Tag Archives: SCBWI

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

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Here is the completed version of Snow White. Like I posted earlier, I finished it the night before the conference, just in time to get it into my portfolio for the view. I thought I would post some of the observations that Laurent Linn made about my portfolio

First the areas for improvement:

  • I need to work on making the character’s emotions very clear. Children don’t know how to respond to a picture unless it is very clear how the character is responding
  • I need to capture moments, not paint portraits of characters “doing” things
  • I need to keep working on the details, like clothing, personalities, hairstyles, etc
  • I need to work on the stiffness of characters, make them more dynamic
  • Work on getting viewers to ask “what comes next?” get them to turn the page

And the things I’m doing well:

  • Everything was “beautifully rendered”
  • The paintings were composed very well
  • He really like snow white and told me to send him a postcard of that, which of course I will do right away!

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SCBWI Summer Conference

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Yesterday was my first day “back” after the summer conference up in LA. I have to say, I am totally amazed with how much priceless information I took in over four days. I have 21 pages filled with notes, because I know I will forget so much, and have to go back and remind myself. But it was completely worth the money to go.

I think this conference was perfect for me. I have done a lot of research and reading about the process and business of publishing children’s books, but there are somethings that you may not learn about until you are actually doing it. I loved Adam Rex’s session on picture book layout “32 Pages of Awesome.” He passed out a sheet with a bunch of terms defined, half of which I knew already, and half I had never heard before. What the heck was a colophon? (Its the publishers logo on the spine of a book.)

My portfolio review was wonderful. I had the honor of sitting down with Laurent Linn who is the an art direct with Simon and Schuster. He gave me great encouragement and pointed out the areas I can improve on. He liked my latest painting of Snow White the best, which I had finished Thursday night before the convention. I also got very good responses during the portfolio show. I ran out of postcards very quick, and had to break out my backup stash.

Here are some of the nuggets of truth I gleaned over the weekend:

  • Just do it. Give yourself to write/draw crap, at least you are doing it.
  • Everyone starts as a beginner
  • Everyone has self-doubt
  • The time to write your first book might be NOW
  • Don’t wait to be discovered, take an active role in your own career
  • If you CAN write as well as illustrate, do both. Its easier to find you on the bookself

And my favorite piece of wisdom from Adam Rex: ” You don’t always have to shoot for the stars. They wouldn’t call it bottom feeding if there wasn’t food down there.” Well, technically my favorite quote of the whole weekend was from Cecilla Young, imparted late one evening during the illustrators’ social …but she said she would kill anyone who blogged about it. :D And I believe it would be wise to take her at her word.

And here is my poor attempt to capture some of the speakers in my sketchbook:

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Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Part 2

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I would like to get this image done in time for SCBWI, so I am working hard on it. You should notice that is has changed significantly from the sketch. I felt that the house behind her just wasn’t working compositionally, or colorwise. So I re-worked the background, and put her into a forest.

The seven dwarfs are going to be challenging, but fun. I just hope I can get it done in time.

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Deadlines are my friend

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Over the last month and a half, I have learned a valuable lesson. Deadlines work.

I am a procrastinator by nature. If I don’t have a solid deadline for something, it takes me forever to finish. If I have a long deadline, I still put it off until the last second. The last few weeks have been very busy for me. I have been working on several illustrations for a children’s book, finishing some commissioned sculptures, while trying to get ready for the Doll and Teddy Expo, beginning a new picture book project, AND getting ready for the SCBWI LA conference (portfolio review, show, etc). About two weeks ago, I started to freak out. I couldn’t see anyway that I was going to get everything done.

But here it is, and 90% of everything is done. The sculptures out the door, the illustrations completed, the picture book sketches done. My dolls for expo are 90% complete, and I suddenly I realize that I actually have 9 days to polish up my portfolio for SCBWI instead of a day or two as I feared.

The reason I was able to get everything done, is because I have some very serious deadlines, that were constantly on my mind. So, for the last seven weeks, I’ve been working my butt off, every evening, and on the weekends when I could. It was the fear of disappointing paying clients that put my procrastinating monster in her place. It was very tempting to watch marathons of CSI and Project Runaway in the evening… but those darn deadlines wouldn’t let me.

I’ve also learned how important it is to set mini-deadlines. I might have several weeks to accomplish something, but if I tell my client that I will have this portion done by this day, and this by this day (and get paid at each point) that keeps me from putting things off until the last minute.
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Tomorrow is my last day of “work.” Monday morning, I begin freelancing full time. I am very excited, and terrified. But I have faith that I can do it, and that God always provides.

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