Ebook Thoughts

At the recent illustration conference in bountiful we heard Will Terry talk about ebooks. He had some great things to say about creating and selling them. Instead of me recapping it I'm just going to post his video about it here.

This was basically his presentation now here for all of you to enjoy.




And If you need some info on creating ebooks you can also check out this post on Julie Olsen's blog.
She has step by step instructions on how she created her ebook.

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100 Picture Books

At the BDAC illustration conference we got to hear picture book author Anne Bowen talk about picture book writing. (she's very good, check out her books)

This is the best picture I got of her. She is in the scarf.

She mentioned hearing somewhere that a person should read 100 picture books before they try to write one. Now, I am sure in my time I have read at least that many. But it can't hurt to do it again.

I decided to read the 100 books and pay special attention to the writing. Normally I pay most of the attention to the illustrations so this was a bit of exercise for me.

I started checking books out at the library and reading them. I picked books randomly off the shelves making sure not to judge by the illustration or how well known the book is.

I haven't gotten through the whole hundred but here are some of my over all observations so far.

First: I noticed that I don't like a lot of picture books.

Second: Books that have gotten, or are getting, a lot of attention usually deserve it, especially when compared to all the other books out there.

Third: The shorter the text the better I like it. When I look at a picture book I imagine reading it out loud to a child. If it's too wordy I don't think I would get through with out skipping parts. The shorter tighter stories also felt more fun and less weighed down by words. 

I also enjoyed the books that have a narrative story rather than those that were more of a list type book. But I think the list books tended to have a better rhythm and rhyme scheme in their writing.

Here are some of my favorites so far.



I felt like each of these books have fun tight text, told a great story, and worked well with the illustrations. 

What kinds of things have any of you discovered about picture book writing?


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Drawing Children

at the recent SCBWI Illustration conference I attended we heard my friend Sherry talk about drawing children. Here is a couple of thoughts about her lecture from what I can remember and from my notes.

A Quick Overview On Drawing Children
Normally we say an adult is about eight heads tall.
A baby would be about four heads tall, and 12 year old about seven.

A four year old is about half the size of an adult and a 12 year old 3/4 the size.

of course these are all idealized proportions and they all depend on the person or character you are drawing.

Learning to Draw Children
The best way to to learn to draw children and teenagers is, of course, to look at real ones and draw them. When you do, look at what is different about each one not what is similar.

She mentioned that in her studies of different aged grade school kids the second graders were the most enthusiastic and excited about everything.

When you are drawing/designing a character or illustration ask yourself:
Have I left it alone and come back?
Have I lived with the character for a while?
Is this the best angle?
Is it a nice silhouette?
Is is well designed?
Do I like it?
Does my second grade self like it?

She also recommend James Gurney's blog. Which recommendation I second, having just now got sucked in reading this post.

It was fun to hear Sherry's talk and focus a little more on drawing children. We also had a chance to practice later on that day.

One kids sketch. See another here

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New Prints and...

First of all I want to let you know that three new prints are available in my print shop.

Snow White

Sailing

Apprentice

Next I have a quick note to say that from now on my posts are going to be on Wednesday. (hence here is one on Wednesday)

And C
I am introducing a new part to my blog that I want to call This has nothing to do with art. When you see that heading you can know that what follows will have nothing to do with art. It may have nothing to do with anything... I get to decide. yea. fun.

This has nothing to do with art

I watched this Tedtalk yesterday and really liked it. It has nothing to do with art but I admit that in a lot of way I can relate the ideas to being creative. I think it's worth a watch. (side note: I believe there is some swearing, you've been warned.)



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A Note on Fairy Tales

Little Mermaid

I love fairy tales. I remember sitting down with my family every Sunday night to watch Shelly Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre on our pbs station.



My brother and I loved them. My favorite was the "Six Dancing Princesses" (I think because they had pretty dresses). But we all loved "The Princess Who Never Laughed" and "The Boy Who Left Home to Find Out About the Shivers" We still quote them to this day.

("e=mc not squared" So. Funny.)

Anyway... I think Faerie Tale Theatre + Disney started my love for fairy tales.

In high school I loved going to the library and checking out books from the J398's I loved reading the fairy tales and looking at the beautiful illustrations.

Three of my favorite fairy tale illustrators happen to be: P.J. Lynch, Trina Hyman, and Lisbeth Zwerger (I think I've mentioned this before but it never hurts to do so again. :)


My art is heavily influenced by them.

Now when I need info about fairy tales I always go to surlalunefairytales.com. It has so much fairy tale info I don't think I'll ever get sick of it. Here is the annotated Little Mermaid. On the site you can find not only text of the tale but illustrations, histories, similar tales across cultures and current retellings of the tales. It's so fabulous.

And just in case you were wondering, my current favorite is The Three Spinners , a tale similar to Rumpelstiltskin. 

What are some of your fairy tale memories. When was the first time you ever remember hearing a classic fairy tale?

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