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Anthony Shugaar (The International Spy Museum) National Geographic 2006 I spotted this on the non-fiction shelf in my local library teen room and thought "Yeah, that's a book a teen boy would pick up." Being a few decades removed I can still tap into my inner teen boy. I picked it up without a seconds worth of hesitation. But what a disappointment. It's a smartly designed book, very

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The talented illustrator and blogger extraordinaire Megan E. Jefferey wrote this excellent essay to mark her SEVENTEENTH anniversary as a freelance artist. Lucky for us, she decided to share it with us all.

I discovered this post right around the time that she first posted it to her blog (August 2006). In it, I discovered so many gems of wisdom that were so pertinent to me at the time! (Come to find out, they truly still are.) I thanked her profusely for sharing it, and promptly hung the essay list on a wall in my office.

Cut to a year and a half later. I did a little rearranging in my office studio last night, and I came across my copy of "17 Things", which fell off my wall a year and a half ago. I read again, with just as much interest and thirst for the information as I did back then. It contains such evergreen wisdom which is applicable for freelancers in their first, fifth, and fifteenth year!! I hope you get as much out of this as I did (and still do)!

Hey Meg, thank you SO much (again). :) ...And, by now -- Ta - Da!!! -- you are WELL INTO into your 18TH YEAR!! Big Congratulations, Meg!!!!

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I just completed adding up all of my receipts AND income from the year 2007. Whew!! Glad that's finally over.

I tell you, tax time gives me the heebie-jeebies. I can't help feeling that looming sense of dread when the time rolls around that I have to dig through every infinitesimal shred in my records and look at it under a microscope. I had a pretty easy time counting tonight on the calculator, which is a blessing. (My fingers were up for the challenge, I guess.) It wasn't one of those experiences where you add up 25 numbers, dare yourself not to make any numerical notations as a fail-safe, then dramatically forget which number you were on, and have to re-add the entire column all over again, from the beginning!! Ooh, nightnmare. No sirree, not tonight!! It went smoothly! YESSSSSSSSSSSS..........I can breathe now.

A few years ago (when I started freelancing for real) I decided that I was going to do everything RIGHT where taxes/accountability was concerned, no matter how initially painful it would be. And yes, it would be painful... I was never trained on financial responsibility and accountability when I was a youngster, and, to top it off, I was never a great math student in school... So, as you can imagine, the entire process has been a lot of work and very challenging at times, and a lot of holding my feet to the fire. But today I can hold my head high and say that I am SO proud of myself! I've come such a long way. It is not ever really completely painless, but I CAN say that "doing things right" gives me a amazing feeling of peace, relief, positivity and true confidence that I can't put a price on.

There is things one can do to make tax time less painful. Keeping a separate credit card and bank account help keep things organized in a tangible sense, as well as just mentally. Knowing that things are separated in this way can relieve daily stress and anxiety. Many freelancers who are in that 'limbo' area between working their day-to-day full-time job and freelancing the rest of the time may surmise that these additional steps are just added work and unnecessary. But to the contrary, I personally feel that it's incredibly important in many ways. It not only helps with just general organization of your business finances, it also trains you to have good financial practices, which will only help you in ALL aspects of your finances. It's also an unspoken promise to yourself that your goal is to TRULY THRIVE as a professional artist, and that your business is NOT an afterthought.... And all of those things are VERY, VERY important!! :)

My first step was making an appointment with an accountant. He gave me a crash course in small business tax 101 and he tailored it to my own business and needs. Taking this step is worth the expense. You gotta learn this stuff somewhere, and it might as well be from a professional in the field!! (If you're worried about the cost, don't. You and your business are WORTH it. You can expense it. Case closed.) The sense of empowerment you receive when you are learning the right way to do things is really beneficial in so many ways. The positive enforcement has ripple effects throughout other areas of your life!!! :)

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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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Smile-By-Fire: Part One

After working on my first book, my head was exploding with newfound knowledge and ultimately I figured out ways to improve myself and the way I work in the future. So, that said, here are are some life and career lessons learned on the fly...

Pump up the color.
I learned pretty quickly that, while my soft watercolors and classical style may have initially helped me get my foot in the door, the field of children's publishing craves color - - rich, deep, bright, saturated color! I had to absorb and assimilate this information, and figure out how to apply it to my work, while keeping my work MY work! So, learning new ways to utilize richer color in my watercolor work was very important not only for this project, but long-term, it was a lesson I had to learn. To do this under the gun, while keeping my own style and 'flavor', was hard - I won't sugar-coat it! I had no 'play' time (deadlines being deadlines) and I HAD to make it work. In the end, the trial-by-fire endeavor was successful. But, I did discover that I never, ever want to be in a position to have to experiment on the fly with my creative methodology and workflow ever again while in the middle of such a big and important project. It's just not practical, for one thing ... and, besides that, there are 2,000 other reasons to do your experimentation BEFORE embarking on any commissioned project, which I don't think I need to go into here.

Find your voice in a larger format.
I immediately learned that I was going to have to work 25 - 30% larger than usual. This was, to be honest (and to admit to my earlier naivete), mental whiplash at the time. I did not know that this was a standard way of working in children's trade until I was in the thick of it. My pen and watercolor work is so detailed and fine, and I thrive on those small details which lends itself to working small in general. I did think, for a split second or three, "How on EARTH am I going to make it work at 13 x 18???" In the end, I am living proof that, sometimes, working from a place of sheer will can get you through. And then, once you start working, you just learn as you go! ;) (It is AMAZING what sheer will can propel out of a person!! :) )

Equipment is everything.
At the time I got this project, my scanner was perfectly fine... if you are someone who scans 9 x 12 or smaller pieces and knows how to use Photoshop well. But it was not fine for this project, and it was not fine for my long-term professional plan. During the project, I needed to scan my work at every stage in order to show proofs. I ended up spending so much time and energy fighting with my small scanner. I won't bore you with the gory details, but suffice it to say that, once my portion of the work wrapped, I immediately began scanner shopping, but this time for a graphics professional-grade, large-bed scanner. Believe me, for the amount of money I ended up spending during the project on ordering large scale color scans from the local copiers, I could have paid for my scanner three times over. And this is not even taking into consideration the amount of wasted time, tight deadliness, the lack of control over the scanning. Now, I am confident I can handle anything, and it feels GREAT - you can't put a price on that.

Equipment is SO important to us illustrators. A workplace that allows you to be extremely flexible is something you simply cannot do without and expect to be employable these days. Inadequate equipment can visually make or break your work, AND it can make or break your ability to be flexible with your clients!! You can be the most committed, agreeable, TALENTED illustrator in the world, but if your lack of quality professional equipment to assist you in getting your work successfully completed is holding you back, then, simply put - you are rudderless. Bottom line is, having equipment that holds you back is like a runner being forced to wear cement blocks on their feet. Ouch!!

So, this past summer, I found myself upgrading some fundamental, important, and EXPENSIVE things in my studio. The decisions I made have paid dividends, creatively AND professionally! Not to mention that every day that I use my Wacom Cintiq or my large Epson scanner is a day in illustrator paradise!

Take control.
It's nice to have creative control over the final product. This is another excellent and important reason to have a fully capable analog-to-digital work station at your disposal. Nowadays, most (if not all) of our clients (as illustrators) accept, and likely prefer, to receive digital files over analog. It can help to cut out a lot of the work on their end (no scanning, no retouching, no mailing hard copies back). But what it gives the artist is something of immeasurable valuable - - artistic control. For example, I do a lot of watercolor work. I know from personal experience with this medium that, post-scan, my work generally needs the Contrast to be bumped up about 10 - 14%, and it also typically needs a small amount of sharpening. (The sheer act of scanning generally does a tiny bit of 'bleaching' to my watercolor work, and the added contrast helps to replace what is lost. Plus, CMYK always needs a little boost). This is yet another reason to have a great scanner at the ready. Also, in my experience, clients really appreciate the extra help with the files! You are helping them extra by making their job easier - no art to adjust, scan, retouch. It's all done for them. And, you are able to maintain your artistic integrity. So it's a win - win!! :)

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What an honor it is - I have been interviewed for Design Inspiration interviews!!

Check it out, if you get a minny:

http://wwwdiinterviews.com

Hope you enjoy!!

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I have some pretty exciting news, folks - - I'm part of a new illustrators' collective called the Scribble Guild!! The SG consists of this fabulous, creative and talented bunch: Andi Butler (aka Mrs. B), Jacob Souva (Two Fish Illustration), David Sones (Pickledog), Valerie Walsh (ValgalArt) and yours truly! It's a pretty swanky site - frankly, it blows me away, it is so gorgeous (Jacob's handiwork) !! We have our own SG blog, and it's just a fun site to visit (I, for one, can't seem to stop visiting, ha ha). Please check it out, enjoy, and check back often.
:)

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I'm figuring out how my new creative workflow will go, working digitally as opposed to analog (as I was previously doing). I have discovered that being able to work mostly digitally is creatively extremely freeing, and the results are even better than I thought. I guess you could say I've taken to it very well. I wasn't really sure how my work would translate - how my style would translate. But so far, I am very thrilled with the way things are going and my style is developing quite nicely. I'm very happy.

The Cintiq makes the artwork part flow so organically. I am so glad that I upgraded to the Cintiq (not to mention all of the other pieces). Not having all of the stuff that I needed to really serve my work had really become a hindrance. I am glad I recognized that, and made the important decisions I needed to make.

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I finally did it - I joined NAPP! That stands for the National Association of Photoshop Professionals. I have "been meaning" to join for at least a couple of years... But, I didn't - - until NOW!

I use Photoshop every day (mostly for design work), and I've known for a long time that there were many wonderful possibilities that I had been leaving untapped. I wondered, what would I learn that would be "practical" for the kind of work that I utilize photoshop for the most? The answer is that I have found is that NAPP is an absolute treasure trove of practical, useful, (and I mean "everyday-useful") Photoshop knowledge! It's kind of mind boggling. Just today, I've discovered two new things previously unbeknownst to me, that I was able to immediately put to good use - one of them is shown in the Thank You bunnies pencil drawing - - what a way to jazz up a pencil drawing!!

I've been using Photoshop daily for nine years. So, just by default of practically living in Photoshop, I knew a lot already. But it's WILD (and kind of fun, I dare say) to find out how much I have to learn about what this great program can do, and how much I will learn every single day by using this web site. I'm so excited to put my newfound knowledge to work.... PLUS, you're really not "goofing off on the web" when you are reading a tip or watching a tutorial on NAPP. You're learning, and it's really fun. This stuff is immediately useful. I'll tell you, NAPP will make you look like a Photoshop Superstar!! (I think I'm on my way!) :)

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Kuler
Kuler.adobe.com
I found out about this from Scott Franson's blog. Thanks, Scott!!
Visit Kuler for some cool color palettes, and download the desktop widget - -SO COOL!

The Rookie Designer Podcast
http://www.rookiedesigner.com/rookie/
It's not just for rookies. Informative and covers a lot of issues. Look it up on iTunes or visit the link above.

Freelance Switch Blog
http://freelanceswitch.com/
Fun and some useful information here on running your business! There are several authors who post on different subjects. A worthwhile stop to poke around.

Edited to add...One More thing:
wufoo.com
Free Online Form Creator!! Looks nice, too... Read the rest of this post

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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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Somehow, some way, I never got the memo about the Dry Mount Press and how it is a water-media artist's best friend...well, I guess I did finally get the memo (as you can see), but I just got it a little bit later than I might have. Well, better late than never!!

So, I just discovered the wonders of the Dry Mount Press. It flattens a warped sheet of watercolor paper so beautifully. Like magic, I have a nice flat, smooth piece of artwork that will make scanning a (hawaiian) breeze (at sunset)!

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I'm upgrading my studio to include a fully-equipped digital art workstation!
I do use my computer for everything (as you might guess - don't we all?) so I do have a regular set-up as is, but I'm talking full-force digital-art equipped! Right now I have my smallish Wacom tablet and the old standby, Adobe Creative Suite. But right now, my steps are, in general: I scan my work in, and I photoshop for clarity/fixing/color correctness. Aside from that, I use illustrator to do vector art. But, regarding illustration (and aside from those vectors), almost everything illo I currently do in computer-land is a minor amendment to analog-created artwork.

So, I'm splurging!!! A Cintiq tablet and Painter X. I still will be a 'hybrid' illustrator, but I am extremely excited about the possibilities of working with these two new tools!! The Cintiq should revolutionize my workflow and creative output!! I took Carlyn Beccia's lecture on digital art at NE SCBWI Conference a couple of weeks ago, and it pushed me over the edge. Without taking anything away from my beloved analog work, I think that having the ability to amend my work with digital painting will only enhance things on every level - - and I'm really excited about that. The Cintiq tablets are back-ordered, so I will have to be patient...it's tough!

In related news, I just purchased a new (refurbished) scanner - an Epson Expression 1640 XL. So excited, can't wait to get it. I've been lamenting the slow death of my (not even a year old!!) scanner. I feel that, because all of my work right now is analog and so extremely dependent on good scans, having a dying scanner is just totally unacceptable. It's been depressing! I hadn't taken the plunge on a new one because I was trying to figure out exactly what I needed. (The last thing I wanted to do was end up with the wrong scanner for my needs.) There is quite a jump in scanner prices and I had to do some research to make sure I got the right thing. I'm totally confident in this scanner. I have it on good word from a couple different sources that this is the one to beat, and that the price was good. I purchased from SupplySale.com who not only had the best refurb price, but also called me to verify that I ordered it. Hugs to them for taking those measures to protect their clients!!

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The first seminar I attended was “Book Jacket Illustration: What Makes a Successful Cover” with Deborah Kaplan. Originally, I was slated to attend “Your Marketing Playbook” with Susan Raab, but realized that attending the cover art seminar made more sense for me. I find marketing endlessly interesting! But there is marketing information to be had at every turn. Cover art, by comparison, is really a niche in the design world, and it’s one in which I’ve never had the opportunity to attend a seminar about previously, so it was a novel find (no pun intended)! Although I'm a graphic designer, I have never designed a paperback cover in my life, and I’ve always been quite curious about it and interested in it. I do dissect every cover I see, although this probably speaks more to the profession proper than to any niche within it… but, regardless, the cover seminar won out.

Deborah was a great host! She walked us through several covers her team designed in-house and also many that her team collaborated with freelance illustrators on. We saw several iterations of some of the covers, and a few of the final cover art slides ended on a somewhat humorous note, where a major element of the illustration had ended up being removed altogether from the art! It was refreshing to be walked through the process of cover art, because after the presentation, I actually felt like my by-day design work has more in common with design cover art design than is particularly different from it. Fundamentals of good design always remain, no matter the medium. So that was sort of a refreshing reminder. Speaking of which, Deborah was refreshing and down to earth. I liked her!

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I got to the hotel on Friday morning at 10 a.m., just two hours before the conference was to start. My room was ready (!!) so I was very happy to be gifted the luxury of early check-in. Yee ha! I unpacked a bit, took a short nap and made my way down to the conference at 11:40 a.m.

When I arrived, the first thing I saw was tables filled with stacks of publisher’s catalogs, kid magazines, and submission requirements for writers and illustrators. Like a hungry little dog faced with big plate of juicy steaks, I swiftly filled up my arms with one of everything. I didn’t anticipate this type of resource material being available for the taking. I guess I should have expected it, but I was thrilled to be able to collect such truly useful resource materials - and for free, no less! Some of the catalogs would probably have cost me $5. or more each, plus postage, after writing to the publisher to request it. I dashed to the elevator and dumped my booty in my room, before heading back down to check in.

The first Keynote Speaker was Steven Fraser, a literary agent who has a ton of experience in children’s publishing: Simon & Schuster, Highlights for Children, HarperCollins. These are just a few of his credentials. He fired off so much useful, wisdom-rich advice, I don’t think my pen left my notebook the entire time. When a guy like Steven gives free career advice, stop the presses!! He was clearly extremely organized in his approach to his speech, making note of the important sound bites he offered (which was a good cue to write it down, not that any of us needed a cue, but it made it easier to identify key points). All of the information steven shared is the sort of stuff that you learn only through years of experience, unless you are lucky enough to have someone share it with you who’s been down the road several times. He also has a very unique perspective because he is an agent. This added some unique layers to the advice he shared.

He recommended some books:
“Reading Like a Writer” Francine Prose
“The Sound On The Page” Ben Pagoda

I hope I spelled the names right.

More later..

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I am back!

Iam tired (and happy, it is a good, worthwhile type of tired) and my head is FULL of ideas. I now feel like I have some tools to write and illustrate my own books! I have learned some great ideas in which to frame the ideas for a children's book - ways that work for both the writer in my brain as well as the illustrator and ways which work in tandem. I have, for a long time, felt like I had these great stories locked inside but I lacked the proper 'language' to be able to execute. I needed a system. I think I have something to work with now. I can grow with this. I'm excited about this.

Hey, even on my bus ride home, despite getting wracked with motion-sickness, I churned out a rough draft of a new idea!! I've never completed a story idea to the end. I now have an ending for the first time in my life. And it works. I'm really getting somewhere. This is a big accomplishment. I'm in love!

I'll write a run-down of the weekend and post it soon.

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Scott Franson's wonderful new book Un-Brella has it's own movie trailer! That's right, it's a little animated trailer to promote Un-Brella - a great idea!! And, it is beautiful! Check it out here.

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