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Ana Ochoa sent in this cute Happy Easter illustration to help me wish all of you a Happy Easter. Ana’s illustrations have been exhibited in many countries around the world. Her art is represented by Chris Tugeau and she was featured on January 11th 2014 on Illustrator Saturday. Click here to see her feature.

This Easter Parade illustration was sent in by Joanne Friar. She has been creating art for children’s books for over 18 years, researching history and nature from ancient civilizations to the Great Depression, from wetlands conservation to endangered species. Her books have won awards such as the CBC Notable Social Studies Book, the CBC Outstanding Science Book, and John Burroughs Nature Books for Young Readers. Joanne is represented by Christina Tugeau and was featured on Illustrator Saturday on March 10th, 2012 - Click here for the link.

You never know what is in those Easter Eggs, but Lisa Falkenstern used her imagination to show us in this illustration. Lisa has been a professional illustrator for more than thirty years. She’s illustrated The Busy Tree, published by Marshall Cavendish, and My VeryOwn Pirate Story, published by I See Me, written and illustrated A Dragon Moves. You can read about her new book, “Professor Whiskerton Presents Steampunk ABC”. Here is the link to Thursday’s Post about the book, which includes illustrations. Lisa was also featured on Illustrator Saturday on October 2, 2010. Here is the link to visit her feature.

This cute Bird in bunny pajamas was sent in by Jennifer Geldard from one of her series illustrations in watercolor, black fine-tip marker and white gel pen. She is a glass artist by trade, and new to the world of illustration. I’m still getting my bearings, and learning the business end of things, but she says, “painting is pure joy for me, and I’m enjoying every minute of my education.” Her website is www.glassgirl.com

Susan Detwiler is the Illustrator Coordinator MD/DE/WV SCBWI illustrator of several picture books including On The Move and One Wolf Howls. She is the author/illustrator of Fine Life For A Country Mouse, which will be published by Penguin in September. Susan was featured on Illustrator Saturday March 9, 2013. www.susandetwiler.com

Katia Bulbenko has been drawing ever since she can remember. After studying printmaking andpainting at Tyler School of Art, she pursued her interests in sculpture and silk painting, then worked as a freelance textile designer for many years, her specialty being “conversationals”—paintings of things like coffee cups and hats, mostly for pajamas ortable linens. In addition to spending her time teaching art to grades pre-k through 8 and creating beaded fiber pieces, Katia is an aspiring children’s book illustrator. Her favorite mediums are watercolor, colored pencil, and gouache. 

I want to thank everyone who sent in an illustration. I loved them all and will be using the rest with my posts in the next few weeks. Please keep sending me your illustrations. They add so much interest to this blog. 

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

Here is illustrator Joanne Friar’s painting of a rainy day done in acrylic gouache on HP watercolor paper and based on a poem from Robert Louis Stevenson’s “A Child’s Garden of Verses”. Joanne was featured on March 10th on Illustrator Saturday. You can use this link to see the whole post: http://wp.me/pss2W-4j3

Thought you would be interested in an interesting article written by Jeremy Greenfield for Forbes the other day, titled, How the Authors Guild Is Kind of Like the NRA and Why Scott Turow Is Wrong About Authors which rebutted an op-ed for the New York Times, written by Authors Guild president Scott Turow (who is also a lawyer and the best-selling author of legal thrillers like The Burden of Proof and Presumed Innocent). In this weeks article Turow, lamented that authors are under siege in the ebook era.

Turow’s angst all came about when last month, the Supreme Court decided to allow the importation and resale of foreign editions of American works, which are often cheaper than domestic editions. Until now, courts have forbidden such activity as a violation of copyright. Not only does this ruling open the gates to a surge in cheap imports, but since they will be sold in a secondary market, authors won’t get royalties.

Jeremy Greenfeld pointed out in his Forbes article that the vast majority of authors in the U.S. are not best-selling authors. Many of them have greatly benefited from the massive changes that have swept across the literary landscape in the U.S. Before the rise of ebooks, only a small fraction of them would have been able to live out their lifelong dream of becoming a published author. Now tens of thousands of them do it every month.

Below are a few excerpts from Jeremy’s article. The full article is worth reading, since you will not get the comparison of the NRA and the Authors Guild if you don’t read Jeremy’s whole piece.

(According to a recent survey of nearly 5,000 authors by Digital Book World — that Jeremy Greenfield authored — the top three reasons authors want to publish books are:

To build their careers as writers;

To satisfy a lifelong ambition; and

To write something that people are willing to buy.

To make money is fourth. The full study is available here.)

Some small percentage of those dreamers (an incredibly small percentage) go on to become Hugh Howey and Amanda Hocking. So, to the many of you out there who enjoyed Wool or My Blood Approves, thank some of the changes in book publishing.

The system that vaulted a talented (and lucky) few to the top is still thriving. Publishers are making just as much if not more money than ever before and the mega best-seller is alive and well. Check out the ebook best-seller list every week and you’ll see that big publishers dominate. Time and again, they are able to market and sell titles that spend months on the list. Want to sell millions of copies of a book? The same path that has always existed is probably your best bet.

But what if you’re not that talented (or lucky)? What if you don’t know the right people or nobody sees in your work what you see in it? Well, self publishing is now a viable option and a legitimate path to big sales numbers.

For some authors, the new publishing paradigm now offers them a choice between established publishers and publishing their own work themselves.

There are authors, such as narrative non-fiction and picture book writers, who are having trouble finding footing in the new era — and some of them write the most vital literature we have. Take Robert Caro, the author of several valuable and critically acclaimed tomes on Lyndon B. Johnson. Each of his books takes years to complete and probably can’t be done any other way. That kind of work takes investment and an appetite for risk; in the future, we may see fewer investments on Caro-like work. That would be a tragedy for American letters.

At this year’s Writer’s Digest conference in New York, there were nearly 500 attendees, enthusiastic writers who are interested in working on their craft and learning the business of publishing (disclosure: Writer’s Digest is a sister company to Digital Book World, my employer.) From what I heard, writers at the conference echoed the sentiment that now is the best time ever to be a writer.

“The vibe at the conference was incredibly upbeat,” Writer’s Digest community leader Phil Sexton told me. “Regardless of what challenges exist, most writers that we spoke to seemed to agree that we have far more publishing options and opportunities than we did even a few years ago.”

While there are things that the Authors Guild should oppose in defense of its constituents’ interests, it should not be done on a platform of “authors under attack” because that’s clearly not the case for the vast majority of authors. For most, this is the best time in history to be an author.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

This June Illustration was sent in by Joanne Friar. You may recognize her work, since she was featured in March on Illustrator Saturday.   She says, “As a child I spent summer vacations hiking with my family and that tradition continued with our own children. Nothing says summer to me like the cool shade of a mountain forest and the smell of pine trees!  www.joannefriar.com

The Books Go On and On: Creating a Chapter Book Series – Workshop given by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen

Written by: Tiffany Alexander

Sudipta gave us a great inside view of chapter book series creation. She narrowed down the topic of chapter book series to writing commercial/genre stories. The overriding principle is that, throughout the books in a series, a couple of elements stay the same, with some differences included in each book.

Sudipta stressed that series books (or any book) must start with character. The main character of a series will have to support the creation of many stories, so character is important.

1.)  The character has to be both charismatic (in that you can draw from him/her repeatedly for new stories) and ordinary (so that readers will be able to relate to the character).

2.)  The character should have one or two unique characteristics, weaknesses, or quirks to give them depth and make them interesting/sympathetic.

3.)   A character can be ordinary, but not boring or flat – give your character specific traits.

Sudipta advised us to “give the ordinary a bit of a kick.” She also showed how developing character can create the series hook. For example, for her series, Sudipta formed a character described as someone who is self-conscious about wearing glasses and feels it is a weakness. As Sudipta developed the character, she realized that the glasses (the character’s apparent weakness) would also hold special powers, and further, would be a source of conflict and strength. At first they were just glasses, but in the process of writing they became an object from which the story/plot emanated.

A well-formed series must also have a good cast of supporting characters. They will help maintain the series and make it rich in story possibilities. Sudipta named five different stock character types:

1.) The sidekick – stays with the main character through thick and thin; if there is more than one sidekick, each should bring something different to the table.

2.) The nemesis – a character who either intentionally or unintentionally gets in the main character’s way and foils his/her plans, and it could be someone who always seems more skilled or “better” than the main character in some way.

3.) The secret-sharer – a peer who knows the main character’s secrets or feelings, and  who might also impart wisdom or help keep the main character on track, without making decisions for the main character.

4.) The positive authority figure – possibly another source of wisdom or reason, or someone who offers comfort to the main character, and often someone the main character wishes to emulate or does not want to disappoint.

5.) The negative authority figure – someone who has power over and creates difficulty for the main character, not necessarily the person who creates the big problem, but who is still problematic in some way, think “mean school principal” or the like.

Interactions between characters are definitely key.

Setting is impor

I am happy to announce that Agent John Cusick of the Scott Treimel NY Literary Agency has agreed to critique four first pages that are submitted for the First Page Picture Prompt for the month of April.

Besides being a great agent, John is also a great author.  If you haven’t read Girl Parts, you should.  I know everyone’s taste are different, but I totally loved it.  I thought it was well-written, very creative, clever, dramatic, and fun.

Want to meet John? He is part of this year’s New Jersey SCBWI June 8 -9 Conference in Princeton, NJ.

He is doing critiques and conducting two popular workshops:

Bad Guys Have More Fun: Villians, Antagonists, Anti-heroes

There’s a Whole Universe Out There: World Building 

 www.regonline.com/njscbwi2012conference  Don’t miss out!

Here is the picture prompt you should use to inspire your first page.

It is by illustrator Joanne Friar: http://www.joannefriar.blogspot.com/ I think her illustration gives you lots of room to let your imagination soar.

WRITERS: Deadline to submit is April 22nd.

Please attach your double spaced, 12 point font, 23 line first page to an e-mail and send it to kathy(dot)temean(at)gmail(dot)com. Also cut and paste it into the body of the e-mail. Put “April 22nd First Page Prompt” in the subject line.

ILLUSTRATORS: Here is your chance to show off a little. I am looking for illustrations that celebrtes the month of April. This gives you a lot of leeway. I may post some as they come in during the, but I will definitely post all on April 30th, so I need to receive your illustrations no later than April 24th. Please make sure the illustration is at least 500 pixels wide and includes a blurb about you and a link to see more of your work. Please send it to kathy(dot)temean(at)gmail(dot)com and put “April Illustration” in the subject box.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

2 Comments on Free Fall Friday – John Cusick, last added: 4/14/2012

Joanne Friar grew up in New Bedford, Massachusetts, an old New England city full of 19th century mills and fishing boats. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Massachusetts/Dartmouth where she studied illustration and photography.

She has been creating art for children’s books for over 18 years, researching history and nature from ancient civilizations to the Great Depression, from wetlands conservation to endangered species. Her books have won awards such as the CBC Notable Social Studies Book, the CBC Outstanding Science Book, and John Burroughs Nature Books for Young Readers.

She is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and the Picture Book Artists Association. Joanne and her family make their home in Somerset, Massachusetts.

Some of Joanne’s clients are Charlesbridge Publishing, Lerner/Millbrook Press, McGraw Hill, Pearson, Harcourt Educational, The Quarasan Group, Houghton Mifflin Educational, Scott Foresman, Bill Smith Studios, Richard C. Owen Publishers, Magination Press, Ladybug Magazine and Kalliope Audiobooks.

Here is Joanne explaining her process:

I usually start off by making some very loose thumbnail sketches, mainly for composition and text placement. When I’ve decided on the best option, I sometimes scan that thumbnail and enlarge it to the right size in photoshop. Each element in the sketch can be adjusted this way, larger or smaller, and moved around to get the best results.

I then make a neater tracing, making final changes, and transfer the drawing onto watercolor paper using a lightbox. My favorite paper is Fabriano Artistico soft press, which is a cross between hot and cold press. It’s a little more forgiving than hot press, but the texture still allows for the detailed work that I like to do. The biggest change in this sketch was to have the dog looking up at the boy, which I thought showed that closeness between them.

The next step is to do a light washy underpainting .  I usually have an idea of what colors I want to use, and this is like doing a color study, without being totally committed to my choices.  I use a combination of liquid acrylics and acrylic gouache.

I then start to darken the elements in the picture, painting in shadows and adding details. The colors are built up slowly, layer by layer.

At this stage, I’m just about done. More details are added – grass, fur, branches, clouds, a plaid shirt. Some areas can be lightened or made deeper. The overall effect that I’m trying to achieve is a richness of color and texture.

10 Comments on Illustrator Saturday – Joanne Friar, last added: 3/12/2012