There have been posts and threads on here in the past regarding the value of becoming involved in SCBWI. I started attending meetings two years ago (we have a monthly SCBWI Illustrators Network (Chicago Area)) and have had nothing but positive things to say about these meetings since. I have also attended Illustrator intensives and conferences held in the general area and always find some bit of helpful info or a new networking connection or something at each thing I participate in.
Today was the monthly meeting and our coordinators had Jordan Kost - Art Director for Albert Whitman come speak to the group. She was absolutely wonderful and had a really nice presentation she gave that highlighted how she approaches Art Directing and what it is like for illustrators who get the chance to work with her on projects.
First she discussed working with Illustrator Mariano Epelbaum on the cover and character design work for My Rotten Friend by Stephanie J. Blake.
She shared his original sketch of the cover and talked about how the "rotten" friend who is a zombie was a bit too creepy for a kids book (show in this photo I took here).
And she shared the dialog and revisions until they arrived at the final design shown here:
She went onto discuss/show sketches and images that were created for an upcoming book Next To You by Lori Haskins Houran and illustrated by Sydney Hanson.
She shared the direction notes she gave to Sydney and the sketches and final pieces that are going on some of the pages of the book.
She also talked about how there are many times she may love an illustrators work and be able to see the vision of how that illustrator would be perfect for a book project. But when she presents the portfolio samples from the illustrator to the non visual (non artists) types in the planning meetings - they can not always see it. So she said it is very worth you while as illustrators to have work that can showcase your characters designs to show you can do many different characters, or environments show some interiors and some pieces with exteriors, or some pencil sketches and some fully rendered pieces with color. A variety of your work is always helpful she said.
Next she went on to talk about working with an illustrator (I apologize I don't have the illustrators name in my notes) who did a book cover for a high middle grade novel. She shared all of the notes that she pulled while reading the novel (as she does not expect the illustrator to read the full 250 page book). She gathers up all the key details about characters, setting, recurring symbols or visuals in the story and so on.
She showed us the original piece this artist sent her (and noted this illustrator typically does not do pencil sketches so the work is sent more full colored etc) but that is not her requirement at an early stage. She would rather you do what is easiest/fastest for you so that if/when changes are required its minimal effort and reworking on your part if its caught in the early sketch/design stage.
And then she showed us the final image that is now the cover of the book Night on Fire by Ronald Kidd
After her presentation was over, she was generous enough with her time to provide everyone who attended with a critique of three of pieces of their work, and we all got to listen in and learn from everything that was shared. Talk about a very valuable experience and today's meeting is no cost to anyone attending. The public is welcome so folks do not even have to be SCBWI members to join in. Today if you were a non SCBWI member and we were running short on time, your work would have been held until the end for review to allow members the first chance - but Jordan made it through all 27 of us in attendance today. And her feedback was really good.
Finally - and here is probably the best part - not only did she just get a chance to interact with each of us individually for the critique, and see our work first hand but she also took postcards from each of us as well - should she want to follow up with us in the future based on what she saw today!
Maybe that leads to something for one of us, and maybe not - but what a massive opportunity this meeting provided to us today.
So I would say - look up organizations in your area like SCBWI chapters and find out what they are up to and how you can get involved. I think it is so worth it!
Finally everything she was sharing/talking about - lines up with what Will, Jake and Lee are helping us with month in and month out here. So I can not thank each of them enough for getting us prepared for days like today where opportunity is knocking!