Smart Dummies
-
Simple Character Design
Are you ready for character design? Just grab some paper and a pencil (or have your computer program on standby and let’s get sketching! The video shows how I might do a page to figure out a character. There is lots of different techniques.
Full Video
Quick Video (no sound)
Images I drew for the Smart Dummies video see link above. -
Smart Dummies Week 1: Character Design
If you have not signed up for Smart Dummies yet go here: http://ngi.c96.myftpupload.com/register-for-smart-dummies-2019/ You can sign up, pick up the booklet and badge and find out everything you need to know about the event!
Smart Dummies Schedule Week 1
Sunday – Smart Dummies Week 1 Schedule
Monday – Many of you are celebrating Labor Day today so enjoy your day!
Tuesday – Simple Character Designing (Faces) – Read to page 9
Thursday – Simple Character Bodies
Friday – Book Blog
Sunday – Smart Dummies Week 2 schedule
If you have already worked on any of the above and wish to move on feel free to work ahead. There is a Smart Dummies Regular schedule and a Smart Dummies adjusted schedule on page 4 of the booklet! You can get the booklet here: http://ngi.c96.myftpupload.com/register-for-smart-dummies-2019/
Supplies
Suggested Supplies:
Pencils
Pencil Sharpener
Printer Paper
Smart Dummies Downloadable Booklet
You can use a mechanical pencil, but I’ve had them break so often on me that I try not to rely on these entirely. If you don’t have easy access to printer paper you can use lined paper or a sketchbook for sketching. Printer paper is ideal because you will need white paper to do your final sketching. It’s also easier to scan later.
If you plan on using the computer for your art I still suggest starting on paper. You’ll be able to connect with your story more if you start with paper. I will be talking more about programs and apps later.
Smart Dummies Full Schedule
Please note that Smart Dummies will be running longer than a month this year. That way you have more time for creating your dummy! This schedule is subject to change.
Week 1 (Sept 1st) – Basic Character Design
Week 2 (Sept 8th) – Advanced Character Design
Week 3 (Sept 15th) – Page Planning/Drawing
Weeks 4 & 5 (Sept 22th) – Dummy Drawing
Weeks 7 & 8 (October 13th) – Finals
Week 9 (last week in October) – Submissions
-
Weekend Activities
Many of you may be on vacation this weekend and that’s great. Though Smart Dummies officially starts on September 1st there will be no official activities planned until September 3rd. Sunday I will have a schedule up for the week and we’ll officially start Tuesday from the beginning. If you want to work ahead, that’s fine! If you are gone this weekend, don’t worry. I’m going over everything again starting September 3rd.
This Weekend's Project
You can work on anything you’d like this weekend (or nothing at all). If you already have your character(s) figured out you can either work on Full Character Drawings (pages 10-11) or Thumbnails (pages 18-19). We will be going over all of this later so don’t worry about getting behind.
Full Character Drawings or Thumbnails?
I think it comes down to personal preference for order of creation at this point. I’ve heard both ways from professionals and in illustration classes!
Full Character Drawings/Turnarounds: The lines on this page are to make sure you keep everything in line. Make sure that all the facial features line up. Alternatively you can get some graph paper and use that to plan out your character drawings.
Thumbnails: If you are doing thumbnails only spend a minute or two drawing each one. They don’t even have to look like anything but scribbles. You can always make tighter thumbnails later.
Weekend Reading
Here is a great post from Rachel Armington about Trim Sizes:
https://rachelarmington.com/publishing/trim-sizes-for-picture-books/ If you have time this weekend take a look! It’s good to have your picture book size in mind when you start on your book. It’s also necessary to know your images should be set up before you start on your finals. I’ll be referencing this post several times throughout the event, because layout is so important throughout this whole Dummy making process.
It’s necessary to know your images should be set up before you start on your finals. I’ll be referencing this post several times throughout the event, because layout is important throughout this whole Dummy making process.
I had one project for a client where I didn’t know the sizes of the images. I was lead to believe the images were 8″x 8″ when they were 6″x 9″ which is a huge difference! I was able to fix the problem in time. If you are working on your project you decide the size. In general I’d suggest the images be 8″x10″ (and 10″x 8″ is also a possibility, but not as common) because that’s the industry standard and most likely how your book will be published. This is a standard for picture books and some graphic novels. I’ll get back to you on more page sizes for other books later!
If you haven’t already sign up for Smart Dummies here: http://ngi.c96.myftpupload.com/register-for-smart-dummies-2019/ This page has everything you need! Sign up, grab a booklet, sign up for emails and get the badge! Be sure to contact me if you have any problems!
-
A Little Warm-Up
My schedule for this month has completely gone out the door. There will be more of a schedule for the full Smart Dummies event. Starting Sunday I’ll be posting a schedule for everything we are working on this month. If you want to get your dummy done in a month you can follow the Smart Dummies Regular schedule on page 4 of your planner.
Let’s start warming-up our drawing skills by making some shape doodles. Just pick a shape (circles, triangles, square, oval ect.) Give the shape eyes, noses and mouths. You can just start with faces, but weird bodies are okay too.
If you can get a design for your main character designed before you start Smart Dummies you’ll be off to a great start. Fill up pages 7-9 with some doodling and try to figure out what you want your character(s) to look like. If you feel like moving on in your booklet or skipping around then do so! Creating a dummy is not a one size fits all situation.
You want to be able to draw your same character over and over again. Once you figure out what you want to draw, then draw that character over and over again. You may want to try different poses, but not until you are comfortable with your character.
Check out your library (and your personal picture book collection if you have one). look for books that have simple drawings. I’ll list some here so you can see how easy you can go.
Ed Emberly’s books have simple characters created with simple shapes or thumbprints. He has a whole set of drawing books that show how to draw anything using simple shapes. If you can find any of these books at your library do pick them up! His website is http://www.edemberley.com there you can see some of his work and get a few tutorials. You can also do an internet search to find out more!
Shel Silverstein has a lovely collection of picture books. Many of them just with line drawings. One of the most simple of these is The Missing Piece which features a Pac-Man like character as the main character.
Aree Chung’s “Mixed: A Colorful Story“ is another story that’s made with simple shapes and flat coloring.
-
Getting Ready For Smart Dummies!
Join a Critique Group
Do you have a critique group? If not one will be provided for you! If you missed it last time I posted the link here it is: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/5MCFDBL Survey closes September 5th and is on a first come first served basis. Any critique groups formed after September 5th will be put into random critique groups as needed.
Sign up for Smart Dummies
If you have not signed up for Smart Dummies do so at this link: http://ngi.c96.myftpupload.com/register-for-smart-dummies-2019/
Smart Dummies is a free event to help you finish you illustrated kidlit book dummy finished for submission. Dummies are what illustrators create to submit their picture book idea for publication. If you are not illustrating your book you do not need to create a dummy. If you find that you do want to illustrate your book, then welcome to Smart Dummies! Smart Dummies starts September 1st.
Get the Smart Dummies Badge and Booklet
We have a badge! If you are joining Smart Dummies you can display this badge on your blog, website, or wherever you’d like.
All the info for the booklet is at the register link above. It’s the last link in the list of links. I’m not going to make it hard to find. If you haven’t picked up the booklet you can do so here:
Booklet https:///wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Smart-Dummies-Booklet-Temp.pdf
Booklet Color Cover: http://ngi.c96.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Smart-Dummies-2019-Cover.pdf
The link is a downloadable workbook that you can use to help you create your dummy. It can be printed double sided on printer paper and stapled to create a booklet. Since this is a version for printing, the pages are in printable booklet order so you wont have to sort them before putting them together.
Participant Badge For Smart Dummies -
Planning Out Your Pages
Note: I will not be doing a book review this week (and possibly next week) because I have several things I want to get ready for Smart Dummies this year! Interested in a critique group this year? https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/5MCFDBL (Survey closes September 5th and is on a first come first served basis).
Before you start planning out your pages, I’m going to refer you to Marla Lesage’s post about Picture book Length: https://marlalesage.com/2019/08/12/picture-books-length-layout/ It’s important to know how long you want to make your story before you separate it out. This is for picture books, but a lot of the books you will be writing will use one of these templates. Creating a longer book? Make sure that the number of pages that you are creating are divisible by 8.
This year I’m doing Cinderella. I will be using the Cinderella published by George Routledge and Sons as an example. You can read the story here in many formats: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/23303
While I will always strongly suggest that you have a fully finished text before you start planning out pages. Sometimes you wont have that text because you are working on a wordless book or you just work better visually. If this is you then you might want write down the important plot points and then separate these into pages and spreads.
A spread is 2 pages put together. When you have a book open in front of you those two pages are a spread.
Important Plot Points for Cinderella
The numbers by the plot points indicate the number of spreads I’d use for each of these plot points.
- Cinderella’s father remarries. (1/2 spread)
- Cinderella’s step mother and sisters are mean to her. (1/2 spread)
- The prince announces there will be a ball so he can find a wife. (1 spread)
- Cinderella told she’s not allowed to go to the ball which upsets her. (1 spread)
- Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother appears and gives her everything she needs for the ball (Cinderella must be back by midnight). (2 spreads)
- Cinderella meets the prince at the first ball. Because she’s so punctual getting home the Fairy Godmother is happy to let her go to the next ball. (1.5 spreads)
- The princess (Cinderella) at the ball is mysterious and everyone talks about her. (1.5 spreads)
- Cinderella falls in love with the prince at the second ball. (1 spread)
- Cinderella forgets about the time and rushes out of the ball at the last minute leaving her glass slipper. (1.5 spreads)
- Cinderella comes back in rags with only one glass slipper. (1/2 spreads)
- The prince looks for Cinderella with the one lost slipper. (1 spread)
- The slipper fits and Cinderella has the other slipper. (1.5 spreads)
- The prince and Cinderella live happily ever after. (1/2 spread)
This version differs a bit from the Disney version. You can already start to see how you can break down this story into 14.5 spreads and 13 plot points. I have the number of spreads I would use in the right hand column to show you how this story would be dividedIf you have a manuscript you can write the pages/spreads directly on your manuscript. You can also go to page 18 of your booklet and write 3-4 words under each thumbnail describing the scene you are creating. This will help you visually plot things out. For some pages you are going to want to use 2 pages (or a full-spread) for creating your image. Make sure those two pages are next to each other in your thumbnails.
-
Editing Your Story
There was something wrong with the “Make Your Marks and Splashes” link I sent out this morning. It’s changed now on the post, but here is the new link if you want: https://illustratechildrensbooks.com/childrens-book-illustration-school-fall-2019/?affiliate=daniduck
I have a few tips that helps me with editing. I’m going to post these below. These are general rules and there may be exceptions. I also asked my friends to give me their favorite sites for Writing and Editing. I will be posting those links below!
Editing Tips
Picture Books are 500 Words or Less – Less is more and I’ve heard of trends of 250 words or less. Here are some more kidlit wordcounts: https://kidlit.com/2009/11/13/manuscript-length/ I am uncertain about exact numbers Graphic Novels for kids, they can be Picture Book in page length to a couple hundred pages (for Adults)
Humans Repeat Themselves – Look for repetitive words in your manuscripts. This can help reduce your word count and help keep your story fresh page after page.
Don’t use Illustration Notes: Only use them if you need that note as an important descriptor to the text. If it’s important that your main character is wearing a long sleeve shirt, because they are doing a magic trick later, then keep the note. Not every manuscript needs art notes! If you are an illustrator it is okay to use art notes for your own personal use!
Describe Only What Needs Describing: Picture books should have little or no description. Outside of this there is still the habit of describing too much. The balance of this can be tricky. Your character is travelling from their house to the library. Maybe mention the leaving home and entering the library. The audience doesn’t need to hear how the MC got into the car, buckled their seat belt, spent 15 minutes picking a song, and how the drive was to the library. Anything mentioned about the vehicle should be a literary vehicle to move the story from one place to the next as quickly as possible.
Get a Critique Group: Or individuals who can help you with your story. You might have several people in your group or you might just do a swap with a friend. Critique groups are one of the best ways to get a second opinion on your work. Critique groups for Smart Dummies are opening soon!
Extra Resources
Mary Kole’s Blog https://kidlit.com/See writing and illustrating resources page on writersrumpus.com.Also kidlit 411 has a lot of links to resources http://www.kidlit411.com/.http://www.24carrotwriting.com
The Magic Words: Writing Great Books for Children and Young Adults https://www.amazon.com/Magic-Words-Writing-Children-Adults/dp/039329224X/
-
Who’s in for Marks and Splashes?
For those who are following my drama today I was unable to get onto my website to make a post about editing. Unfortunately (or fortunately) I’ll be saving that post for tomorrow. Today I have EXCITING NEWS about Mark Mitchell’s course. I just heard about it a few hours ago, so I just had to post!
Mark Mitchell’s “Make Your Marks and Splashes” course is starting up soon! I was signed up for the Children’s Book Academy “The Craft and Business of Illustrating Picture Books” when this class started last year, and was unable to attend. This year will be different! I will be taking Mark’s class this year. I’m so excited. Here’s the link: https://illustratechildrensbooks.com/childrens-book-illustration-school-fall-2019/?affiliate=daniduck
I’m a bit embarrassed that I forgot about taking (or talking about) Mark’s class. Apparently Mark forgot to get the word out about the class, so he’s giving us all kinds of bonus material if we sign up by Saturday August 24th! (Now I’m kind of glad I forgot because there are so many bonuses now!)
Bonuses
- Four complimentary months of Marks & Splashes Guest Group Critiques, led by top illustrators and other professionals in children’s book publishing.
- A vintage interview series I did with 16 children’s book illustrators who work(ed) in traditional water media, several of them well known, like Patricia Polacco, Ted andBetsy Lewin, Ashley Wolff, E.B. Lewis, the late Leonard Everett Fisher, and Caldecott Medal winners Jerry Pinkney, Emily Arnold McCully and the late Barbara Cooney. The lavishly visual articles, which I completed in my years as a contributing editor of American Artist Watercolor Magazine feature the artists’ drawing steps, research methods, painting processes, thumbnail and dummy page examples and much more.
- An complimentary semester (Winter 2020) of live group homework huddles with Mark
On top of these bonuses
- Going Pro with the Girillustrators video workshop series
- Cindy Wilder’s Drawing Basics Intensive Video Series
- Julie’s Story Town – An Epic Look at Storycraft
- Live Monthly Sessions to get Feedback on Your Work
This is all on TOP of the Make Your Marks and Splashes course. It is packed FULL of things to help us get our Picture Books done beautifully and quickly. Here are some of my favorite things I want to learn.
Creating a Thumbnail in 30 Seconds (it takes me a couple minutes right now)
Keeping Characters Consistent in Every Page
How to Navigate My Art Business
Finding New Strategies for Creating Dummies
Join Me!
Do you want to join me? Maybe we could create our own critique group for the class. I would love to get to know more of you better. I will be there so I can give you personal help at any time during the course. You can sign up for the course here: https://illustratechildrensbooks.com/childrens-book-illustration-school-fall-2019/?affiliate=daniduck
But What About Smart Dummies?
What we learn in this course is going to directly translate into what we are doing for Smart Dummies, so this course is great if you want a bit of extra help creating your dummy this year. This will not take away from what we are doing in Smart Dummies, but it will inform what I talk about for the Smart Dummies event!
Didn’t see this soon enough? Join anyway! I was going to join before I knew about any of the bonuses!
Please let me know if you are joining me for this course! I’ll contact you so we can get the most out of this course.
- Four complimentary months of Marks & Splashes Guest Group Critiques, led by top illustrators and other professionals in children’s book publishing.
-
Review of Teach Your Giraffe to Ski
Inside of my copy of Teach Your Girafee to Ski! “Teach Your Giraffe To Ski” is a fantastically fun story about a child teaching their giraffe to ski. The story is written by Viviane Elbee and illustrated by Danni Gowdy. I picked up this copy because Viviane is one of my wonderful critique partners! Unfortunately (or fortunately) she had submitted and had this book accepted before we were in a critique group together! I can not claim to have helped her with this one, but she obviously didn’t need my help, because she wrote a wonderful story!
This is one book I’m happy to have on my shelf. I was so excited that my local indie bookstore could get the book in. Since Viviane lives so far away she sent me a lovely bookplate which I love. My kids were so excited to get this book as a gift for Christmas!
Story
This story is written in the second person. I don’t know that “Teach Your Giraffe to Ski” could have been written as well in a different P.O.V. I’m not sure how many other kids books are written in the second person. The second person usually doesn’t work for most books. It’s especially hard for picture books to use the third person, but Viviane did a wonderful job writing this book.
I love the humor in this book. The illustrations and words meld perfectly together to make this a laugh out loud story! One thing about the story, be sure to read this on a full stomach. All the french fry and pizza talk was making me hungry. Be sure to have lots of french fries and pizza before starting this book! Especially pizza, pizza, pizza. That word is used a lot in this book.
My toddler wants you to get this book! Art
I love the color scheme in this book. The colors are cool and perfect for a winter scene. I love the beautiful soft colors.
All the characters have big, beautiful, outlines. It makes the whole story more comical. I also love how Danni makes the images so expansive. I believe that there is a whole wonderful world beyond the confines of this book.
The expressions on the characters faces are priceless. Especially the poor child’s face who is just trying to get the giraffe to ski. It’s a very big task teaching a giraffe to ski!
Buy the Book
Buy the Book: https://vivianeelbee.com/wheretobuytygts.html
Viviane Elbee’s Website: http://vivianeelbee.com/
More about the book: http://vivianeelbee.com/teachgiraffetoski.html
If you can’t afford to buy this book consider leaving a review or requesting your library buy this book!
-
Marla Lesage — Picture Book Layout
To start out the community blog posting, Marla Lesage has found a great post on her site. This is all about picture book layout! You can find out more about this on her blog post here: https://marlalesage.com/2019/08/12/picture-books-length-layout/
Have an art process you want to share with the rest of the Smart Dummies community? Let me know below or go to my contact me page!