I Love Being an Illustrator...

I LOVE what I do...

Today was a wonderful reminder of why I love being a creative soul who makes pictures for her job.  It was an early morning and somewhat dicey weather as I left Moncton just after 6:30 to drive up to Chipman, New Brunswick for two days of school visits through our Provincial Writers In The Schools Program.  It  had begun to snow just as I got on the highway and roads got slippery about halfway there, but I took my time.  The scenery into rural New Brunswick was amazing as I drove past farm fields or forests of trees draped in snow.  Logging trucks coming the other way made me keep my eyes on the road.

I arrived at the school safely just after O Canada and had time before the scheduled class visits to do an enrichment session with a dozen of the children at the school who love to draw. What a treat to get them to practice using their imaginations with 8 different exercises.  I also swore them to secrecy about how tall I was...

When the first class came in, I was sitting down in front of the Smartboard on a chair and they arranged themselves on the carpet in the middle of the room.  I welcomed them, told them who I was and what I did for my job.  I explained that illustrators often have to draw things that don’t exist... like purple cows wearing roller skates... or a Tyrannosaurus Rex in a tutu.. or a hippo making a snow angel.  At that point, I explain how an illustrator needs to use their imagination and think about how things look.  I choose the smallest child in the class and ask them to come to the front of the world.

“Suppose a squirrel makes a snow angel...” I explain and I ask the child how they make snow angels.  I get them to stand with their arms out wide, ready to make a snow angel.  I explain that the squirrel’s tail would also make another part of the snow angel that humans don’t have in theirs.  Then I smile.  “I would be more of a GIRAFFE making a snow angel!” I say as I stand up from my chair....way up!  I am 6’5” without the heels and 6’8” with them.  I wave my long arms and legs about with a smile as the children gasp and the little victim.. er... volunteer stares up at me in amazement.  I send my “squirrel” back to their place and begin to ask them about hippos.  I explain that I can’t borrow a real hippo from the zoo, so I need to think about what makes hippos different as an animal.  Basically, they have tiny arms and legs, big noses and big bums.... so they make DEEP snow angels.  Then I show them the painting I did for my grandmother who loved hippos (I’ll add it to this blog once I get home).

The rest of the session is spend talking about how illustrators and authors come up with ideas by asking “What If?” and then, after the power point talk, I use my tablet to draw a quick, interactive doodle with each class where I give the kids crazy choices and they vote by raising their hands to guide what our picture turns out to be.

I save each class file as a .jpg and once I get home, I will redraw each class picture then resend it to the school to play with.

I really, really. REALLY love my job!

Tomorrow, I get to go speak to Middle and High school students about what is it like having a “nontraditional” career.... I can’t wait!

A Speed-reading Illustrator Needs a Challenge for 2012

I’ve always been a voracious reader.  By 12, I’d read my way through our entire town library. Thanks to supportive parents and an understanding group of librarians, I got special permission to take out adult novels from the main library instead of being restricted to the children’s section.  I think Robert Heinlein’s Citizen of the Galaxy that I read that year extended the foray into Science Fiction and Fantasy that André Norton’s YA novels had begun.

There have been several years where I kept a personal log of the books that I’d read, awarding them little ratings such as 1 to 5 stars or grouping them into categories such (must own, liked and never to touch again) but when I read about the CannonballRead4 on Facebook tonight, I knew that this was exactly the type of challenge I was looking for.  After all, 2012 will mark the year that I can not only claim to be a published illustrator, but a published author as well.

When I think of all the amazing books out there, just waiting to be devoured, it makes me go a little weak in the knees... Thank goodness I just bought a new bookshelf for the basement and rearranged my entire collection to make room for some new Christmas presents!

Bring on the books!

Marketing A Book...

I’ve been a bit silent on all of my blogs this summer... partly because I’m still not sure where the time went and partly because I also ran some summer camps for young writers and illustrators, hosted volleyball players for Team NB and had wonderful visits with family members who came from overseas!

Paul and I held the book launch for Emily Finds a Dragon in June and got copies off to our distributor in Nova Scotia so that he could take them to meet with the Chapters/Indigo buyer for the Maritimes in Halifax.  This got copies of our book online with them by mid-July.  We sold copies for a Saturday at the Farmer’s Market here in Moncton while I was also promoting my Tale Spin Summer Camp and placed them with a local gift shop who has sold more copies of our first book (Owen & The Dinosaur, 2008) than anyone else except Chapters.

We had an interview on CBC radio here in Moncton early one morning as well as 2 articles in the local paper over the summer which also helped get the word out, but sometimes it is those chances that you take that lead to the unexpected.

While up in Halifax 2 weeks ago to tour the Saint Mary’s University campus before a volleyball camp evening session for our oldest daughter, I took the time to drop off 2 copies of each book at the local television station.  I knew that 2 members of the morning show, Breakfast Television, had children at home.  I also knew as a parent that this time of year, kids run out of things to do and books to read, so I tucked in a note asking them to pass the books on to their kids to see what they thought and that we’d be more than happy to appear on the show if they thought the books had merit.

Paul and I will be doing LIVE television on Thursday morning at 8:15 am to promote the book!  We’re going to drive up to Halifax tomorrow and stay overnight so that we can be coherent.  This also lead to a book signing at the Dartmouth Chapters’ location before we leave town after the show and a confirmed date for the store here in Dieppe as well as a nice order for the stores around the Maritimes.

Promoting the book ourselves first above all has been so much more effective than waiting for someone else to do it.  I think that this is becoming the norm for most authors and illustrators now as the market gets more competitive.  

Now if I can just keep from having food stuck in my teeth on camera Thursday morning....  Eeeep!

Surfacing from a LOT of drawing!

The thing about deadlines is that they tend to drive you just a little crazy.  

You find yourself chewing pencils, rubbing sleep from your eyes and wondering over and over what lead you to choose a creative career instead of one that would let you work 9 to 5, relax in the evenings and go to bed at a reasonable hour.

Does that kind of life really exist out there anymore?

I love to draw the impossible and the illustrations for Emily Finds a Dragon are no exception... but this time I am juggling two major deadlines as well as substitute teaching during the day...

It makes intravenous caffeine look like a brilliant idea!

A Joke Contest Instead...

OK... so I discovered that some of you were WAY too afraid to show off your own doodles, so this month’s contest is all about being FUNNY instead of drawing. So this time, I'll make it easier.  I drew up this cartoon to ask the joke:

Why did the Dragon Cross the Road?

Just post your answer as a comment below and I will award the leftover Artist Trading Card from the December contest (the other 2 went to the only two artists brave enough to enter!) as the prize on February 1st when I post the winner’s name on my Dragon Dreams website. I will mail your prize anywhere in the world... so put on your thinking caps!

The Beginning of a New Adventure...

     This blog is the beginning of a whole new adventure looking into the trials and tribulations, the highs and lows and the challenges of being a children’s book illustrator... the adventure of drawing the impossible in a way that brings it alive.

     I need a place to share sketches, work through ideas and promote myself to a wider world.  I hope you will enjoy what you find in these pages.

     Like any grand adventure, this one has to begin with a single step... or in this case, a single page from my sketchbook, coloured in Photoshop as I play with my tablet.  

     I already know that the “DELETE” button can be both a blessing and a curse.  One of the reasons that I switched to sketching in pen after the SCBWI conference in Los Angeles last summer was because of one speaker who challenged us to get away from the fear of making mistakes that can hold so many of us back from truly chasing our dreams and finding our path.  It will take some time not to be incredibly fussy about getting things “right” with the tablet when so much of my life has been spent drawing and colouring things by hand.

     What is the point of going on an adventure if you aren’t willing to learn new things, explore new horizons and stumble once or twice along the way?  Time to just step out onto the path and explore!