Halloween Costume ideas 2015
Articles by "Lauren Rille"
@dorothiar #arttips #interview 101 2 Column Template 2012 mentee 2013 2013 mentee 2014 2014 mentee 2014 Portfolio Winner 2014 SCBWI Portfolio Mentorship Winner 2015 mentee 3 Column Template 360 3d 3d print 3d printing 3delight 8bit Abbey McCulloch abstract acryla gouache acrylic action addon adobe Adobe Flash CS3 Adobe Illustrator Advanced Tutorials advection Advertising advice Agata Wierzbicka agents airplane Al Wiseman ALA Alan E. Cober Alan Lee Alex Ross Alexandra Compain-Tissier Alexandra Lekias Alexandra Levasseur Alexandre Korobov Alexis Winter algorithm alien ALT Amelie Hegardt Amit Shimoni amusement an Ana Aranda analog Andrea Hrjnak Andrea Hrnjak andrea offermann andreaoffermann andreazuill Andy Musser Angela DiTerlizzi Angelika Peißker animal logic animals animation animation nodes anime anisculpt Anja Kroencke Anna Higgie Anna Jensen Anna McKay Annabel Briens AnneBerry Anneke Krull Annu Kilpeläinen anstudy anthology António Soares ar arduino area armature arrange array array modifier arrow art art director art directors Art is fun! art reps art tools Artaksiniya arthictecture arthur rackham artists artwork ase Ashlyn Anstee Asian aspiring asset atom attribute attribute transfer audio Audrey Kawasaki augmented reality aurasma Aurelius Battaglia author illustrator automatic automation Autumn Whitehurst avatar Avrom Yanovsky AW14/15 award awards Babeth Lafon Babies baboon Baby Love Background background color bacteria bake baking ball Bamboo banner Banner images banner making Barbara Dziadosz barcode basic bbox beads beats Bec Winnel beginner Bel Johnstone Ben Denison Bernie Fuchs Berto Martinez Beth Krush better photos bge Bijou Karman Bike biscuit bishop black and white black and white art Blair Breitenstein blam blender blender game engine blender3d blending Blinkie Blinky blob blocks Blog Tips blogger Blogging Friends blogs Blonde blur effect in pixlr and photoshop blur images and pictures bmesh bmesh viewer bolognaragazziaward bombing bone bone modeling bones book book launch books boomerang bottle bounding box bowl bpy brian eno brian ormiston Brian Sanders brian won brick bridge Bridget Davies bright Brooke Boynton Hughes build modifier building burns business Buttons bvh cage Caitlin Shearer caldecott calibration camera camera settings camera tips Candle capcom card career Carole Wilmet cartoony Cassandra Rhodin cast Catherine Campbell Cecilia Carlstedt cell center pivot centipede cg cg photography chair challenge Chanel changin color in pixlr changing color chaos character Character Bible character development charcoal charles Charlie Dot Charlie Hebdo Children children's book illustration chocolate Christina Drejenstam christina forshay Christina K christinaforshay Christmas Cindy Derby circle circle dance city cityengine clock clones cloning cloth Cloud based clover CMYK Coco Chanel Cody and the Fountain of Happiness coffee collect collection Collections collision color color balance color cast color correction color mode color study colorful Commercial Use complexity component compositing composition computational thinking computer concept art Condensed Posts conference connect connect the dot connection Connie Lim Conrad Roset constrain constrast contagion content Contest contracts control converter copy copyright Corinna Luyken count Courtney Brims crack Craft craftsmanship Craig & Karl creative creativity creature cricket Cristina Garcia Martin critic criticism critique Crop Crop Tool cross section crowd csv cubism curve curve modifier custom Custom Blog Design Custom Blog Design Tutorial Custom Blog Designers Custom Illustration custom properties Custom Signature custom xml cut cutting plane cycle cycles dae Damien Florébert Cuypers Dan Hillier dance Daniel Egnéus Daniel Segrove Danny Roberts Daren Newman Dasha Tolstikova data data path David Blossom david diaz David Shrigley David Stone Martin Dean Hardscrabble Debbie debbie ohi debbieohi deform deformer degrees deleting background in pixler demo demoscene desaturation of images design design by numbers design process Design Tips dictionaries dictionary Different Text Writing in Pixlr digital digital paint Digital Scrapbook Freebies Digital Scrapbooking disk distance distractions distribute diversion DIY DIY Contest Dolf Veenvliet Doll Doll Bones dolls domino domino effect doodle Doodles door doraemon Doris Jackson Dorothia Rohner dots dpi draw drawing drill driven driver drivers dual versions dummy duplicate duplicates duplication dupliframe dvd dynamic dynamic paint dynamic text E Simms Campbell Easy easy pixlr Easy Tutorials Ed Graham Ed Vebell editing editing photos editors education effect effects ego Eleanor Dalton electric Elia Fernández eliza wheeler Elizabeth Mayville elizawheeler Emily Forgot Emma Zanelli emoticon happy-face Emotional storytelling empathetic characters empty entoforms envy epicycloid EPS Illustration Epson scanner erasers Erin Armstrong Erin Petson erinoshea ernest shepard Esra Roise euler evaluate line Eveline Tarunadjaja evenly spacing vertex event everywhere door exhibition Expandable Posts experiments explode exploded view export expression extrude eye eye color in pixlr eye trick eyeball face rig facial expressions facial setup factory Faiyaz Jafri Families fashion illustration fashion week fcurve feature Featured Fee Harding Feedback fence Fernanda Guedes fibonacci Fifi Lapin file File Types Finalists Finding Nemo fire fix photos Flash Tutorials flicker flip flip flop floor flop flow flower Flowers fnmatch focal point follow up font Fontaine Anderson Fonts food footage For Sale force form formula fractal fracture frame Frames Francois Berthoud Frank Bellamy Frank Furlong Franklin McMahon freckles Fred Steffen FrederiqueBertrand Free for Commercial Use Free for Personal Use Free Stock Photography Free transform tool Freebies Frenchillustration Fritz Siebel frosted mylar fruit ninja Fumi Mini Nakamura Fun function futurism FW2017 fx Gabriel Moreno Gabriella Ibarra game game animation gameart gamma gangnam style Garance Doré Gary Fernandéz gel medium generate generative generator geometric geometry Gerald Lazare Géraldine Georges GIF Gildo Medina Girl Giuseppe Castellano Giveaway glorar goals golden ratio google google docs Google Tools Grant Young graph graphite graphite transfer grease pencil grid group group node growth Gucci Guest Guil Godier gustave dore hair handbook Harper's Bazaar harpercollins Harvey Schmidt Haute Couture head Headers heat map Helena Hauss hexagon hexagonal grid Hiroshi Mizuno Hiroshi Tanabe Holiday Holly Black homology honeycomb hook horror houdini how to how to blur a face or an object in pixlr How to change eye color how to delete an object how to desaturate an image how to edit a image in pixlr how to erase an object how to fix red eye problem how to fix red eyes in pixlt How to fix the parts in pixlr in photoshop How to make a banner in pixlr How to overlap the nevus how to remove a object How to remove an object in pixlr how to remove red eyes How to Remove the Background of an Image in Pixlr How to remove the parts that you don't want in pixlr and photoshop how to replace color How to write a Patterned Text in Pixlr how-to Hsiao-Ron Cheng hsv hue humor Hyshil I love illustration magazine idea ideas Igor+André illusion illustrating illustration illustration board Illustration Books Illustration Intensive Illustration Now! Fashion illustration process Illustrations Illustrative Berlin illustrator Illustrator Intensive Illustrator Tutorials iloveillustration magazine image ediditing lessons Image Ready image sequences image theft imaginative import import text import vertex color improving photos inbetween index visualizer Info Ingrid Bockting ink inktober input Inspiration inspirational quotes install instance instance switching intensive interaction Intermediate Tutorials internet interoperability interpolation intersect intersect edges intersecting intersection interview introduction invoke subprogram io ipad Irana Doucer Isabella Hemmersbach islam islamic iteration Izzie Klingels Jack Hearne Jack Tremblay James Dignan James Gurney japanese Jason Brooks Jean Kim Jeanne Detallante Jen and Chris Creed Photography jen betton Jen Rofé Jenny Mörtsell Jeremy Combot Jeslyn Kate Jesse Auersalo Jessica Jessica Lanan jessicalanan jewellery jewelry jiggle Jim Schaeffing Joe Bowler Joe Cleary Joe Isom Joe Krush Johanna Goodman john maeda John Vernon Lord joint Jordan Sondler JPEG JPG jpop juana martinez-neal juanamartinezneal Judge Judit Garcia Talavera Judith van den Hoek Judy Byron Schachner Jules Julien Julian Beever Julie Verhoeven Jump Break Tool JW Anderson K-Fai Steele Kaethe Butcher Kareem Iliya karel zeman Kate van Harreveld Kathrin Kuhn Kathryn Ault Noble Kathryn Noble Katie Kath kdtree Kei Meguro Kelly Beeman Kelly Light Kelly Smith kelly sonnack Kelly Thompson keyframe keyframing kidlit kidlitartists kimberlygee Kirkus Review Kisoo Chai Kodak Konstantin Kakanias Korean illustration Kotaro Chiba Kozue Himi Kremos Ksenia Finogeeva KT Smail kuler Kustaa Saksi Lanan Laptop larry gritz lasso tool latte lattice Laura Callaghan Laura Laine Lauren Rille layer layering Layla Holzer layout leaf learning learning blender LED Leendert meets Ingrid lego length Leonard Starr lessons levels LFW A/W 14 liangzhu liero lightbox lighting lightning Lina Bodén Lina Ekstrand Linda Dorn line line connect line drawing lines Links Linky Love Linn Olofsdotter Lionel Gilbert Lisa Anchin Lisa Billvik Lisa Krannichfeld lisaanchin lisbeth zwerger Liselotte Watkins list list comprehension List First Last listing locator lofting logo Logo Design Lola Dupré London Fashion Week loop looping loops looptools Lorraine Fox lossless lossy lost weekend lostweekend lotte reininger Louis Glanzman louis vuitton Luciana Rondolini luciograph LULU* lv Lynnie Zulu Mac macgyver macouno maeda Magda Antoniuk magic Magnus Voll Mathiassen mailing mailings maker Makiko Sugawa making banners Malika Favre MAMP mandala manga map map range maplelam mapping Marcel George Maren Esdar Margot Macé Margot van Huijkelom Maribeth Olson Marie El-Ahmar Marilyn Conover Marina Esmeraldo Marine Marbleindex mario Marlies Niemeijer Marsha Riti Martha Rago Martin Krusche Martine Johanna mask masking material materials math matrix matrix apply matryoshka Matt Baker matte medium Matthew Woodson maya maze mdd Meagan Morrison measure megaman Megan Hess Meizhen Xu Mel Crawford memory mentee mentees mentors mentorship program Mercer Mayer Meridth McKean Gimbel mesh mesh cutter meshlab Meta Tags metal gear rising Meyoko Mia Overgaard Micca mice Michael Sanderson Michela Picchi middle grade midi miku Milan milipede minidom Minima Mio Matsumoto mirror cut Misc Miss Blackbirdy miss maple's seeds Miss Take Mitchell Hooks mixamo mixing Mobile Apps mocap mod model modeling modifier modular modulation modulus mold molecule molly idle Molly Ruttan Molly Ruttan Illustration money monitors monkey mono-zero monster monster university morph morpher mosaic mosquito motion motion capture motion capture mouse motion trail moto360 mountain muji Muriel Wood Murray Tinkelman mushroom Music and Podcasts My dead pony Nadia Flower Naiad Einsel Naja Conrad-Hansen Natalie Brockett Natalie Foss nathan vegdahl nautilus Nav Bar navigation needle-felting negotiating Neil Boyle neon nescbwi14 nested New Blogger Questions New Blogger Template Tutorials new user pixlr new year new york New York Fashion week Newbery nicholas nicholas bishop Nicholas Hong Niki Pilkington Niso Ramponi nla No Software node node-based nodebox noise non linear animation Non-Web Font normal Noumeda Carbone npr number NURBS NYFW object object color change object info octopus offset Ola Volo Olaf Hayek old formats opaque projector open movie open shading language open source openshadinglanguage opensoundcontrol optical organization origami original art show Ornaments osc Oscar Schlienger osipa osl outline outliner output Pages paint paint weight painting painting on illustration board painting on wood painting with movie painting with numbers Pair pandas panorama Paper paper lantern parabola parametric parent parenting particle particle info node particles pat david Pat Zietlow Miller pattern Patterned Text Paul Faassen Paul X. Johnson Paula Sanz Caballero PC pdb pebbles pencil Pencil Sketch pencils Penguin perfume perlin Peter Helck Photo CD.8B photo editing software Photo Reference Photobucket photographing art Photographs photography photomerge photoshop Photoshop Brushes Photoshop CS3 Photoshop elements photoshop pixlr desaturaion Photoshop tips Photoshop Tutorials Picture Book Builders picture books Pierre Louis Mascia Piet Paris Pietari Posti pingpong pinnochio pipes pixar pixel pixel art pixel generator pixlr Pixlr advanced Pixlr blog pixlr desaturate keep a colorful part pixlr editting pixlr express Pixlr forum Pixlr free transform Pixlr Lesson Pixlr lessons Pixlr mobile Pixlr resizing images pixlr shortcuts Pixlr tools pixlr tutorial pixlr tutorial with pictures Pixlr Tutorials pixlr white black pixlr.com plant plot plotting ply PNG PNG Illustration podcast point point color pointilism polka dots polyCut polygon Pomme Chan pop-overs portfolio Portfolio award portfolio showcase portfolio-advice portrait position Post Dividers postcard poster Posting pot powdered graphite powerhousemuseum Prada presentation print printmaking Prize procedular procedural process processing programming projection Promotion property prototype PSD psy publishing pulse puppet puppetry pydriver pydrivers pyhandler pyhandlers pyramide python quad quick select set quick tips qumarion Rabbit Moon Rachel Ryle radians radius ramp random random motion randomization randomize range float raspi Ray Houlihan reading reading XML READY-TO-WEAR realflow Rebecca Clarke rebecca dautremer Rebecka Skog rebuild recursive recursivedrawing red eye remove reducing glare reference referencing release remesh modifier remix removal remove remove red eyes remove unwanted objects Removing backgroung render rendering renderman repeat repeater repeating replace replacement replacing color representation rerouter resample resampling research Resizing image resolutions retopology retro review revolve rgb rib Ricardo Fumanal Richard Scarry rig rigging rigify Rikke Jorgensen ring ripple roadkill Robert Heindel Robert J. Lee Robert McCloskey Robert Shore Roberta Zeta Robin Rosenthal robot robotic rocks Rodolfo Montalvo Roller Coaster rotation Rousseau rsl Rubin Pfeffer ruler tool Russ Mills russian rut S/S14 S/S15 S/S16 Sabine Pieper sadako Saftey Pins Sainte Maria Sale Sam Weber Sanda Suy Sandy Kossin santoso Sara Andreasson Sara Singh Sarah Jacoby saturation artist tools scan scanners scanning scatter scbwi SCBWI 2015 mentee SCBWI conference scbwi germany SCBWI mentorship scbwi-la scratch scratchboards screensaver screw screw modifier script scrub sculpting seamless Seamless Patterns Search Engines select by material select by name select by type SEO sequence series set keyframe set keyframes shader shading shadow Shannon Stirnweis shape grammars shape key shapekeys shapes shards shatter Sheilah Beckett shell ship shipping shipwright Shoes SHOWstudio shuffle Sid Barron Sidebar Titles Signature Silja Goetz silkworm Simon and Schuster Simon Varela simple simplicity simulation sine Site Engine Optimization Sjoukje Bierma sketch Sketches sketching skin skin modifier skinning slice slicing slides sloth slow parent smoke smoothstep SN snake Sneek Peek snippet Snow Snow White Snowflakes soccerball social media Social Media Buttons Social Networking society of illustrators Society6 soft body softbody Sonia Menti sound sound wave space spaceship sparta special spider spiderman spiderweb spin spiral Spiros Halaris Spiros Halaris x Urban Decay spline Spot Healing Tool spreadsheet SS16 stack stacking stair stamp Stan Galli star starfish stencyl step Steven G. Dobson still Stina Persson stone stones storytelling strand strand info strands street art string stripes structure studies studio style stylistic summary Summary Posts Summer sun supplies surface Susan Farrington suzanne Suzanne Kaufman sverchok swatch switch sydney system table table of contents take out background Tal Drori tangent tangled Taschen teaching teapot Template Templates tentacle Tess Jacobson Tex Avery text text editor Text Formats Text Styles in Pixlr texture texturing The Cartorialist The Grudge Keeper The Purple Book thinker1 Thomas B. Sawyer thread TIFF tile tilecam tiling time time code Tina Berning Tina Kugler tips tips for artists Toby Neilan Tom Baxter Tom Bjarnason tombow tomie depaola tool tools topology tower Tracy Turnbull Train transfer drawing transferring sketch transform transformation transit travel triangle wave Tricia Springstubb trigger tris tristan lock tube tubes Tutorials twitter type tool typeface typography unbake unity3d universal unquad utah uv valentine Valentino Valerie Servais vanilla variable variation variety vase vector vectorized Velwyn Yossy venus Veronica Ballart Lilja vertex vertex color vertex group vertex paint vertex weight VFX Victoria Boysen video Videos viewer Vintage virtual virtual studio visualization vivid vividfestival VOGUE volumetric voronoi Vote voxel voxelated voxelation walking teapot Walter Einsel wand tool water soluble graphite watercolor wav wave we need diverse books web webbing Week Themes weight welcome Wendy magazine Wendy Plovmand what casues red eyes What is Pixlr Wherever You Go Wide Awake Bear wiggle Will Davies Winner Winnie Fitch Winnie Truong Winter wire wired wireframe wolfram Woman wood woodwork wool wooly wordpress work workflow World writing writing XML www.pixlr.com XML YA yayoi kusama Yelena Bryksenkova yoda Yoko Furusho Yuliya zaha hadid zen zsphere
Twitter Facebook

10:20 PM , , , , , , , , , ,

Lauren Rille 
Hi there creative friends! I was at an Illustration Intensive this last weekend, hosted by the SCBWI-San Diego Region, featuring the the insightful, and totally entertaining, Associate Art Director,  Lauren Rille, from Simon and Schuster.

(You can follow her on twitter, and if you would like a sneak peak at her design savvy, check out her blog.)

I love going to conferences, but I especially love going to illustration intensives. The purpose of an intensive is to bring you back to art school (only the knowledgeable professor is replaced with an insightful art director). The assignment is suppose to replicate what working with an art director is like.


Months before the intensive, Lauren sent us the text to a picture book. She asked us to create a thumbnail dummy  (or teeny tiny drawings that map out the pacing of the book). From those thumbnails she asked that we send her 2 roughs (or more finished drawings) of the spreads that we wanted to illustrate. Once we turned those in, she would email us a critique. We were to bring the revised thumbnails and 2 final spreads to the intensive, to be critiqued as a group.

The text we got was a sweet and very young picture book called Baby Love by Angela DiTerlizzi and illustrated by fellow Mentee Brooke Boynton Hughes. I'll be honest, I pulled a few hairs out trying to think how I could illustrate the text differently, especially since Brooke did such a gobsmacklingly wonderful job.


After drawing what seemed like a million and two families with babies, I finally decided to put this family in space... going on a spacewalk, with them bringing their baby home to sleep at their colony on Mars. (Everything is better in space, right?! ;)


Here's what I sent in:

Stick figures in.... SPAAAAACE!!!

This is one of the roughs I sent in. (I do my roughs... extra rough.)




Doesn't this sweet face make you weep?!

Lauren responded with a very helpful critique. She mentioned one reason she had prompted our group with this particular text was because babies are so hard to illustrate; people often get the proportions wrong. So I decided to do some more "research" on babies and ended up waxing nostalgic, thinking of my kid's infancy. Something that I noticed is the lack of neck and the adorable potbelly. Lauren also said babies barely have any eyebrows or eyelashes.

So armed with a refreshed knowledge that babies are not  just miniature adults, I went back to the drawing board and sketched another million babies. 






I redid my thumbnails and revised my roughs.



My sketches are starting to get tighter here. 


Next, I scanned my drawings in, printed them out on Arches 140lb, and painted with watercolor. 



Then I scanned the watercolor in and painted in some digital layers.



Finally, after all our blood, sweat, and tears, we went to the intensive, and had our illustrations critiqued. This is what I submitted:

(You can click on them, to see closer,  if you have ancient eyes like me.) 


If you are not already a believer, I strongly urge you to start doing illustration intensives. (You can check out if there are any intensives in your neck of the woods here.) I've been to many of them in different regions, and I've always learned something about myself as an artist, or about how art directors interact with illustrators, or even whether or not my style is right for that particular art director or publishing house. You have nothing to loose and everything to gain.

Alrighty friends, thanks for dropping by and happy illustrating!


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------








Meridth McKean Gimbel is a freelance writer and illustrator who loves anything art related, story infused, and chocolate covered. When not working on her illustrations or writing stories, she is busy building a time machine so she can hang out with her pirate buddies and find buried treasure. 

Follow her work at:
 Portfolio | Blog | Sketchblog | Facebook professional/ personal | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest
Twitter Facebook

11:13 PM , , , , , ,
In an interview I did for the SubIt Club I wrote recently,  I mentioned using social media as a gauge for what my mostly illustrator friends responded to, and thought it would be good to follow up on that thought here.

Being a daughter of a science teacher I often find myself researching and testing out ideas without realizing I am doing it, like testing to see if an image posted on Tuesday at 9 gets more response than one posted on Wednesday at the same time. But to obtain results that are a bit more accurate I realize I would have to post very similar images or the variations in personal tastes would become too much of a factor. And considering the silly and odd critters I posted so much of last year, each one being very different and not even real animals, there would be no way to tell if it had anything to do with the time of day, the preferences against anthropomorphized animals or lack of interest in the particular styles and color. 

Pencil Sketch on Bristol Paper
So this month I started posting mostly human faces. People respond well to sketches of people/children generally thought to be attractive. So I watched a bunch of popular animations from Frozen to Tangled (and yes, all of the Tinkerbelle movies on Netflix), from the Box Trolls to How to Train Your Dragon. My thought was not to copy the current animation styles but to get a flavor of the styles children growing up over the last decade believe to be attractive. My own characters are a bit wonkier but for this exploration I wanted to get closer to a style I consider more appealing to a general audience.

With that information in mind I did quick sketches of small faces and posted them on Instagram every day and then I watched to see what people responded to. It’s a great place for posting WIPS (works in progress) without people turning up their noses at the casual, unpolished images. 

Screen Shot of Pencil Sketches
In a short amount of time I started being followed by artists from Iran and Middle Eastern countries as well as India and Indonesia. I was pretty excited to be creating faces that appealed to a world audience! 

Then I began to add bits of color in a different manner than my previous portfolios. I wasn’t satisfied with the color application in my 2014 portfolio although it did win a Mentorship Award, so in response my 2015 LA portfolio was black and white with only spot or limited color. 

Lauren Rille, Art Director at Simon Schuster, conducted my paid critique this year which went very well. I showed her pages from my 2014 portfolio and mentioned the various suggestions given to me by the Mentors that year. She liked my changes based on their comments but also said to stop listening to everyone now, that I was “there” and should just go home and have fun. What a great thing to hear!

Of course the result was a new voice in my head while I work. Snort. Lauren tapped lightly on one portfolio image with loosely scribbled vegetation and said, “do more like this,” (which I translated to working looser) and as a final comment said, “put the color back in” so this is me putting color back in but in a different manner.

Screen Shot of Digital Color over Pencil Sketches
I keep an eye on shifts in preferences from both the design community and consumer market, and I know flatter color is more predominant particularly in kidlit art. So as I put color back in I am working more in the manner of “flatting” although it always leaves me feeling flat, sorry. 
She told me she was an Egyptian Princess after I started

Process similar to Flatting
To combat the flatness I have worked at creating texture and even a hint of light source in the actual pencil sketches. This helps to keep me from going all painterly in Photoshop. 

Here is one that I did not sketch the clothing pattern in first and as a result created low contrast again. There may be contrast of color and value, but not line weight and texture.

Digital Color
Some days I am more successful than others at catching myself before I disappear into a comfortable zone of lovely golden highlights and cool shadows. I caught myself this week as I painted this face and clothing. I know many people will prefer the more realistic painting on the face, but I am looking for a more contemporary approach to color.

Painterly Approach versus a more Graphic Approach
So I still hear Laurent Linn saying push the contrast, and Cecilia Yung saying remove the outlines and be consistent, and E. B. Lewis saying use more traditional materials, and Paul O. Zelinksy saying make sure you have an obvious focal point. Hard to find the focal point in a plate of mush! Along with those comments are the voices of other art directors from years of paid critiques at the Seattle conferences. Some of them are still connected with me through social media and comment from time to time. Lucy Ruth Cummins encourages me to keep it “loose” and Sophie Blackall stopped by a week or so ago to say my new color explorations were looking “great”. Those comments help me climb my daily mountains!
Quick Sketch on 8 1/2 x 11 Bristol Stock with Mechanical Pencil
I would like to also mention my continued interest in forcing myself to use super loose strokes. Over the years when I was younger I found people in general responded to my “realistic” pencil drawings with lovely compliments. However in spite of the knowledge which tends to point to the population at large preferring “hours of detailed shading” instead of scribbles, I have made the leap and find I can work so much faster. The crop below shows contrast of color, value, line weight, and texture and not only am I pleased with it, this one received many more likes on Instagram than even my "finished" portfolio pieces.

Contrast of Color, Value, Line Weight and Texture
I used to micromanage each pixel, zooming in at 300 percent to make sure everything was “perfect”. But I knew what I was doing was counterproductive. I have so much admiration for illustrators like Julie Rowan-Zoch and Rahele Jomepour Bell who have mastered the loose stroke and also hold concept in high regards.

This crop shows the sketching of the clothing pattern on the pencil sketch before I started painting it digitally. It makes a huge difference. 

Patterns Sketched in Pencil with Digital Color
At the first SCBWI conference I attended I remembered the question being asked “Concept or Craft?” and although I knew the answer was concept, my focus was on craft, or styles appropriate to kidlit. In my advertising design classes two decades ago I quoted Tracy Wong of Wong Doody in Seattle as saying Concept is King. I told the students to buy the t-shirt and make it their mantra. Yet with my own illustrations over the last six years since trying my hand at kidlit illustration I have struggled with too much focus on craft and style versus concept. It has been my misguided belief that when I have nailed down the craft and style, then and then only can concept become the focus. 

But at this point I believe I have the craft rolling along in the right direction and it's time for my attention to shift to concept. 

Clothing pattern sketched with pencil on the original sketch.
Clothing pattern sketched with pencil and digitally painted. 
I started painting this one today to show the application of digital paint done in a loose manner over a loosely sketched pencil drawing. 

WIP
I am finally having FUN!
So February is for me is all about concept and character, not craft. I will be participating in #kidlitart28 which means an image a day posted on Twitter. If you don’t see me posting characters who are DOING SOMETHING you have my permission to wag a finger at me!

If you are a member of SCBWI you can stop by the Illinois chapter and read my Illustrator Tips column on studying composition and pacing in film and theater in the current Issue of the Prairie Wind Newsletter. 
Sneak Peek.
In three months I can repost it to my Blog for those not signed up for SCBWI membership
(which you should of course!)

Twitter Facebook

11:39 AM , , , , ,
© Jen Betton 2015
The SCBWI LA conference is coming up quickly, and I know many of us are squeezing out a few more paintings, and starting to agonize about portfolio flow and presentation so as to put together the absolute best package of work! 

This post is a combination of my own thoughts, the great advice of Lauren Rille, an art director at Beach Lane Books, and remembered comments of various other art directors and art school instructors.

Audience: 
Who is going to see it? A children's book portfolio is different than an editorial portfolio. Put in your portfolio the kind of work you are trying to get. If it is a children's book portfolio, be sure to show kids! Include narrative images, and series of related images – tell a story with your pictures.  

At my very first conference, I was told that my kid's book portfolio didn't have enough kids in it! It's important to know your audience and what is important for that type of portfolio. © Jen Betton 2015
Technique:
Show you can draw! Show good composition, values, color, consistent style, good control over media, and varying points of view. Be accurate with your perspective and anatomy, don't fake it. Show emotion in your characters, and interaction or connection between characters.

Consistency: Quality
The quality of your work should be very consistent. Ideally, all your pieces will be exceptionally good, but be sure to put some of your best pieces up front. Also make sure that the last piece is strong. Bob Dacey uses the fence analogy: support your planks (weaker pieces) with posts (strong pieces) interspersed. Eventually, your portfolio should be all posts!

Less can be more; don't succumb to the temptation to leave something weak in – I did this a few years ago with a couple pieces I knew were not as strong, but I wanted more kids in the folio. Bad idea, the art directors who looked at my folio said "take them out"! Art director Cecilia Yung says "If you leave in weak pieces art directors will think you can't discriminate between good and bad work." Yikes!! When in doubt, throw it out!

Consistency: Style
Pick a style and make sure you love doing it. Have a clear "voice" and show good visual continuity. Starting out, focus on mastering one style. If you display more than one style, both styles should be equally well developed. If you have work in a totally unrelated field (fine art vs. children's book illustration) don't put it in the same portfolio – on the web this means a separate website (ex: Skip Liepke goes by Malcolm Liepke for his fine art work).

Amount:
Advice about this varies, somewhat up to individual taste. 15-20 is most often quoted, but you can have less or more. Pat Cummings suggests showing no more than 12 images. Websites – this is again variable, and you may consider different categories if you work in different markets (editorial, advertising, book, etc) or styles.

Example of a series of related images; all three have the same characters and setting, but with different perspectives, scale, and varying emotion. © Jen Betton 2015
Form: 
Make it easy to update. My first portfolio was made with carefully mounted boards. However, they were labor intensive to create, and it discouraged adding in new work. The same thing is true of a web folio – whether you have a custom site, or a blog, make sure it is up to date and you regularly edit out your weakest work. Also be aware of whatever size or format constraints there are for any competitions or shows you enter (like the SCBWI portfolio showcase). Whatever you choose, make sure it does not distract from the work, but complements it.

Branding: 
Make sure your name is easily visible! Put your contact info up front! This doesn't mean you have to put your contact info on every item, you can also use a cover or title page. It's good to use a consistent font and presentation with your business cards, postcards, website, and portfolio. 

Finally, fill your book with what you love to do! What you see is the kind of work you will get! Remember that "good work will always find a way in" – Lauren Rille.  
Twitter Facebook

6:31 AM , ,

I had so much fun working with Lauren Rille, who designed the new covers for the Judy Blume middle grade and chapter books. The middle grade just came out from Atheneum/Simon & Schuster Children's, and you can read about how I became illustrator for that project.

Lauren has a blog about her design and art direction work at http://laurenrille.blogspot.com, and you can also follow her on Twitter at @ElBoogieSparks.

Lauren designed these new Judy Blume middle grade covers!
Cover illustrator: Yours truly. :-)

Q. What is the biggest mistake or misconception that aspiring children's book illustrators tend to make/have, in your experience?

Lauren Rille's answer:

I think people new to the process have the misconception that being asked to revise means they are doing it "wrong"—that they've somehow missed the mark, when in fact that couldn't be further from the truth!

Several rounds of revision are standard; I consider that part of the expected process, and I think it's actually the fun part, too! At that point, you've got the job—we KNOW you can kill it in a final piece, so it's time to stretch, grow, play, experiment, push.

Sometimes, even if something is working, we'll ask for a revision to see if we can get it working BETTER; the first solution isn't always the best, so we'll push to see what lies beyond.

It's in those revisions that some very pleasant surprises come about, new sparks of ideas that will turn into really amazing pieces.

Chapter books coming out from Atheneum/S&S on
May 27 (paperback) and June 3rd (hardcover).

Q. What upcoming book project or projects are you especially excited about? 

Lauren Rille's answer:

There are so many!



Off the top of my head (and to-do list ;) I can think of "Blue on Blue", by Dianne White, illustrated by Caldecott Winner Beth Krommes—a really beautiful, simple text paired with really stunning art—it feels like a modern classic!


There's also REX FINDS AN EGG by Stephen Weinberg—it's his first book, and its funny, and wry, and fresh and a touch snarky, which is always a great combination.


And then for novels, MOUSEHEART is a middle grade by Lisa Fielder and it's just a great read; dynamic, adventurous, and with absolutely amazing art by Vivienne To.


And finally, THE SECRETS OF EASTCLIFF-BY-THE-SEA by Eileen Beha seems like another sorta modern classic to me—it's got intrigue, precious (and magical?) family heirlooms, some mystery, and tons of sock monkeys, so how can that go wrong? It's illustrated by Sarah Jane Wright and her work on it is wonderful.

------------------------

Debbie Ridpath Ohi worked with Lauren Rille while creating illustrations for Judy Blume classics being reissued by Atheneum/Simon & Schuster Children's as middle grade and chapter books. Twitter: @inkyelbows.

MKRdezign

Contact Form

Name

Email *

Message *

Powered by Blogger.
Javascript DisablePlease Enable Javascript To See All Widget