Love your episode art James!!

I like the idea of Kickstarter, but definitely not ready to pursue that path at this time.

@Jeremy-Ross I love the banter as well! It’s not too long like on other podcasts I listen to and most importantly, the banter is always interesting! At least to me 🙂

@TessaW I feel your frustration, this is why I don't like platforms that are not your own because they play by their own rules. The rules that benefit them and not you. Mostly their interest in getting their monthly payment out of you. This is why you should bever invest in a platform that you cannot own. Ant web service that requires a monthly service fee tied to their platforms like Wix, or square space or adobe portfolio is going to serve their own interests and will have limitations on what you can and cannot do. This is why I am putting together a free course for everyone here to show them a better way. It's in development and it's going to take a little time but here is what we are going to cover...

https://forum.svslearn.com/topic/9903/setting-up-a-wordpress-website-for-artists-free-course?_=1597383014955

@eriberart starting a project can be a terrifying experience 😂😂😂

I wish this episode was done a year ago, before i agreed to do a 26 book contract for a self publisher - not even scholastic.. My first kids book contract and i'm now waist deep in it, really struggling with what was mentioned about digging a ditch, emotional labour, locked in. It's been a great learning experience and iv'e grown in speed and understanding, but boy oh boy would i be on the lookout for warning signs if i was to be offered one again. oh.. and self published books - hardly ever go anywhere without a massive fan base... so there's that too.

Hello! Just FYI, I usually listen to your podcasts on the Podcast Addict app and this episode, for some reason, never made it over. It goes from the Heck Yeah! episode to the What to do After College episode. Just thought you'd like to know there might be a glitch. Glad I got to hear it on here though!

@Will-Terry , my dream is to win an SVS Contest! So far, I’ve made it to the board, but not yet Sweet 16. Still dreaming!

All of the amazing students are pushing me to level up, so winning would be icing on the cake of just getting better with each illustration.

Of course, winning a Caldecott is on the dream list too (wink).

As Cal Newport says, “strive to be so good they can’t ignore you!” I am striving! I’m only 40, I have plenty of time.

Great podcast gents!

@dickdavid That would be a really great idea to develop! I did the image search for the one painting, but I have hundreds or thousands of works online. I can't possibly search all of them, especially since I'd have to repeat the process every few months to check again if the images are being used. What a great app it would be that would allow you to upload your entire gallery of work, and then the app would keep an eye on them online to see if they pop up! That would be life-changing, really.

Somewhat surprised that Graphic Artist Guild Pricing and Ethical Guidelines (15th Edition) didn't come up in the conversation.

This is by no mean the final word on pricing or professional practices but it is a good place to start. Especially when starting out, when you don't even know what it is you don't know.

It's broken up into bite sized chunks that can be taken in slowly over time.

Another great topic! I find it strange that so many artists won’t invest into supplies. I immediately thought about Lee’s new art gallery when everything started closing and working from home became the new norm. I’m glad he’s staying positive! At some point I would love to hear a podcast all about self promotion. More in depth info on mailing lists, postcards, Etc.

I listened to this yesterday...while redrawing an entire cover because I decided to add the spine and back! 😬 😂

Seriously, though, it was a great list, very helpful. Thanks!

@Lee-White @Will-Terry @Jake-Parker Your discussion about the nature of the monthly prompts here on SVS was really intriguing to me... Will's comment that the prompts might be less about responding to material and more about originality of the concept was a real eye-opener.

Yesterday, I attended my monthly SCBWI meeting (virtually on Zoom, of course) and Lauren Rille, Art Director at Simon & Schuster, led a workshop on the process of picture books. It hit me that there is a LOT of Art Director/Illustrator discussion that happens throughout the process of illustrating a text. She showed us several examples of books she's worked on through the Thumbnail/Conceptualization/Pagination/Book Map/Galley/Color process and how the illustrations changed from the beginning to the end, as well as the kinds of notes that came from her (as Art Director) and the Editor. She even shared with us some of her own challenges (I had no idea that book covers got voted on by 50-some-odd people--including salespeople!!--in giant Cover Meetings, and even though the Art Director might be confident in a particular cover it still might not get approved...). It taught me that even Art Directors can be absolutely sure about something and it will still get changed...

It was incredibly enlightening, and made me realize that no illustration happens in a vacuum. Picture Book making is a continual collaborative process with lots and lots of responsive iterations over and over again. And it also made me realize that the mini-responses you provide during the Critique Arenas are literally the beginnings of that kind of back-and-forth process. And that the process itself always makes things better in the end.

I'm wondering if perhaps there might be an opportunity to have a prompt with a bit more guided parameters--like making a black and white spot illustration specifically for a Middle Grade or Chapter Book, or three sequential images showing before/during/after, or a single character design expressing three different emotional expressions/poses/actions in a narrative, or illustrating around text on a page (like a Galley page), or working within a specific size or color palette. It seems to me these might be the kinds of things Art Directors might ask their Illustrators to do as part of the process. Lauren Rille gave us examples of each of these exercises that she had even her most seasoned, experienced pros do for her. And how they were important and helpful to the final work. It could be a really interesting experience to do a mini-deep-dive for a monthly prompt someday.

@Miriam Thanks so much for taking time to give this feedback. I've taken the advice and picked four from my latest drawings and there are two that I decided to do colour compositions of. I'll keep you posted. 🙂

@Kim-Hunter You're absolutely right. It's a great idea that needs to be taken advantage of. And this time is definitely great for growing your tribe. I'm thinking maybe using Facebook live instead of Instagram. Assuming they can view FB on a bigger screen. I'll post when I launch it 🙂 Thanks!

Another great episode, thanks guys! I'll admit I'm a little curious what the first version was like.

Some ideas for episodes:
1/ I think it would be great to have an episode specifically on being an author/illustrator, since all of you have done that. It comes up frequently, and you all have always made the distinction between this work and working with an author, but it's kind of its own mysterious thing to most people and even if you guys would casually chat about it, i'm sure it would be insightful.

2/ Another idea I'm finding important this year is the idea from the new year episode about paring down our idea debt inventory (actually i'm no longer sure which episode it's in). It seems like everyone needs to do that pretty frequently in order to move forward, especially letting ideas go. I have no one to help me let unworkable ideas go, so I need to learn to do that.

3/ Also would like an episode on what illustration briefs are like. I know what an editorial illustration brief looks like from the svs class, but I generally have no idea what they're like. What would it be like with a manuscript? Or is there even one with a picture book manuscript?

4/ Has anyone listened to the Neil Gaiman commencement speech mentioned in the new year episode? He talks about freelancer secrets and how you need two of the three things: your work needs to be good, you need to turn your work in on time, and you need to be easy to get along with. I'm curious what an episode would be like if you guys talked about experiences related to this idea and whether or not you think it's true, although some of the stuff you've talked about has been about this. He also lied about his work experience to get his foot in the door, but i'm def not going to try that 🙂

5/ What about an episode on lettering and type? This would probably make a great class, but I mean more in terms of things illustrators don't know about what graphic designers do that make it more difficult for everyone to produce great work. Maybe also resources to learn to do lettering when they need to be part of an illustration. There are trends in type and layout and I think sometimes illustrators aren't quite aware of this.

6/ One of the things I am really interested in is FIRE (financial independence retire early) for artists. Around the time my daughter was born i became so interested in blogs about financial independence that I started cutting costs and budgeting. Although I didn't know this at the time, it led me to the opportunity I'm taking advantage of now, which is the ability to stay home with her and have some time to learn illustration. This might be too personal for an episode, but even talking about how these concepts matter in terms of learning how to run a business would be great.

7/ a discussion on the history of illustration in a way that is more of a personal discussion than a class would be. Some examples of things you learned about

@Nyrryl-Cadiz Will talks about how through self deception and "his own style" prevented him from working on his sketching habilities and bettering his own draftsmanship, becoming better at drawing. I just wanted to know because I think it's pretty relevant and I'm making a podcast playlist on Spotify, so..

@Lee-White What an awesome idea! Would be cool if I could try the same thing up where I live 🤔

@Lee-White You have a group of artists you can choose from on svs 😉

@jdubz Excellent advice, and something quite important that I didn't know about the LLC. Thanks for sharing!!

@Lee-White Thanks Lee! Sounds exciting.