So my presentation yesterday at the SCBWI Oregon Spring conference went over nicely. The grandmas went missing just before I was supposed to go up and talk. I think they got lured into the tea room.
I was in extremely good company. Mark Fearing spoke just before me on Graphic Novels. He’s an amazing illustrator and also an animator (animators RULE). He’s got a graphic novel coming out in 2011, which sounds really promising – so look for it!
At the end of his talk, Mark said something really awesome. It was about rules and how he doesn’t like them when it comes to talking about getting your work sold.
You know how I am about rules. There are so many ways to approach any endeavor. People can have success with completely opposite approaches.
My talk was about not creating art in the computer, based on this blog post. The title sounds very rules-ish, right?
In fact, before,during, and after my talk I learned that at least three artists in the room (including Mark Fearing) create their art directly in the computer.
It’s a perfect example of not applying stuff people tell you (me included) about how to create your art. The rules are, there ain’t no rules.
I can talk on the blog and in my digital illustration course about my approach to creating digital art. It works for me. It’s a proven method and lots of people buy my stuff.
Regardless, if it goes against what works for you, then please do one of two things:
- Ignore me. Move along, nothing to see here. Do your thing.
- Tell me about it so I can share it with my people.
One of my grander plans for the digital illustration school is to bring in guest illustrators to demo their methods. There are as many methods as there are people and I think this would be a huge help to students – knowing that there isn’t just one way.
So my talk went well. People seemed genuinely interested in what I had to say and I think they were entertained. Here’s a sampling of some of the images I brought up to demonstrate my points…
My head floating out of a robot. At least they knew I would be weird right up front.
I used Jenni's bread to talk about illustration. Yep. Officially wacko.
I also used coffee to talk about illustration. Where was I going with this?
Believe me, I knew they were wondering.
It's a NASA flight control panel. If you weren't there, you wouldn't understand.
My first attempt at creating art in the computer. Hideous, scary, and really, really bad.
A recent illustration for Highlights Magazine. I eventually figured out a method.
The final pencil sketch for the Highlights High Five illo. It was "done" before I even went to the computer.
There was more to it than these slides show. I wish you had been there.
It was fun. People laughed at me (thank god).
I think the reason I felt good about it was that aside from the little slide show, I pretty much “winged” my talk. Sure, I knew where I was going, I rehearsed a few things. Mostly it was conversational and that made it much more relaxed for me and (I think) the audience.
I think I helped some people, which was the whole point of me standing in front of them and waving my arms around while talking about weird stuff like bread.
If I gave even one person in the audience a seed of an idea about how to use their computer to create illustration, then I succeeded.
If I made them hungry, then my plan for total world domination kicked off nicely.
ADDENDUM
I am such a cotton-headed ninnymuggins.
I failed to acknowledge Robin Koontz and Judi Gardiner, organizers of the SCBWI Oregon Spring Conference.
Robin also gave an outstanding, very informative presentation about the illustrator’s market in children’s publishing. She’s the reason I was able to speak to anyone about anything by allowing me time in the Illustrators Master class to do my thing.
Mucho thanks to Robin and Judi. You both did an incredible job with this event.
