Climbing Out Of The Public School Dumpster

Imagine an alternate universe. A place where kids that are good at computation and reading skills are cute but are good for "elective classes" taking a back seat to the required art, drama, and music classes. Imagine getting in trouble for bringing home failing grades in drawing 1 and Choir but pointing out that you did well in math as a consolation. Imagine not getting into the college of your choice because your SAT or ACT scores were low in art. Imagine the disappointment on your teacher's face when you turned in bad drawings. How would you feel if you were told that your future earnings depended on how well you did in art classes? That your value to society was based on how well you could paint a portrait?

Isn't this what we're doing in public school? We only count the grades on a few subjects like English, math, and science and focus on the same skills for standardized tests. Being good at visual skills like painting but not being rewarded for it in school made me feel alienated from auditory learners. Of course I didn't know the difference between auditory, visual, and kenesthetic learners back then but I remember the feelings of knowing I didn't have the right stuff: unwanted, unworthy, inadequate, dumb, stupid, valueless, low, under achiever, disabled, incapable, and invisible.

I've worked for numerous fortune 500 companies, Illustrated 2 games for Hasbro, big publishers like Random House & Simon Schuster, hundreds of consumer magazines, been included in the Society of Illustrators, taught high school art, teach at two Universities, published ebooks and apps, started my own online video tutorial company, an online live class, and become an avid blogger. So my question is this: How can someone who regularly received below 2.0 GPA's in Jr high and high school achieve as much as I have in the past 20 years? According to my schools I was a failure - even though I was regularly cranking out artwork and excelling at playing the Cello.

I've been told by some that the reason I did so poorly in public school is that I was lazy. I can assure you I have never been lazy. Uninspired? -guilty. Bored? -guilty. -but never lazy.

I write about this on my blog because I feel that this is an issue we must come to terms with if we are ever going to truly support artists. I write about this to continue my healing process and to hopefully help those who find themselves in the same situation I was in - unwanted. Our current system selects for a few skills (reading & math) while discarding everyone else.

Everything we aspire to buy or experience like cars, phones, and movies has a creative component yet we do not teach creativity in school. The Washington Post reports that 54% of young people want to start a business yet we teach no entrepreneurial skills in public school. To become a master at anything we must fail over and over to improve yet our public schools do not embrace a failing forward approach - rewarding those who memorize the right answers.

I think of the poor souls like me who might have turned to substances or other means of coping with the feelings of their perceived inadequacies. I'm one of the lucky ones because I had parents who supported my desires to pursue illustration. I'm lucky because they had the means to send me to school. I'm lucky because I happened to attend a university with a great illustration program. I'm lucky because I married a woman who supported my crazy dream to become an illustrator. I'm lucky because every one of the 2,000 plus commissions I've received over the years has been a pat on the back.

I write this for my son Aaron - who's self portrait was graded with a BIG red "F" by his 4th grade teacher 9 years ago - all because he drew extra personality traits into his picture...because he didn't want his art to look like everyone Else's - apparently he understood art much better than his teacher.

Some have questioned my sanity in criticizing the very system that employs teachers and librarians who make up a large portion of my children's book audience. That I might be black listed for school visits - a substantial boost to author/illustrator incomes and book promotion.  (Isn't it ironic that the very people I feared in school have become a large portion of my audience?) Am I really going to bite the hand that feeds me? If you abuse a dog and it bites you back should you get mad at the dog or realize your mistake and change?

I could sit back and keep my mouth shut in hopes of earning extra income provided by the very system that ignored me -OR- I could do what I feel is right and speak up for the innocent children we feed to that machine every year. I've met parents with kids just like me who ask, "what should I do with my child who just wants to draw?" Should I turn my back on them in hopes of booking more school visits? I tell them to celebrate those passions that their children exhibit! Help nurture those skills and understand that the world may one day value their contributions much higher than the school system is allowed to for the moment.

I love presenting in schools because I feel that I might actually be able to make a difference in some of the budding artists in the crowd. My feelings towards the broken system do not prevent me from working within it's framework - just like many of the committed teachers who get up every day trying to make a difference in spite of having to teach in handcuffs. I hope anyone reading this will understand that I'm passionate about illustrating children's books, teaching, and helping people realize their potential in unlocking their talents and inspiring them to work hard to achieve their dreams.

If you don't have any idea what I'm talking about there are many great discussions online: Check out Ken Robinson and what Seth Godin has to say about this topic.

An Hour With Will Terry & Jake Parker

I know this is very short notice but today at 4:00 PM MST Jake Parker and I are going to be teaching a short lesson for FREE in Mark Mitchell's ONLINE classroom. Mark asked us to talk about our upcoming SVS online class and share a little bit of what we will be doing for our attendees. I'll be sharing an image presentation about creating dynamic depth "The Window into your World" and Jake will be doing a drawing demo in Photoshop.

To watch the presentation just click here on this link! I hope you have the time to join us! And thank Mark for his wonderful blog - How To Be A Children's Book Illustrator.


UPDATE: Here is the link to the recorded version of this class: http://makeyoursplashes.com/a-free-class-with-will-and-jake/

Children's Book Publishing In A Nutshell

I am often asked, "How can I get my story in front of an editor?" I've always tried to answer as best I can without spending too much time on any one email - but in order to tell the story I really needed to spend a little more time. Now I'll be able to send this link!

Teeny tiny fantasy nutshell version:

You write a story - send it to a publisher - they like it - they hire an illustrator - your book is published - you earn enough money to buy a small island - the end.

Regular sized nutshell version:

An author writes a story instead of watching TV, reading a book, or hanging out with friends. He/she submits it to multiple publishers one at a time with a SASE. Rejection letters come one by one over X amount of time and they are kept in a binder by the author for score keeping. If the author is serious he/she is writing and submitting other stories while waiting for the rejection letter on the first story.

If the writer is un-agented the publisher probably won’t open the manuscript - or they will open it and send it right back with a form letter stating that they don’t accept unsolicited manuscripts. If the writer is agented or if the writer attended an SCBWI conference and received publisher submission stickers to put on the package the interns will open the package, read your story, and decide if they like it..

Interns you ask? What the? Yes - the sheer number of submissions is impractical for editors to go through. The interns are instructed to pass along anything they really like. If yours gets passed up to an editor they might read it...hopefully nobody walks into the editors office, phone doesn’t ring, or coffee isn’t spilled while your story is having it’s big moment with the editor.

If they like it they might do a little research to see if there is anything else out there like it. They don’t want to publish a book that’s just like someone else’s -  unless someone else's book did really well and then your book is exactly what they’re looking for.  If the research goes well they might contact you via email or phone to ask if you’ve submitted it to any other house. If you answer yes they might pass on it right then and there. The reasons would take many paragraphs to explain but if they love it more than their mother they might still be interested.

They might also pass on it if they don’t have room to publish any more books that year- even if it’s the best manuscript they’ve ever read. They might pass on it if books in your genre aren’t “hot” right now. There are an additional 100 reasons why the editor might love your book but send you a rejection letter. You will probably never know the real reason your manuscript is rejected. Sometimes the editors heart is broken over this.

They might ask you to make changes. This means they REALLY like it. Some unpublished authors are resistant to making these changes. This attitude will help them remain unpublished. If the author makes the changes they might take it to an acquisitions meeting. This is the meeting where the other editors are supposed to figure out reasons why they should NOT publish it. This is a safeguard to prevent dumb stuff from being published - so much for safeguards. If the other editors can’t think of good reasons that your manuscript is bad they might decide to send it to the marketing team. The marketing team is supposed to find better reasons why your book is dumb and why it should not be published. If the sales team can’t come up with any good reasons why your book will sink the company they might invent some. This is where the editors and marketing people fight over your book. This is where you wish you could be a fly on the wall. 

At this point they might decide to publish your book. They decide what time of year your book should be released and put it on their schedule. You get the acceptance letter. This is the movie quality moment where the skies part, your family gathers around you, all of you cry, there’s also probably a rainbow and you all go out to a fancy restaurant. While you’re eating - the editor contacts an illustrator like myself asking if I would be interested in making pictures for your book.

This is not quite a movie quality moment but still pretty darn cool - I take my family out to dinner but not as fancy as the author’s but most likely a cut above McDonalds.

Sometimes the first few illustrators turn them down and as weeks are burned up - the unlucky illustrator who gets asked last - gets that much less time to illustrate your book. You might be consulted on who they choose to illustrate your book if you have clout. If you don’t know if you have clout you don’t. You might be shown the first round of sketches but again clout has a lot to do with how far inside the loop you get to hover. Feedback is given to the illustrator from the editor and art director - not you. Once all the changes have been accepted by the editor the illustrator is free to work on the final renderings.

The illustrator and author are never introduced. There are many good reasons for this but the biggest is because some people are big fat stupid idiots and don’t know how to get along. There are many stories that support the buffer the publisher places between authors and illustrators. Some of them are funny - some of them are sad...some are funny in a sad way.

Once the final artwork is accepted and any changes are made the illustrator and author are finished. Usually the books are printed in China to save money. The books go for a boat ride to the country of origin and the author and illustrator receive their copies but are still sequestered. (Don’t tell anyone - I like talking to my authors over the phone when it’s all finished - I like people) This whole process can take anywhere from a few years to as many as 9 years. The 9 years is a great story from one of my friends but would probably take as long as I’ve already written to tell.

I wrote this in a snarky tone.

To be clear. I have a great relationship with many editors, art directors, and owners...or I used to :)  I wrote it this way because I often get asked: “I wrote a book - how do I go about getting it published?” I’ve left out so much and yet look at how many paragraphs I had to use for the nutshell version - AND this is from my perspective - if you picked 10 authors they would all have a different publishing story.

My point in all this is that you can’t expect to write one story and get it published. Most published authors received dozens if not more rejection letters on dozens of stories written over years of trying before they received their first acceptance letter. To become an accomplished writer is a lifelong pursuit - like a professional athlete. The person who wrote a story and wants to get it published traditionally is in for a lot of disappointment unless he/she is in it for the long haul of writing and submitting in their lifetime.

Publishing is a great amplifier for anyone who wants to speak to a large audience. Sometimes it seems like a cold machine. Many times you, I, and the guy down the street don’t agree with what gets published. Sometimes our thoughts are validated when books are remaindered 18 months after publication. Sometimes publishers know they have a hit before the book hits the shelves - and they’re often right. Sometimes it seems like editors are calloused, arrogant, and ego driven. Sometimes they have to be to get through the mound of work heaped upon them. They are a passionate group of people who love books and love their jobs. In fact I don’t think I know another group of workers who get up everyday so eager to get to work. I think they realize how special it is when an author hones their craft and tells a masterful original story but are equally annoyed when people do not spend the time and effort to polish their work.

Why We Don't Learn As Fast As Musicians

If you're enrolled in our "Illustration For Storytellers" class - FULL or LITE version please watch this video...it is designed to help all of us accept critiques easier.

In this video I discuss why many visual artists in my University classes avoid my help, critiques, suggestions, and advice. I can't blame them because they have been victimized by our public school system. I realize that I'm generalizing but most US students are never taught visual art the same way they are taught music, dance, acting, writing, and sports. We get our writing assignments handed back to us with red marks correcting our mistakes in elementary school all the way through high school. We have been conditioned to accept right and wrong ways to use the English language so when we get to college we begin at a much higher level for writing classes than do incoming freshmen in art.

It's important to understand how we have wrongly treated the visual art student so that we might help them understand that letting go of their bad habits will liberate them and accelerate their learning. I give many examples in the video - if you disagree with me please watch the video first where I make my complete argument - but I do welcome your thoughts!

Online Children's Illustration Class - Update

Jake and I are so pleased that our FULL class has SOLD OUT - but we still have the LITE class available. We are humbled to realize that artists all over the world trust us to share what we've learned about creating illustrations for stories like children's books and comics. What is possible today wasn't possible only a few years ago and it is my belief that we will find learning online more and more common in the coming years. To think that we can broadcast from our little town in Utah US to anywhere in the world is mind blowing and proves that if you work hard and dream BIG you can do it! The little map above shows how spread out our current enrollment is to date - but it's still growing!

FAQ's:

How long will I be able to purchase the LITE version of the class? We will keep the video only version of this class available until July 10th 2013- the last day of the LIVE class. If you want to watch all of these classes - get the details by clicking here.

What format will the LITE class be in? The LITE version of the class will be in an MP4 or WMV file or both.

If I buy the LITE class how long can I view it? If you purchase the LITE class you will be given a download link to have the complete video files on your computer for as long as you like.

Will I get any feedback with the LITE version? No - we produced two price points to account for the time we will spend with FULL version participants - the LITE class will deliver the recorded version of the FULL class without the critiques, class questions, draw-overs, and skype call.

What materials will I need for either the LITE or FULL class? The assignments we will give will all require drawing instruments like copy paper and pencils (or tablet with drawing program). Adding color to your assignment is optional. You could use Acrylic, Oil, Pastel, Watercolor, Gouche, Ink, or Digital. I advise my students to avoid colored pencil unless it's mixed with an aqueous media like Watercolor because it takes a tremendous amount of time to build up color while controlling texture. Most illustrators avoid it as a stand alone medium for this reason.

If you have any other questions pertaining to the class I welcome them and will add them to this list if they are pertinent to participants.

Illustration For Storytellers site is LIVE!

We are excited to launch our new online live Illustration For Storytellers class! We are filling up fast so if you're at all interested don't wait too long to reserve your spot. Just go to our new site for the School of Visual Storytelling. You can also get there by clicking on the banner on the right. Please read through all of the information before asking questions as we've put a lot of thought and effort into this class.

Also please feel free to stop by our facebook page and "like" us if you would like to receive updates and future news on other classes. We are also hoping that participants will feel free to share ideas and information pertaining to the class - as a forum. We would love to get a community going around the idea of learning the art of visual storytelling, publishing, and related subjects.

We are offering a FULL class and a LITE class. The details are on the site but basically there are only 25 spaces for the full class because we want to give personal attention to those students and help them through the working process of their image creation.

The LITE class is the recording of the FULL class but without any of the personal contact - great for those who could not register or don't have the time to go through the assignment or who's schedules do not sync up.

We will also be creating an waiting list by first come first serve. If someone in the FULL class should decide to drop out before class starts we will work from the top down for alternates. If you try to purchase the class and it says SOLD OUT - please email me ASAP to get on the list!

Some have asked me, "what will be different in this live class than what you have already put in your, "How To Illustrate Children's Books" video tutorial? An excellent question. There are many lessons that I could not include in that video series for the sake of time. There will be mini exercises that we will do in class that were also not included. I have many more visual aids that I could not share in the tutorial that I'll be showing in class because of the "fair use" doctrine. Jake Parker has his own lessons and strengths that are very different than mine. I will be stealing as much as possible from him - please don't tell him :) So in general I think that even if you went through the tutorial you will get some overlap but also much much more.

Can't wait for class to start!

Having Fun On My Next Book!

I'm heavy into the sketches for my next book - Santa Pups written by Jerry Pollatta - published by Scholastic. It's a super funny picturebook about Santa and dogs. Many of you know how much I love dogs (sorry cats - the dogs talked me into joining their team) so I jumped at the chance to work on this one! I'm even going to be able to work in my dog Pooch into a few scenes!

There's a lot of action in this book so I've been approaching the sketches a little differently. Rather than working up from a strict thumbnail on every illustration I started with rough thumbnail sketches but then I'm moving directly to objects on layers in Photoshop. This will give me lots of flexibility with perspective and scale. So I've drawn a lot of "parts" so I can mix, match, move, distort, rotate, scale, etc.

After I move all the object into place I'll send the flattened image back to my iPad for a clean up and then off to my editor for final approval before going back to Photoshop for value and color.

What Are Warm & Cool Colors?

I made this video for a few people who were kind enough to point out that I didn't do the best job explaining warm and cool colors in my digital painting tutorial - in a NICE way. Thank you - you know who you are :) I love using color and Photoshop's color picker really helps to understand the organization of tinting, shading, warming and cooling colors. I hope you can benefit from this video - I love talking color!

Story Art Class Information

I'm so excited to be able to give more information on our online story art class that's coming up!

First: There will be a website coming where you can sign up but we don't have that available just yet - it's coming!

Second: We are making a list and will give advanced notice to those of you who want to sign up. Simply leave your email address in the comments section below or email me privately and I'll put you on the list. These people will get first crack at the sign up when we launch the website. No obligation however if you're on the list - you will just get an email with the link to the class site.

Ok - so here's the info:

I keep writing "we" and you're probably wondering who I'm talking about? I'm going to be team teaching this class with Jake Parker! THE JAKE PARKER! This guy is amazing - he's worked on feature films and comics as well as picture books - not to mention coming off of an amazing kickstarter raising $85,000 for his Antler Boy book! (Don't tell anyone - but I'm more excited to learn from him probably than anyone else!)

Where: On your computer
When: Every Mon. and Wed. at 7:00PM - 9:00PM MST Starting June 10th and ending July 10th
Duration: 5 weeks = 10 classes
How much? This will be announced on the website but it will be a fraction of what a college class costs and I think extremely reasonable for what you will get.

Each class will be recorded and you will be able to watch it at your convenience - so if you have to miss a class you can still watch the presentation although you will miss out on asking questions.

In addition you will get a follow up skype call at the end of the class to go over anything you want -concerning your work or portfolio.

Each class has been carefully thought out and the schedule will be posted on the website.

I'm just bursting - this is going to be so much fun!

Becoming A Children's Book Illustrator

 In the video above I answer some questions from a fellow artist in Serbia who is trying to break into the children's book market. I think many artists can relate to his frustrations and challenges so by answering his email hopefully I'm also speaking to a much broader audience. I know I get long winded but if you're working on some art just let it play in the background and perhaps some of what I say will resonate with you. Also - feel free to disagree - I welcome differing opinions so others can have more to think about.

"Skeleton For Dinner" Is Finished!

I just finished the last illustration in my new book - "Skeleton for Dinner" by Margery Cuyler. It's due out sometime before Halloween this next fall. I'll definitely post links when it's in stores. I had so much fun with this one! I love coming up with unique characters and Halloween?! Are you kidding me? I've always wanted to do a Halloween book!

I was really happy that my editors were ok with the idea of making "ghost" into a little girl instead of the typical predictable cartoonish ghost we've seen a million times. It was fun to render a character that doesn't follow the same color rules that other objects follow. Skeleton was fun to design too because I felt he/she needed to be cute and not too scary.

After most of the paintings were finished I looked at skeleton and realized he/she just didn't look cute enough without eyes. This was one of those decisions that of course didn't make any sense academically - obviously a skeleton doesn't have eye balls but for a children's book character I questioned if he/she should have them. I contacted my editors and they thought about it too. In the end we all felt good about eye balls. Eye balls are a good thing. :)

I'm still in search of the perfectly illustrated picture book. I poured my heart and soul into this one. There are a few things I would change or explore a little further if given the chance - but I'm glad this one isn't perfect. Wouldn't it be scary to bowl or pitch a perfect game?...knowing the only direction is down from there?

Imagination & Visual Literacy Class

I'm teaching a class called "Imagination & Visual Literacy" at UVU right now. I love this class. It's all the good stuff. I think I learned more than my students in developing the curriculum.

This was yesterdays in-class assignment. Draw a cat looking out of a bedroom window and include 25 items in the room but put all of the emphasis on the cat in 45 min. Since it was a drawing - students couldn't use color for emphasis which is one of the easiest ways to accomplish this task. High contrast and crisp lines were all they could use.

I drew the above image along with them on my iPad hooked to the LCD projector. I like creating problems that I would also like to solve - why should they have all the fun?

Online Story Art Class Coming!

Today's post is a teaser! Personally I hate teasers - please don't tease me! :)

In the next 4-6 weeks I will be announcing my new Online Story Art Class! It looks like I'll be teaching it with a rock star in the animation/comics/children's book industry! Not final yet so I guess that's another teaser! The class will be limited to about 15 students so we're thinking it might fill up fast but if there's enough demand we might offer a second section. We're still hammering out all the details but it will have assignments, critiques, instruction, - things we can't put in a video due to copyright/permission issues which are protected under the "fair use" doctrine.

I use my personal FACEBOOK account as my professional connection account on FB so if you want to send me a friend request I'll add you so you can get the announcement there. I'll also tweet it and of course post it here on my blog. Following my blog will allow you to get it in your google feed.

We'll price it very reasonably stripping out all the overhead that you pay for a University class since we won't be renting space. So excited to be able to do this! Stay tuned!

 Oh yeah - this was my demo last night in Digital Painting class.

Photoshop Demo For My Class

I painted this for my class at UVU for our next assignment. I don't work in this style so I wanted to work up a little example of what I'm looking for. I can't tell you how much fun I have playing with different brushes and settings in Photoshop - it truly is an amazing program!

Working With Children's Book Editors

I've been working on one of the funnest books I've ever had the privilege to illustrate. "Skeleton For Dinner" by Margery Cuyler is due out this coming fall by Albert Whitman - and is a very cute story about miscommunication among friends. The image above is just a mock up - the real type treatments to come.

My advice when working with editors and art directors:

1) Seek after the advice of your editor. It's a collaboration. The publisher is paying the bills. They are risking their money to make the dream happen. You and I are risking our time. We all have risk but I often hear about illustrators who feel that art decisions should be their call alone. Many of my books have been greatly enhanced by the discretion, suggestions, and requests of my employers and this cover is no exception. I had to completely re-do this cover because I broke some of my own design rules - I cut corners. I am so much happier with this current version and the input from my editors Nick Tiermersma and Wendy McClure.

2) Get to know your editors with good back and forth communication. Be clear in what your expectations, aspirations, intentions, plans, goals, etc are. Let them know how passionate you are - they want to know. Don't make it a secret that you're tickled to work on their project. Don't hide the fact that you're trying to do your best work ever. Let them understand that you value their opinion and input. After all you're a team even though you may be many miles apart geographically. If you're not a team player...good luck.

How I Use Procreate To Draw On My iPad

In the video below I show how I'm using Procreate to make drawings for my children's books, iPad apps, personal and freelance work. I love the Procreate app! It allows me to make high resolution drawings that I can email to my desktop and paint in photoshop. No more running out of paper. No more pens, pencils, not having a pen, running out of lead, etc. I can take my work anywhere and I can go through the entire drawing/refinement process without the use of a scanner or tracing paper. It has made me much more productive in that I can do finish work anywhere - doctor's office, meetings, waiting in the car, airplanes, conferences - you name it. The only thing I have to remember to do is take enough work with me before I leave the studio. I hope you enjoy the video...

Copy Your Mentors Work To Improve!

In this video I discuss the fact that public schools didn't prepare us to learn art (big surprise right?). The fact that there are rules in every creative field like writing, dance, music and yes - even sports...why then do we often fail to apply the same rules to the visual arts? From public school through college many students report that they were never taught concrete rules to help them find the boundaries that focus their creative energy into successful drawings and paintings. In the video I give advice on what I think you should do to improve the quality of your visual art.

Procreating! er um...drawing in Procreate

I created this image using Procreate on my iPad - I love this app!

I just got back from the SCBWI Southern Breeze conference in Atlanta. I was being entertained by Dianne Hess (editor at Scholastic) as she gave her speech - an inside look at her company. I have to draw to listen so I was on  my iPad using "Procreate". It's my go to program for creating all of my sketches now - I love the screen rotation feature and the larger file sizes. Oh yeah - and I'm still only using my finger. I find it fascinating that it bothers people that I won't go out and drop coin on a stylus. It bugs my students, friends, and strangers that I meet - like the guy who sat next to me on the plane. "You know you can buy all kinds of styluses for that device," he informed me...I just agreed....by the way it strengthens my resolve to run sans stylus with each criticism.

A special shout out to Elizabeth Dulemba for inviting me to speak, being a great host, running an awesome conference, and being a great illustrator. I met so many cool people down there - too many to list but you know who you are! I hope to be able to get down there again sometime.

Crawl, Walk, Run, Leap!

I created the image above for my digital painting class this semester as an example of what I want my students to do for our "circle straight edge" assignment. The rules:

Create an image in Photoshop.
Perfect your drawing.
Use only the circle selection tool and the lasso for straight edges.
Painting: use the paint bucket and airbrush tools.
Concept: Visually explain why the Abominable Snowman is grumpy.

I don't think everyone is happy with this assignment. The limitations are frustrating some of them (yay!) and locking them into a style they aren't excited about.

My philosophy: Mastery in any discipline such as science or sports - arithmetic or art is gained in small steps. You have to learn algebra before calculus - physics before string theory and lay ups before alley oop dunks. By taking away options I'm allowing students to focus on the basic elements of design and visual communication. If you can't develop a solid composition and execute good rendering under these restrictions how can you hope to succeed given unlimited brushes, selection tools, textures, healing brushes, filters, adjustments, mixing and blending tools, etc?

Imagine the following experiment: You are given the best brushes and pallet knives money can buy for oil painting -fine linens, mediums, easel, pallet, etc. Your set up is perfect. Then give someone like Caravaggio a pocket knife, an old tree branch, some cheap oil paints, and a crapy canvas board. Set up a still life. Do you think you could out paint him? I know I couldn't.

It's not about the tools - it's about your understanding of mediums, surfaces, tools, design, light & shadow, edges, color, value, texture, line, space, shape, etc. What you do with the tools is personal to your understanding and vision.

Try limiting your choices...wax on - wax off.

In addition: From the mouth of Kazu - the artist who just completed the new Harry Potter covers:

Anything else about your process as you went about it that artists should know?

I tried to work on a single layer in Photoshop. I used very few effects. All of the illustrations for the most part I didn’t separate elements. I try to keep it pure as if I was working on a canvas. I forced myself into a limitation despite having all of these tools at my disposal. (from CBS)

New Ways To Market Your Illustration

In the video below I took the time to explain the changes I've seen happen in illustration markets over the past 20 years and what I think artists should do to take advantage of emerging markets. Yes there still is plenty of freelance illustration work out there but there are more illustrators competing for it and budgets have either remained the same or gone down. The good news is that there are so many new possibilities for artists that unless you refuse to be open minded you and I can find success in many different places.

I give quite a few detailed examples in this video - it's long so put it on while you work - I hope you enjoy it!

Can Pinterest Help Your Art Get Better?

Well obviously I must think so or this would be a really short post right?

First let me just say that I'm like a lot of you - "NOT ANOTHER SOCIAL MEDIA SITE!!!" I know I know - but trust me - Pinterest is worth it...and you can get in and out quickly!

For starters lets deal with that title - what if I told you that there is a way to see how your art stacks up against your competition? What if you could be that fly on the wall in the office of an editor, art director, agent, or fellow artist? What if you could know what people really think of your work? I'll show you a very simple way to use Pinterest to do just this.

1. Make your own Pinterest account BUT do it by logging in from Facebook or choose the setting so that every time you make a "PIN" it updates facebook - reason? - so people see your pins, visit your board, and re'pin your pins.

2. In the "search" bar at the top of the Pinterest page after you're logged in - type in something like "illustration" or "Children's illustration" or "characters" and hit enter.

3. Click on "boards"

4. Click on a piece of art that interests you - you might want to scroll a little - pick a goody! Ok - now pick five images to "re-pin" AND - pin them to your illustration board.  (I figured all this stuff out so if I can do it a snail can do it - sorry snails :( ...make sure you REALLY like the images you're re-pinning. These need to be images that you really admire and perhaps wish you'd created so be picky!  Also - if you don't pin really good stuff people will ignore your board and that will kill this whole experiment.

5. Ok - now pin one of your own images and then over the next year repeat this ratio - a handful of other artist's images to one of your own.  I suggest you pin from your website or blog so that if people click on them they come back to your portal - but that's not what this post is about but you should still do it for marketing reasons. (There's a way to download some thing-a-magiggy to your browser so you can "pin" from any site - I don't remember how I got it to work - I think I googled "how to pin with Pinterest")

6. Here's a look at my illustration board on Pinterest. If you zoom in you can see how many times each image was "re-pinned" - and here in lies the magic! You get to see how many votes or "pins" each image gets including your own. In a way people are casting their votes in an impartial way - self serving! They see something they like and they re-pin it for themselves. This is more valuable than a critique from friends in some ways because it's a rather large sample size and it's honest. The people pinning don't really know or care that you're looking at the data this way -they're just grabbing images for future consumption on their own boards.

So how can Pinterest help you improve your art? You can learn a lot by seeing what people like and don't like. If you're work isn't getting re-pinned as much as the other work you pin you have some work to do - but not in the blind - because you can see exactly what images people respond to the most. You might want to make a list of the things the popular images have in common - then compare to your work. However, this could also be a little dangerous if you follow it too closely and copy what is getting votes - you could become a follower- you still have to innovate but in order to create great art you have to consume great art!

Pinterest is in my opinion a very valuable tool for inspiration, strategy, and marketing - I'm starting to get emails and messages from customers who are finding me on Pinterest - and I hear it's the fastest growing website! so get pinning!

Thank You!

Words can't begin to describe the feelings I've had over the past few years since making my first video tutorial: "How To Illustrate Children's Books". I've recieved hundreds of letters, emails, Facebook messages, etc thanking me for making that video and the subsequent videos I made afterwards. I get to chat with people everyday about their enthusiasim and renewed energy for working on their art projects.

With permission from James Horvath I'm sharing his letter because it really touched me yesterday - I'm glad I was home alone so my kids didn't see me get all mushy. My emotions come from the leftover feelings I have growing up in the shadow of academic achievers in my family and thinking that I would never be able to do anything important with my life. There really isn't anything better in life than knowing you make a difference - so I thank all of you for the kind words you've sent me in the past few years!


Hey Will

It's been a while since I downloaded and watched your video series, "How to Illustrate Children's Books". I just wanted to write to you and let you know how well your course has worked for me. 

I've been a freelance children's illustrator for many years. I worked primarily in the education market doing work for Scholastic, Pearson, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and a few others. And while I've enjoyed some modest success, I always wanted to write and illustrate my own children's picture books.

About a year and a half ago I decided to get off my butt and actually do it, instead of just dreaming about it. I found your video course online and decided to spring for the $29.99.

I developed my story, worked on some sketches and sample art, basically, followed your process and submitted my dummy (an email with a PDF) to one publisher. A test run so to speak. I braced myself for the almost inevitable rejection that I was sure would soon follow. 

Instead, within 24 hours, I received a response with a very enthusiastic reply. That was on a Tuesday. By the end of the week I had a 3-book deal with HarperCollins Publishers. My first book comes out on April 30th. And is up for pre-orders at practically all major on-line retailers.

I just wanted to send you this note and say, "Thanks". I really do credit you and your course with outlining a path for my success. I would, and often do, highly recommend your video series to anyone looking to break into the children's book market.

Thanks again!

James Horvath

Check out his work! 
 

Congratulations James - I can't wait to buy your books when they come out and to brag that I might have played a tiny part in their creation. It's been a crazy ride with our Folio Academy project. We've now sold our videos in about 40 countries and counting. Never in my wildest dream did I think this would happen when we uploaded our first video a few years ago!

New iPad APP Composer Tutorial - Demibooks!

Great News! Folio Academy just released a new tutorial that teaches how to produce a children's story app using the Demibooks Composer software. Here is a link to the TUTORIAL.

Heidi Berthiaume gives a very in depth and clear tutorial on how you can take your story and art work and use the Demi Books Composer to create your own iPad app. You use your own iPad to download the free software from Demibooks.http://demibooks.com/home/ You import images and assets to your iPad and actually create the app on your iPad for the iPad - how cool is that? No programmer necessary. After you're finished you have a few options: you can choose to publish to the Apple app store on your own and/or submit your book to Demibooks Storytime and become part of a growing library of books from other indie developers AND McGraw Hill and Kane Miller. DBS - is promoted by Usborne Books.

In the first option you pay Demibooks $249 to get the digital file to upload to Apple - then every sale you make apple will pay a royalty of 70% to you. So, if you priced your book at $1.99 Apple would pay you roughly $140/sale. In this option you would also need to set up a developer account with Apple for $99/year. The cool thing is that they will hold your hand and do the submitting on your behalf!

Personally I feel that this is really worth it. I've already made back the money I spent on I EAT YOU! and then some from Talespring and my royalty is 50% with them. I would advise that you do everything in your capability to make your app appealing emotionally i.e. amazingly funny, cute, sad, gross, offensive, touching, etc. The time for A is for Apple is over.

The second option is really a continuation of the first - I just wanted to make sure that we discussed it separately. If you go through the development and publishing process in the first option and Demibooks likes your book they may decide to include it in their Storytime library. This is especially exciting because it's hard enough to get attention for your digital book without any extra "love". Demibooks curates it's library for artistic quality, story, and overall product integrity. In some ways this feels like a higher form of indie publishing and what I have been predicting for many months - that there will be collections developing online to help consumers find higher quality digital story books.

Here is a little on Hedi - creator of "Develop A Children's Book iPad App"

Heidi Berthiaume loves to create stuff - from websites to iPad apps to written stories to fan music videos. She spent fifteen years as an information architect providing instructional documentation for programmers and designers so they could develop applications and websites for businesses such as 3M, Hilton, and American Airlines (which paid the mortgage but was less fun than writing a novel and developing her children's picture book Bud the Bunny into an iPad app). The portal to all of her stuff is http://www.heidi2524.com/

I'll be doing an update post on "I EAT YOU!" in the not too distant future...

Fun With Pooch

I'm working on a bunch of freelance projects at the moment but I can't show any of them to you :(

So you get a cat with a red cape riding Pooch. Pooch is my dog. I go hiking with Pooch almost everyday...and snap action shots just for fun.

And I've played with a few of them in Photoshop. I know - it's weird - but I'm weird - so....

I don't know why I like to draw other animals riding on my dog's back...I think it's ok as long as she doesn't find out.

Cool & Warm Colors

I painted this as a demo for my digital painting class this semester at UVU. I really wanted to play around with a dramatic lighting situation.

One of the reasons I'm a big advocate of getting out there and seeing the world with your own eyes is the feeling you get and the inspiration to find a place for it in your work. I woke up to this last year in Utah's Goblin Valley last year - my tent was about 5 feet to the right.

So this is how I begin my sketches on my iPad. I call this the ugly stage. I'm basically making a "map" for me to trace and perfect on another layer. At this point I don't care about detail - just the raw elements and proportions. It's sketchy and loose but it will serve as my guide.

I'm using "Procreate" now because I can have a much larger file size then "Brushes"  - AND - I can rotate the "paper". That's a huge improvement. Down side: (why is there always a downside?) It's much slower than brushes. I'll be making an update video for my "Painting on the iPad" video tutorial that demonstrates how you can use Procreate for your workflow.

And this is the perfected sketch. I probably used about three more layers to get to this point reducing the brush size and increasing the value of my lines.

I think it's really neat to look at this part of the painting because it looks so dark and different than the part in the sunlight...similar to the photo I took. I added the color in Photoshop CS5.

I love light and shadow. You really can't have one without the other can you? I really like exploring with cool colors vs warm colors to see what interesting blends happen and the mood it creates.

Oil Start - Photoshop Finish

One of the problems with digital painting for a lot of artists is that it's often hard to get the subtleties and happy accidents that traditional mediums provide.

One of the problems with painting in traditional mediums - like oils for instance is the lack of control or the tedious nature of finishing details - not to mention the fact that you can't undo, adjust color, or zoom in.

Of course the solution won't work for gallery painters or people who enjoy having originals but I had fun painting on this little oil painting in Photoshop. Originally I painted it on a gessoed board in a few hours in my University painting class but never got around to finishing it. So yesterday I thought - why not scan it and spend an hour in photoshop?

This is the original oil painting that I never had time to finish

You can see the flat strokes I made in the oil painting and the gesso texture.

 I used one stock photoshop brush - the flat blunt (bristle tilt).

and here is the same oil painting with the digital strokes added in.

My process is far from perfect. I don't do this sort of thing every day but it can give you an idea of what is possible if you wanted to start your paintings in oil and finish them digitally.

The Teacher In Me

The teacher in me is excited to teach the student in you.
The teacher in me wants you to find out what you can do.
The teacher in me knows what it's like to have dreams come true and wants yours to come true too.

The teacher in me is afraid you won't do what you need to do - but the teacher in me is still rooting for you.

The teacher in me lives through your triumphs.
The teacher in me knows you will fail again and again but prays you won't quit.

The teacher in me can't wait to see the teacher in you.
The teacher in me wants to be taught by the teacher in you.

Classes begin for me again today at UVU and I love it! I get so much out of teaching. Last semester in my children's book class I gave my students the option to work on story apps. A hand full went in that direction and it was really fun to see what they came up with. We didn't have time to work on their stories since it is an illustration class so they lack some of the polish that taking a children's writing class would provide - but they learned by doing and are that much further along.

Here are a few of the apps they created last semester...but one is missing :(   Alicia VanNoy Call had her (TOTALLY AMAZING) app rejected by Apple twice because it didn't have enough animation/interactivity. They wanted her to publish it as an iBook but she doesn't want to do that for various reasons - so it's in limbo at the moment.

I will really miss this group of kids - we really had a lot of fun!

Kitty Wants by Ginny Tilby (pink sweater) - check it out! 

Ricky the Fortune Cookie by Jared Salmond (second goof from the right) - check it out!

Jumping Jackie by Kari & Von Brimhall - check it out!

Jumping Jackie is from my long time college friends Kari & Von Brimhall - They did an amazing job animating their app using Talespring.com ...if you want to see what's possible at Talespring you should check out their app! I love their enthusiasim for creating ebooks and story apps. Kari is a homeschooler who's kids are flying the coop and doing very well at college and now she and Von are living out their dreams creating for the pure love of it. They are one step ahead of me in that they already created a website to showcase their titles called instant sunshine.