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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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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.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

IF: Balloons!

5 Animal Friends
© 2006 Diana Ting Delosh
Ink & Watercolor

Here's my entry for this week's Illustration Friday word - Balloons. Bright, beautiful, happy balloons. Where are the 5 animal friends off to? Raccoon has a bouquet of balloons.
Perhaps it's a party.

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Busy Busy October!

Wow - can't believe I was too busy to post for a month! So what Have I been up to? Loads.

Worked on a flash animation project with a new client, the Woo Agency. Woo found me through my portfolio on ChildrensIllustrators.com/DianaTDelosh. I'll be posting more about this very exciting flash animation project when they're finished with the animation magic.

Added new designs to my GCU store. Now over 250 whimsical cards at Diana's Cards!

And I'm busy helping my fellow CBIG officers prep for our annual CBIG November Portfolio/Dummy Review.

Needless to say October was a very hectic, whirlwind of a month!

Monday, September 8, 2008

IF: CLUTTER

Hamster/Mind Clutter © Diana Ting Delosh Marker

My mind is cluttered: brilliant ideas, daily minutiae,
distracting fears; all muddled together in a mental goulash. The trick is to remember: I am not a hamster.My mind is not my wheel.

Monday, August 25, 2008

IF: ROUTINE

TEA CUP © Diana Ting Delosh
Marker


My morning routine, is to ponder my day over a hot cup of tea with a drop of milk. I'm out of sorts if I can't do this.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Peeping Zombies!

How's this for an eye catching title - Do Dead People Watch You While You're in the Shower? Can you imagine? What a concept! Yes, this is a real title of a book I saw while browsing the shelves of a bookstore. It's non-fiction. Definitely stopped me dead in my tracks and made me look. No I didn't buy it. Now if Hitchcock's movie, Psycho didn't creep you out about showers, here's this lovely thought.

Monday, August 18, 2008

Pip & Squeak!

Down the Hill
© Diana Ting Delosh
1 of 6 original sketches for Pip & Squeak. (not submitted to High Five)


Highlights/High5 magazine just accepted my pre-school verse Pip & Squeak for publication. YAY!

I had originally submitted Pip & Squeak with sketches to Babybug magazine. Recently decided it was time to have it make the rounds again... this time without suggested art to High Five.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

IF: POOF!

BIRTHDAY MAGIC
© Diana Ting Delosh

Ink Line & Watercolor


Wish I could just wave my paint brush and POOF art - from my brain into tangible form. The closest thing I come to magic is pulling serendipitous art out of my flat file. Which doesn't happen too often...but this is 1 of those instances. So here is my entry for Illustration Friday - POOF.

Birthday Magic just happens to be something I'm working on for my Greeting Card Store. It still needs to be spiffed up, loaded, OK'd...before Poof it becomes available as a birthday card.