Gift Tags

Check out the Sketchables for two free sets of printable gift tags.

Humble Holidays

I had to take a break to finish my jewelry book along with making more time for my family.  I know as working moms we wish we could do it all, but sometimes things have to put aside while we take care of people.  People first, things second. 

Tomorrow I will share a set of free gift tags for folks to download on the Sketchables.  In fact, there will be a whole week of free gift tags from our group!  Can't wait to see them.

I thought I'd share some gift ideas with you from my Etsy shop.  I have this whole earthy, woodland vibe going on this year:

I have a few hand-pulled prints, these are originals that are hand-colored, signed and dated.

An etched copper ornament made with a print I designed.  This is my last one.

I have a series of beads that are created much like my prints, using little molds based on drawings that I made.  This is an evergreen design with beads on a gunmetal brass chain.

Ah, who doesn't like cute?  This is a sweet little stocking stuffer or would make a good gift for those hard to please teens.  I know a few on my list are getting these.

We all love books, right?  I created a series of Book Club Pendants using tiny handmade ceramic beads from another artist.  They are paired with charms and other beads.  This one is Wind in the Willows. 

And finally earrings - we all love them and work so nicely as gifts because one size fits all!   I have these modern candy cane designs paired with sterling silver wire.

Okay, now the skinny - use discount code Humblearts for 20% off your purchase.  I also have free gift wrapping and free 1st class shipping.  Sale will end Saturday, December 11th. 

Humblebeads Etsy Shop

Autumn Sketch

Hope you are enjoying some fall fun - pretty soon it will be time to carve pumpkins and enjoy caramel apples!  I have been shopping at local craft shows - that always puts me a fall mood since we don't have the change in seasons here in Texas. 

Black Bear

I was thinking of using this little guy has my new banner, but I'm leaning towards doing this one as a print. I think the graphic quality of the block print would lend itself nicely to the play of pattern. 

The Start of Story

A quick little bit of research on Amazon yielded over 2000 books for kids about bears and 800 about squirrels.  Here is a list of some of my favorites.  So what happens when you want to write a book about a topic that has already been done 2000 times?  You get right to the heart of the story and find something unique and universal told in the relationship of your characters.  Easy as pie.  Ha.  Oh muse hurry along...

More Watercolor Experiments

Practice will eventually make perfect, right? This was an experiment using ink outlines with watercolor. I think I like my lines with the brush more. Hard to say which ones of these I like the best, probably the last one. I like different parts from each one - hmm should I paint it one more time? Which one do you like the best?

Creating Without an Undo Button

I've been finding my way with the watercolors, looking to add another technique to my portfolio.  Watercolor is such a challenge and I find that even with printmaking I had an 'undo' that I miss when doing watercolor. 

You see, I never print just one print - I'll print 3-5 at a time and play with the colors like a coloring book.  With a block print, I create a proof - if something isn't right I can carve a little out or use tiny 'rubber stamps' to fill in things that may have been carved away or to add texture or another object.  With watercolor there is a point of no return and it can be hard to see a painting ruined by my over zealousness!

Here was my first attempt with this painting.  Can we say dingy?  Oh, I can almost hear my paint brush saying, 'Stop - you are overdoing it.  There goes the freshness.  Yep - Houston we have mud."  But it's okay, the first ones I like to call a color study and then I see where I needed to lighten up and relax.  It's a fun learning process and I do have to admit I love the immediate results of watercolor.  Just some days I do envy those who have that undo button a click away.

Bears and Birches

This sketch is one of those surprises where you start with something (bear engrossed in a book) and then some little character just moseys on into the picture. Which prompted the lifting of the eye and falling leaf and hmm, there is a story there - I will have to work on that. It's funny how just the smallest change can tell a completely different story in an image.

I have been working on some ideas with black bears and birch trees with glowing yellow leaves. I think I will try them in both block print and watercolor, see which ones suits me better.

I’d like to go by climbing a birch tree,

And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk

Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,

But dipped its top and set me down again.

That would be good both going and coming back.

One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.

-Robert Frost (Birches)

Creating an Award Winning Portfolio - Part 6: Improve Your Odds

Join a critique group or start one!

SCBWI

How to start online critique group

Sketch daily

Keep a sketchbook where you take daily breaks - instead of eating a snack or chatting about the office gossip, doodle for 15 minutes.

Sketch for 10 minutes at the end of lunch.

Keep a sketchbook in your bag - sketch while you wait for appointments or waiting for children to finish activities.

Sketch during the commercials of your favorite TV programs.

Have kids? Pull out paper for them and tell them it's drawing time and draw together for 10-15 minutes.

Take classes

Check out local art centers & community colleges for affordable classes on techniques.

Attend SCBWI workshops and conferences.

Participate in online challenges

Zero2illo

Illustration Friday

Creating an Award Winning Porfolio - Part 5: Editing Your Portfolio

Cecila Yung, Art Director and Vice President at Penguin Young Readers Group said, “If I can life with an artist’s weakest piece, I can work with them.”

Would your weakest piece hold up to the critical eye of a trained designer?

Is your weakest piece still strong enough to win you assignments?

Reasons to remove a piece from your portfolio:

If you have to make excuses for why a piece is weak, take it out.

Don’t keep a weak piece in your portfolio because you are too attached to it.  If you love a subject matter do revisit a it or rework on a piece that you feel could be stronger.

Ask 3 trusted friends to look through your portfolio and tell you their least favorite piece.

Does one piece stand out because it’s in a radically different style or medium? Remove it until you have a collection of portfolio pieces in that style.

It’s better to have a portfolio of all animals done well than a mix of animals and kids if you can’t draw the figure. If you are struggling with drawing kids, take a class, read books on figure drawing and sketch from life until you master this skill.

The best way to weed out weak work from your portfolio is to create new work on a regular basis. The more work you create, the quicker you’ll see pieces in your portfolio that need to retire.

Creating an Award Winning Portfolio - Part 4: Improve Your Skills

Improve your artwork by going back to the basics of design and visual story-telling devices.

Composition

A strong composition is vital to portfolio pieces that stand out.

Scale 

Play with the size of elements in an image to enhance the mood of a story.

Perspective

Find unusual viewpoints to create dynamic compositions.

Color and Value

Do you use color to express mood? Use color theory to help create sophisticated color palettes.

Use lights and darks to create atmosphere in an illustration.

Interaction

Are your characters interacting with each other and their environment?

Emotion

Study facial expressions to breathe life into your work.

Narrative

Illustration tells a story, avoid still lifes or portraits.

Resources:

Fundamentals of Composition - A great blog post to read.

Picture This: How Pictures Work by Molly Bang

The Encyclopedia of Writing and Illustrating Children's Books by Desdemona McCannon, Sue Thorton and Yadzia Williams

Creating an Award Winning Portfolio - Part 3: Finding Your Niche

A strong portfolio doesn’t try to illustrate everything in every style. An artist who has found a niche illustrates specific topics as an expert, like historical illustration or illustrations for the baby/board book market. Or an illustrator fills a niche using a medium like printmaking, watercolor, digital collage, etc.

Pop Quiz:

What are you favorite things to draw/paint?

What is your dream assignment?

Are you an expert in a topic or have a passion for something outside of art?

Digger Deeper:

If someone was talking about your portfolio today how would they finish this sentence, “Oh yeah, they do great _________________.”

How do you want them to finish that sentence?

Does your portfolio reflect the type of assignments you’d like to receive?

Portfolios to Check Out:
Here are a few great examples of portfolios that know their niche!
Jannie Ho
Roz Fulcher
Brandon Doorman
David Frankland

Creating an Award Winning Portfolio - Part 2: What to Illustrate

Go beyond a traditional solution to visual problems. Create a new hook or add a fresh layer to the classics. What non-traditional spin can you add to something well-known?

Places to search for ideas:

Folk & Fairy Tales

Classic Literature

Holiday Scenes

Songs or Poems

School Scenarios

Things Kids Hate

Historic Events

Change it up, don't draw just another version of Cinderella - make her a diva with her step-sisters waiting on her. Or check out Dani Jone's take on a classic holiday song: Frosty the Gourdman.

Use your unique style to retell a classic.

Create an unusual visual twist to an ordinary situation.

Leave a little mystery, the viewer should ask - what's the story here? What's going to happen next?

More Resources:
101 Projects for Illustrators by Dani Jones

79 Things Kids Don’t Like by Tara Lazar

Creating an Award Winning Portfolio - Part 1: Visual Vocabulary

This weekend I presented tips for creating an award winning portfolio at our SCBWI conference.  I will share the session over the next week in a blog series.  I hope you enjoy them!

***

A basic portfolio for the children's book market is made up of 10-15 of your best images of children, families and animals. There should be at least one series of narrative art with the same character.

An award-winning portfolio includes the above but also tells compelling stories with a unique visual vocabulary, fills a niche in the market and showcases a mastery of skill.

Building a Visual Vocabulary


Learn to craft a consistent world for your audience, follow a visual language that you create and stick to those rules.

Never copy a style or follow a trend, find your own way and stand out from the masses.

Master one or two mediums, divide them into sections in your portfolio.

Your style isn't something you need to develop, it is your unique way of expressing yourself visually.  It's like handwriting, it takes some practice but it's something that comes naturally to you over time.

Three portfolios that showcase a strong visual vocabulary:
Holli Conger
Tracy Bishop
Cassandra Allen

Pop Quiz:

What mediums can you use quickly and get consistent results?

Use 5 words to describe your artwork.

Dig Deeper:

Who are your artistic influences?

Name one book you wish you had illustrated and why?

Use these questions to narrow down your focus.

Building a Visual Vocabulary

In keeping with my no short-cut theme, I have been working hard on building a visual vocabulary in my sketchbook.  I've ordered a few really cute kids clothes catalogs and have been sketching the wee folk and their stylish duds.  Of course the trick is to change their facial expressions to give them some life, no we don't want kids looking like they crawled out of a JC Penny catalog. 

You can't really abstract something until you know it - you have to be able to draw proportions and have a hint of truth in simplified or stylized drawing of kids.  So while these will never be anything more than exercises in observation they are an important step in improving my drawing skills.  It also helps me expand my idea of what kids are wearing and improve upon my small stable of hairstyles.

Of course drawing from life is great too, but good luck getting a toddler to sit for any longer than a doodle!

No Shortcuts

I know this is such a late conference review - like a month late.  I have been traveling, working on our upcoming local conference and working away on my jewelry book.  Deadlines - aren't they awesome fun?

I've been thinking about what I'd like to share about the 2010 Summer SCBWI conference.  I could give you a round-up of quotes, photos of folks I met, epiphanies that dawned on me.  But you've already read all of that on the SCBWI Blog and from your favorite bloggers.  What I will share is what is still rattling around in my brain a month later.  What has caused a little paradigm shift for me after the conference?

It's one line from agent Steven Malk, "There are no short cuts."  Now he was talking about trends and quick fixes.  But the more those words have settled in my brain, the more I realize what great advice that one-liner is.

There are no short cuts to creating great illustrations. 

Am I sketching everyday? 

Am I working on more than one solution to a problem in my thumbnail sketches?  (Thanks to E.B. Lewis' breakout session that is a question I'm asking myself more and more.)

Am I taking the principles of design and color seriously as I work up my images?

Am I studying the masters in this field, the classics of the genre and what is hitting and flying off the shelves?

Am I finishing projects/dummies that have been on my to-do list forever? 

There are no short cuts to getting published.

What have I submitted this month? 

Is my mailing list current?

Do I have a plan for my next postcard?

Note to self: you must join a critique group again, asap!

There are no short cuts to self-promotion.

Frequent website updates.

Blog and share new work more often.

Use social networking for networking and not just lurking.

Be honest about my efforts - is it promoting or procrastinating?

Am I keeping up with my marketing plan or just making fancy lists?

An agent is not a short-cut to publication.

Getting an agent is not a quick fix but a partnership to grow your career.  Ever grow anything?  It takes hard work, (skill) lots of weeding (editing, critiques), sunshine and water (inspiration) and time.  Well that's just it, it all takes time.

There are no short-cuts. Sometimes it may seem like someone has caught a lucky break, but honestly those are rare and yeah for them.  For most illustrators it takes a few years to learn the ropes, hone their skills and find their way before they make it.  This has helped with some of my own frustration over the 'why not me' feelings and 'oh if I only didn't have a day job rants.' Just me?  Okay, maybe that's just me.

Dessert

This is an illustration sample I worked up for a breakfast recipe - because come on, who doesn't want dessert for breakfast?

Mixed media - lino block print, hand-colored with oil pastel.

Illustration Friday

Welcome Fall

I'm so ready for days like this! 

I created this little sketch for our fall banner over at the The Sketchables.

Girl Doodles

A random collection of doodles - back to school girls.  One thing I've been trying to embrace is less than perfection in my sketchbooks and being able to share them.  It's okay to work out the junk in sketches and show them!  Each sketch is a lesson, a step closer in knowing a subject or expressing an idea.

I do have a belated conference recap to share with you. I will work on that this week.

At the beach

Ha! I wish I was heading to the ocean.  Although I will be close.  I'm off to LA for the SCBWI Summer Conference.  I CAN NOT WAIT!

I hope to blog when I get back, but I may need to take a few weeks off from blogging to enjoy the last days of summer with my sweet family.  Lots of new work to share soon and the conference review when I return, I promise!

In the meantime, you can catch me over at The Sketchables.

Illustration Friday - Double

Another attempt at watercolor.  I'm having fun with these little sessions.  Some I just start doodling and see where I end up, this is one of them.  As I was working on the first boy, I thought - ah ha! If I add in a twin it would fit nicely in with this week's Illustration Friday theme, 'double'.  So here we have it, double trouble. 

A day at the beach

Yep, that's the life.

Can't wait to see these worked up...off to carve more!

Studies

More watercolor studies.  Practice, practice, practice. 

It's really Heather vs. Watercolor as I try to make this stuff behave. 

I need to find out what else tween/teens do besides listen to ipods. Mine are weird - always drawing, writing, working on the computer drawing and writing. My youngest is a craft hurricane. (I have no idea where they get that from...hmm, hmmm.)

And monkeys making banana splits for breakfast.  This one will be fun as a block print. 

So two more studies that will make their way into the world as prints, hopefully soon. I'd like to spend the weekend carving.

Do you go crazy working on new pieces for your portfolio before a conference?  Is it just me?  Do I have some weird manic procrastination disease?  You know, you wait until the last minute and then think, omg - I need new work for my portfolio right now.  Just me?  Okay, I will accept that.  I find procrastination incredibly inspiring.  : )

Scary Stuff!

Oh, how I wear my favorite medium like a security blanket. I just have such a hard time feeling like my work is done if it's not turned into a block print. I've been playing with watercolors all summer, and I mean playing - totally for fun and many of these little doodles don't live to the see the sunrise. So I pulled out the good stuff today and worked up a few samples from a dummy book that I'm working on. (Yeah for beads, right!)

These are tiny studies at 3" x 4 1/2". I feel like a have about 100 more paintings to go before I could market a watercolor style. But the good side is that I have two lovely little color study for new prints that I will start carving tomorrow.

Experimenting - it's scary stuff!

Who Me? Tips for Writing a Bio

If you are on online you need a bio and probably more than one. Here are some hints to help you shine.

More than one bio? What?
I know, right! You thought one would be good enough. But guess what? Different bios are needed for different occasions. The good news is once you have them written, you can plug them in online in your various sites and networks and tweak them as needed.

You need a long bio of 200 words of more - use it on your website or where more information about your career is needed, such as a press release.

A short bio - under 100 or better yet 75 words - use this one for online portfolios or professional membership sites.

And then a 'sum me up' in one sentence bio - best used for bi-lines and your twitter or facebook account.

Who are you?
Before we get any farther, make sure your real name is easily found on all your accounts like twitter, your blogger bio and even your Etsy profile if you have a shop. As a blog writer, it helps me when I feature artists if I can call them by their real name.

1st person or 3rd?
Since people want a personal connection to the artist or writer when they looking at a blog, facebook or twitter I say 1st person is nice and friendly.

On your website - that's a toss - 1st person sounds friendly and direct, 3rd sounds more professional - but you can go either way.

Listing on a portfolio site or member listing/profile for professional organizations?? I'd go with 3rd person.

No matter what point of view - keep your bio professional, on topic and well edited!

What to include?
Relevant information to your career only - if illustrating or writing isn't your day job this can be tricky. Include your day job only if it's relevant to your creative career or ties in to show an area of expertise that you also write about or illustrate.

Things to include about your creative career would be your education, experience, awards and memberships. I would also say to sum up what you like to write or illustrate.

More bio writing tips here and here.

A Long and Short Example:
Long - Children's book illustrator Heather Powers has illustrated for the educational, magazine and picture book markets. Heather's work focuses on quirky characters, multi-cultural themes and crafts. She is currently under contract writing her first jewelry design book.

She has a BFA from Kendall College of Art & Design where she studied printmaking and painting. Heather was awarded the Tomie dePaola Portfolio Award in 2008. She has been a regional advisor for the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators for the last 4 years.

Books illustrated by Heather include Story Game for Perfection Learning and Conor's Gift, published by Yeowon Media.

Short - I'm a children's book illustrator, SCBWI regional advisor and bead artist by day.

And one final word when it comes to writing a bio - if in doubt, search it out - just check out other artists' or writers' bios to see what they have included. Always search up - find bios of creative professionals who are a few steps ahead of you on the career ladder for the best examples!

Golden Kite Exhibit Review

What a weekend!  I am so thankful to the SCBWI and for the opportunity to be a regional advisor.  I have met the most amazing people in my life thanks to this organization.  The exhibit was stunning and Texas illustrators you have until October to make the trek to Abilene, I can't recommend enough that you do!  The artwork is incredible. 80 pieces from the books, covers and more from the Golden Kite Winners of the last 40 years.  I could have spent all day looking at the art.  The NCCIL (that's the "nickel" for those in the know) is an astonishing gallery and a group of very dedicated children's book enthusiasts.

Before the exhibit we were treated to 4 illustrators reading and drawing with the children of Abilene at the public library.  Pictured above David Diaz taught everyone about classical proportions as he drew one of his signature faces.  David is also the driving force behind this successful exhibit and event.  Members of SCBWI Illustrator's Board were there to support the event, including David, Priscilla Burris, Cecila Yung and Pat Cummings. Illustrators who did the visits included Larry Day, Kristen Balouch and Alan Stacy.

Lin Oliver, Executive Director of the SCBWI, was so inspired she went right out and began drawing!  This was a canvas on the wall with sketches from all the visiting artists - priceless.

The wall of awesomeness - really folks - you HAVE to go!  The exhibit will also be traveling around the country so keep an eye out to see if it will be heading near you.  And it's a huge exhibit, 80 pieces!

Lin Oliver and Steve Moser sharing about the humble beginnings of the SCBWI and the heart behind the organization, which is supporting the talented and dedicated authors and illustrators of children's literature. 

One of the highlights of the day was watching Richard Jesse Watson demo painting with egg tempera.  It was fascinating and I can't imagine the time that goes into his artwork.  He is very much a 'let's try and see what happens' kind of artist, that was fun to watch!

This is a sculpture around the corner from the museum.

The exhibit was good for the soul, the company was inspirational and hospitality was all Texan.  I loved every minute of this weekend and I'm eagerly counting down the days until LA for the next Tribe gathering.  Isn't that what the SCBWI is after all?

See more photos at the Golden Kite facebook page.