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Part Three: Smiling on the outside

The Process of Revisions

Coming to this project equipped with a well-seasoned design background, I honestly felt that I would have a mental 'leg-up' on the inevitable revisions that were bound to come. Revisions are a normal part of the process, be it design, illustration or any creative project, for that matter. With this project, I braced to 'expect the unexpected'. I'd never done a children's trade book before. I needed to be ready for anything, and, from the get-go, the time-line was extremely tight. That said, I wasn't entirely prepared for some of the major revisions that came to pass after the initial sketches had already been approved. It happens! ;)

The minor revisions were things I typically would fully expect. But, for a few of the spreads, complete redos to the composition were requested, and with no additional time-line 'wiggle room'. I found myself in a really tight-time sandwich, and I not only had to hustle just to get the work done on time, but I had to produce the type of work that would get approved by a group consisting of experienced children's trade book editors and designers. This was my first flight into trade, and I was completely uninitiated: I'd liken it to being a kid in catholic school, and going to mass with the class, and not knowing the words to "Hail Mary", "Our Father" or any of the other recitations. In this particular case, I found it difficult at times to distill the desired art direction from the feedback I received. In the end, I was under the gun to solve a 'puzzle' foreign to me, while the sands of an hourglass were running, running, running... A challenging prospect, to be sure! :)

Some take-home lessons I learned from the revisions process...

Be prepared for as much as you possibly can be. There may be many, many revisions, there may be only one (or none! Gasp!). Do work you are proud of and put your heart into, but remember who the client is and what their objective is, and who their audience is and what they wish to say to that audience. Listen to their needs and direct your work to satisfy their objectives. Also one of the (major) objects is to *sell the book* (of course!), so be prepared for the possibility of some changes to be made solely to help broaden the market for the book.

Try and build some wiggle room into your original time estimates to give yourself a little buffer in the case of last-minute additional revisions. While, in the end, it is not necessarily your responsibility to absorb extra time should additional unexpected revisions come in after approvals have been given, being as proactive as possible about building in extra time serves a couple of purposes for you:

-Your swift response to a possible last-minute snag shines very positively on you in the end.
-Your books' publish date gets saved. I don't know this from experience, but my gut tells me that it's entirely possible for a book to get postponed or, worse yet, killed altogether if it doesn't make it to the printer on a scheduled time-line.
-If your work is late, whether or not it really is or was 'your fault', people will likely only remember that your work was late. Period. (This is a freelancer side-effect in general, so always get your work in on time.)

Contract details... In your contract, make sure to address (in some way, shape or form) the possibility of the situation arising where additional revisions or complete redos of artwork are requested after said artwork has already been approved initially.

Have the necessary equipment at the ready to help you get your job done as swiftly, cleanly and beautifully as possible. (I know I mentioned this in Part One or Part Two, but it's also applicable here.) During this project, I had to rely on my neighborhood print shop for scanning because my little chug-chug scanner was not cutting it. My inability to "scan on demand" to a level of acceptability cut into the approval turnaround time, thusly giving me less total time to work with. The local shop truly bailed me out on more than one occasion when the local Kinko's failed me, but I still would have fared better at the time, if I had been prepared with a great scanner at the ready in my home studio. That said, if you're on the fence, here are some reasons to take the leap on a great scanner:

-Shops generally aren't open 'freelancer's hours', if you catch my drift.

-For the amount you will spend on scanning at the print shop for one book project, you could purchase a professional large-bed graphics scanner for home use!

-You will get better scans at home than you'll get from the local print shop. I've used several local print shops for scanning, and my home scans, made with my flat bed professional graphics scanner, are better. MUCH, MUCH better. So, save yourself the headache and sleep up front, and buy the scanner before your next project. (The only scanners that might be better than a good, flat-bed large scale professional graphics scanner is a drum scanner, and drum-scanning places are hard to find and expensive to boot...and, of course, they will not be open for business during the aforementioned 'freelancer's hours').

Different workflows
For me, it is good and necessary as a freelancer to do my best to be really flexible with clients' unique workflow protocols. In my experience, no two companies are the same in this regard. A companies' workflow might not be familiar initially, but in time, it will be. I just learn it as I go, and people are generally very understanding and helpful. Places that hire a lot of freelancers do generally understand that we have to acclimate ourselves to their workflows, and they in turn have to work us in, too. In my experience, on the whole, people I've worked with are generally really great about helping things to go smoothly (and are just in general very nice people, to boot). So, do the best you can to make it work for both of you! :)

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I had my first-ever official Book Reading today at The Harvard Coop's Barnes and Noble Kid's section, in Harvard Square, Cambridge (my own 'hood)! The Harvard Coop's Barnes and noble kid's section has children's book readings-plus-activity every Saturday at 11 am, and I was very honored to be the guest reader/illustrator/craft guest today! The even had a nice sign advertising my appearance, which I didn't expect! It was kind of a thrill - I felt a little special after seeing that. :)

I read The Months to a captive audience! During the reading, some of the kids were quiet and seemed quite relaxed, others had some interesting conversational comments about the book! We had a good time, and the 'reading' part of our day was over pretty quickly!

To prepare:
I used a can bottom to trace circles on pieces of chipboard. Then, I cut out the circles and punched holes into them (for hanging string from).

I traced and cut circles of the same size on sheets of colored felt and construction paper. These would be pasted on either side of the cardboard circles. From the felt scraps, I also cut out some smaller shapes as well, for extra decorating fodder.

I also had bought a bunch of fun stick-on decorative things, for the kids to design their ornaments with - pom poms, glittery "gems" and metallic "confetti" holiday shapes. Then, to finish their ornament with a festive touch, I had ribbons and jingle bells on hand!

The kids really swooped in like a tornado, too! There were more kids than there was room at the craft table for, but I only noticed that later, as I was so busy assisting and chatting with the kids and parents. Luckily, at the Harvard Coop Kids' Room, there is a really nice reading area with table with chairs, which is about 20 feet from where the craft table was set up. There was snacks over there, so there was plenty of time for trading focus for the kids between snacks/reading, or activity/craft.

My craft was actually a surprise - The Coop folks also had a craft which they had planned - they had printed out 12-month calendars which were ready to be illustrated!! (It was nice to have two activities that complimented each other so well!)

Kids are so funny... they are all so filled with energy and enthusiasm for 1,000 things at once, that they really did hit like a tornado and then, 15 minutes later, there were only a few stragglers left at the table, either making a second ornament, or perfecting their first! Boy were these kids talented!! If I had not been so busy, I'd have taken more photos! I'd have loved to get some shots of some of the final ornaments, but alas these 'group tornado' shots will have to do!!


Thanks so much to the two Coop book sellers that helped me out today - - they were both SO great and kind, and they really have their whole 'Saturday morning plan' down very well. These ladies did not miss a trick!! I enjoyed hanging with them!

I definitely look forward to returning again, when my next book is published!! :) :) (And hey, it was so much fun, maybe even before then. :) )

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Hip hip horray!!!!!
The School Library Journal reviewed our book "The Months" (Sara Coleridge author, Me illustrator) and, drumroll, they really like the book (and had very nice things to say about my art work)!! I am so over the moon!Here is the review (exerpted from the School Library Journal web site)!! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------COLERIDGE, Sara. The Months: Fun with Friends All Year 'Round! illus. by Kathy Weller. unpaged. CIP. Lobster, dist. by Univ. of Toronto. 2007. Tr $17.95. ISBN 978-1-897073-67-4. LC C2007-901572-7.

K-Gr 2—A colorful rendition of Coleridge's 1834 poem. It begins, "January brings/the snow,/Makes our feet/and fingers glow." Each month appears on a spread depicting modern children participating in seasonal activities. Rhyming couplets are written in large, clear text in a color column on one side of one page. Bright watercolor illustrations cover the remainder of the spread with a portion of each scene exuberantly overlapping into the text column. Weller's contemporary style aptly captures active youngsters at play. Her whimsical illustrations provide lightness and humor that simultaneously contrast and highlight the Victorian text. A few of the verses may need to be explained to today's children. For example, "May brings/flocks of pretty lambs,/Skipping by their/fleecy dams." In addition, some illustrations present a more contemporary interpretation of the text. In "Warm/September brings/the fruit,/Sportsmen then/begin to shoot," the traditional apple trees laden with ripe fruit are shown, but the sportsmen are children shooting goals in a field hockey game. Picture books describing the months of the year are always popular, especially with teachers. However, libraries that already own Nancy Raines Day's A Kitten's Year (HarperCollins, 2000), Crescent Dragonwagon's Alligators and Others All Year Long (S & S, 1993), Maurice Sendak's Chicken Soup with Rice (HarperCollins, 1962), and Alice Provensen and Martin Provensen's The Year at Maple Hill Farm (S & S, 2001) may consider The Months an additional purchase.—Carole Phillips, Greenacres Elementary School, Scarsdale, NY

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------Thank you so much SLJ. I am extremely appreciative that you saw fit to review our book, and I am SO glad you like my work!!!

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The Months is reviewed by CM Magazine: Canadian Review of Materials
For anyone unfamiliar with CM (I was, until now), CM is the Canadian Review of Materials magazine. It's focus is on book reviews, media reviews, news, and author profiles of interest to teachers, librarians, parents and kids.

Here's the review!!!!! http://www.umanitoba.ca/outreach/cm/vol14/no4/themonths.html

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If you ordered The Months awhile ago, and are waiting for it to ship but it has not shipped as of yet, it might be the result of a technical glitch that Amazon has been having with my publisher's booklist (and others, as well), where the book is indeed in stock, but their computer doesn't recognize this. They are working on this problem, but I went ahead and cancelled my original order and then reordered it to see if I could get around the glitch that way. On my order, it seems to have worked, because my order did indeed ship yesterday. I do know that there are some people who did order and who have not canecelled and reordered, and their order status still says that they will not get the book til November. So, if this sounds like you, please try cancelling and reordering it!! :)

Thanks!! End of Public Service Announcement!!

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Amazon is finally shipping the book out! :)

Mine shipped today (I just *had* to order my own first book from Amazon, naturally :) ) after a technical glitch in Amazon's system prevented orders being sent for a couple of weeks. I am SO glad to have this glitch worked out!! If you ordered, but have been waiting, please check your order status! It may be shipping now!! :)

Thanks again, for all of your support, to everyone (or ANYone!!) reading here! I truly, truly appreciate it!!!

XO

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Here are some admittedly *very* rough ideas I initially sketched out for November. The idea was to show the kids playing in big piles of leaves! Having fun, burying themselves in the leaves or otherwise making merriment with big piles of crunchy leaves, whirring winds whipping about.

...Care to venture a guess on which one of these was the base art for the final spread? I would love to hear any guesses!! :)

Enjoy!

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Here are the first quickie rough sketch compositions I did for the month of October. I also did some character sketching here too! October is my favorite month, and who doesn't love Halloween? (I was even married in October, and that was by design, because it is the best month, of course!) I hope you enjoy these little dumplings. The final came out a little differently because we had to rejigger the composition to fit the page in a certain way. ALso, we removed the Pilgrim costume because the book needed international appeal, and having the pilgrim as a costume in October seemed unneccessarily narrow in scope. There is a world of other costumes from which to choose, so we went with something else. What did we end up going with? You will have to see the book to find out! :)

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In Fall, the wind has mighty momentum!

This is "out-take" art from my new book "The Months".

Hope you enjoy!

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You know when you marvel that something looks soooo different than what it started out as? That's September to me. Though the final uses similar composition and the same theme, It went through a lot of subtle changes, enough to make the final seem so different than the original first ideas.

Anyway, here is the original first sketched-out ideas. I hope you enjoy!! Next up...October!!

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Here are two first rough sketches I did for the August spread of "The Months". The composition we ended up using actually falls squarely right between these two ideas! You will see what I mean when you see the finished August - it is quite funny actually, how each of these sketches are represented in the final.
More soon!!

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Here is the first composition that I did for the month of July. There are items that figure prominently in this illustration because they match the text. We have a flower which are referred to as "gillyflowers" in the text (geraniums to us), apricots (which aren't obvious in this composition, but they gain prominence in later sketches), and a summer rain shower, which the kids are all dancing under but it isn't visible here (I planned to paint it in only, not draw it in). This got axed and replaced with another idea for July late in the process, after the final art was completed - so I will have the final art of the above sketch to show you in a future post!!

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Here is one the first compositions I roughed out for June. We went with the other one, (which I really like too, and I'll post another day, maybe tomorrow) but this one has a more dynamic, active use of space, movement and energy flowing through it, which I love. I want to flesh this one out some day, give it props! I'd rejigger it and maybe make it a little more dramatic, but the 'bones' are there!

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Here is the initial rough sketch/thumbnails I produced for the month of May.

We had an initial brainstorming session where we discussed a one or two conceptual ideas per month. These are all the same concept but in the smaller thumbnails there are some little variations in composition.

I won't be unveiling the final of this one, because it's in the book! And it's CUTE!! Make sure to check out the book when it comes out to see the finals!!
Release date is September 10 (Amazon.com) Sept. 28 (Barnesnoble.com). (I'm not sure why they're different dates.)

Tomorrow I'll show you some June roughs. (June seems to be a favorite among many people!) Stay tuned.

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Here is one of the first roughs for April's spread. This was not a full composition at all, just an idea complete with characters. Hope you enjoy!

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These are the first rough sketches I did for the March spread of The Months. I realize that their are only very minor differences between these four thumbnails, but often I will sketch the same composition over and over. It helps me to refine the visual idea and helps to uncover nuances which may have never surfaced if I hadn't sketched out the composition 20 (or 40) times. Sometimes when you hit a certain threshhold in doing this exercise, the law of diminishing returns kicks in. Sometimes I'll find the right composition by piecing together several of these initial thumbnails, sometimes one of them says everything I want it to say, and then, sometimes, if my composition is just not working no matter how many sketches I do or how many details I tweak, it's time to just try something different altogether!!! :)

This concept was used for March, and the composition was too, more or less. The gutter was a major concern for all of the spreads, but it wasn't something I was initially concerned with - - it was my first book, and I was learning on the fly, so it wasn't at the forefront of my mind on the first pass of sketches. In the final composition, certain elements have been rearranged and reworked to allow for gutter room!

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Here is the February "outtake #1" final art. Hope you enjoy!!

The actual spread that we ended up using has same characters (save for one), but features a whole new "active outdoors" setting. In terms of the color palette and the action shown, I think choosing the new one over this one was the right move for the book. The palette in this one is more neutral, despite the bright spots of color that the kids provide!

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Pushing my palette has been a big thing for me this year. My work, on the whole, is much brighter and more saturated now than it was just six months ago. In children's art, all the buzz is color: saturation, depth of color, bright color. I caught on pretty quickly that I had to find a way to amend my style to add more depth and saturation to my palette. I've always considered my color sense to be somewhat sophisticated, but I've also typically been pretty economical with my saturation level overall, usually preferring a softer, more delicate look.

This year, I put on the hard hat to really find my 'voice' with this - I've been breaking out much more in terms of depth and saturation, finding additional notes to sing, to add to the notes I already know by heart.

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Here is the initial first rough composition for the month of February. In the end, the February composition was taken in another direction. A different composition than the one above is used in the book, but I actually completed the finished artwork spread created from the above sketch, before the gears switched. Check back tomorrow to see it!! :)

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This is the first post in which I will discuss the process and production of the art for my first children's book, The Months (Lobster Press).

"The Months" was written by poet Sara Coleridge. Lobster Press felt "The Months" was a perfect candidate for their "Read Me A Poem" series ("...in which traditional poetry is given a contemporary twist" - LP.)


When we started working on this project, together we brainstormed ideas for each spread/poem stanza. The art needed to completely work with the text, matching the text - - but ultimately we wanted to add a little extra something, as well. We wanted to amend the text with additional visual story which would marry perfectly with the text, but would also supply additional story information for the reader. Some of this story information would work on an individual spread basis, and some of it would be a recurring theme throughout the book, helping to string everything together into a cohesive whole.

This was the first rough idea for the month of January. We did not end up going with this composition, but I do love the composition - I like it's simplicity and directness - and and I think it has a lot of potential. I will likely do a finished piece using this composition in the future.

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Now that I have my fabulous new scanner, I am facing the hearty task of scanning all of the original artwork from my upcoming book The Months (just for my own purposes, archiving and promotional). To show you some of the artwork without really "showing" any of the artwork (wink, wink), and in honor of the talented Von Glitschka's new (and, no doubt, great - - I'll tell you all about it once I get my copy) book release Crumble, Crackle, Burn, I decided to make a quick little texture swatch collage from The Months' art.
I'd really love to share the artwork (and believe me, it hurts me that I can't share it with you yet, honest) but it's under wraps for right now, so this is the closest I can get! At some point soon I will be working on the promotional web site. I'm gearing up for that immersion. I am going to do the site in Flash, so that will be a fun "first" for me since I've never built a site in Flash before.

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