Will Terry - Children's Book Illustrator

Guess What Came In The Mail?

2012-02-12T19:43:00.015-07:00

There's nothing quite like getting a box of new books in the mail! You spend months working on a project but have to wait sometimes over a year to see the final product. Senorita Gordita is my third book with Author Helen Ketteman - a wonderful author and a great gal! Senorita Gordita is a fractured fairy tale or retelling of "The Little Ginger Bread Man" with a southwest twist.

Our Publisher - Albert Whitman, has been great to work with. Senorita Gordita is my sixth book with them and hopefully not my last. Developing relationships with publishers has been vital to developing my career in children's books. So far all six books are still in print - I don't know what they're doing over there but from experience this is rare - way to go Whitman...and Albert!!! I've had other books go out of print with other publishers and it's never fun when that happens. There are a lot of reasons why some books do well while others don't - perhaps another blog entry in the future.

Oh, also, Albert Whitman has been having great success with their ebook releases of "The Box Car Children"

Just For Fun!

2012-02-06T01:32:00.005-07:00

Once a month I try to make time for a personal piece. I know I've talked about this before but I feel it's important to pursue creating something without boundaries or limits. An excuse to be totally selfish. To allow the piece to "breath". I had fun with this one...now back to work! (digital illustration painted using photoshop)

How to Make and Market Your ebook / app

2012-02-03T02:14:00.006-07:00

I get asked quite often: "why should I make an ebook or app and what are the best methods to market them?" In the video below I try to make a case for both. I hope that my insights will help you make the right decisions for you. I'm not an expert at this whole ebook thing but I've developed some opinions which I've put in the video. With a technology so new all we can really go on is each others best guesses and experiences. If you're writing or illustrating or contemplating either I think this video might help you solidify your ideas or change them for the better.

Oh yeah - the video is about a half hour so get your favorite beverage and a sketchbook and chilax!

9 Pros and Cons of app / ebook builder sites

2012-01-30T01:28:00.012-07:00

I've been thinking a lot about app/ebook builder websites. In other words - websites that provide tools for uploading image, sound, and text files so the user can create an ebook/app. I realize that my opinions are probably all wrong and that I've probably overlooked a lot but here's what I'm thinking and feel free to totally disagree/correct me.

I'm comparing an app builder site to hiring/partnering with a programer:

1 user friendly: I think one of the benefits of using a builder site is the ease of use compared to the hassle of finding and back and forth communication with a programer.

2 quick to market: I'm guessing that because the process is much easier with a builder site - you would be able to get your book published faster. (this is theory)

3 fewest limitations: Looking at the builder sites I've been able to find I think hands down there are more limitations in programing on a builder site vs what a programmer could do.

4 most money % 4 artist: This has to go to the programer ebook because if you hire a programer all the money from Amazon, B&N, or itunes comes directly to you instead of going through the builder site where they siphon off their percentage first. However if you partner with a programer then they get their cut so this one could go either way...

5 control of rights: Again this one goes to the programer ebook simply because when you're the publisher you control all the rights to your book - you decide where it's sold and if you want to license it or sell it to another entity.

6 viral potential: I don't see an advantage either way on this one - tie.

7 quicker payments: I give this one to the programer book because again the money doesn't go to the builder site first where you have to wait for more turn around.

8 sold on more platforms: Some builder sites will only allow your book to be sold on their site - others control which sites it will be sold on - so this one goes to the programer ebook/ app

9 cheapest to publish: This one depends on how you look at it and is too complicated to really answer - so many variables. If you are your own programer - perhaps you're doing a simple ebook with no animations, sounds, etc - you'll probably incur the fewest costs. So perhaps I should have had a third category - the self programed ebook - but I think most of us are scared of actually programing an interactive ebook ourselves.

One last thing I'd like to point out is that amazing things can be done with great limitations. We put a man on the moon with less computing power than you have in your cell phone. The Blair Witch project was filmed on a camcorder. Wilbur and Orville Wright accomplished flight with rudimentary building materials. Could you create a classic on a builder site? I believe so. Having said that I think the best method is to design the ebook including functionality on paper first. If you can realize your dream on a builder site and you like the terms - go for it. If the limitations demand too many compromises you may want to hire or partner with a programer.

Speaking at SCBWI Utah & Chicago Chapters

2012-01-23T22:17:00.016-07:00

I feel very honored to have been invited to speak at both the Utah/Idaho and Chicago SCBWI Conferences! (Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators -the largest organization supporting the creators of children's books) I went to my first SCBWI conference back in 1992 - where I met Carol Lynch Williams who writes young adult fiction and we've been friends ever since. I had no idea what I was doing back then (still don't -shhhh) and really hadn't planned on becoming a children's book illustrator. When your in your early 20's and male it makes more sense to illustrate dragons and dudes with swords.

But somehow I found my softer side - probably had something to do with my wife and our first few children that gave me the desire and interest in pursuing what has become my passion.

Anyway, I was invited by Illustrator Sherry Meidell to present at the Bountiful Davis Art Center on Saturday February 25th @ 9:00am I'll be speaking to Utah and Idaho SCBWI illustrators: "Selling Yourself In A Global Market Place" This is a topic that is relevant to all of us trying to make a living with our art. As tech companies develop tools for networking and merchandising on the internet – opportunities are emerging quickly for artists to take their products directly to their customers. The middle man will usually be a necessary component for artists to find their markets but these middle men are beginning to offer something more than money, editing, and production. It’s vital to discover how you can take advantage of these new developments and sell your work globally. Everyone is welcome! $45 SCBWI members - $50 for others. More Info.

This May I'll be heading for Chicago for a bunch of school visits and presenting with Martha Rago-Art Director at Harper Collins at the Chicago Chapter of the SCBWI. I was invited by Janet McDonnell and Terri Murphy - both excellent illustrators and coordinators for the conference (where's my anxiety medication?) The event will kick off on Saturday, May 5, 2012 at 8:30am At the Oakton Community College in Des Plaines, IL. I'll be looking at portfolios and offering suggestions in the morning and talking about marketing in the afternoon session - and participating in a panel discussion sometime in the middle. More info.

I have to say that this is kind of a dream come true because any time I get the opportunity to teach I take it! It not only benefits the attendees but sharpens my knowledge as I have to prepare and know my subject inside and out. I know I've blogged about this before but presenting is one of the best ways to succeed. I've presented a few times at these conferences before and the people you meet and connections you make are invaluable.

How To Format A Children's ebook

2012-01-20T01:46:00.007-07:00

My good friend Julie Olson just released her first ebook - "Princesses, Princesses, Princesses!" on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and as a PDF in the illustrated section. Her book is extremely cute (as a guy am I allowed to use the word cute?) and great for families with young girls.

But it wasn't enough for her to publish her ebook - she had to go and create a detailed step by step tutorial to let anyone interested see just how she did it! Her tutorial can be found here however you'll need a mac, adobe photoshop CS5, and InDesign CS5 to use her tutorial. Unfortunately in order to participate in this fast changing tech game of current formatting you have to either find a tutorial that fits your current set up or modify your work station to fit the tutorial. What worked six months ago might not work as well now and what works now might not be ideal in another year. Frustrating? You bet! and that's why I choose to outsource or partner for my programing needs. Call me a wimp - I'll proudly wear that title - but for you brave souls like Julie (mother of 3 small kids) it's no big deal.

Check out her tutorial!

1 Year ebook Stats - over 30,000 sold!

2012-01-14T20:56:00.038-07:00

Well it's been a year since I published Monkey & Croc on Barnes and Noble's Pubit site and just short of a year for Tickle Bugs and Pollywog to Frog. I thought I'd share my stats because I know that a lot of people are trying to decide whether or not to go this route (pros and cons). The following only reflects my sales on Pubit but not on Amazon or itunes where I also sell these ebooks. My Amazon sales are finally taking off with the new Kindle Fire.

Below you can see today's stats - the "Publisher Revenue Due" is my money as I am the publisher. These stats update in real time and I can login and check them anytime I want. Amazon and itunes works the same way. Christmas tablet sales and ebook purchases are definitely up from where they were a few months back. A typical day back in august was only $10 - $20/day but today - over 50 bucks.

Below you'll notice the header "This Month's Sales Activity" about $500. This reflects this months sales from January 1st - 12th. It looks like this month is on track to break $1000.00. This month is actually not included in the 12 months on the right. All of the retail sites keep you a few months behind on payments so while I can see the reports I've actually not been paid for the past two months. Also if you look on the list - March 2011 is the payment date but those sales occurred in January which I wrote in red. This makes more sense when you look at the increase in sales from Jan 2012 - Feb 2012 - These sales happened this past December. I wonder how long these books will continue to sell?

I spent a total of about 2 months on all three books (1 month for Monkey & Croc and 2 weeks for each of the others) so this can give you an idea of the time/money ratio. I think I was actually very lucky in that I was early to market. These books were mostly an experiment into the world of electronic publishing. I didn't want to spend too much time on them because I was worried that they wouldn't earn any royalties. Here's what I've learned and what I'm doing different now-

My books suffer for the following reasons:
1. Poor formating (no SDK issued to individual developers)
2. No interactivity - what consumers are mostly looking for right now.
3. Mediocre writing - I'm still learning this craft and need much more practice!

What I'm doing now-
1. Developing for the iPad - nuts on trying to work with companies that want to favor large publishers - let them roll the dice and miss out on what small companies can create.
2. Interactivity that is integral to the story or activity - I'm not into making -this wiggle or -that squeak - if it needs to move it will - if it needs to make noise let it roar!
3. Collaboration with professional writers and IOS developers - right now I'm working with the amazing Rick Walton and Mike Bohman.

In the end I think you have to create gold - pure and simple. If you want your ebook or app to gain momentum it has to be great. I believe it has to have great writing or a great idea or both. It also needs to have art that is a good fit for the story. And it needs to have good programing - I don't know if interactivity is more popular now and will become less important later or vice versa but for now I get bad ratings for not having moving parts. Basically you need to create the equivalent of "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" or "Where The Wild Things Are" - something that people will want to share with their friends and review sites like Kirkus will champion.

Have You Done Something New This Year?

2012-01-10T02:24:00.005-07:00

I challenge you to do something you've never done with your art this year! Do something you've never done before. Try something you've always wanted to try - or combine one technique with another. Combine art with technology like I did in this video. I don't know what I learned but I did something I've never done before. I attached my GoPro Hero camera to the end of a pencil. Only by experimentation will we make new discoveries with our art and learn about ourselves. Dare to fail. We learn more by our failures than our successes. The important thing is not to get stuck doing the same thing over and over.

I start teaching my art classes again tomorrow at UVU and I'm so excited to try some new examples and exercises in my classes. I learned something new just in the last few weeks about character design. I'll probably be sharing it here on the blog in the near future. Good luck!

It's Now Live On www.folioacademy.com

2012-01-05T19:45:00.009-07:00

I'm so excited to be able to announce the release of my new video series, “How To Design A Drawing”. It probably would have been more accurate to have called it “how to design an image” but I realized that many people wouldn't understand that title...so, it's “drawing.”

The work in this video tutorial has taken 45 years to develop – of course I haven't been working on the actual videos that long but it's taken my whole life to develop my own beliefs and values about design. I've come to realize two things about myself over the last decade: 1) I have to create art – it's not an option – I must do it to satisfy an inner need – almost like breathing. 2) I'm supposed to teach what I've learned to others. It's also not a choice – I feel driven to help others learn what has brought so much joy to my life.

I really can't believe that I'm living at a time where technology has made it possible to help people all around the world. I was looking at statistics the other day from Folio Academy and we have now sold videos in over 20 countries since we launched back in August. I get email all the time from wonderful people who do not have access, means, or the time to take classes at a university or art college. People just like I was - desperate to learn how to improve their craft. People who want to illustrate their own children's books, make apps, ebooks, or qualify themselves to make beautiful paintings for galleries or to work in animation studios, etc. Some just want to make better art for themselves.

If you're new to my site – I recommend you start with “How To Design A Drawing” and then move into some of the other courses. I get artists who design amazing characters (some professionally) who have asked me, “How do you design the your characters into the background?” I never had a good answer because there isn't ONE good answer! Now I can say, “try this....”

If you didn't win a free video you can still get it at: http://folioacademy.com/samplean.html

25 Free copies "How To Design A Drawing"

2011-12-30T09:51:00.007-07:00

I'm so excited to announce that I'm finally finished with "How To Design A Drawing" my new video tutorial. It will be hosted on folioacademy.com and I'll be giving away 25 free copies here on my blog - first come first serve. How it will work: One day in the next week or so I'll roll out of bed, stretch, repeat a few affirmations, "you're a good artist because you use reference" or something like that. Then I'll hop online and update my blog with something like, "Enter your email address in the comments section below to win free access to "How To Design A Drawing!" I won't announce it on facebook so the best way to be ready is to get the rss feed by following this blog.

There are 8 videos in this new series and includes work that I've been putting together for the last 2-3 years. This was the hardest video tutorial to make so far because explaining concepts require a lot of visuals and careful descriptions.

Design is a topic that is very near and dear to my heart. I was let into the BYU illustration BFA on PROBATION! Back in 1990 it was my wake up call. It was embarrassing and shocking - I thought I was pretty good at art and watching my classmates get in easily was humiliating but also motivating. It was exactly what I needed. Ironically years later I ended up teaching for the same instructors who put me on probation.

Anyone can learn to be a good designer if they want it and are willing to work hard. Every image I have in my portfolio was a struggle in the design stage. Perhaps struggle is the wrong word but each illustration I design is like solving a puzzle. The puzzle is solved when I have my final sketch and at that point painting is a breeze because if I've done it right I don't have to make critical decisions while painting.

I designed the penguins above live in front of our studio cameras as the final video in the tutorial so that the viewer can watch as I solve that puzzle. I will be using these videos in one of my UVU classes this coming semester - something I've only dreamed about until now. I also give my students free access because I want them to all have what I would have wanted to have when I was a student.

Do Public Schools Kill Creativity?

2011-12-21T13:23:00.040-07:00

Back in 1971 I started attending elementary school just north of Washington DC in Maryland. I didn't know it then but I was a little seedling of an artist trying to poke my head out and catch some rays. There were a bunch of us - little budding artists trying to sprout. We were so excited about life and discovery yet unaware that the environment we were growing in was hostile towards our skills and learning styles. Turns out we were floundering in a system that looked at us more like weeds than flowers.

What I'm going to talk about is in no way intended to be an indictment of teachers or administrators but rather of the public school system in general. A system that no one individual or even organization is in total control over. Also, I don't want this to come across as a negative attack ad but rather as a wake up call for all of us.

Like many I never felt like I belonged in public school. I always felt like I wasn't good enough - like I was, well, stupid. I struggled with math - really struggled. My reading comprehension was horrible and for the life of me I couldn't stop day dreaming - and boy did I come up with some good ideas! My speling was atrowshous and writing - forget about it - I couldn't hold a thought long enough to form a paragraph and by the way there's a guy walking a dog across the street...I think dogs are smarter then humans...the man walks behind the dog...the dog poops...the man picks up the poop...the man carries the poop for the dog...is the dog smiling?...Oops - sorry - I'm back.

Today I probably would have been diagnosed with A.D.D and put on drugs but back then it hadn't been invented yet (he said sarcastically). My parents even had me tested to see what the heck was wrong with me. I was even lucky enough to have an older sister who was everything I was NOT academically (straight A's)- so that was really helpful.

I think we've grown to believe that a person is smart if they did well in school and not very smart if they didn't but isn't this short sighted? Lets think about this. Do we think that someone who can represent you in a court of law is more intelligent than a creative director at an ad agency? Is a concert pianist more intelligent than an accountant? Our university system was born out of a necessity to develop graduates with mostly left brain skills to manage the tasks of the industrial age and it worked. Now we are entering a new age where creativity is becoming more valuable. Daniel Pink says, “In school, problems almost always are clearly defined, confined to a single discipline, and have one right answer. But in the workplace, they’re practically the opposite. Problems are usually poorly defined, multi-disciplinary, and have several possible answers, none of them perfect. Are timed, standardized tests the way to ready youngsters for real-world problem-solving?"

Do smart people ever make stupid mistakes and if so why? Laurence Gonzales, author of Deep Survival talks about the question of why some people survive crises while others die. He says survivors have the ability to think deliberately under pressure helping them to avoid making stupid mistakes. Those that die are often intelligent people who simply follow already established mental scripts rather than addressing the reality of the situation. Having good grades in math and English probably won't factor in to the most important decisions a person will have to make in life.

The truth is we sift our kids in the public school system. We sift for the kids with math, reading, and writing skills and basically toss the rest aside. Sure we have art, band, and drama classes but do we hold kids accountable for doing poorly in those subjects? Do we have standards tests in those subjects? Do kids make the honor role for coming up with great ideas? No...and so creative kids like me go away feeling like their contributions are worthless.

So after high school I limped away damaged and insecure knowing three things: 1) I loved art 2) Nobody seemed to care and 3) I was stupid. Is this how it has to be? Do we need to destroy the self esteem of our creative kids and hope that some of them will somehow find their way into a job or field where their right brain skills will be appreciated? Is it possible to change the system so that we can perhaps teach creative children differently?

I find it ironic that we expect our kids to get good grades doing essentially left brain tasks but the items we place the highest value on are largely right brain creations: smart phones, internet based products and services, cars, motion pictures, novels, comics, tablet computers, designer clothing and accessories etc. I would argue that the innovators behind the scenes at companies like Apple, Google, Ebay, Pixar, etc were in some cases also survivors of public school. I think it would be a safe assumption that public school had little to do with these kinds of creations. These outliers had to develop a robust set of skills well beyond math and English and they did it largely on their own. Imagine what problems we could solve as a country if creativity was celebrated at school? Is there a correlation to the success of Google and their active reward program to reward creative ideas from their employees?

I was fortunate enough to have had wonderful parents who loved me and encouraged me even though they didn't fully understand me. My mom was a special ed teacher as was my wife and my sister teaches elementary school currently so I'm familiar with the the restrictions placed on teachers. I'm glad that I was able to show my mom and dad that I wasn't a lazy kid. I've accomplished a lot in illustration: acceptance into the society of illustrators annuals, an addy award, a client list of fortune 500 companies, and over 20 children's books published with national publishers - some winning state awards. I'm so glad my mother got to see me illustrate some of the same stories she taught from in school before we lost her last year.

Today I'm able to work on the projects I want. If I get an idea I go for it. I feel like I survived the public school system but how many don't? How many feel like they just aren't as good as the 4.0 earners? We have an amazing resource in our children and rather than cultivating their individual skills we sort them keeping the left brain dominant children and tossing the rest. We pick through them like we select produce at the fruit stand and for what? What benefit do we get for celebrating left brain skills while ignoring kids with right brain skills? - I don't understand it.

My college roommate (an engineering major) came to me a few years ago and said, "I have a son who hates school, get's horrible grades like you did, but loves to draw - what should I do with him?" I was pretty much at a loss because unless he was willing to put his kid in a private school he was stuck with a square peg kid in a round hole school. I told him to appreciate his abilities, nurture his art, and let him know how valuable he is while encouraging him to do his best.

Obviously this is a subject that I'm passionate about and in some ways is out of bounds for the direction of my blog but it's who I am and I wanted to share it. It's too important for me to sit by and watch while my heart aches for some of the kids I meet at my school visits. I love to tell kids how hard it was for me to learn to read. I love to watch their expressions as I tell them that even though I pretended to read and only looked at the pictures I was able to get it over time. It just took me longer and a few great teachers and a mom who cared and wouldn't let me fail.

A friend warned me not to post this on my blog because I do a fair amount of school visits and this might offend school teachers and administrators. When my 18 year old son Aaron was in elementary school his 4th grade teacher gave the class a self portrait assignment. Aaron was so excited and got busy drawing himself with a sword, an earring, and a Mohawk haircut - his teacher gave him an D and got upset at him. I wimped out and said nothing because I wanted to stay in good graces with the school district. I've always regretted my decision to do nothing. The truth is I don't want to visit a school where administrators aren't aware, sensitive, or at least willing to ponder and learn about this problem. It's not about us – it's about the kids. We need to send the message to our elected officials that we're tired of killing creativity in our Public Schools.
For more on this subject I recommend "A Whole New Mind" by Daniel Pink (I have it down on the left side of my blog) and TED talks by Sir Ken Robinson on youtube

7 Reasons You Should Be Blogging

2011-12-18T12:49:00.015-07:00

I think a lot of artists want to sequester themselves in their studio, nook, or cave and create - it's natural since our work is often very personal. But! The audience we create for wants to know more about us than just browsing our online portfolios. "But Will, what if I don't have an audience?" Here are 7 reasons you should be blogging anyway:

1) Online Journal of Your Progress -So what if you think nobody is reading - do it for you. Being selfish with your blog is a good thing - you'll do more of what you want and ironically that will make your blog more valuable to like minded people.

2) For Your Mom -Your mom wants to know what you're up to and if you're regularly blogging you can get a quick follower by letting her know.

3) Accountability -Having assignments and deadlines are good for us. If you know that you owe your blog an update you'll be more likely to log out of Facebook and get on with working on you - which is a good thing right? Good drawing skills require exercise - get crackin!

4) Learning -If you treat it right you'll actually learn more than if you don't blog. Not all blog posts are the same but sometimes you might want to teach a process, idea, or technique. Inevitably you'll have to look stuff up so you don't sound like a moron (like me) - there, now you're learning.

5) Help Others -Probably the best reason to blog. We're all in this together. I'm a product of many artists and teachers along the way - some I've given credit to - some I've forgotten or don't realize the impact they've had on my career - some I've borrowed from...ok, stolen - but you get the point. We all get help - blogging is a way to repay.

6) Story -Like I mentioned in the beginning - people want to know about the artist behind the art. In fact I'll go as far as saying that most people purchase the artist just as much as the art it's self. I'm constantly surprised and disappointed when I run across an artist's website with great work but no blog. I want to know the human side behind the craftsman. I want to learn from them - know what they're into besides making art.

7) Selling Stuff -Money often gets a bad wrap. Sometimes we look down on those who aren't afraid to come right out and talk about making money or running a business - like we're above it. Let me make a case for money. Everyone wants it and everyone needs it. Without it we don't have a car, home, clothing or food - so money is life. So perhaps #7 should be 7) Making Life (that sounded wrong but you get the point) As artists we have to sell our work in some form be it originals, prints, books, apps, ebooks, cards, stamps, collectibles, animations, etc. Developing a good blog following is a great way to get the word out when you have a new _______ to offer.

I've mentioned why I blog before but I thought I would try to give a more complete list because I know how much it's helped me. When I first started I'll have to admit it seemed really weird. "I'm writing to myself...this is strange...nobody even knows I have a blog...nobody cares...people will laugh at me...I have body odor, etc"

It's never too late to start a blog but if you wait, you'll be that much further behind when you realize, "I should have started last year".

Color Comp In 45 Minutes!!!

2011-12-14T20:57:00.018-07:00

No Trees were harmed in the making of this post!

So last week I was in a boring meeting being bored...and my back was a bit stiff as I recall - BUT, I had my trusty iPad! Have I ever mentioned how much I love the iPad??? Ok, so I whipped it out (the iPad) and started free drawing with my finger - which I almost forgot to bring with me - shewwy. The sketch portion took me about 3 hours - part in the meeting and the rest while watching "Waiting For Superman" which I highly recommend.

Sometimes you might want to try out some colors before making the commitment of a full painting but you don't want to spend a lot of time. This is an easy step by step if you have photoshop - or Gimp - I haven't tried it but I'm hearing great things. I would love to hear what those of you who use Gimp think...so here is the iPad sketch:

And this is layer 2 in photoshop. I make it a "multiply" layer and with the airbrush and low settings on flow and opacity I start laying in values. Anywhere you think there would be shadows or dark colors.

Layer 3 is the easiest layer that should take about 20 seconds or less depending on your mad photoshop skills or caffeine/blood level. Make another "multiply" layer and then pick the color that you feel best represents the overall mood or tone of the piece. In this case I knew I wanted a night scene so I went with a dark blueish purple. Select "paint bucket" and click. Done.

The 4th layer is where you just pick out a few highlights and that's basically it. You can get an idea if you like a color scheme pretty quick with a process like this. It was one of the steps I knew I should have taken when I worked in acrylics but didn't want to spend the time doing. Sketching on the iPad really speeds it up in that you never stop. As soon as the sketch is finished you email it to your desktop or laptop and keep working...now there's even time to check FB!

Here is a short video of the sketch process with narration - iPad/brushes app/finger

Sneak Preview - How To Design An Image

2011-12-08T02:01:00.010-07:00

This has been a total joy to work on this image and video for two very different reasons. 1) Since I'm using it in my upcoming video tutorial "How To Design An Image" it was a good excuse to work on a fun piece. The video will be released at Folio Academy around January. 2) I figured why not kill two birds with one stone and make an assignment out of it - illustrate a song. The song is Tomorrow by Ladytron.

1) I've wanted to make a video series on design and composition for years and it's finally happening! I've been gathering and working this up literally for two years plus. It's been the hardest tutorial I've put together out of all of the video tutorials I've made thus far. Design is one of those subjects that teachers often fail to break down for students. It's really difficult to put feelings into words and concepts - things that you learn over time and begin to accept. There really isn't any magic to it if you're willing to break it down into steps and principles. So anyway I hope to have it up on Folio Academy in early January along with a complete re-design of the site.

2) I chose to illustrate a song because I've never done it before and I really really really love this song - Tomorrow by Ladytron. It's one of those songs that I think most of us can relate to in one way or another. The figure is loosely based on lead singer Helen Marnie but not really because I don't enjoy doing likenesses.

I went to H.S. during the 80's and will admit that I liked Thomas Dolby when you could get your &$% kicked for it. Also I was way into Depeche Mode, The Smiths, A Flock of Seagulls and so on. In the 90's Pet Shop Boys, Electronic, INXS, and so on. Now it's called synthpop or electronic and I still love it.

My iPod is full of: Cut Copy, Ladytron, Faded Paper Figures, The Dandy Warhols, Hey Champ, Miike Snow, Tenek, Coconut Records, Groove Armada, Empire of the Sun, Paola, Mount Sims, Zoot Woman, MGMT, Ladyhawke, Phoenix, Guster, Tesla Boy, and on and on.

Super Hero School Visits!!!

2011-12-06T22:54:00.009-07:00

Imagine going back to elementary school - not as a kid or a teacher and not as the Principle or as a parent (been there done that) but as a SUPER HERO!!!! That's what it's like when you go as an illustrator. Think about it: the teachers hype you for weeks prior to your visit and the kids get the idea that you're a mythical creature coming to save the school - and you DO! because you get them out of class!!! So there you are (a normal putz like me) but the kids think you're awesome - so you start believing them...then you remember you're still going to have to do dishes when you get home -but while you're there you get to play super hero - able to draw tall buildings in a single swipe!...I need a cape.

Here I am a few weeks ago in Ogden Utah at Wasatch Elementary throwin down for the kids on my iPad. I had such a blast drawing for them and talking about what it's like to be an illustrator of children's books, ebooks, and apps.

What I include in my school visits:
1) Belly slide across cafeteria floor to get the kids amped! (remember to grease belly next time)
2) Talk about how hard it was for me to learn to read.
3) Explanation of illustrator responsibilities with funky pictures.
4) Read along with kids.
5) Short lesson on turning words into pictures.
6) Wow factor illustration demo on iPad.

My favorite part is how the kids go silent when I start drawing on the iPad hooked to the LCD projector - it's fun because I remember watching drawing shows and being mesmerized.

Suzane Bolar, the principle was awesome to work with - Thanks Suzane! She even called the press and got a write up in the local paper - here's the link: https://www.standard.net/stories/2011/11/17/book-illustrator-motivates-students

Tree Face Assignment

2011-12-02T10:27:00.011-07:00

I gave this assignment in my media techniques class last night. I projected the images below from my iPad on the screen to be used as reference.

I told my class to create a tree that had at least one face in it. That's it. Then I started having fun. I didn't have any watercolor paper but I did have a gessoed board so I grabbed that and started drawing with a 12 cent papermate ballpoint pen.

I almost finished the drawing in class but when I got home last night picked it up again and fooled with it again in front of the TV (office re-runs). I love drawing in the living room - my mom used to needle point and I think of this as my equivalent.

This morning I decided to play hookie from the projects I'm supposed to be working on and fiddle with the sketch in photoshop. I got this far in about 3 hours. I'm still going to paint this in class next week with watercolor but sometimes you have to just do what you want and let the consequences follow right? I hope my kids aren't reading this...meh - no worries - they never read my blog.

Give Your iPad The Finger!!!!

2011-11-29T09:21:00.005-07:00

I've gone totally paperless in my studio (for drawing) and in the above video I show why and how. Right now I'm working on an ebook app and I'm drawing it entirely with my finger on my iPad. I'm doing all the color work in Photoshop but all the drawings are being done on the iPad. It's not a fad or gimmick to be able to say I can do it, rather a natural evolution that has increased my workflow, productivity, and portablility. Check it out.

Meet The Monsters of my Monster App!

2011-11-27T00:55:00.014-07:00

I'm putting all my faith in these dudes. They say they're good but we'll see when we finally get this app launched in the app store. I was first introduced to the big spotted green guy years ago and he says he won't work without his crew so I had to write all of them into the script. I gave all of them a fresh coat of paint so they shouldn't have any excuses. I have to admit they are pretty fun to have hanging around the studio although the purple guy makes a mess going through my trash.

For the past 5 months I've gone totally paperless and sketch exclusively on my iPad now. The major reason is that I never have to worry about running out of "paper" or room to complete a drawing. When sketching on paper if my drawing became cramped at the edge of the paper I would have to scan my paper or sketchbook, re-size in photoshop, and print on new paper. Not so on iPad - I just hit "re-size" in my drawing program (brushes) and/or move/shrink and keep drawing. My workflow is much faster - AND - environmentally friendly (insert my smiling face with eye sparkle). Anyhow, you can check out more of my iPad sketches for the ebook I'm working on in past posts.

How Teaching Art Put A Ferrari In my Driveway

2011-11-21T22:18:00.014-07:00

I created the image above in my media techniques class at UVU.

Ok, follow me on this one.

I was stagnating as an illustrator 5 years ago when I was living in a small town outside of Fresno California. I didn't know it but I was losing my passion and energy for children's book illustration and I wasn't evolving. If I didn't have a commission I wasn't drawing.

When we decided to move to Utah I was contacted by Perry Stewart, head of the illustration dept. at UVU, who asked me to teach (currently teaching for Don Seegmiller ). I accepted and jumped into my classes. I had no idea that I would soon have a brand new Ferrari in my driveway!

I soon found myself reading and researching the principles and techniques I was teaching. I started discovering new artists- devouring their work and making collections on my computer from which to teach.
I started this blog with the encouragement of Lael Henderson- a friend. I figured if nobody visited my blog I could at least use it to post things for my students.

I started going to visiting artist lectures at UVU and BYU a few miles away. It's amazing how exposure to accomplished dynamic creators can influence your thinking and the way you view your own work. I found myself wanting to improve my craft and began to realize that I had been stagnating in Cali.

I was invited to teach the illustration track at "Writing & Illustrating for young readers" an annual children's book conference out here. In class I mentioned that I wished I could render my style in Photoshop and one of the guys in my class (Jed Henry a recent graduate) told me he could show me how. A month later I finished my first Photoshop piece (below) even though I had to start over three times.

I started making speed painting videos and posting them on YouTube just for fun. One day a former student emailed me and basically said, "neat- but no educational value....why don't you make a tutorial?" I thought, " yeah, why not?" ...so now I have those as well.

Working in Photoshop was so much faster - I could produce more work in the same amount of time. When I learned about the possibility of producing my own ebooks I realized I could work them into my normal commission workload. Fast forward and my ebooks are earning a nifty amount of money....enough to put a Ferrari in my driveway? Not quite- but they could some day!...but I would never buy a Ferrari - not my style - couldn't even fit in it....I'll probably buy a beat up used truck.

Sorry for the bait & switch with the Ferrari but my point is that I've gotten way more value out of teaching than an exotic car could ever give. It's given me fulfillment, satisfaction, and re- tooled my process for the future. It makes me accountable in my own art. It forces me to revisit design principles regularly. It exposes me to new technology and methods and ways of thinking. Sure it puts food on the table but I get so much more than that. Probably the biggest thing I get is the satisfaction of helping others find the joy of turning their visions into realities. Helping someone have an "aha moment!"...you can't buy it.

Frustration, Pain, Anguish, and Disappointment

2011-11-16T08:57:00.007-07:00

First - here is another sketch for my monster app - The monsters are coming! This is going to be a really good test in marketing when I'm finished. Not only will I have it programed for Ipad/iphone but also Kindle Fire so I'll have a good comparison on these two retail giants. I don't ever know whether to call it an app or an ebook - if I call it an app people think it's a game - ebook and they might not look for it in the app store. Confusing.

Ok, what's up with all the frustration and pain talk? Over the years I've gotten to know quite a few artists and I've realized that most of us share something that I don't think the 9 to 5'ers have. We often bleed for our art. I'm not saying that people that work a shift don't care about their jobs and aren't dedicated but I do think that in general, artists have to invest much more emotionally.

There's nothing like the euphoria of working on a piece that's really working - at times it's almost like it's painting itself and you're just there as an observer. But, when it's not working out the agony is often hard to bare. I used to burn paintings every now and then and while it relives a little stress it still haunts you until you right the wrong you created. When a painting is going south the lies begin, "it's not that bad"..."it's good"..."it will start looking good after I finish the figure"...We want it so bad that we're willing to overlook obvious major problems - kind of like I do with my kids. :)

I've had students crying in my classes before because their paintings were heading straight to hell. I tell them that their tears are a great sign. Tears over paintings mean that you have the aesthetics and sensibilities to know that you aren't achieving the vision you have in your mind. That you know you are much more than your creation. That your expression is being stifled by the skills you have yet to attain. There's nothing sweeter than scratching, clawing, and bleeding for your art when it reaches your vision. If it were easy it would be common and worthless.

Don't Always Do It The "Right Way"

2011-11-11T07:58:00.011-07:00

Remember when owning a home was a mandatory part of a healthy financial portfolio? I think this is the first time that financial planners are backing off saying, "owning CAN also be a good addition to a financial portfolio."

I bring this up because when I'm down at school I constantly hear students telling eachother things like, "you're supposed to do it this way" or "that's not the way that so and so said to do it." I believe in obeying the rules most of the time...wait - that sounded like a rule!...how bout: Obey some of the rules some of the time but not all of the rules all of the time unless you want to but if you want to break all of the rules that might be good too however that probably won't work either so don't listen to me but you should listen to some people if you feel they're giving good information. hmmmmmmm. How bout some examples:

Bill Gates - laughed at by IBM executives for only wanting to license his operating system. In other words he was laughed at for "doing it the wrong way."

John Lasseter - Fired from Disney for wanting to introduce computer animation to Disney productions - Started Pixar - Now chief creative officer at Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios. He is also currently the Principal Creative Advisor for Walt Disney Imagineering...pssssst - he did it the wrong way.

Steve Jobs - How many times do you think he was laughed at for all the innovative ideas he implemented. It's easy to think, "why would I laugh at Jobs? - he created so many wonderful products." Before he attained his unimaginable success he was often branded a nut for his strange decisions.

Larry Page and Sergey Brin created a search engine their way - a different way - they broke the rules. They were also late to the search engine party and couldn't get anyone's attention. All the big search engine companies showed them the door when they tried to sell their technology....so they started Google.

Last night in my watercolor class I kept hearing students talking about using watercolors "the right way."....

So I created this piece: Watercolor, collage, acrylic, digital, and ball point pen.

We are in a creative field and some rules are very important...but learning to break some of them is the difference between leading and following. Can you afford to follow in an industry that's always looking for fresh work?

Assignment: Illustrate a "banjo pig" using watercolor to post on http://banjopigs.blogspot.com/

Monster App color work

2011-11-07T11:47:00.008-07:00

I have nothing creative to write today - I'm drained from working til 3 am on this piece. I thought I was done but when I looked at it again this morning I realized there were quite a few more tweaks needed- 3 hours later and I think I'm finally finished...again!

I've included several versions with various assets on different layers because there will be animations in this app. If you've been reading my blog I said that I wanted to have animation but didn't know how to do it or set up for it but that someone would come into my life to help me. Well, it happened a few weeks ago - I've teamed up with a Disney animator and he's going to be teaching me and working with me to make this project happen! Kind of the, "If you build it they will come" model.

I wasn't interested in programing superfluous animations in my ebook. One thing I'm constantly seeing in ebooks and apps is animation and/or sounds that don't move the story forward - in fact I'm guilty of that in my Monkey & Croc ipad app. On this one I wanted to create a story/interactive ebook that couldn't exist in physical book format. Part of an on going exploration of this technology. It's fun to think about the future and how I'll feel about all of this 5 or 10 years down the road, lessons learned, bumps, bruises, and hopefully a few smiles....ok, a lot of smiles!

Get Over It - You're Just Another Artist!

2011-11-02T15:45:00.013-06:00

Status Update: Monster App still on schedule (there's no schedule so I'm right on time)

Just Another ARTIST???!!! What kind of a statement is that?

Remember back when you were in junior high and you started making really bad copies of spider man or (insert cool character here) and because it sort of resembled what you were going for you thought you were an amazing artist? Your friends who had quit trying to draw were now propping you up - "awww WICKED"..."dude that's bad". Fast forward to high school and you were determined to draw in art class amongst the stoners. It didn't take long for you to get their attention: "Dude that's bad ass....draw Eddie from Iron Maiden on my Jacket." Your head was completely filled with hot gasses and arrogance as you headed off to college. Even though your teachers bathed you in beautiful images from working professionals you weren't that impressed. Caught up in the grandeur of your graduating portfolio you excitedly started marketing your work. When assignments didn't actually flood in you got the first twinge of insecurity but you shrugged it off. After a few years of struggling to keep freelancing you gained a partial attitude overhaul. Humility was still in short supply but you started giving a few nods to other artists. 5 years in and you put yourself near the top shelf of illustration talent. 7 years and you still grossly overestimated your skills. 10 years - the internet was bringing more and more amazing artists to your attention. 15 years you realized you're just another set of hands. 18 years you start to feel lucky to be an illustrator. 20 years and you know you're lucky! Being able to do what you do while there are so many artists much more talented and capable than you roaming this little rock. Fear sets in when you realize...you might not be keeping up. Embarrassing, but this was me.

Become a "WHOLE" artist:
Work hard
Have heroes
Open mind
Listen
Engage

Illustrating illustration ebook app kindle nook ipad iphone format

Is It Work When You're Having Fun?

2011-10-31T01:13:00.005-06:00

Because I'm "working" late and often respond to things on Facebook my friends, family, and students know I "work" late. Sometimes I get accused of being a work-o-holic but is it really work if I'm having this much fun? I love drawing. I love illustrating ideas - but most of all I love the satisfaction I get when I see how children and parents respond to my work. The ability to communicate with pictures is basically a part of who I am. I can't imagine what life would be like without being able to create narrative images. I don't want to know what it would be like....I think you know it's not work when you're doing something you would do regardless of the monetary compensation.

So "working" on this monster app isn't work at all - it's therapy. I don't feel any stress or anguish over it and that in and of it's self is my payment. When I'm finished and it is formatted for Ipad / Iphone and perhaps the new kindle fire the money I make or don't make is a distant by-product of my passion. I'm not going to be a phony and tell you I don't want it to make money but the money is irrelevant to my joy and happiness in the creation process. I'm not going to worry about editing "this or that" in or out to please a certain demographic. All I'm going to do is make an app / ebook that I would want to buy and use with my kid - again, I'm going to be selfish.

Did I mention how much fun I'm having?

2011-10-27T00:07:00.005-06:00

So anyway - working on this project is way more fun than getting hit by a car twice. Wait, have I mentioned that I've been hit by two different cars both while riding a bike? - not the same bike different bikes...and different cars - different years - and different drivers...I don't think they knew each other...both my fault. I did however learn two big lessons - 1) I am stupid and 2) I want to be in the car the next time I get hit.

But wait - this is supposed to be about illustration, ebooks, writing, apps, formating, tablets, ereaders, etc.

Ok, Status: All of these monster sketches are for an ipad / iphone app that I'm making. It will: have a story, be interactive, be in color, be animal friendly, eco friendly, kid friendly, and car friendly....It will have friends.

ebooks, apps, and selfishness

2011-10-23T08:12:00.003-06:00

Selfishness? really? but we were always taught to be charitable, giving, and unselfish. Ok - I needed a provocative title but I'm going to defend it. How many times have you as an illustrator, graphic designer, author, artist, or creator allowed yourself to create under the umbrella of a studio, publisher, client, friend, spouse, parent etc.? In other words how often do you create for someone else? How often do you allow the parameters of the assignment dictate choice? How often are your choices influenced by what you think "they" want and not what you want? We all do it - even if you're a gallery artist chances are you create "in step" with the body of work the gallery owner has accepted. Right?

So my message today is that the invention of computers, tablets and ereaders and the internet have given power back to the artist. It's an amazing time my fellow artists. I now give you permission to be selfish - and it's a good thing when it comes to your art. Never before in the history of the world have artists been given the ability to get their work to their audience so cheaply. Because it's so cheap it means we can do it on our own so we don't necessarily need someone putting restrictions on our content. I'm not saying that it's not good to get opinions from other professionals but now we can do what we want - the environment for complete creativity is autonomy. I'm embracing ebooks, apps, and whatever else develops in the future.

So be selfish - your best art has yet to be created - what's hiding in there?

More Monster app!

2011-10-19T07:23:00.003-06:00

Having a blast working on this little project - I don't sleep much anymore but as I get older I realize that we only have a short window to make it happen - whatever "it" is. I love the challenge of developing good instruction for my college classes, pleasing my freelance clients, pleasing myself on personal projects and my continued involvement on the day to day workings of Folio Academy.

I think I've found a programer and animator to help me see this vision through - I'm having so much fun - at work!!!

Monster App

2011-10-14T09:33:00.005-06:00

Here is another sketch for the ipad/iphone app I'm working on. I do not have a programer yet - have talked to a few but I want to find someone who believes in my project enough to go all in with me and share the loot we most certainly will rake in. This is certainly another leap of faith but I've found that if you have a dream and can see - really see the vision of it, you should go for it! I've been learning this over the past year and have enjoyed a fair amount of success with this method of working. I'm sure I'll have my fair share of failures - wait - I've done that:

My Failed books: "The magical world Inside Abandoned Refrigerators", "Daddy Drinks Because You Cry", and "You Are Different and That's Bad".....ok ok - I lifted these from the internet but you get the picture. I've had failures and I'll have more and you know what? That's ok.

Justin Gerard Visit

2011-10-10T08:52:00.025-06:00

The piece above is NOT mine. I wish it were. I love this piece. It's Justin Gerard's. You might have noticed that I've had a link to Justin Gerard's website here on my blog for a few years now. When I came across his work for the first time in 2008 I was blown away. His sense of design, color, drawing, rendering, etc spoke to me right away. Definitely one of my mentors in illustration and I was so excited when Don Seegmiller invited him out to give a lecture and all day demo here in Utah at UVU.

After all the illustration stuff was out of the way a few of us: Don Seegmiller, Peter Sakievich, Justin, and myself were able to sneak away down to Goblin Valley for a few days.

It's so important to take time to get out and observe natural surroundings to increase your visual vocabulary but also unplug and feed your spirit.

There are lighting situations that you just can't conjure on your own - even if your work is highly stylized I believe that it all starts with careful observations that can later be distilled into original work.

Justin had way more energy than the rest of us put together - while we surrendered to taking our shoes off and fording the stream a few times - Justin took on the challenge showing off his mad scrambling skills. Then he walked the next two or three miles sans shoes!

Justin has a great sense of humor (not shown in this picture) and is very approachable (just don't say, "I'm lovin it!" - he hates crass commercial messages). I was surprised at how much we share in common especially our theories of making great images. He's accomplished much more than I ever did at age 31 - scary for some of the older students at UVU. We had a great time and I hope to meet up with him again sometime soon. Oh, one more thing - he doesn't snore but Don can compete with a diesel engine! Check out more of his work at his blog. He's also a regular contributor over at the Muddy Colors Blog.

Sketch for a New Book Project

2011-10-03T12:41:00.007-06:00

I'm working on a new picture book and I thought I'd post one of the sketches - it's a bit rough but I thought I'd post work in progress as I get going on it. This will be another ebook that I will finish down the road. I say down the road because I know this one is going to take much longer than the other ones I've produced in the past. I've decided to gamble more time in order to produce a final product that I feel is worthy of long term recognition. Illustrating children's books is still probably the funnest thing on earth next to sneezing 9 times in a row (my personal best) and when I'm working on one like this -time seems to move x 10.

Experimenting on the Ipad

2011-09-24T21:40:00.004-06:00

Just having a little fun with the "Artrage" app on my IPad. I like it for mimicking lush buttery oil paint without all the mess and clean up. I also like the ability to "dry" the painting so you can work on top of the thick paint you already put down. The wet into wet or alla prima simulation is almost unnerving in how real it feels.

The Pros and Cons of having a Rep

2011-09-18T13:04:00.003-06:00

It's live on Folio Academy! - New Photoshop Tutorial

2011-09-12T01:27:00.002-06:00

As Promised I'm finally finished with this series - I'll be updating accounts this week for all those who have already purchased "Digital Painting in Photoshop from either http://willterry.com or http://folioacademy.com So - I'm giving this tutorial away for Free to anyone who has purchased the first course. I'm not sure how long it will take to get all the accounts updated - we're working on a way to automate it but either way it will happen soon.

New Photoshop Tutorial

2011-09-02T09:25:00.009-06:00

Whoooeee - I'm finished! This was a fun one and now I'm in the editing process for the video tutorial. As I mentioned before I'll be giving this one away for FREE to anyone who has purchased my "Digital Painting in Photoshop" Videos from either my site or Folio Academy. It's my way of saying thanks for all the support we've been getting and continue to get. I hope to be finished with the editing process in a week or so - I have a crazy hectic schedule at the moment.

I'm tired - having fun but tired - I'm wearing lots of hats right now. Just trying to get the colors right - this piece is a challenge because there isn't a lot of warm light which means almost everything needs to be on the cool side.

It's slow going but I'll get there. Just starting to add lighter values and colors and trying to figure out my color scheme as I go. One of the advantages of working digitally - testing colors on "throw-a-way" layers.

I've now added a "multiply" layer and started to work color into the background using the airbrush with the "texture" turned on in the brush pallet. The texture is a scanned texture I made with acrylic heavy gel medium and black and white acrylic paint.

I added the value on the ipad using the airbrush tool. I want to try to figure out where all the dark and light areas are going to be before I start adding color. This is crucial because once you get deep into the color process it's hard to fix value problems.

Since I've switched over to Photoshop 5 I thought it might be nice to offer another tutorial. I'm going to give it away for FREE to those who have already purchased my "Digital Painting in Photoshop" video series - I'll just update everyone's account at Folio Academy with this new video series. So what I'm going to do is work on it a little each day and post my results here on my blog as I have a big project for National Geographic Kids Mag going on right now too.

This is a little sketch I did on my ipad with my finger - I've gone paperless by the way - I never intended to go green but when technology makes it easier to use than paper...

I'm calling this painting "Class System". I find it ironic that often it's the working class/poor who are much happier in life than the rich who control everything but still turn to drugs, alcohol, and suicide. Oh no - I actually have something to say? This is weird.

Anyway, I'll try to post my results each day for a week or so.

My Rant About Artists Not Publishing Their Phone Numbers!!!

2011-08-28T08:29:00.005-06:00

Disclaimer - The above video was produce by some nut job and willterry.blogspot.com cannot be held liable for opinions or expressions that may be contrary to this blog.
If you have questions or concerns please address them to him.

Folio Academy is finally here!!!

2011-08-18T16:39:00.027-06:00

I'm so proud and excited to announce our new creation - Folio Academy - online art lessons for everyone. You can check it out here. http://folioacademy.com

Back in October I was driving home from a long day teaching at UVU here in Utah and I heard a woman being interviewed by Dave Ramsey on the radio. I can't tell you her name or the name of her book because I was talking back skeptically and sarcastically. The woman was saying that EVERYONE has something they do in their spare time or professional life that they could use to earn extra income. I was thinking, "I'm an illustrator and a teacher...what else could I possibly have time for??!!!" It bugged me for about a week when a thought popped into my head - I teach...why not teach to the video camera and then sell the videos on my website???...I love teaching and video editing has been a little hobbie - so I did.

And then I heard the voices - "this is a waste of time"..."who do you think you are anyway?"..."you could be watching Flintstones re-runs." But I silenced the voices and forged ahead. In between a book project and some text book covers I grabbed 10 days where I basically didn't sleep. At the end of that torture session I emerged gleaming with my finished product: "How To Illustrate Children's Books". I was so proud. It was a labor of love indeed. I should probably back up a bit - I was lucky in that I have a programmer living with me - my brother in law - and he assured me that he was up to the task of programming my website so that we could sell streaming videos. He would take care of the tech end and I would take care of making the videos.

Because I had to jump right back into illustrator mode I was only able to spend one day marketing my little video series. I contacted a few illustration bloggers like Angela Matteson - Angelato and children's book blogs like Mark Mitchell's How To Be A Children's Book Illustrator and invited them to do a blog post and give-a-way of my video series. They accepted as did about 4 other bloggers and from there I started selling my videos. Every now and then someone who purchased my videos liked them enough to do a blog post on them like Paula Pertile who used the photoshop concepts I put in my videos to achieve an unbelievable digital version of her colored pencil drawings. I know I'm leaving a lot of wonderful people out but there are too many to mention...but Sue from Moab has been a great supporter!

Fast forward through a few more video series and I started getting asked by fellow artists about how my videos were selling and if I thought it was worth doing. Of course I told them I did but the problem most artists have is the programming side of selling videos from their own site. I put my head together with a few artist friends and together we decided to make a site available to artists of every kind. One of my illustrator friends said, "Can you imagine what it would have been like to have a resource like this when we were going to school?"

Artist Greg Newbold setting up for his video shoot

So our goal is to find the best artists from around the world and see what they have to teach. We've partnered with several local video studios like Amber Media Pro and Provo Creative and are inviting artists to come into the studio for a day and do their thang in front of the cameras. Of course not every artist can get to us so we'll also offer their videos if they can produce them themselves. We're of course small now but we plan to release one new video series per week. Over time there's no telling where this will go.

So, woman on the radio talking about monetizing your hobbie whoever you are - thank you! - and my apologies for doubting you.

Should You Follow Your Dreams?

2011-08-13T18:09:00.018-06:00

What kind of question is that? Of course you should...I mean, of course you shouldn't. I guess it depends on who you ask. I'm often asked questions like this by my students. They often want to know if it's possible to follow their dreams of becoming a professional artist/illustrator and can they make enough money to support themselves.

This is an impossible question to answer in a few short sentences. It's also probably impossible to answer yes or no. What I can do is offer my insights but, I would also council students to get opinions from other sources.

First, I believe that most successful artists have an internal drive to create. A need. A burning from within to draw, paint, sculpt, write, play, or whatever. I also see that this desire is stronger in some than others - think of it like "the force". And then there's that need to make money for survival. These two needs are often at odds with one another. Parents send their kids to school to prepare them for careers and everybody knows you can't make a living as an artist...or that the odds of making a living as an artist are pretty slim.

If you only look at the figures it's totally impractical to choose art as a career - score one for parents - but statistics can be misleading. Lets go off on a tangent...

In the United states there are approximately 8,000 poisonous snake bites each year. So if you live here you have a one in 43k chance of being bitten by a poisonous snake. However what if you're a home body - couch potato - a slug who lives in the city and never goes out? Are your chances the same? Also, would your chances go down if you never pick up snakes? Included in the 8,000 statistic are all of the 16-24 year old boys/men who "feel the need" to pick up snakes. In fact more than half of the 8,000 people bitten each year are morons who picked up poisonous snakes. So are your personal chances of being bitten really 1 out of 43k? I know I have a much lower chance taken these additional facts into consideration - I don't pick up snakes.

So how does this apply to your chances of "making it" as a professional artist? I think you need to take a hard look at yourself because in the end only you can answer the questions that can get you past the statistics.

Are you always creating? Drawing, painting, etc? Is it the most important thing in your life? Are you happy with the visualization of yourself doing something other than an art career? Do you give up other activities to pursue art? Do you identify yourself as an artist? Do you treat socializing on weekends as a sacred ritual or can you give it up to perfect your art projects? Do you have artist role models? Are you motivated to pursue entrepreneurial projects? Do you believe you can "make money" if you have a good product and are willing to work hard? Do you feel free to do what you want in life without the blessing of your parents, friends, or siblings? Do you like to improvise and experiment or feel the need to follow instructions on projects to a fault? Do you over-estimate your artistic abilities? - you should if you want to go for it.

These are just a few questions I think you need to be able to answer in order to know if your odds are better or worse for being able to "make it" as a professional artist. I believe that some have a much better chance simply because of their life style, habits, and choices, while others have a horrible shot at it because it's just not that important to them.

In the end one thing's for sure: There are lots of people who regret not following their dreams and lots of people who have regrets about following their dreams. Each probably feel they should have taken the other path.

I Want To Dedicate My Book To Your Child?

2011-08-05T11:35:00.004-06:00

I did this a few months ago for a different book - Now I have another book and I'm going to dedicate it to the lucky winner - one of your children or grandchildren! My kids are all too old to appreciate it and thank heavens I don't have any grandchildren yet. This is a re-telling of "The Little Ginger Bread Man" story by Helen Ketteman and she exchanged the ginger bread man for a fat sassy little corn cake.

Rules:
1) You may only nominate one name.
2) It must be your child or grandchild.
3) The child has to be born (not cooking) and must be age 4 or younger.
4) The child can't already have a book dedicated to them.
5) You have to find me on Facebook and enter your nomination there.

I will choose a name out of a hat ON VIDEO and post it on FB On Sunday Aug 7th at 5:00 pm Mountain. Good Luck - I can't wait to see who wins!

Test Image

2011-08-03T09:38:00.005-06:00

I was asked to complete a test image for a game project. I hope I get to do it because it's a really cool idea and the images would be really fun to render. I'm not allowed to discuss the concept but I had fun with this one! I started this image drawing in "brushes" on my ipad - then I brought the sketch into photoshop for the final rendering.

Being an illustrator has been a great career for my A.D.D. - there's always a new project, new image, new medium, etc to feed my distractions.

Oil Study

2011-07-29T09:45:00.002-06:00

I can't believe it's almost August! This means school is less than a month away for me so I thought I'd get a little practice before I start teaching the Oil/watercolor techniques class at UVU here in Utah. I'm really looking forward to learning right along with my class - the emphasis is on experimentation/ innovation. I like to think of it like we're a bunch of mad scientists in our laboratory (pron: La-bore-a-tree) tinkering, combining, creating...basically making a mess and calling it work.

Interview with an ebook programer

2011-07-25T14:34:00.008-06:00

This video is me interviewing my brother in-law, Tom Gilson who has formatted my three ebooks - Monkey & Croc, Tickle Bugs, and Pollywog to Frog. Because I didn't want to gamble with real money I offered him 20% if he would study and program my ebooks. He agreed although he let me know well after the books were making money that he had zero faith that he would ever earn any money on these projects. It doesn't come through on the video because Tom isn't really what you'd call an "animated" personality type but suffice it to say he's been tickled about Tickle Bugs...and of course "Monkey on Crack" as he affectionately puts it and "the frog book". He's made many times over the amount he would have gladly accepted had I been willing to gamble paying him money up front.

I've included a link to my friend Von's FREE ebook tutorial pdf (click here) You have to have Adobe InDesign to use it but from what I hear it's awesome! I personally haven't tried it but knowing Von and his attention to detail I'd bet that you'll have no problem following it and preparing your ebook for upload.

My books are still going strong and selling well - check back in a month or two for some more real sales stats.

iPad Finger Painting

2011-07-07T11:42:00.005-06:00

I'm having way too much fun with the "brushes" app on my ipad. I painted this at a doctors office and in the car waiting for my son and a little while watching old netflix "The Office" episodes with the fam. My favorite Michael Scott line: "Would I rather be feared or loved?...I want people to be afraid of how much they love me."

But back to the ipad - while the touch screen leaves many to complain about the lack of pressure sensitivity I find that an easy work around is just lowering the opacity to almost zero and making lots of little strokes. I love the portability and the fact that I can use it with or without a stylus. Like the title of this post suggests - I never used my stylus to paint this image - only my finger. I was surprised that after a while my finger did actually get a little tender but was fine the next day. My goal was to see how far I could take a digital painting using only my finger. I guess you could say I gave my ipad the finger :)...in a good way. With the ability to zoom in and out so quickly - fixing and smoothing line work was a snap.

I do however feel that the perfect tablet for me would be about half as much bigger than the current ipad size. And pressure sensitivity wouldn't hurt either.

This was the sketch - started and finished on the iPad.

My Books On itunes!

2011-07-01T21:10:00.001-06:00

Also, if you have any questions for Tom on itunes publishing and formatting -just ask here and I'll make sure he answers it in the next interview video.

ebook Success From Across The Pond

2011-06-23T17:52:00.006-06:00

I've been emailing a new friend from the UK - Justin Cook, who has been poking around the internet (like all of us) looking for information on ebooks. I guess he found what he was looking for because he's now published his first ebook and good things are starting to happen for him.

I'll let him tell about it in his own words:

"The book has been a real success since it's release last week with a good opening sell, and daily I am making sales, so that to me is a good start and can only get better. I'd never considered making my own ebook until reading your blog and watching your helpful and inspiring videos. Glad I did as I now have extra income, a larger customer base and lots of inspiration to write many more books on teaching cartooning. I also want to write and illustrate some children's books too, so hoping to start that too very soon.

I teach 2D animation and cartooning via downloadable video courses on my sitewww.seencreative.co.uk and my main program of choice for this is Toon Boom's Animate. Toon Boom have been very supportive of my work and when they saw a copy of the 'How to draw faces' ebook they decided they'd love to include it in with a product launch in the next month for one of their software packages called 'Flip Boom'.

WOW! I never thought about my ebooks possibly sparking other projects or opportunities but I guess it's like that Kevin Costner line: "If you build it they will come." This is so true! I think the tendency for most of us is to wait for the phone to ring. As artists we pour our hearts and souls into the creation of beautiful works...and we want people to find what we do and LIKE IT. The reality is that we need to make it happen. We have to go beyond the creation and find ways to get our message and art out where people can see it.

Justin is a great example of this - he took action - made his book - and created an opportunity beyond the sales of his ebook alone.

99¢ ebooks Good or Bad For Us???

2011-06-16T11:53:00.007-06:00

Ok, where to start? First some facts: Monkey & Croc was indie published on B&N 6 months ago. It's now selling between 100 and 150 copies/day and it's offered for only 99¢. It's now sold over 10k copies and oh yea - This is AMAZING TO ME!!!

But I think this brings up a question that I haven't tackled yet: Is selling 99¢ ebooks hurting the ebook and traditional book markets? If the average picturebook sells from $12 - $15 and the average children's ebook is somewhere between $3-$7 how can 99¢ ebooks be good for anyone?

I think the best answer is that I don't really know. I'm sure I have some haters out there who are disgusted that I was able to bypass the "right way" to take a book to market via a traditional publisher....and I'm sure those same people are probably thinking that the 99¢ price tag is going to further erode our industry. In many ways I have to agree with them. First I would never claim that Monkey & Croc is better for having skipped the editorial process. In fact I'm sure it could have been refined more and given a more interesting sub plot or something to make it more memorable to children - I'm a novice writer at best. And Mathematically selling books for a fraction of the price would have to influence over all book prices to drop over time.

So why do it? Why hurt the very industry I've been a part of for 15 years? I guess my best answer is that I believe that prices are going to fall anyway. That if I don't offer my books for a low price others will cut me out of potential sales. That selling a higher volume will allow me to take advantage of B&N's search algorithms. That if I sell high volume I might be able to see more opportunities in the future due to my books popularity. In the end I believe that like songs and movies - ebooks will eventually end up at the 99¢ price point. An argument can be made that it costs Hollywood millions of dollars and man hours to produce a 2 hour movie that can entertain you for only 99¢ so why do we think that an ebook should be worth more?...and how long can a children's ebook entertain your kids and how much did it cost to produce?

I learned a valuable lesson early in my career as an illustrator. Without getting into too many details illustrators began participating in re-selling their work in stock illustration houses (think stock photography) in the early 90's. About 3 years in illustrators realized that the stock houses were undercutting their prices - so they were effectively cutting themselves out of commission work with their own paintings in the stock houses. A grass roots effort was made to pull their work out of those stock houses in an attempt to keep prices higher for commission work. I was one of the ones who pulled my work and refused to do future business with the stock houses. The ideal was sound and the leaders of the movement were well intentioned and extremely hard working but in the end we lost to the overwhelming support the stock houses received from the masses of illustrators willing to accept their terms.

I had a close friend who was receiving well over $100,000/year just from his stock house checks. His argument at the time was: "While I realize that in the end my participation is causing an erosion in overall illustration prices it doesn't make a lot of sense for me to turn off this amazing stream of income." I enjoyed my moral high ground as I said goodbye to my $25k/year stock house money and both of us remained and still are great friends today.

It took me years but in the end I realized that I probably walked away from hundreds of thousands of dollars over the next 10 years while the stock companies grew and the commissioned editorial and advertising markets virtually disappeared.

I think one of the most interesting phenomenons we see all the time in our country is Walmart. Say the word Walmart at a party and see how many frowns you produce but the truth is they are the biggest brick and mortar retailer period. And some of those same scowling Walmart haters usually find themselves sneaking in for this or that - excuse ready if they run into someone they know.

Price matters - to almost everyone - and in this economy ebooks are becoming more and more attractive to people as they worry about their jobs and inflation. You can hope that people will do what you want them to do but in the end they'll do what's good for them.

I would love to hear you guys weigh in - If you totally disagree with me please comment - I certainly don't have all the answers.

Sneak Preview - Senorita Gordita

2011-06-09T19:38:00.005-06:00

I've been working hard on Helen Ketteman's picture book - Senorita Gordita - a fractured fairly tale of the little ginger bread man story. Set in the south west Helen and I got to revisit the sights, sounds, smells, and flavors that we explored in Armadilly Chili also written by Helen. Instead of a smart alec fast ginger bread man we're dealing with a sassy tell it like it is over confident zippy corn cake - "gordita". Helen has a way with words (duh she's an author) and writes one of the funniest re-tellings of this classic tale. I knew I was going to have a blast illustrating her story when I read it for the first time. I was laughing so hard that my wife had to know what was so funny all the way from the living room.

Senorita Gordita will be out from Albert Whitman towards the end of this year and of course I'll let you know when I get my first copies.

Physical Books VS Indie ebooks

2011-06-05T00:35:00.009-06:00

I just got back from the Utah Festival of Books in Provo where I spoke on a panel and the discussion of ebooks came up which inspired this weeks blog post.

Since I’m a lover of both physical and ebooks - I don’t have a favorite but I think it’s always good to analyze them both for their advantages and disadvantages. I decided to list both pros and cons from the consumer point of view as well as the author/illustrator point of view if working with a traditional publisher vs indie publishing ebooks. If I miss some points please help me by adding your insights as I know I’ll have a different list than some of you. So here we go...

Physical Books Pros:
Having a tangible artifact
Larger format for illustrations
Better legibility in strong light
Gift-ability
Developing a physical library
Guaranteed advance against royalties
Eligible for Caldecott and other medals
Inclusion in school & public libraries
Can be signed
More prestigious
Edited by professionals
Marketed by professionals

Cons:
Expensive to purchase
Expensive to publish
Can get damaged/ lost
Hard to see in dim light
Heavy - unwieldy
Less Eco friendly
Limited to multiples of 4 page counts
Travel to purchase/ wait for delivery
Can go out of print

ebook pros:
Inexpensive to purchase
Inexpensive to publish
Disaster Proof/ download from your account
Reading in the dark
Light weight - easy to carry thousands of titles
Eco friendly
Search-able
Adjustable font size
Interactivity
Unlimited page counts
Publishing freedom/autonomy
Update-able
Instant delivery
Quicker to market/ royalties
Never goes out of print

ebook cons:
No physical artifact
Comparatively small viewing area
Hard to view in strong light
Not as gift-able
Less ownership pride
No guarantee of earnings
Not eligible for most book awards
Can’t be checked out at the library
Can’t be signed
Less prestigious
Self edited
Self programed
Self marketed

How Do I know if I'm getting ripped off?

2011-05-28T20:23:00.003-06:00

Monster ebook Junkies! - Von and Kari Brimhall

2011-05-22T01:05:00.013-06:00

Von and Kari Brimhall have gone completely nuts on ebooks! They are two of my very best friends from college and have always been into art and design. We had a conversation a few months ago about producing ebooks and they opened the flood gates on their creativity. Together they've created 27 - YES! - 27 ebooks in about 4 months but I'll let them tell you more about that below. Von is a computer geek and has a great full time gig working for the chain saw company Stihl and Kari is a home schooler, storyteller, and artist and they have a gaggle of successful kids.

Before you read their letter you have to check out the amazing tutorial Von has made for anyone to download and make their own ebooks - he's made it available for free right here - click to download. If programing your own ebooks sounds scary you have to check out Von's step by step tutorial - he makes it really easy for you.

Von and Kari are proving that if you have ideas, motivation, and hard work you can realize your dreams in this new medium. Have a look at their titles and read a little about their new journey.

We've been friends will Will Terry for years and avid fans of his art! When he posted his two awesome video series How to Illustrate Children’s Books and Digital Painting in Photoshop, we signed right up! Both my husband and I like to draw and paint, and I love to write. Just watching the videos opened our eyes to all kinds of possibilities.

We instantly pulled out a story that I had told for years to our children when they were young... and Von started drawing and painting--digitally! We couldn't believe how fun and easy it was. Thus, our first eBook was born! Freddie Frog is Hungry was so exciting to share with friends that we decided to take the plunge and upload it to Barnes and Noble.com.

This is not my first book, I have self published and still have copies of a fabulous book in the garage...just waiting for a market. Having Barnes and Noble sell our books is great. They take care of the money end of things and I take care of the marketing. Writing eBooks is very nice--the expense of self-publishing and printing, then marketing and working out prices, taxes, mailing to customers, and buying all the supplies that go with it, etc. is a thing of the past. With eBooks, you don't have boxes in the garage of unsold books.

All of our Nook Books are available for sale on Barnes and Noble.com. We currenly have 27 eBooks for sale and more on the way! Our target demographic is 0-6 years old so these are all books that parents would be reading to and with their children. Besides being clever, our eBooks have an educational slant to them. They include learning basic colors, numbers, animals, seasons, the alphabet, etc.

We're not selling large volumes like Will yet, but we're working on it. If you would like to see what our eBooks are like you can download a free a PDF version of our eBook 'Who Says Moo?' right here. If you are interested in how we make our eBooks, you http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifcan download a detailed PDF tutorial that my husband wrote at http://vonlogan.com/sunshine/indesign.html . It describes how to create illustrated children's eBooks using Adobe InDesign.

Hope you enjoy it and go on to create your own fabulous eBooks.

-Kari Brimhall

I'm Done Learning!

2011-05-13T19:39:00.006-06:00

I'm so glad I don't have to learn anymore! After all I've been a professional illustrator for 19 years now, and I think I'm entitled to a break from improvement!

Of course I'm kidding. One of my core beliefs is that we can never stop learning and so last fall I started taking figure drawing classes for the first time since my college days 20 years ago. Between my illustration classes I've been sneaking into Don Seegmiller and Perry Stuart's figure drawing classes at UVU here in Utah. Both are very talented artists and teachers and I have to admit I was a bit nervous because I'm supposed to be a colleague right? Now what I should be doing is posting my first drawing in that class last fall but I stuffed it into the garbage while nobody was looking. It was awful. I had that warm flushed feeling of shame and embarrassment. How could I be a college art teacher and produce something so poor.

It was after that first drawing that I resolved to make it to their classes as often as I could to finally learn to draw the figure. I must say that not only has it been extremely rewarding to produce drawings that I'm proud of but it's also helped my everyday sketching. So I encourage all of you to break out of your comfort zone and learn something new.

Sales Data on Pubit

2011-05-07T22:06:00.006-06:00

If you've been following my blog you know I've been spending a lot of time writing and illustrating and then publishing my own ebooks. My first experience with itunes was a bit disappointing as sales for Monkey and Croc have dropped, Amazon is in limbo since they haven't released a color kindle yet, finally have my books on Google, but Barnes & Noble has been a pleasant surprise. I'm posting my sales reports for the last two days from Barnes and Noble's Pubit site so you can decide if it's something you wish to pursue. I may look at this data and see one thing while you might see something totally different.

I don't think it's a coincidence that Monkey and Croc is doing the best since it was uploaded first. However I did spend twice as much time on it as I did the other two. Also, I think it's important to note that Monkey and Croc has more of a "story" feel while the other two perhaps don't. It's really hard to know whether investing time in an ebook will pay off or not but I'm posting my results so you might have a better idea if it's for you.

Again, these are my sales figures for the last two days which have been trending up for the past two months. I can tell you that usually each day is very similar to the day before so when you're trending up or down it usually goes gradually. However sometimes B&N will make a major change to their site and you will see a greater change. One of the reasons Monkey and Croc is doing well now is that B&N added a category that you can only see on the Nook called something like: "hot deals" of which they added Monkey and Croc.

Of course I hope that these figures continue for years to come (I never imagined getting over $100/day) but of course most good things come to an end and I've never been the lucky type. Anyway as always good luck in your ebook projects! I know many of you are working on ebooks right now and I hope to see your books out there as I cruise around the internet.

Acrylic Painting Video Series

2011-05-02T21:34:00.008-06:00

So school got out last week and I used my extra time to produce another video series - Acrylic Painting. I've wanted to do this now for several months. I'm still amazed at how amazing the internet is - I almost think that it's a blessing to have grown up without it. I don't think my kids appreciate it as much as I do.
Anyway, the internet has made it possible for me to share what I've learned as an illustrator and instead of the frustrations of trying to explain how to dry brush I can now show it. In the videos I take the painting you see above from start to finish in real time. I didn't speed this one up so anyone viewing it can see exactly how you can dry brush with acrylic paint. I start it with a sketch, transfer to paper, add acrylic texture, under-painting (or Grisaille), and finally the finished painting using wet paint, glazes, and dry brushing. I talk about everything from materials to design.

I often hear my students complain about how much they HATE acrylics - I tell them, "It's because you want them to do something that they aren't good for." In these videos I'll show you why acrylics have been the workhorse medium for illustrators world wide.

I also included two bonus videos - two different approaches to using acrylics: Painterly and cross hatching. I really hope these videos are helpful to anyone trying to learn how to paint with acrylics! Click here for more information.

News On B&N ebook Publishing

2011-04-22T13:06:00.002-06:00

Some quick updates on my experience on Barnes and Noble.com. Unfortunately due to my workload right now I have to make this a quick update and so I didn't compile the great information you guys have been sending in to me on publishing sites and software. If you're new to reading and watching my videos on ebooks please check out the great comments below and below other posts - that contain some of this hard to find information.

New Portfolio Piece - YA Cover

2011-04-13T21:23:00.002-06:00

Here's another piece for my portfolio - I love creating a piece out of nothing. I started with photo reference of lizards and went from there.

Part 2 - ebooks Formatting etc.

2011-04-09T12:25:00.004-06:00

This is a continuation of our discussion here on ebooks. Since this is such a new industry the only way we can get good information is to share what we learn with eachother. I'm putting together what I've learned in video form and answering questions as best I can with what I've learned. If you have any information that would benefit authors and illustrators I'd love to hear from you.

In this video you'll see what my back office looks like on the "Pubit" Barnes and Noble site.

Part1 - ebooks - Are they worth making?

2011-04-04T16:01:00.003-06:00

Last week I got an email from Illustrator Laura Zarrin asking if I thought publishing my own children's ebooks is financially worth the time. I've published 3 of my own ebooks in the last 4 months and have learned so much in doing so. There was too much information to type out in an email so I thought I would just make a video and answer her question here. I hope this helps anyone contemplating this decision. If anyone has an more questions just leave a comment and I'll try to answer it.

Portfolio Work

2011-04-01T01:09:00.007-06:00

I gave my Illustration 1 class this assignment:

Setting: Castle
content: One human figure
Concept: "Something's coming"

I was sketching at the in-laws and started working on it - liked it - decided to render it for my portfolio. I don't get young adult cover work so I thought I'd try to expand my portfolio to possibly attract some.

I was inspired by one of my students concepts - I hope he takes this as a compliment.

My Painting Class - Art Puzzle

2011-03-28T10:27:00.004-06:00

Just for fun I took a picture of my mentor- Perry Stuart an amazing illustrator and figure artist and teacher at UVU. I enlarged it, printed it, mounted it on foam board, textured it, and cut it into pieces. The video begins with the pieces being handed out so my students could begin painting on top of the cut up photo. The fun part was watching them piece it together at the end. They had no idea it was a portrait of Perry.

Perry just started a new blog on figure drawing - check it out here!

Pollywog To Frog

2011-03-22T22:27:00.007-06:00

I just released another ebook on Barnes and noble.com! My other books have really been encouraging. There are two things I really like about ebooks: 1) I love to draw fun simple little characters and 2) I like to be able to pay my bills. Publishing my own ebooks in my "spare" time allows me to do both. I carry my sketch book everywhere and so if I'm not writing I'm sketching and vice versa. Pollywog was written in the few hours I have in-between the two college classes I teach and the digital paintings were done in-between assignments.

One of the best things we can do as artists and business people is develop passive streams of income. The ability to earn money while you're sleeping, playing, or working on other projects is a really cool thing. I'm already working on my next ebook.

If any of you feel comfortable illustrating but not writing and would want to work on producing an ebook I have a professional well known author who would love you to take one of his manuscripts and turn it into an ebook. My brother in law is also available to take the finished jpeg files and produce the epub files necessary to publish your work. Just email me off list if you're interested: will@willterry.com

Just For Fun!

2011-03-16T11:33:00.006-06:00

Last night I decided to avoid working on the projects that pay real money and do something just for fun. I painted this in photoshop last night sitting in our new recliner watching "The Thing" (1982 John Carpenter version)with my boys. I rendered it on my little netbook just to see how far I could take an image on that little $248 computer. Technology is getting really affordable for everyone.

I combined the background photo (google images) with my rendering to save time. FYI I would never do this for a paying client - I don't like confrontations, threats, law suits, etc. :)

What Flavor Are You?

2011-03-08T22:33:00.004-07:00

I've been a freelance illustrator for almost 20 years and for the first 17 it was business as usual. In the last three years I've seen more changes in our industry than ever before. In some ways I must confess that if given the choice to see big changes or keep business as usual I would have ignorantly chosen the latter. Change isn't fun. Change is usually painful. Change is scary because not knowing feels insecure and most of us crave security. But the reality is that change is on the menu to stay - so our choices are to dine or leave the restaurant and starve.

In the past you were odd if you called yourself a freelancer. To most of the "normal" 9-5 crowd a freelancer was synonymous with freeloader or at best someone living on the fringe. Over time freelancers became more mainstream. Most freelancers (myself included)own their job. In other words, they get an assignment from a company and then through their skills, crafts, or abilities satisfy that assignment. If they aren't working they usually aren't earning so while they have more freedom they still have to work to earn.

Now we're seeing a whole new job description - The artist as "The Product". Greg Spalenka a world renowned illustrator calls it "Artist as Brand". In the past and present artist relied on companies to function as the liaison between them and the consumer. For gallery artists it was the gallery. For book illustrators - the publisher. For video game artists - the studio. These entities provide big money to produce and market products using art - the kind of money few artists could generate or commit themselves. The artist's risk is time - the companies risk is money. A symbiotic relationship that was virtually the only way - until now.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying that the days of these entities are over by any means but their roles are changing very quickly. The internet has in many ways leveled the playing field. Artist now have a direct line to the consumers of the products they create. Never before in the history of the world have artists had the opportunity to reach their audiences so efficiently. If you're a fine artist you can develop a following through social networking, blogging, emailing, etc. The same is true for children's book illustrators, art book artists, graphic novel and comic artists, art educators and so on. You say you want to produce your own video game? What's stopping you? Many iphone games are now being produced by solo tech savvy artists or artists teamed up with a tech person. A simple upload to itunes and if the game is good they could start raking it in.

The idea is that you can no longer use "nobody will hire me" as an excuse not to produce your own products. Many companies will go out of business in the near future. Many will adapt and thrive. For me I'm looking at each new request for my services in a different light. I'm trying to balance my freelance assignment time with time spent on producing my own projects.

I've realized that even though I've been illustrating children's books for over a decade and sold over 750,000 books (all combined) a very small percentage of my audience associates Will Terry with the books I've illustrated. This is a huge problem! We usually buy name brand products because people associate the brand with quality. I need to be constantly working on the Will Terry brand and for me one of the easiest ways to do that is to also start to write some of the books I illustrate. The reality is that it's an authors world and illustrators really take a back seat in many ways. As I see it an illustrator can complain or become an author.

Last year as I was getting my brain around the changes I was seeing in art related industries I became frightened and depressed. The insecurity was really getting to me. Now that I've started to take control of my own branding I'm finding the future exciting and I'm always thinking of new ways to take advantage of the technology that has fallen in our laps.

New Book with Helen Ketteman

2011-03-02T11:16:00.008-07:00

So these are some character sketches from the new book I'm working on with Helen Ketteman - author of Armadilly Chili and The Three Little Gators among many others. This book is due out next year from Albert Whitman. Senorita Gordita is a re-telling of the little ginger bread man story in a south west flavor. It's full of fun characters and desert imagery and plenty of fun chase scenes. In short - I'm having way too much fun to be getting paid - don't tell A.W.

Michelle Bayuk answers your questions.

2011-02-25T14:27:00.005-07:00

I'll start by asking the first question: Michelle, what kind of mistakes do you see beginning illustrators or for that matter professional illustrators make as far as the business side of their careers?...and don't use my name :)

Michelle: I think that authors and illustrators forget that it is a business and they are the lead spokesperson. And yes, you are creating art, but in the end, you need people to buy it. Do tell people about the book, even if it seems awkward. Have your publishers information handy. Have your author visit information handy. Always have a business card with you. Of course, you shouldn’t become that person who can only talk about their book, but there is a happy medium. Most people you meet would love to know. Oh, and don’t get too caught up in reviews and Amazon comments.

Mighty Kwan said...

Michelle, with so many social arenas open for self promotion, what are the best ways for an artist to promote and sell their own brand and identity? Are things like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and DeviantArt preaching to the choir? Or are there other means of promotion that artists don't use as effectively as they could or should?

-Wilson

First of all, you do have to spend time preaching to the choir – especially when it’s a big choir. If you’re a new author or illustrator, the best place to build a fan base is with people who are already fans of your genre. If you’re established, your fan base needs to know when you have a new book. So, yes, you need to spend time on social media…BUT! You don’t have to do all of them and you shouldn’t be spending hours a day. After all, you do need to work on your next book. My suggestion is to start with one and see how it goes. All the various media have their own personalities and so do you. Find the one (or ones) that fit.

Basically, authors and illustrators need to be out there. You are the best spokesperson for you work…period. No matter how good a publicist is, they will never know your work better than you do. This used to be done through media tours and answering fan mail. Now, you can stay home more…but you still need to accept speaking engagements and go to conferences and other book events. You need to be part of the community, whether it’s online or in person.

Jack Foster said...

Hey Will, thanks for having Michelle on... and thank you so much Michelle for taking the time to answer questions.

Michelle, from the illustration side of children’s books, what would be the single most marketable aspect of an illustrator’s portfolio. I know that character design, style, color and quality all work together, but is there ONE thing that floats to the top? Also, I do not have an agent..... should I be considering one?

I know it sounds simple, but the ability to tell a story with your pictures. The best picture books have stories in both the words and the pictures. The illustrations are not necessarily literal interpretations of the text. If you haven’t already, go to the library and/or bookstore (preferably several and often) and take down 20 picture books. Sort them into piles of “doesn’t work” “almost works” “works” and “really works.” You’ll find a very diverse group of styles in each pile. Your job is to emulate the magic that makes the “really works” really work.

As for what I need as a marketer – a great book with eye-catching illustrations. Vague enough for you?

And then, speed. Publishers like illustrators that meet deadlines.

And yes, agents make life easier. It’s not always necessary, but it allows you to spend more of your time on the books, less on the paperwork. If you don’t have an agent, definitely have any and all contracts looked at by a lawyer that specializes in entertainment/publishing. You need to understand what you’re agreeing to and what you’ll get in return.

Marion Eldridge said...

Thank you, Michelle and Will for doing this!

MIchelle, I wondered if you could tell us a couple of characteristics of your dream picturebook from a marketing perspective. Or, maybe what types of books are in demand from a marketing point of view. Or, which are the easist to market. For example, holiday books, humorous books, etc. Sorry if that is three questions in one. Whatever is easiest to answer would be a great help!

Well, my dream picture book has amazing illustration and text and kids demand that it be read again and again—not very specific, am I? I think those perfect picture books are few and far between because magic is hard to capture. Artists should concentrate on finding and following a vision. As for what’s easiest to market – a new picture book by a New York Times bestselling illustrator or author! Other than author or illustrator name recognition, books with good hooks can be easier – back to school, holiday, cancer, bullying, etc. But there’s a big caveat, it still needs to be a good book and just because the topic is hot today, doesn’t mean it will be hot when the book is ready.

Phyllis Harris said...

Thanks for this opportunity, Will! This is timely since I just sent off a post card yesterday to Albert Whitman...well, actually it was the second time since I didn't realize Albert Whitman had moved to a new location and it came back in the mail. Oops! But anyway, I am an illustrator and I usually send post cards quarterly to clients I have worked with or would like to work with. I have been told to send post cards to either editors or art directors so I sent mine to Abby Levine. Does the editorial staff or the art director choose the illustrator for a project or is it more of a collaboration?

It’s definitely more of a collaboration. Our art director did a blog post you can find here -- http://albertwhitman.wordpress.com/2010/08/19/illustration-station-qa-with-an-art-director/

Thanks for participating guys - this was fun - and thanks Michelle for being so gracious and willing! You can visit Albert Whitman's blog right here!

Michelle Bayuk answers your questions!

2011-02-18T00:18:00.002-07:00

Today I have a treat for you - Michelle Bayuk (Director of Marketing for Albert Whitman & Company) has agreed to answer questions from any of you. She is NOT an editor but she can answer questions related to publishing and specifically marketing in this crazy world of children's books. Albert Whitman has been very good to me over the years and I am now working on my sixth book with them. They have quite a track record from their early beginnings in 1919 they've seen their fair share of successes including the very popular "Box Car Children" series (which my mom read to me as a child).

Before coming to A.W. she served as the Marketing Director for the Children's Book Council as well as marketing and publicity positions at several other children’s book publishers, including Millbrook Press and Scholastic.

She's very qualified and very gracious to agree to answer questions you may have. So you can leave a question in the comments and in a few days I'll post her responses in another post.

I'll start by asking the first question: Michelle, what kind of mistakes do you see beginning illustrators or for that matter professional illustrators make as far as the business side of their careers?...and don't use my name :)

You have to unplug!

2011-02-12T17:46:00.001-07:00

NEW BOOK - "Tickle Bugs" !

2011-02-09T00:28:00.012-07:00

Oops I did it again - I couldn't help it - I had to make another ebook! Monkey & Croc has been doing so well that I've been moonlighting as a second illustrator - the one that doesn't sleep. I'm thinking I need to see one of those mad scientists like Michael Keaton did in the movie "Multiplicity" - I could use a few extra me's around to get everything done.

Tickle bugs is an attempt to explore a much simpler ebook void of backgrounds and complete with very simple characters. The audience is extremely targeted to the teething ring and diaper crowd. If you're wearing pull ups and sucking on a pacifier you just might like Tickle Bugs.

It's so much fun to take an idea from concept to finished product and published!!! in less than a month!!! We'll see if Tickle bugs can climb up the search ranking as fast as Monkey & Croc - I have a feeling that it will get progressively harder to get the same attention but I have to keep trying. The idea of author/illustrator as brand is way too exciting.

Tickle Bugs doesn't wiggle but if the reader holding the toddler is on the ball the little tike will be giggling at the end. Tickle Bugs is available at Barnes and Noble - click here.

Book Signing in L.A. for the CTA

2011-02-06T07:58:00.011-07:00

Well I just finished signing books again for the CTA (California Teachers Association)in L.A. I blogged about this last year (click here if you want to read more in greater detail). Basically I was chosen to be the CTA illustrator in conjunction with "Read Across America" and the CTA chose Armadilly Chili to be their "RAA" book for the state of California for 2010-2011. Its such a great gig because they print up posters, conference folders, pencils, stickers, and for Armadilly - mugs, T-shirts, a plush Tex, and even an apron. Also, this year Helen Ketteman the author of Armadilly Chili was there to sign books and she's a hoot. This woman has more energy than the sun!

We signed books Friday evening and then were up at the crack of dawn to sign books all day Saturday. About 1000 teacher reps fly in from all over the state for their council meeting and most of them buy the books to take back to their districts for the upcoming read across America day on March 2nd. I was so lucky to get this opportunity!

My good buddy Wayne came with me to share in the fun - we also stopped in Vegas to visit family.

Now back to work - another book that Helen wrote - "Senorita Gordita" a retelling of the little ginger bread man story due out in 2012 by Albert Whitman.

Digital VS Traditional

2011-02-02T22:07:00.002-07:00

This was a little mouse doodle in my sketchbook that I painted in Photoshop and posted a few weeks ago. Yesterday I painted it in acrylic as a demo for my Media and Techniques class at UVU. I thought it would be kind of neat to do a side by side comparison. I paint so dry that I just lightly put some Liquitex heavy gel medium down right in my sketchbook and painted him there. I like having a few paintings in my sketchbook - I always have a few finished pieces with me wherever I go.

Digital Painting In Photoshop - video series by Will Terry

2011-01-29T21:44:00.013-07:00

So anyway, I had such a great response to my "How to Illustrate Children's Books" video series that I decided to make another series that explains in detail how I paint in Photoshop. I've had many requests over the last few years to actually make a tutorial on painting in acrylic but I never got around to it. So about a year ago I was introduced to digital painting by Jed Henry - a young illustration graduate and promising new upstart (He's already sold two books to major New York Publishers. His generosity in helping me learn how to re-create my acrylic style digitally will never be forgotten! So I'm sorry to report that I probably won't be doing any tutorials in acrylic painting but you never know.

In these videos I go from sketch to finish describing processes like: making and importing a texture, under-painting, value, brushes, layering, design, and many other aspects of coming up with your own personal way of thinking and working. If you want to know how I paint from start to finish you might be interested in these videos.

Just to be clear - these videos are not a general "How To" in Photoshop but rather a "How Will Terry fumbles his way into a digital painting with a very limited knowledge of photoshop" In other words you could say these are photoshop videos for dummies like me. I try to use as few tools as possible because part of my philosophy is simplicity and reduction lead to purity and essence.

Above is the digital painting that I start and finish in the videos so if you hate that painting DON'T BUY THE VIDEOS! :) Click here to purchase the videos.

Drawing For Kids - video series for preK - 3rd

2011-01-20T10:23:00.007-07:00

Ok, This is totally embarrassing but I'm putting it up here because it fits with the whole children's book theme of this blog. Be prepared - you're going to see some bad acting. Someone long ago should have told me to take acting courses because you almost need those skills to keep kids engaged...either that or just act stupid. My sister Ellen is a reading specialist in Maryland and she's always telling me how lame some peoples school visits are. In her words, "No, Will, you have no idea...the guy read in a monotone voice material that was way above grade level and had no pictures to show"..."Then he talked to 1st graders like they were adults...the kids were squirming almost as much as the teachers!"

So, enter my series, "Drawing For Kids". My idea was simple - use the fast evolving internet marketing idea of providing value and driving traffic to your website. Seems simple but in the back of my mind I'm thinking, "This is a lot of effort with no guaranteed return."

Earlier last year I had a conversation with myself and decided to agree on a mission statement for myself. What we came up with was less than earth shattering but satisfying for me and the voice inside: 1) Create the best art I can. 2) Be smart with my time. 3) Provide value to the world. 4) Help others to realize their dreams.
The rules are simple but not always that easy to follow. But making these videos clearly fit into number 4 so I decided to put them out there for free and hope that teachers could find them.

I'm not going to pretend that I'm not hopeful that by having my books and website in the background I sell more books and get more paying school visits - but the main purpose of these videos is to teach children. I've seen too many attempts to create value but then muck it up with a crass commercial interruption that leaves the viewer feeling like the whole thing was a waste of time. Anyway Making this took the better part of a weekend and now that they are finished I can sit back and smile every time a teacher sends me their students artwork - so far three different teachers have sent in their students work - that's a huge payoff!

You can view all 5 videos here: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=0455BA1360AC306D

Also I have a new teacher section on my website: http://www.willterry.com/kidscourse.html

The Great Digital Land Rush!

2011-01-14T20:12:00.017-07:00

Disclaimer: I'm no expert here - but I have to share what I've learned both as encouragement and as a warning. The encouragement is to help you find the motivation to start publishing your stories and illustrations digitally. The warning is that if you don't do it soon you might have regrets in a year or two or sooner.

I've been doing a lot of reading of various blogs and web pages about self publishing digitally and most agree that we are seeing a change in publishing the likes of which we haven't seen in our life times. Until now the gate keepers have been large traditional publishers. They held the keys because they could afford to put up the tens of thousands of dollars to print large runs of picturebooks. Also, they had established complicated distribution channels that an individual author/illustrator would be hard pressed to compete with. Most of this hasn't changed. The day of the large publisher is definitely NOT over and I'm glad - I like the publishers I work with and most of them have been very good to me.

What has changed is how inexpensive it is to publish your work which means that one of the two cards publishers held has evaporated. Now the only real advantage a large publisher has is a distribution channel. I'm not underestimating how important this channel is either. Large traditional publishers have relationships with stores that you and I do not. They have publicists working for them to promote our books and editors to polish the final products. They have customers that they've established long before you or I ever worked with them. They know the business better than us. They submit our books to all the major book awards and from what I've been told that list is well over 200. Imagine trying to research, compile, address, and pay for 200 give away books and shipping just to put them in the hands of jurors who probably won't pick your book anyway. And I'm sure there are a lot more things that they do that I'm overlooking.

Having Said all that - I still see a huge opportunity that isn't going to last forever. Like the Oklahoma pan handle rush of 1889 there was opportunity for a limited time and then it was OVER. For the first time in our lives a new platform is emerging that is giving the early birds a distinct advantage. I'm sure that you've all thought about ebooks - I have been for the past year or more. However, I never realized how important it is to be first to market until I started reading and researching. It only takes an hour or so poking around on Amazon or Barnes and Noble to see self published books doing extremely well. One in particular featuring a dragon has been flirting with number one in ebooks on B&N for the last month.

If you've been reading my blog you know that I just published my first ebook - Monkey & Croc and that it's doing pretty well on B&N. The only reason it's doing as well as it is - is because of the lack of competition. Right now there are a little over 500 ebooks for children ages 3-5 on B&N. Crazy right? Think of how many thousands of books there are in hard copy in that group. Look, I don't even own an ereader but you can't ignore this new format - it's coming on strong. Amazon says that for any particular book that they sell in physical format - they sell 48 digital copies of the same book. That number is growing every month.

Aside for being early to market you can afford to sell an ebook for only a few dollars because the only cost you have is your time. Right now the big publishers are selling their ebooks in most cases for about the same price as their hardbacks. This is another reason to get your book to market quickly. While they sell their books high - we can sell ours low and create an advantage for the buyer. Think about it...if you bought a new ereader or ipad and you wanted to load it with content wouldn't you gamble on a few unproven $2 and $3 books since the alternatives are $12.99 books that you might already own?

My belief is that if you can create a following due to timing - your book could gain the kind of momentum that could build a franchise. If this happens there's also a good chance that a traditional publisher would want to buy your book and print hard copies. Another option is that you incorporate a print on demand publisher and offer hard copies on your own. Either way the future is bright for self published books. I think that there will always be a place for large publishers but now there is a much larger place for self publishers.

Some drawbacks: You won't have the benefit of an editor and this places a great responsibility back on your shoulders. My suggestion is to acquire the help of a professional writer and/or join a critique group that can help you polish your story. Another obstacle is finding software that will easily let you turn your jpeg images into an ebook. This was a very frustrating process for me and without the help of my brother in law I don't think I would have been able to release Monkey & Croc. There has been talk about Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and Itunes holding back publishing software and only releasing it to large publishers. Monkey & Croc suffered a bit with a few minor hiccups because we couldn't get that software. I think that this will soon change as open source programs become available. Where there is a need someone will fill it.

I published Monkey & Croc on Barnes and Noble's Pubit.com site. They take 35% of every sale but they give you an account for free and you can check your sales in your back office any time you like. It's neat to go in and check every day or so. My friend Julie Olsen and her husband Rhet are developing an app for Monkey & Croc for the itunes store.

Finally for those who don't think that parents won't turn their kids loose with an expensive ereader to beat up you're right. However think of the advantages - Carrying an unlimited amount of picturebooks on a plane, train, or automobile will keep kids passified much longer than the few books parents can carry in hard copy form. And how nice will it be for the parents who have long commutes with children in tow to and from day cares. How long do you think it will be before they develop the kid proof ereader? I suspect it's around the corner.

At the beginning of my illustration career I was asked to complete an illustration about email - I asked the art director, "What is email". It's happening now.

The Artist In Me

2011-01-08T01:35:00.010-07:00

I don't know if you can see it but that little boy has an artist trying to find it's way out. My parents should have known when I took apart my brand new transistor radio. My sisters should have known when I removed their barbie doll heads - it wasn't that I took pleasure in the removal of the heads. It was seeing how many different reactions I could create in their emotions. By the time my motor skills really developed I painted my masterpiece - Three barbie dolls owned by three different sisters all coming off at the same time. Magnifique!

Without boring you with all the details I had a pretty typical American exposure to art in junior high and high school. I was always pretty good but there were always those who were much better.

Making it into college was a challenge - I really didn't fit in the one size is supposed to fit all public school system. I had quite a bit of trouble with reading comprehension, science and history always netted below average grades and forget about math...that left art and music...the only two bright spots on my report card.

On the other hand the little girl in the picture was destined for academic honors...if you look close you can see that she knows it too. :) (Love you Beth- look what she does!)

So on to college and more bad grades in english, history, science, and math - what's new right? Art on the other hand was still keeping me in the game with my grades. Kind of like adding base to acid. (I did remember that from science class)

Then...upon applying for the BFA at BYU I distinctly remember hearing the earth crack as I was barely allowed in on probation. PROBATION???!!! in art??? but I'm supposed to be good at art - at least that's what everyone had been telling me. How could this be? If not art then what?

I finally had to come to terms with the fact that my past effort had taken me as far as I could coast. It was time to admit that I wasn't the savant I thought I was. That I had to get to work - that I had to humble myself and start listening and learning from my teachers - mainly Richard Hull and Bob Barrett - also Rob Colvin. If not for them I wouldn't be able to enjoy a successful illustration career. (Ironically I was later hired to teach part time at BYU by Richard Hull)

One of the reasons I wanted to release my "How To Illustrate Children's Books" video series is to help others learn those very important principles that can be the difference between success and failure. I know how frustrating it is to wallow in depression when a piece doesn't work out....when you spend a lot of time on an image and you wish you had never started it. I know what it's like to try to talk yourself into liking your own work. And I know what it feels like when you show a new piece to someone and their facial expressions just can't lie as good as their lips....and how when you work and re-work a piece and re-work it some more you want to smash it and scream. Been there. I'll admit it I've shed real tears over my art and I don't cry very often...although "Driving Miss Daisey" gets me every time.

I wanted to post this as encouragement to my fellow artists - and leave you with this: I've realized that all those frustrations, emotions, disappointments and tears have led to one happy camper. I love my job. :)

How To Illustrate Children's Books

2011-01-04T02:07:00.016-07:00

I'm so pleased to announce my new video series - "How to Illustrate Children's Books".

I made these videos while my kids played xbox and my wife caught up on her reading. It was a choice between relaxing doing dishes, cleaning bathrooms, and taking my turn cooking OR...Making a video series. It was a toss up - on one hand I'd get the satisfaction of cleaning and watching my kids mess it up again or creating something that I've been thinking about for quite some time.

I've put quite a bit of work into my college picture book class but I always thought I could do more with it. In class the images that I show are static and often leave me feeling that I could have done better. Video is a much better medium for showing someone exactly what you mean in many cases. Don't get me wrong - I demo in my classes but sometimes you just aren't prepared or equipped to do exactly what you want. I've tried to include just about every aspect of the children's book making process in this series to provide viewers with a basic knowledge of what they need to work on.

It's definitely not perfect but I'm proud of the work I put into it and hope that it brightens the lives of those who want to learn more about narrative illustration. Perhaps this isn't your cup of tea but if you know anyone who might appreciate it send them a link - I can't wait to get feedback!

Monkey & Croc Book Release!!!

2010-12-18T19:32:00.016-07:00

I'm so proud to announce the release of my new ebook Monkey & Croc! I've had so much fun making this book and getting it ready before Christmas. I also had way too much fun with the trailer - I think I've watched too many movies. I now have the beginnings of a store on my site and you can download a PDF version of this book if you look over to the upper left side of my blog. If you happen to have a Barnes and Noble Nook ereader you can by this book from barnesandnoble.com Also Julie Olsen and her husband are working on an iphone and ipad app to release this book on itunes soon. I'm undecided whether to sell my book on Amazon right now - the kindle is still black and white and it looks like there is no color version in sight right now.

I'm not planning on publishing a hard copy version of this story on my own. Perhaps if it does well someone will want to offer it fully bound but until then it will only be in electronic form.

I really wanted to explore this new digital format and basically kick the tires on what's available right now. I've learned a lot in this process and have many more ideas for future books. Monkey and Croc has just begun but I have a feeling you'll be seeing more of them in the future.

I couldn't have done this without the help of my critique group - Brotique - I heavily rely on their help to tell me when my stories aren't any good. Like any good group of guys they don't sugar coat it - an average critique might sound like this: "dude - that sucks" or "ummmm - what were you thinkin???" Check out the Bros at Brotique.

Text Book Covers for Innovatus

2010-12-15T21:34:00.002-07:00

This year I painted 9 textbook covers for Innovatus in acrylic. It was a really fun project and I got to work with Karen Steinberg who I had worked with over 10 years ago when she was at Harcourt. It was interesting coming up with "acceptable animals" - apparently not all animals are created equal in educational publishing...some come with baggage. In some countries certain animals are sacred and yet others are "dirty" and not fit for the classroom. It was a challenge finding usable animals without repeating.

Also I found it funny that in this cover the animals absolutely had to wear helmets for safety but were allowed to desecrate natural arches with their combustion engine desert machines - up to a $5,000 fine in a national park.

Prehistoric Headstone

2010-12-10T04:16:00.006-07:00

I was sketching in my sketchbook this week and this just kind of happened...I hadn't painted a pile of rocks before so of course I had to find out what it would look like in color. I say paint but of course I used photoshop - still feels like painting to me. Then the next logical step was to make it into a video. I sent it to my sister Beth who said its boring, "make something move or something cool". So I did. This is my prehistoric headstone - I have no idea what is buried beneath or who the kid is - seriously - weird things happen when you just start drawing.

Hansel and Gretel images are in!

2010-12-08T09:58:00.035-07:00

Well today is the day - I'll be adding images as I receive them. If you haven't been following over the past few weeks I decided to post images from anyone who wanted to participate in the assignment I gave my college class. To catch up - scroll down and find the first post on November 8th. It's always very interesting to see the variation in style and concept that comes from different artists. I was going to try to finish an image for this assignment but ran out of time and got a nasty cold as well. That's my excuse - good story huh?

I'm going to give a few observations for each piece but I won't be able to give a comprehensive critique on all of these images. I think it would be great if you guys want to give your opinions as well - I only ask that you do it tastefully. Art is so subjective and I certainly don't have all the answers. Stripped of innuendo a typed comment can easily come off the wrong way and we don't want anyone to feel worse for having participated. Lets make it fun!

Really nice work Cameron - strong overall design and a fun twist on the story. The layout is easy to read and understand - I think the concept would work even better if the girl was eating closer to the boy. Hansel and Gretel are in some ways one character as far as the story goes and separating them begins to turn ambiguous. I also think it would be good to be able to tell that the house is made of ginger bread or graham cracker or something like that - perhaps icing could be seen in the seams.

This piece comes from Von Brimhall and would make a nice vignette in the story. You have a nice feel for creating energy in the bird and great contrast between the bird and background. I think you could create a more subtle transition to black again or fade to white. The scratches above and behind the bird are really bold - they draw attention when they should help create relief. More detail on the feet would help to finish this into a really nice piece!

Andrew Finnie has a hauntingly beautiful style and his image for Hansel and Gretel brings us face to face with the reality of this grim tale. We are so insulated from the raw stories once told to children around the world. I really like all of the details found around the room - they add visual flavor to the concept - the cat in motion is wonderful. I'm having a hard time understanding what the old woman and girl are doing. We can clearly see the boy trapped in the cage and looking for a way out - great. I love the glowing light in front of the old woman - I just don't know why it's there.

This is a great piece from Kari Larsen - I love the mood she has set with the color and dark values, dark birds, trees, contrasting with the light innocent skin tones of the children. The scale of the large tree also creates good contrast showing how vulnerable the kids are. The children really look lonely and scared with older brother doing his best to comfort little sister - great story telling! More delineation on the edges of the foreground tree would be consistent with background edges. More attention could be given to the construction anatomy of tree roots in the foreground tree - in keeping with your style. It would also be nice to see more light on ground below children helping to define dark side of children. Bringing children up or adding more image at the bottom would give you the space you need. Great Job!

This art is from Aaron Anderson. This is a fun take on the story - inviting house, cute kids, enticing treats...I'm sold - I want a piece of this house! I think it would be more comfortable compositionally to have included the entire figures of the children...and I think this piece could have more impact if there was a more direct level of focus/movement controlled by value - I forgot to mention this in class today but if you preserve the brightest whites for the most important areas - or area. We also had a debate about whether the kids would venture into the house with a witch standing in front - conceptually I think it would be better to make her an old lady but make it clear that she has ulterior motives.

Nice work Michael Nikola! This guy usually paints in oil but can also get that really nice painterly look in photoshop. :) This piece has a really nice mood set with evening sun and contrasting shadows. We get the feel that even though this might get scary everything is going to be ok because big brother is watching out for little sister. Nice color harmony overall. I think you could give more of an indication of the distant house - perhaps centered in the symmetrical negative space you provided - or left out and give us more trees going back into the distance. A careful attention to anatomy and detail in the foreground would tighten up and bring focus and interest into your work. Nice.

This is a really cool style by Eric Arballo. The simplicity of form is charming and very readable. A good style for children's books. Creamy pastel colors and texture give unity consistently throughout this piece. Right away I get what part of the story we are in. With more attention to anatomy on the figures, less demand would be placed on the viewer to decide if the figures are children or adult. Dropping the hill down would give more room to see some of the father's legs. Love the simplicity of the crow - nice shape design.

This is a fun piece from Rani Bean. A fun overall composition - sweeping foreground tree leads the eye in a circular direction. A fun house shape and interesting characters make your piece very unique. The figures feel a bit low as their hands get close to the edge of the image. Dressing up the house with recognizable candy would help with the overall storytelling. Strong shadows on background trees would be consistent with shadow from house. Lightening values on the figure's faces would make them seem more alive.

This one comes from Emily Decker. I think if I were walking through the forest and happened on a cottage like this I'd be in the old lady's cage in no time. A strong foreground and misty middle ground gives drama as the forest fades away in the distance. Good storytelling with the figures - I get the sense that the older brother is trying to convince the sister to venture further. I like the moody mist but I wonder if it is carried too far? I didn't think of this in class but without explaining where the mist is coming from I think it tends to be more than what is necessary to tell this story. Foreground trees should probably have the same focus as the children. While I know that the kids are going to be darker because they are in the foreground I think you pushed this a little too far. More light on the kids could bring more life into them. If you want to keep a strong silhouette you could bring the sky down behind them - a part in the woods.

We have a late comer! This beautiful piece is from Angela Matteson - She's a children's book illustrator and package designer from Columbus Ohio. Using the story of the three little pigs is a fun way to spice up this vintage story. I love her quirky stylizations of these characters. The piglets are lured by cupcakes, cookies, and huge candy apple. I love the cookie shutters - I wish there were more hidden goodies like that - perhaps the roof line, edge of house could have decorative treats? Flower bed? I wonder if the lower left corner of the illustration could bring the eye back up with some sort of object - path, foliage, etc. Fun illustration!

Better late than never - here is an image from K.H. Whitaker - wife, mother, grandmother and aspiring children's book writer/illustrator. I love the feel of this piece. The candy is so inviting I'm thinking about sneaking over there and taking some myself. I also really like the textures on the fabrics in the old lady's clothing. This has a really nice traditional feeling for the original story except I feel that the witch isn't witchy enough - she's so sweet. I think the grandmother in you is too afraid to scare these young ones - the original story isn't very friendly and actually isn't compatible with children's literature today. I feel that the background starts to get too dark...scary but perhaps would help the tree and house stand out more if lightened a bit. Thanks for letting me post this.

I made this on Xtranormal.com

2010-11-30T17:09:00.000-07:00

Have you ever been in this situation??? It's always awkward. It would be flattering if these people knew my work but most don't. Anyway, I had fun typing this in on xtranormal.com. You can waste a lot of time there - I better get back to work.

Happy Holidays!

2010-11-26T16:29:00.005-07:00

I couldn't wait to do a Seasonal piece this year. I finished this one (created in photoshop) last month but figured I'd wait till after Thanksgiving to post it. I'm sending this out as a post card so if you're an art buyer and want to be on my list send me your contact info and I'll shoot you one pronto!

Find time to work on Hansel and Gretel

2010-11-22T01:34:00.002-07:00

If you've already started working on a Hansel and Gretel piece congratulations! If you don't know what I'm talking about check a few posts down - I'm going to post image creations from anyone who wants to take on this challenge. I've already received a really nice piece from Von Brimhall - Way to go man!

Here is a cute piece from Carl Offterdinger way back in the 1800's.

To my class: In between turkey naps find time to work on your assignments - you'll thank yourself later.

Project due date: Dec 8th when I'll post all of the images I receive in jpeg form right here on my blog with a short critique.

My first acrylic painting in 7 months

2010-11-14T10:43:00.003-07:00

This is a demo I did for my picturebook class at UVU. I was happy that I was still able to do it. I have to admit that I was a little nervous but I couldn't let my students know it.

Also - we're starting our Hansel and Gretel assignment tomorrow - Monday the 15th. Several people are going to do the project but do not want me to post the results online. That's absolutlely fine - I'll only post the images that you want me to post.
Good luck on it - My hope is that you can add another great image to your portfolio!

Want to do this assignment?

2010-11-08T18:51:00.003-07:00

This is an illustration from Hansel and Gretel by scott gustafson. (Scott I hope you don't mind that I used your image.) We are going to be illustrating one scene from this story next week in my picturebook class at UVU. My students will begin this assignment on November 16 and their due date is Dec 8th. I've always wanted to try this so here goes:

I'm planning to post my students work right here on my blog and I'd like to post work from anyone out there who would like to participate along with us. The goal is to motivate my students as well as anyone who wants to roll up their sleeves and get busy with us. I'll also give a short critique on these pieces and any of you can weigh in with your opinions as well. I think this will be a blast!

So here are the rules:
Original work only of course
size is 8.5" x 11" wide or horizontal (work larger if you like)
color or black and white
any medium
email me a jpeg of your finished piece - I'll only post jpegs

Content:
You may choose any scene from the story. It can be dark and scary if you want - the original Brothers Grimm tale is quite ominous. You may also choose to lighten it up - fracture it if you want - this is your chance to do something really fun! The only content rule is that it must contain at least one character from the story. I often advise my students to pick a scene that is easily identifiable (as a Hansel and Gretel image) so they can get an editor or art director emotionally involved with their work.

So that's it - you have an extra week to get going on it!

Re-Painting

2010-11-06T19:05:00.002-06:00

I just wasn't satisfied with the last finish on this piece - It felt over rendered in some ways and I think it lacked texture and the silhouette from the original sketch. I'm still finding myself in photoshop. I like the second version much better because you can still see some of the under-painting - a look I had in my traditional work.

A new book project

2010-11-02T20:11:00.007-06:00

This is a sample image for a book I just finished writing and illustrating. I don't have a publisher yet but will be sending it out soon. I was so happy with how this image turned out and I had to share it on my blog. The rest of the book is in full dummy mode (PDF) and hopefully I can get someone interested in putting some money behind it. I love telling stories through fun visuals and text - watching kids as they listen and look at my pictures is where it's at. So far I've gotten a good response on this one....fingers crossed!

Oh, also this is the first image that I started and finished in photoshop - prior to this piece I had always scanned my pencil sketches and then finished in photoshop. It has taken about 7 - 8 months to become familiar enough with my wacom tablet to pull this off. It still feels a little foreign but it's getting much easier.

Never Leave Home Without It!!!

2010-10-17T16:08:00.005-06:00

About a year ago I committed myself to never leave home without my sketchbook. I'm happy to report that I've been successful in this quest however one time my pencil was out of lead and lost an hour of sketch time - a real bummer. One of my beliefs is that in order to become you need to live. In other words in order to become a ball player you need to eat sleep and drink ball. In order to become an illustrator you need to live the life of an illustrator - drawing constantly. Practice makes perfect and after living well into my mid forties I've come to realize how short life is - thus an hour wasted is practice I'll never get back. Also, I'm a big believer in the 10,000 hour principle - you should google it if you don't know it. The more hours of good practice = better performance later on.

I attended a Gregory Manchess lecture last week and he referred to the the finished painting as "the performance". I've always believed this and have known that you won't perform well if you don't practice regularly. Manchess epitomizes the consummate professional in every way: well spoken, well mannered, art work that scores on every level of artistry. You could teach an entire illustration class using only one of his paintings.

I sketched this little village on Sunday afternoon and couldn't resist spending 10 min tossing a little color around on it in photoshop. I love my sketchbook and it's with me...where's yours?

Spooky Nights

2010-10-13T03:44:00.002-06:00

Just a quick little photoshop doodle - It's that time of year again and when you go out at night you can start to see those spooky images again.

Nasty Bugs!

2010-09-29T12:16:00.003-06:00

I've been working on a book called "Nasty Bugs" - an anthology of poetry directed at boys by Lee Bennett Hopkins published by Dutton. Here is a sneak peek (zoomed in) at one of the characters in the book - a nasty wasp! I've been having so much fun working on this book that I don't want it to end! Bugs have so many interesting shapes and lines that it truly is a dream job.

Wicked Banjo Pig

2010-08-26T01:42:00.006-06:00

Here's another banjo pig for the dueling banjo pig site put together by a couple of friends of mine - Stacy Curtis and Guy Francis. Stacy won't eat bacon but will eat sausage - Guy won't eat any sausage but will partake of bacon - at least they have their principles. Guy says although he's been oraly fixated on some pork products he's never participated in a greased pig race - he says, "rubbing grease on a pig might be enjoyable but how do you think it makes the pig feel?...probably pretty good but that's not the point."

Visit their site and check out all the pigs - http://banjopigs.blogspot.com/

Do you have to create?

2010-08-18T11:40:00.004-06:00

I ask this question because I wonder how many of us feel the burning desire to be creative and to take an idea from beginning to end? For me the creator in me may go dormant from time to time but he, she, it, whatever will always wake, tap me on the shoulder and say, "it's time". Sometimes it happens when I'm sleeping - other times when I'm day dreaming or when I see art that really does it for me.
This piece came to me while I was doodling the other day and even though I have paying projects that I need to be working on I really feel that it's important not to let the burning desire to create be squelched by routine.
I carry my sketchbook with me where ever I go because I hate being caught in some boring situation twiddling my thumbs - which I'm not very good at anyway but my A.D.D. is so painful that I can't stand not being able to entertain myself and inevitably I'll think of something that I need to put down on paper and my thoughts begin to run together like this sentence if I don't have something to record each one and so the birth of this piece came from one of those potentially boring situations.
I wanted to show part of my process here in how I refine my sketch before I begin the rendering. I'm going to be teaching my picture book class next week and part of the reason for this post is to give my students a reference for process.
Unlike using traditional paint I can zoom into the detail areas and work on shape much easier. Another technique artists use is to step back from their paintings so they can focus on the entire composition to check for design, contrast, emphasis, etc. With digital software you simply zoom out and you can do this so quickly that you'll probably do it more often than if you actually had to get up out of the chair over and over again.
I feel so blessed to be able to create fun images for a living. I only hope that enough people enjoy them enough so I can continue to avoid having a real job. :)

The Three Bully Goats

2010-08-16T13:59:00.006-06:00

I just finished my 5th book with Albert Whitman - "The Three Bully Goats". It's a fractured fairy tale based on the three billy goats gruff story. This is my first all digital picture book and wow was it fun. I learned a lot about photoshop while I was working on these images.

Albert Whitman asked me to write a little about my experience for their blog - here's the link if you want to check it out: Albert Whitman

Picturebook Class

2010-08-07T09:39:00.003-06:00

I'm happy to announce that I will be teaching the picture book class at UVU here in Utah this fall semester. We will discuss and explore everything that goes into illustrating children's picture books. So while some will be wasting time with business, economics, mathematics, english, and science we'll be saving the world one picture book at a time!

Banjo Pig

2010-07-07T03:47:00.003-06:00

Ok, I was a reluctant hold out to participate in Guy Francis and Stacy Curtis's banjo pig deal. I mean cmon, what a rediculous idea right? Everyone knows pigs are better at playing guitar than banjo. If you haven't already checked out their banjo pigs and all of the participating illustrators I say - why start now?

:)

Show and Tell

2010-07-05T14:13:00.006-06:00

I'm working on a new book project and the theme is Show and Tell at school. It's a really fun project and I can't wait to work on more of the illustrations.

I.F. Giant

2010-07-02T18:15:00.002-06:00

I posted this last year but here it is again since it's probably the best illustration of a Giant I've done so far.

Me & the Giant (time lapse) from will terry on Vimeo.

A quick sketch and paint

2010-06-30T14:26:00.006-06:00

Ok, so I worked this up in 2 hours - I like the play between line and digital paint.

New Book

2010-06-23T15:36:00.003-06:00

I just finished a book project with Jeff Dinardo and it was a blast! It's really fun to work with a great designer because the end product is so much more successful. Check out Jeff's work - I'm sure you'll be impressed!

This is a cute story about a Fox who smells Owl's pies cooling in the night air. Ignoring his limited climbing skills Fox begins up the tree to find a midnight snack. I won't spoil the ending but everyone ends up having a good time.

I really liked dreaming up Owls treehouse and designing the various scenes! Fun Stuff!

I.F. Trail

2010-06-06T17:20:00.008-06:00

All good trails lead to something worth while. I drew this in church - and I swear - no, promise I was listening.

Illustration Friday - "Slither"

2010-05-31T00:31:00.002-06:00

Quick Sketch

2010-05-29T01:08:00.005-06:00

I sketched this out during a really boring meeting and gave myself a half hour to render it in photoshop. I wanted to see how far I could get in just a short amount of time.

Illustration Friday - "early"

2010-05-23T14:52:00.003-06:00

The early bird gets the worm....sometimes.