Thanks everyone! Lots of great info. You all have beautiful work!

Hi @RobinSlee , I am not sure how applicable this is, but a couple of years ago I created a deck of illustrated playing cards based on the original Peter Pan book by JM Barrie. Even though the book falls into public domain, I had to be really careful because of Disney. In my research I found that as long as my illustrations/product was based solely on the work of JM Barrie and was not influenced by the Disney creations I would be ok. Disney actually licensed the property so they have those rights for their IP in that regard, but others can still use what falls under the public domain.

The project funded on Kickstarter for over $28k, so this of course could have been contested had the wrong person seen it, but fortunately it was not. Here's a link if you want to check it out: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/370388468/neverland-bicycle-playing-cards

Awesome work. Love it.

Hi fellow artists! I am new to the forum but have been a SVS member since the beginning of monthly memberships. Here is my contest piece for the SCBWI Tomie DePaola Contest. Here is the prompt:

"Cast yourself, as a child, in a picture book. Show your autobiographical character in a scene and make sure to convey the emotion of your character. The viewer should be able to read the emotion of the character immediately and clearly."

Any feedback is greatly appreciated!

Amy

@Eric-Castleman Hi! Welllll, they thought they were going to be able to pull it off, but turns out things got a little crazy down in Socal, so unfortunately 3rd Thursday is cancelled tonite.....to be rescheduled soon!

@Joy-Heyer I hope there's no conflict and that you can enter it!

I have been intending to; though, I've been preoccupied with other things. Regardless, I better start very, very soon so I have time!!!

Making color scripts helps a lot aswel. What you do is design a color scheme, by setting local colors. For example decide what is the color thats not effected by light? what is the color of the light? and what color does the atmosphere has, sky is blue, but when your setting is in site, there can be a different atmosphere or a second light source.
When you are satisfied you start with the real thing.

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So the local color in the light is changing to the color of the light source. The shade side is mixing with the atmosphere. In this painting it very exaggerated but it makes quite clear what I mean. Now don't forget that when you keep asking yourself 'Am i doing the right thing?' you will get stuck and that doesn't help at all. So keep lose.

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It helps me to stay on track.

That is wonderful congrats!!!!

Thanks, she just gave me her password and it opened mine right up!

Thank you all so much for the advice! I just got the contract in my e-mail and am looking over it now.
Here is a snippet of the letter that came with it:

" Basically, the main contract details the business relationship, so we should both get a signed, notarized copy of that. That will remain the contract between us until one of us chooses to change it (for instance, if we collaborated on a project and needed to split the royalties or something). Then, for each project we would do together, we just use the addendum. So, for instance, for this initial promo image you're doing, that's what we'll put on the addendum. If, in the future, I'm able to commission more work for the project, the contract remains in place and we just do another addendum with the new scope of work. We can keep doing that indefinitely for any future projects. "

Is that normal?

It is a work for hire contract and I did respond requesting a First Publication Rights agreement instead.

@amberwingart So sorry that I disappeared! We're in the middle of buying a house and things got crazy. Sounds like you're back on track, but I just want to chime in and say one thing about your intuition: always trust your gut. There have been several times here where you've said that you haven't felt quite right about it. Those are red flags and typically there is something more lurking underneath the surface. Too many times I've ignored that feeling and I got burned every time.

With this agreement, you're going to be in business for a long time with this person, make sure that you can trust them and that your contract is solid. You're doing great.

@DanetteDraws Thanks Danette. I'm in agreement with the rest of you... I'm liking #9. The book will have a combo of funny poems with a couple poems that are a bit "serious". But I definitely lean to the humorous side. Thanks for the compliments ! 🙂

@Russ-Van-Dine Nice!

@smceccarelli Thank you! This is great information and I'll look into the MacBook Pro. Mac will be a whole new thing for me, but it seems to be the best option for this type of work. Intuitive and fast sounds great. Thanks!

@Pamela-Fraley said in What is rendering?:

@smceccarelli Work and practice I guess. And study.

and try and get a good image library of pieces from artists you really like. more than likely, there is an artist (or artists) out there whom you would like to paint like. Do they have a "rendered" style? Or is it more flat? Somewhere in between?

@RobinSlee All picture books I have at home (with my kids and my own collection a few hundred!) have front matter. The majority have five pages of front matter (page 1, then spread 2-3 and 4-5) before the story starts. A few have 3 pages of front matter (page 1 and spread 2-3 - story starts at page 4). I have come across books without front matter, but these are not generally trade books, rather cheap editions without named authors, activity books, etc... It does make a book look cheap to skip the front matter somehow, like the publisher needed to spare paper and did not need to highlight the authors because it is a buyout.
There are however excellent books where the story starts on the front matter pages - like a sort of prologue. An example would be "The king of space" by Johnny Duddle. I am planning my book like that, as my story fits that and it solves a problem I had with the spread count.

@smceccarelli said in I hate font hunting/graphic design:

@mattramsey Photoshop for illustration work is probably still going to remain comparable for some time

And that's the main thing--all I really can see myself ever needing (for illustration) is the program as is. And to be honest, I don't need over half the bells and whistles CS6 provides now.

I actually felt offended by CC and I can't really think of another company that has made me feel that way. It put a really bad taste in my mouth. But I know other people like the business model.

@jimsz Thank you so much. I will give it a try!

Hey all,

An awesome fellow artist posted a list of great resources that include sample contracts, how to successfully market, etc. It's really comprehensive and so useful to keep bookmarked! Here's the link: https://ashlylovett.com/resources/

Hopeful predictions for 2016-20. Happy Illustrating!

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