Does anyone else feel tired after a great retreat?

My head and heart are still swelling with gratitude, information and illustration stuff after my SCBWI Nevada mentor retreat last weekend! It went great. One of the best SCBWI events I've been a part of. I'm so so so pleased with the program -- I can't say enough good things about it. I can't wait to post my final illustrations, and some about the process and will when I get home.

But right now I'm in southern Utah enjoying canyons and pretty things with the family this week. So I don't want to spend too much time on the internet. BUT! I must share this funny video that my mentor made with Yuyi Morales. It captures the tired and full-headed feeling we all feel at the end of a conference or retreat. To get it you have to watch this oft-watched youtube video first (DAVID AFTER THE DENTIST):



Okay, so here's the art director after the retreat. I'm glad he didn't react that way when he first saw my art! (But that is my art! Mine and Yuyi Morales')



Okay, that's enough internet for me. My head is still full.

KEEPING ALL HATS IN THE AIR FALL FRIDAY SERIES: Mornings are best for routines

There’s the researcher hat, the networking hat, the business hat, the editor hat and the art-spectator or the reader hat – whew! With so much other “work” to do, it can be difficult to find the time to actually write or do your artwork. This series talks about priorities and goal setting. How do you juggle all the aspects of your writing and/or art career? Inspired by a SCBWI WWA Bellingham Network Schmooze that took place in Sept, 2009.

THE TIP:
My friend and fellow writer Barbara Davis-Pyles used to work in psychology. She opened my eyes to the fact that mornings are generally the most habitual time of the day for people. She says that if you want to start a habit, try adding it to your morning ritual.

So, what's the first thing you do in your day?

BEFORE:
I used to start by tackling some email over breakfast. I did this because even though I love correspondence, I'm introverted -- I tend to procrastinate with it. So I figured, tackle the hard stuff first.

But the hard stuff wasn't my first priority! Starting with email used a chunk of the freshest part of the day. Also, because I procrastinate with email, I sometimes ended up surfing the internet between emails. And it set a tone for the rest of the day that didn’t energize me.

AFTER:
For the past two weeks instead of email with breakfast, I've read the paper (as I used to do later in the day) and I've spent time visioning my day out in my day-planner (as I used to after I took time to answer email).

Then after breakfast, everyday, I've spent 15 minutes doing Yoga -- centering myself -- and setting a good tone for the day (YAY! this has been my favorite change!).

Then, if it's a workday, it's art time. I've given myself permission to neglect all correspondence or business until after noon (I’ve shot off the occasional fast email that was pestering my mind, but for the most part, I’ve let it go).

This is a huge deal. I don't procrastinate on my art. Art is what I want to be doing. When I give myself permission to do it, it's what I do.

THE RESULTS:
WOW!
Despite having an incredibly full plate the last two weeks, I've accomplished so much of my own work. That is a good, good feeling.

So I'm curious about your morning ritual? Is there a habit you'd like to start or break? What's your morning going to look like from now on?

P.S. My friend Karen Ann Chalupnik who also attended the schmooze that inspired this series put a great post up on her blog recently about a change she's made based on the schmooze. Read about it here.

FALL FRIDAY SERIES: Keeping All Hats in the Air

How do you juggle all aspects of your art/writing career?

I've been pondering this question a lot over the last week and a half. Actually I'm going to risk sounding overly dramatic here. I feel like I've seen the light.

My life has changed in the last week and a half (in more ways than one -- but that is a teaser for a later blog post...).

The inspiration: A schmooze. No kidding! A regular old SCBWI WWA Bellingham Network Schmooze with the above question as our discussion topic. I got some of the most helpful tips for my art life that I've ever received at that schmooze.

I was about to write the remainders from the evening that still have been percolating in my head and heart but I ran out of my allowed time to finish this post (aha! An idea from the schmooze...) I still have so much to share though!

I've decided this is my cue for a new Friday series. A fall series. Welcome to Keeping All Hats In the Air! Stay tuned for a new tip every Friday throughout the fall. I'm aiming to share helpful things with all of you, AND to keep myself on track...

I'm excited to see how this works out!

Treasure Hunt: Mosaics in The Bay Area

Artists don't only create. We seek. We search.
We seek for a different way to look at the world.
We seek for the old to be fresh again.
We seek for the fresh to also feel old.
We seek color. Rich color.
We seek texture. We seek movement.
We seek inspiration. We seek these things in our own work. We seek these things in others' work. We seek these things in the world.
So we treasure hunt. At least I do. Every now and then, especially while I'm traveling, I set my mind's dial towards a sort of treasure I seek. Maybe an aesthetic. Maybe a color. Maybe a texture.
Or maybe a medium that can teach me something about my own.

Then it's my job to stay open to the possibilities and opportunities that present themselves.
What is it that makes an artist's radar work?
Is it training? Is it fine-tuning one's eye to notice stuff? Is it dumb luck?
I'm not sure.

But I'm always grateful when I stumble upon the treasure I seek.

To be continued...

SUMMER FRIDAY TRAVEL JOURNAL SERIES: In Crayon

THANKS to all moms everywhere who save kid-art.
When I was about 14 I decided the few travel journals I had kept when younger were "so embarrassing." I tossed them.
Or so I thought.
It was like Christmas when my mom drug these out of a box for me a couple years ago.
The drawings pictured here are from one of the first road trips I ever took. While I sat in the back seat of the car, I drew stuff I saw along the way.
One of my favorite pages isn't pictured here. It's of a traffic jam. I was from a really small town. A traffic jam seemed exotic to me at the time.

The other journal my mom saved was a gift from beloved teacher. She gave me the journal below right before I left for a month long road-trip my extended family took in Europe when I was 10 years old. We met relatives in Sweden. We went to the original LEGOLAND in Denmark. And most memorable of all: My Grandfather revisited places he fought in WWII, including the beaches of Normandy, where he landed on D-day. He told us stories. Old people hugged him in the streets and gave us free hot dogs. Wow.
It's funny. I wrote about things like the quality of the water in the showers instead of Grandpa's stories (although I did write quite a bit about Legoland). I guess that's why I tossed the thing when I was 14. I felt I hadn't written about any of the real stuff.

But I'm so happy now to re-read what the showers were like on that trip.
I'm happy to see my old hand-writing and remember the trip through the lines.
Thanks Mom, for saving me from my own inner critic!

Hopefully I can do the same for Oscar.

P.S. Okay ya, you are right. It is Saturday, not Friday. I'm a day late. And sad, but true -- the summer is winding down it is just about time to bid farewell to my Summer series and cook up something new for the fall. How about 2 more weeks of travel journals though? After all, summer isn't quite over yet...


Me As A Muppet

Have you been to the Jim Henson exhibit at Experience Music Project in Seattle yet?
You only have until August 16!
I put this quote from one of the exhibit's signs in my journal:
"Jim Henson described his characters as his palette."
The best part of the day: I GOT TO BE A MUPPET!!!!!!
I even got to play in a Muppet band a few times.
Lest you think I'm exaggerating when I tell you that this moment was a dream come true, here is a picture of me from high school with my favorite puppet that I made back then:
The puppet's name is Boris. He lives above my drawing table (next to a few other puppets) and distracts my muse when I should be working. Or maybe he reminds me to use my characters as palette. Ya, that's the ticket!

As a bonus after I checked out the Jim Henson exhibit, I also checked out the exhibit: American Letterpress: The Art Of The Hatch Show Print.
I'm sorry, I failed and am blogging about this after the show is over.
But if you like letterpress work, here's a cool video that was at the show about Hatch Show Print, one of the oldest letterpress companies in the US:

We're Off to See The Wizard!

I've been working on sample illustrations for THE WIZARD OF OZ.

They're a part of my Nevada SCBWI mentor program assignment.
So far I've been working on my characters and the overall feel that the samples will have.
Pictured here: what I did for the assignment in May and June.
I started this project by checking out every version of the Wizard of Oz that my library had on file. I looked through all the pictures. I read the story, listened to it again on tape and read the graphic novel. I watched 3 different movie versions.
Finding my own angle was the biggest challenge. What could I add to the story?
After looking through so many versions and brainstorming a lot, my favorite approach to the characters turned out to be rather traditional but with a certain younger-kid-appeal/simplicity that I felt wasn't always there in other versions. I'm not sure if I achieved that or not, or if it matters, but that's what I was trying for.
These characters are not set in stone, I may still change parts of them. And I may not use all of them.
It's pretty common for illustrators to illustrate a few scenes from a well-known story to make samples for their portfolio. It's been a fun challenge for me.
The illustrations I'll be making are not for anything that will be published so I'll try to share some of my process over the summer.
It makes me happy to be filled with Wizard Of Oz thoughts so much this summer. I often sing "Somewhere Over The Rainbow," to my son at night. It's one of my favorite songs.

SUMMER FRIDAY TRAVEL JOURNAL SERIES: Notetaking in Museums and Art Pilgrimages

Have you ever taken a pilgrimage for art? How did you document your trip, if you did at all?

In 1999, fresh from graduating from college, I was lucky enough to go to Europe to spend 3 months looking at art (I spent all my frequent flier miles to get there -- I had a lot, I was an out-of-state student, plus I also think I used some of my mom's miles, thanks mom!).
I spent on average about 8-10 hours a day in museums (honestly), planning my day around what museums opened earliest and which ones closed latest. I often didn't stop for eating (not a good idea -- unless you want to loose a lot of weight fast, which I did; my sister wanted to know if I had an eating disorder when I got home).And everywhere I went I bought postcards. While I was at the museums and galleries, I took copious notes that I transferred onto the backs of the postcards at night. I thought I'd have a little booklet of postcards by the end of the trip. HA! I had 4 enormous binders full (I ditched lots of stuff from my pack as I went along, to make room for my journals, by the end of the trip I was REALLY sick of my 2 shirts).
Anyway, it was a dream trip. I spent days in places like the Prado, the Louvre, Musée d'Orsay, and countless others. I spent entire hours in front of single paintings (like Guernica).By taking notes, I forced myself to slow down and really look at all sorts of things, color, texture, composition. The notes were silly (and are tedious to look back at), but the act of taking them helped train my eye to look. After all, I had to look for something to write about.I also made a point to never spend longer reading or writing than I spent looking. Looking took precedence. And making a point to spend more time looking also trained me to look. By the end of the trip I took hardly any notes at all. It was like meditation. I would just loose that side of my brain and be a part of the colors and vistas before me.
Because I only had three months, I edited lots of locations from my initial itinerary. I wanted to enjoy the places I did go, and look at ALL the art I wanted to see in each of those places.

My biggest regret from the trip (save for missing things that were closed for renovation -- it seemed that many places were closed for renovation in 1999 -- prep work for 2000?) was that I skipped out on a few amazing art towns in Spain.
Like Toledo, and Bilbao.
While I planned the trip I took to Spain this past February, I swore I would make up for lost time.
It didn't end up working for us to go to Bilbao, But I made my Grandma skip Madrid so we could spend time in Toledo.
Unfortunately when we got to Toledo, quite a few places were closed for renovation (go figure!) but what was open turned out to be the perfect amount to see in the amount of time we had there anyway.
This time I didn't take notes while I looked at the art at all. I just soaked it all in.

P.S. Interesting side note to this post: I took something home other than 4 enormous binders of art postcards from my trip in 1999. I fell in love on that trip. No kidding. My husband and I met in Rome and then again in Venice. And then again in Paris... And then again in Seattle. Bryce was touring around checking out the spring classic bike races (his biggest passion is bike racing). Our first kiss was in front of Claes Oldenburg's Buried Bicycle sculpture in Paris:

SUMMER FRIDAY TRAVEL JOURNAL SERIES: Another Tool For The Journaling Tool Belt

CONTINUED FROM LAST WEEK...

Last week I shared about my magical day in Morocco, a strange and wonderful interlude from my trip to Spain. I also shared the ugly collages from my journal that I made from that amazing day. I expressed my disappointment and also my cherished rule of letting go.

So like I said last week, I let it go. Or so I thought.

When I got home, I made a few different sorts of collages. I couldn't help myself. I'm crazy crafty Kjersten and sometimes I have a hard time letting go of fun crafty projects. Especially when they relate to my travel journals. (It doesn't matter if I have tons of other stuff to do. Don't visit my house. It's always a mess).

So partially out of my frustration with my Tangier collages and partly due to the fact that when I added my photos to those of my camera-happy sister I had about a million photos, I decided to make a second journal altogether. I actually do this with travel journals quite a lot, I'm a bit ashamed to say.
Anyway, I made a blurb book of our entire trip as a gift for my Grandmother. Blurb books look like traditional coffee table books, but they're your own. Blurb makes the sort of self-published books that self-publishing is good for: family albums, family histories, family recipe books etc. They print on demand and their prices are awesome. Here's the Tangier pages from my blurb book:
I felt like I was cheating on myself at first to make a photo album from my trip that wasn't handmade, ordered off the internet no less. Gasp! But I had read about blurb books from a few other blogs and decided to give it a try for the photos from my trip. What I learned: They are just one other way of making a "hand-crafted" book. One more tool for the tool-belt.

Why limit myself? I have a personal pet-peeve against using the exact same kind of album or journal for every thing you ever need an album or journal for (sorry, I know for a fact that I have a lot of beloved artist and writer friends who are stuck in their journal selection and like it that way. But I have a hard time accepting this. It makes me more playful to use different sorts of journals all the time. I'm a bit evangelical about it. I don't like the idea of getting stuck in a rut. I dare you to buy a wacky and weird different kind of journal next time you fill yours up and go to replace it with that same boring old same-old you've been using for years. I've heard all your arguments for sticking with the same kind. I still disagree. But I digress).

I love my blurb book and if you have a gazillion pictures from a trip you should buy an album from me, another crafty artist and/or etsy. But if you're looking for something you can make a small print run of (say if you want to give a travel album to everyone you traveled with and you don't want to physcially make the book that many times), I highly recommend Blurb books.

Here's my two journals from Spain displayed on my wall using plate holders (why not?). The blurb book is on the top, the Collage Journal is on the bottom and underneath is a photo of my Great Grandmother cuddling my Grandmother who was then a baby.
I've often found that I end up having two books after a trip, one for photos and one for writing/art. They feel like a team. Here's my blurb book next to my handmade journal:
Thanks Grandma Muriel! For inspiring our trip with your dream. And also for passing on that travel bug you've always had.


Oh ya. P.S.
My house is cluttered with a few different collections: handmade books, puppets, pottery and weaving. Forgive me for being a tourist; I bought a weaving in Tangier:
Isn't it beautiful?

NEXT WEEK: PLANS VS. SURPRISES; IN TRAVEL AND IN TRAVEL JOURNALS

"This COLOR Thing Rocks"

Okay I normally don't book reviews here, and I'm not going to start anything like that now. But...

I heart every book Antoinette Portis has ever made and I especially love that my son loves them and I also especially love her new book, A Penguin Story. Deep breath. There. I got that off my chest.

So when I saw a video of Antoinette Portis talking about A Penguin Story and she said the very true and true-to-my-heart words, "This COLOR thing rocks," I decided to blubber on like an idiot here and share the link to the video (Amazon won't let me embed the video here or I would) because I have a thing for color and people who are passionate about it.

If you haven't read these books, you are in for a treat:

Not A Box,
Not A Stick,
and
A Penguin Story,

They are picture books at their best. Go check them out.

ROBOTS

I've been working on sketches of the Tin-man from The Wizard Of Oz as part of my mentor program with Nevada SCBWI. I've been scouring the internet for images of robots to inspire me during my brainstorming sketches. I found some irresistible robot goodness and goofiness. Check it out:

Robot A Day: Talk about brainstorming!

Geek Crafts: Does crafty goodness get any better than geek crafts?

Mini-Me Robots: Creepy or cool, you decide

Still going (think energizer bunny with a pencil)! I'm off to draw some more.

SUMMER FRIDAY TRAVEL JOURNAL SERIES: Sometimes my favorite "rule" in journaling is that it's okay to let something go

My Grandmother had always dreamed of going to Morocco. It was a request of our trip to Spain. "Can we go to Morocco, too?"
I wanted to take her there with all my heart. But I knew the kind of travel I most enjoyed would probably not be comfortable for her in Morocco (she is in her mid-eighties!) no matter how adventurous she is.
So I spent many a long night after my son had gone to bed researching just the right way we could take her on a day trip to Morocco without it being cheesy and without it being uncomfortable.
I found a woman in Spain who owns a guesthouse near the ferry to Africa who lives and breaths all things Morocco. We stayed at her guesthouse, a magical and tranquil place called Dar Cilla, which is decorated peacefully and perfectly with Moroccan handicrafts and antiques. Even if we weren't going to spend the night in Morocco, I wanted Grandma to relish the flavor of the place.
The people at Dar Cilla arranged for a private tour for only my family. It was a beautiful and perfect day. I never imagined a day-trip tour could be so fulfilling. Our guide listened to things we cared about and walked us (or drove us) to see such things. That's how we ended up in an apothecary shop learning about spices (my husband loves to cook) and in a communal bread baking oven underground. It's also how we saw many of the sites Matisse had painted when he lived in Tangier (There are unassuming diamond shaped cobbles in the roads wherever Matisse painted). These colorful string bits are tied all around posts and doorknobs in the section of the market where thread spinners work:
We weren't pressured by any heavy duty salesmen but we didn't have to worry about the stresses of transportation and we had a guide who taught us lots of fun and interesting things. We also ate one of the best meals I've ever eaten in my life with some crazy brewed fruity juice concoction. I felt like the day was a trip on a magic carpet ride back in time to the days when silent movie stars and Parisian artists came to Tangier for the color, life and magic of the place. My Grandma beamed all day. I was thrilled that I made her dream come true.

And here's where I sigh and bring us back to journaling. My journal pages from this magical day are anything but. How frustrating.They are boring. And un-colorful. In a sense, I let them go before I even started making them. I was too busy taking in all the color and life and magic to collage about it later that day. But even though it's frustrating, it's also okay. Sometimes my favorite "rule" in journaling is to just let something go. So I didn't do it justice. Move on. At least I had that magic ride.

If I beat myself up about every time I didn't do some experience justice in my journal (travel or otherwise), it would mean I wasn't having enough magical experiences (I'd rather be having them than recording about them).

So consider this a permission slip from a journal junkie. If you are ever journaling (or blogging) and you really really wanted to capture it all, but you also really really wanted to do something else, do something else -- especially if that something is magical. Journals suck when they become dreaded obligations.

All that being said, I did bother to make some different sort of collages from my Tangier magic carpet ride when I got home. But that's another post.

TO BE CONTINUED... NEXT FRIDAY

Two Pats on The Back in One Day!

Talented Elisa of Pesky Cat Designs won a Kreativ Blogger award this week and part of the rules in winning are that you list 7 blogs that inspire you. Elisa chose my blog as one of her seven!

Here's a fun and quick story about Elisa: I love that on the day I posted my wild horses illustration, Elisa also posted a picture of a horse purse she designed. Then at the exact same time I was commenting on her blog, she was commenting on mine. We were in Cahoots.

Thanks, Elisa! And speaking of cool blogs, you should check hers out.

A Recent Blue and Dreamy Afternoon

Recently I was feeling blue for no really good reason. My son fell asleep in the car on the way home from something so I was stuck in the car. But luckily I had my journal and my sketchbook (I’ve been taking them with me if I go in the car near nap time – just in case).

I drove about 2 miles from my house to a spot that overlooks Bellingham Bay. I got out my journal thinking I’d brainstorm ways to get out of my funky mood. Instead, as I opened my journal, I was inspired to daydream.

I asked myself what I would like my life to look like a few years from now, and to dream BIG. This is nothing really new. I dream all the time. And I do dream big. But I wrote out the 5-years-from-now vision in present tense, as if it were now.

About two pages in, I stopped myself. I smirked. I realized, while all this was very cool and sounded wonderful, first off, it was not too far off from where I’m at now. I mean, if I were to ask what that version of 5-years-from-now could look like 5 years earlier, it’s my life now. I’m just a 5-year-earlier version of that supposed big dream. That was a pretty awesome and funny moment for me.

Even more awesome though: I stopped myself because I was describing my relationship with my son 5 years from now. I realized I didn’t even want or need to go there. What I realized was that I want and need to focus on now. I want to enjoy his sweet little 2-year-old self while it lasts and not worry too terribly much about his 7-year-old self lest life passes us both by.

And really, despite the fact that I think dreams are essential, I know that also, I really want and need to focus on now in all the other aspects of my life too. I think I was blue because subconsciously I had slipped out of the moment that afternoon. I looked out over the bay, then over my shoulder at my sleeping son in the back seat and slipped right back into the moment.

I’ve been working at becoming an illustrator for an embarrassing amount of time. And it’s fun. I’m so thrilled that I have the chance. Thank you Universe for my life as it is now. It’s a dream come true.

SUMMER FRIDAY SERIES: Travel Journals and The Stories they Tell

Every story is, in some way, a journey. And every journal is, in some way, a story. But unlike more polished stories, journals don't always have beginnings, middles and ends. They are messier. More organic. More like a big pile of seeds that haven't been planted. Or else like a big pile of weeds that have (or haven't) been pulled.

But travel journals are a bit more linear, no? They (at least kind-of) have a beginning, middle and an end. And like characters grow in stories, travel often changes people. You don't return home the same person you were when you left. You grow.

(At least so with journey kinds of travel. Maybe not so with lazy vacation travel -- don't get me wrong, lazy vacations are good -- just not usually adventurous).

Maybe due to my Adventure-ess spirit I can't help but often favor travel journals amongst all the different kinds of journals I have kept. I love the unknowns, the risks, the challenges, and the fun discoveries. I love creative play, discovery, and most of all, engaging in wonder. So, duh, I love travel journals.

So anyway, all this is to say that for the rest of the summer (through labor day), every Friday, I'm going to put up a blog post about travel journals. I'll be mining lots of pictures from my personal stash, but I'd love for anyone to send me pictures or links to post of your own if you have them. I think it will be a fun way to keep some focus to my blogging and a way to enliven an old regular feature (journal of the week) that I suspended recently.

And to start? Let's finish up with those collages from Spain...

For those newer to my blog, I went to Spain in February and shortly thereafter started posting pictures of the collages from my travel journal alongside pictures of the stuff that inspired me to make the collages.

Well I left off about half-way through my trip, right before I visited Bodega Tradicion, a sherry bodega with an owner who has a passion for art collecting.

The tiles behind my Grandma were painted by Picasso:

There's an intimacy to small, semi-private, art collections that's often lost at big museums. The owners of Bodega Tradicion display their art in a beautiful long private gallery. They have pieces by Velazquez, Goya and Zurbaran.
And they have delicious artisan sherry. Cheers!

My Journal is a Playground

I just filled up my beloved idea journal that I use for writing picture books:
It feels appropriate to put pictures up because of the garden on front. I've been doing a lot of work in my yard on mommy days (as opposed to artist days when my kid is at daycare) while my two-year-old plays with his bike.
You aren't still writing in a journal with lines, are you? Lines are like horizontal prison bars. What do you do when you want to write big? Or write in spirals? or write sideways. If you are an artist especially -- I dare you. Step out of the box. Buy a journal without lines next time and destroy it with your crazy handwriting (no matter if it's ugly).

It's a playground. Play.
I love having patterned paper mixed in with regular (well colorful) plain paper. I normally weave text all around the images or glue stuff down over the patterns.

These pictures were taken last year when I did a big photo blitz and took photos of lots of my personal journals to eventually post here. So the pictures above show empty pages. But I assure you the pages are not empty. They are full of crazy ugly handwriting and cross-outs. And the whole thing is all the more precious because it's where I've let myself go and allowed myself to play.

LATER UPDATE/AFTERTHOUGHT WORTH SHARING: I also should add for anyone interested, that I started calling my journal a playground after hearing George Shannon's phenomenal talk "The Journal as A Playground" several years ago. If you ever have the chance to hear George talk: do! He's an amazing speaker.

Summer Revision Smackdown

Goals help me keep my butt in chair working.

I always have a lot going on. And usually I love it all. Like right now I have some fun custom order handmade books to get done, I have a mentorship program assignment that I'm thrilled to be doing and I have a big pile of handmade books to photograph for my etsy shop. But while I love all these parts of my work, none of them is as close to my heart as my current children's book dummy work-in-progress.

So as the days turn enchantingly long, and all the summer stuff I have lined up threatens to pull me away from my w.i.p., I'm psyched that two writer friends Jolie Stekly and Holly Cupala, have thrown a June revision goal-setting and goal-meeting challenge out into the world to pull me back to what's nearest and dearest to my heart:


I'm in!

If I'm going to meet my regular deadlines and get some work done on my w.i.p., I've got to stay focused. THANK YOU for the challenge Holly and Jolie!

In figuring out goals to post, I realized that it's hard to define goals with revision. But this is so so good that this challenge is making me try. Procrastination be banished! I will have goals!

I'm going to aim for revising 2 illustration spreads (from my current dummy WIP) a week (10 total in June). My definition of success will be that both spreads are better than when the week started by a *satisfying* amount.

Satisfying =
  • If the composition needed work, satisfying would mean I’ve resolved the composition issues with thumbnails (in which case the drawing can remain rough and still be considered a satisfying revision)
  • If the drawing started rough, but the composition was solid, then satisfying would mean cleaning up and finishing the details of the drawing.

It will be fun to see how this works. I’ve never given myself deadlines with revision before. I’m excited to try it out.

What art, writing or marketing goals do you have for the month of June? Why don't you go post them over on Jolie or Holly's blogs and join in on the challenge?

The SCBWI WWA 18th annual Conference For Children's Book Writers And Illustrators.

Whew!

Okay I've been back from the SCBWI WWA Conference in Redmond for two days now. But my head is still swimming with all sorts of good stuff. And I lost a day of work yesterday due to my 2-year-old's unexplainable rash all over the back of his legs; apparently he probably got into some itchy plant over the weekend according to the Doc (I can't help but kind of love these quirks of motherhood). So I'm late to post this. But I just want to say Yay for SCBWI Western Washington! Thanks for another wonderful conference.

First off, I am lame at taking pictures. I took maybe 5 total at the conference and a few were repeats. So this is all I've got. A cheesy canned photo of some friends and the Ambassador of Children's literature himself, Mr. Jon Scieszka (rhymes with Fresca).
Highlights From The Conference:
  • Chatting and networking with so many amazing people! I got to thank Ellen Hopkins in person for the awesome conference and mentorship program in Nevada (she's a regional advisor for SCBWI there), which meant a lot to me because I'm so grateful to them for the incredible job they are doing.
  • Getting great and helpful feedback on my work through the manuscript and dummy critiques (I can't wait to get going on my dummy again).
  • George Shannon's mini session on "Writing to be heard: Sound and The Picture Book" has inspired me to go back to every picture book manuscript I have and rethink/examine the sound and rhythm in each of them to better contribute to the heart of each story. Sidenote: I finally bought, TIPPY TOE CHICK GO at the conference (one of my favorite Shannon titles I didn't already own). I think my son has only has requested it about 7 times in the last 2 days.
  • A HILARIOUS video Kim Baker made as a tribute to SCBWI. I'll post a link when it eventually is up on the internet.
  • Hearing all the amazing key-notes. Adam Rex and Jon Scieszka made me laugh so hard I wanted to cry. Ellen Hopkins' pictures of remodeling as a metaphor for revising were spot on. And I found a new hero in Grace Lin. I especially loved when Grace said, "No matter what you do in your life, no one else has done it just like you. Tell your own story."
  • During her session on what makes a great cover, Elizabeth Parisi, art director for Scholastic, showed quick mock-up covers she made for the dummies she had critiqued. It was so fun to see how she handled the different dummies!
  • I loved looking through the portfolios at the portfolio show and seeing how my fellow illustrator friends have improved their work through the years. A special congrats to my friend Jennifer Mann who won the grand prize at the portfolio show (she's an awesome illustrator and she totally deserves it).
  • And probably one of the biggest highlights for me was, no kidding, I got recognized for a picture book dummy I wrote! I was in a bit of a daze when it all happened (it was the end of a full weekend) but I think it's called a breakout writer honor. I think. [UPDATE: SEE BELOW] At the very end of the conference Joni Sensel, one of our co-regional advisors read off a short list of names. The names were given from manuscript critiquers who thought something they read by that person showed special promise. It feels so awesome to get that kind of a pat on the back! I was giddy the whole way home and drank a margarita (or two) with my hubby on Sunday night to celebrate.
  • Last but not least, I loved the carpool home with my home crew from Bellingham. It's great to meet new and exciting friends and acquaintances but it's wonderful to know that I have a supportive and talented critique group and network right in my own backyard.
Thank you so much to Joni Sensel, Laurie Thompson and Kim Baker, our co-regional advisors and assistant regional advisor, for all the hard work you put into the conference. It was a pleasure to be a part of the advisory committee this year and I look forward to more fun next year!

UPDATE: Okay, I got the official word, no official name for the honor at the end of the conference. Just a cool honor to keep us working. That it did. And it made my day! LATER UPDATE: Got word that the honor without a name now has a name: Most Promising Work-In-Progress Honor. Sweet! I suppose I can use that in query letters. One day. When the thing is ready. Motivation has stepped up a notch, for sure.