Hello Robot!

Looking back at past projects I completely forgot how tedious my process can be sometimes, especially when I need to depict a light source just right, an emotion just right. I’ll never get anything just right. It’s more like “good enough for now” or “well the viewer will understand this image just enough I hope.”

I hope that in this particular image process that I’m about to share, the viewer will understand the story of Hello Robot in one image.

The story of Hello Robot is very incomplete. I have the images but I can’t seem to get the manuscript “just right” or even “good enough for now” because the reader wont understand the story just enough. Words just can’t describe the way I feel about Hello Robot so maybe light and emotion will.

I’ll start you off by introducing Hello Robot, or Bucket, here.

My process for a completed image always begins with character development. I need to know the character before I can accurately create an image of them. Getting to know the character is the longest part of the process, I mean it takes a while to get to know someone properly, right?

Now on to the image which I hope the viewer will understand that is the peak show of character for Bucket here. I first start with a thumbnail and then a detailed sketch like this:

Here I don’t have the lighting quite right but I have the shapes down. The lighting is very important for the entire story but especially this image. You might be able to see why in a bit.

I’ll go on to several color sketches. Depending on the final product, if I work traditionally then I’ll do digital sketches, if I work digitally I’ll do traditional color sketches like these.

I’m starting to figure it out in the first color sketch and by the second sketch I know what I have to do in order for the emotion and the light to bring about proof of character and peak story arch.

Here I’m finally on the digital. This image is about half way, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I did not track all my process with the digital piece. I never do! Maybe I should do this is the future.

And there you have it, the final! Okay so I went on about light and emotion and stuff for a bit. Light to me can have a bunch of different meanings but the core meaning for me is spiritual. Here Bucket is leaving the light from below to explore the darkness above, an attic. He must do this to complete his exploration of the house to find someone to say “Hello” to that will say “Hello” back. He doesn’t find a hello in the darkness but he does find something else.

Sounds kind of spooky when I put it that way.

Do you understand his emotion? Do you get the “well the viewer will understand this image just enough I hope.”

Hello Robot is a whole story about exploring shadows and saving light sources.

 

2019 Maryland Conference

It’s that time again! Yes, the annual conference. 

For my own sanity, I’m making another list of things that I’ll need in order to be completely prepared so let’s see if I can gather everything!

 

Updated Portfolio

Every year my goal is to update the portfolio. I ALWAYS try to make some FANTASTIC piece each year right before the conference.

This year? Well I’ve made quite a few new pieces that I deem portfolio worthy, but are they really enough? I don’t think I’ll ever know…

Two Manuscripts for Official Review 

That’s right, I have TWO manuscript critiques this year. I’ll also be bringing two more for walk in critiques so I want to make sure all four manuscripts are the best they can be. 

 

 

Completed Book Dummy

This year I want to bring the completed Remember Me Emily book dummy. I tried to do this last year with Hello Robot, but I’m afraid Hello Robot wont work quite yet so I didn’t get to bring a dummy last year. I will this year though!

My Handy Dandy Notebook (or sketchbook)

Yep, this is actually one of the most important item to bring! This is where I take all my notes the critiquers give me and the information on the panels. I have to make sure I’ve got a fresh one, easy to carry (small) and flexible so I can abuse it haha.

 

New Postcards and Business Cards? 

Last year I really liked my digital bee that I made. However, I’ve been creating a lot of water color pieces this year so I think I need to use a watercolor image. Should I create new ones or use ones I already have? Hmm… maybe one of these will work.

 

And Finally, My “Professional” Self

 

Okay ignore that picture. That is NOT professional AT ALL.

Anyway, some nice semi informal clothing seems to be the trend at these conferences so cardigan, black jeans, small cute boots, clean shirt. That seems to work every time!

 

Pretty sure I need to bring more things but here are the most important, well these and a positive attitude.

Oh yeah and a side note, I’ve started doing reviews again yay! Time to get to posting on this blog again for my own research and lists.

 

Portfolio Critique Dos and Don’ts

Back in March I had received my fourth professional portfolio critique. It’s been a couple months since then, but I needed to let the feedback settle in my brain before I started following the advice.

As always, I think back to my first conference and how much I failed myself then. Now… well I’m still a failure, but a better failure!

Here’s why with the Dos:

• TAKE EVERY ADVICE WITH A GRAIN OF SALT. It’s very easy to just take in all the criticism and get down on yourself. Quitting is easy, “I’m garbage because this ‘professional’ person says I am, might as well become an electrician like Pa said.” A lot of the critique is based off what that person likes and doesn’t like, not necessarily you as an illustrator.
• GO IN WITH A SMILE. This sounds lame but it actually worked for me. If I’m smiling and being social, a lot of that heart clenching tension dissipates. Smiling and talking gets me ready to be open minded and prepares me for change. Try it.
• DRESS NICE, BUT CASUAL. I was rocking a nice sweater with a lacy tank top beneath, maroon colored jeans, and cute brown boots. All was comfortable to wear and I looked like a real human that could possibly be in public!
• BRING YOUR ABSOLUTE BEST WORK. Sounds obvious, but it helps if you feel good about what you’re bringing to the table. If you don’t, you need to do more work or just have a short portfolio. Feedback might actually be good for you if you are not satisfied with your work, it helped me a year ago when I felt awful about mine.
• RESEARCH YOUR CRITIQUE. Courtney Pippin-Mathur gave me my portfolio critique. I chose her specifically because she worked in watercolor and digital mix, which is what I was doing. I also liked her cute style. The rest of the illustrators there had a bit of a realistic style and were mixed media for the most part. I wanted someone who worked with what I was trying to work with, and the feedback I got was very helpful because I took the time to look at her website.
• COMMUNICATE WITH THE ILLUSTRATOR. I mean, join in their rambling about your artwork. Sometimes asking questions can help guide the one critiquing you. Lets face it, they’re human too so helping them will help you. Even if it’s just simple questions such as, “What are my strengths? Should I be working in this medium? Am I ready to look for an agent?”
• WRITE DOWN WHAT THEY SAY AFTER THE CRITIQUE IS OVER. Sometimes it’s okay to jot down notes, but make sure you look like you’re paying attention. It’s good to write some more after your critique so you can look at it later. (later that day, later that week, two months from then…)
• SEND AN EMAIL THANKING THEM. I was bad and didn’t email Pippin-Mathur. I emailed my manuscript critique though! But still, email them. It’s good to do that. I shall email mine next time.

My first critique went horribly and it had me crying in the shower for an hour after.

Here’s why with the Don’ts:

• DON’T GO IN THINKING YOUR STUFF IS GOOD. Unless it is of course, but if you’re new to this field you probably aren’t quite there yet. Even if you are good and you go in thinking that you’re good but the one giving you a critique says they don’t like something, this could possibly lead you to…
• IGNORING ALL ADVICE BECAUSE YOU THINK YOU KNOW BETTER. Everyone can improve. EVERYONE. If there is something off with your work and you choose to ignore it, like I did with my messy backgrounds for forever, your work will suffer for it.
• DON’T NOT SAY ANYTHING. Silence is second worse compared to cutting off the critique with your arrogance. I practically said nothing my first critique and that just built tension between the us and it led to me tearing up. That got awkward. Don’t do it.
• DON’T OVER DRESS, BUT DON’T WALK IN WITH JEANS AND A T-SHIRT. Okay I didn’t really do this one. I mean, I had jeans and tennis shoes on but at least I had a sweater that didn’t look too bad. You’ll feel better if you look better though.
• DON’T TALK BAD ABOUT THE ONE GIVING YOUR CRITIQUE. I’ve never done this but I’ve read pretty bad blog posts and it just never looked good to me. It just looked butt hurt.
• DON’T THINK ABOUT YOUR CRITIQUE AND RUIN THE WHOLE DAY. This is the most challenging one. Its one thing to anticipate your critique and prepare yourself. It’s another thing to stew over a bad critique for the entire weekend and ruin the experience. Take your notes, store them away, and come back to them once your mind has cleared. Maybe get drunk that night and go see a friend who knows nothing about the field, but don’t stew in disappointment.

And that’s all I got! I wrote this blog post because I decided to do something that was suggested in my critique. Apparently I succeeded in last years goal of practicing line work because that was one of my strengths with, actually, my traditional pieces. So she wanted me to recreate some images that were digital in watercolor and here’s one she suggested.

 

These are so different, but I like both! I was told to move away from digital but I’ll take that with a grain of salt. 😉

The Thing About Portfolios…

It’s here!

The conference starts tomorrow! (well it starts today but I have to work so… can’t go.) I’m of course doing everything last minute (like usual) and I finally got my portfolio together.

Every time I get a professional portfolio critique I go through a bit of anxiety (no, a lot of anxiety) and become extremely indecisive of what to actually show. So I go through the list:

• What subject matter do I want representing my art? I draw fiction kids stories so a lot of my work has a bit of a whimsical atmosphere with kids in it. Sometimes animals and sometimes robots too…
• What medium do I want to represent? I have two styles. One is digital, one watercolor. I draw everything by hand so a lot of the drawing stays similar (woo hoo!) I also have some black and white pieces that I love making.
• Can all these images together tell a story? I usually split images by paint, and I kind of did that this time too. The difference is the story I was trying to set up. The viewer starts with a lonely robot saying “hello.” Gradually more characters are added with each piece, as if more are joining the portfolio party. I end with the robot (Bucket) being fixed on by her creator as a way to say good night folks!
• Which pieces are the strongest? This will always be up for debate, but I chose my most recent robot story as my strongest pieces so I begin and end with them.
• Is the drawing consistent? This time I think yes.

 

There is also a list of DON’T DOS that my first portfolio, shown below, unfortunately did:

• DON’T MAKE YOUR PORTFOLIO INTO A LITERAL STORY WITH ONLY ONE CHARACTER AND A WEIRD CHANGING BEAST. This was my first mistake! A portfolio needs some diversity in characters and story telling.
• DON’T HAVE LIKE TEN DIFFERENT MATERIALS. This portfolio would have made any publisher/agent/what have you confused as to what exactly they’re getting from you. BIG mistake.
• DON’T TURN YOUR PORTFOLIO CASE TO THE SIDE. I’m such an idiot. I didn’t have a landscape portfolio book so instead I just turned a vertical book horizontal.
• DON’T HAVE TONS OF EXTRA PAGES IN THE BACK OF YOUR PORTFOLIO!!! I had one of those that you couldn’t take out the pages. I was so poorly prepared…
• DON’T ONLY BRING 9 IMAGES!!! Okay you need between 10 and 15 images, 9 is way too low haha.
• DON’T TEAR UP OR CRY. I was almost bawling by the end of that critique, but I got much stronger after that initial blow. E.B. Lewis probably felt sorry for me. In the end I gathered myself, took a picture with him, and got a signed book. I guess I redeemed myself?

The next step is to take what I learned from the don’t do list and apply it to the next portfolio:

I got a little better, more diverse with characters and story, more pieces, stuck with digital and mixed media. Still, I needed work on drawing, line, and most importantly, tightening up the compositions. I look back at this one now and realize a lot of these were incomplete…

 

 

This is my newest portfolio. I stuck with digital and this time I found a love for watercolor and I’ll stick with it. I think I’ve gotten somewhat better, certainly cleaner. I focused on drawing, lifework, and cleanliness like the last critiques suggested.

Now on to another critique and hopefully a better body of work!

Then and Now

Have you ever had to start all over again as an artist?

There’s nothing like being told that you’re *almost* there, but not quite. That you’re *almost* to professional level, just not yet. Hearing those things do hurt, but it doesn’t hurt as bad as “throw this entire thing away and start over.”

I’ve had to start over and over and over again. I think most artists do…and most writers.

Starting over is part of my process. Destruction and creation.

This time I didn’t start over, I just applied the suggestions given to me to three pieces I did last year. By doing this I got to see the mistakes I made more clear, helping me understand a bit more of why I’m “almost but not quite professional yet.”

I enjoyed working on this piece tremendously so when the response to it wasn’t what I expected, I had to take a step back else I was going to throw the file away in disgust:

Then

All I did was clean the image up and focused on the line work a bit more. It’s a bit better.

Now

This one I had for my postcard, but now I can’t stand to look at the postcard anymore…

Then

I still am working on some things, but at least it looks a lot more clean…

Now

This next one I got a good response from both critiques, but I still cleaned it up a bit.

Then

Now

This will be the last time I go to these pieces. I’m still adding them in my portfolio because they represent the type of art I want to create, but I need to move on and hopefully become a better illustrator.

Portfolio Prep 1 (Mental Prep)

It’s that time again.

Time to have my work scrutinized and criticized until I feel like crying.

Just kidding! Portfolio critiques are extremely helpful if you know what to look for amongst the sometimes harsh reality check. And past mistakes can mean future successes… and sometimes realizing further mistakes you never knew existed.

Amongst the things to do and look for in a critique:

• Wait, hold up, GET A CRITIQUE GROUP. Do it… okay now we can move on to the professional critiques…
• If a problem is repeatedly mentioned. Everyone is going to have their own opinions, but if a similar opinion reoccurs it’s time to take advice. For example, I had two critiques last year. Both of the illustrators were quite different and gave me almost vastly different advice EXCEPT for two things, practice my line work and practice drawing. That’s what I did. I think my art is better for it too.

 

then

now

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• If some advice REALLY doesn’t sit with you, listen but go with your gut. I know, this also seems pretty obvious, but I have to remind myself that the person critiquing me doesn’t know me or my work inside and out. They just met me! Therefore I’ll take all advice with a grain of salt. For example, last year both critiques told me to stop writing and focus on illustrating. I obviously didn’t take that advice because to draw I must write and to write I must draw. I DID however take down the claim that I’m an aspiring author/illustrator on all social media to erase further criticisms of this claim lol.
• BE AS PROFESSIONAL AS POSSIBLE. Meaning…dress nicely, act nicely, have a clean presentation. It sounds silly and shouldn’t your work speak for itself? No. Someone is always a better artist than you are, so it’s time to not just rely on that. My first ever critique told me to throw my whole portfolio away because it looked bad. I took that advice, threw everything away and got a new portfolio. I had several compliments on my portfolio presentation. I also dressed a bit better than last time and actually had conversations with the illustrators. The whole experience went better than the first.
• LOOK AT THE WORK OF THE OTHER ILLUSTRATOR. Seriously, get to know your critique, even if it’s just a quick google search. Half of the reason why I think I got such a bad critique the first time is because E.B. Lewis is a fantastic drawer/water colorist and he looked at my work like a child drew it. If you’re into color, try to get a critique from someone who does color. If you like digital, go for a digital artist that doesn’t have a prejudice against it. If you are a mixed media artist, then go for mixed media. Sometimes it’s good to have someone who does completely different art from you, but you might not get the advice you want from them. Fair warning.
• Don’t cry. Don’t do it. DO. NOT. CRY. Unless you are by yourself in the shower. 
• And last, just be happy that you have the nerve to show your work. If you’re someone like me who is very self critical and thinks you’ll never be good enough, this is an important thing to remember. At the end of the critique, no matter how good or bad, at least you got that far and now you can get better.

It’s difficult to present your work in confidence, but it must be done. There are tons of resources from the Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) online about how to build a portfolio. Just takes some time and research.

From Dreaming to Doing 2017

From Dreaming to Doing. 

You know, that’s a perfect theme for a children’s book writing and illustrating conference. Writing and illustrating DOES begin with a dream, a passion to create this piece of work that dives into the heart of the reader. To make them FEEL what you are feeling, understand and connect. The doing part is what makes the dream come alive. 

Each panel reminded me that in order to make my dream a reality I must do the work and put myself and my work out there! I had so many notes from the panels that my notebook pages are currently kind of a mess.

Other than the panels, which I will post some of my notes in the near future, I had two extremely helpful and encouraging portfolio critiques from Calef Brown and Alyssa Nassner:

Brown:

1. Practice varying my line work throughout a piece. Almost all of my images had the same kind line thickness and the idea is to thicken the lines of the objects up close and thin them out further away. Also vary the types of line, like I do a lot of swooping motion and curves. Need to change it up a bit.
2. DRAW DRAW DRAW! He wanted me to practice drawing the figure and told me to take night classes. Unfortunately I don’t have the money to take night classes, but maybe I could save up or apply for scholarships.
3. He liked my more detailed pieces, the small intricate details I had with some pieces.
4. He liked my color, but gave me the idea to try to work with brighter colors.
5. One of the mixed media pieces he thought wasn’t working due to the two mediums fighting for attention.
   

    this is the piece with the two fighting mediums.

6. . He said in some pieces I seemed hesitant. Fix that.
7. And last he told me to work on INDIVIDUAL pieces instead of stories. And focus only on illustrating instead of writing.

Nassner:

1. I got the same advice on varying line work.
2. Bring more narrative into my pieces, though she thought I was good with the narrative with my last three images.
3. Liked my color.
4. Suggested that I look into illustrating for middle grade too. She made this suggestion when she saw the black and white piece show above.
5. Work on drawing.
6. With the mixed media pieces, some were too muddy. Fix that.
7. Told me to get a domain name and website  (or URL) and basically said I was silly for not having one lol.
8. She liked my digital pieces much more than the mixed media.

Both critiques told me I was not quite professional enough, however I was CLOSE. Both told me that my compositions are good, my light, color, and drawing are pretty good, I just need to get to that next level of professionalism and tighten up the craft. Both thought my style was consistent even with the two ways of working, which is GREAT.

Both liked the piece below the most.

 

It was a great idea to have two critiques. I plan on going to the next conference!