A busy (and thankful) year for the Pixel Shaving's gang

RUSS COX - As 2013 comes to a close, now is a good time to look back and be thankful for what happened during the year.

• I am excited to be agented by Sadler-Cavarette Children’s Literary 
• Major Manners Nite Nite Soldier, which I illustrated, won several awards including the Benjamin Franklin Award

• Freddy The Frogcaster, another book I did the illustrations for and written by Janice Dean, reached the top 25 in books sales on Amazon

• I just signed up for two more Freddy books

• Whatever Says Mark, a book I did with Capstone, was released

• I am illustrating a Christmas book written by Lynn Plourde that will be released in 2014

• In September I was selected to be a presenter for the NESCBWI’s spring 2014 conference
• My Mother Goose piece will be on permanent display at Boston Children’s Hospital

The biggest highlights of the year were more on a personal level. Our lovely daughter married her best friend and soul mate, Andrew Aho, in May. Lynn and I are so thrilled to have Andrew as a son-in-law. We look forward to see where the winds of life will take them.  

The other highlight was that Lynn and I celebrated our 25th anniversary with two week trip to Italy. We look forward to another 25 years together.

DEBBIE OHI - I have much to be grateful for in 2013. 

On the kidlit front, I did the illustrations for NAKED!, a new picture book written by Michael Ian Black, coming out from Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers in May 2014. I was able to announce three new book contracts with Simon & Schuster: I'll be (1) illustrating SEA-MONKEY AND BOB by Aaron Reynolds, (2) writing and illustrating TWO more picture books.

Had lots of fun at the SCBWI annual conferences. One of my highlights of the Summer conference: hanging out and chatting with Fred Koehler, plus getting a chance to see his HOW TO CHEER UP DAD f&gs (book comes out in March 2014).

 And speaking of Pixel Shavings creativity, I so enjoyed Hazel's illustrations in ONE WORD PEARL this year! See Hazel's interview on Inkygirl about her process.

I was way nervous about my very first keynote speaker gig but ended up having so much fun at the SCBWI Canada East convention in Montreal, plus made some new friends. 

The more good things that happen, the more grateful I am for those who have encouraged me in the past. Like my Pixel Shavings friends. :-)
Photo credit for Debbie-SCBWI-Montreal-UrveTamberg.jpg - Urve Tamberg.


FRED KOEHLER - Greetings from Fred in the land of Fixin' To Publish a Book. Woot woot!

My very first title, HOW TO CHEER UP DAD, debuts in March with editor Kate Harrison and Art Director Lily Malcom at Dial Books for Young Readers. I've been super-stoked to go through the publishing experience. You can check it out on Amazon here or buy it from your local bookseller in March 2014. Betsy Bird at the School Library Journal Blog got an early sneak peek at HOW TO CHEER UP DAD and had nice things to say about it. Oh yeah, and here's the final cover:

I've gotten so many incredibly kind emails and questions about the process that I've put together a couple of pieces of general advice to share. The SCBWI published my success story, which I've posted to my blog at freddiek.com. I also posted an article for aspiring authors called You Wrote A Book. Yay! Now What? This piece is more for beginners just to help wrap their brains around the publishing process.
So what else is new? I'm writing and drawing almost every day. I'm kind of stuck on monsters right now, and I wanted to share this concept illustration for a new book idea I'm working on. I know I've got a lot to learn, but that's what makes being an artist so doggone exciting. I keep making new friends and am so thankful to have a chance to be successful in this incredible industry. Cheers.

SHERALYN BARNES - Happy Thanksgiving!
It's been a year of lovely things to be thankful for... I spent a large part of the year working on a children’s book about our great national parks for the Sequoia Natural History Association. What a treat it was to take myself on a tour of the parks in my imagination. As a young adult, I worked in Yellowstone National Park for three summers and two winters, so it was an inspiring project for me. I’m happy that my artwork will help inspire kids to go out and experience our national treasures. The book will be released in March through Sequoia Natural History Association and the National Park outlets.

  

I had the pleasure of doing a couple more projects with Reading A to Z this year. “Silly Sarah”, which came out last year, had me drawing a lot of fun farm animals. This year, my imagination got to go to Africa with a retelling of a Nigerian folk tale “Why the Bat Flies Only at Night”. Currently I’m working on a project for 2014 that takes me on a Costa Rican rain forest adventure with a sloth. Just my speed! I love sloths!

The learning game flashcards that I designed for Gryphon Design Collective called “What We Wear” came out this year. I had fun drawing all kinds of fun animals for this project. It was a challenging project in that it highlighted clothes within a beach/sand/surf motif. Truly a challenge! (Pat on back)
This year also marks the year that I begin working with the (most excellent) agent, JoAnne Schuna. I am honored to be represented by such a wonderful person. www.schunagroup.com.  

 

In May, I made a pilgrimage back to my home state of Indiana to attend the Wild, Wild, Midwest SCBWI Conference. What a great conference! Presenters included the great Peter Brown and the amazing Laurent Linn (art director for Simon and Schuster). I was very honored to be the first runner up in the juried art show with my Girl and Bear illustrations. It was a true milestone for me. It was four years ago this November that I was living in Louisville, KY and attended an SCBWI conference in Indianapolis where Laurent Linn was presenting. His amazing enthusiasm and stellar presentations reawakened my desire to pursue children’s illustration and led me to attend more national conferences. So it was even more of an honor that he was one of the judges for this art show. My heart seriously glowed realizing how far I’ve come, thanks to so many people who have inspired me along the way. The inspiration continues. 

HAZEL MITCHELL - this year has flown by and I'm thankful for the opportunities that have come my way.

This year has been a busy one for  books ... in Spring '1,2,3 by the Sea' from Kane Miller (by Dianne Moritz), in Fall 'One Word Pearl' from Charlesbridge (by Nicole Groeneweg) and 'Double Crossed at Cactus Flats' from Magic Wagon by Rich Wallace. Right now I'm working on a folktale for Charlesbridge called 'Imani's Moon' publication Fall 2014 (by JaNay Brown Wood). In between I've completed educational and independent projects. Whew! I am thankful for a sit down!

    

It's been a really great year for travel and for visiting with friends back in Europe and in the USA, and with so many great colleagues too! I was lucky enough to attend Bologna Children's Book Fair this year for the first time and to speak at conferences as far away as Paris and as near home as Massachusetts. I've visited book stores, spoken at schools and attended book festivals. I am thankful for the lovely people who have hosted and interviewed me on their blogs, and supported me in my career. And for all those people who have written to me on social media and through snail mail.

When you're in the midst of a lot of work and travel, with the highs also come the lows. Then it's helpful to reflect on what's been and what's to come. To think about what's important, and what's not. So I'm taking a little moment to look back and recall what I have to be truly thankful for this year ... friends - creativity - opportunity - my animals -  the chance to continue story telling into 2014 and hopefully to find that I can finally add 'author' to my resume. 

Oh also, thanks to my hubby for all his support!

Here's to you and to yours and THANK YOU for stopping by Pixel Shavings and catching up with our news.

Great News & Sneaky Peeks by Fred Koehler

Hello friends!! Lots of wonderful things going on in the world of Pixel Shavings, which is a testament to both the value of forming a group and the hard work of each of its members. I think every single member has a project in the works, and that's seriously awesome.

My great news is that I've signed with Josh and Tracey of Adams Literary, rising stars themselves in the world of literary agencies. When I met them the first time, I arrived at our poolside meeting in Orlando wearing a bathing suit and cowboy hat. When they didn't even flinch, I knew it was meant to be. They even shared their french fries.

Check out Adams Literary at adamsliterary.com. They are OPEN TO SUBMISSIONS!! By the by, that's how I was able to set the meeting. I sent a compelling email through their website. They had no idea who I was before that email.

Also very cool is that I've been featured on author Rob Sanders' blog. He's running a fantastic series of success stories from other authors he's met. For sure check it out at: http://robsanderswrites.blogspot.com/2012/07/fred-koehler.html

On to the Sneaky Peeks. Dad's Bad Day (Penguin, 2014) is going through a fair amount of sketch revisions. While I'm anxious to move on to final art, I am stoked to be working with a team dedicated to making this the best book possible.

Here are a few sketches that may or may not make the final cut. But I like 'em (and so should you!!). :-) As always, thanks for checking in with us and let us know if our collective wisdom can shine a light for you.




 

Cheers,

-Fred

freddiek.com
flickr.com/superfredd

Cabin Boy from Hazel Mitchell

 I've been looking more at historic characters and settings lately. Maybe it's because I love historic films, documentaries and costume dramas ... it is definitely something I feel comfortable drawing!




This little guy turned up in one of my morning warm up sketches, and he features on my next postcard mailout.

I draw these digitally, in photoshop using only a couple of colours (usually inspired by a colour inspiration website). I don't do any underdrawing ... that way I can't overthink, plus I keep the freshness of the line.

See more of my work at http://hazelmitchell.com or on my blog at http://hazelmitchell.blogspot.com



 Next up on Pixel Shavings in June will be Russ Cox .. fresh from his clean sweep in the Poster Contest at NESCBWI!

Toodles!
Hazel

Being an Idea Factory by Fred Koehler

Dan Santat illustrated like seven books in one year. My friend Janeen Mason told me she can have a dozen projects at various stages of development all up in the air at once. At a recent SCBWI conference I heard repeated again and again that successful writers and illustrators are idea factories.

So while book numero uno, DAD'S BAD DAY, is in full swing, I'm keeping up the writing and the sketching and the concepts. Here are a couple of recent ideas that I think have some promise.

The Pink Princess Problem - wherein a poor little giant is pestered by princesses who are kinda snarky, mean, and evil.

The Happiness Emporium - wherein a penniless boy encounters a curious shopkeeper with the secret to lifelong happiness, and it's for sale.

Thanks to all of the friends of pixelshavings, and check in with us next month!

-Fred Koehler
freddiek.com

Digital Sketching from Hazel Mitchell

Lately I've been working a lot more with digital sketching, getting my thoughts right onto the screen with no premeditation or thumb-nailing. Really this has been an exercise to stop me overworking, to play more and to have some fun! I have also been limiting my palette by using online palette suggestions (I use http://design-seeds.com, although there are many others out there).

It's been taking me in a different direction and got me out of my standard tools/colours/process. So I thought I would share a few of the sketches I have worked on this last month. Most of them were 15 mins to an hour and I draw on a Wacom tablet and use photoshop CS5.

Thanks for stopping by Pixel Shavings! Stop by next time to see what Russ Cox has on the menu.

Hazel Mitchell

http://hazelmitchell.com

http://hazelmitchell.blogspot.com

 

 

 

  

 

 

The Evolution of the Bunny by Sheralyn Barnes

I loved Fred’s post last week.

 I think he hit the nail on the head about what it takes to be a children's illustrator

and it made me think a lot about my own learning curve on becoming a children’s illustrator over the last two years. So I thought I'd touch upon some of his points...the ones about attending conferences, learning as much as you can, and being open and relaxed to what comes your way.

 I find myself constantly trying to convince fellow writers and illustrators who truly want to publish children’s books to take the plunge and go to not only the regional SCBWI conferences, but also either the New York or LA ones if they can. To attend one of the larger conferences is a pretty big financial commitment, so it’s understandable why people hesitate. I still find it hard to believe that I ignored my doubts and dire financial situation and went to my first New York conference back in 2010 . But I did, and it is probably one of the best decisions I have ever made in my life. Since that time I have

 attended two more conferences in LA, one in Nashville, and one in Minneapolis. As the time to commit to going to the LA conference this year grows nearer, again I find myself doubting whether it is important to go. 

So, to reassure myself, I put together this Bunny Timeline. 

This little furry guy is someone that I've been experimenting with since my first New York conference. I've used him as a gauge for what I've learned in the last two years as I've dedicated myself to becoming a professional children's illustrator. Some of you may recognize the first three images from previous posts. When I look at these illustrations now, I can see how with each conference (and the workshops, keynotes, and critiques that go with them) I have learned so much more about what it really is to illustrate for children. Every conference has been important in giving me new insights as to how to be a better. Not to mention the daily influence, support, and inspiration of the great illustrators that I have met at these conferences. When I attended my first regional conference in 2009, I was naive enough to think I knew what I needed to know to be a good children's illustrator. I thought with a few tips, tricks of the trade, and connections, I’d be working in no time. What I learned is that I had a lot to learn if I truly wanted to be good and get published. I could draw well (my degree is in fine art, not illustration), but I didn’t really understand everything that went into a great illustration...especially aspects of story and character development. Attending conferences has continually given me the inspiration and information I need to make illustrations and children's books that I can be proud of, not to mention given me an incredible community to be a part of.

So here is the set up for this first page scene:

A bunny is anxiously awaiting a mouse friend to go find shelter in a barn

as an impending snow storm looms large and threatens their very existence!!!

Rabbit 2010

Here, I found reference photos of wild rabbits (since he was wild right?)

I added a snowy background.

  I thought his looking off into the distance would build intrigue.

What I've learned since:

Wild scrawny, mangy looking rabbits are not necessarily instantly lovable, 

even if they are decently rendered.

I LOVED my rendering of the front paws here.

 I was so in love with their artistic nature that I neglected to

 really assess whether the overall image told a story or was endearing to the reader.

There is absolutely no sense of alarm here.

I was just learning to paint on the computer and this is my

 first real image done entirely digitally.

 I was still using a mouse to draw on the computer. Egads.

 I bought a Wacom tablet and watched many tutorials

 on painting in Photoshop after completing this image.

Rabbit 2011

Which brings us to here..... 

after about 4 months spent learning how to paint in Photoshop.

 I decided that my rabbit needed to be less mangy and skittish looking.

 I also discovered that my obsessive nature of wanting to make things

 look real exploded with the endless ability of the computer to detail things.

And of course...looking back, I obviously still hadn't caught on to giving

 this guy any sense of alarm.

I was very proud of this piece when I showed it to Dan Santat in a critique in LA. 

Dan replied that it was a very nice "portrait" of a rabbit.

 What it wasn't was an illustration that told a story. 

WOW. Big light bulb over head moment there.

Rabbit sketch fall 2011 (post Dan Santat critique)

This critique with Dan became the subject of one of my posts 

here at Pixel Shavings and this is the sketch that I made following it. 

I realized that I tended to make my characters very stoic. 

And decided that as an illustrator I needed to work on 

creating more emotion and to develop more of a story in my scenes.

 I could draw well enough, what I needed to work at was a becoming a better actor and director.

I remember starting to think of my characters in these terms: 

Would I hire them for the role in a casting call?

What qualities would I look for if I were holding an audition?

Bunny 2012

Which brings us to the present.

After taking the time to watch and re-watch Will Terry's great videos,

 and taking in more great insights from the posts of my fellow Pixel Shaving's buddies,

 I began to work on my character design.

 I didn't want this to be a "rabbit". He's a bunny. HE is the LOVABLE character in the story.

 I needed to make him instantly endearing from the start.

 I upped my cuteness factor and this is where I ended up.

 I also warmed him up a bit color-wise, with hopes that it would help the reader warm

 up to him as well.

 I added a hint of the story in the illustration, rather than just a background of snow.

Thus ends my bunny evolution. Time to move on to other things.

 I'm sure that a year from now I will have an entirely new perspective on it all.

 And that is great.

That is why I will be taking the plunge for another conference this year. 

It just gets better and better all the time!

Thanks for checking in!

Sheralyn Barnes

www.sheraynbarnes.com

How to Get a Publishing Contract in 3 Easy Steps by Fred Koehler

Okay, okay. So perhaps that title was a bit deceiving. But, after reading this humorous post on How to Win the Caldecott, I thought I might give it a shot as well. This is a general description of how I sold my first two books to Penguin USA. The first, "Dad's Bad Day," will be out in 2014.

Step 1. Get Really, Really Good at Something. Whether it's writing, illustrating, or even concept and storyboarding, put in the 10,000 hours you need to become successful at your craft. Because all work feeds your art, it doesn't matter where those hours come from. You want to be a writer? Blog. Volunteer to write press releases for a local charity. Write letters. Just write a lot. Same deal with illustrators. Start a sketch blog and add to it daily. Doodle in meetings instead of paying attention (and convince everyone that you listen best while doodling). One day it's going to click. Something original is going to emerge from your work. You'll stop in the middle of what you're doing and say "Whoah. Where did that come from?" Congrats. You've found your voice.

Step 2. Hang Out and Be Cool. For "big people" publishing, I don't know how to be cool. Grown-ups frighten me honestly. For children's publishing, join SCBWI and just go and hang out. Invest some dollars. Sign up for multiple classes and critiques at the conferences. Bring your "A" game. Bring the work that embodies that original voice and still makes you say "Whoah" when you look at it. Be proud and be excited about it. And don't be creepy or stalker-y with the agents and editors you meet. The ones I've met still talk to me because my attitude has always been that "I'd love to sell something, but I'm really just here to learn and make friends."

Step 3. Listen, Learn, and Repeat. At a conference I heard an editor say, "Anyone who submits work to me in the next two weeks hasn't been paying attention." The purpose of attending conferences is to learn how to improve our craft for revision. It's not about landing the deal. When you get that one-on-one time, offer yourself up completely defenseless. Demonstrate your ability to listen and accept advice. And for some people, that's the hardest part. You're sitting across from the person who could give you your break, so whatever they tell you to do, DO IT!!! Now go back to Step 1 and repeat until successful. And remember, the equation for success is "Every Single Miserable Failure + One More Try."



Cheers,

-fred
freddiek.com

Illustrating a Non-Fiction Picture Book from Hazel Mitchell

This month saw the publication of a book I illustrated for Charlesbridge Publishing' imprint Mackinac Island. The book is 'Hidden New Jersey' and it's the third in a series featuring the States.Written by Linda J. Barth (of New Jersey), it's the first non-fiction book I've worked on - and it was quite a challenge! I thought I'd share some of the process looking at how I tackled the illustrations.

The book's a 'search and seek' concept with hidden objects on each page for children to find. There were a LOT of facts to incorporate on each double spread, each featuring a different area of the state.

This book came to me in an unusual way ... the developer, Anne Lewis, saw my work on my Facebook Fan Page and emailed me to ask if I'd be interested in doing the book. Hurrah for social networking!

I received the m/s in January 2011. At this point I realized just how much research was involved - I took a big gulp. Each area of the book was broken down into a list of facts and suggestions for hidden objects. The developer suggested I write notes on how I saw the images for each page before I started sketching. This was a great idea and saved me a bunch of time ... I spent a couple of weeks looking at images for each page and making rough notes on how I saw then working as a whole. The first thing I realized was that the objects suggested for 'hiding' took away many of the options for great compositions ... so I asked if I could choose what to hide instead. I began files of images for each illustration, making sure I had many different reference and bearing in mind the copyright restrictions on images. I made my own references sketches and often merged many different views, or worked from out-of-copyright photos. This kind of book is hard - there isn't time or money to go round taking your own photographs, which would be the ideal situation!

When I felt I'd researched enough I began to make rough sketches of each layout. In this case the rough sketch was pretty much how the finished image turned out.

 

I also researched the items I would hide on the page (which are all mentioned in the 'facts').

 

I also laid out a page to scale with the hidden objects and blocks for the text.

All the rough sketches went to the developer at Mackinac Island Press for approval .. then it was on to finished pencils.

 

I worked on all the images at the same stage. There were very few changes ... just minor ones to make sure things weren't in the gutter (page fold) and that the text would fit around the image.

I worked at 150% scale and scanned all the images in at 800dpi, reducing to 400dpi in CMYK at the finished size. It was a LOT of scanning. I think people forget about scanning time ... I like to do my outline work by hand and my colouring (in this case) digitally ... so scanning and then clean up time can take almost a week or more for a whole book.

NOW the fun part ... colouring! I coloured in photoshop ... it's something I have been doing for many years. I still love working by hand, but for a project like this digital painting means I can do it in a few weeks. Otherwise the time to complete this book would have been 3 times as long! (Total time was about 4 months.)

Here is the finished image and below are the hidden objects ...

 

     And this is the finished page in the book!

                                               
One of the hardest parts about tackling this project was no running narrative. Each page is it's own entity ... although we did have a couple of themes running through the book. The kids in the canoe appear on several pages and also a little bumble bee (who is the mascot of the book and the state insect) is on every page doing something different as a little extra thing for children to find.

I also created the front and back cover art and bits and pieces for the verso and title pages.

Now that the book is out there I've been busy helping to promote the book ... which is when the hard work begins, right?

You can see the book trailer I created here ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuXJfjc-Dgo
if you want to learn more about how I did the book trailer, please visit my blog.

Hidden New Jersey is available to buy in all good bookstores or online!

Join the Hidden New Jersey Facebook Fan Page! http://www.facebook.com/HiddenNJ

Thanks for dropping by. See more of my work online  http://hazelmitchell.com

Come back next week and visit Pixel Shavings to see what illustrator Russ Cox has in store for us.

Toodles!
Hazel