For those illustrators who also dabble in graphic design, or who spend time thinking about your colour palettes before beginning your digital illustrations (or suspect it could be very helpful)– this delightful article is just for you. Once you have clicked to the link, use the arrow on the right hand side of the picture to will scroll through 33 examples of Disney Pixar children's animations together with the 5 colour swatch palettes used to create them. http://blogs.disney.com/oh-my-disney/2015/05/11/these-disneypixar-palettes-are-the-most-aesthetically-pleasing-things-youll-see-all-day/?cmp=SMC|none|natural|blgomd|OMDMay|TWT|pixarpal-DisneyPixar|InHouse|2015-0511|||esocialmedia#Brave . Studying the colour saturations, tones and interplay of accent colours with colour groups will help you create more aesthetically pleasing illustrations.
Since Podcasts are important for gaining the interest of young people and for opening up public speaking opportunities, this step-by-step guide to creating a podcast is one you might like to bookmark. Belinda Pollard used an iPhone and an iMac to produce her first podcast of an interview with an author. http://www.smallbluedog.com/how-i-created-my-first-podcast.html?utm_source=ReviveOldPost&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=ReviveOldPost . Interspersed with the step by step approach are notes about what she learned in the process, eg If you are conducting a podcast interview it is important to brief your interviewee on things like how close to hold the microphone to the mouth and exactly how long the podcast interview process will take. It is best to get all your raw audio clips ready before proceeding to the editing software.
For those illustrators who also dabble in graphic design, or who spend time thinking about your colour palettes before beginning your digital illustrations (or suspect it could be very helpful)– this delightful article is just for you. Once you have clicked to the link, use the arrow on the right hand side of the picture to will scroll through 33 examples of Disney Pixar children's animations together with the 5 colour swatch palettes used to create them. http://blogs.disney.com/oh-my-disney/2015/05/11/these-disneypixar-palettes-are-the-most-aesthetically-pleasing-things-youll-see-all-day/?cmp=SMC|none|natural|blgomd|OMDMay|TWT|pixarpal-DisneyPixar|InHouse|2015-0511|||esocialmedia#Brave . Studying the colour saturations, tones and interplay of accent colours with colour groups will help you create more aesthetically pleasing illustrations.
0 Comments
Ideas for illustrations with night time settings and what you should look for in a hybrid publisherÂ5/18/2015 One of the things an illustrator has to show in a portfolio is versatility. Having at least one image in your portfolio set at night time will add a degree of professionalism to your portfolio, because many illustrators forget just how many stories have action taking place at night time. This web-link is primarily about night-time photography, but it contains some excellent ideas for composition and lighting effects: http://clickitupanotch.com/2011/09/6-tips-for-night-photography/#_a5y_p=1152663?hootPostID=8b4617276c29bbe2f1c6f87b555b9747
On the spectrum between self-publishing and traditional publishing is hybrid publishing. It may be a good option for some writers, but only if they do sufficient research first and read any contract carefully. This article has a useful list of questions to ask any hybrid publisher before agreeing to publish with them: http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/authors/pw-select/article/66658-not-all-hybrid-publishers-are-created-equal.html?utm_content=buffer5b730&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer . Two of those questions are 'What marketing and promotional support is there?' and 'Can I speak with recent authors who have published with you?'. The importance of illustrating backgrounds and how self-published authors can maximise success5/10/2015 There is something that makes a successful illustrator stand out from the rest of the wannabees, and Wendy Martin has put her finger on what that is: http://wendymartinillustration.com/wordpress/2014/03/14/location-location-location/ . If you take your main character/s out of the picture, can the background hold its own? To see how important this is, visit @cillustrators and scroll through the illustration work they feature.
She also has five ideas for moving out of your illustrator comfort zone: http://wendymartinillustration.com/wordpress/2014/01/14/portfolio-builder-jump-your-comfort-zone/ . Commit yourself to quarterly promotional mailings. Enter illustration competitions. Do some guest blogging. Prepare a portfolio for a market outside children's books. Have a go at sharing your passion through teaching. Here is a useful list of things independent authors can do to increase their chances of success, together with reasons why they can make such difference: http://www.richardstephenson.net/?p=85 . The bullet points are: recognize the monetary limits of your genre; hire an editor; use proof readers; get a professional book cover; begin by going exclusively with Amazon and KDP Select; use social media; master the art of advertising; interact with your readers; when you receive praise, ask for a review; and advertise your other works at the end of your book. Some take-home quotes from Richard Stephenson's article are: "In terms of paid advertising, my primary piece of advice is to never gamble what you can’t afford to lose because there is no guarantee that you will get it back." and " Get your name out there whenever you can. It might seem like a complete waste of time that gives nothing in return at first, but plant those seeds early on and they will bear fruit in the future." This featured link is a very good example of an illustrator showing her process on her blog – in this case the development of a book cover. http://kristenmargiotta.com/gustav-gloom-and-the-inn-of-shadows-cover-process/ . She works in oils, and from the background to the foreground. She intersperses explanatory text with pictures, and shows the initial thumbnail sketches, the final sketch, the preparation of the surface and the preparation of the oil paints, and then a series of four pictures from background only to final art. Putting that blog-post together would have taken a lot of time and effort, but the payoff is that anyone commissioning her will have a greater understanding of how long it took to produce the final art and because of that will be willing to pay her accordingly.
How to inject humour into writing is a subject that surprisingly doesn't come up often. But humour is essential to keeping young readers engaged. The suggestions in this guest blog-post from Anna Staniszewski are helpful https://laurasassitales.wordpress.com/2013/02/25/making-stories-funny/ . 1) the more you exaggerate the more fun you will have; 2) put two contrasting traits in the same character; and 3) go for the unexpected, but make it a surprise and not bizarre. |
NewsA place for sharing anything newsworthy about local children's book writers and illustrators or to share good content on career development. Archives
February 2016
Categories
All
|