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9:05 AM , , , ,
I'm so excited to have Author/Illustrator, Tina Kügler visit KidLit Artists today!  

Tina is the illustrator of THE CHANGE YOUR NAME STORE by Leanne Shirtliffe, NO MORE BEIGE FOOD, also by Leanne Shirtliffe, the co-author/illustrator of IN MARY'S GARDEN, and the author/illustrator of her most recent book, SNAIL & WORM: THREE STORIES ABOUT TWO FRIENDS.  

I've been a huge fan of Tina's work for many years and I loved learning more about her books and  her process.  I hope you will, too!   


Please tell us a little about SNAIL & WORM.

One of the reviews described it as "cheerfully screwy," which is the best description I could come up with. It is three stories about two characters, Snail and Worm.

My youngest was really struggling when he was learning how to read. I was trying to find something for him that was simple enough but also funny, where there was the payoff of a gag or joke that he would get as he was slogging along through the words.  I couldn't find what I was looking for, so I wrote it!

There's a part in the last story, where Snail has a misunderstanding, and the animal that is pictured is not the one described in the words. For kids just starting to read on their own, they all get the joke, it's a reward for working their way through the story.

I chose these characters because most kids can find them outside. They have limitations, for example, snails are slow, so it helps set up the gags. Of course the snail is racing against a rock, or a stick, it's the only time he can win a race.


What was your process like for SNAIL & WORM? As an author/illustrator did
the story idea start visually or with the text?

I always think visually, the words come after. It's like, I'm a storyteller, not a writer. From working in storyboards for animation, it actually comes to me as scenes from a film before anything else. SNAIL & WORM's text came out as all dialogue. It's like a puppet show, the way it is staged, it's flat.




For your book, IN MARY’S GARDEN, you collaborated with your husband,
Carson Kugler. What was the collaboration process like? How did you arrive
at the finished images?

Yes, and we are still speaking. ;)

We both come from a background in animation storyboarding, so it helped us tremendously in collaborating. In animation, artists work in teams, no one person takes ownership of a cartoon-- it is passed back and forth and everyone does the thing they do best. So we treated it like that, we bounced thumbnails back & forth until we agreed. Then we did roughs, and each of us would do a pass, again & again until we agreed.

Mary Nohl used found objects, and essentially other people's garbage, in her artwork-- so I scanned found papers like old receipts, vintage postcards, old dictionary pages, and coffee-stained paper to use in our collaged illustrations.

Carson would trace our roughs onto watercolor paper and paint the main elements with watercolors. I prefer to draw and paint on my tablet, so I scanned in his paintings, and layered them with the found papers and my own digital paint.

For the final step, I drew on top of everything with a lot of hatching and shading.
We created something together that neither of us could have created individually. The difficult part was retaining Mary Nohl's personal style and design motifs as well as our own styles.






What were your favorite books as a kid?

WHAT DO PEOPLE DO ALL DAY? by Richard Scarry.
A GREAT BIG UGLY MAN CAME UP AND TIED HIS HORSE TO ME by Wallace Tripp. He is my all-time favorite illustrator, just masterful. He also did SIR TOBY JINGLE'S BEASTLY JOURNEY.

I would get lost in ANNO'S JOURNEY by Mitsumasa Anno, I spent hours staring at the spreads. It inspired the background hatching in both IN MARY'S GARDEN and SNAIL & WORM.

I also really loved the illustrations of Nancy Ekholm Burkert, she won a Caldecott Honor in 1973 for illustrating SNOW WHITE, it's still in print in paperback. I would highly recommend tracking down a copy of her version of THE NIGHTINGALE, it's out of print but tooootally worth finding. Beautiful and frightening.



Can you tell us a little about what you’re working on now or about any
upcoming projects?

I just submitted the final art for SNAIL & WORM AGAIN. I am super excited because it is really funny, maybe even better than the first one. And a little sad. But then funny again.

Carson and I are working on another picture book biography together that we are almost ready to pitch. It is very visual so we need to have a sketch dummy together.

I am also working on an early chapter book idea I have brewing.


Where can we find you online?

My online portfolio is at tinakuglerstudio.com. I am occasionally on Twitter at @tinatheatre, more frequently when I am procrastinating.


Thank you, Brooke!!!

Thank you for visiting, Tina!

You can also hear more from Tina and her husband, Carson, on their Let's Get Busy Podcast interview with Matthew Winner of All the Wonders.  


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6:00 AM , , , , , , ,

When I sat down to write about my process, I found I was having trouble with how to put  it into words and pictures. So much of what I do is intuitive, messy and defies explanation. Ideas come. I sit and draw at my desk. Sometimes there's a book (more likely a dummy-book). Done! 

So, which stage should be singled out for discussion? I decided to focus on the 'desk' stage,-the stage where I have an idea (inspiration has struck) I’ve cleared work time, and am at my desk, working on it.



Here’s a desk shot. At the top of my desk are thumbnails for a book idea that came upon me a couple of days ago. I like it and think it has potential, but I’m working on some spot illustrations of babies for my website right now, so I can’t jump on it right away. BUT, I know the danger of not  thumb-nailing (is that a verb? It is for kid-lit artists...) the idea out.




I used to think jotting down the idea was enough, and I do that, but as soon as possible, I have to thumb-nail it out or the idea loses it’s juice for me. I'll revisit it and have no idea what I was thinking. Thumb-nail sketches are initially very rough, but they show me how I thought the idea could become a book. Once that’s done, I can safely return to what I was doing for a while.

As I mentioned, I’m working on some spot illustrations of babies for my website, which will be re-vamped very soon. I plan to have a ‘baby’ section. This was inspired by a talk given by Kelly Sonnack (Literary Agent) at the recent SCBWI Art Director’s Day. She mentioned that there seems to be a demand for illustrators who can draw babies. I can do that!,... but I don’t have many babies represented on my website. I plan to change that. Oh, a very important aside, I am now represented by the esteemed Kelly Sonnack of the reputable Andrea Brown Literary Agency. I’m thrilled! 



But, back to my drawing board, and my baby sketch (actually this baby is more of a toddler).... I sketch with black Prismacolor pencil on  Seth Cole #58 Heavy weight roll tissue. I start very small at first, but I’m most comfortable with a sketch around half scale. I do about a million traces, and then I use a skinny black pen to trace (usually Pigma Graphic 1, sometimes a rapidograph, sometimes a nib-pen). 

I block out color with AD Markers on the tissue (this is the ONLY way I like marker...on tissue,- it has a water-color like quality). Marker on tissue is a remnant from my architecture days...I’m comfortable, and fast, with this media. I don’t spend too much time here, I’m just getting a general palette. Another aside: I'm playing with scanning in my marker studies to retain more looseness...always evolving...)


I scan my Prismacolor sketch into Photoshop (not the color study), drop out the background and create a  multiply layer for my line. Then I block in color on other layers, & refine little details. This stage is hard to describe because it involves so much intuition, going back and forth between layers. There’s not much rhyme or reason...it’s pretty hectic. But, after a while it gets done. BTW, this baby is NOT done yet (about half-way).

 The following list are things that help me settle in and work for extended periods of time without fidgeting (too much). They are so important to my work process that I don’t attempt work for long stretches without them:

Relative tidiness. I’m not maniacally neat, but I am distracted by mess. (OCD thing)

A good audiobook. 

Exercise. Sitting at your desk is good after exercise. Your muscles are tired and not itching to wander around.

Water, coffee or tea.

Foot heater (for spring, winter, fall, but not in the summer). 


I feel the need to add that I LOVE, absolutely LOVE, being at my desk, working! Fortune has smiled on me!

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5:00 AM , , , , , , ,

Brian Ormiston is one of the very first SCBWI Mentees, from the summer conference of 2009,  but hasn't been formally introduced here. Until now! Today we catch up with him and ask him a few questions reflecting on the mentorship experience, as well as about what he's up to these days.



Kidlit Artists: Did the feedback you receive during the mentorship critiques either change or confirm the direction of your illustration? Are there any specific examples you can share?

Brian: Once things got rolling we talked a lot about ways to improve our portfolios, self-promotion, and our thoughts about the future. I remember Arthur Levine advising me to create sections or categories in my portfolio, because at the time, I had lumped quite a number of unrelated pieces together. The themes jumped around quite a bit. Cecilia Yung suggested I create a series with the same character or theme that illustrated a narrative progression. It didn’t have to be an epic; it could be as few as three pictures. My portfolio had about twelve pictures but none of them were from the same story. David Diaz had some great pointers on technique, hints to save time and avoid headaches. When I make my paintings I’ll painstakingly ink the line then paint watercolor right on top, but if I make a mistake, the whole painting goes kaput. David suggested I scan and print a nice copy of the inked line onto quality paper. Then if I screw up painting the watercolor I can just grab another copy and start again. Scanning and painting in the computer can help a lot too but I find the process is not as enjoyable as using real paint and paper. Priscilla and I discussed all things children’s books related and about the society. It was my first conference so she brought me up to speed on pursuing the essentials and how to get the most out of the conference.



Kidlit Artists: Getting such specific and direct feedback on your work, did you find the experience enlightening? Affirming? Confusing? Conflicting? _______ (fill in the blank)? Why?Brian: It was very affirming. I had originally gone to the conference on a kind of information gathering trip. I didn’t intend on submitting my portfolio until a good friend encouraged me to do so. I ended up winning a mentorship and a second prize honor so it definitely made me feel like I was doing something right. Nervous too. It pushed me way beyond my comfort zone, out of the safe place of making pictures for myself in solitude into a forum in which I had to take an audience into account. A good thing all around I think.



Kidlit Artists: Have you seen a shift in your work since you were mentored?

Brian: I definitely think more in terms of a series of drawings instead of trying to pack the whole universe into one composition. I love getting lost in detail but right now, with the limited time available to me, I have to simplify my compositions otherwise I’ll never finish a book.



Kidlit Artists: What kinds of projects are you working on now?

Brian: With wonderful encouragement from my very patient agent, Marietta Zacker, I’m developing several stories and getting them shaped into dummy form. Some are further along than others - all picture book stories. I like the challenge of the picture book format. It’s forced me to simplify my ideas. I can sometimes over-complicate my stories, making things much harder on myself.





Kidlit Artists: Is there anything, looking ahead, that you’re excited to be working on?

Brian: Looking beyond the picture book I’m developing now, I have a line up of stories with a lot of visual possibilities that I’m eager to sink my teeth into. I can at times overextend myself, so I have to practice discipline; otherwise I touch lightly on everything but no single story gets done. As soon as I finish the book dummy on my plate now I’ll dive right into the next one. 



Kidlit Artists: Is there any type of illustration (or other work) that you’re hoping for in the near future?

Brian: I think it would be wonderful to make pictures for a number of things like: classic children’s stories, literature and poetry journals, theater posters, music posters and puppet theater work. I did a painting for a group show last year as part of a launch event for Sara Wilson Etienne’s book Harbinger. That was a lot of fun. I’d love to do more of that.




Kidlit Artists: Last, please tell us where we can find you online.

Brian: You can check out my website, which is way over due for an update just so you know, at brianormiston.com. My blog, where I post little scenes on post-its for the time being, is brianormiston.blogspot.com. The title of the blog is Roostergator, a nonsense word if anyone is wondering.

Kidlit Artists: Thanks Brian!




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5:00 AM , , , , , , , , , , ,
So you have an incredible, cohesive, honed-in portfolio. 
Your artistic voice is loud and clear.
You also have brilliant, heart-felt, kid-friendly stories just waiting to be published.
You even have a book dummy sketched out for one of these stories with a couple finished color samples.
You’ve sent this dummy to a few editors and had some nice feedback, but all rejections (or worse, no response at all!).

Q: Why is this taking so long?!
A: Try a different plan of attack.

There’s nothing wrong with submitting your own stories to editors (continue to do so), but author/illustrators who are ready to be published should consider this:
Make it known to art directors and editors that you’re available to illustrate manuscripts that are under contract by other authors. 

 An editor might see and like your story, but oftentimes are hesitant to offer a book contract because they want to know how it is to work with you first.

It can be hard to take a risk on a completely unknown writer/illustrator, and they often like to pair unknown illustrators with known writers (and vice versa) who already have a built-in audience. That way, they hope to guarantee at least a certain amount of sales from the fans of the known writer or illustrator.

Q: How do I let publishers know I’m available to illustrate for them?
A: Promote your art to them!

Send mailings to as many art directors/editors as you want. 
You can send your promotion to everyone within a publishing house (where-as with a manuscript it is NOT acceptable to submit to more than one editor in the same house at a time). This gives illustrators the advantage of having wide exposure to their work. 

Promote to book designers and editorial assistants too: they might share your work with the editor or art director. At the recent SCBWI Summer Conference, I heard Melissa Manlove, editor at Chronicle Books, explain that the designers there have a chief role in seeking out illustrators. 

Create your promo postcard and mail it to this list 3 times a year.
- Always use a new piece of artwork
- Include your name and website address.
- Make sure to keep your online portfolio up-to-date and easy to browse. An art director who takes the time to go to your web-site won’t be impressed if your work is out-dated, and it’s your online portfolio that’s the key for an art director’s decision in choosing your work. The postcard is just a pointer to your work online!

Q: How should I know who to send my promotional postcards to?
A: Research.


  

Compile a mailing list with necessary info. This does take some time, but start by researching publishers that might fit your genre of artwork by:

- looking at the books currently in bookstores, making note of the publisher
- searching through the newest “Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Market” and the SCBWI “Market Survey” in The Book, available to their members.
- making sure all the information is current – check on each publisher’s website for their submission policies and preferred format (digital or snail-mail, or both).
- keeping this list up-to-date; publishing folks change positions and publishing houses frequently.

Q: Oh my gosh, they hired me! 
A: Yay! You've been hired to illustrate a book.


Be creative, gracious, communicative, easy to work with, and hit your deadline.

You can see how you like working with this editor or art director, and they can see how they like working with you. If it goes well, they will often invite you to submit your own stories to them. And luckily, you’ve got that brilliant, heart-felt, kid-friendly dummy book ready to go.

In my experience working with multiple publishers, it hasn’t been until after a project was over that they told my agent, “If Eliza’s got anything of her own, we’d love to see it!”

Though, I’m still working out the brilliant, heart-felt, kid-friendly story part . . .

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Eliza Wheeler illustrates and writes for children's picturebooks and middle grade novels. Author/Illustrator of MISS MAPLE'S SEEDS (Penguin), and more . . . visit www.wheelerstudio.com, @WheelerStudio, www.facebook.com/eliza.wheeler
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An Interview with Kelly Light,  A Pit Bull (In Polka-dots)!

I had a wonderful opportunity to chat with fellow SCBWI illustrator/author Kelly Light about her journey from aspiring children's book illustrator to full-fledged-real-deal-full-time illustrator/author.  Grab a cup of something and enjoy this glimpse into an inspiring success story.


 

Give us a summary of your transition from animation/marketing to pursuing a career in children's books to full-time children's illustrator and purchaser of Series 7 brushes, which we all know is the ultimate sign of arrival? (Including time frame, for all of us that are still pursuing:)


I graduated from college in 1992. 
I went out to Los Angeles immediately after graduation to try to break into animation. It was a rough time for studios  then, lay offs by the thousands- the economy was in the toilet. I started to schlep the portfolio and go on “tests” at studios large and small. I got some small jobs on commercials, the original Coca Cola Bears and a Super Bowl Pepsi commercial with cows stampeding to a fridge stocked with Pepsi. I would go to Disney drop off day once a month with whatever new art I had made. After 6 times... progress! The rejections went from a form letter  to a personal note with advice. This was my first lesson in tenacity.

I followed that advice. I kept plugging. I also kept not being able to pay my rent. One day- in desperation, I bought a huge box of See’s Candies and a bundle of balloons and drove to the studio that made The Simpson’s. I walked in with my portfolio and a smile and I got an internship. That was my first lesson in throwing Hail Mary Passes. If what you are doing is not working - if doing what everyone else is doing isn’t getting you noticed - do something else. 

Then I got pulled back to the East Coast.  

Just when things were starting to happen, I moved back to the East Coast. 

In 1994 I was sitting in a N.Y.C. independent animator’s studio working for free. I would work there for no pay in exchange for the use of all of the equipment to make my own animated samples. One day, the phone at my desk rang- it was a cold call from a head hunter looking for someone who could draw the Looney Tunes  characters. I said  “I could and would do that if it meant that I could pay my rent.” I started drawing characters for licensed merchandise the very next day and did that for years until my daughter was was born. This was when I learned the lesson - do not move back home or take a job at the Gap.  I saw so many fellow young artists give up. Stay in it if you really, really want it. Do everything you can to keep drawing. Draw anything.

Working in the world of licensing is kind of like working in advertising. Everything needs to be done immediately. You have to come up with a million concepts for some lunch meeting in an hour.. You stay at work all night and the boss buys you a pizza because Disney is coming in the morning and you have to knock their socks off. This was when I learned the lesson to think fast. I learned to sell. I learned to convey in one image a clear, concise story. I also learned that I had ambition.

Before long, I had made art director. I was getting burnt out on drawing Mickey, Bugs, Fred and Barney and the Muppets. I had gone back to school to get my masters in animation to force myself to get back into that world... but... life happens. I got married and my biological clock alarm went off. I had my daughter at 29, in 1999. Having a baby seemed to be the logical way to move into the next phase of life- and Hey! As a mom,I could always freelance! Right?

NOT. 

After attempting to freelance with a baby at home.... I stopped working. I stopped making work. I didn’t make art. I was a little coo coo for cocoa puffs. Five years went by in a blur of diapers and potty training and birthday parties until kindergarten. During those years I learned the lesson:  “Inspiration without expression = depression.” 

When I found some time while my daughter was in kindergarten, I went to a life drawing class. I started to keep a sketch book. By the time she was in school full day, I decided it was time to go back to work. In 2006, I took a summer SVA continuing ed course called “Children’s book portfolio” in NYC. I was like a pit bull with a bone. I had chosen a path and this time there was no stopping me. My instructor saw this and took me to her Art Director. I showed my portfolio for the first time in the children’s book market. In the nicest way possible the editor said “I hate it”.  

It looked too animated. Too cartoony.
Lesson learned: Listen to opinions. Listen, devour, digest and go back to work.


2007 - I joined SCBWI. I went to my first NY conference and was completely overwhelmed by the whole thing. I went home and kept working, drawing, started writing. I started a blog, “Pretty Good for a Girl.” That blog connected me online with some friends I still have. That blog- was everything. That blog taught me the lesson to get myself out there- online- showing my work and sharing myself. I have learned a lot from keeping that blog.

2008 - I went back to the NY conference. I met a few people who I still keep in touch with today.  I learned that it is important to connect with other children’s book people. I went to the New England SCBWI conference. I thought that it would be better to be a fish in a small pond. I won 2 awards in the poster contest. I met great people who I still keep in touch with and an agent approached me from Curtis Brown. I learned the lesson that you can make strides if you keep working hard. But mannnnn, was this taking a while.

2009 - that agent said I was not ready yet, keep working. I did. That year I made crazy amounts of new work. I went back to the NY conference. I was part of the “first look” intensive. An art director said that I had “no business being in children’s books.” “Licensing maybe, animation , maybe, .but not children’s books.” - D’UH-O!  Really? Could he have cut me to the core anymore? Lesson learned: Give a person a platform... sometimes they will start talking out of their tucchus.

I went into a total spiral of self doubt. “Fate, is kind”, tho as the Disney song goes... I blogged a blog post of doom and Jarret J. Krosoczka and his wife read it. He emailed me and said “Do not give up.” 
I went back to work. In 2009, I went to the Florida SCBWI Summer conference- to go back to being in a small pond and to go back to work for Disney as a licensed character artist. 

I landed my first agent at that conference. Having that agent, in the end didn’t help at all. It was a two year black hole. I continued to work my rear end off. I showed my portfolio constantly in NYC. I went to the Los Angeles conference. I went back to the NY conference. 

In 2010 I won 2nd place in the art showcase. I thought that would lead to something!! It didn’t.
I was spinning my wheels waiting for the agent to do something. Lesson learned: Don’t put worrying about someone else’s feelings ahead of yourself- your career. Be a shark. Cold blood is useful in small doses. I left my agent.

In 2011, I made some books. Small books, a novelty book, some readers. Not at all what I wanted to do. As soon as I finished one- there was another waiting right behind it. Low pay, fast turn around... small press or educational work. This was not what I wanted. I was not going to get sucked into this. Lesson learned: “Eyes on the prize”.
 

I became my own agent. I tracked down every judge from that NY showcase and got my face in front of them with my work. I learned a lesson: "Sell yourself and your work. Put yourself so much into your work, your personality, your interests...... that you are magically delicious. You are a product. "

I went to the Los Angles conference in 2011 wildly over confident. I made a big show of mini portfolio book hand outs...  I thought I had a good shot at a mentee spot, having won an award in NYC. Nope.

Now I was mad. I vowed to never show a portfolio in NYC or Los Angeles ever again. I would make this happen, so that I did not have to enter another art contest as long as I lived. 

I decided to throw a Hail Mary pass - like the the balloons and the candy at the Simpson’s.  I proposed a workshop at the 2012 New England SCBWI conference in character design. I had all of this knowledge from licensing and animation about consistently drawing characters. Lesson : Show the world what you are made of.

While at that conference, I got to know some very important people in my life. I also got my first book offer. I got home and got my second. A week later I had my third. Two weeks after that 4 and 5. Things have continued like that. I have some middle grade books that I illustrated coming out right now. I have work to do through 2015 and as of the this week- possibly beyond. 

Lesson:   Do not give up. Do not let go. Be a pit bull. (in polka dots)


From one artsy momma to another, how do you do it? Raise happy marginally damaged offspring while simultaneously creating, promoting and producing amazing work?

Make the kids part of this. Have them see your dream and then they dream for you.Then they dream big for themselves! Show them the hard work and the determination. They need to know that dreams are just the start. Teach by example. Work your butt off at the work and at being happy. Don’t accept less -they’ll pick up on that!!

Let go of being perfect as a Mom - as a home maker. You can not be all things. There is nothing better for kids than a happy Mom.

Learn to say NO.  No to volunteering too much.  Choose carefully what you CAN do for others/school. Don’t worry what the PTA thinks of you. They will buy allll of your books when you have them..... and you will smillllle. :)

How has your technique and process changed along the way and are there any mediums your currently exploring? 

I would say I have gotten less digital, to I work digitally. I draw by hand and keep my drawings in the work. I am just going back to watercolor a lot. The Photoshop addiction is really strong tho. I am just trying to use it to manipulate hand work more than create completely in it these days.


Can you give some insight into how your relationship with your agent began and are you still doing your own promotional mailings?

I had three book deals in hand this past summer and no agent. I needed someone very badly. My head was spinning and I needed someone to smack me in the face and yell “Snap out of it!” Luckily, a very experienced friend did that and a few others helped point me towards their agents. This goes back to the importance of making connections and friendships in this industry. There is support out there.  I contacted 2 agents and went with Elizabeth Harding at Curtis Brown... the same agency that contacted me all of those years ago. Weird, huh?
What sort of personal or professional projects are in your future? 

I have 2 chapter books series that will roll out over the next year. 

“The Quirks” by Erin Soderberg @ Bloomsbury out June 4th
“Elvis and the Underdogs” by Jenny Lee @ Balzer and Bray out May 14th

I have a picture book that I have written and illustrated “Louise Loves Art” coming out Fall 2014 @ Balzer and Bray

I have 2 picture books about a girl named “Lola” who knows a lot by Jenna McCarthy @ Balzer and Bray out in 2015 and 2016

I have a few other projects in the works as well that are super exciting that I can’t say anything about yet!!!
Visit Kelly Light online at kellylight.com and she can be found on FaceBook at Kelly Light-Professional Page  

MKRdezign

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