Monday, November 17, 2008

MINNESOTA SCBWI 2008 CONFERENCE

Thanks to a very kind invite from Gayle Huset at Stories For Children Magazine. I attended my first SCBWI Conference held October 2008, in Minnesota.

There's so many words and phrases the conference expressed which relate to my own personal experiences. Hopefully, you're able to make the same connection. How we travel the same road together (Published or Pre-published).


WIN YOUR AUDIENCE!
Focus of the Conference
Lin Oliver, Co-Founder and Executive Director of SCBWI - Amazing Speaker
Discussed the "Bumpy Road to Publication"
Rules to follow;
1- Must define yourself as a Professional- by friends, family, and self.
Investing in yourself, serious about managing spare time and resources, designate a work area
just for you.
2- Learn and practice your craft. DON'T feel like any work is beneath you.
3- Manage goals with deadlines. Determine a "To Do List" every day to accomplish.
4- Be Brave! Get out there! Enter Contests and Grants.
5- Become a part of the community, network, join critique groups, and attend conferences.
ESSENTIAL TO MOTIVATE YOU AND YOUR DREAMS.
6- Courage to stay with your own voice and vision - write or illustrate your own style.
7- Follow your weirdness. Writers have many thoughts processing.
8- Must do your market research and use all the tools and resources.
9- Enjoy your creative life on the road to publication. Keep a Journal of your progress.
10- Success Chart - every small step is an accomplishment.
11- When success happens - help the next one along.
Speaker Lin Oliver's Biography
* Already mentioned she was the Co-Founder and Executive Director of SCBWI.
* Co-Author with Henry Winkler of the New York Times Bestselling Book Series, Hank Zipper. Not
to mention I got an autographed copy of the book.
* New book series, Who Shrunk Daniel Funk?, published by Simon and Schuster.
* Staff Writer for the Beverly Hill Billies Show.
* Film and Television writer-producer, Emmy Award Winning Films, as feature film based on E.B.
White's Classic Novel, The Trumpet of the Swan.
What an amazing speaker of encouragement and entertainment. You need to be there to capture the moment.
Rules to Follow as an Illustrator
1- Concentrate on negative space.
2- Focus on the character - depth or concentration, secondary colors separate from the characters
focus.
3- Narrative within an image.
4- Landscapes and backgrounds fade off - push it back- show depth.
5- Watch shadow lines and 3D dimensional shadows of clothing or fabric.
6- Define aerial perspective.
7- Viewer must be told of what's important.
8- Create an interesting perspective.
9- Consistency with style and strategically placing the style.
10- Size proportion of the human body or animals.
Attended an Illustrator Workshop with Lauren Stringer
Brief Biography of Lauren Stringer
1- Lives in Minneapolis, MN
2- Illustrator of the following Children's Books; "Mud"," Red Rubber Boot Day", "Our Family
Tree", "Winter is the Warmest", "One Night", "Snow", and "Scare Crow".
3- Medium of Choice Paints.
4- Wall becomes her sketches, settings, and story-board.
Illustrator Portfolio Critique with Victoria Jamieson
It was such a privilege to be selected for a 15 minute critique session.
Victoria pointed out my strengths and coached on the areas for improvement.
Also, keep focused on my unique style of art work, and this inspired me.
Biography of Victoria Jamieson
* Designer for Greenwillow Books, an imprint of Harper Collins Publishers.
* Designs YA, Middle Grade, and Picture Book Jackets and Interiors.
* Works with Children's Books.
* Her first book as Author-Illustrator will be published by Bloomsbury in 2009.
Workshop with Art Director Tim Gillner - Boyds Mills Press
Tim Gillner kept us entertained with the "Process of Putting a Book Together".
* Best way to send samples of artwork, POSTCARDS.
* Illustrators need a Website or Blog to display their work.
* Boyds Mills Press is considered conservative and not educational.
* Digital Artwork should be printed in CMYK.
* Timing is key with illustration jobs - do to the overwhelming amount of postcards received
daily.
Thanks to all who contributed to the Conference success.
A BIG HUG goes out to Gayle Huset with Stories for Children's Magazine. Gayle's warm and kind face shared with individuals the stories of success of Stories for Children's Magazine, welcomed new members, introduced so many other people, and captured the memories with photos.
Please visit http://storiesforchildrenmagazine.org to hear more about the conference and view photos of the event.

4 comments:

T. Forehand said...

Hi Dawn, great post and very good information for all writers and illustrators. I envy your trip to the conference. I will get to one someday, I promise.
Thanks for the information, and I love your website as well. You are very talented.
Warmly,
Terri

Joy Louise said...

Dawn, Very inspiring post. I wish I could go and I wish there was an active chapter in Puerto Rico. I look forward to your updates on how you apply these things to your work.

Joy aka Zebee, or is it the other way around?

Carma Dutra said...

Hi Dawn,
I am so glad you enjoyed the conference. They are so motivating and give you the jump start you need. It sounds wonderful and thanks for posting the focus of the conference.

Carma
http://carmaswindow.blogspot.com

Donna McDine said...

Hi Dawn...SCBWI conferences are the best and Lin's humor is inspiring. Unfortunately, I can't make the NY Winter Conference in 2009 due to economics. Thanks for the wonderful info!

Warmly,
Donna
www.donna-mcdine.blogspot.com

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