My favorite topic EVER is this week's Illustration Friday theme: UNICORN! Okay, I have quite a few, so I'm going to share them all with you here—and don't forget to check out and 'like' your favorites on my instagram account: mb.illustration!

A gift for a friend… back in the mid-1990s, I drew a lot of unicorns like this. 1999. Colored Pencil & Ink.

The Spanish Unicorn… the one that started me on this project of Unicorns of the World. 1998. Colored Pencil

Detail… I was still 'discovering' colored pencil back then, as you can see, I was having fun. *didn't have a great scanner or auto-merge in Photoshop back then either… so all my images of this one are fairly poor.

The Caribbean Unicorn (I call them Licorne Caraïbes) 1999. Colored Pencil

Ki-lin, the Chinese Unicorn… or one of them. 1999. Colored Pencil

An African unicorn of the Serengeti (Saamoja Upangatiga). 1999. Colored Pencil

The Volcano Unicorn of the Pacific Rim of Fire… Lae-Hao-Kela 1999. Colored Pencil

The Amazonian Unicorn, Unchifre. 1999. Colored Pencil

  

The Japanese Unicorn: Kirin 1999. Colored Pencil

The Arctic Unicorn, Yksisarvinen. 1999. Colored Pencil

  

Another African Unicorn… the Saharan. 2000. Colored Pencil

One more African Unicorn, the Madagascan Unicorn. 2000. Colored Pencil

  

Inspired by Illustration Friday itself: Smitten #feartheunicorn

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15 post-its submitted

"7 of 15"

Some interesting bits about the show this year: All artwork is completed on actual Post-it notes. All Post-it's are $25 (50% goes to the artist). Over 450 artists are confirmed for this year's show — including Dan Santat, Susie Ghahremani, J. Otto Semibold, and Jamie Zollars!!  (forgive me other children's book peeps, the list is SO LONG I may have missed you).

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I do solemnly swear that I have faithfully

executed the PiBoIdMo 30-ideas-in-30-days challenge,

and will, to the best of my ability, parlay my ideas

into picture book manuscripts.

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I finally got my new website up… as is the case with a lot of websites, there are things I really like and things that are not-so-great, but it's clean and organized and pretty easy to work with and update. Now I just need to work on some new stuff to update it with!

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If you went looking for www.melindabeavers.com and landed here—it's not a mistake, for now.

I'm in the process of transitioning website hosting … and it's taking me a little longer than I expected (too may choices? maybe!).

There is a LOT of my artwork among these pages though, so please feel free and stay and look around for a bit, and hopefully I'll have a new portfolio site up soon!

In the meantime, if you really just need to see my work please check out my pages at the following sites: Children's Illustrators & SCBWI

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If you went looking for www.melindabeavers.com and landed here—it's not a mistake, for now.

I'm in the process of transitioning website hosting … and it's taking me a little longer than I expected (too may choices? maybe!).

There is a LOT of my artwork among these pages though, so please feel free and stay and look around for a bit, and hopefully I'll have a new portfolio site up soon!

In the meantime, if you really just need to see my work please check out my pages at the following sites: Children's Illustrators & SCBWI

Add a Comment

I do solemnly swear that I have faithfully

executed the PiBoIdMo 30-ideas-in-30-days challenge,

and will, to the best of my ability, parlay my ideas

into picture book manuscripts.

Add a Comment

I do solemnly swear that I have faithfully

executed the PiBoIdMo 30-ideas-in-30-days challenge,

and will, to the best of my ability, parlay my ideas

into picture book manuscripts.

Add a Comment

Here's the full piece. I call it Polly and Sunny (polar bear & sun bear) and it's the piece I completed for the SCBWI-NM Enchantment Show earlier this year.


This piece was a lot of fun, The original is pretty tiny, but I enlarged the final piece to about 10"x 20". All the line work was layered in digitally.

My goal this year has been to push myself and develop a more blended style of traditional & digital techniques. This was definitely a step in the right direction… but I think I'd like to loosen up even more,  push the characters even further. What say you?

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Here's the full piece. I call it Polly and Sunny (polar bear & sun bear) and it's the piece I completed for the SCBWI-NM Enchantment Show earlier this year.


This piece was a lot of fun, The original is pretty tiny, but I enlarged the final piece to about 10"x 20". All the line work was layered in digitally.

My goal this year has been to push myself and develop a more blended style of traditional & digital techniques. This was definitely a step in the right direction… but I think I'd like to loosen up even more,  push the characters even further. What say you?

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Great news! One of the pieces from my book, The Zoo's Annual Piggyback Race, has been accepted into the CPSA's 2014 International Show! It is always such an amazing honor to get into this show… especially with "less-than-traditional" fine art.

a framing work-in-progess

I'm super excited to be framing my first piece from the book. I used to work in a frame shop, so I've done most of my own framing for years. I try to use local shops when I can (strictly for the frame and glass, I cut my own mats and fit it all together myself), but my favorite local shop recently closed and I haven't been able to find another great local source yet.

But getting into this show presents another problem: shipping. There all kinds of requirements for framing the pieces that are accepted and you have prepare a re-usable box so the pieces can be shipped back (if they aren't sold during the show, of course). I used to have a heavy duty Air-Float box for shipping pieces to and from the CPSA Shows… but after 6 shows, that box had to be "retired".

I decided to try an online framing supply, figuring I could knock out two issues: frame & acrylic supply (pieces cannot be framed w/glass) PLUS a shipping solution — since the prepared frame would be shipping to me, I'd have a ready-made box to use!

The plan worked, with complications. The box I received my frame in is not the best, but with some modifications, I should be able to make it work. Also, the piece of acrylic I received has a flaw, a black speck INSIDE the plastic. Fortunately, American Frame's Customer Service was very accommodating and has rush shipped a replacement at no extra cost. AF has an average selection of frames, but the prices are among the best I've seen online. They also had a good selection of small framing supply odds and ends for very reasonable prices.

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Great news! One of the pieces from my book, The Zoo's Annual Piggyback Race, has been accepted into the CPSA's 2014 International Show! It is always such an amazing honor to get into this show… especially with "less-than-traditional" fine art.

a framing work-in-progess

I'm super excited to be framing my first piece from the book. I used to work in a frame shop, so I've done most of my own framing for years. I try to use local shops when I can (strictly for the frame and glass, I cut my own mats and fit it all together myself), but my favorite local shop recently closed and I haven't been able to find another great local source yet.

But getting into this show presents another problem: shipping. There all kinds of requirements for framing the pieces that are accepted and you have prepare a re-usable box so the pieces can be shipped back (if they aren't sold during the show, of course). I used to have a heavy duty Air-Float box for shipping pieces to and from the CPSA Shows… but after 6 shows, that box had to be "retired".

I decided to try an online framing supply, figuring I could knock out two issues: frame & acrylic supply (pieces cannot be framed w/glass) PLUS a shipping solution — since the prepared frame would be shipping to me, I'd have a ready-made box to use!

The plan worked, with complications. The box I received my frame in is not the best, but with some modifications, I should be able to make it work. Also, the piece of acrylic I received has a flaw, a black speck INSIDE the plastic. Fortunately, American Frame's Customer Service was very accommodating and has rush shipped a replacement at no extra cost. AF has an average selection of frames, but the prices are among the best I've seen online. They also had a good selection of small framing supply odds and ends for very reasonable prices.

Add a Comment

Yesterday, we had our SCBWI-NM Illustrator's group meeting for May.

As usual, at 5pm we started with dinner and socializing at a local cafe. Unfortunately, I'd had a dental emergency earlier in the day and was on some medication that was not agreeing with me… so I don't really remember much of the evening. :( But I hung in there the best I could and got to chat with people a little.

At 6pm, the we moved on over to Alamosa Books, where Lois Bradley lead a a riveting discussion with us about maximizing digital artwork files for print output. I wish I could say I remember it. I had to lay down for a bit, and only caught snippets of the talk. Luckily, Lois provided a detailed worksheet that details her process and I plan to go over it soon! I do know that members in attendance had many questions for Lois and the whole group had a great time discussing and learning about the topic. ;)

After the talk, we had a brief Show and Tell where local illustrators, Lisa Casaus, and Jeanne Bowman talked about some local events their preparing for. Lisa did a poster for the Albuquerque Mini-Maker Faire coming up in September! Jeanne showed us her amazingly detailed, hand-made box-cards that she's preparing for the Albuquerque Bubonicon in August! Gorgeous work, ladies!



Thankfully, I am recovering well from my bad reaction to the meds. Hopefully that's all behind me now and I can move on to all the work ahead! Until next month!!

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Yesterday, we had our SCBWI-NM Illustrator's group meeting for May.

As usual, at 5pm we started with dinner and socializing at a local cafe. Unfortunately, I'd had a dental emergency earlier in the day and was on some medication that was not agreeing with me… so I don't really remember much of the evening. :( But I hung in there the best I could and got to chat with people a little.

At 6pm, the we moved on over to Alamosa Books, where Lois Bradley lead a a riveting discussion with us about maximizing digital artwork files for print output. I wish I could say I remember it. I had to lay down for a bit, and only caught snippets of the talk. Luckily, Lois provided a detailed worksheet that details her process and I plan to go over it soon! I do know that members in attendance had many questions for Lois and the whole group had a great time discussing and learning about the topic. ;)

After the talk, we had a brief Show and Tell where local illustrators, Lisa Casaus, and Jeanne Bowman talked about some local events their preparing for. Lisa did a poster for the Albuquerque Mini-Maker Faire coming up in September! Jeanne showed us her amazingly detailed, hand-made box-cards that she's preparing for the Albuquerque Bubonicon in August! Gorgeous work, ladies!



Thankfully, I am recovering well from my bad reaction to the meds. Hopefully that's all behind me now and I can move on to all the work ahead! Until next month!!

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It's time to celebrate Mom! To honor my lovely mother, I posted a scrapbook page from a mini-scrapbook I made for her several years ago on Instagram, and I thought I'd share it here as well…

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It's time to celebrate Mom! To honor my lovely mother, I posted a scrapbook page from a mini-scrapbook I made for her several years ago on Instagram, and I thought I'd share it here as well…

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A magical art and writing exhibit for children of all ages, Enchantment, will be on view during the month of May at the Los Griegos Library in Albuquerque.  This unique show features collaborative pieces by members of the New Mexico Chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. For a fun creative turnabout, the illustrations in the show were completed first by the participating artists.  After the illustrations were complete, the writers crafted their pieces, taking inspiration fromthe art. The alchemy of these combined talents on display promises to make for a truly bewitching experience.
“The concept for the Enchantment show stems from an event that was originally put on by the SCBWI folks in Greece. We really wanted to focus on a project that could include all our members, both writers and illustrators,” explained Melinda Beavers, Illustration Coordinator for SCBWI-NM, regarding the impetus for the show.
“Illustrators started the ball rolling by creating a single illustration based on the theme of Enchantment. The digitally submitted illustrations were then randomly paired and sent to the participating writers, who have written a single page story based on the illustration they received. It's a twist from the way traditional publishing works, where illustrators are usually brought in to illustrate a story that's already been written,” said Beavers.
All of the original illustrations and the stories created in response to them will be exhibited together throughout the month of May at the Los Griegos Library.  The opportunity to show work created for children in a library setting was a perfect fit for SCBWI-NM.  “SCBWI is a group that supports and encourages the people creating literature for children, so it only makes sense to hold a collaborative show of illustrations and written pieces for children at one of our local libraries,” explained Beavers.  “It's just a great way to share what we all do with the local community that will appreciate it most!”
SCBWI-NM, the local chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, is aninternational non-profit organization that serves as a support for professional creatives in the children’s literature field and provides a means to network with editors, publishers, agents, librarians, educators, booksellers and others involved with literature for young people. The New Mexico chapter brings together local authors and illustrators for regular events including monthly meetings, called Schmoozes, critique groups, and illustrator meetings. In addition they host workshops, craft building retreats, and this year will host a semi-annual regional conference in October.
Beavers says the group hopes to keep the spirit of collaboration rolling. “This show is a new experience for us and we’re hoping to make it a regular NM event.”  Enchantment will be on display Tuesday through Saturday during regular library hours through May 31st.

Show Organizers: SCBWI Illustrator Coordinator Melinda Beavers (me!), Mary Sundstrom and Bonnie Bryant

Quite the turnout: Reception Mingling

We made the paper!

 

A library patron peruses the show.

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A magical art and writing exhibit for children of all ages, Enchantment, will be on view during the month of May at the Los Griegos Library in Albuquerque.  This unique show features collaborative pieces by members of the New Mexico Chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. For a fun creative turnabout, the illustrations in the show were completed first by the participating artists.  After the illustrations were complete, the writers crafted their pieces, taking inspiration fromthe art. The alchemy of these combined talents on display promises to make for a truly bewitching experience.
“The concept for the Enchantment show stems from an event that was originally put on by the SCBWI folks in Greece. We really wanted to focus on a project that could include all our members, both writers and illustrators,” explained Melinda Beavers, Illustration Coordinator for SCBWI-NM, regarding the impetus for the show.
“Illustrators started the ball rolling by creating a single illustration based on the theme of Enchantment. The digitally submitted illustrations were then randomly paired and sent to the participating writers, who have written a single page story based on the illustration they received. It's a twist from the way traditional publishing works, where illustrators are usually brought in to illustrate a story that's already been written,” said Beavers.
All of the original illustrations and the stories created in response to them will be exhibited together throughout the month of May at the Los Griegos Library.  The opportunity to show work created for children in a library setting was a perfect fit for SCBWI-NM.  “SCBWI is a group that supports and encourages the people creating literature for children, so it only makes sense to hold a collaborative show of illustrations and written pieces for children at one of our local libraries,” explained Beavers.  “It's just a great way to share what we all do with the local community that will appreciate it most!”
SCBWI-NM, the local chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, is aninternational non-profit organization that serves as a support for professional creatives in the children’s literature field and provides a means to network with editors, publishers, agents, librarians, educators, booksellers and others involved with literature for young people. The New Mexico chapter brings together local authors and illustrators for regular events including monthly meetings, called Schmoozes, critique groups, and illustrator meetings. In addition they host workshops, craft building retreats, and this year will host a semi-annual regional conference in October.
Beavers says the group hopes to keep the spirit of collaboration rolling. “This show is a new experience for us and we’re hoping to make it a regular NM event.”  Enchantment will be on display Tuesday through Saturday during regular library hours through May 31st.

Show Organizers: SCBWI Illustrator Coordinator Melinda Beavers (me!), Mary Sundstrom and Bonnie Bryant

Quite the turnout: Reception Mingling

We made the paper!

 

A library patron peruses the show.

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Having a little fun at work… I've been madly promoting and selling my book (it's so awesome to be able to personally put my book in people's hands every week) —and last week at my Barnes & Noble, my little self-published book made the No. 2 spot on our store's top 5 bestsellers! Second only the the Disney phenom, Frozen… and beating out two wildly popular YA novels, plus a Pulitzer prize winner! #shamelessshelpromotion #bnselfie #ohyeah

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Having a little fun at work… I've been madly promoting and selling my book (it's so awesome to be able to personally put my book in people's hands every week) —and last week at my Barnes & Noble, my little self-published book made the No. 2 spot on our store's top 5 bestsellers! Second only the the Disney phenom, Frozen… and beating out two wildly popular YA novels, plus a Pulitzer prize winner! #shamelessshelpromotion #bnselfie #ohyeah

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I can't believe it's been a month already… time is just flying by this year and I can't seem to keep up. So much is happening! I've had a crazy and busy week and I almost decided not to go to this NM Book Co-Op meeting, but then I remembered the topic of discussion: Book Sell Sheets.

I'd never even heard of a sell sheet for books until last month's meeting—and the timing turned out to be perfect for me since I ended up needing one for my own book—the very next day. But I had no idea what I was doing when I put that together and I wanted to find out more.

I have to admit, I was a bit late to the luncheon… I basically skipped the lunch part and arrived just as the talk was starting. This time the entire room was given a chance to introduce themselves and their books (if they had one). Then the guest speaker was introduced: John Hoffsis of Treasure House Books & Gifts, on the Old Town Plaza…


So, what is a sell sheet? It's basically a calling card for your book—a sheet of paper with the right facts and details about your book that you can hand to someone: a buyer at a bookstore, a librarian, book reviewers, or any potential buyer of your book (you know, unless you can actually put a book in their hands, it's best to have something to leave behind).

Example: single page (picture book!)

Example: two-sided page

Here's what you need your book sell sheets:

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I can't believe it's been a month already… time is just flying by this year and I can't seem to keep up. So much is happening! I've had a crazy and busy week and I almost decided not to go to this NM Book Co-Op meeting, but then I remembered the topic of discussion: Book Sell Sheets.

I'd never even heard of a sell sheet for books until last month's meeting—and the timing turned out to be perfect for me since I ended up needing one for my own book—the very next day. But I had no idea what I was doing when I put that together and I wanted to find out more.

I have to admit, I was a bit late to the luncheon… I basically skipped the lunch part and arrived just as the talk was starting. This time the entire room was given a chance to introduce themselves and their books (if they had one). Then the guest speaker was introduced: John Hoffsis of Treasure House Books & Gifts, on the Old Town Plaza…


So, what is a sell sheet? It's basically a calling card for your book—a sheet of paper with the right facts and details about your book that you can hand to someone: a buyer at a bookstore, a librarian, book reviewers, or any potential buyer of your book (you know, unless you can actually put a book in their hands, it's best to have something to leave behind).

Example: single page (picture book!)

Example: two-sided page

Here's what you need your book sell sheets:

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Photos my helper, Lynn Platow, took around and about the workshop day.

As in MY workshop! My very FIRST workshop.
And, MAN, was I nervous… it it all turned out to be wonderful. :)

The workshop was part of the MasterWorks Show here in NM, you can see from the pictures, it took place right in the show space—surround by gorgeous art to inspire us. I had 12 students, which was the perfect size class for the day. Of course, 3/4 of them were members of my colored pencil group, people whom I knew, and knew me, well. I knew they were all there just to learn how I do what I do, so that  helped ease my nerves I think.

Me and my table FULL of supplies and examples

Here's my class, hard at work!

Here I am demo-ing.

A bit of my process: After the board is prepped and the sketch is made… 1. Underpainting (I only did half to, eventually, show the difference in finished piece). My underpainting is not particularly neat or detailed—I do it just to stain the paper so it's lest likely to show through the pencil work. 2. Beginning to layer in colored pencil, still rough. 3. More details & values built up, plus "burnishing" one tomato complete.

Various students' takes on the underpainting process.

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One of our largest groups this year, we had 13 attendees!

Alan has a simple pamphlet with his bio, contact, and descriptions of his presentations to promote himself for school visits.

A VERY large gathering at Alamosa Books' Reading Room—full house!!

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