I'd like to get it all done. But in an unusually sensible train of thought I have decided, NO, I am not superhuman. This comes as a bit of a surprise, and I figure it is a sign of age. I am hoping it might be wisdom, but that may be asking a bit much.
I talk of the fact that it's 17 days until Los Angeles SCBWI conference and the completely new images for the portfolio are not going to happen. Most illustrators I talk to at this stage in their career (ie not published widely) seem to spend a LOT of time agonising over their portfolio. Especially the ones, like me, that have been around the block and back. The more youthful in the field are not weighed down by the pressures of life, failures and successes it seems and throw a portfolio together with innocence and abandon. We more mature folks have perhaps too much choice, or over analyse. See? I am doing it right now.
So I am going to put in only images from the problem solving books I am working on, which will be the same style and are fun and do reflect me. And that's FINAL!
Which is what I have been working on this week, the last in the series of 4 books. WHY did I decide to work on four books at once!!!! Share the Bear is turning out to be a lot more detailed than the previous three ... I think this is because the setting is all interior, and their are more characters and they have more characteristics. I hope to be done with the roughs by Wednesday. I have a bit of tweaking to do on 2 of the others (I decided to but all the speech into bubbles, as it is all direct and I think it works better.)
Here are some of the roughs for Bear ...
I am enjoying these characters ... and the bunny slippers! I don't know why Share is wearing them, they just appeared. It's great when a character tells you what they want. Happens in illustration too, as well as when writing.
And if your wondering I am still waiting to hear from the Lovely Agent. Friday was a day of anxiety, jumping when the phone rang, checking email every nanosecond.. I must admit I really, really, REALLY hate the waiting that seems a big part of the publishing word in all sorts of aspects. I can deal with abject failure much easier than I can with a grain of hope. Well it could be worse. I could be repossessing rental TV's. And yes I did that in a former life, and countiing piles of doggie doo for a town council litter group (Keep Britain Tidy). Ah, happy days ...
So, to take my mind off the LA (lovely Agent, not the conference) I am out on the schooner Isaac H Evans for an overnight trip tonight, so I had better get my skates on and do some chores. 'im indoors is installing the new dishwasher (hurrah! been a long time coming) while I am gone, so have to do some insulating behind it before I go. (I get the fiddly jobs being non skilled.)
Had an email from an author/illustrator I met at a conference this week ... she is working with an English Art Director. He asked for less cartoony, so she veered more realistic, when what he wanted apparently was more 'illustrative', like Quentin Blake, EH Shepherd etc, which she would have considered cartoony ... lol, culture differences. I wonder if anyone else has come across 'illustrative' in USA and what it means here?
TTFN and thanks for dropping by ...
Hazel
aka The Wacky Brit.
On the bedside table this week"
Can I play too (Elephant and Piggie Book) Mo Willems
City Dog, Country Frog - Mo Willems and Jon J Muth
Dawdle Duckling, Ready or Not Dawdle Duckling, Little Loon and Papa by Toni Buzzeo and Margaret Spengler
The Sea Chest by Toni Buzzeo and Mary Grandpre
I talk of the fact that it's 17 days until Los Angeles SCBWI conference and the completely new images for the portfolio are not going to happen. Most illustrators I talk to at this stage in their career (ie not published widely) seem to spend a LOT of time agonising over their portfolio. Especially the ones, like me, that have been around the block and back. The more youthful in the field are not weighed down by the pressures of life, failures and successes it seems and throw a portfolio together with innocence and abandon. We more mature folks have perhaps too much choice, or over analyse. See? I am doing it right now.
So I am going to put in only images from the problem solving books I am working on, which will be the same style and are fun and do reflect me. And that's FINAL!
Which is what I have been working on this week, the last in the series of 4 books. WHY did I decide to work on four books at once!!!! Share the Bear is turning out to be a lot more detailed than the previous three ... I think this is because the setting is all interior, and their are more characters and they have more characteristics. I hope to be done with the roughs by Wednesday. I have a bit of tweaking to do on 2 of the others (I decided to but all the speech into bubbles, as it is all direct and I think it works better.)
Here are some of the roughs for Bear ...
And if your wondering I am still waiting to hear from the Lovely Agent. Friday was a day of anxiety, jumping when the phone rang, checking email every nanosecond.. I must admit I really, really, REALLY hate the waiting that seems a big part of the publishing word in all sorts of aspects. I can deal with abject failure much easier than I can with a grain of hope. Well it could be worse. I could be repossessing rental TV's. And yes I did that in a former life, and countiing piles of doggie doo for a town council litter group (Keep Britain Tidy). Ah, happy days ...
So, to take my mind off the LA (lovely Agent, not the conference) I am out on the schooner Isaac H Evans for an overnight trip tonight, so I had better get my skates on and do some chores. 'im indoors is installing the new dishwasher (hurrah! been a long time coming) while I am gone, so have to do some insulating behind it before I go. (I get the fiddly jobs being non skilled.)
Had an email from an author/illustrator I met at a conference this week ... she is working with an English Art Director. He asked for less cartoony, so she veered more realistic, when what he wanted apparently was more 'illustrative', like Quentin Blake, EH Shepherd etc, which she would have considered cartoony ... lol, culture differences. I wonder if anyone else has come across 'illustrative' in USA and what it means here?
TTFN and thanks for dropping by ...
Hazel
aka The Wacky Brit.
On the bedside table this week"
Can I play too (Elephant and Piggie Book) Mo Willems
City Dog, Country Frog - Mo Willems and Jon J Muth
Dawdle Duckling, Ready or Not Dawdle Duckling, Little Loon and Papa by Toni Buzzeo and Margaret Spengler
The Sea Chest by Toni Buzzeo and Mary Grandpre