job, though I do feel that they should line that tire up each time they park.

Critique Group Advice

Donna Bowman Bratton posted interviews with several children’s book authors on the subject of critique groups. I am one of those authors! You can read the interviews here.

A Book in a Month? The Story of the Brightest Little Star

Last September Jeff and I were hired by the ad agency red&green in Colorado (where we were living at the time) to create a children’s book as part of a Christmastime promotion for Compassion International. Compassion seems like a great organization. They find sponsors for children around the world and this book was to go out to those sponsors as a special Christmas thank you. Each book would be custom made to include the sponsored child’s photo and bio in the front.

This was a rush job—they needed the text and art in one month—and we were supposed to be finishing our history of horse breeds book, so we were apprehensive about taking it on. But the pay for the 24 page book was the same as our 72 page horse book, so it seemed silly to turn it down. Plus, it sounded like fun: we could work together on it, write and illustrate, and we do love a challenge!

The folks at red&green were charming, enthusiastic, sweet and smart. They gave us great direction—The Brightest Star would be a story of the star that led the wise men to Bethlehem and an analogy for the children who are able to shine brightly because of the help of their sponsors—and sent us on our way to create! Perfect!

After leaving their office, we realized how little we knew about this historical event. We went straight to our local Castle Rock library, where a couple of my favorite librarians frantically helped me to research the story of the birth of Christ. It surprised me to find how different the historical account of events is from the traditional stories that we hear at Christmas. That’s when it struck me: I have just agreed to write a bible story! Is that allowed? I’m no disciple! This was my biggest illustration-related moral dilemma since deciding whether or not to participate in the Playboy illustration competition back in grad school (Jeff won said competition both years—no dilemma for him). I figured since it’s not actually going in the bible and the goal is to raise money for starving children, it would probably be okay. But still, I didn’t want to write anything that I know to be historically inaccurate (aside from the anthropomorphic star, of course), or go against the traditional story, or to inadvertently offend Compassion or their clientele. It actually turned out to be great fun blending history, tradition, imagination, and compassion while incorporating a new, simple yet formal voice appropriate for a religious publication. We got some good feedback from our wonderful critique group, which also gave us the confidence to present it to the client without the time to let the text sit. (As other writers will agree, at some point in the process you’ve got to put the work away for a while and come back to it later with fresh eyes.)

As for the art, Jeff and I modeled for reference photos in our basement studio. I was the angel and he was the wise man (not our everyday roles). We wore the closest things we had—no time to shop for costumes! But here comes the big kick in the pants: It took them much longer to approve the text and the sketches than we had hoped (September 15th) and then they realized that they needed the art a week earlier than originally discussed (Sept 20th). Say what now? For those of you who can’t do simple math: we had 5 days to paint the entire book!

Jeff and I painted in shifts or sometimes together when we had a babysitter (Thanks, Mom! Thanks, Jo!). In the end, they were very happy with the story and art and, we’re told, the book was a big success. So, why am I just now blogging about this? It took forever for us to get a copy of the finished product! Just last week we finally received our very own copy of the book. It was like a child returning home after many months. I remember you. I remember you well.

The biggest bummer is it’s not a book that people can go out and buy. I’m actually quite proud of the work we did, especially with such a tight deadline. I’d like for you all to see it and I doubt I’m allowed to post it. Here are two spreads so you can get an idea. If you want to see the whole thing, you’ll just have to come over sometime…

The Girllustrators Go to the Zoo!

This title kind of sounds like a Curious George book, eh? Well, the Girllustrators is not my next book idea—it is actually an illustration critique group. Being new in Austin, I really wanted to connect with some other female illustrators for feedback, group-imposed deadlines, and, well, just to get to know some local gals in my profession! So I contacted a few that I met at the last (my first) Austin SCBWI conference and we formed the Girllustrators. And we’ve picked up one or two other Girllustrators since then. It’s been great fun, and I’ve learned a ton from them already.

Marsha Riti, Amy Farrier and I took our first Girllustrators field trip to the San Antonio Zoo for some drawing, followed by some yummy Tex-Mex and margs. What a great day! I’ve really missed location drawing–it was one of my favorite things to do back in my grad school days when I had time for it (and rollerblading)–so I am very grateful to have some new buds to do it with. I can’t wait till we do it again. Here’s a couple of quick sketches from our day:

I love using toned paper to give you a middle ground. Then I work with pigma pens of varying sizes, some sepia grease pencils and some white colored pencil for heightening. My daughter Harper also joined us, so she loaned me a green crayon to add some algae to the cayman’s face, below.

On October 8, some of the Girllustrators and I are presenting a panel discussion on Children’s Book Illustrators and Technology for the Austin SCBWI Storytelling in the Digital Age: Embrace the Change technology symposium. We’re going to talk about how we use technology in our own work. And there are lots of other great presenters scheduled, too!

Left to Right: Amy Farrier, Marsha Riti & me!

One Day at TLA – Part III: Dan Yaccarino is Awesome, But is he Stalking my Dog?

Dan Yaccarino is awesome. I’ve had more than one opportunity to hear him speak and I adore his books and television shows. Both his words and his art are filled with humor, intelligence and humanity.

Dan’s show Willa’s Wild Life is my daughter Harper’s absolute favorite. And have you read Unlovable? Oh man, my whole family adores this book. “How could anyone not love his curly little tail?” Harper asks, every single time we read it. We were really excited at the TLA this year to add the super cute Lawn to Lawn, with its tale of left behind lawn ornaments, to our collection of autographed Dan Yaccarino books.

BUT, ever since I first watched Dan’s hit TV series Oswald, I’ve been a little suspicious. You see, the show’s main character, Oswald, is a big blue octopus with a constant companion, Weenie, a wiener dog. This scenario was a little too familiar to me.

My dog Baron, a wiener dog, has long had a blue octopus companion. Baron and his octopus have the most amazingly special relationship. When he was a pup, Baron suckled the octopus as if it was his mother. He slept with his mouth around the octopus. He barked with his mouth around the octopus. He carried the octopus from room to room to room with him. And when he got his head stuck in a Kleenex box, he chewed a hole in the end of box so that he could still carry the octopus from room to room to room with him. To this day, our weenie dog is devoted to his big blue octopus.

Coincidence, you say? Well, after watching the show for the first time, I thought that the most obvious explanation was that Dan must also have a wiener dog at home who is an octopus devotee.

I was enormously happy to finally get the chance at TLA to ask Dan about it. Do you have wiener dog at home and, if so… “No,” said Dan.

Bummer.

So, the question still remains, if Dan hasn’t actually witnessed this magical and strange cephalopod-canine relationship, how in the world did he come up with it? I can only think of two possibilities:

1. Dan Yaccarino is a creative genius.

2. Dan Yaccarino is stalking my dog.

I’m not sure which answer I’m leaning toward, but, either way, Dan Yaccarino is still awesome.

One Day at TLA – Part II: Picturing Greatness

As you may have learned in my previous post, two weeks ago I was lucky enough to catch the panel Picturing Greatness: Picture Books that Stand Out in a Crowd with Morgan Marie McMillian, Dan Yaccarino, Chris Barton, Eric Rohmann and Kevin O’Malley at the Texas Library Association’s annual conference. This panel was the highlight of my day at the TLA because it was reassuring to me that all is right in the picture book world and because these guys are really funny. It’s no wonder they are so popular with children.

Traditional versus technology is the topic of debate at most, if not all, book conferences these days. And this panel was no exception. They passionately discussed the future of traditional books in this futuristic world of ebooks, apps, and time travel. Oops. Not time travel. Obviously, at that point we can stop speculating on the future of books and just see for ourselves.

The standard argument of picture book traditionalists, that children will miss the feeling of the weight of a book in their hands, was thrown out the window by the futuristic Dan Yaccarino, who cleverly quipped “at one point in time there was someone who missed the weight of a scroll in his hands…And someday someone will miss the dong of their computer starting up.” Which kind of sent me into my own internal panic…computers don’t dong in the future? Dan Yaccarino, do you have a time machine you’re not telling us about???

So are picture books dead, as the New York Times tried to tell us a few scary months back? According to the panel, and I tend to agree with them, ebooks are just another vehicle for storytelling. Picture books will change, as they always have, and the market for them will change, but the two media offer children something unique from one another. Can we breathe a collective sigh of relief and agree that these will be two different yet equally viable markets for storytelling and picture making?

This reminds me of the discussion in my History of Printmaking class in college, when the professor told us about the public reaction to the widespread use of intaglio printing. Critics cried, “Painting is dead!” I was surprised by this because, let’s face it, these are two totally different media. How could one possibly replace the other? Well, the argument was that printmaking could deliver a faster, less expensive product to the masses, and many painters abandoned their brushes to work in this exciting new technology that could make them a quicker buck. Sound familiar? But in the end, they are both beautiful crafts that endure today. It’s not a perfect analogy, I know, but I take comfort in it.

As far as traditional illustration versus digital illustration, a similar consensus was reached. Though some panelists prefer the tactile sensations of brush to paper and others the unlimited options of stylus to tablet, most agreed that as long as the art tells the story in the best way possible, who cares how it was created? I think the medium of snot on crackers was mentioned, but as I am new to blogging, my reporting skills are still rudimentary. I promise to focus more on this type of important details in the future.

In the discussion of style, a couple of excellent points were made. We hear so much in the illustration field about style and I was glad to hear some top illustrators say this: go ahead and play, grow, experiment. Kevin O’Malley says that he changes his style to match each book. He feels his job as an illustrator is to marry the pictures with the text. Since every story is unique, why wouldn’t your art for that story be unique, too?

Dan Yaccarino made a distinction between style and technique that is spot on: the way you draw figures, animals, etc. and the way that you design a page is what defines your style. Think of it as a “drawing style.” Your style is unique to you and no matter what technique, or medium, you use it will show through. I think that’s a nice clarification. Often we get those two confused.

So go ahead and mix it up, people! Don’t sacrifice your artistic growth and a book’s uniqueness for consistency of style. Of course, if you don’t have any books under your belt, you do need to still focus on making sure that your drawing style shows through in your portfolio.

Other noteworthy comments from the panel include Eric Rohmann stating that a picture book is a collaboration with the reader. Most of us have in mind the collaboration that goes on between author, illustrator, editor, art director, marketing, and the list goes on, and we know (or hope) that someone out there is reading our books in the end…but do we spend enough time thinking about including the reader in our process? This was a nice reminder to keep the audience in mind and engage them in your books.

I will end with my favorite piece of anecdotal advice of the day, which came from Kevin O’Malley on the subject of critique groups. Rather than sitting around with a group of boring old adult authors or illustrators, drinking coffee and sharing feedback, Kevin likes to spend his time at the playground chasing after four-year-olds, yelling, “Read this!”

Should I try it?