Humblearts Journal

Small - Illustration Friday

We all know that good things come in small packages, but really great things come in great big packages!

A little print for Illustration Friday, this week's theme: small.

Handcolored linoleum block print on vellum.

Holiday Shopping

I've been busy updating my website, just in time for holiday shopping.  My inner child has been running free as I create a winter wonderland in my studio.  Snowmen necklaces, candy cane earrings, sugarplum fairies and Christmas ornaments, like the ones below, are all now up on my site.   Fix yourself a cup of cocoa and head over there to take a peak at all my goodies.  I'm offering free shipping until December 15th. 

Slide Ornaments

 

Just thought I'd share my latest creation.  Getting ready for holiday shows this weekend and the next.  Busy, fun times!

Check Your Local Listings

Humblebeads, as seen on TV.  That always cracks me up, but it's true.  Starting today in select cities you can see my beads & bracelet project on PBS' Beads, Baubles & Jewels.  Here is the project that will air.  Here is the place to see if it will be on in your area.  It won't air in San Antonio until next year!   So check your local listings, it's episode 302. 

Studio Friday - Sweetness

Here is my entry for Studio Friday.  Opps, a day late, but that's okay.  The theme is sweetness and these two are the sweetest things that enter this room! My two girls are in here every chance they get, cutting, pasting, drawing, painting.  It's a non-stop creative fest in my studio.  This week they have been making Thanksgiving costumes.  Native American headdresses seem to very popular among them. 

They look like they are holding on for dear life in the photo.  But isn't that always the case, no matter how many pictures you take, one will have their eyes closed or making a funny face?  And notice the mess on the floor, gotta love them!

Tights, I love striped tights.  I collect two things for my girls, funky winter hats and striped tights.  The tights help with our disdain for school uniforms.  The remind me of candy canes.  Sweet.

Happy creating Studio Friday folks!

Some Educational Illustrating Tips

Here are some tips for illustrators just starting out in the educational market from Jeri Gibson, the vice president and art director of Hampton Brown. 

First, educational work is easier to break into.  There are more opportunities for new artists and it's often called the bread and butter of the children's illustration world.  It's not just workbooks, there is a variety of materials from easy readers, posters, teaching aids, flashcards, etc.   

Here are some portfolio tips for marketing to educational publishers.

Good range of subject matters in 1 or 2 styles.  Show a variety of subjects but in a cohesive presentation.  Like all black and white spots together, all work for one workbook presented on sheet. 

They look for crisp, clean colors and avoid inconsistent lighting.

Make sure your style doesn't look overly complicated and it's one you could work quickly in, deadlines for educational work are tight.

Your portfolio should show kids of a variety of races and avoid racial stereotypes and clichés.

Clothing - not so hip that it will look dated by next year, but stay contemporary.  She suggested looking at websites for kids clothing like the Gap or Target.  Add in details, clothing shouldn't be just little blobs of color.  Patterned tights, headbands, cargo pockets, hats, collars, even little suggestions of stitching or ribbing are nice to throw in there.

As far as submitting, she did suggest a traditional packet of your best work with a cover letter.  In the cover letter you can state your intentions of contacting them within a week to discuss any future projects. 

Yikes so bold, but she said to do it!

Just a quick note

I just wanted to let you guys know that I've started up my HumbleHome blog again.  The focus is crafts, kids and family stuff.  I have lots of fun projects from our homeschooling stint in the archives. Now it's crafty things we are doing and a peak into my everyday as a work-at-home mom.  Stop by and say hi.

Headed in the right direction

I wanted to share some of my thoughts and insights from yesterday's SCBWI conference.

First, I love conferences and I highly encourage you attend an SCBWI event.  Even better, volunteer to help at our local SCBWI conference and you'll get a chance to meet the speakers and maybe even have a moment to have an actual conversation with an art director or an editor.  I have to say that we had the best volunteers for our conference, they helped it run so smoothly. 

Okay, for a few days, I'll share some illustration related things that are on my mind.  I'm still trying to digest everything from yesterday.  I feel like I picked up a lot of really good tips and have some thinking to do about what direction I'll go in next. 

But I will leave you with this, I heard it on the cruise and again over the weekend.  If you illustrate just the text, you are only doing half of your job as an illustrator. 

"Art should extend the story, not just illustrate the words." -Layne Johnson 

Layne said that the illustration tells the story between, in front of and behind the words of the text.  This is called the subtext.  The subtext could be an added character that takes a life of it own in the illustrations or it could be more subtle in the colors and textures that you use to create the mood of the book.  Illustration can create the tension and pace of the book, taking the reader visually through the story. 

Oh, marketing tip from a published illustrator with a bag full of trade books to their name: postcards - to the editor and art director, on a regular basis.  So, just do it, send them out.  I've been using Vista Print for postcards in batches of 100.  They were great and very inexpensive.  I've used them for postcards for my beads, now I need to get an image ready for my illustration mailing list.  Which I've decided to pull out, order the 2006 copy of the Childrens Writers & Illustrators Guide and update my list.  Illustration has been on the back burner for months now and that's just not where I want it to be.   

I have a few things made

 

I'm all ready to take my work into the gallery tonight.  I present everything in sets, hoping to sell them that way!  How did I approach the gallery? I didn't.  She found me at an artists market 3 years ago.  I call every few months to come in and show them what's new.  They take good care of me there.

I love working with galleries and would like more accounts.  I need to work on that.  Instead of doing the crazy shows I do.  Did you feel that? That was me caving.  I decided to add another market in the 1st week of December.  We are going to Michigan for Christmas, so I felt like I needed to sell more work between now and then.

So on the schedule: my jewelry will be at the McNay Art Museum next week represented by the gallery.  Nov. 26th, I'll be at the Houston Street Fair and Market.  December 2 & 3rd it's Hecho-A-Mano and December 14th the Bead Society.

So really, I don't have enough made and will be working like crazy to have enough work for those shows.  Lots of snowmen, bead fairies, bracelets, and tons of earrings.  Hello clay.

Here is a close up of some of my lariats:

wish me luck!

Microscope Slide Pendants

Pendants created from microscope slides, a little stained glass tape and lead-free solder along with drawings that I did with oil pastels and graphite on vellum.  Each pendant has two sides.  I have one that my mom and I made last spring and it's by far my favorite necklace.  These will hopefully be sold to the gallery this week, they are part of my newest work.  Fingers crossed that they like them. 

So now, you want to know everything about making your own microscope pendant slides, don't you?  Well, since these are the very first ones I've made on my own, I can only point you in the right direction and then it's off to the work table for you to experiment and see what works best.  First, directions and eye candy.

You can find the directions to make the pendants here and here.  The queen of microscope pendants is Sally Jean, you can listen to her tips and tricks on HeartsArt Radio, which I found very helpful. 

I treated myself to a soldering iron this week.  It works wonderfully.  If you are using lead-free solder and if you are making jewelry, it should be lead-free, you need an iron that runs at a hotter temperature.  On the HeartsArt program Sally Jean suggested using a Weller iron that runs between 60-80 watts.  I picked mine up at Lowes.  You can find mircoscope pendants all over the place, but here is a very nice supplier at a price you can't beat!  I just ordered from them and will be making Christmas ornaments later this month. 

Well, that's it.  Off with you now to create amazing and beautiful things.