Last year during a NYC visit, I was visiting a certain Penguin Group AD (hi! Cecelia)  and she gave me a wonderful HINT about her take on viewing art and artists’ work…and I think it applies to writing too.  It’s stayed with me, and because I find I practice the same rule, I felt I should finally share it with you.

THE 10 MIN. RULE:  if the work generally doesn’t HIT me in less than 10 minutes, I move on. Done (often less!)

It’s true…. we see a LOT of art, and often we agents, ADs and designers and editors are artists ourselves.  We see a LOT of art over a LOT of years.  Sure, we filter through our own likes and dislikes, but we do keep an open-eyed ‘ overview’ for the market and it’s needs at any given time.  We make mistakes, but we make decisions fast.  Have to!

So what can you take from this?   WOW US!  start out GREAT and build from there!  Make the first piece (or paragraph) a winner and then must keep following it up with your best characters, your best drawing, your best color, your best expressions, your best action, your BEST!….. and UNlike everyone else’s BEST.                 10 minute rule rules!

so look in the mirror often and be honest about what you see…. your best?  and from my CAT artist and son Jeremy Tugeau, as a reminder= ’ mirror, mirror, on the wall’…’

My husband and I are just back from a mini reunion in CT with “The Originals”…a group of guys who came together, for my husband, in 5th grade through Jr High, HS, college and onward to our present ‘newly medicare’ status…  over 50 years!  I’ve known them since I was 16 and started dating the love of my life…but that’s another story.

What I NOTICED is that though we sometimes don’t see some of this group for 20+ years at a time, it’s only moments till we are all comfortable and ‘back’ together.  The old stories and the belly laughing starts, and it’s SO good to experience!  Friends like that take a life time to create…and it did. That coming together also reveals our TRUE CHARACTERS.  Gone the ’executive’ or the ‘naturalist’ or the ‘egg head.’  They are all just boys…and they KNOW each other’s core.  We girls also revert to a bit ’our younger selves’ as well. Though I’ve also noticed that the girls have perhaps grown more into who we always were…wonderful to see.  Just like writing or drawing good characters!

It takes a life time (however long your life time is so far!) of experiences and careful visual ‘noting’ to be able to come up with GOOD CHARACTER.  Stories are so often all about character.  You must get into your character big time to make your audience believe in him/her.  Explore all the tips and tricks you can to create the best.  REALLY KNOW THEM.  How would they be with old, old friends? new personalities? How would they react if something went wrong, or someone disappointed them?  How would they take a bike ride, swim in a lake, ride a hot air balloon, open a business, care for their aging parent?  This might not be in your current story, but if the character will be ’real’ you have to know how he/she would react in most life events.  Now, we who have lived a few years, know a character might surprise us big time with how they react to an event….and you need to be aware of that too.  The story, drawn or written, might just be in that difference of your character but it’ll only work if you and your audience really know the ‘normal’ for your character.

I just have to include a photo of five of ‘the girls’ (second from right is me) because we took this same photo 22 years ago at the last reunion and needed to revisit our characters in photo style.  Yes we’re that much older, as are our husbands, but we ARE OUR characters now and it shows.  Not all bad ladies!  Get into your characters…pull at them, test them with life, give them tough challenges….  THEN write or draw your story!

cheers ’girls’!

This borrowed from PW Bookshelf :  I found myself smiling at her, and his, views so many years ago… and the encouragement she could give to a YOUNG up and coming Sendak. 50 years ago he began…not knowing where he was going.  Do any of us?  Does it matter?  Just putting another stroke (step, word, etc) down and continuing the fun and torment and LIFE.   There is always more in us….and better!  onward….

and to illustrate this…from Michelle Henninger….

The story behind it is that Sendak, illustrating a children’s book by Tolstoy, began to doubt himself and wrote a letter to Nordstrom detailing all his self-doubts. Here is part of what she wrote back:

You reminded me that you are 33. I always think 29, but OK. Anyhow, aren’t the thirties wonderful? And 33 is still young for an artist with your potentialities. I mean, you may not do your deepest, fullest, richest work until you are in your forties. You are growing and getting better all the time. I hope it was good for you to write me the thoughts that came to you. It was very good for me to read what you wrote, and to think about your letter. I’m sorry you have writers cramp as you put it but glad that you’re putting down “pure Sendakian vaguery” (I think you invented that good word). The more you put down the better and I’ll be glad to see anything you want to show me. You referred to your “atoms worth of talent.” You may not be Tolstoy, but Tolstoy wasn’t Sendak, either. You have a vast and beautiful genius. You wrote “It would be wonderful to want to believe in God. The aimlessness of living is too insane.” That is the creative artist—a penalty of the creative artist—wanting to make order out of chaos. The rest of us plain people just accept disorder (if we even recognize it) and get a bang out of our five beautiful senses, if we’re lucky. Well, not making any sense but will send this anyhow.

This was SENT in a letter….no emails then.  No blogs to share, no quick anything…just slow mail or phone.  Thank the Lord…words are saved…. messages shared.  again….enjoy!

The story behind it is that Sendak, illustrating a children’s book by Tolstoy, began to doubt himself and wrote a letter to Nordstrom detailing all his self-doubts. Here is part of what she wrote back:

You reminded me that you are 33. I always think 29, but OK. Anyhow, aren’t the thirties wonderful? And 33 is still young for an artist with your potentialities. I mean, you may not do your deepest, fullest, richest work until you are in your forties. You are growing and getting better all the time. I hope it was good for you to write me the thoughts that came to you. It was very good for me to read what you wrote, and to think about your letter. I’m sorry you have writers cramp as you put it but glad that you’re putting down “pure Sendakian vaguery” (I think you invented that good word). The more you put down the better and I’ll be glad to see anything you want to show me. You referred to your “atoms worth of talent.” You may not be Tolstoy, but Tolstoy wasn’t Sendak, either. You have a vast and beautiful genius. You wrote “It would be wonderful to want to believe in God. The aimlessness of living is too insane.” That is the creative artist—a penalty of the creative artist—wanting to make order out of chaos. The rest of us plain people just accept disorder (if we even recognize it) and get a bang out of our five beautiful senses, if we’re lucky. Well, not making any sense but will send this anyhow.

I am most honored to be part of the Friday Feb. 1st Artist Intensive for the SCBWI Winter Conference (Grand Hyatt 42nd) this coming weekend!  Our panel discussion is “WHEN DO I QUITE MY DAY JOB?” and I’m looking forward to the subject and opportunity to share the basics (and not so basic) to the business of being an Illustrator.  Brenda Bowen (editor, now Lit Agent, and writer) and Jan Constantine (general counsel for The Authors Guild) and I (20 year artist agent) will be moderated by David Diaz.

The SCBWI conferences are always so very inspirational and done so professionally and with such care for the market and those who participate in it, that it’s always a joy to be part of and/or attend.  I’ll also be one of the judges for the Art Show which is a wonderful part of these events.  Sat. and Sun are full of other talks and sessions for writers and illustrators (or both) and an almost overwhelming opportunity to get an ‘insiders’ look at the children’s book industry. And you meet and chat with so many interesting people!

If you are planning to be there, please make yourself known to me.  And if not this year, do try to attend in LA,CA (Aug.) or NYC (Feb) at some point…invaluable!  See you there!

(“CAT”artist Melissa Iwai’s got the right idea about books!)

Happily going over some notes I made while listening to the speakers at the conference… and want to share.  Didn’t make every speaker of course, but I’ll try to hit the ideas and quotes that spoke to me and I hope will speak to you! Highlights….

I’ll start with the most WONDERFUL opening talk from artist SHAUN TAN. at 8:35 Friday morning of the Artist Intensive.  What a way to wake up….truly the ‘WAY TUGEAU!”  It was about “Developing a Personal Style.”  His overall point was that your personal style needs to be free and encouraged to just ‘emerge.’  He talked about how drawing and painting at a very young gave him his ‘source of power,’  and how it was wonderful to work and not worry about how it was ‘received.’  He reminded all that ART is a distortion of reality…it’s NOT literal but more theatrical and manipulated.  How you do this grows into your style. It’s often good to let the viewer SEE this manipulation…be aware of the painting. The Deep Style that is or will become you is not so much how you draw or paint, but how you THINK.  That approach will change as the story and image changes, and your personal style can be ‘found’ at the intersection of where all the work meets.  (love that!)

You don’t choose a personality for yourself or a style really.  They evolve and happen from the interests of the day-to-day realities.  One way to teach yourself to know and appreciate others styles however is the age-old practice of copying master artists to LEARN from the effort…HOW and WHY it was done a certain way.  He likes to divide work into two parts…the ‘public’, known part, and the ‘private’ exploring, developing part.  Good to “think of yourself as a train station that ideas pass through.” (!)  Allow the dream to ‘bubble up’. The deep style just comes… it’s a conversation with yourself. “Swing with the current.”  Style often turns out to be ”what you do in an emergency” which he quoted from someone else…and isn’t that a truth!

Well that’s a touch of one talk I just HAD to share…wonderful.  Check out Shaun Tan’s work up…interesting talent and personality.

More tomorrow from others there at the WINTER SCBWI CONFERENCE 2013!

I keep ‘noticing’ things…. reading various articles, see something new in stores, hear it on TV etc.  Thought I’d start sharing some of these ‘mullings’ as they come to MY NOTICE.  (share yours too!)And I’m happy to start with a recent article in PW (Publishers Weekly) about Picture books. (sorry I forgot to note WHICH week of PW~!)

The basic topic was triggered again by that Times article about Picture books being ‘dead’.  LOL!!  In fact it seems, PictureBooks are selling about how they were (market share) in 2005.  Several publishers were involved in this article.  Middle sized publishers Charlesbridge and Candlewick both agree that the market ‘is far from bleak!”  Large publisher Random’s Chip Gibson says PictureBook market has GROWN and remains one of their most profitable areas.  Penguin PB sales are up, but publishing fewer titles…more of a refocusing than an economic change. HarperCollins Susan Katz did admit that the ‘mid-list’ (where most of you are, 10,000 to 15,000 sold potentially) is the hardest hit.  That makes it understandable that publishers are so VERY careful still about buying new ideas for PictureBooks too.  But that truly isn’t bad! Hopefully those being published are BETTER for our kids and for our market! 

Leonard Marcus notes that when there is a BABY BOOM there is also one with PictureBooks.  A good thing, and there has been a bit of one it seems lately in spite of the ‘depression.’  He also chatted some about tendancies…like the ‘celebrity’ authors.  That seems NOT to have helped the market much, nor has the remaking of classics all that much either, though if it brings them to a new generation, I’m for it!  Also pushing old un/under published books by ‘passed brand authors,’ hasn’t worked out.  Loved his comment that there was probably a REASON they didn’t sell while the author/artist was alive!! (duh!) These are all examples perhaps of MARKETING taking over the upper hand at publishers instead of the editors and people who KNOW BOOKS. 

Getting back to the KIDS who are being pushed away from PictureBooks (Times again)… Susan Katz (HC) said that parents doing that are ‘taking the training wheels off too soon.” Parents should ask themselves “WHY?”  PictureBook concepts are quite often sophisticated and timeless…a fun education about ‘life’ needed at the appropriate time in the appropriate fun way, it would seem to me.  Libraries have always had a huge interest in PictureBooks because so many do a great job of marrying the writing with the informational helping illustrations.  (they are loving Graphic Novels for the same reason!)  In libraries, as in bookstores, PBs are harder to display well…takes more shelf space… they are large and with thin spines.  Placing them ‘out’ takes a LOT of shelf.  BUT Barnes and Noble stated that they are ordering just as many as ever, but ‘reducing inventory depth for softer sales.’   However, perhaps there isn’t such a soft market after all.  Hard cover sales are a bit down…soft up. 

Ebooks and Apps are not yet ‘cannibalizing’ PictureBooks (Sabia of Charlesbridge) but are another tool toward becoming literate in our age.  Kids need and want both.  In both they can learn to ‘fill in holes and make predictions as the story moves.’  One of the real pleasures of reading at any age.  

I hope you are a bit uplifted by some GOOD noticed news today.  Some hints though were also thrown out in this article.  There is generally LESS TEXT in books these days. ALSO we in USA are very BIG CHARACTER motivated…possible brand potential.  Editors seem to relish the author/illustrator offerings the most! Publishers seem to want BIG SALES right away…but this isn’t all that new to be honest in my ex

JUST returned from a 3 day NYC trip and full day at BEA Tues… Children’s Book Breakfast and all. SUCH FUN!  Great to experience at one time all the art styles, books and products out there for children of all ages and tastes.  Impressive….

So I wanted to brag a bit and show you some of the books my artists presented from several publishers at BEA this season! There was another surprise there which we were delighted with, but I’m still not allowed to mention even though everyone saw it there… more on that when I CAN brag more….     thank you to John Kanzler for design of this…I passed it out to booth people all over the BEA floor! 

thanks Priscilla Burris for the memorable moment below…

And that reminded me of my day at BEA last week…Book Expo 2011 at Javits.   I was there on Tues…with my lovely, bright and enthusiastic daughter-in-law Nicole who runs TUGEAU2 agency. Her husband Jeremy is my second child and son…and one of my artists.   Always good to share these experiences… bounce thing off one another.  Makes it a bit easier to keep ones mind as the day goes on too!  Perhaps that is why it was so MEMORABLE.  (a stretch?) Like these two little kids above who are having so much creative fun… they get more out of it when they have a friend.  Maybe they are making their own little MEMORABLE book about MEMORIAL DAY. One they can hold and feel and smell and read together.         

BEA Tues started with the Children’s Book Breakfast…always a fun group and inspiring! then off we went to SEE everything and everyone.  Well, we saw a lot of wonderful new books, and I passed out many copies of a flyer with our agency BEA books on it.   We talked to many editors and sales people, and held books both of our artists groups had done this past six months …always a thrill.  We literally bumped into many people in the alleys we hadn’t anticipated seeing, and missed others we had.  ALWAYS the way as one wanders.  It seemed a happy place, full of positive book people.  It felt better maybe than two years ago when we were last there.  I’m sticking to that. 

I think what made the day and event so memorable was that these huge rooms at Javits Center were FILLED with all sorts of books and the people who make them and sell them so others can read them.  What can be better than that!?  Memorable….

 Jeremy Tugeau has been painting ever since he could hold a crayon. Born into an artist family, he was introduced to the master’s at a very young age. This exposure has carried over to his career as a fine artist and illustrator of 14 children’s picture books and miles of educational work.

You may recognize his name, because of that artistic family.  His mother is Chris, owner of the Christina A. Tugeau Agency and his lovely wife Nicole heads up Tugeau 2, an artist representative agency with him.  I guess you could say they are keeping it all in the family.

Chris says, “I saw Jeremy’s talent at about 3 years of age…he had been frightened by an ad on TV for the movie JAWS… and he began drawing sharks and attacks on people to work out that fear! at 3 1/2!! and you could TELL what they were! He loved Maurice Sendak’s work right away (who lived in our hometown, but we never saw him!) and began early to draw freehand with a black sharpie marker on white paper…always starting in the middle of the page and working his complex images out.

All his life he worked out fears with his drawing…and was quite popular for them as other kids, boys in particular, shared this ‘working through’ with him and his drawings. Lots of muscles, CONAN, action etc. He had/has great visual recall and it was tough to get him to work from Life! He was always the ‘school artist.’ Syracuse University accepted him into the SVA program based on his HS portfolio right at the Portfolio Review at Pratt.”

At Syracuse he was encouraged to try ‘fine arts’ as well as illustration, and though resistant, he finally fell in love with oil and the ‘real world.’”

“Working with Jeremy professionally has been a treat and honor for me…as a rep and a mother. He surprised me with his speed and dedication to deadlines and meeting the needs of the client. I knew he was talented artistically, but in his youth I would not have expected this! I wish more artists understood the important of this when working with assigning clients!”

QUESTION: Could you explain a little bit about how you get started with a project?

JEREMY: The steps I take to produce my illustrations are not unusual. First it’s the thumbnail stage, when I quickly scribble out some thoughts for the piece. I might do 5 or 6 of these…maybe more if I’m having trouble finding the picture. For me, it’s easiest to draw a box and work out the big shapes first. It’s important to get the compositional elements balanced before moving on to a finished sketch. I try to come up with the most dynamic composition I can, while keeping in mind the client’s needs and the readability of the art.

I mentioned to Jeremy that the pig in his acrylic painting above looked like it could have been done in pastels. He said he acheived that effect painting the underpainting in a warm pink and the hair with a cool blue/white mixture. He says this is an easy way to add luminosity and texture to the painting!

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Last night I had the privilege of presenting, at a Norfolk VA library,to a group of FINE ARTISTS from the Chesapeake area,  I spoke about my business (children’s book publishing and repping illustrators to that industry) and a bit about ART in general, and the Business of art in particular.  I totally enjoyed myself and hope I gave the group some  helpful information, motivation and entertainment as well. 

What I couldn’t help notice and feel while speaking to the group was how fun it was to be speaking to FINE art again.  I am a fine artist myself.  I would have been in that field now had I not gotten so sick with asthma 25 years ago (from the oils and turp.) Today I do paint when I can and always enjoy it…watercolor mostly now.  But my days are full of illustration and illustrators…many of whom ARE fine artists of course as well.

We are SO blessed.  Art, whether painting, writing, music, dancing, acting, is a  part of the you that is YOU.  It can not help but to well up… bubble to the surface almost in spite of us sometimes.  Creativity refuses NOT to be, doesn’t it?  Being creative is a personal gift…but isn’t it wonderful how it seems to want to be shared! We need to give it out…give it away.  Sometimes thankfully for compensation, but we feel the deep drive to be brave and give it to others to enjoy – to think about.  It hit me again last night what a true gift it is to have that bubble in us!  Let’s just let it come to the surface….. as much as possible!   The world can use it……

As we live life, create our art, ride our bikes….we are always trying to find and hold balance.  But I forgot to mention the NEEDED HELMET (and other pads in strategic places maybe!)  It’s just plain foolish to go on the roads without the protection of a helmet.  OH, sure…we all did it as kids back in the dark ages.  But would I today? absolutely not.

The same is true of protecting yourself from loss of balance in the industry too.  As I mentioned in the earlier post, if you were afraid of falling off the bike, you’d never got on!  So climb on, but take care of the inevitable.  When the balance is lost, take steps to get it back.  Get back on the bike for starters! Don’t let a dry spell keep you from creating.  Pick a new ‘route’ or find a friend to journey with.  Get a new bike, or tires, or water bottle (style, tool, or color of paint)  Don’t be thin-skinned about comments, advice and crits!  That’s what the helmet is for.  Don’t cry over a skinned knee = lost assignment. Take the knocks as it makes you a better, more knowledgeable rider.  Don’t forget to save money in the good times to tide you over in the lean.  That imbalance in ‘weather’ is also inevitable.

NOW, I received so many cute samples of art with bikes when I did my agency ‘call out’ I just had to share them…so here you are! enjoy and jump on the bike!

from Stacey Schuett                                  and then from Kelly Kennedy below,

above from Roger Motzkus                       and below from Ana Ochoa!

a tiny down hill from Melissa Iwai This ‘How to Ride’ from Susan Drawbaugh….. and don’t we all wish we understood that book!   But here’s to the RIDE of a life time…..  balanced and fun!