December illustration by Susan Drawbough. Susan has been creating whimsical artwork for children’s markets and publishing for years – magazine covers, picture games, and books. Being constantly around children from toddler age to middle school provides Susan with tons of inspiration. www.susandrawbaugh.com/
I managed to post everyday again this year. Lot of posts informed visitors of contests they could enter. Others tired to keep you up-to-date with Industry changes, while others let you know editor and agents likes and dislikes, and other industry talk. Plus I tried to share successes, so we could all find hope and share the joy. Here are the articles that I felt were worth another visit. You may have missed them during the year.
Writing Cross Culturally
Agents for Picture Book Writers
Book Scouts
What Teachers and Librarians Need Now
Industry Changes: Jenny Bent Weighs in on the Good and Bad
Categorized Children’s Picture Books
It All Starts With Research (not the kind you think)
Words of Wisdom from Penn & Teller
Ten Character Development Tips
Tropes, Foils, and Other Writing Definitions
Tips to Avoid Horror Story School Visits
He Said, She Said – Using Dialog Tags
Writing and Publishing in the Digital Age
Non-Fiction Writing and Illustrating Offers Publishing Opportunities
How to Approach a Critique Session
Picture Book Writing Tips
Chipping Away at Writer’s Block
Crafting a Picture Book Dummy
Market Your Book─ Without The Book
Book Fairs and Exhibits
Re-Imaging Your Picture Book
Effective Query Letters
First to Final Draft – Novel Developmental Process
Book Contracts & Negotiations
Wordless Picture Books
Formatting for Maximum Visibility
How to Pitch and Submit Illustrated Projects
There’s a Whole Universe Out There: World Building
Using Academic Standards as a Marketing Tool
Summoning the Muse
World Building
Too Theme or Not to Theme
School Visits – Teacher Talk
Free Database of Publishers Accepting Submissions
Five Opening Novel Blunders
Gone in Seconds
Story Behind the Newbery
Editor Answers Questions
Look into Tension
Develop a Thick Skin
The Waiting Game Tips
Killing Your Darlings
Hooking Your Readers
Finding the Perfect Name for Your Characters
Poetry Critique/Revision Checklist
Can You Answer “YES?” – Synopsis Questions
Critiquing Your Writing? Nine Story Elements to Check
Critiquing? Revising? 10 Writing Style Elements to Check
Inner Lives of Your Characters
Finding Photos
Write What You Know
Show don’t Tell – When to Break the Rule
TENSION
Will Your Manuscript Keep Your Readers Reading
First Pass Editing List
Screen Writing Plot Techniques
The Journey of Writing a Novel
Agent and Editor on Trends in YA and Kidlit
Talk tomorrow,
Kathy
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Susan Drawbaugh 
Our featured illustrator this week is Susan Drawbaugh. She loves to draw and do whimsical illustrations. Early in her art career she was greatly influenced by a man she met while touring the MGM Animation Studios, Ben Washam. As one of the original animators of the Bugs Bunny, Road Runner, and Tom & Jerry cartoons, he ended up passing down the skills of his trade by teaching a small group of aspiring animators from his home. Susan was one of those fortunate students.
Although she never made a career of animation, years later she wrote and illustrated her first children’s book, What Pet Will I Get?, an animated “Flip n Giggle” picture book that was soon published. A mix of creative ventures followed, until she made the decision to become a freelance commercial illustrator.
Her range of work spans from children’s picture books, stationery lines, canvas paintings, infant bedding, and editorial picture puzzles – to humorous wall prints, greeting cards, coffee mug lines, holiday decor, and chapter illustrations. Susan uses the traditional method of illustrating by hand, but throughout the course of every project she puts her digital skills to work, as well.
Surrounded by the coastal charm of Southern California, she creates from my home studio by the port of San Pedro. Take a look. I am sure it will put a smile on your face.
Here’s Susan explaining her process:
Soon after my younger daughter had her first baby, she excitedly told me that she’d ordered a painting for the nursery that she’d seen online.
Purchased???! I thought. A whimsical painting???! But, WHY??! , I gasped, What about your whimsical-artist mom??? Well, the picture arrived in the mail, and to my hidden delight, she was not happy with it. So off to Aaron Bros I went – to get started on my new project. I came out with a 40″ x 30″ stretched canvas, paint brushes, and tubes of acrylic paint in every color – - – - I’d used oil paints in the past, but never acrylics! Nail biting time.
Before starting I very carefully planned each step.
1) First I brushed a coat of white paint over the entire canvas.
2) Then I developed rough sketches, fine tuning them until they were just the look I wanted. Tracing paper, a kneaded eraser, and a soft lead mechanical pencil are my favorite tools for developing characters. The lines flow with ease, allowing more personality to come through as I draw, and there’s no messy crumbling or smearing from the eraser.
3) Once I was happy with the drawings I scanned each one into Photoshop CS3 and loosely created paths for each. I then dragged each image, layer by layer, onto a blank Photoshop document that I made to be the same size as the actual canvas – in this case 40″W x 30″H. Because of the layers I could move each image around, reducing, enlarging, and positioning until the layout was the look I was after.
4) I saved it as a PSD keeping it in LAYERS just in case I wanted to make changes late
By: Kathy Temean,
on 2/28/2012
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On February 3rd, I asked illustrators to submit an illustration inspired by the month itself. Most of you chose Valentines Day, but we had one Groundhog’s Day illustration and one President’s Day inpired illustration. Here are the illustrations submitted in no particular order:
MONSTER’S LOVE by Aaron Anderson’s : Aaron’s love of drawing covered his walls as a young boy and lead to a major in illustration at Utah Valley University. During his college years he worked for editorial and educational companies doing illustrations for their publications. After earning his BFA, he worked as a concept artist for a children’s video game publisher. His style lends itself to adventurous, humorous and lively fun themes. Aaron currently resides in Austin, Texas with his beautiful and loving wife. He is most grateful and pleased to be able to live his passion bringing life to his visions with his illustrating. http://aaronillustration.blogspot.com/
LOVE FAIRY (my title) by Virginia Allyn: Virginia has illustrated multiple trade and educational books internationally with a specialty in classic nursery tales. Her recent projects include Little Red Hen (Ladybird), The Three Little Pigs (Ladybird), The Gingerbread Man (Ladybird), and The Elves and the Shoemaker (Ladybird). She lives in sunny Florida with a red-headed snippet, the meanest cow kitty in the West, and lots of manila paper. http://www.mbartists.com/cgi-bin/iowa/artists.html?artist=84
NATURE LOVE (my title) a watercolor by Gwen Connolley: Gwen has a degree in Illustration from Syracuse University and early experience as an advertising art director and illustrator. A class taught by Lena Shiffman at the Center for Contemporary Art kindled her interest in children’s book illustrationand lead her to study at the School of Visual Arts under Monica Wellington and Elizabeth Sayles. She hopes to illustrate picture books, early readers or middle grade books. www.gwenconnolley.com
VALENTINE’s RED HEART by Susan Drawbaugh: Susan has been a commercial freelance illustrator for many years, and enjoys putting subtle humor into her work. Her creative ventures are put to work in her home studio off the coast of San Pedro, California where she resides with her husband. Much of her inspiration comes from their two grown daughters and very funny grandkids. www.susandrawbaugh.com.
STRAWBERRY KISSES by Donald Ford: This illustration was commissioned for the grand opening of a new Gertrude Hawk Candy Sto
). I know…. my last name is quite a coincidence!
Kathy, your blog is so outstanding, along with you successfully posting every day. It’s quite a feat, and it must’ve taken a LOT of time to go through them all to narrow it down. Thank you for the year!
Happy Holidays Kathy!
What a great, useful list. I will be linking to this on my next post. Thanks.