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Woop-dee-do and yippy-kay-ayy, we’ll be at WorldFest this coming weekend!
So if you’re in the Los Angeles area, come out and join us on Sunday, May 19th. This is us officially inviting you to hang out in a beautiful park for a day listening to live music, sampling tons of vegan food, plus a beer and wine garden hosted by Lagunitas Brewing Company. Um, beer. Yes? Beer. Yes. The event is all about promoting health, environmental, humanitarian and animal welfare issues. No reason we can’t have some fun doing it!
Since we run an environmentally sustainable screen print shop – not to mention being vegan – we couldn’t think of a better way to participate than with our goofy vegan t-shirt designs. Naturally, we’ll be exhibiting our super soft vegan t-shirts at our booth. We’ll also have stickers, window decals, tote bags, and prizes to give away. So aside from the beer, food, and Ed Begley, Jr., you can score some very cool stuff from us!
We’ll also be educating people on what it means to run an environmentally-conscious business. Especially in the screen printing industry, there are a lot of chemicals that are used for preparing and cleaning screens. We only use drain safe, biodegradable, citrus and soy-based cleaners in our tiny little shop. There are a lot of things we plan to do as we grow (we’d love to be 100% solar-powered), and we’ll be learning about some options at WorldFest.
We hope to see you there!
David & Jenni
By: Ikuko Takeuch,
on 5/16/2013
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By: Kathy Temean,
on 5/16/2013
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KUDO’S:
BETH FERRY’s PIRATE’S PERFECT PET, in which a captain, who considers himself practically perfect in every way, decides that he’s just missing one thing — the perfect pet — and goes on a wild search to hunt that pet down, was sold to Mary Lee Donovan at Candlewick, by Elena Mechlin at Pippin Properties.
INDUSTRY NEWS:
Emily van Beek has been promoted senior vice president at Folio Jr., the children’s division of Folio Literary Management.
Joe Perez has joined the Random House Publishing Group as senior art director. Previously he was art director at Portfolio.
At Atheneum, Emma Ledbetter has been promoted to assistant editor.
Christina Pulles moves up to assistant editor at Simon & Schuster Children’s.
Congratulations everyone!
Remember that the deadline is May 22nd to submit a first page to win a critique with MELISSA FAULNER, Editorial Assistant, ABRAMS Books for Young Readers and Amulet.
Last week Melissa answered a few questions. Here they are, again:
1. This is the first time we have had someone from Abrams BFYR. Could you share what makes Abrams different from other publishers?
Abrams is a smaller, boutique publishing house, so we’re able to provide a level of personal attention to authors and illustrators that a lot of larger houses aren’t able to achieve. Because of our size, we don’t really have a “mid-list.” Abrams’ is also deeply rooted in design and art having begun as an art book publisher, so there is a strong visual sensibility to every book we publish.
2. Do the editors at Abrams work as a team or do they chose books independently?
While editors do acquire books individually, we very much work as a team on projects. We have weekly editorial meetings where we discuss potential acquisitions with the entire department before taking them to an acquisitions board meeting. It’s also not unusual for editors to ask other editors to read manuscripts or look over covers just to get a second opinion, or to bounce around ideas.
3. Does Abrams try to stick to a certain ratio or PB, MG, YA, Fiction, and non-fiction with each catalog?
We generally try to have as balanced a list as possible for each season (we have two a year). We’ve always had a very strong non-fiction publishing program in both our Books for Young Readers and Amulet imprints, which is really great since so many publishers are now looking to acquire more non-fiction.
4. What is the ratio of debut authors to published author on your list?
It’s generally a fairly even split, though some seasons it may weigh more heavily in one direction or the other. We’re equally enthusiastic about bringing new talent to Abrams as we are about developing and nurturing our house authors.
5. The industry has been changing quite rapidly, do you think the mid-list authors are finding it harder to stay on the list?
I think at a lot of larger houses, authors are finding that they have to be a stronger advocate for themselves. Most aspiring authors know it’s essential to have built a strong platform before their book has been acquired, but it’s also essential to maintain that engagement and build even after their book has published. It can be daunting, but today, authors are fortunate to have so many avenues of engagement to pursue.
May’s submission deadline will be May 22nd, due to the Memorial Day.
Below is this month’s picture prompt for those of you who like them. This illustration is by Maria Bogade. She was featured on Illustrator Saturday on Feb. 9th 2013 and I missed showing off this illustration. Thought it might provide some inspiration for a story. You do not have to use it. Feel free to submit a first page from a work in progress.
WRITERS Sending in a First Page: Please attach your double spaced, 12 point font, 23 line first page to an e-mail and send it to kathy(dot)temean(at)gmail(dot)com. Also cut and paste it into the body of the e-mail. Put “May First Page Critique” or “May First Page Picture Prompt Critique” in the subject line. Make sure you have your name on the submission, a title, and indicate the genre. Also let me know if you were able to post of facebook or Tweet. You will get your name in the basket for each time you comment, tweet, or mention on facebook, giving you a better chance of being picked. If you end up doing more things to get additional entries, then e-mail me a note by May 20th. The four chosen and their critiques will be posted on May 31st.
Call for illustrations for May: Thank you to everyone who sent in an illustration for April. There are a couple that I didn’t get up. I promise I will use them in the days to come.
You can send anything, but I am especially looking for illustrations that reflect the month. I hope you will send something for May. This is a good way to get your work seen. Don’t wait, I will post the illustrations as they come in. Please make sure the illustration is at least 500 pixels wide and include a blurb about yourself and a link to see more of your work. Please send it to kathy(dot)temean(at)gmail(dot)com and put “May Illustration” in the subject box.
Talk tomorrow,
Kathy
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Melissa Faulner 
Runners seem to like to worry. Perhaps it’s a bit of the self masochism in us, on some level we must like to hurt, so it makes sense the same attraction is there for worrying. Our brains never seem to never be happy, or feel quite right, unless we’re preoccupied with something troublesome. [Why it has to be a negative is a topic for a post of another day!]
Am I doing enough? Is that a ‘new’ pain? Is that an INJURY?! Did I go out to fast? Am I doing too much? Should I ice that again? etc…etc. A common one is worrying about paces.
Well that’s only natural, of COURSE runners worry about paces…and they should. Paces are numbers, they are concrete, they are the benchmarks that tell us if we’re heading in the right direction, if all of this work is paying off. For runners, numbers are what show us progress. Paces, times, the black and whites of our sport are what feed that runner’s OCD-neurotic monster. It fuels our motivation.
Runners thrive on numbers. So paces and miles, naturally. The problem is worrying stressing over the WRONG numbers. Let’s make a deal:
DO worry about the paces of your hard runs, races, and workouts.
DON’T worry about the paces of your easy runs.
Ahhh, there we go. Easy in concept but quite a different beast to wrestle when applied to the never-logical runner’s brain. 
It’s far too easy to get sucked into thinking all paces are created equal. They AREN’T. They don’t hold races for ‘easy’ days…they could but then why not just make it a real race?
You see, it’s the hard running that counts. It’s the fast running that counts for PR’s. Let’s force logic onto our running brains here:
If you want to run FAST then the days that COUNT are the HARD ones.
How do you make sure your legs and body are recovered and prepared to run fast and hard on the days that count? Well, make sure they are able to recover between hard workouts. That means your easy days need to be run at whatever pace it is that allows them to recover.
Simple. Logical. But simple and logical sometimes get mangled in the runner’s brain.
So next time your brain starts off on a manic stress-induced worry attack because *HOLY CRAP* the pace of my easy run was soooo slow. STOP. Pause. Ask yourself this:
What was the pace of my last hard workout or race?
If the answer was that the pace was in the direction you want your running to go, if it’s showing progress…then who the flip cares about your easy day pace?!
Stress about what matters.
If your runner brain must worry about something pick something a little more benign. Maybe worry about the fact that your watch tan is blinding me.
1) The runner brain often can struggle with simple and logical, what’s another instance you have?
2) How do you keep your hard and easy day paces separate and at the right effort level?
3) Some run watchless, do you go naked on some of your easy days?
Today on the Frenzer Foreman Animation Forum, Bill Plympton’s producer Desiree Stavracos visits the program. She talks about what it takes to produce cartoons for America’s King of Indie Animation, shares the genesis of Plympton’s upcoming animated feature Cheatin’, reveals Bill’s favorite kind of pencil, and teaches the proper way to communicate with artists.
LINKS RELATED TO THIS EPISODE
DesireeStavracos.com
Bill Plympton’s Website
Bill Plympton’s Tumblr
Ticonderoga Pencils
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By: Ester García,
on 5/16/2013
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¡Llegó La mar chalada con sus locos personajes! Un disfrute haber ilustrado los ingeniosos y divertidos poemas de Enrique Cordero Seva. Personajes con aletas se esconden en los versos de este libro, entre calambures y retruécanos, juegos de palabras, adivinanzas... Los encontraréis en la Serie Azul de Ala Delta, Edelvives. ............
By: ARIS,
on 5/17/2013
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It's about time, too...
Of course, once all the flowers start blooming, it's very difficult not to be inspired!
And then there's...
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Raccoon yoga
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Have a wonderful weekend!
For fans of the much beloved franchise, Ghost in the Shell, a prequel to the 1995 anime by Masamune Shirow titled Ghost in the Shell: Arise will be released in four 50-minute parts.
The first installment, Ghost Pain, that will premiere in Japan on June 22, tells the story of cyborg squad leader Motoko Kusanagi, before she joined Public Security Section 9. The series, which is being produced at Production I.G., serves as the directorial debut of Kise Kazuchika, who worked as a key animator on the first two GITS films as well as the television movie, Ghost in the Shell: Solid State Society.
I've been wanting to write for a very long time now. And I don't mean blog pots---I mean actual writing-- as in a story of my own. I don't think you can read as much as I do and love reading as much a I do and not eventually, somewhere deep down, start to think that maybe you, too, have a story to tell.
The urge to write is a funny thing to a person who doesn't write. It's like a lifelong vegetarian suddenly getting a craving for pot roast. You've never eaten it before, so it's pretty freaking strange that your body (or imagination) is telling you that you want it.
Writing has always been an awesomely cool idea to me. But having never done it before, it remains a Schrödinger's cat of mystery. If I never open the box I'll never know if I'm a good writer or a bad writer. Of course it's a defense mechanism to protect the gee-golly hope that maybe I am a good writer! This is a problem. Because unless I actually try it, my writing will not just be an unknown neutral, it will be both good AND bad, as both exist as true until proven otherwise.
But how do I try? How do I begin? Writing a story is so unbelievably daunting. How do authors know where to begin and where they want to end up? How do they craft the plot? How do they imagine all those beautiful little moments that reveal character or move the story along? How do I write a story if I don't know exactly where I want to go with it? There are so many unknowns and that is SCARY.
It was then, in this moment of panic-- that I had a moment of clarity:
Writing a story is and always will be infinitely intimidating.
So stop thinking about it that way, and find a new way to look at it:
Think about writing as taking a trip.
When you go on vacation, you know where your initial destination is, you know who you're traveling with, and you know when you expect to return. The rest of it---the unplanned, the unknown, is THE REASON you take the trip. You'll see a new place, and have new experiences. Things will happen. By the end of the vacation, you will have amassed a story to tell. It could be dull, it could be thrilling. Either way, you will have a beginning, middle, and an end. If you knew every detail that would unfold before you took the trip, you probably wouldn't feel the need to go anymore. The mystery of possibility makes the trip fun to live through. The same is true for the one writing the story, and the one reading the story.
We're both embarking on a trip with my characters. We know where our journey begins but we don't know what we'll go through together before we get back. We'll see new places, meet new people, be thrown into unfamiliar situations. The way we handle ourselves will inevitably reveal character. The things that happen will become plot.
Write, and things will happen. That's all there is to it.
So yesterday afternoon, lead by a force deep down in my gut that I could no longer ignore, I tried IT. Pencil to paper. Excited by possibility, terrified by expectation...
And lo and behold---
WORDS CAME OUT.
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 in your images 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.
A new production of KNUFFLE BUNNY: A CAUTIONARY MUSICAL opens on Friday May 24th at Syracuse's Gifford family Theatre (school matinees begin on the 21st) and runs through mid-June.
Don't miss the action! The drama! The babbling! The HUGE dancing laundry!
Details and tickets are here!
If you're in the area, I hope you enjoy the production and tell 'em Mo sent ya!
For this week’s crowdfunding profile, we travel to Central America where the husband-and-wife team of Guillermo Tovar C. and Nadia Mendoza A. is working feverishly to complete Costa Rica’s first full-length animated feature
“>The Esoteric Birthday (El Cumpleaños Esotérico)
. They have been working on the film for the past two years, and plan to finish it by this December. They describe their unconventional-looking movie as an “experimental digital” animated film:
The Esoteric Birthday tells the story of the coming of age of a peculiar little girl who is about to become a powerful witch. She has to undergo a ceremony of initiation that involves a series of dangerous trials. It all takes place in a fantastic and mysterious tropical island, with over 50 characters, like a group of intergalactic witchdoctors, a religious sect of wild animals, two cannibal Amazonian warrior twins, and lots and lots more.
Guillermo and Nadia, who operate as Interdimensional Studio, are asking for $25,000 for the post production which includes sound design, original music, and hiring a small crew of local animators for lighting, texturing and compositing. The entire 70-minute film will be released online at no charge after its festival run in 2014. The rewards they are offering include drawings from the pre-production phase and having a donor’s face drawn into the film as a background character. They have currently raised just over $4,000 with 51 days left in their campaign.
LINK to The Esoteric Birthday Indiegogo campaign
Its Story Time: GUIDELINES for It's Story Time and Chapter Book Review
GUIDELINES for It's Story Time and Chapter Book Review
For It's Story Time:To read your children's picture book on, It's Story Time, Saturdays at 10am est, 9AM cst, 8AM mst & 7AM pst, books need to be a storybook/picture book and be at least 8 to 12 minutes long when read aloud or if your book is shorter we will add another author's book of the same duration on one show. We need:. to send a physical copy of the book. The book is needed even though you are reading the book yourself on the show to see the length of the book, scan and display 4 to 5 pictures from it, one being the cover, and have it in case we have technical problems to finish the show. (It does happen! :D ).OR you can send us a PDF file of your book, plus 4 to 5 JPEGS /pictures from the inside of the book, one being the cover.. We Need you to Call in the show at 10 minutes to show time: 10am est, 9AM cst, 8AM mst & 7AM pst. WE will send you an email with the phone number to call and the show's link at Blog Talk Radio.
For Chapter Book Previews: Authors who come on can read THEIR favorite passage from their chapter books: about a ten minute reading. The show will need a copy of the book in pdf or rtf to view and the exact passage specified as well as a jpeg of the book's cover.
WE CAN READ YOUR BOOK FOR YOU if you like. If you live outside of the USA or would just like us to read your book for you we can do that. AUTHOR Jan Britland, of the Rodger Dodger Dog series will be reading books for authors in the show.
It is a FREE show for everyone to listen to, and the shows are archived and can be listened to at another time listeners want to. Our audience is 20,000 and up!
Books given the us are sent to the Children's Shriners Hospital in Philadelphia and St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN.
Here's the link, check It's Story Time on The World of Ink Network out: It's Story Time,on the WORLD OF INK NETWORK:http://www.blogtalkradio.com/worldofinknetwork
Also, if your book is going to be read on the show, PLEASE send me your book trailer or its link on YouTube so it can be added to the YouTube player! THANKS!
To contact, email us at: itsstorytimeforkids AT gmail DOT com
Here's a video I made to inspire artists to use Pinterest to gather reference and inspiration!
A couple of weeks ago I was very happy to have a notch in my schedule to answer one of Amelia Gregory's illustration requests for her very successful online magazine! The first was one of Sophie Chiesa's crazy gorgeous designs. I've not wandered into fashion illustration before, but thought her work was so close to my own raving colours I was desperate to get my teeth into it. I really enjoyed working in my crayons & layering up texture & pattern for the catsuit, & obv the opportunity to draw a My Little Pony.
It was an interesting challenge getting the piece to read well enough without loosing the intentional chaos of pattern & colour around her torso. I did another piece from a different designer for the same article which wasn't selected to be published, but I like you guys so you can see it if you want.
For me these were really fun to try to figure out who the characters wearing the clothes were & what stories they were living. I love clothes (you wouldn't tell from meeting me!) so I'm glad that this has opened up the idea of doing more illustration inspired by fashion.
I'm working on some new bits & bobs for a big website update, anyway, so eyes peeled, talk soon xxx
From the same team that brought you The People’s Pennant comes a thought provoking and informative book on design entrepreneurship. Kern and Burn: Conversations With Design Entrepreneurs features candid conversations with 30 leading designers who have founded startups, channeled personal passions into self-made careers and taken risks to do what they love. Through insightful stories, quotes and quips they share their failures, successes, and perspectives.
The distinguished group of guests include: Armin Vit, Keenan Cummings, Ben Pieratt, Riley Cran, Don Clark, Kate Bingaman-Burt, Jessica Hische, Kyle Sollenberger, Tad Carpenter, Duane King, Joe Gebbia, Aaron Draplin, Mikey Burton, Katie Kirk and many more. Pick up a copy here.
——————–
Also worth viewing…
Brent Couchman
Jason Munn Interview
Mikey Burton
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on 5/17/2013
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Gurggggggle swish…. slluuuuudge glump.… thorp…. bloop, bloop, bloop, bloop…..
A morning warm up doodle of the wizard Radagast from Lord of the Rings I did earlier this week.
I had the same view this week at the Atelier (extreme foreshortening!) -
This week, I brought a 'cheat' - a quartered plastic sheet clipped onto a frame that you can 'trace' the image in front of you with a dry erase marker (a la
Betty Edwards - Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain).
I'd kind of forgotten about this tool - haven't used one for years (but I also try hard to not ever draw anything that foreshortened from life if I can help it!)
Hugely useful though. I didn't have to spend so much time referee-ing the knock-down, drag-out arguments that my right and left brain have when I attempt this kind of thing. It's generally paralyzing (see the incredible lack of progress with this same pose
last week).
After lunch, we continued to discuss composition. This week, Root Rectangles -
(with example armatures on classic paintings)
As well as a discussion on Golden Sections - all aspects of formal composition I've never really studied before. So, yay.
*And*, I'd asked about our instructor's approach to line work (SO beautiful!!!) -
So, we ended the day with a discussion on his thought process behind his line and brush making. Looking forward to seeing if I can apply this stuff!
I have participated in a number of Picture Book Fridays and have now compiled all of the posts under one tab. Please check them out under the tab above labeled “PPBF” 
Nicolas Dehghani is an artist in Paris who draws and creates animated productions as part of the CRCR collective.
He tends to use textured, thick black and gray lines/washes over saturated but limited color palettes. The subjects in his work are confidently stylized and drawn.
You can see more of Nicolas’s work on his blog.
SCBWI picked up on our idea of Video Studio Tours (great ideas seem to float through the universe like that), and they've made some official SCBWI videos I think you'll find educational. They are:
Paul Schmid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxeUr4Nv2Sc&feature=youtu.be
Julie Paschkis:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zt9V4ZycTRY&feature=youtu.be
Mike Cressy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joxIcMrn3JM
Kathleen Kemly:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aNhhOaEN_I
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Yay for everyone! And Beth!—-ANOTHER ONE!!!!
*clicks heels!*