Illustration Notes: To Include or Not to Include...

Illustration notes—the bane of a writer’s existence. There are so many conflicting opinions about illustration notes, it’s hard to know where to begin. First off, an illustration note is a quick description of what the author envisions at a certain point in the story. The notes are intended to stand in place of an illustration that might be needed in order for the reader to understand what the author intended.

An illustration note is not a play-by-play of how the author sees the characters, settings, and scenery of the story.

Here’s an example using Where the Wild Things Are:

“The night Max wore his wolf suit and made mischief of one kind …” [Art: Max is wearing a white wolf suit with buttons down the front and is nailing a line of tied-up clothes to his bedroom wall.]

That is a bad—scold it and send it to time out—illustration note. In fact, you DO NOT need an illustration note for that line at all. It’s perfectly fine just the way it is.

For the rest of the article, please see my site at: https://johnelldewitt.com/2017/03/31/illustration-notes-to-include-or-not-to-include/

Interview With VFX Artist and Author Jami Gigot

I met Jami through our critique group and enjoy reading her manuscripts. She creates warm and comforting characters that have a timeless feel, and she also illustrates them. Jami started her artistic career in digital animation before moving to 3D and VFX work, as you will see, and entered the kidlit world with her debut picture book Mae and Moon published through Ripple Grove Press. Her follow up book Seb and the Sun, also through Ripple Grove, is due in 2018. 

Thank you, Jami for sharing your story.

Jami, you have a cool day job as a visual effects artist and you’ve worked on some pretty big movies: Batman v. Superman, Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, Pan, and Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. Can you be more specific on what you do?

When a film is shot these days, a lot, sometimes even the majority, of shots are done in a studio in front of a giant green screen. I work with a team that fills in that space with digital environments, creatures, vehicles, and props, all of which are created solely in the computer. I do a lot of different tasks, but my main focus recently has been on texture painting and lighting scenes. 

Which movie has been your favorite to work on? Do you have a favorite sequence or asset? 

It’s hard to pick one film as my favorite as they all bring their own unique challenges. My favorite projects have been ones where I am given the most creative liberty. Sweeney Toddwas a wonderful experience because I got to work at the film studio doing concept art and I was able to meet and learn from some of my heroes, Tim Burton and Dante Ferretti. I also loved working on the giant shoes and lily pad sequence for Terry Gilliam’s film, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, and painting the Jolly Roger ship in the film Pan. 

For the rest, please see my site: https://wordpress.com/post/johnelldewitt.com/129

Weekend Links: Picture Book Study with Mira Reisberg

I've already mentioned that I completed Mira Reisberg's Children's Book Academy class on writing picture books. I loved it. I can't give you the whole class here obviously, but Mira analyzes various picture books in videos that she graciously shares on YouTube. 

With her knowledge as an illustrator and writer she's able to use the books as text books on how to write and illustrate. I've included a few of my favorites.

Mira has taught some stellar authors/illustrators, Kathryn Otoshi among them whose books are disarmingly intelligent in both design and message. And Yuyi Morales whose artwork and stories are exquisite as shown in the video below. It's a little longer than the others, but captivating if you have the time.

Hope you are all having a fabulous week and are ready to enjoy an even more fabulous weekend. 

Learning Watercolor

For a long time I’ve wanted to get good at using watercolor so I can illustrate with it. I love the way watercolor looks. But I’m afraid of it. Irrationally terrified. Pencil can be erased, and with acrylics or oils you can paint over mistakes. But if you mess up a watercolor painting, it’s hard to fix. Sometimes I do something I don’t like and when I try to lift it out of the paper, I end up ruining that part of the paper. Then no matter what I do, it won’t look right. So I’ve done lots of nice big drawings and then instead of painting them with watercolor like I planned to do, I just let them sit. 

What’s the worst thing that could happen? I mess up a drawing and then I do another one. And consider it practice. Or I figure out how to turn a mistake into a happy accident, and stop being a perfectionist.

Right now I’m learning to do skin tones, and I’m doing it in my art journal, because it’s small and just for me and not as scary. I won’t show you my first attempt but I’ll give you a hint: It was bad. Here’s the second one.

I’m using this book and it’s really helping me.

Realistic Watercolor Portraits: How to Paint a Variety of Ages & Skin Tones by Suzanna Winton

Weekend Links: It's All About the Art

My daughter's 3d grade art project that was selected for a county-wide art show.

I'm not an illustrator, but I love art. I grew up surrounded by it. My mom is an artist and my brother became an animator. So for all your artists and illustrators out there, this post is for you. 




The video above is shameless advertising but I loved the artist's style. Alison Woodward, a Vancouver-based illustrator used paint and washes to create a gorgeous picture I'd love to have on my wall. 

Video 2 is an illustrator I was introduced to through 12x12, Shawna JC Tenney. In her video she shows how to create a texture for Photoshop.

And finally, a bit on the long side but helpful if you're an illustrator wondering how much to charge for your work. Here's Will Terry giving his two cents:

Have a great weekend!

Happy Coincidence

Yesterday I went to the library to look for books on picture book illustration. Along with a whole armload of those I happened to find a book called ipad for Artists by Dani Jones. A little off topic but too interesting to pass up. And I have hardly been able to put it down. Here are some things I’ve learned.

The author was born the same year I graduated from high school, which means she’s good with technology, and I feel old. However, this book explains things so I can easily understand them. She also happens to be a children’s book illustrator and author.

I’ll be doing some travelling in the next two months and taking my ipad with me. I may never produce any masterpieces of illustration on my ipad, but this could be a fun way to be creative on the go. Some people do make gorgeous art on their ipads, and others use them as digital sketchbooks.

 I really like Jones' method of brainstorming and creating characters she can develop later on her computer. And there are instructions for saving color schemes, adding textures from photos, and lots of other cool things. It’s another medium to explore, and who knows, playing with it might lead to greater creativity in other areas? 

Weekend Links: Eric Carle, Aussie Vintage Stories, and a Children's Lit Panel

As a writer, I find the life stories of other writers extremely helpful in understanding how to use my own experiences to create my own stories. The following video interview of Eric Carle is a prime example of how his writing and art was influenced by the world around him. Full of juicy tidbits of writerly wisdom, it's well worth the 8 minutes:

One of my favorite courses in college was my legends, myths and folktales class. As I've traveled, I've tried to gather folktales from each place I've visited or lived in. All of these stories unfold in my mind at some point in generating ideas. Like Tolkein who used the myths he studied to formulate his own world, a study of literature from all parts of the globe enhances our ability to tell a timeless story. The following 4-minute video discusses a collection of vintage Australian children's literature that is available online. Can I just give a cheesy Aussie Awesome! And here's the link to the online collection: http://www.austlit.edu.au/CLDR

And finally, coming it at 42 minutes but worth each one (skip to minute 1:10 to get to the introductions) is a panel on children's literature hosted by Southampton's MFA in Writing and Literature. The authors on the panel are Emma Walton Hamilton, Peggy Kern and Tricia Rayburn. They discuss different genre's from picture books to young adult. 

Part two (36 minutes) is here and goes into more depth about the construct of the books in their genre of choice:

Weekend Links: Lane Smith and Molly Leach, Jon Scieszka and more

Here's a fun way to start your weekend with two of the funny guys of children's lit: Lane Smith and Molly Leach talk about cover design and other good stuff and Joh Scieszka...well, he's just Jon in his very fun, adorable way.

And on a more serious tone, here's a link to The Nuts and Bolt's Guide to Writing Children's Books (by Linda Ashman) that came highly recommended. I want to check it out myself: http://www.lindaashman.com/newsletter.htm


P.S. Here's one more by Jon. Well worth the 14 minutes. He discusses boys for books and his organization, Guys Read. Anyone who wants to write for boys...it's worth the time to watch this.

Illustration Weekend Links

For the illustrators out there, or writers who want a peek at the illustrator world, here's three great (and short) videos:

Lynne Chapman describes the process of illustrating Bears on the Stairs in this five-minute video:

 

One of my favorite illustrators, Mark Buehner, shares a three-minute video about illustrating:

 

A 10-minute video by Kathleen Kemly about illustrating Molly by Golly:

Online Writing and Illustrating Courses

Just a few links here. As mentioned in my previous post, I'm taking an online picture book writing class from Joyce Sweeney. She offers other online classes as well. You can check her information out at http://www.sweeneywritingcoach.com/.

Katherine shared a link with me earlier for an online 2-hour course by Ann Cannon sponsored through Folio Academy. The course is $30 and covers dos and don'ts for writing picture books. You can see a trailer for the course at http://folioacademy.com/samplebc.html.
 
And finally, for you illustrators out there, Will Terry has a YouTube channel with illustration tips and tricks. Find his channel here: http://www.youtube.com/user/willterryart

Happy writing/illustrating.