Austin SCBWI conference

So, I figure that it's about time that I update my blog. I have had a few people ask me about my experience at the Austin SCBWI so I thought that I would share that with you today.

Austin is about 5 hours from where I live. My husband decided to go with me so that we could make a nice weekend get away out of it. I didn't attend the Friday night events due to the long drive and getting into Austin at around 5pm. We were just wiped out.

The next morning, he dropped me off at St. Edward's University then  I registered and got my packet.  I had met someone online who was from the Houston SCBWI, named Joel Cook.  Through out the day, he and I got to talk about our critiques and everything that was going on.  It was great to have a familiar face around because I was so nervous !!  haha

I had signed up for the portfolio showcase for a small fee. Your portfolio was displayed along with others on tables in a large room.  People were able to walk around and look through your portfolio.  There was a comment card available if someone wanted to leave you a comment.  I got a lot of feedback about my pen & ink work !!

It was here that I saw Don Tate's work !!  He had a display with some of his original artwork.  He and I struck up a conversation.  He was so friendly and I could have talked to him all day.  I found him very inspiring.     Don Tate

I also met Christopher Jennings.  He talked to me a lot about the conference and told me about the different ones that he had been to.  He was very informative and encouraging.  I think he could tell that I was nervous but he was very reassuring and friendly.  http://csjennings.com/ 

After morning beverages, everyone gathered and listened to the announcements.  When that was done, we were honored by having E. B. Lewis speak.  He talked about how he studied movie stills. The lighting, angels, and other things from movies. SO, that is one of the things that I am going to start studying. I just have to figure out what to search online. !!!! I can not even begin to do him justice by telling about him.  So, here are some links that I would like to share with you.

Wikipedia - E. B. Lewis (illustrator)

Website - E. B. Lewis 

I wasn't able to listen to him for long because I had to leave for my portfolio critique with Rubin Pfeffer.  He is with East West Literary Agency.  He has been in this business for many years.  I had brought another portfolio that I had with me and put it with my purse and coat.  I brought this only to show Mark Mitchell some things that I had been working on through his online class.  Mr. Pfeffer asked to see it even though I explained that I had the portfolio that I brought for the conference.  He told me to pull some of the things from the portfolio that I wasn't going to show him and told me to include them with the conference portfolio.  We discussed my portfolio and I felt very encouraged by the things that he said to me. 

Rubin Pfeffer - Bio

East West Literary Agency

After that, I made my way back to the main hall to hear a presentation by Shutta Crum and Patrice Barton.  They wrote and illustrated the book "Mine".  The presentation led us through their creative process and their interactions with the editors.  That really was a highlight for me to see Mrs. Barton's sketches and the process that she went through with her illustrations. She won the Crystal Kite award. 

* The Crystal Kite Awards (also known as 'Crystal Kite Members Choice Awards) are given by the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) each year to recognize great books from the 70 SCBWI regions around the world. Along with the SCBWI Golden Kite Awards, the Crystal Kite Awards are chosen by other children’s book writers and illustrators, making them the only peer-given awards in publishing for young readers.
Each SCBWI member votes for their favorite book from a nominated author in their region that was published in the previous calendar year.  * info taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_Kite_Awards

 After this wonderful presentation, we went to lunch !!  BUT, I stopped by the book sale and bought some books of some of the wonderful people that I met. 

 http://patricebarton.com/

http://dontate.com/

http://csjennings.com/

After lunch, there was an awards presentation.  Mark Mitchell left the position of Illustrator Coordinator of the Austin SCBWI after three years.

 Mark and I had been "online" friends for over a year because I took his online class,  "How to be a children's book illustrator. "  How to be a children's book illustrator - Online Course

Then we got to hear editor Neal Porter discuss the process that he goes through when working with authors and illustrators.
Wikipedia - Neal Porter

For a small fee, I was able to sit in on "a casual conversation with the agents" --  Rubin Pfeffer, Erszi Deak, & John Cusick.  People that participated in this was able to submit questions that were then asked of the panel.  My question got asked.  :)

Then at the end of the day, one of my illustrations was projected onto a huge wall and was critiqued by a panel of editors, agents and authors.  This was called The First Impressions panel with Tamra Tuller, E.B. Lewis, Erzsi Deak, Rubin Pfeffer, John Cusick and Kathy Landwehr.

                                                           Photo byCythia Leitich Smith

I found out later, that not a lot of people do that because they really are hard on your work.  BUT, I personally feel that you have to remove yourself from your artwork and not take it personally.  These people have "made it" and if I want to make it as an illustrator, I have to listen to what people say.


When I first began the children's illustration course over a year ago, I thought that I had to change my style. I felt that I needed to make my artwork less realistic.  I just didn't think that "realistic" fit into children's books.  SO, I changed the way I painted and drew.  One of the things that I was told in this critique was that I was "on the fence" of being realistic or stylized.  AND that I needed to be one or the other.  SO, I didn't take that as a negative thing.  Instead, I took that as encouragement to paint the way I have always done. There were things said about my anatomy as well.  BUT, the thing is ..  I can see what they meant.  Mark saw me later at the reception and seemed concerned about how I took the critiques because he said that they sounded "harsh".

I've been told recently that a lot of people give up after receiving hard criticisms.  Or they give up after presenting their book once.  Rejection is a part of life.  I know that I can not please everyone because everyone has different opinions of how things need to be done.  BUT, I can listen objectively.  See if I get a lot of the same responses about something needing to be changed ..  if so, then I probably need to change something.  This is not an easy adventure that I'm taking.  I may not succeed.  But, one thing is for sure ... doing this is a full time job.  It is something that requires dedication.  I have to perfect my craft and then who knows ...  maybe you will see my book at one of these big time book stores !!!  



Susan Clement-Beveridge

1,) Describe yourself :I am an aspiring Canadian artist-illustrator-author, an Ottawa native, part New Zealander with a side of Scottish decent, who has spent a good portion of my life pursuing the arts. To describe myself, I would say that I am determined, down-to-earth, (somewhat of a) perfectionist, independent, and creative

I love gardening and working outdoors, fresh air, and drives in the country. Also, discovering new eating places and local shops. I’m a big supporter of small business owners so it’s always “Buy Local” for me whenever possible!

I have always been attracted to the arts mostly drawing, painting & sculpture, but I have been involved with other forms of art or artistic expression over the years too, such as writing-poetry, theatre production, Arts & Crafts, Music – playing guitar-violin, singing & song writing, food blogs & cooking.

When I was 19 moved out to Alberta for 2 years then returned to Ottawa where I enrolled myself in a 2 year Graphic Arts Technician program at Algonquin College while working in a local Art Store. Then I moved on to work for a local printer where I worked mostly in an administrative role for a number of years.

By the mid 2000’s I was diagnosed with MS and it was after a bad relapse that I decided to get back to my artistic abilities and pursue fine arts once again and this creative artistic outlet really helped me in my recovery and have stayed on that path since as I found the more I painted the more I forgot about my illness.

2.) Tell me something about the place where you were born? I was born in Ottawa, Canada. I lived in New Zealand at a young age for almost a year then moved back to Canada and have lived here ever since. I live in a moderate city, Ottawa, the capital of Canada, where we experience all four seasons in this region. I like the spring (new growth) and the smell and color of fall the best! I never get used to the cold dampness of winters here at times. I mostly like this city I was born in because of its picturesque and green space with many parks and old architecture. Walking on sunny days and going for drives up the valley are always fun!

 

Sue 4yrs old on the ship to New Zealand -1964

3.) What pictures influenced you as a child?
I don’t know….let’s see…classic cartoons but I always liked the Norman Rockwell style–like biblical pictures in a book I had as a child and also the beautiful illustrations in this large heirloom family bible my mother has which always had a transparent parchment like page over each colorful picture.



4.) Did you have a favorite book as a child? I've always loved children's books and grew up with many and had so much joy reading them to my son when he was young. Some of my early children’s books I remember were Rupert, Dr Suess books, nursery rhymes but I remember well the books my son had as a child and one of my favorites was Hairy MacLary from Donaldson’s Dairy by a New Zealand author. It is such a fun and delightful book! It made me laugh and smile so I really enjoyed reading that one over and over. My favorites by Dr. Suess were the Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs & Ham and One Fish Two Fish.. to name a few!


5.) Did you like to draw as a child? Were you encouraged?
I liked doing crafts and coloring but drawing did not really surface until I started taking art classes in Grade 7 or 8. I had much encouragement in my high school days from my art instructor who was always supportive and a positive influence.

 

6.) What is your earliest memory of making art?

My earliest memory of making art was when my girlfriend’s mother enrolled us in a summer arts program at a local community center when we were about twelve years of age. I remember learning to sculpt with soap stone, do Indian beading and make masks, which I absolutely enjoyed!

Me at Bakervale House I grew up in1969

7.) Were you the class artist?
Not particularly. I did not exactly have the confidence I should have had-- I always seemed to have had a lower self-esteem in my earlier years. But a lot of times my artwork did get the class’s attention and my classmates always complemented on my artistic ability.

8.) Did your parents draw?
No

9.) Did you go to the public library as a child?
Yes, we also used a Bookmobile library trailer that came around in our neighborhood that was part of the Public library setup in the city.


10.) Did you have books at home as a child?
We had many books of all kind in our house growing up. There were children’s books, some of the classics, philosophical, biographies, fiction and of course two sets of encyclopedias as well as National Geographic.


11.) Did you have a teacher who influenced or inspired you?
Yes. I’ll never forget my high school art instructor, Mr. Karl Schutt, who had a big influence on me and inspired me through most of my high school years and still does!


12.) What did you do BEFORE you got started with children’s book illustrations?
An opportunity presented itself at the end of high school to work at the National Postal Museum assisting in ink drawings and silk screening for a Canadian stamp. In my twenties I took a 2 year Graphic Arts Technician course in college and ended up working in mostly administrative roles over the years for printing companies. Over the years, I attended the Ottawa School of Art taking sculpture and drawing while always expressing myself through some artistic form or another, mostly self-taught, such as experimenting with wood carving, paper-tole, papermaking, photography. I have always practiced my artistic skills in one form or another either drawing, painting, paper- tole, sculpting, arts & crafts and graphic design work over the years. My interests in theatre eventually led me to a place called Centrepointe Theatre. Here, I worked as one of the backstage crew on a number of productions, mostly with sound and lighting.


13.) When did you realize you were interested in illustrating for children?
I wrote poetry several years ago in hopes of actually publishing them one day as children’s books. But then other priorities of home, life and motherhood demanded more of my attention at that time. A few years ago, I was unfortunately diagnosed with a potentially debilitating disease. So it was my friend’s paintings that I saw at his showing and my son who was taking visual arts at university in Toronto over the last 4 years, that inspired me to start drawing and painting again-- this time using acrylics. Not soon after that, my husband wrote a series of children’s stories about these bears he had purchased to help cheer me up through a rough time. After that, I decided to use illustrating as a creative outlet to develop pictures for his book’s and the poems I had written years ago.


14.) When did you become an illustrator?
Only in the last three years or so did I decide to jump into the world of illustrating. Well specifically children’s illustrating, after being inspired from my husband’s story writing about the bear adventures. This prompted me to take on illustrating the pictures and I have not looked back since!


15.) How did you get started in picture book illustration?
Because of my love of children’s picture books I decided to dive into the world of children’s illustrating this past 2 years. I had started drawing illustrations for the Bears of Biggleton book my husband wrote and I was not happy with the way they were turning out. So, I did some research online and discovered two children’s illustrating courses– several online video courses by Will Terry & another amazing course by Mark Mitchell on “How to Be A Children’s Book Illustrator”. I was so inspired and enthused to illustrate after receiving much knowledge and instruction from both of these wonderful award winning artists! A good portion of my time this past year has been spent taking these courses while working on illustrations for several new children’s books.


16.) What’s the best piece of career advice you’ve been given as an illustrator?
Probably, I would have to say from Will Terry, because of his awesome attitude –Always have fun with your illustrating…Never give up on your art, always keep at it and keep trying, you are always learning and you never stop learning from those around you. ” We learn by doing!” he says.


17.) Of the six fundamentals of 2D design (line, shape, volume, perspective, shading, and color):

a. Which is your greatest strength? Shading

b. Which poses your greatest challenge?
Perspective

18.) Tell us about the book that you have written?
My Shiny Light is a poem I wrote among several others a number of years ago when I was inspired to write something a little more philosophical at the time for children. Something that had a message in it… that most children might be able to understand at a young age. And this past year I decided to dig up those poems I wrote then try and do illustrations for them…. thus My Shiny Light book was created! I have four others that I would like to illustrate as well.

 

19.) What inspired you to write this story?
My own reading of books on life, philosophy, situations, people and the universe in general! I thought-- is there anything out there for young children that touches on these areas I was reading about?

20.) Did you self publish or go through the other publishing routes?
Yes I decided to self-publish.

21.) Is your book available for purchase?
Yes, it is available now in paperback on Amazon and Kindle and through the Biggleton Books Online bookstore as well.

22.) Describe a typical day in your life.
A typical day in my life is to get up with my husband in the mornings and have breakfast before he goes off to work. Then I usually go to the computer to check email and so forth. I check my calendar daily to see what I have marked to do, appointments etc. and plan my day of illustrating and doing some design work, preparation. Break for lunch and do my physio after lunch and then it’s back to drawing or sometimes painting for the remainder of the day until my husband returns home from work.

23.) When you are creating, what music is playing?
I usually play a variety of music at times anywhere from an assortment of acoustic guitar. I love a Spanish ensemble called RASA who play an Indian-Jazz fusion influenced type of music, to psychedelic, jazz and blues.

24.) If you had to describe your work in terms of your artistic influences, you would say it is...
It probably has a bold sometimes outlined look or style about it. I guess some of this influence comes from artists such as Emily Carr, The Group of Seven & my son Matt Clement over the years.

25.) Who are your favorite artists ? Illustrators ? Authors ? Artists:
I have always loved Dali, The Group of Seven, Robert Batman, Bill Saunders and my son Matt Clement as artists but there are so many more it’s hard to name them all---

Illustrators: Will Terry, Ian Jeans, Michael Dante DiMartino, ---

Authors: Lynley Dodd, Terry Pratchett, VC Andrews, Deepak Chopra, Barbara Hand Clow & Margaret Atwood again to name a few. There are so many excellent authors and artists! Also, I have always been a huge fan of all animation-especially children’s animation & Claymation since I was in grade school. I will always and forever be inspired by other artists and their endless talent for creativity and imagination...

26.) Favorite Quote: "O great creator of being grant us one more hour to perform our art and perfect our lives". ::: Jim Morrison :::


27.) What new projects have you got coming down the pike?
As of the last ten years, I am expressing myself through traditional art with drawing again, using colored pencil and graphite. Currently I am working with acrylic paint on stretched canvas creating an array of paintings of many portraits (including local musicians), landscapes, abstracts and still life.

Right now I am starting the illustrations for a new project, which will be a series of 5 books called “The Bears of Biggleton” books, written by my husband Dave Faught. The first one is sub-titled Fuzzmo The-Magnificent. So, that will keep me busy for a while I suppose. I am hoping to continue working on a few more smaller books which were written at the time I wrote My Shiny Light and hope to publish them in the future as well!

I have also launched my own children's book soon called "My Shiny Light". Visit the Biggleton Books website for more information!


28.) To enjoy more of a good thing you can visit...
www.biggletonbooks.weebly.com

www.scbartworksstudio.weebly.com
or my blogspot:
www.childrensillustrationsscb.blogspot.ca


contact information:
susanmcartworks@live.ca
or
biggletonbooks@live.com

Mark Mitchell

Mark is the author-illustrator of the Spur Award winning book Raising ‘La Belle’: The Story of the ‘La Salle Shipwreck‘ and two other books for upper elementary and middle grade readers, Seeing Stars and The Mustang Professor. His articles have appeared in American Artist and its family of magazines Watercolor, Drawing and Workshop. He’s a former contributing editor of Watercolor.
His illustrations have appeared in his own and others’ books and the children’s magazines Appleseeds, Cobblestone, Faces and Footsteps and Cricket.  Mark teaches classes in children’s book illustration at the Art School at Laguna Gloria, Austin Museum of Art-Arthouse and through his online course Make Your Splashes – Make Your Marks!

 

 I met Mark Mitchell when I began taking his online course to learn about illustrating children's books.  I did a google search on the subject and found him.  Since then, I have been a part of his critique group online where I have gained so much valuable information.  Mark really trys to help everyone in every way that he can.  I haven't met him in person.  However, I plan on attending the SCBWI conference in Austin soon.  I am very excited about the opportunity to attend my first conference but also about meeting him. 


　
1,) Describe yourself in five words:Verbal, artsy, slight, stubborn, creative

2.) Who did you get your sense of humor from ? Your mother or father ?

My father could be exceptionally funny. And my two brothers have exquisite senses of humor.

Scott (younger brother) and Mark together at Syracuse Zoo

　
3.) Tell me something about the place where you were born ?Syracuse NY. I remember spectacular beautiful Autumns and crazy cold winters with lots of snow. Also, I can still smell the apples, the interiors of great woods with fallen leaves. My mother went into labor with me while she was ice-fishing with my Dad on a frozen lake near where she'd grown up. We moved from upstate New York to California when I was 9. We then lived in Sunnyvale (before the days of Silicon Valley) but after a few months, my Dad changed jobs and we moved again, this time to Sitka, Alaska. My dad took a job as a comptroller (chief accountant) with a lumber and pulp mill.

The house in Sitka, Alaska where Mark lived as a child



4.) What pictures influenced you as a child ?
B&W engravings in books, by people like Tenniel, Rembrandt, Daumier, Goya
I think I was fascinated by these depictions of times different than my own.

5.) Did you have a favorite book as a child ?
I was quite taken by a little picture book "the Little Horse Bus" written by Graham Greene. The one I had was illustrated by someone other than Edward Ardizzone, but I don't remember who. I told everyone it as my favorite picture book. Later I came to really love "The Wind in the Willows" by Kenneth Grahame. Of course it's more of a novel. I had a beautiful version illustrated by Arthur Rackham, I also loved the edition illustrated by E.H. Shepard.
.
6.) Did you like to draw as a child and were you encouraged ?
Yes.  By both parents.

7.) What is your earliest memory of making art? I remember being stumped when trying to draw certain things, like trying to draw someone sitting on a chair, or on a horse, for example. I also found drawing cars very troublesome.

8.) Where you the class artist ?
Yes.

9.) Did your parents draw ?
My mother painted. Today at age 83 she still paints little personal cards with her watercolors that she sends to people as Thank Yous and events like birthdays and Halloweens

10.) Did you go to the public library as a child ?
Oh yes. Regularly.

11.) Did you have books at home as a child? It was mostly big anthologies of nursery rhymes and bits of stories, "The Bumper Book"
Not the kinds of children's picture books you see in the trade stores today. Also some illustrated books my mother had had as a child, like that large beautifully illustrated book of Bible stories. I especially remember the colored plates in a book of Bible stories that my mother had owned as a child. I don't know who the artists were. I think there were several artists who worked on this book. The pictures fascinated me. They were so dramatic and emotional.

12.) Did you have a teacher who influenced or inspired you?
Yes, but it was a teacher I found after my years of formal schooling. Her name was Ruth Chatfield and she had studied life drawing for four years under Kimon Nicolaides. (You might recognize Nicolaides' name from the book "The Natural Way to Draw.") When I came to know her she was in her late sixties, imparting the "Nicolaides method" that she had learned from him nearly 50 years before as a student at a women's fashion and design college in New York. He'd been teaching there as well as at the Art Students League. I had grown up with Nicolaides' book. It had even been one of my college texts. But it was Ruth's personal instruction of his method led me to finally "get" what Nicolaides was conveying. And when I did, it up-ended my thinking about drawing and art.

13.) What did you do BEFORE you got started with children’s book illustrations? I worked as a newspaper reporter and later as a freelance writer.

14.) When did you realize you were interested in illustrating for children?
When I was about 23 or 24 while out Christmas shopping, I wandered into a bookstore in a mall I think I got bit by the bug that afternoon.

15.) When did you become an illustrator ?
Quite some time after that day at the book store. In college I'd taken a lot of art classes but had not majored in art. But I always had the feeling that I might be using the drawing somehow, someday. I graduated from the College of Communication, which eventually got me on the path of journalism.

16.) How did you get started in picture book illustration? Illustrating a book written by my brother, Scott, which was about how to get good grades in high school. (He got very good grades.) Then I illustrated a couple of Texas themed children's books for Eakin Press, a regional publisher (located near Austin, then) that had an "in" with school and public librarians and bookstores around the state. These led to a few assignments from some children's magazines, then more Eakin books, and finally to writing and illustrating my own nonfiction stories that had Texas settings and these were also published by Eakin.

17.) What’s the best piece of career advice you’ve been given as an illustrator? I remember I was given career advice by Charles Shaw, who was a well regarded Texas illustrator and one of the kindest artists I've ever met (and I've met a lot of them!) He was looking through one of my published books one day and he asked me if I wanted some advice. I said yes, and he told me I needed to work on my value patterns -- and be more conscious of organizing values in my pictures. So it was more craft advice than career advice. But I think any good craft advice
is good career advice for an illustrator.

18.) Of the six fundamentals of 2D design (line, shape, volume, perspective,shading, and color):
a. Which is your greatest strength?Color maybe. Shape I also feel comfortable with.
b. Which poses your greatest challenge? Maybe shading. (I still find values and value patterns a challenge.)

19.) When did you write your books ? How many have you written ?
"The Mustang Professor," a kids biography of Texas's first nationally prominent author, J. Frank Dobie, who wrote about the folklore of the American Southwest and Mexico was published in 1993. "Seeing Stars" about how astronomy is done at the McDonald Observatory in West Texas was first published in 1997 and got a second edition reprinting in 2002. "Raising La Belle" about the recovery of a shipwreck that had belonged to the explorer La Salle came out at the end of of 2002.

20.) Did you self publish or go through the other publishing routes ?
All three books were published by Eakin Press.

21.) What inspired you to write those stories ?
They were subjects with Texas themes or settings that interested me, so I knew they would also interest Eakin Press. In college I'd taken an awesome astronomy class taught by the director of the McDonald Observatory. So after "The Mustang Professor" I decided that the observatory, which is owned by the University of Texas and is located on two mountaintops in remote southwest Texas, was a good vehicle for explaining how stars create matter -- all the building blocks of the physical universe we know -- and how astronomers are extremely interested in that. So that resulted in "Seeing Stars." My last book, "Raising La Belle" came about because someone at the Texas Historical Commission saw "Seeing Stars" -- and wanted a book like that to tell the story of a shipwreck that the Commission had just pulled up from a Texas bay, costing the state more than $5 million. The Commission approached me through my publisher to do a book for young people about their excavation -- a book for upper elementary grades. So Texas school children would go home and tell their parents about this. The ship was important, historically. The Belle had been given to the great French explorer of North America Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle by King Louis XIV as a personal gift. So my books have involved a lot of research.

22.) Are your books still available for purchase? Yes. But I recommend you go for the softcover edition of "Raising La Belle.". The hardcover edition goes for $1,079 on Amazon and it's been that way for several years. I guess it's some kind of a collector's item now.

23.) Do did you receive lots of letters from childrenYes, I've received letters (often illustrated ones) after my school visits. Precious.

24.) When did you begin teaching? What do you teach ? Elaborate ? Around 1998 I was invited to teach a class in children's book illustration at the Austin Museum of Art school (Now called the AMOA-Arthouse School.) At the time I was interviewing a lot of children's book illustrators -- including several Caldecott medal winners -- for American Artist Watercolor magazine. I was illustrating regularly for the Cobblestone Magazine Group, in watercolor -- and also illustrating my own and others' books. I had taught a few writing workshops and classes before but never an art class. So when I was offered a chance to teach a studio style art class, I thought I could bring together my own experience and the knowledge I'd learned from years of interviewing artists -- especially watercolor painters -- for the American Artist magazines. I've been teaching at AMOA ever since -- about two classes per semester.

One of Mark's classes at the Austin Museum of Art-Arthouse school at Laguna Gloria

25.) When did you begin your course " how to illustrate children's books" ?
You mean the online "Make Your Splashes - Make Your Marks!" course? I started commercially with it in the summer of 2009.

A module cover from "Make Your Splashes - Make Your Marks!"

26.) What inspired you to start that course?I was looking at the Web as a new way to ply my trade as a journalist and a writer -- a new place to sell my writing. I was also seeing how the Web would democratize learning in a way the world has never before seen. It's the great leveler of education.
So I was asking myself, what can I share. What can I teach? In 2008 it hit me -- that I already had a curriculum in the can, so to speak -- the lessons I'd been fine-tuning for years at the AMOA Art School. I knew that my children's book illustration class "worked" -- that people enjoyed it and learned a lot in there. So I decided to re-develop them in some kind of written format. I wanted to get words around the ideas I'd been sharing with people for ten years. That's the writer's compulsion, I suppose. Gradually I began adding things on -- like the video versions of the lessons, then monthly live critiques, then the Wiggio group (which began as a suggestion from Scott and another student and has now taken on a life of its own -- I can barely keep up with everything going on there) and more recently, the video interviews with working children's book artists.

27.) Can you tell about this course It's first and foremost an art course -- the basic stuff in drawing, painting, color and design that we all forget sometimes. I 've found over the years that many of my students are talented drawers, They often have prior training. Some even have MFA's. But they tend not to be not confident as draftsmen or painters and they're scared to death of watercolor.
I've been there, too. So I know what it's like. So that's what "Marks and Splashes" focuses on -- these trouble areas -- the things that if you don't know them, you're sunk with your portfolio showing or book dummy submission. So we really go over designing your picture space, linear perspective, simple figure construction, and how to apply paint and handle values and understand color. So this is the heart of the course -- lessons that I think would well serve any artist who wants to get a handle on painting and illustration.

Then we add in some ideas specific to illustrating stories for children -- simplicity, readability, clarity, consistency and originality of characters, composing multiple figures in action, layout, narrative flow, suspenseful page turns, inviting the viewer to complete your picture, to articipate. Sourcing and using the pictorial reference out there..
Again I believe these to be vital to know for any artist making pictures for any age audience. We're also looking at marketing your work to the children's publishing marketplace. So many of these 'rules' have changed as our society has moved to the Web. I should say that the course focuses on traditional art-making materials -- because that's where my personal experience lies.

We don't go deeply into digital illustration -- except to point you to other references, resources and teachers. I do feel it's important for illustrators to stay alert to and conversant with emerging technologies -- and to begin learning some of these.A number of our students are already working in digital mediums and they share information with the group. Still in the end it comes down to producing a simple image that captures a viewer's eye and heart. You can do this with a few pencil marks and (if you want to get fancy) a few splashes of paint. It's called an economy of means -- and that's a cornerstone of art. It's also the grammar of the classic children's picture book.

　
28.) When you are creating, what music is playing ?
I try not to play music when I'm art-making or writing. Otherwise I'll stop and listen to it.

Mark's painting table

 

29.) Who are your favorite artists ? Illustrators ? Authors ?I have too many favorites to mention. I love the work of my Austin SCBWI friends
I have a special fondness for anything by Peggy Rathman, James Stevenson and an early 20th century English illustrator, Edward Ardizzone.I like the work some of my students are doing right now. I love the work of many animators, especially Alexander Petrov -- but I worry that he might be poisoning himself by painting oils with his fingertips.
As for writers for adults, I love the novels of Leo Tolstoy, the magical short stories by Anton Chekhov and the novel "True Grit" which is the only novel I've read by Charles Portis, though I hope to read more.

Mark with Newbery honor author Kirby Larson at an Austin SCBWI conference

 

Mark with illustrator Terry Widener (photo by children's picture book author Laura Purdie Salas)

 

30.) What new projects have you got coming down the pike? (I would like to plug anything that you are doing or trying to promote)
Right now it's finishing new lessons in the course and scheduling new video interviews with working children's book artists. In the coming year, we'll pay some more attention to digital publishing. because I feel that's the revolution that's underway now. I'm also also working on a picture book.

31.) To enjoy more of a good thing you can visit...

The secret to better drawing (videos):

http://howtobeachildrensbookillustrator.com/drawingsecret/

Course info page:http://howtobeachildrensbookillustrator.com/NewCoursehome2/

My blogs: http://HowToIllustrateAChildrensBook.WordPress.com

http://IllustrationCourse.com

Facebook page for the "Marks and Splashes" course: http://Facebook.com/HowtoIllustrateAChildrensBook

Mark Mitchell lives in Austin, Texas and he can be reached at

mobile (512) 656-9217