I stumbled across this interesting discussion on Amazon.com, where someone asks “Is there a chance that the physical books will become useless use because of Kindle edition digital books?”

I’ve wondered the same thing, whether children’s picture books will become obsolete in the new wave of digital book readers. I’m all for novels, newspapers, and magazine content being digitized, and think it is an excellent way to reduce paper waste. (I also think it would be awesome reading in bed at night, too, as the book acts as its own night light :) I do love paper books, but think that paper novels will soon become collectors items (or print-on-demand) for those that love that smell & feel of old paper, as the digital copies are just so practical and sustainable.

But for children’s books I think digitizing them to read on a screen is a horrible idea!

Being a children’s book illustrator I’m just a little biased… I love picture books, and think there’s something wonderfully tactile about turning the pages with anticipation of what’s on the next page. I tend to cringe at books with added bells & whistles like electronic noise and lights, as I feel there is so much creativity to be enjoyed in the 2D illustrations, subtle textures, and die cuts. Not to mention where will the line be drawn in the future between static digitzed illustrations and animated books? It would be SO tempting for publishers to animate parts of children’s books, and essentially turn digital books into tv.

Being a mum, I value reading and want to pass that onto my daughter. Paper books are also wonderful for helping a child develop their coordination… I’ve enjoyed watching my toddler grow from learning to turn the chunky pages of a board book to now carefully turning pages of regular picture books. The enjoyment I see her have in finding the ladybugs I’ve hidden in the illustrations, to even reciting bits of the stories we’ve read together is hard to imagine on a small digital screen. Heh, I can clearly imagine the blank stare she would have staring at a digital book… it’s the same stare she gets when the tv is on! Nowadays I think we parents rely a lot on electronics to entertain our kids, and I would love books for children to remain tactile.

I received this question from an aspiring children’s book illustrator…

Question : I was wondering if you could post some information about finding a mentor. It would be great to have someone to contact when a question comes to mind or when you need support and motivation.

Answer :  I don’t really know of any one place to get in contact with artists who mentor, but I think you’ve already done the best thing I could suggest…  email other artists and ask them questions about their experiences! Since college I’ve continued to “meet” other artists online by commenting on their blogs and keeping in touch with those who I’ve hit it off with. Of course not everyone has the time to reply, but it doesn’t hurt to drop an email to artists you admire and see who writes back! If you’re interested in just simple critique of your work, you can always post your images up on forums (such as the How Design Forum.)

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!