Meet The Monsters of my Monster App!

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

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

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"

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

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!

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?

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?

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!!!

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!!!

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?

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?

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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???

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

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

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