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Welcome to my blog , The Hare Illustratère. I'll be posting about my art process and journey as an illustrator/author here.

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Monday, December 21, 2009

IF: UNDONE!

NOEL DANCERS
DianaTing Delosh
Ink & Watercolor Christmas Card


All the weeks of rehearsing their perfectly choreographed routine had come UNDONE with one misstep. Here's my entry for this weeks Illustration Friday prompt.

Hope you're all having happy holidays.
We were walloped with 2 feet of snow yesterday - needless to say - love the look, hate the shoveling.


Wednesday, December 16, 2009

IF: HATCH!

With Egg
© Diana Ting Delosh
Ink & Watercolor Greeting card

Pappa Rooster and Moma Hen can't wait for their egg to HATCH! They are so in love and happy together. Here's my illustration for this week's Illustration Friday's prompt.

I need to hatch a plan to make oodles of money with my art. And since we're just playing around, let's make it fool proof, quick, easy and fun.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Christmas Polar Bears

Christmas Polar Bears & Wreath
© Diana Ting Delosh
Ink & Watercolor

Christmas Card available at Diana's Cards

Thought I'd share my latest Christmas Card art on GCU and the 1 I'm using as
my personal Christmas card. Now I'm anxiously waiting for my cards to arrive by Fedex. My address labels are ready to go -just need to buy stamps -and it looks like this year my cards will be out on time. So far it looks like Happy Holidays vs. Merry X-mess.

Wishing all Happy Holidays now in case I get get bamboozled by too much garland later.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Support your local NYC Artists!

If you're in the NYC area and looking for affordable unique gifts please check out The Degenerate Craft Fair. A sort of anti-art-fair, The Degenerate Craft Fair features over 20 artists, designers and their work - in time for Holiday shopping - most items are less than $50.

The fair will take place in 3 separate locations over 3 weeks in December., bringing the artists and their work to very different venues: a DIY performance space, a storefront and a Chelsea art gallery.

For addresses, directions and a complete list of events go to: www.degeneratecraftfair.com
For a PDF of the press release click HERE!
Organised by Amy Wilson and Shannon Broder

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Fall Bear Postcard, CBIG Review, etc.

Bear Walks in the Woods
© Diana Ting Delosh
Ink & Watercolor, portfolio & used as fall 209 postcard.
This is the illustration I used for my latest postcard self-promo campaign - just sent off aproximately 220 postcards. Needless to say I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will land me a nice juicy assignment or two.

I can't believe it's already December! Yikes where did the time go? What have I been up to? I meant to be better at blogging but it seems November has gone by with nary a peep from me. Well I've been busy with CBIG - specifically the November review and getting the above postcard campaign out - not to mention the usual art biz and family/Thanksgiving stuff. So now that I've fully digested November -I guess it's time to dish.

My CBIG Portfolio reviews with 2 art directors. I'm only using initials out of respect for their privacy and because this is proprietary CBIG info. I opted to see MR from HC a giant publishing house, whose Children's division published infant to YA books and RP from SP, a mid sized publisher whose juvenile division only published picture books. In general the reviews went well - both liked my animals. I also showed 2 dummies but as art only.

MR/HC: wanted to see more angles, varied perspective, view points etc. I sat opposite her as she reviewed my portfolio and as I viewed my work upside down - this flaw was obvious to me. Note to self - look at my portfolio upside down more frequently. Luckily for me 1 of my recent dummies demonstrated the varied persoectives and viewpoints she craved - whew. She also wanted me to create more oomph, drama with my illustrations. Yes - she liked my latest Bear series (the above is 1 of 3 new bear illustrations) YAY they were worth working on late into the night!

RP/SP: liked my animals a lot as well as my dummies. Unfortunately it is just a matter of everything aligning: right story/right art/right time. She also liked my B&W work and some of my book cover samples in my portfolio - she thought this might be something I could develop further. Her company is only doing picture books but many other publishing houses have middle grade & YA dept (and mid-grade/YA market is doing very well right now - maybe more opportunities).

Yup - got some work to do. Make sure my portfolio reflects the fact that I do different perspectives and view points, shows narrative, drama, etc. Create more Jacket & interior spot art to go after the mid grade/YA market. Lastly, write a wonderful picture book manuscript for my animals so next year I can show a dummy as both art and story.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

IF: UNBALANCED!

BIG BEAR LITTLE BUNNY
© DIANA TING DELOSH
INK & WATERCOLOR

Here is my entry for this week's Illustration Friday prompt - UNBALANCED. this is the 3rd in a series of 3 illustrations of these 2 characters. Visit my website to see more of Bear and Bunny.

To the casual observer Bear and Bunny's friendship may seem lopsided, unbalanced even. A small bunny may gain a lot from having a large gruff bear as a friend, but what does a bear gain other than a loyal friend? Hm-m-m is there a story somewhere?


Saturday, October 31, 2009

Happy Halloween!

The Pumpkin Pickers
© Diana Ting Delosh

Ink & Watercolor,
self promotion postcard and greeting card
Tabby Cat looks quite dashing in his pirate costume. Owl is also ready for halloween trick or treats all dressed up as a wizard. As for myself, the Jack o'lantern is sitting on my stoop and the candy bowl is filled. Come on over: Tabby Cat and Owl, pirates and wizards.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

IF: Flying

GRYPHON/DRAGON
© Diana Ting Delosh
Bic Pen

Here's my entry for this week's Illustration Friday Prompt - FLYING. Gryphon and Dragon are flying. In the spirit of Halloween fun I thought I'd do a scary beast or two versus my usual cute whimsical art. Gryphon isn't as fierce as I had hoped he'd turn out but I think Dragon has a nice fantasy feel. It's fun to pretend to be someone/something else.

I've been on a Bic Kick lately - find it relaxing. I guess because I think of it as doodling it short circuits my inner critic and I can let out an inner beast or 2.

BTW Gryphon and Dragon are also the 2 featured creatures on Game 16 on my Which Would You Rather Be? blog.



Monday, October 5, 2009

IF: GERMS

SICK BEAR
© Diana Ting Delosh
Ink and Watercolor

"Germs," said Dr. Crow.
"You have a temperture," said Nurse Bunny.
"One big spoonful of our special medicine and you'll be cured!" said the mice assistants.
Bear didn't like the smell of the medicine and he was sure it would taste horrible.

Here's my entry for this weeks Illustration Friday prompt - GERMS!

This image is available as a card at Diana's Cards or click on the store widget in my sidebar. Title: Get Well Bear - product ID: 88484

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Not My Usual

Car on the Road • © 2009 Diana Ting Delosh
• Ink & Watercolor Illustration for Safety Driver's Program.

Recently I took on an assignment for a local business, Paultec Graphics to provide an illustration for a 4-Color flyer for Safety Driver's Program to advertise the debut of their new NY State DMV approved online defensive driving program - easternsafetycourse.com.

The assignment was to create an illustration that was reminiscent of the art on the online site but with more pop. Now, if you've ever taken a gander at my portfolio you'd know that automobile art is not part of my repetoire, however as I've created all types of art for Paultec in the past he trusted me to come through. I accepted the challenge to find a way to meet the client's specs while remaining true to my style. I'm happy to report that both myself and the client are happy with the results.

Now I'm not embarking on a portfolio filled with machines and urban scapes but it was nice to venture out of my comfort zone and explore new territory.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

IF: STRONG!

ANT & SNAIL
• © Diana Ting Delosh • Marker and Watercolor


Ant is very strong for her size. She likes to show off to anyone who comes along. Snail is quite impressed. Here is my illustration for this weeks Illustration Fridays' challenge.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

IF: CAUTION!

HIPPOPOTAMUS & CROCODILE • © Diana Ting Delosh • Marker with Watercolor Wash
Hippo knows that her hide is too tough to entice a croc to take a bite but she still proceeds with caution when she eyes one close by. My entry for this weeks Illustration Friday Prompt.

Just for fun, please hop to Which Would You Rather Be? to play Game 9 - Hippopotamus or Crocodile?

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Art/product

I don't know about you - but I need to create on a fairly regular basis or I get very cranky. Must have that creative fix or else. To make matters worse, lately the creative fix is getting less satisfying. I think the need to make a living with my art is making it all feel like product. Need to put the fun back in creating without loosing sight of my big goals.

Making art for art's sake is 1 way to go - but it still doesn't take the pressure away from the need to be art smart and make it all count. So I'm going to really lower the bar for myself. My goal will be to create "bad art" and lots of it! Take the stress out of creating: sub worthy, portfolio worthy, award winning, saleable, marketable, will they like it, etc. creations. It can be trash worthy. Maybe I'll post it or maybe I'll just toss it. Enjoying the process again is what's important.

Feeling totatlly in awe of the guys on http://pageadaysketches.blogspot.com/
If you're not familiar with this blog I reccomend taking a gander... and they call them mere sketches! Not too intimidating. Yes I know visiting this blog may be totally detrimental to my bad art goal.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

WHAT"S UP?

[PorcupineSkunk.jpg]
PORCUPINE & SKUNK • © Diana Ting Delosh • Ink & Watercolor

These 2 friends are the current featured creatures on Game 7 - WHICH WOULD YOU RATHER BE - PORCUPINE OR SKUNK? This odd blog of mine - well - I'm wondering if it's a mistake. Definitely a distraction and fun for me. Gives me a purpose to do quick doodles, sketches, looser art styles and a place to show more of my art and hang my widgets. It also has the weekly wednesday deadline so it gives me structure. However - have I just given myself another vehicle for procrastinating? As if I didn't have enough of those. I guess as long as I'm having fun with it and it's not getting in the way of anything what's the harm. Now if only I could get the auto post feature to work. To date auto post worked 1 out of 5. Not a very reliable feature!
Note this blog has ads. I wonder what Google ads will be relevant for Porcupines & Skunks?

What else?
Just subbed a new poem (manuscript only - no art) to a kids magazine. Keeping my fingers crossed that they will accept for publication. Now I need to dive into something new. I made a long list this morning of what I can work on besides the above nuttiness, so it's just a matter of making a decision. I hate this in between projects stage.

Last week I blew a circuit - fixed it right away - but decided to stay off the computers, etc for the day - which resulted in the rough draft for the above poem. Realized that sometimes what I need is to be away from all things "E" to get the creative juices to flow.

Monday, August 3, 2009

Animals with or without clothes

I recently showed my portfolio to an art director of a medium sized trade children's book publisher . Her comments in general were good but she did have a thing about animals wearing clothes. In her opinion animals should not wear too much clothes. It made them too human and a wee bit creepy. She also felt that the totally dressed animal was a mass market look.

This comment made me realize that the majority of my animals are dressed. Few are au naturalle. I should also add this was the first time I've heard that trade pubs prefer naked animals. I have had comments that my animals should dress in more trendy garb as opposed to a classic look. Now I suppose I should make sure I have more naked animals.

Which brings me to my next thought - why do most of my animals wear clothes? My decision is based on the text - are the animals really stand ins for people characters or are they behaving like real wild animals? I also like to use clothing as a prop to further enhance the character. And of course it's just plain fun to design patterns and outfits for my characters. Take my Ox or Rat, Game 5 of my Which Would You Rather Be? blog, their robes enhance their character. I guess my next project should be something that calls for animals behaving like animals.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

SKIP & SCOUT, STORY PUBLISHED!

Announcing the publication of my story, Skip and Scout in the August 2009 issue of
Highlights High Five magazine - Bonus Pages: Make Your Own Mini-Book. Illustrated by Anna Currey.

To read about the story behind the story see my April 2, 2009 blog entry - Mice by another name and view my August 18, 2008 blog entry - Pip & Squeak!

Monday, July 20, 2009

IF: TANGO

THE SUNFLOWER CROWS
© Diana Ting Delosh
Ink & Watercolor

It takes 2 to Tango and Mr. & Mrs. Crow do it so well. They love to dance among the golden sunflower heads all summer long. Here's my illustration for this weeks Illustration Friday prompt - Tango.

FYI: You may buy this image as a greeting card at GCUniverse.com/DianasCards. Put the keywords: Sunflower Crows in the left sidebar of my store.

Friday, July 17, 2009

It's a real Pewter Plate!

The Pewter Plate shown on the July 2008 Highlights High Five magazine open
to pages 12 & 13. Bubble Trouble poem by Diana Ting Delosh - Art by Holli
Conger - © 2008 Highlights.

Yes - It's real pewter plate! And as you can see hard to photograph - at least for me! Now aren't you glad I don't subject you to more of my photos. See previous post for more about the award.


Thursday, July 9, 2009

The Pewter Plate Award!

Yay -The Pewter Plate Award! - © 2009 Diana Ting Delosh, Marker

I'm happy to announce that my poem, Bubble Trouble- July 2008, just won the Pewter Plate Award from Highlights High Five for Puzzle Poem of the Year! YAY! What a lovely surprise.

We had been alerted to look for a gift from R in the mail. Needless to say when the above package arrived we just assumed it was the gift. B thinks it's chocolate when we open the outer package and reveal the inner white box. Surprise, surprise it's the Pewter Plate Award from Highlights High Five magazine! I think it's better than chocolate. B on the otherhand probably prefers a nice yummy box of assorted dark chocolates.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Glitches Galore

Dandelion/Rose
© 2009 Diana Ting Delosh
Ink & Watercolor illustration

Hm-m-m. Experiencing lot's of glitches today. just tried to upload an image but just keep getting the Bad request warning. Also having mucho probs with my speklling. So what else is up? Game 2, Which Would You Rather Be - dandelion or rose? is posted - finally. Had it scheduled to auto post at 8am. Needless to say it didn't. At 8:45 am I checked it and ended up manually posting it. I'll have to investigate to see if I had done something wrong. Anyway the gremlins are definitely active today. Arg-g-g why doesn't anything work the way it should?

Well heavens to betsey it finally worked! Now about my spelling... hm-m-m.

Friday, July 3, 2009

BETWIXT & BETWEEN

Bouquet Ink Line
© 2009 Diana Ting Delosh

I am betwixt and between projects. Recently finished my PB manuscript/dummy and now it's making the rounds. Sent out all my promo postcards - not too many returns. Even set up my writing game. So now I'm doing a lot of waiting.
Keeping all my digits crossed & hoping for good news. I hate this phase. Need to get busy. Which means I'm trying to figure out what's next. Should I revise an older book dummy? Work on my early reader mystery manuscript that I put aside when things got hairy? Start on totally new ideas? What?

Well while I'm trying to figure out my next big project I've been keeping busy doing mini projects. Working on the weekly games for Which Would You Rather Be?
Created a few new GCU cards. The Bouquet line art above is the base for 1 of my cards. The concept: a bouquet of red, white & blue flowers for all the patriotic holidays. I was just about to start painting when I realized that if I scanned the line art I could paint it multiple times to suit many occassions. Trying to keep busy but still need to be art smart.

So many projects to do but which one first?

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Which Would You Rather Be...?

Tortoise/Hare
© Diana Ting Delosh, ink & watercolor illustration

I just started a new weekly Blog Game, Which Would You Rather Be?, for your amusement. The first game asks you to decide if you'd rather be a Tortoise or a Hare. To play please visit my new game blog at: http://whichwouldyouratherbe.blogspot.com. Come and join me for some fun on my other blog.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

IF: CRAVING!


Rose Cupcake
© Diana Ting Delosh
Ink & Watercolor illustration

M-m-m-m! I'm craving a cupcake with chocolate frosting and pink buttercreme roses. This illustration was inspired by this weeks Illustration Friday prompt. M-m-m-m.

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Promo Postcard - Mouse Dreams

Mouse Dreams, detail used for front of May 2009 Postcard
© Diana Ting Delosh
Ink & Watercolor

Received my self- promotional postcards from VistaPrint and I'm quite happy with the printing. Now I just have to update my mailing list. Ugh! With all the recent comings and goings of Editors/Art Buyers it is quite a headache. At any rate I only have a few days to work on it before the postage rate goes up this Sunday. Don't know if I'll get it all updated/posted but I'll definitely give it a shot.
The last time I did a Postcard Promo Campaign I landed an illustration contract. It would be lovely if the same happened again. I'm crossing my fingers and toes!

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

NEW - CBIG Blogzine!

Have been busy working on the official blog for CBIG. As usual nothing is as simple as it seems and it all takes longer than expected. BUT it is up and running and after a S-L-O-W start it is all starting to gell.
Please visit CBIG-nyc.blogspot.com, where members will be showcasing their illustrations and announcing their professional children's book publishing and related industry news.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Creative Stumbling Blocks

SEED PACK © Diana Ting Delosh

I'm in the midst of a creative block - hopefully towards the tail end of one. I first tried just working through it. If I was stalled on my picture book idea, I'd work on my various other projects. At least this way I was still creating and producing. No problems creating new card ideas for GCU. My sketchbook was overflowing with other ideas. I'm already daydreaming about my next book idea. I'll just take a short hiatus from my PB and comeback refreshed. Right? Wrong - I soon discovered I was fine on every front accept my current PB. The solution? Just grit my teeth and force myself to work on it. Did it work? Yeah - finally! And I'm happy with the art and I can chug along on the next illustration in the SF series. (Seed Pack is 1 of the illos from my PB that's giving me a headache!)

So what's the problem? Is it the idea? No -at least - I'm fond of it. And I'm happy with the sketches and the finished art when I finally finish them. So what is it??? Hate to say it but I believe it's the field of publishing and picture books that has me blocked. Lately there's been nothing but bad news - editors and art directors being laid off, whole divisions merging, folding. Here I'd just made their acquaintance and now, POOF no more. Combine that with the brutal competition even when the economy was good and my recent bad experiences of loosing dummies. Well is it any surprise that I wonder if my efforts are for naught?

Any solutions? Should I just rethink my ambitions? Sure - I've considered it many times. Even left the field a few times but unfortunately I've always come back to it. So now what? No real answers - but keep on doing my best work as well as looking into other fields and possibilities for my creations.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Life after tax day

OX, © Diana Ting Delosh, ink & watercolor illustration

Whew - tax day has come & gone... and at least it's all done & filed. Now to get back to life. It's April 16, mid-point of the 1st month of the 2nd quarter - what's up?

The Year of the Ox is proving true to it's promise that good fortune will be acquired through hard work and patience. Well at least I've got the work and patience routine down and a few proposals pending. Create, promote, submit, wait....wait....wait. Repeat steps 1, 2, 3, many many times.

On another matter - I officially gave notice at my part time job this week. The job had dwindled from 20+ hours to 4+ hours a week... which made me wonder why bother among other questions. Sure I could've stayed on until the inevitable no hours on the schedule. At anyrate I felt the monies lost could be easily replaced by my freelance activites and the 4+ hours could be put to use working on artbiz stuff. The PT job had lost it's purpose, namely to give me a regular funds, so I wouldn't be taking art jobs from hell. Well the regular funds dwindled to a joke and I was back to considering art job's from hell. Now the onus is to make it work without any back-up - again. Not sure if I did the right thing in this economy, only time will tell. So what was I saying about the Year of the OX? Yup - hard work and patience.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Mice by another name?

I recently received a call from my Highlights/High Five editor concerning my poem, Pip & Squeak. It had just come to their attention that there is a picture book by the same title and it also features mice. HORRORS! Needless to say we needed to come up with a new title and names for the 2 characters in our poem. Here I thought I had been so-o-o clever with the title. Pip and Squeak was a play on the word pipsqueak. What fun. Note - I did think of them as mice when it was first drafted eons ago, but when I submitted it to High Five last summer - I left it to the editors to decide: mice, kids, squirrels, geckos, whatever. They came up with mice. Probably because the names Pip and Squeak screams - Mice. So now the renaming begins. I call and suggest Skip and Scamp along with a few others. Skip and Scamp is chosen but then discarded. I think of more names. Skip and Scout, Rose and Bud, Bud and Twiggy, Stick and Twig, Skip and Clover, Skip and Flora. I'm also Googling to see what turns up and low and behold Bud and Twiggy is a famous couple! After a few more rounds of names, a decision is made: Skip and Scout. Just in time for it to get back in the production line to be published in the August 2009 issue of High Five magazine.

Needless to say from now on I'll do a search before I sub...but than again who knows what happens before it actually gets published!

Brush Strokes on Squidoo!

I'm currently a featured artist on Sherry Holden's Squidoo Lens. How exciting! Moi and 2 other artists will be featured for about a month. So if you have a chance please take a gander at: www.squidoo.com/ArtistsAtImagekind.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Spring Gallery Cleaning

Just did some spring cleaning at my Wingedrabbit ImageKind Galleries. My art is now more sensibly grouped. Animals are corraled in the ANIMALS, Florals are blooming in FLORA and anything that is neither animal or flora is in ARDWERX .

My HOLIDAY Gallery will showcase 4 images that are specially priced for the current season. This is my experiment to see if special pricing will effect sales. HOLIDAY is now featuring - Happy Spring & Hoppy Easter!

Just take a gander at the ImageKind banners in my sidebar or hop on over to http://wingedrabbit.imagekind.com where you will find fine art, giclee prints, and cards featuring my whimsical and decorative illustrations. Prints come in various sizes and your choice of quality art paper. Custom framing is also available. Thanks for taking a peek!

Friday, February 27, 2009

IF: BREEZY

Spring Fling
© Diana Ting Delosh
Ink & Watercolor Illustration

Mr Hopwell and Lady Quack are ballooning on a lovely, breezy, spring day. Here's my entry for this week's IF prompt.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

IF: CELEBRATE!


FRUIT PUNCH!
© Diana Ting Delosh
Ink & watercolor illustration

Hip, hip hoorah! Pour the fruit punch and make a toast. Cheers - it's time to celebrate. I wonder what good news the animals are celebrating. This is my illustration for this weeks Illustration Friday prompt, Celebrate.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

IF: TIME

Time Expired Portfolio
© Diana Ting Delosh

Unfortunately for the ill-fated illustrator on her way to see the NYC Art Director, her portfolio's freshness time was about to expire. TICK... TICK... TICK... BOOM!
My response to this weeks Illustration Fridays prompt: TIME - 1 of my nightmares.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Fri Illustrator's Intensive: Part II - NYC Art Directors

Tips & Commentary from the 2009 SCBWI Winter Conference NYC Art Director's Panel.The Panel consisted of 3 AD's representing 2 trade pubs and 1 mass market pub. They reviewed previously selected samples from 10 anonymous illustrators. Fresh, New, Exciting, Dated, Cliche, art labeled according to the perspectives of the AD. If the retro look is a current and an exciting new trend what made something else dated?

What they want from our illustrations:
- Strong Characters
- Impact: Does it grab you and draw you in?
- Narration: do they tell a story?
- Dependability
- Creatitivity
- Craft
- Concept: Is there an original ideal? Does it make you want to see more?
- Something accessible yet fresh.

How to get noticed:
- Send Postcards. Make illustration image big. Contact info type to a minimum and smaller. Do 3 or 4 mailings a year.
- Get published in other related markets (kid's magazines, greeting cards, etc).
- Websites and blogs. Websites are great because they can share the url with colleagues when discussing a project. Blogs give insight to the person behind the art.

Misc Tips
- Illustrator source books have gone the way of the dodo.
- If there is a product in your illustration make up your own product logo vs doing a known company logo to avoid possible lawsuits and other complication. Ex: the 3 bears are making porridge don't draw your favorite brand. Design your own!

2009 SCBWI Portfolio Room: No feed back... you only know if someone liked your work if they took a sample and than of course you would only know whom, IF they contacted you. Unsatisfying - but the equivalent of doing a multi-pub house drop off.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Fri Illustrator's Intensive: Part I - Workshops

*I will be using initials, etc. where/when the info is proprietary to the SCBWI.
Fri, 1/30/09. 5am rise & shine - got to catch the 6:38 train! Yikes - glad I don't have to commute daily. Anyway I'm at the Hyatt for the SCBWI Winter Conference, Illustrator's Intensive and I'm very excited about my 2 workshops: Digital Painting and Graphic Novels.

Big Changes in 2009. Publishing is in transition. Time to reinvent , re-define. There are more & newer forms of publishing: electronic, web, etc. but not more $$. What worked before may not work anymore. A crisis is a Terrible thing to waste! Do you see a theme here? Illustrators evolve, adapt or else??? -And this was just the opening!

Leo & Diane Dillon, illustration royalty, gracious and awe inspiring, showed a body of work that was constantly changing. They were lucky to have never been pigeon holed in any particular style, given the freedom to constantly experiment at whim. Through out all from woodcuts to friskets, Sci-fi book jackets to picture books, the one and only constant was the Dillon's aesthetic taste. Somehow they escaped the concept that one must have a style/Brand to successfully market oneself as an illustrator, and were able to create to the project.

A Traditional Aproach to Digital Painting - taught by illustrator William Low. This was an amazing workshop. I'm a traditional illustrator with knowlege of photoshop 7 vs the latest CS whatever. However I went home w/pages of notes and a semesters worth of info and loads of ideas on how to work smarter w/some digital help from PS7. Needless to say I can't wait to buy a new computer and be able to play w/the latest CS.

Attention Picture Book Writer/Illustrators: You Can Create a Graphic Novel: Here's How - This workshop should have been called: Survival tactics for illustrators. Elise Primavera showed how she adapted her style over the years to stay on top of the changing market. From her early work, classic pen & ink to her best seller; Auntie Claus, pastels, to her recent graphic novels, Fred and Anthony Escape from the Netherworld, loose doodlely ink line. She exhorted us to copy (as a way of learning) what we felt was current to digest and ultimately make our own - until the next cycle. She also told us (and this was a theme that ran through the whole conference) to mine our childhood journals/sketch bks/memories for Mid grade/teen & graphic novel ideas. Tips on staying fresh: Get uncomfortable! Try new things, techniques. Welcome the squirmy feeling. Don't be afraid of beginning with a chaotic mess and keep that energy going.

So Yes - I will create a graphic novel and be very squirmy doing it and have it sub ready before the trend expires! GWAH! I'm very uncomfortable now!

Monday, February 2, 2009

Apres SCBWI Winter Conference!

Groundhog Escapes!
© Diana Ting Delosh, Ink & watercolor illustration

This past weekend, I attended the SCBWI Winter Conference. Which meant 3 very early mornings and long days. I'm still recovering and feeling a bit numb. I'll blog in more details once I've digested my experience. So what are my overall impressions of this conference? Any exciting tips to share?

Art directors, editors, literary agents, oh my - apparently are all looking at artists and writers blogs! Yay - or might that be - Uh Oh!

Websites for illustrators are a must. Art Directors prefer to search the web for artists vs illustrator source books.

Publishers paper catalogs will also soon be extinct.

The conference was in general inspiring - but is it my imagination that the 2009 message for the writers was kinder and hopeful, compared to the illustrators message of adapt, evolve or else. Hm-m-m -m. I'll definitely have to give it a few days to percolate before I write about that one!

- Happy Groundhog's Day!
Puxatawny Phil predicts 6 more weeks of winter, but my local groundhogs, Chuck and Mel predict an early spring. I'll go with my local boys.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

CBIG: Illustrator Tips - Endpapers

Recently, I attended a CBIG meeting on Jan 11th, our guest speaker was NW, Assoc Ed from a medium sized NYC trade publisher of Books for Young Readers. Sorry about being so mysterious but some info is proprietary to CBIG. Nor would I want to incur the wrath of NW! Here's what I learned from the meeting that I can share with my fellow children's picture book illustrators/writers:

3 types of End papers and how they effect the Picture Book page count.
Self-Ends: Illustrated by the artist & are counted in the page count. They are printed on the same kind of paper as the interior of the book. They account for 8 pages in a 32 pg bk. Pg 1 begins on the side that's actually glued into the hardcover. Pgs 2 & 3 are the actual illustrated front endpapers. Pg 4 maybe left blank, maybe illustrated, or the © info may appear here facing the Title page on pg 5. Title page is on pg 5. Story starts on pages 6, ends on page 29. Pg 30 & 31 are your illustrated back ends and pg 32 is glued into book.
Colored Ends: Colored paper inserted in book. Not counted in page count and are different stock than the interior pages.
Printed Ends: Artist designed/illustrated but on different stock than rest of book and maybe 1 color vs the full color interior pages. They are treated as Colored Ends and aren't counted in the page count. Rarely used nowadays.

8 x 10 is the most economical size for a PB: PB's are printed on large sheets of paper in signatures of 8 pages. They are then folded, gathered and trimmed. The 8 x 10 size allows for the least amount of paper waste on the most commonly used paper size.

Storyboard your Book dummy. Helps you to make sure art & story isn't static.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

IF: RESOLVE!

Hamster Resolves - © 2009 Diana Ting Delosh.
Ink Illustration.


I, like Hamster, resolve to do many things in 2009. My list, when boiled down to it's essence:


1 - Create art daily!

2 - Do concrete artbiz actions daily!

Felt the need to make Creating Art Daily a Major Focus this year because so much of being an illustrator involves mundane tasks: updating, tweaking,promoting,networking, paperwork, etc. that time for actually creating art seems to be endangered.

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Happy 2009

2009 Scribble Type - © 2008 Diana Ting Delosh
I begin 2009 with guarded optimism, despite all the gloomy news around me. For me 2008 ended on a hopeful note that better things may be round the corner art biz wise. So here goes: What worked in 2008 that I plan on doing more of in 2009:

ChildrensIllustrators.com/DianaTDelosh - made a point of doing monthly tweaks that led to increased site exposure, several job leads and work. Will continue with the monthly tweaks.

• New in 2008, my website dianadelosh.com - gave me credibility and exposure which landed the assignments. Continue tweaking & updating site.

• Targeted Submissions - resulted in contracts. Must do more!

• Promo Postcards - Did 2 mass promo campaigns. Did see increased traffic to my website. Yay! As well as direct replies to my mailings. Shoot for 4 campaigns in 2009.

GreetingCardUniverse.com/dianascards - focused on creating cards for holidays and quadrupled my sales from 2007. New goal: double my sales. Add new designs weekly.

WingedRabbit.ImageKind.com - updated to a platinum account in Nov 2008 for the premium site exposure and gallery space. Images are definitely getting more views - which hopefully will lead to more sales!

• Networking via forums, listservs, IF, etc. I get the most referrals to my website and POD stores via SCBWI discussion board and CBIG.