Facebook Live Author Chat

Join me on Facebook Live this Thursday, November 12, 2020 for a virtual author visit hosted by the Carmel Clay Public Library!  I would love to talk with you, answer your questions, and see your own "Pooka & Bunni" artwork!

MB Artists in New York

I got to spend last week in New York with these amazing people!  Every few years, my agent Mela has an MB Artists party.  Illustrators that she represents come from all of the country and the world to New York for a whirlwind week of meeting with art directors, editors, designers and team members at some of the country's biggest publishing houses.  It was an amazing and intense week.  I am so excited about the opportunities that came out of the trip, and grateful to be a part of this talented group of artists who were my family while I was out in New York.  Check out these photos for a peak at some of the highlights from the week!

School Visit

This past week, I got to meet the students of Forest Dale Elementary and speak to them about illustration!  I talked to them about how a book is made, about my illustration process, and about using colors to help an illustration tell a story.

My volunteers helped me create a silly story....with some very silly illustrations!

 

Thanks, Forest Dale, for such a great day, and for letting me share my passion for art and storytelling with your students!

 

WTHR Interview

Thanks go out to the Children's Museum and WTHR for having me on the news this morning to talk a little bit about creating the artwork for the Museum's "Pirates and Princesses" exhibit!  If you weren't up bright and early to catch the segment live, you can view the video here on WTHR's website.  My family visited the exhibit over the weekend, and had so much fun!  I hope everyone in the Indianapolis area is able to come and experience this storybook world, which features iconic movie props, a castle and a pirate ship to explore, an interactive dragon-fighting video game and dress-up pretend stations for the kids!

Pirates and Princess Exhibit preview

What an exciting day!  The Children's Museum of Indianapolis invited me to be part of a news segment to promote the new Pirates and Princesses exhibit opening this weekend.  It was amazing to see the exhibit.  Here is a clip from the newscast, as well as some photos from the exhibit. 

Pirates and Princesses

 These past few months, I have had the opportunity to create the artwork for the Children's Museum of Indianapolis's upcoming "Pirates and Princesses" exhibit, which will be opening next week on January 30th!  This exhibit will be a walk through famous stories of royals and rebels.  Children can play in a castle, a pirate ship, dress up in costume, experience an interactive digital piece, and more!  I hope you can join us on opening day!

Save the Date

Save the Date for an "All My Stripes"  book signing!  See you there!

Wee Hopes Auction

"Painted Lanterns", along with other pieces by many of my fellow MB Artists, is up for auction to benefit Wee Hopes.  With your help, WeeHopes.org is working to raise $15,000 toward funding a library in Gondar, Ethiopia. All proceeds from the auction go toward the library, populating the library with books and furniture, and training/staffing the library. Together, we can bring the power of reading to children the world over!  Also, check out Wee Hopes on Facebook!

Summer Fairy Article and Book Signing

Hope you can join us for the Book Signing and Storytime for "The Summer Fairy" this coming weekend!  There will be fun take-aways for the kids as well.  Also, check out the article that our local newspaper "Current in Carmel" ran about "The Summer Fairy"!  It gives a little of the back story as to how the family tradition spread to friends and neighbors, and then became a vision for a full novelty picture book.

SCBWI Illustrator's Day

On Sept 8, I was excited to be a part of the first annual SCBWI-Indiana Illustrator's Day!  It was so great to connect with local illustrators, and also to hear speakers with topics of particular interest to illustrators.  I was able to participate in two capacities: both as an attendee and a speaker. 

First of all, the event was hosted by 4 Kids Bookstore in Zionsville.  I had never been in there before, and after spending every single break going through the store's shelves, I have to give it a bunch of love.  AMAZING store with quality toys and books.  Lots of fabulous, beautifully illustrated books, Melissa and Doug toys (I even found train tracks parts sold separately!), puzzles, etc.  Seriously, go shop there for your kids' Christmas gifts.

OK, now back to the conference.  As an attendee, I was especially looking forward to hearing Michele Farley speak about her experiences on the 2012 Randolph Caldecott Committee.  While we were all put under oath not to divulge the secrets of the "behind the scenes" for the Caldecott award, it was really enriching to learn what the thought processes were as the committee members went through the picturebooks, why certain books made it high up on the list and others did not, and seeing "highlights" from the picture book stacks. I also enjoyed the "insider's look" at the award and the selection process.

As a speaker, I was asked to give a talk about art reps/agents, and my personal experiences as an agented illustrator.  Several people who attended asked it I would make the information from my presentation available online, and I said "check out my blog. I'll post it there."  Most of my presentation was adapted from a blog post that I wrote back in 2010.  So, if you are an illustrator looking for that information from my presenation, please visit this blog post:
http://jzartworksblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/bit-about-representation.html
I am working on trying to get my PowerPoint presentation converted to an uploadable PDF, but so far am running into some glitches.  However, the above blog post has 90% of the information that I had in my presenation, for those who are interested.

Thank you SCBWI-Indiana for putting on this great event and for allowing me to be a part of the day!

Folktales go Steampunk

Hi everyone!  I've been busy the past few months on a bunch of projects, but particularly the mock-project for the Indiana SCBWI conference.  I had an opportunity to do a sample project with Joann Hill, Art Director at Disney Hyperion, as part of a special workshop for the conference.  The participating illustrators were all given the same text from classic fairytales/folktales, and had to come up with an original, unique interpretation.  I worked with text from "The Swineherd", which I had never heard of before.  I was struck by the princess's obsession with gadgets, and disdain of the "natural".  I felt that this pointed towards a steampunk interpretation of the tale.  So, I had a bunch of fun creating mechanical creatures and outfits inspired by the Victorian era...but with a little mechanical flair!  Here is the finished product:

A few "illustrator" details to point out.... The pig farmer is actually a prince in disguise.  So, in the costume designs, only the princess and the farmer wear gold, and the gold straw hat alludes to the prince's crown.  Also, the prince's "farmer" outfit has elements in common with his princely outfit.  Both have gold on his head (crown/hat), red around the neck (ribbon/scarf) and a diagonal across the chest (sash/overall strap). I wanted the costumes to relate to each other, so that you can make a visual associate between the prince and his farmer disguise, to see that he really is the same person.

Aside from this illustration workshop, there was also a picturebook workshop that I really enjoyed.  Joann gave examples of really great visual storytelling, and the concept that stuck with me the most was the "creating a visual climax".  Joann suggested finding the climax of the story, and thinking about what that image would look like, and how it would differ from the rest of the book, and then working outward from that.  Maybe all of the other pages have the characters at the same scale, and the "climax" page shows them large, for example.  Also, the images can create a sense of pace.  Maybe there is a spread or two of man small images, suggesting many small quick actions, and then a page of "rest", where there is one large complete image. I had never had these concepts articulated to me before, and am now looking at picturebooks differently.  Not just pages of collected great images, but more like visual paragraphs...images that lead up to other images, and that have pacing and a point to be made.  It was very enriching.

Also at the conference, I was one of the 5-minute "spotlight speakers" and gave a short talk about my transition into digital art.  I think that the attendees liked it...many came up to me afterwards to ask additional questions about "going digital", particularly my experiences with the Cintiq.  There was a portfolio display as well, and the editors and art directors who came marked their favorites in each portfolio.  For my portfolio, most everyone liked the images of the teen girl in the swimming pool (the one I posted in February) and images from my "Kathryn & Elizabeth" book.  I am always interested by what images clients/potential clients are attracted to.  It usually surprises me!

Aside from the conference, I've also been working on some promotional images, with a slightly softer look than my previous pieces.  Here are some of my newest:

Book Signing

This past weekend, "Reuben Rides the Rails" was officially released at the Children's Museum of Indianpolis. It was such a fun day! I got to meet the author Barb McLaughlin in person. It is very rare that I actually get to meet the authors whose books I illustrate, so this was a rare treat for me! Together, we signed over 200 books (some pre-orders, some purchased on the day of the book signing)! We took pictures together in front of the engine that inspired the book, greeted parents and kids, and took photos with the children as well. Such a busy but very fun day! Thanks go out the the Children's Museum of Indianapolis and the Children's Museum Guild for this great project and for hosting us on Saturday. For those wishing to purchase a copy, hardbacks can be purchased from the store at the Children's Museum. Paperback copies can be puchased from Amazon.

Reach Out and Read

Last night I participated in a great fundraiser event for Reach Out and Read Indiana. The event was held at the Childrens Museum of Indianapolis, and was a great meet & greet time for the public and local authors and illustrators. There was a silent auction, raffle prizes, a buffet dinner, and crafts for the kids. Plus, the authors and illustrators took turns in the reading corner to read aloud from their books. I was happy to have my table by Terry Webb Harshman and Sharon Vargo, who are active members of SCBWI Indiana, and who I had met years ago when I was first investigating the world of childrens publishing. They had a group meeting for aspiring authors and illustrators to talk about their experiences in this business, and I was really excited to become an illustrator myself. It was great to re-connect with them at the event! I was also happy to see some children who recognized me from previous book signings, and they came to my table to buy some of the latest Pirate School books! All in all, it was a great evening for everyone! It was fun to see all the little kids excited about the books and the crafts (and of course the prizes!). Hopefully, I'll be invited to participate again next year!

Also, PS: Thanks do out to my wonderful husband who was my errand boy all night, bringing the other authors and me food and drinks and cake!

Carmel Clay Public Library Children's Book Festival

Hi Everyone! It's been a busy couple of months. I think that at the end of June I will post a photo showing all of the paintings I have created since April 1! I've been averaging about 15 paintings per month. Whoo! Anyway, I took a short break this past weekend to participate in my local library's children's book festival. We had many Indiana authors and illustrators involved. We each got a table from which to sell our books, and several of us also did programs for the kids. For most of the day, I sate next to Jeff Stone, author of the "Five Anscestors" series. It was great to be able to talk to such a successful author about his experiences. Plus, I think I got some extra traffic to my table just from all of the kids lined up to meet Jeff!
Later in the day I gave a "Create a Masterpiece" program, wherein the kids learned how to draw Pete and Vicky from the "Pirate School" series. I was surprised by how many kids participated (I had practically a whole classroom full!). The children were great! They were very engaged, and asked questions that just cracked me up. One little boy was particularly interested in Pete's feet (we were just drawing heads, and the boy was VERY concerned about Pete's apparent inability to walk!). Another girl had commentary about the tooth fairy, and whether or not she makes rounds to pirate ships to collect pirate kids' teeth. It was awesome! One thing I did differently with this drawing program as opposed to those I Have done in the past is that I created coloring book sheets. In the past, I noticed that some of the youngest children struggled to follow along with the drawing demonstration, and sadly became frustrated. This time, I gave everyone coloring pages in addition to white drawing paper. This way, even the youngest attendees were able to create art that they were proud of during the lesson. It was great to see all of the kids have a great time!
Well, everyone, I'm heading back to the drawing board! I just have 2 more paintings to do for my "Reuben Wells" picturebook, and have to scan some finished art.

New York Trip

I just got back from a whirlwind business trip to Manhattan! MB Artists had it's annual party (which was actually a series of several parties). I had never been to New York before, and was really glad that my husband and our friend Eric came along for moral support (and to help me navigate the subways....and to carry my bags).

On Wednesday night, we had cocktail party #1 at Moore Brothers wine shop. This was a meet and greet for the artists. I was amazed at how diverse the represented talent was! I met artists who had flow in from England, Mexico, and Argentina, as well as people from all over the United States!

The next day, I met with Mela to talk shop and go over my portfolio. We had talked a lot over email the phone, but it was great to meet her and the rest of the MB Artists crew in person. Also, her apartment is in an amazing location overlooking downtown Manhattan, so before our meeting, Jon (her assistant) took Rome, Eric and me up to the roof to enjoy the amazing view! Later, we ran through Central Park, had a few minutes in the Met (we'll have to come back to enjoy it properly), ate NY hot dogs for lunch, and then I went to my group appointment with HarperCollins. Over the course of the next 24 hours, the MB Artists group had appointments with several other large publishers as well! It was kind of surreal to present my portfolio to so many people from these houses, and obviously a wonderful opportunity. I was really proud and humbled (if that makes sense), to be able to show my work next to the other talented artists in the agency, many of whom are very well published and experienced. Thursday night we had cocktail party #2 at the Spice Market. Wow! All I can say is Wow! Lots of clients and publishers came for drinks, hors d'oeuvres and little desserts. You had to be there. It was an incredible event, but a little intimidating. Fellow artist Tammie Lyon was kind enough to let me hang out with her, meet her clients and eat pineapple wontons with her most of the evening.

Friday was packed with appointments (I was really glad I had postcard give-aways and business cards printed!). After all of the appointments were over (it was a great but intense day), Rome, Eric and I went to Bubba Gump Shrimp for dinner in Times Square, and then went to see The Lion King on Broadway. What an amazing show! I had not seen it before, and was very very impressed by the music and the costumes especially. It was a great way to end the trip!

Book Signing

Last night I had a wonderful experience at a book signing to promote Pirate School. The local Barnes & Noble is kind enough to consistently host my events, which include a chapter reading, illustration activity, discussion and book signing. It is great to be able to connect with the local kids to talk about books, art and the Pirate School characters!
I was a little afraid that not many kids would be able to show up for this particular signing due to the snow, but we actually got a pretty good turn out. This time, all of the children were girls, so I was able to let the kids be more involved. For instance, normally for the illustration demonstration, I choose the character that the kids will learn to draw, because if I let the kids choose, the boys will all want a boy character, and the girls will all want a girl character. This time, I let the children pick, which they enjoyed. As I expected, they wanted to draw Inna, who is the most "pretty." The activity was very engaging for all of us, and I was thrilled by the girls' participation. They actually discussed and commented on the drawing process while we were going through the demonstration! They were all very observant, and came up with interesting analogies for the shapes we were drawing!

For the chapter reading, I read from book 3, chapter 1 - which is very humorous and engaging even if one has not read the other books. The chapter ends at a "cliffhanger" in which the pirate kids head off to yet another rotten lesson with Rotten Tooth. After the chapter was over, the girls took turns guessing from looking at the cover what the lesson was going to be about. It was great to see their involvement and excitement.

That is my favorite part of the book signings - to see the kids get engaged. I am always surprised by the children's comments and observations. My favorite comment at a book signing actually came over this past summer during the question & answer portion of the presentation. A little girl, no older than 4, raised her hand and asked, "What is your web URL address?" All the adults laughed....I was half expecting the child to pull out a palm pilot and look it up on the spot! I guess that is a true sign of the age that we live in!