October 2021 - Hello Again & New Folksy & Society6 Products

It is hard to believe that is has almost been a year since my last blog post. My last post was full of Inktober 2020 illustrations, and, as I type this I’m around half way through my Inktober 2021 illustrations. In some ways it is like the last year didn’t happen, it has just simply vanished, and in other ways it has been a long, hard, slog. I think, as I reached the end of 2020, and we started the New Year under lots of COVID restrictions and going into another lockdown, I felt like everything was put on pause while we waited to get vaccinated. It felt long, and I simply didn’t feel like writing blog posts – I’m sure a lot of people felt the same way. Then, as we progressed further through the year I had to face some personal difficulties, and as I’m not someone who can act all cheery on the internet if I’m not actually feeling it, I didn’t say anything at all. Things still aren’t sorted for me personally, that’ll take some time, but regardless of how I’ve been feeling, one thing that hasn’t changed, is that I haven’t stopped drawing.

I’m one cover design away from my second ‘rough’ picture book dummy being finished (‘finished’ doesn’t mean full-colour spreads here – it is rough). It is a wordless story about a robot, aiming to encourage slightly older reluctant readers. I like the idea of a book being accessible to any (sighted in this case) person, even if they struggle to read. The structure of the narrative is slightly more complex than a traditional picture book, so it still feels like you are having to read and interpret the story - just without words. I wonder if I would be told it is too complex for younger readers? But, what I always find fascinating about little kids, is how often, when ‘they’ tell a story, there is very little structure, their stories jump around like dreams, and while I think structure in books is important, I’m wondering if kids would be as baffled by a more complex structure, with multiple characters, as adults would think, or would they just take it in their stride? I think it would be interesting in find out.

I’ve also recently reopened my Folksy shop and my Society 6 shop. My Folksy shop is currently only accessible to those in the UK (postage and tax to other countries has become pretty expensive for the time being) and it is selling some of my handmade polymer clay jewellery, (I’ve also made all the polymer clay beads used in the jewellery).

I am now also selling a small selection of greetings cards featuring 5 of my woodland animal illustrations. I can’t decide on my favourite – I love the squirrel’s tail, but the badger is so much fun and the mole looks so sweet! I’m really pleased with them all, so I’m planning on creating more illustrations using the same characters.

For anyone outside of the UK interested in my illustrations, there is a wider range of animal friends (10 characters) available in my Society 6 store on a variety of different products (if you click on a product, others products with the same design will show up at the bottom of that particular product page). People in the UK can purchase from Society 6 too, but watch out for postage and tax, I have no control over these things.

I hopefully won’t leave it another year before I post again, I plan to fill you in on a few things that happened in the year that wasn’t, and I’ll give you a rundown on Inktober 2021 once it is complete. 

Take care and I’ll be back soon. x

June - July 2020 – Intro to Children's Publishing Course and Buying all the Books!

So much for a monthly blog post! Here is a round-up of the last two months!

Lockdown may have eased a lot in the UK now but I’m still sticking pretty close to home, I find myself thinking that I’ll put something off for one or two weeks more just to see how things go. Maybe I’m being too cautious but I don’t feel trapped or like I’m missing out on anything yet, even though I’ve been staying in a lot. I think this is mostly down to taking part in an eight-week course during June and July, called “Intro to Children’s Publishing” hosted by editor Katy Flint. The course involved a weekly Zoom meeting and homework to continue with during the rest of the week. It was limited to ten participants, which made it feel friendly and intimate, rather than intimidating, and I felt that it was a really useful, informative and encouraging course, which helped to build my confidence.

I made many notes and sketches during the eight weeks!

The course is for both authors and illustrators and its main aim is to give you the knowledge and tools that you will need to approach agents or publishers with your children’s book pitch. In the first three weeks we looked at how a publishing house works, we were given guidance on what a pitch might look like, we looked at how words and pictures work together, and how we could spot trends and gaps in the market.

Playing with some character expressions.

The following fours weeks saw everybody start to develop their own ideas for books (fiction or non-fiction) so they could start working towards their pitch. In week five, six and seven the group then split in two, the authors in one group and the illustrators in the other, so we could discuss the progress of our book ideas in a smaller, more manageable group.

In the final week we discussed how pitching works and who you might pitch to, as well as what to do when facing rejection.

Throughout the course Katy gave a number of talks, but there were also three guest lectures with Q and As. The first was from an art director, the second was from an author and editor, and the final Q and A was with a campaigns manager. It was fantastic to hear from a range of people working in the publishing world, learning what their job role entails and being able to pick their brains.

This course included an abundance of useful information, but I think the reason why it felt so special was down to Katy herself. You can tell how passionate she is about children’s publishing, and how hard she works so she can share her knowledge and experience with those who are new to the industry. She is friendly, approachable and encouraging, allowing everyone space to grow and gain confidence, and has even offered individuals some of her time following on from the course for a month. I’ve never come across such personal dedication from someone running an online course before, she goes above and beyond, making this course a priceless opportunity for anyone interested in creating their own children’s book and pitching it to a publisher.

If you are interested you can find more information on Katy’s website here. I participated in the very first outing of this course, so it is likely to alter and develop slightly over time, but I have definitely found it to be great value for money.

Getting back into narrative drawing during the course has also motivated me to get a bit experimental with my images, so I’ve bought some Sennelier Soft Pastels. I haven’t used any kind of pastels since college because I’ve always hated the mess they make, but for some reason I’m now being drawn to them, so I’m hoping to overcome my creative nemesis!

One problem I’ve had with taking part in a course about children’s publishing has been the need to buy more books! Of course, when I say “need”, it was in no way mandatory to buy any books for the course, but I used it as a good excuse to go wild! A couple of the books in the image were mentioned during the course, but most were already on my wish list, I just decided that my wish list was a great opportunity for learning! :)

Moving on to other books, I’m finally reading “Girl, Woman, Other” by Bernardine Evaristo, (it really is taking me a while to work through my TBR pile), and I am absolutely loving it, there are so many different strong female characters and stories to explore. I admit it took me a couple of pages to get used to the lack of capital letters and full stops, and the odd line breaks, but I found I soon fell into a steady reading rhythm where none of those things seemed important anymore.

I’ve also added two more books to the TBR pile, the first is “Why I’m No Longer Talking To White People About Race” by Reni Eddo-Lodge. After the death of George Floyd and the wave of energy through the Black Lives Matter movement, it seemed irresponsible and callous to not sit up and listen or try to do more. I have been taking in so much information, and learning so much from people generously sharing their knowledge on instagram, but I need to do more, I need to learn and understand more and unlearn even more, as I now realise how flawed the society I have grown up in, is.

The second book I bought was The Diet Myth by Professor Tim Spector. Tim is the leader of a microbiome project which has used genetic sequencing in twins to study gut bacteria, (fun fact, my mum and aunt - twins - took part in some of Tim’s twin studies years ago, and still sometimes fill out questionnaires, apparently, according to my mother, Professor Tim was quite the dish!), and as someone that definitely has a peculiar gut I’m interested in what he has to say. This book is a few years old now (published 2016), but Tim has a new book “Spoon-Fed” being published at the end of August so I thought I’d try and get this one in first before reading the next one.

My final book purchase was a birthday present to myself, A special edition of “Pens Ink and Places” by Quentin Blake. I’ve seen this edition online before but it is pretty expensive, but The Tate Shop were selling it in their summer sale with £45 off, so I took it as a sign from the universe that I should get it, and I’m so glad I did, it is beautiful.

My parcel from Mini Gallery Box finally arrived in June, I pre-ordered it months ago, but the lockdown in France (where it was being sent from) meant that even their post offices were shut down, so nothing could go out at all. This was my second Mini Gallery Box purchase, the first featured artist Leigh Ellexson. Each box features some prints, a mini magazine about the artist and a few other items such as pins, notebooks and pencils cases. The artist featured in this box was the Ellie Vs Bear, and it was well worth the wait as it is adorable! I just love those blues, pinks and purples.

Finally we move on to my Instagram impulse purchases! Firstly we have the sensible rather than impulsive purchase of face masks. I bought a couple of plain linen masks from Helen Round for when I feel like blending in, and then two gloriously patterned numbers from Esther Blessed on Etsy. The impulse purchase was the wonderful Esther Blessed wraparound skirt, just look at those colours and the pattern. Now, I don’t wear skirts, I gave up wearing them years ago when they were either too long, or would work their way up my chest as I walked and I had to keep pulling them down. However, a wraparound skirt seems to be the answer, it stays where I put it and will keep me that bit cooler this summer.

My next impulse purchase is this beautiful shades of Indigo rainbow by Natasha Newton. I’ve loved her paintings for years, and I’ve always wanted an original. I would, one day, still like to purchase a canvas of hers, but boy do you have to be quick if you want to buy any of her work from her online shop. I felt very lucky to be able to purchase one of her three rainbows this time around.

Only two more impulse purchases to go! I’m a big believer in supporting picture book illustrators and authors, so as soon as Dapo Adeola mentioned on instagram that his personal online shop was open again for a limited time, I jumped at the opportunity to buy this bundle, a signed copy of Look Up!, a print of Rocket and a pin of Rocket – they are awesome!

And, my final impulse purchase, which was actually prompted by a stock alert email (rather than Instagram), is my new mustard Glosters mug. Glosters mugs have also been flying off their website as soon as they put new stock up, and recently I’ve either not had the money to spare at the right moment, or I’ve been too slow, so I’m so pleased to have nabbed this beauty!

Finally I’ll leave you of a few images from my early morning walk the other day. We went to Black Down for the first time since lockdown, and it was glorious! It was also my first time in the car in ages… which weirdly didn’t feel like it had been that long! I am actually really bad at getting up early, it knocks me sideways for the following four days, but nothing beats early morning air!

All thoughts are my own, I’m not affiliated with anyone mentioned, all purchases were made with my own money and links take you to the sites I personally made purchases from. You may prefer purchasing books from independent retailers.

All images are my own ©Dawn Bevins-Johnson 2020

Making Art That Sells - Illustrating Children's Books 5

During October and November 2018 I took the five week ‘Illustrating Children’s Books’ MATS (Make Art That Sells) online course hosted by Lilla Rogers and Zoë Tucker. I thought it might be nice to share my experience here in case anyone else is considering this course, or just looking for a children’s illustration course in general.

The aim of the course is to assist you to produce several pieces of work for your portfolio to help pitch your illustrations professionally. Just before the course begins you are given three texts (children’s stories written by Lilla and Zoë) to read through, so you can decide which you would like to work with. You are also given access to a Facebook Group specifically for members of the class. This means that throughout the course you can chat with your classmates, share with others what you are working on, and find and give support. I found this group to be warm and friendly, but it is quite large so sometimes posts can get swallowed up quickly. I personally also found it a bit addictive so by the end of week three I had to cut back on posting and replying because I was getting distracted - with the class being global there was always someone on there to talk to! However it was nice to know that there was a bunch of people in exactly the same creative boat as me.

Each day (apart from Sunday) you are given a daily prompt to work on for ten minutes or so, to help you get started and loosen up, these correspond with the subject that you are working on that week, so it is something that you can refer back to as you work on the main assignments. I found these prompts really useful as they were a great exercise to get you moving each day without all the worry and procrastination, they also reminded me of the importance of drawing from reference, it was good to get back into that practice. The only problem with the prompts that I had was my own lack of self discipline, if I happened to be enjoying a prompt, ten minutes could easily turn in an hour or more.

On Monday you would be given a mini assignment, the aim of these is to introduce you to the main assignment gently, you have two days for the mini and then on Wednesday you are given the main assignment that you have until Sunday to complete. Once completed you upload your main assignment to the gallery on the website (mini assignments can be shared in the Facebook Group), then on the following Wednesday the gallery goes live and you can look through all the work produced by the class.

On the Wednesday after submitting your assignment, Lilla and Zoë do a review of some of the work from the gallery. They choose around twenty pieces and talk through what is great about them and also suggest ways in which they can be improved. You are warned before purchase that not everybody will get personal feedback on their work, so it is up to each illustrator to take the advice from the video and apply it to their own work. Looking at the gallery, I would estimate that there are at least 250 people taking the course, so it just isn’t possible for every piece of work to be commented on, those twenty chosen pieces create a review video over an hour long - you would be there all day if everyone was featured!

Each week you are also given at least one article/interview/video/info sheet a day (apart from Sunday), but most days it is more than one. These cover a range of things such as interviews with illustrators and publishers, articles on how to approach art directors and what they are looking out for, what is actually involved when you get a job (how projects work), as well as guidance on the main assignment. I think this might have been my favourite part of the course, you are basically being told a whole heap of stuff you wouldn’t usually know unless you have been there and done it already. It has given me more confidence on what to expect once I’m happy with my portfolio and I try and find work.

Week one was all about the main character. We began by reading through our chosen text searching for clues about their personality, inventing the accessories we thought they would wear and carry, before we moved on to drawing the actual character. I hadn’t thought of doing this before and it helped me to understand my character more thoroughly, and flesh him out a bit.

In week two we concentrated on emotions and expressions, drawing nothing but the head and playing with how we could convey meaning through the face. This was built on in week three by adding the body and developing poses to go with some of those expressions, trying to ensure that meaning was being communicated consistently throughout the whole character.

During week four we worked on environment with the main assignment being a double page spread. This was the assignment that I was most nervous about. I mostly work traditionally using watercolour ink and sometimes find it difficult to bring the characters and their surroundings together neatly and naturally. The course permits any medium, traditional or digital so I decided to paint each element separately then brought all the pieces together in Photoshop. I am as slow at Photoshop as I am painting, so it still took me ages but it did take the pressure off - if I made a mistake while painting, I wouldn’t have to do the whole thing all over again (whether I’ll continue to work like that I’m not sure yet).

All text in this piece is copyright of Zoë Tucker.

In the final week we worked on the front cover (see top of post). By the final Tuesday, working from first thing in the morning to late most days had aggravated my crummy back and I was having difficulty sitting for any length of time. I felt I had to rush to get the cover done and dusted, which is a shame, but I was still pleased that I finished every assignment - I uploaded the cover on the Friday and I can’t lie, I was happy to have a free weekend back after four weeks without one!

So was it worth it and did I enjoy it? Yes it was and yes I did (I even had a tiny cry at it after I uploaded the final assignment… or maybe I was just overworked! :) ). It is, if you want it to be, a lot of work, the amount of information given to you and the amount you are asked to do is intense, but I also found it great fun and exhilarating to be part of something, and to have set deadlines and goals. I was also surprised by how much work I actually produced in five weeks. Although I wasn’t entirely happy with my character and aspects of my other assignments, I now feel like I have a better idea of what things I need to change and work on in order to improve, and I’m looking forward to working through all the downloads and absorbing all the information and advice properly. I now also feel more confident about what my next steps will be once I am happy with my portfolio, I feel like I’m in a position to make a plan.

Were there any negatives? Not especially, but it is worth taking note of a few things that might make you feel a little negative personally, what with us creative types inclined to be a little more emotional or sensitive than others. Firstly, the course is quite a lot of money, that’s not to say it isn’t great value, but if you are going to spend your money on it, get the most out of it that you can by committing as much time to it as possible. Also it seems really obvious to me in hindsight, but when you purchase the course, as far as I can remember, the product page doesn't mention ‘may be subject to VAT’, so when I had (just under) an extra £80 added to my basket, it wasn’t the most pleasant surprise!

Secondly, you know you shouldn’t be comparing yourself to others, we all know that, but when you are surrounded by so many different styles and mediums, it can be really hard not to. You will need to have little mantras along the lines of “I’m me, I’m being me, they are doing them, and I am doing me” for the days when you aren’t feeling so confident. My experience, (and from what I can tell the experience of a lot of people in the Facebook group), is that the course is a bit of an emotional roller coaster, one minute you are motivated and enthusiastic and the next you feel like a sack of crap (we all have some kind of pesky doubts right?), it is a great practice for pushing through and continuing to work while you are feeling like that sack of crap. Of course the other side to there being so much other work to compare yourself to is that it is really inspiring - there is so much eye-candy.

I think the final thing I want to mention goes back to the review. My work wasn’t chosen for review, and while you know that statistically it is unlikely, each week you still hope that you are chosen. You don’t even realise that you were hoping until you aren’t in there and then you feel disappointment. It is pretty weird to feel disappointment for something you didn’t know you were hoping for… it isn’t the best feeling, but it isn’t the end of the world either, you soon get over it, you don’t have time to dwell on it, you have another assignment to start! I just figured I wasn’t standing out enough, I wasn’t hitting the mark, and if I’m honest with myself that is perfectly fair, I need to improve - and I will.