Learning about production

What I don't know about production can fill a book.  In working on my portfolio I went to a printer on the advice of a friend and got most everything done and done well.  A few items needed to be redone, so I worked on those today and got them completed. Happily reprinted.  Asked husband for help putting the actual portfolio together and had a shock when the portfolio - advertised as 11x14 - only had pages that are 12x 10 or something like that.  OK, so the COVER is 11x14  - but they don't tell you that.  My production oriented husband was shaking his head that I hadn't measured the inside portfolio papers - but I didn't.

Well, it's all getting sorted out and I will have a good laugh about it in a few weeks.  Meanwhile, I'll have some lovely prints to sell if anyone is interested. Anything on these pages will be up for grabs in varying sizes.  I'll probably put them in my long abandoned Etsy shop.

The edges look funny here but are all white in person.  Ah well, live and learn.

Merging drawings

I need a refresher course in merging two sections of a drawing after scanning in. I'm not sure if it was me, or my computer that was being uncooperative, but it just wasn't working well.

I did get the two pieces together finally, but am going to do some research on how to do this more smoothly.

Heathrow

I did this drawing after my last trip to England - inspired by the enormous multinational lines at security and passport control.  I was also inspired by a painting I saw at a friends house by Stephanie Ho and loved the shadows she used.

Getting ready for the SCBWI conference

I'm so excited to be going to this conference, not only will I get an introduction to the whole business, but I signed up for an illustrator intensive workshop and a portfolio review session.  As I've mentioned before, I've never had a portfolio and am having some anxiety about putting one together.  I've read a few blog posts about assembling one that have been very helpful - here is the link to one. Great advice and I'm following it as best I can.

I've gone thru all my artwork, and have a pile set aside of potential pieces to include.  The pile is too high - I only need about 12 - 15 pages of work, but I am working on everything to ensure that I have the right pieces that will go together. Everything is scanned into the computer, and sized for printing.  I'm doing trial prints but will have the final prints done at a local print shop.  I bought a portfolio book, and I'll be ready to assemble it all in a few weeks.  I've ordered business cards and those are coming today.

I plan on going to the city a day or so early to see friends and relatives - and to get a slice of real NYC pizza, and some really decent bagels.  I'm looking forward to this trip - there is so much to do in the city that I could spend all week there!

A new story about gardens

Peter ropes the wolf, while the hunter wants to shoot the animal.  Work in process

One of my fish drawings

I've also joined a group that meets once a month to review Children's Book manuscripts - a totally new idea for me, but a great group.  More on that at another time.