Building Your Picture Book Community

As the saying goes, it takes a village. The same can be said when it comes to crafting the perfect picture book. Thus, it’s worth taking the time and care to build and nurture a personal picture book community.

A picture book community can be any shape or size. It can be an intimate gathering of close friends or an online forum of writers/illustrators from around the world. It can be a place where you gain feedback on your personal projects or a place where people discuss industry trends. 

Whatever the form, a community of like-minded picture books lovers will inspire, encourage, and push you towards artistic success!

Here are a few tips on how to start and nurture your own picture book community:

Networking

Many have asked, “How do I form a critique group or get more involved in my picture book community?” Try attending your regional SCBWI events. They have many intimate gatherings where you can connect with like-minded authors/illustrators. Your local college or bookstore may also offer writing or illustration classes, where you can collaborate with picture book lovers, too. If you want to branch out even further, try attending one of the larger children’s book conferences in your area. At first, the number of attendees may be intimidating, but it’s a good way to quickly broaden your connections!

Taking Initiative

When you attend events, be prepared! Bring plenty of business cards and exchange contact information with people you meet. After each event, take the time to follow up with your contacts and build your network from there! Once you have built a list of contacts, take initiative. Organize a casual gathering at your local bookstore or coffee shop. There, you can chat and learn about each other’s personal picture book goals. Are you starting out and learning about the picture book industry? Are you a seasoned author/illustrator who wants to hone your craft with career professionals? Do you want to self-publish or work on submitting your work to agents/publishers? If you find that your goals are similarly aligned, then perhaps you’ve just found members for your own picture book community!

Scheduling

The best way to build momentum is to stay consistent. Set up a consistent time and place where your group will meet. Perhaps it’s the first Saturday of every month at your local library. Perhaps it’s once a week at a group member’s house. By establishing a routine, your group can plan and make time for each meeting. It also helps foster commitment to your group and your craft.

Receiving Feedback

When asking for feedback from your group, be specific. Depending on where you are in your process, too much feedback may become confusing or intimidating. Let your group know what you’re working on and what kind of feedback you’d like. Are you stuck on a plot point and asking for a no holds barred brainstorm? Are you fine tuning your manuscript and asking them to recommend minor tweaks? The more you inform your group, the better they will be at providing the feedback that you need.

Giving Feedback

The sandwich method (positive -> constructive -> positive) is a great structure to use when giving feedback to your fellow group members. It will encourage and help them grow at the same time. Once again, be specific. If you don’t like a passage or design, explain why. It will inform how they revise and improve their work. Above all, be kind. Sharing your work is a very personal and intimate process. Think about how you would like to receive feedback, and provide feedback to others in a similar manner.

Field Trips

Sometimes, it’s inspiring and fun to go on field trips with your picture book community! Grab your notebooks/sketchbooks and visit a local museum. Check out the zoo, a hiking trail, or a play. Contact local publishers and ask for a tour. By going on field trips, your group will begin to share experiences and form stronger connections. You’ll start referring to your shared experiences when giving feedback to each other.  Furthermore, these experiences will bring inspiration and energy to your picture book process.

Establishing Goals

It’s important to establish goals and milestones with your critique group or community. Share your progress with them and identify what you hope to accomplish each week or month. Stay connected via a Facebook group or forum, where people can ask specific questions about their work or share informative articles. By sharing these goals and milestones, you become more accountable and thus, are more likely to achieve them!

As you can see, there are many strategies and methods you can use to help build and nurture a personal picture book community. It takes commitment and care, but the benefits are boundless!

If you're in the SF Bay Area and want to expand your personal picture book community, check out Picture Book Surgery. I host these events with my friend Diana Toledano. They're fun and a great way to meet fellow picture book lovers. Hope to see you there!

Note: All images were acquired from Pixabay, a great Public Domain resource!

Silly McGilly: My Illustration Process

Hi all,

I thought I'd share a bit of my process in creating the illustrations for Silly McGilly.

Here is a spread where Silly celebrates St. Patrick's Day at a Leprechaun Hooley. As you can see, it takes a lot of passes to create a finished illustration. Let's start at the beginning!

First, I received the manuscript from the authors, which was basically the text of the story with suggested page breaks.

I printed out the manuscript and read it several times. The whimsical text of this story gave me a lot of inspiration, so as I read, I began doodling possible image and composition ideas for each page. Once I had at least a few ideas for each spread, I started storyboarding the book with rough sketches:

As you can see, the sketches were mostly undefined. I was mainly trying to figure out how the text and images would interact with each other. Once these sketches were approved by the publisher, I moved onto a more detailed pencil work of the Hooley scene:

The final pencil lines became a pretty accurate blueprint for the next stages of illustration work. In Photoshop, I added red lines to accommodate for cropping, bleeds, and the page gutter. When I liked where everything was placed, I moved onto hand-inking the lines.

Finally, I scanned in the inked lines and added color in Photoshop, with a pastel-like brush:

Then voila: a rousing, musical, and fun-filled Leprechaun Hooley scene!

I hope this brought some insight into how Silly McGilly was created :). St. Patrick's Day is coming soon, so click on the link to get a Silly McGilly of your very own! Remember, if you message me with your order of a book, I will send you a free Silly sketch as a thank you gift.

The Beginnings of a Picture Book

Welcome to my series about the Picture Book Process!
Note: To start at the beginning of the series, please visit this post: Why Picture Books?

Today, I want to talk about beginnings.

You dived into sources of inspiration and you came up with an idea and a direction for your picture book.

Now what?

Beginning a picture book is often difficult. You stare at a blank page, not sure what to draw or write. What's the voice going to be like? What colors should I use? Should the writing be minimal and poetic? Should it be lyrical and loquacious? Should it be in first or third person? Should, should should. . ahhh!

One of my critique group members, Angela, once gave me some sage advice that she read in the book Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott:

It was: Write that sh**ty first draft!
You're going to be writing many drafts afterward, so don't worry about mistakes, grammar or punctuation. Don't worry about perfect anatomy and a defined style. Just create. . and embrace the fact that your first draft is not going to be your best work. That will come in the 10th, 14th, 20th draft.

For me, I learned a trick from Kathryn Otoshi. It's called POST-ITS!

This is the entire book of Good Day/Bad Day on five pages of normal printer paper. I've found many advantages to laying out my story using Post-Its: 

• Post-Its force you to work small, so you don't labor over details.
• If a line/image isn't to your liking, you can easily replace the post-it with a new one, without disrupting the page order.
• You can rearrange pages to help with the pacing of your book.
• You can see the flow and rhythm of your picture book at a glance. Are you devoting too little time to the climax? Are you spending too much time introducing your character? These are all questions that can be answered when you look at your story from a bird's eye view.

If you don't draw, no worries. Just lay out the text. The Post-Its force you to make room for the illustrations. If your entire post-it is full of text, it probably means you've written too much. 

For instance, this page:

 Eventually became this:

For that first spread, I wanted to give the faces space and size so the different emotions made an impact. Too much text would have lessened the effect.

By the way, if you need extra help organizing your thoughts on post-its, my friend Rachelle's Storyboard Sticky Jots leaves space for text, images, and labels. How handy is that?

So there you go.
Use post-its, scribble in your sketchbook, type away. Just write that sh**ty first draft.
You may realize that a picture book may not be the best form for your story but hey, you'll never know until you begin.

For my next post, I'll be talking about Feedback and Critique Groups. Until then, happy writing/drawing!

Inspiration

Welcome to my series about the Picture Book Process!
Note: To start at the beginning of the series, please visit this post: Why Picture Books?

Today I want to talk about Inspiration.

Inspiration - in most cases- does not come from thin air.

Inspiration usually comes from many sources. 
These sources are often little moments or emotions that you catch during the day. Maybe it's a piece of artwork, a film, a poem, a song that you experience. Maybe it's a person you meet who you respect and/or loath. Maybe it's watching a kid battling with the elements to finish that gosh darn sand castle.

These snippets of sources simmer. . and simmer. . and simmer. Until they slowly meld into an idea. . .
an idea for a picture book.

That's inspiration.

I'm currently working on a book called Good Day/Bad Day. 

The inspiration for this story came from many sources. Here are a few:

Morose Molly Rose

This is an image I drew many years ago. . .it expresses the "I don't care" feeling that often takes over many of us in life. As an example, think of Maurice Sendak's Pierre:

Yup, that's the feeling.

Morose Molly Rose became a poem, which then became a picture book that never quite hit the mark for me. So I put her story away. . but her character stayed with me as I wrote and created other books.

Troubled Kids

I've worked in elementary education for about 10 years: as an educator, learning designer, consultant, and writer. I have come across many the troubled kid and on more than one occasion, these kids would just say straight out: 

"Ms. Charlotte, I'm having a bad day."

They were always correct in their observations. 

The worst was seeing these kids turn a not so good day into a horrible one. They'd start off in a sullen mood, and then, through actions and decisions of their very own, end the day completely frustrated, angry, and sad. By then, emotions were out of control, people were hurt, and the pain of helping them repair the havoc they created was always hard to bear. I wanted to write a story to help kids take charge of their bad days. . .and turn them into something more positive.

So those are just two sample sources of inspiration for my book Good Day/Bad Day 

How do you get inspired? Is it working with kids? Is it immersing yourself in different forms of art (film, paintings, books, performance)? Is it getting your hands dirty with clay or just taking a long shower to relax those creative muscles?

Harvest from your resources and let them simmer simmer simmer. Before you know it, inspiration will hit and you'll have a picture book idea. A direction!  

Next up: The Beginnings of a Picture Book (i.e., how I turn inspiration into words and pictures)

Why Picture Books?

Sorry I've been remiss about updating. As always, along with a few projects, I've been busy illustrating, writing, reading, discussing, and celebrating picture books. . .weeee!

For awhile now, I've been wanting to use this blog to talk more thoroughly about how much I've learned, experienced, and grown during my adventures in the picture book world. Thus, this will not be a normal blog post. I want to take you on a journey and like many good journeys, this one begins with a pretty big (and long!) step.

So here's that first step: Why Picture Books?

Mac Barnett , a well known picture book author, has said that picture books are a form, not a genre. The sky's the limit when it comes to what you can express within the pages of a picture book. However, he stresses that picture books are a marriage of images and words. In a good picture book, the words cannot tell the entire story and neither can the images. It is a combination of the two that creates the magic of visual storytelling.

So Why Picture Books? My critique group, the Picturesques, recently discussed this. . why do we choose this form to share our stories? Why do we keep writing/drawing/creating, despite all the hurdles one must surpass to get published in the picture book world?

The answer is different for everyone, but this is mine: the form of picture books allows me to share those universal and emotional truths that can be understood by anyone, at any age. Great picture books grow with you. . .their meanings change as you solidify into the person you're meant to be. Here are a few books that, to this day, affect me greatly and deeply:


The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
Oh my, how this book moves me with its simple black and white drawings. As a child, I remember thinking that the tree was "very nice." Now, as an adult, I see this book as the ultimate example of true unconditional love. My fellow Picturesques member, Ben Peterson, is equally moved by this book, but in a different way . . .the one-sided relationship bothers him greatly and the unappreciative boy/man irks him to no end. Over 50 years later, and this book still makes children and adults react in so many different ways. Bravo, Silverstein. Bravo.

 

One by Kathryn Otoshi
I have heard Kathryn Otoshi speak at the Book Passage Children's Writers/Illustrators Conference for many years. She is always so generous in sharing her craft. . and fine craftmanship is what it took to create her internationally acclaimed, "One." No faces or names are needed for anyone to connect with the characters in this book. The issues of bullying, acceptance, and validation are all folded into a beautifully illustrated, minimalist story. Each word counts. Each color counts. Every person counts. See what she did there? ;)

The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds
I've had this book on my shelf for over a decade and it still helps me through tough creative blocks. This character-driven story centers on Vashti, who doesn't believe she can draw. . .until a teacher shows her that even dots can become beautiful works of art. In the end, Vashti returns the favor and encourages another kid to become an artist too. The universal truth here is that art, in essence, is self expression. Everyone has a voice that can and should be heard. Art helps amplify and distill that voice. Whenever I feel like my writing/drawing is not good enough. .I return to The Dot. The book reminds me to just throw judgement out the window and focus on CREATING!

I want to create picture books like these.
The ones that still move you, when you're well past childhood. The ones that make you think, feel, and learn. One day, I'll get it just right. . until then, I keep dreaming and I keep honing my craft!

In conclusion, if you're thinking of writing/illustrating a picture book for the very first time, really ask yourself the question:

Why Picture Books? 
What moves you and what do you want to share with this form? What will keep you going when you run into bumps along the path to publishing a picture book? (trust me, there will be bumps).

Take your time.
Think it through. 
Study the picture books you love. 
It's well worth the journey. 

Once you have your answers, I promise, you'll be able to tackle picture books with renewed focus and intent.

Phew. That was one long-winded entry. My next entry, about inspirations, will be shorter. . I promise :)