Would have loved to enter this as I’m a big fan of LOST, but am not living in the US… so, for all you American illustrators, there is a LOST T-shirt Design Contest over at CafePress where you could win a trip to Hawaii and other goodies! Contest ends Feb 18.

Sigh, Gush, Smile :) My brother, Jason MacKay, has done some beautiful new digital paintings recently. I just love the colours in this one, it just glows. Check out his website, lots of great new artwork up there!

We often go camping on the Murray River in Berri, SA at Bookie Cliffs… the water’s as brown and murky as can be, but being the only fresh water to swim in around here, not to mention the beautiful red and yellow cliff face, it’s a welcome change of scenery. Last weekend when we made the trip again, I brought along my watercolours and managed to squeeze in an hour long study of the cliffs. I don’t get many chances to study landscapes on site, was fun making the most of Hera’s naptime! After that, Hera was very keen to “paint” with mommy on the beach, and that I paint “e mama bear e baby bear” holding “hands.” I even had a bit of fun sketching her while she enthusiastically flipped through my Australian bird guide…. until she noticed that what I was doing was more interesting than what she was doing and insisted that I draw her “hand,” which I was all to happy to oblige.

Wow, I just watched the trailer for Riley’s Lost Tooth… I’ve never had an animated trailer made of my work before, is a bit weird and cool at the same time seeing your characters come alive and move! Here’s the Riley’s Lost Tooth trailer on YouTube. RLT is currently at the printer, am waiting eagerly to see how the finished product turns out!

This was another of my favourite dresses of Hera’s, and was way too complicated to attempt illustrating with pen & digital colour, so again did a watercolour study of it for my diary of Hera’s stuff. I don’t feel I did the pattern justice, but at least captured the warmth & feel of this cute little garden dress.

I received an email from another aspiring children’s book illustrator with a bunch of great questions…

Question : How do you find publishers?
Answer : I look at the back of books that I like and note the name of the publishers, often there is a website listed there so I’ll go visit it to see what their submission guidelines are. But my “secret” resource is an online publisher catalogue I blogged about here.

Question : Do you use a contract or a non-disclosure agrrement (so they won’t use your work without pay you…I have heard horror stories from other artists…)
Answer : Yes, I always use a contract, I actually just recently wrote a post about children’s book contracts here.

Question : Do get get some pay up front?
Answer : Yes, as a rule of thumb I  ask for 50% up front when working with authors. Publishers normally have a set amount they pay in advance on your work.

Question : Usually low long it takes for all your part of the work to be done?
Answer : Before becoming a full-time mum it used to take me about 3 months from first contact to artwork / artfiles delivered to the publisher. You could easily add on another month or two if you’ve done the graphic design and are working directly with the printer. But now that I am illustrating part-time it takes me 3-6 months to complete illustrations for a children’s book.

Question : How long it takes to get the book published?
Answer : The books I’ve worked on seem to take at least a year from first contact with the publisher to when I receive the printed books in my hand. But that’s not counting the time BEFORE I am involved when the author and publisher are working together editing the manuscript, not to mention the author’s initial pen to paper with their ideas!

Question :  How long does it take to get “finally” paid?
Answer : When the work is done! In the final invoice I note at the bottom that payment is due 30 days from the date on the invoice… but it’s good to keep in mind that when working with publishers / major companies that 90 days is normal.

Question :  Do you use Photoshop?
Answer : I use Photoshop for touching up my illustrations (I’m an old-school illustrator so like to do the majority of the work by hand, and just use PS for stitching together scans and adjusting the colour for the printer.) But it’s a wonderful tool, there are many talented digital artists (like Jason MacKay!) who do things with Photoshop I can only dream about!

Question : It would be great if you had an e-book with all the details (how-tos) and sell them…to people like us.. I would love to see step-by step samples of work - drawing, color and photoshop in your e-book.
Answer : That’s a lovely idea, kind of you to think I’ve enough tips to share! At the moment I’m enjoying sharing my experiences (free!) through my blog, I keep the Tips for Illustrators page updated with a list of all my new tips :

Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any more questions, eh:)

It’s interesting the type of artwork that can subtly influence your style growing up… my grandmother’s home had a lot of beautiful paintings from her travels around the world. The ones that stand out the most in my memory were thick oil paintings of stormy seas, a creepy old sea captain whose eyes followed you, an African woman painted with green skin tones, and a portrait of Mother Teresa. These two small paintings she bought in Holland are very rich in colour in the light, but very dark indoors! I think these paintings influence my love of detailed town scapes, and is also a favourite colour palette of mine. It’s hard to make out the signature because of the handwriting but they but look to be painted by K. deTonq K. de Jong. I was unable to find any work by this artist. And with some much appreciated help from Patrick after posting the artist’s signature, found they are painted by Klaas de Jong.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Following up with Patrick’s comment, here’s the signature of the artist, in case it rings a bell with anyone!

This dress was one of those great eBay finds for like $10, and Hera wore it till it was falling apart and faded :) I liked it so much I decided to branch out from the ink & digital colour technique to do a watercolour & white pencil study of it for my illustrated diary of Hera’s clothes.

Another good question from a children’s book illustrator…
Question : I have set up my artwork at the size of 17″ x 22″ so the artwork will be read as one whole illustration as each page is turned. I hope I am clear in explaining myself.  I am wondering if this is ok for submission when it comes time to print the book?

Answer : Yes, it’s ok to do illustrations that go across both pages (this is called a spread.) Many of my books have been made up of two-page spread illustrations (The Little Boy’s Smile.) Just make sure to consider the seam (gutter) when you’re working on your composition, you don’t want anything important getting folded in half or lost in the gutter!

A signed contract between the Publisher/Author and Illustrator is the very first thing that should be in place before delving into illustrating a children’s book. When you work with a Publisher, they will provide their own contract and terms tailored for your project. But when working with self-published Authors, it is even more important to have a contract. Most first time Authors aren’t familiar with working with Illustrators, and a contract both educates the Author and protects both parties from things going pear shaped.

I’ve been fine tuning my contract (or Illustration Commission Agreement) ever since my first book, and it is still a work in progress, always being adjusted to match the project I’m working on. Feel free to download a copy of my contract (by clicking on the image) and use it as a launching pad for your own contract. The main details I include are :

• • Name and Contact Details of both the Author and Illustrator
• • Title of the work
• • The number of illustrations to be commissioned
• • 1) Commission and Grant of Rights : this section describes that the Illustrator is selling the rights to USE the artwork to the Author… they are not selling the original artwork specifically, and it goes on to state that original artwork belongs to the illustrator.
• • 2) Sale & Purchase of Artwork : States clearly how much money the illustrator will be paid as well as exactly what the illustrator is selling to the Author. It is good to be specific about what currency you are to be paid in, especially when working with international clients.
• • 3) Royalties : establishes how much the Illustrator is to be paid in royalties for various types of sale of the book.
• • 4) Project schedule & delivery : including dates here both helps the author know when to expect the art and give you space during that time, and also gives you a deadline to be accountable to.
• • 5) Illustrator’s Copies : establishes how many free copies of the printed book you will be provided, typically between 10-20.
• • 6) Copyright : states very clearly that the copyright of the illustrations still belongs to the illustrator.
• • 7) Credit : How you as the illustrator wish to be credited in the book
• • 8) Promotion : says the Author can use your illustrations to promote their book free of charge.
• • 9) Failure to Deliver and 10) Cancellation : in the unfortunate event that the book is cancelled or you are unable to finish, these sections set out how much you will be compensated for the work you have completed, as well as what the author can expect from you if you do not deliver what you’ve agreed upon.
• • 11-16) Legal Stuff : covers a lot of legal jargon that is also important. Some of the points it covers are establishing that you are the sole creator of the artwork, stating you will not create competitive works, the Author has control over when/if they publish their book and details on assigning the agreement to another person.
• • Signatures of both the Author and Illustrator

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .