Call Me McGonagall

... cause I'm a professor! Well, kinda! I taught my first workshop at Pacific Northwest College of Art today, and I think it went pretty well! Children's book folk are such kind people, though, it could be kind of hard to tell. Here is a picture of the PNCA building, in the uber-trendy Pearl district:

Just hanging out in that area makes me feel all hip and trendy- and for me, that is saying something. The workshop today was a 2 1/2 hour deal called "Children's Book Publishing 101". I built upon two talks that I have given before at SCBWI conferences & modified them to fit the program. The first half of the class included a breakdown of the different genres (mass market, middle grade, teen, picture book, etc), and a brief rundown on terminology (gutter, f&gs, bleed, etc). Then on to my beloved Powerpoint! 

The first bit was about molding your idea for a picture book into an actual, real-life book, from early dummy stage through publication. Included a heartfelt reading of "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!", and many tellings of rejection letters.

After a 15-minute breather, on to part 2:
Wherein I described how, back in my days as a high-flying, high-rolling designer at Greenwillow (think Don Draper from Mad Men) we would choose illustrators for different projects. I dove right in to the basket of promotional postcards we'd receive daily:

and I outlined which postcards I'd set aside, on this particular day, as keepers. 

I think I know what question is burning on your brain at this moment: "Vicki, tell me, on your first day as a 'college professor'... whatever did you wear?!?!?"

Good question! I mulled this one over for a while, too! I wanted to strike the important balance of mature, but still artsy, but not too young, but still stylish and bestowing an air of knowledge and know-how. This is what I came up with:

Wait, it looks less frumpy in the "after" picture:

"After" because, I felt like I deserved a new haircut after my exciting day. Sharon can't believe it's really me, despite the fact that- as a friend once observed- my hair is much like Kirsten Dunst's (sp?) in that vampire movie, when no matter how she cuts her curly locks, they always grow back the same. I had a heckuva time finding a new stylist to replace my Louisa, but I really liked Marina right off the bat. And I'd say the salon is even as cute as the old Beehive in Brooklyn!

Transformations

Beehive

After a few months of sporadic postings, look at me now- I can't shut myself up! But if you're still hanging with me... Any suggestions for topics you wish you could see covered in a children's book course??!? My 8-week class in Children's Book Illustration begins in March!

Messy Sketchy

I fielded some complaints from loyal readers (read: friends and family) on my recent goodwill tour to Florida about my lack of posting on my blog. Friends and family, rejoice!! Although I am not a fan of the New Year's Resolution (I like to make resolutions all year 'round- in that way I am a real "resolutionary"), I hereby resolve to revert back to my frequent-posting days. And just in time- there's LOTS in store for Victoria Jamieson Illustration... 2010!! A sampling of what you'll see:

1) Olympig! Fever! 

Text (& some sketch) revisions are due at the end of the month for my next book. Walk with me as I lead you on a journey through the creation of my new book!

2) The Student is Now the Teacher

I am proud to say that I will be teaching some Continuing Education courses in children's book illustration at Pacific Northwest College of Art this semester! Why, as a matter of fact, I am teaching a 2-hour seminar this very Saturday! I'll give you the skinny on what's going down in the classroom.

3) My first reading!

I'll be doing a reading on February 20th at Green Bean Books (on NE Alberta, for you Portlanders!) Yes, my very first, and I'm very excited.

4) Messy Sketchy

A new feature (not really- this is actually the usual running feature) on Victoria Jamieson Illustration: random recent sketches if I have nothing else to add as a visual.

I'll leave you with your first installment of Messy Sketchy for 2010- and I'll be seeing you soon!

Adventures in 3-D

Dear Readers,

You may remember that a few months ago, I mentioned my attempts to see one of my characters in The Third Dimension:

You may be surprised, therefore, that I decided to attempt it again! One of the perks of working at the children's museum, besides getting to hang out with kids all day, is occasionally getting to hang out in the clay studio all day. I've really been thinking a lot about my musical-themed book and have been trying to get to know my characters better. It turns out that modeling them in 3-D really helped! I think the process lulled me into a trance of sorts, where I was free to imagine and explore the characters better. Trying to figure out just how Ladybug's hair would fall gave me new insights into her fastidiousness...

And likewise into Fly's rambunctiousness (also, I think she's a girl now?) Not that these models are perfect, or even what I eventually want to characters to look like... it was just a nice process to think about them in a different way.

And since I had some extra time on my hands:

I hope to use this little piggy statue more as a drawing model. He's the star of my next book, and revisions are due soon!

And, just a kid that I made up. Again, I'm trying to understand kids' anatomy better, and modeling really seems to help in that respect, too.

Long time, no post!

No excuse, really! Just an incubation period, I guess. Do you ever go through such periods, o fellow creatives? Well, I've been enjoying some new creative outlets recently, and one of those creative outlets is a new part-time job at the Portland Children's Museum! A great institution, and I highly recommend it as a fun afternoon for you 2-4 year-old readers out there. Anyway, it is a REALLY fun job for me, because it allows me lots of time to interact with kids, something I have never really done consistently before. I know that lots of children's book authors never had kids, but for me it's been really helpful to spend some time around my target audience, and observe them as they're playing. I come home every night inspired to draw...

I've never really felt as comfortable drawing kids as I am drawing animals. And that notion (that I'm better at animals than kids) was something I was never comfortable with, either! After all, I love figure drawing. But figure drawing was always adults, never kids- and their anatomy is so different from adults. Those huge heads! So it's been enormously helpful for me to be able to hang out with kids on a daily basis.

Santa Photoshop SCANDAL!!!

As a woman, I am very strongly opposed to the photoshopping of already too-thin models that takes place every day in our fashion magazines. AND YET! I am now part of that industry as well! (the photoshopping, not the modeling. Mr. Lagerfeld, PLEASE stop knocking down my door). BEHOLD, my latest work:

(click all pictures for larger views)

I did this illustration for the fantastic New York Road Runners Foundation, which supports after-school running programs in NYC and around the country (they're a blast to volunteer for, if you like to run & live in the NYC area). BUT! Santa was deemed too hefty, so I pretended I was working for Ralph Lauren and slimmed him down:

SCANDAL!! Just imagine the conflicted feelings of young Santas everywhere, not reaching for that extra cookie... Ha, ha- I kid, of course- I can totally see the problems with a corpulent running Santa. Where are the rewards for all of that healthy excercise? I also realized that I haven't drawn Santa Claus in 18-odd years?!? I used to draw him and Rudolph A LOT. And unicorns.

Here's one more I did:

Fun! Oh, and in case you haven't seen it, re: my last post about Roller Derby names, Betsy Bird at Fuse #8 has a list of names going and THEY. ARE. AWESOME. I'm into the ALL CAPS tonight.

It's that time of year!

...when the air is brisk, the leaves are changing, and a girl's thoughts turn to Roller Derby. You may remember this post and this one from year past, in which I talked about my love of roller derby and my ill-fated attempt to try out for the Gotham Girls. WELL, just imagine this- Portland has a recreational (wreck-reational) league! And I have gone to two practices and have not broken a bone! And what's more- recreational players get to choose a roller derby name! That means- yes- for real this time... I need a kid's book-themed roller derby name!! Please help! Let me know which one you like, or if you have other suggestions! Here's what I came up with so far:

Anne Surly

Marilla Cutthroat

Violent Baudelaire

Kat Hiss Everdeen

Mo Pain Willems 

Knuckle Bunny

Scout Flinch

Boo Boo Radley

Edward Sullen

Greenwillow Category:

Ida B Sting

Chrysanthemaim

The following excellent suggestions are all courtesy of my friend Julia and her boyfriend Tristan:

Encyclopedia Frown

Green Eggs and Wham

Splat the Bunny

Pippi Longstalking

Madeleine M'Angle

Sarah, Pain and Brawl

Ramona the Grave

Nancy Screw (and the mystery of the missing tooth?)

Rohald Doll

Judy Doom

Makillda

***MORE suggestions!

Goodnight Goon (a twofer- thanks, Nina!)

And these great ideas from Betsy Bird over at Fuse #8:

The Skivving Tree

Millions of Cuts

Blue Bruises for Sal

Kicka Kicka Boom Boom

Olivida

Strega Paina

What do you think???

Done!

My flying trapeze spider illustration is DONE!

(click for larger view)

*Whew*!! That took longer than I'm used to, but I really wanted to create a lush yet detailed environment. And now it's DONE! To reward myself for all of my hard work, I am planning on relaxing this weekend with Xanadu (rented from the library), re-reading CATCHING FIRE (bought from Powell's because I got tired of waiting for my copy from the library. TEAM GALE!), and by finally making the bird furniture for my birdcage like I've wanted to do forever. Hey, I work hard- I deserve it!

Happy weekend!

Inside the Illustrator's Studio

When last we spoke about current work-related things, I was busy working on my new dummy. Well, I'm happy to say that part is all wrapped up. For now. Next step? I wanted to do a finished piece from the dummy. Which piece to choose? Well, the vote was unanimous:

This was a vote that quite frankly, I wished to contest, because... this is the hardest illustration in my dummy. I feel a bit unprofessional saying that one piece is "harder" than another- I mean, did Michelangelo shy away from, say, painting horses because they were too "hard"? Then again, Michelangelo never painted trapeze-swinging spiders, did he? But all in all, the tricky perspective, the lighting I wanted, the X-treme close-up of the spider... This was going to take some time.

First up, I got out my spider references. Maybe you thought spiders were ugly? Well, take a look at this mug:

AWWWWW! A little too cute, actually. I used this spider as my actual reference:

Then, I fiddled around with my black & white sketch in Photoshop to test out different lighting & color scenarios. Truth be told, I was a little worried about the X-treme contrast (dark to light) that I wanted to achieve in the painting, and printing out this little color study will (I hope) help me overcome any wimpiness I run into.

So, I printed it out:
...and transferred it to my waiting paper (gessoed and stapled to a board).

First round of color...

second round...

and third round.

(click for an X-treme close-up of the x-treme close-up)

With many more rounds yet to come. One of the (many) things I thought about while painting today was this: I think that one of my main attributes that led me to be an illustrator is being able to do something for hours & hours on end without getting bored (this was while I was painting the teeny tiny floorboards). When we were kids, my brothers & I had this wooden duck marionette puppet, and every time you turned around, its fishing line strings were jumbled up in a giant tumbleweed knot. For some reason, I really enjoyed sitting down- for an hour, or two- and untangling all of the knots. Even at the time, as a kid, I would think, "This is really boring, and yet I'm enjoying it!" I'd say painting is more fun than untangling a bunch of fishing line, but still. The other thing I thought about today was, "How did I possibly listen to the High School Musical soundtrack 3 times in a row WITHOUT EVEN NOTICING?!?, and will this cause some sort of psychological damage?" I guess I just had my Head In the Game*. Will I be painting again tomorrow? Bet On It!**

*Zac Efron, HSM

**Yes, that's right, sharp readers! "Bet On It" is actually from High School Musical 2! I have both soundtracks! Not #3, though- I wasn't a big fan.

Cure for the Common Cold

What can cure an illustrator of her last-days-of-summer, I've-got-a-cold-that's-a-bummer, sneezy, wheezy blues? (I'll blame those cold meds tomorrow for making me write those terrible rhymes!)

Well, I'll answer that riddle: A lovely email from my editor at Bloomsbury, sharing this with me!

(click for a larger view)

I can't tell you what a thrill it is to realize that people whom I've never even met are reading and enjoying my book! I am honored. And on the same page as Matt Phelan, one of my favorite illustrators, to boot!

100th Post!

I've been putting off writing this post, because I was a little daunted by the big anniversary. 100 Posts! What to do to commemorate? I finally settled on a "Family Ties" type episode- the ones where they didn't feel like writing a new story so they just reminisced on times gone by. I HATED those episodes!

Anyhoo- wow, more than a year and a half since I started this blog! Here are some pictures from that first post, my ole painting studio in Brooklyn:

Oh, how I hated that apartment. Here's the comparison to my new Portland studio:

Old view...

New view.

And though times they are a changing: since that first post, I've gotten married, moved across the country, had my first book published, landed an agent, sold a second book... It's reassuring to see that some things remain the same. Remember this doozy of a sign from my old apartment building? (from one of my favorite old posts):

I thought I had left all such signs behind me when we left New York. Imagine my delight in finding this sign outside a building just a few blocks away:

Just shows to go you. everywhere you go, peoples is peoples, and peoples make stinks. Here's to the next 100 posts!