@Toony-Days so I'm thinking of a term I've learned before called 'edge craft'... in a nutshell it's push your concept right to its extremes.. so in the case of the squirrel I suppose you can execute that notion by using a more extreme range of shapes? I did a quick sketch using the 4 if the same sketch, and I used the resizing and liquify tools to exaggerate certain shapes 153D8775-9C98-4163-918E-C0C2E083DF78.jpeg

I think the idea is similar to 'draw 50 somethings' in that it forces you to the edge of your comfort zone.

@Janette is your client a member of SCBWI? They have great resources for self-publishers, including webinars and The Book. SCBWI-Michigan (my regional chapter) has indie advisors (I volunteer as the PB indie advisor) to help self-publishing authors through the process.

On the printers others have mentioned, I’ve worked with both in the past (just did book design for a client using KDP and Ingram Spark, in fact).

Ingram Spark — they do print a landscape 11 x 8.5 in hardcover but there are limitations with that trim size. Their printing can be hit or miss — that has to do with a couple factors: print options that have been chosen and they have several printers they work with so there’s no guarantee where your book will be printed and at times quality control is spotty. If your client chooses to go with Ingram Spark, they should choose the premium color option for best color printing, even though it will cost between $8-$9 per book, plus shipping.

Lulu — I worked with them years ago and don’t recommend them. Granted, they could have improved their printing and customer service, but from what I’ve heard, they’re still sub-par in terms of going the print-on-demand route.

While I haven’t worked with Print Ninja and haven’t seen samples of their printing quality, I have gotten a quote from them and printing a hardcover book is quite expensive, one of the most expensive per-unit prices for a US-based printer.

The other thing to mention if your client is going to go the print-on-demand route: it will affect the book’s layout so plan accordingly. Most POD companies require that the last page of the book be kept blank for their use, so if you’re going to print a 32 page book, you would actually upload an interior book file with 31 pages of content. This will prevent any additional blank pages from being added to the book.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions. 😂

@LauraA thankyou Laura. Found it, will wait for the session to be uploaded.

@Coreyartus Ok thanks for your reply, but still I think it's a good idea, who's up for it too? Thanks

@Neha-Rawat awesome!

@xin-li At least you installed them. I downloaded some brushes a few months ago and only now remembered them. I didn’t get around to installing them!

@Kevin-Treaccar Thanks ! I'll take a look, just saw that he did some work on Lilo and Stitch, that's really cool !!

@brettb_draws the popular ones are Wordpress, squarespace, wix, etc. I personally use Adobe portfolio but it’s a bit limiting. I’m switching to Wordpress soon.

@mag I didn't catch that it was supposed to be wide (I figured most book pages would be taller than wider I guess). I don't think I can crop it, I really filled the page but I will see if I can make it work.

@LvLUpKid you're so very welcome! 😊

@Cayleen you're so welcome! Glad you found it helpful. ❤️

Yep, it's posted on the www.critiquearena.com website

THIS MONTHS CHALLENGE!
Our Fairy Tale Traveler is in a situation!

For this month’s prompt, your mission is to draw our Fairy Tale Traveler in an environment, in a situation. The enemy is coming down the road and now our traveler must decide whether to face the adversary, flee or hide. How will our traveler get out of this situation??

In March, we designed a Fairy Tale Traveler. In April, we designed an inn for our weary traveler to sleep for the night. And this month, we are creating a full page illustration featuring our traveler.

For this challenge, the image must be a full page illustration, and the dimensions must be 9.5 inches high x 10.5 inches wide.

Just to clarify: don't worry if you haven't submitted in the previous Fairy Tale Traveler contests, you can still do this prompt! Just treat it as if it's a stand alone prompt🤓

Well, good news is that I just got off the phone with my client, and she wanted me to know she understood my concerns. We talked about how she is aware that I own the illustrations and that if she was to ever ask for the copyright of them she'd have to pay a "hell of a lot of money" (in her words). Since we've been working together for a long time and I know her well, I was satisfied with our conversation. I thanked her for letting me get my sea legs in the freelance world by working with her. Moving forward with clients that I don't know, though, I definitely know that I need to make sure that I'm aware of the specific wording of the contract.

She also pointed out something interesting. As an educator, take a look at my contract to see if the institution can own the copyright. For instance, if I worked at our city's university or junior college, used their resources or their time, apparently many contracts say the university owns the work (nevermind how screwed up that is...). I doubt that's in our contracts at the high school level, but now I'm curious.

it will come around again. We are limiting it this first time due to some extras we are throwing in. Mainly a live weekly zoom session with jake, will, and I. : )

Hi!

SCBWI's "The Book" has agents and publishers directories and it is updated every year. It's available to members only as a free download or $10 for a paperback book.

You can also check out the websites of publishing houses you want to submit to -- on their submissions page they often list the specific person to address in your submission. Usually, for illustration submissions, it's the art director.

You may also want to check the website on whether or not editors and art directors are still working from home, as most of the publishing industry has done during the pandemic. So many have not seen postcards that have been sent to the offices this past year.

Just a few ideas. 😊

@Emilia-Varga I have seen comic designs without words. There are even some wordless picture books.

Do you want independence, or independence while supporting yourself with art? I’m sorry you’re feeling down, it looks To me like your expectations are really high, which leads to a bigger disappointment... get a day job, there’s no shame in making a living with a not art related job. Working as an illustrator is hard and long road, and there are almost no shortcuts. It took me about 4 years to be now able to have a steady income with illustration only and I STILL don’t have an agent, my portfolio isn’t perfect and I have a lot to learn. So don’t worry, you’ll get there, just don’t give up, keep your sanity while working hard on your illustration skills and don’t rush it. A year of trying is really not a long time (I know it is, for you, but not in general and it doesn’t mean you’re not good enough). It will get better!

Hi all,

I wanted to post this questions because I'm interested on how you all view or approach sales tax if you sell your work.

The reason I was thinking about this topic is because I have some down time and was considering offering pet portrait commissions to a group of people...But the more I think about it the more I think about invoices and taxes and headaches. And so then I think maybe I should just work on some personal work instead lol. But I also don't want to go on forever being intimidated by these tax realities.

For me personally I'm not math or accounting minded. I prefer simplicity which seems to be something that simply doesn't exist when it comes to filing taxes correctly. My mom is an accountant and after having a long conversation with her about nexus and destination/origin state taxes and then also county taxes I was so lost and a little concerned I wouldn't be able to realistically keep up with it. I mean if I sell something digitally for a few bucks how do I even find out where the purchaser is located to make sure I charge tax correctly - I guess etsy keeps track of that but what if you want to sell outside of etsy? And if someone purchases something do I need a program that calculates their tax before checkout or do I just factor it out of the overall profit once the sale's done (is that even a thing?). Do I keep a detailed spreadsheet or is there some useful software most people use? Do you hire an accountant or do it all yourself? How does one stay meticulously organized without going insane or spending ridiculous amounts of time on it all. Or maybe that headache is just part of the process?

If you sell online what's worked for you and do you have any tips or learning resource recommendations to help it all make sense? Do you recommend sites like etsy or setting up an independent shop on your own website? I used to like etsy but it has it's limitations when it comes to calculating taxes so I wonder if it's even worth using it versus just selling independently.

I always use a strathmore or Canson smooth Bristol that is at least 100LB
20170513_160735.jpg

@Janette 😂 what a great story! And thanks so much. My girl and egg illustrations are inspired by childhood experiences too. When we were growing up my sister had ducks for pets, and one egg wouldn't hatch, so she "helped" it and because she was the first thing it saw, the duckling imprinted on her -- it thought it was human and was scared of the other ducks!