Clucked: Meet the Characters!

So today I've got some Clucked concept art to share with you to get you excited for the start of the comic!

Sanders comes from a distant solar system known as the N.E.S.T, and is, as you can see, a chicken. His planet is plagued by war, and he has journeyed to Earth in search of his chicken brethren for aid. He finds out very quickly that while they’re all extinct, they also are the most sought after snack in the entire Universe.

That makes Sanders “Public Eatemy #1″ and he’s gonna have to hustle tailfeather to survive and save his planet!

Sanders’ wings and how they work! It’d be really hard to have a protagonist who doesn’t have hands, so I took some time figuring out how feathers could also double as “fingers.” 

I took some inspiration from how Disney did this with Wilbur in The Rescuers Down Under. They made some really interesting choices with how they’d deform his hands based on what he was using them for.

Some of this is meant to be orthographics/geo notes for 3D model possibilities, and some is showing their capability to deform a bit in-comic. You can really “cheat” reality with illustration! Hahaha you can’t force me to conform to the rules of reality, you tyrant

Kah'la’s a girl from an alien species named the Reptaas. Her kind is reptilian, and can sport horns, gills, fans, scales, or claws depending on the individual. They also have a particularly strong affinity for any Chik-E-Nugz snacks, moreso than the rest of the universe! When chicken went extinct, her species was left hurting for its next fix.  Despite her kind going back to their own planet after the Chicktinction, they still have a decently sized population on Earth.

Luckily for Sanders, Kah’la swore off chicken years before they went extinct– she’s a vegetarian! Problem solved… right? RIGHT?

Here's Butch and his son Nom, the butcher team who have their eyes on the prize– the prize being our hero, Major Sanders, of course. They don’t want to eat him, no no! Rather, they recognize the insane value of the last chicken in the known universe… and will do anything to get it.

Comikaze 2015!

Alright Comikze, let's do this!

All set up and ready to go at table F16 at Comikaze! Don’t forget that Clucked will have its exclusive preview here this weekend! Get one while supplies last.

The crew is  at Comikaze this weekend at the Los Angeles Convention Center– check us out at Table F16 to get your very own exclusive Clucked Preview Comic and a promo button. We will also have plenty of other fine comics and prints for your perusing pleasure– plus CANDY because it’s Halloween, of course!

Be there or be… chicken?

Convention Evolution

Well well, my convention prep has grown significantly since I started doing this. The first pic is an example of my convention gear back in 2011– I could carry everything in one box. The box in the picture, to be exact.

The second pic is what my living room looks like this morning doing last minute prep and pack for Comikaze tomorrow.

New Comic: Clucked

The egg finally has hatched! Announcing Clucked, a new weekly webcomic by and Joel Foster and I that’s coming in January 2016!

When a chicken lands on Earth in search of kin, he discovers that not only is his kind considered the tastiest thing in the universe… he’s also the only one left. Can he survive the hungering hordes, cosmic chases and entirety of the Galactic Federation long enough to save his homeworld?

We work together to incubate the story. Then Joel writes, and I create the art. It’s been in production for a few months, and they hope it’ll tickle your funny bones (or chicken wings… so to speak).

What’s even more exciting is that there’ll be an exclusive printed preview of the comic available for sale at Stan Lee’s Comikaze Expo Oct 30-Nov 1 at the Los Angeles Convention Center! There’s a limited number of copies, but you’ll get to read the beginning of the comic a full two months before anyone else!

Hold onto your nugz, because it’s gonna be a wild ride!

Midnight Mares: Background Paintings

Finally able to release the backgrounds I did for the Midnight Mares website! It was really a blast being able to do the same environment in both day and night. My, how things can change with the setting sun. Personally, I’m partial to the nighttime one because moon, stars, and candy. Not that glass barns aren’t cool, I mean.

Just, you know. Candy. Mm.

Putting the Biz in Business Card!

I just got my new order of business cards, and they’re really shiny and lovely! I’m kind of a nerd with how much I love new cards and promotional materials. However, it reminded me of something that’s been on my mind: I’ve run into quite a few artists in person or at shows recently who have no way to contact them. You need a business card!

“But! But!” I hear you say. You can give me whatever excuse you like, but if you are an artist, you want to get your work out there, and you want to network (hint: you should)… then you need a way for people to contact you.

At my very first show, I made the mistake of having no business cards.  There were several other artists and people I would’ve loved to connect with, but I had no tangible thing to give them with my info on it. After the first few hours, I ended up tearing up rectangular pieces of paper and writing in my info to try to give out. Yes, people took them, but did any of those paper scraps survive through the con and then home with the people who really wanted them? I doubt it. They’re easy to lose, tear, and get water damage.

Imagine if an art director had wanted my information about a potential job? I would’ve been mortified. (Of course that didn’t happen, but you see my point…)

“But I don’t have an online portfolio/website.” That’s ok, you can point them to your blog.

“But I don’t have a blog.” You really should, but even in this case that’s ok, you can list your email… or Twitter or Facebook, etc.

“But they’re expensive!” They don’t have to be. My latest cards up there were a fantastic deal. I use OvernightPrints for all of my card needs, and I got 500 double sided, full color, front glossy, rounded edge business cards for $36 including shipping… and I got them a week after I ordered them. They always have some sort of sale or promo code going on so you never need to pay full price.

Other cheap options are Staples and VistaPrint. I haven’t used those services for cards personally, so your mileage may vary.

“But I don’t want to have 500 cards in this design, I’m building a website soon/rebranding soon/changing my email soon/whatever….” A lot of places require you to print at least 250, so a good option for smaller runs is the print-at-home snap apart cards. 

My very first business card (the purple one with the butterfly above) was that kind. The pack gets you 250 cards for under $10, and there are 10 cards to a sheet. This means you could print 10 cards each time, changing whatever you need as you go. 

The paper quality was quite nice. The design wasn’t good, but that’s my own fault. It got the job done when I was just getting started, though… and that’s what really counts.

Do you have business cards? Feel free to share pics of them in the comments!

Stribefeber 2015

So I’ve been a little quiet recently because I’ve been traveling a lot– first I was in Atlanta, GA for about two weeks for Dragon*Con, and then Stribefeber Comics Convention in Kristiansand, Norway directly afterward.

Talk about a lot of flying– getting from Los Angeles to Norway took me about 24 hours of travel or so. My body had absolutely no idea what day or time it was! Stay up until 4:30 AM, you say? Sure! It’s only midnight somewhere!

The convention invited me to be a Guest Speaker, and I was honored that they’d choose me for the job. Stribefeber (sorta translates to Comic Strip Fever) is a small show located in the city of Kristiansand, which is on the southern coast of Norway …which means that I wasn’t completely freezing, so hooray for that!

The show lasted Friday-Sunday, and during that time I got to meet a lot of talented European artists and exchange work with them: Chris Stonehill from the UK, Silje Camilla Pilla from Norway, Mathias Dønnestad, and so many, many more. I took part in an interview with the fantastic Michael Prince which was quite challenging and fun, helped Nicolas Villareal out with his weekend-long Visual Development workshop, and also talked a bit about role models for girls/women to introduce the documentary WONDERWOMEN! The untold story of American Superheroines.

Outside of the convention, I got to do a bit of sightseeing, and visited the fantastic Artist Island just off the coast called Odderøya. It used to be a military defense island, but in recent times it’s been given by the government to local artists to house their studios and art projects. Street artists’ work can be seen absolutely everywhere. The island also features some old WWII bunkers (which were REALLY cool), one of which has been transformed into a secret library.

We also visited a district of Kristiansand called Posebyen, which houses the only remaining wooden buildings in the city from before a big fire many decades ago. I think it was 1920 something? Jetlag Brain could not remember the date. Whoops. Anyway, they are considered a treasure so there are many restrictions on painting and remodeling. All of their backyards are butted up to one another too, which creates a lovely interior garden!

Norwegians are an extremely friendly bunch, and I felt completely welcome and comfortable during my entire stay. The country itself is beautiful, and I was quite shocked at how much they support and foster culture and arts.

I had a wonderful time at the convention, and made tons of friends. I look forward to going back to that beautiful country again someday soon!

THANK YOU, NORWAY! (And a special thanks to my friends Ingunn and Charlotte for housing and caring for me all weekend. They are delightful hosts!) <3

Summer Vacation

As a freelancer, it’s very difficult to take time off– if you don’t work, you aren’t getting paid (!). That said, it’d been forever since I’d had a real break, so our sojourn into the beautiful wilds of Oregon was LONG overdue! One fantastic road trip later, we had the rocky Oregon Coast and ridiculous tourist traps in our grips

Any road trip is made more complete by visiting: 1) a cheese factory, 2) a brewery, and 3) a lighthouse. We checked all of those things off our lists, and added some other fanciness such as an aquarium, giant concrete dinosaurs, the diviest of dive bars, a sideways gravity house, 4th of July fireworks in a lovely seaside fishing town, and some tar pits to really round things off.

.We spent some time at a sunny lakeside cabin and took my corgi Rylee swimming. Well… “swimming” is a rather loose term as once she actually makes it into the water with an incredibly clumsy splash, she paddles with her tiny stump legs and locks you with a panicked look as she wiggles back to shore.

All in all, it was a fantastic trip and I’m all rested up (and sporting ridiculous tan lines) for the rest of the year’s convention season!

Sketchbook Story for OALive

So for the last month I’ve been part of a Beta Test group for Chris Oatley’s and Lora Innes’ new course Oatley Academy Live (OALive, for short). It’s an online course that is meant for storytellers who want to create and launch their own serialized personal project, whether that be a webcomic, novel, an animated short, a kid’s book, or even a story-fied portfolio.

The course has been chock full of fantastic information, and one of our assignments was to do what’s called a Sketchbook Story. Basically, we had to crank out a fully finished, beginning to end story based on a prompt– but done in our sketchbooks. It was meant to let you feel the process of creating an entire story and, without polish, waffling, or endless hours spent trying to make it perfect, just get it out there. Just scribble in that sketchbook. Cross things out, tape in post-its, make mistakes.

It was a rather freeing experience. No one is perfect, and neither is any project, which was an incredibly meta takeaway for me, once you read my story.

UPDATE: I ended up turning this story into a fully completed comic! Check it out here!

How to Get your Children's Book Illustrated

“I’ve been working on a children’s book for awhile now, and I’m ready for an illustrator.”

"Oh, my aunt has written a children’s book, are you interested in doing the illustrations?”

“My brother has a great idea for a kid’s book and is looking for possible illustrators.”

Have you heard these phrases before? Have you said these phrases before? Do you (or your friend or relative or neighbor) have a children’s book manuscript that has been toiled on for hours, painstakingly constructed, edited, and reviewed… and now it’s ready to be brought to life with beautiful watercolors, gouache, or digital paint? If so, then this guide is for you!

“Will you illustrate my children’s book?”

I get a lot of inquiries about illustrating people’s children’s books. It seems that everyone these days has an idea for a book or is working on a book– including you! Now you want to know if I (or another artist you like) can illustrate it for you.

Let me just stop you right there.

Yes, I mean red light, full stop.

You don’t need an illustrator.

Or rather, you don’t have to find one. Your publisher will find one for you. They have artists that they use regularly, and access to tons more if they’re looking to use new talent. As a matter of fact, publishers get pelted consistently with artwork samples, postcards, and book dummies from illustrators like me! Publishing houses have highly trained individuals called Art Directors who are able to select the best artist for the job once they’ve purchased your book. Plus, they save you the pain of coming up with contracts, negotiating, and paying the artist.

“But wait, I don’t have a publisher!”

Aha, and there is the meat of all of the emails, messages and phone calls that we artists get.

You’ve written your book and you assume that the next step is to get the entire thing illustrated before pitching it around. “It’s a picture book, therefore it needs pictures,” you say. I absolutely understand that; it’s a common misconception that I’m here to set straight. I mean, novels are fully finished before they’re pitched around, right? Why not your children’s book?

Well, the kid’s book industry is a little different. Consider this: a publisher gets a copy of your manuscript and– holy cow, it’s amazing! She’s floored, and she wants to hand you a three book deal right away! The only problem is that the manuscript came in with 32 illustrations, and they’re terrible. Terrible, awful, no-good, and very bad. Or maybe they’re great illustrations but they just don’t match your writing well.

She doesn’t want to buy the illustrations… but because they came in with the manuscript, they’re now tied together. Womp womp. Into the slush pile your book goes.

When you send in your manuscript with artwork, you now not only have to wow them with your writing, wow them with your friend’s/artist’s illustrations, and wow them with the two paired together. Frankly, you might both be amazing, but if the story and art aren’t well matched, it’ll be a no go.

It’s already difficult enough to have your voice heard in the absolute cacophony that is our world today– do you really want to make your chances at getting published smaller? Even if you really like the illustrator you’ve selected, the chances are your publisher will find a better match!

I’ll let the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators back me up here:

“Except in rare circumstances, it is seldom a good idea for authors and illustrators to collaborate together before publication.”(source)

Well, I just want to send in some illustrations as possible suggestions. Is that ok?

You can if you really want to, just be sure to note that in your cover letter. If you’ve never been published before though, I wouldn’t. And if you insist that your manuscript needs illustrations to be understood, well… I’ll let the SCBWI back me up again:

(…) If your manuscript doesn’t come to life visually without being explained, then it probably needs work.”(source)

An exception to this rule, however, is if your book is very high concept such as Press Here by Henré Tullet.

Ok ok, so how do I get published?

It’s a very similar process to how we illustrators get work in the kid’s book (or any) industry. Create content and submit it. Get rejections? Practice your craft, create more content, and submit again. Do your research. Only submit to publishers that are a good match for your work. Take a class, practice, create content, and submit again. If you’d like more information, check the links at the bottom of this article.

What if I’d rather self publish?

Self publishing is absolutely a viable option, but you have to know if it’s right for you. It’s an extremely expensive, difficult, and time-consuming option, even with the ease and availability of digital publishing in today’s market.

Let’s start with the most obvious cost: the illustrations. And yes, you need to pay for them. Please don’t offer “exposure” or profits as payment.

According to the GAG’s Handbook for Pricing and Ethical Guidelines (13th Edition), the appropriate price range for illustrating a 32 page hardcover book (including the book jacket) is anywhere from $3,000-$12,000+.

I’m sure you’re reeling from sticker shock, but that pricing is absolutely not something I bat an eye at. Doing artwork for a book is a really involved process. There’s planning, design, thumbnails, revisions, drawing, painting… each illustration will take a large amount of time, and art supplies aren’t cheap either.

And that doesn’t include printing costs (if you’re going with print instead of digital) or app building for iPad and Kindle (if you’re doing with digital instead of print).

I’m definitely not trying to discourage you, but you need a realistic picture of what this venture will look like. You will have to hustle, promote, and advertise for your book all on your own– it’ll take quite a bit of research and hard work to achieve.

Hard work? That sounds like me! Let’s DO this!

Well if you understand the expense and challenges ahead, by all means! Self publishing can absolutely be a way to succeed and be creatively fulfilled. It may actually be a better option for you depending on what you want to do with it! And if you need help with financing, Kickstarter is always an option.

No, I don’t want all those bells and whistles, I just want to create a nice keepsake for my kids.

That’s also totally fine! You can write the book, get it illustrated, then you can print a few copies with a POD (Print on Demand) service such as CreateSpace or Lulu.com. Since the book is mainly for personal use and you’ll be on a tight budget, you might try searching for a student instead of a professional to create your illustrations for you (but yes, you do still need to pay them). You could also try websites such as Fiverr or PeoplePerHour, but realize that you’re going to get the quality that you pay for.

In closing

I hope I covered all possible bases here, and that you found this guide helpful to you. A lot of kid’s book questions pop up because there are misunderstandings about the industry and process– but now you are more educated and can forge ahead to make the most amazing kid’s book that you can create!

If I missed any question that you have, feel free to leave a comment or email me. If you like this post, or know a friend who might benefit from the information, please feel free to share it.

Additional Reading

SCBWI – Joining the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators will give you access to wonderful resources, publishing house contact information, and a database of illustrator’s portfolios:

www.scbwi.org

Articles with further information about (NOT) submitting manuscripts and artwork together:

http://www.underdown.org/picture-books-illustrations.htm

http://danidraws.com/2009/01/22/how-to-find-an-illustrator-for-your-picture-book/

Information for getting published in the Kid’s Book Industry:

http://www.scbwi.org/frequently-asked-questions/

More information on self publishing:

http://www.scbwi.org/online-resources/the-book/

http://danidraws.com/2013/01/12/how-to-find-an-illustrator-for-your-picture-book-part-2-the-self-publishing-edition/

http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2011/08/13/how-to-find-an-illustrator-for-your-book/

Guide on contacting an artist you’d like to hire:

http://kmcmorris.blogspot.com.au/2015/04/self-published-authors-10-tips-on-how.html