The Girllustrators

In addition to being one of the newest Girllustrators (she hadn’t yet joined our group when she answered our questions), Divya Srinivasan is an amazingly talented illustrator and animator. She has worked for illustration clients such as the New Yorker, This American Life and They Might Be Giants, and she was an animator on the film Waking Life. Divya recently released her first picture book, Little Owl’s Night, the illustrations of which are the perfect blend of simplicity and sophistication, darkness and color, intrigue and calm. It’s been getting rave reviews, and for good reason! Check her out…we’re sure you’ll be seeing more from Divya soon!

What percentage of your illustration process relies on technology? For the past few years, I’ve used only computer for most of my projects. Sometimes, I draw or paint elements on paper, scan them in, and do compositing on the computer. I’d like to do more of that.

What applications do you use? I use Photoshop for illustration.

What digital tool would you never want to do without? For years I’ve done all my illustration and animation on an Apple laptop using a Wacom tablet, which allows me to work from anywhere. Working alone from home can get monotonous. To shake things up, I sometimes visit my sister in the Bay Area. While she’s working during the day, I am too, and then we get to hang out in the evenings. I’m extremely grateful for my portable workspace!

What is your favorite aspect of using technology in illustration? I can play around with colors, composition, and style so easily on the computer. When a deadline is tight and revisions are called for—moving elements around, changing colors, redrawing a face—I can do that relatively quickly on the computer. And it’s easy for me to show the art director multiple possibilities. Because I do all my animation on the computer, it’s convenient having the source artwork in digital form, in layers. For instance, I made the trailer for Little Owl’s Night using elements straight from my Photoshop files for the book illustrations. Little Owl’s eyes, head, wings and body were already on separate layers so I could bring them straight into After Effects and animate.

What projects in the children’s market are you currently working on and how do you plan to incorporate technology? I’m about to start illustrating my second picture book, and plan to use Photoshop. Over the past few years, I’ve done the artwork for three educational children’s apps (Peekaboo Barn, Peekaboo Wild, and Splish Splash Inn). Right now, I’m in the very early stages of planning my own app. Integrating illustration, animation, sound, and storytelling with some level of interactivity, all in one project, could be really fun for me.

Renée Kurilla is brimming over with talent! She graduated with a BFA in Illustration and Graphic Design from The Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University, is a lead artist for the animation studio Fable Vision, and a children’s book illustrator. Renée’s work can be seen in The Christmas Hamster by Bryan Gately; Charlesbridge Publishing’s I See I Learn series: Freda Plans a Picnic, Percy Plays it Safe, Percy Gets Upset, and Freda is Found; as well as Zebrafish by Sharon Emerson, with a second Zebrafish titled Shine on the way! We wanted to interview Renée about her use of technology because her digital work has such a lively, colorful style complemented beautifully by loose, gestural linework. Please enjoy Renée Kurilla’s interview and wonderful illustrations. 

What percentage of your illustration process relies on technology? I’m guessing about 90% of my work is done on the computer…however almost all of my ideas start out as a quick pencil sketch in my sketchbook, which I carry everywhere! I work in Boston, MA at Children’s Media company, FableVision, which was founded by author illustrator Peter H. Reynolds. At work I use a computer about 95% of the time because we make all sorts of digital and educational media for kids. I got very used to manipulating my drawings on the computer. Having one around has definitely made my art-making process go much smoother.

What applications do you use? I now use Photoshop for just about everything. I was trained to start using Adobe Flash for animation, but lately I’ve been working on many more illustration projects. I also use InDesign to do text layout.

What digital tool would you never want to do without? My Wacom tablet of course :) I can’t imagine trying to draw with a mouse again the way I used to in high school!

What is your favorite aspect of using technology in illustration? As I mentioned earlier, what I love most is that using a computer has made my art-making…easier. I’m able to concentrate more on the actual character or scene rather than trying to perfect my craft in painting. (Although, I do wish I could paint more as well.) There’s also a little bit of a learning curve that comes with Photoshop, too. I will never fully master Photoshop as a medium because they keep releasing new versions of the software. It’s a nice thing to have a medium that lets you explore endless possibilities.

What projects in the children’s market are you currently working on and how do you plan to incorporate technology? I’m currently working on a sequel to the Zebrafish graphic novel that was released in 2010 (Simon&Schuster/FableVision/Emerson). The new title is Zebrafish: Shine and it will be coming out in 2013. The book dummy (122 pages) was sketched out entirely on paper first and is inked/colored in Photoshop! I’m very excited, I’m so happy with the way it looks so far and I hope you’ll like it too!

Jenny B Harris’ design background and passion for arts and crafts shine through in her illustrations for children. Her work radiates bright colors, fun patterns, and a cheerfulness that reaches out to a broad audience. Jenny’s impressive client list includes picture books for Random House and Golden Books, educational projects for Harcourt, and packaging for Pepsi. You can check out her work on her website and blog. And she was nice enough to share how she uses technology in her illustrations.

What percentage of your illustration process relies on technology? Pretty much 100% of my process relies on technology. I create my art from sketch to finish in Photoshop with a Wacom tablet. The only part that I do the old fashioned way is what happens in my head! And that is definitely low-tech. ;o)

What applications do you use? I’m so comfortable with Photoshop CS, I have been dragging my heels and haven’t upgraded. But I’ll have to soon!

What digital tool would you never want to do without? I need all of them, but if I had to name the one tool that has had the most impact, it’s my wacom. 

What is your favorite aspect of using technology in illustration? Since I create electronic images for display on the internet, or on iPad screens, I can use vivid saturated color. The illustrations seem to come alive!

What projects in the children’s market are you currently working on and how do you plan to incorporate technology? I’m currently creating interactive children’s books for a company called Interactive Touch Books, and technology is part of every stage. I develop the art in Photoshop, set up the books on the ITB web site, publish them to their app/bookstore and people can buy and view them on their iPhone or iPad. ITB is a great site if anyone wants to try their hand at making an interactive ebook. The coolest part is that anyone can make books on the ITB site, it was created for author/illustrators to self-publish their books. It’s free, and they only take a commission from book sales. 

The Austin SCBWI 2012 regional conference, Something for Everybody, is just around the corner. You’ve got three and a half weeks to get your portfolio together—or build a totally new one depending on how ambitious you are! You’d like to knock the socks of off the editors, art director, and agents attending, land a book deal and win the portfolio competition (you are ambitious, aren’t you?)…if only you knew what they were looking for?

Well, my friend, this year, the Girllustrators got your back! We were lucky enough to be tiny Girllustrator flies on the wall at the meeting where the list by which portfolios will be judged was put together. We might even have buzzed some of our own suggestions into the ears of the Powers That Be. (Okay, so now we’re bees, not flies—Girllustrators are very versatile!)

So, no hemming and hawing this year—read on and you’ll know what they’re looking for! It’s time to get that portfolio together and strut your stuff! And at the very bottom of the post, an additional opportunity for exposure!

THE LIST

1. Composition: We’re all artists, here, right? We all know about the elements and principles of design and we all use them in our art, right? But we also know that sometimes a composition just doesn’t come out quite right. But maybe we ABSOLUTELY LOVE the characters in that failed composition! Should we put it in our portfolio anyway? No way, José! If something’s not working, you’ve just given an art director a doubt about your skills, made them less interested in your work and left a bad taste in their mouth. Find a way to salvage the piece or pull it out entirely.

2. Color: Judges will be looking for your use of color. This doesn’t mean the more color you use, the better. It means that your color should be appropriate for the piece and pleasing to the eye. Does the color in your work add interest? Create a mood? Make it work, Baby!

3. Character development (sequencing): Something that is tricky in children’s books, but oh so important, is creating believable characters that are emotive, interesting and consistent. If you don’t have a sequence of a character (or characters) in different poses and showing a variety of emotions, now would be a good time to get ’er done. Art directors and editors look for this—they want to know that you can bring their characters to life and do it consistently!

4. Narrative clarity: Some might say “pictorial readability” here. This means that your illustrations aren’t all straight landscapes, portraits and still lifes, but they have a narrative quality to them. They have action, energy, emotion and a story is being told, right there—without words—in the pictures!

5. Consistency of style(s): Right. We all like to try new things. We’ve all changed over the years and have favorite pieces from long ago that we just can’t seem to bring ourselves to take out of the ol’ portfolio. But, the fact is, an art director wants to know what they’re getting when they hire you. They want to be certain of who YOU are. And for that reason, the judges will be looking for consistency of style. That doesn’t mean you can’t have more than one style and present them together, just make sure that if you have two styles, you have enough of each to show that they are consistent.

6. Professional presentation: Do we really need to say “Don’t duct tape your art to a spiral notebook and dunk it in coffee before you drop it off?” Probably not, but it doesn’t hurt to mention that your portfolio should be well-organized and neat with consistent sizes and formats. An expensive book is not necessary to look professional. But, some time and effort is.

Well, that’s it. Easy, breezy, right? Putting together a portfolio is actually a lot of work, and it’s a daunting task even to veteran illustrators. If you’d like some more help, here are a few other sites to read:

What to Include from Where the Sidewalk Ends.
Tony SanSevero’s making a children’s book portfolio.
Harold Underdown’s tips for aspiring illustrators.
Yellapalooza.com’s tips for beginners.
Christina Tugeau gives portfolio tips.

THE OPPORTUNITY

And now to that opportunity we mentioned above. This year at the conference, there will be a silent auction/raffle to raise funds. Donations of prints (originals are accepted, as well), framed (preferred) or unframed, are being requested. Please choose your favorite illustration, slap it in a frame and donate it to the cause! This not only shows your generous spirit, but it is yet another way to get your art in front of the faculty at the conference. Who knows, maybe they’ll bring your work home to display in their office! Furthermore, the proceeds from all art sales go toward the chapter’s illustration budget, so that we can continue to have great illustrator events in the future. It’s a win-win!

Donations need to be dropped off by Friday, February 17^th at 5pm at St. Edward’s University, where the conference is being held. If you don’t think you’ll make that deadline, feel free to contact a Girllustrator or Assistant Regional Advisor Carmen Oliver to set something up.

Jackie Stafford’s friendly animal and human characters entertain and educate kids by way of picture books, games, magazine illustrations, and promotional materials for a long list of clients. They include Scholastic Books, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Disney, Gymboree, Nestle, and Kraft. Her most recent work is digitally executed, but her portfolio also includes watercolor work, and from her early years, three-dimensional character art. On top of all this, she also makes jewelry. Stafford studied illustration at OCAD University in Toronto. She currently lives on a farm in Ontario, Canada, and corrals a motley pack of horses, donkeys, dogs and cats while she isn’t creating art in her studio. We’re so thankful she took the time to answer our questions, below!

What percentage of your illustration process relies on technology? 80%

What applications do you use? Illustrator

What digital tool would you never want to do without? Wacom Cintiq

What is your favorite aspect of using technology in illustration? I can alter my work and play with it as much as I want without having to re-do it over and over again.

What projects in the children’s market are you currently working on and how do you plan to incorporate technology? I’m working for several UK publishers on educational projects, plus some children’s magazine work right now.

Luciana Navarro Powell loves to draw. She has been a professional illustrator for over 14 years, providing, rich, vibrant and playful illustrations to clients such as Scholastic, Pearson, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, McGraw-Hill, Hasbro Toys, Crocodile Creek, National Geographic School Publishing, Random House and Chronicle Books.

One of her latest ventures is an iPad app, Goodnight Safari, for Polk Street Press. In it, children can interact with adorable safari animals as they prepare for bedtime. Preview the app here . You can purchase the app here.  

Luciana’s My Dad is the Best Playground, Random House, will release in May 2012. Originally from Brazil, Luciana now calls San Diego her home.

What percentage of your illustration process relies on technology? I would say 50%, because I still sketch using pencil and paper, and sketching is where all the concepting takes place. Once I am happy with the sketches I scan them and build on top of it.

What applications do you use? Photoshop, I used to use Illustrator to build up the shapes, but now I do it all in Photoshop.

What digital tool would you never want to do without? My Wacom tablet and pen, really can’t do it without it!

What is your favorite aspect of using technology in illustration? I have used traditional media in the past, mostly watercolor and acrylics, but I was really taken by digital media once I started to experiment with texture - I scan leaves, petals, fabric, or photograph cement cracks, wood, earth, and incorporate it all in my illustrations mixing them with shapes and colors. I also use a lot of customized Photoshop brushes, and create my own brushes too, I found out it makes a huge difference in making the art look organic and not overly “digital”. I love the broad possibilities of experimentation without having to re-paint anything, and love the little accidents or unplanned results that I get from the process. The difficulty is learning when to stop, you have to be disciplined or you can end up working in one single piece forever. But that is also something you learn with time.

What projects in the children’s market are you currently working on and how do you plan to incorporate technology? Right now I am working on final art for the first book I wrote! It will be out in May 2012, by Random House. It is in a slightly different style than previous works and I am having a lot of fun with it: I paint washes of real watercolor in real paper, then scan it and use it in a sort of digital collage. It has a fluid look, it allows happy accidents, but with all the advantages of the digital media. I am also on sketching phase for a series of books for Chronicle, and for those I will incorporate a lot of photographed texture like leather, plastic sheets, textured paper. I am also working on a potential eBook for iPad, and the plan for that is to scan real things like leaves, grass, fur, wood. Very busy, lots of fun!

Tracy Bishop is both a children’s book illustrator and designer extraordinaire! She earned her degree in graphic design with a concentration in illustration from San Jose State University. Tracy’s clients include Cost Plus, World Market, The Gymboree Corp, Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose, Palo Alto Jr. Museum and Zoo, EandI Designs, and Stanford Jazz Festival. We wanted to interview Tracy about her use of technology in her illustrations because her work retains the analog warmth of traditional media while being created almost completely digitally. Please enjoy Tracy’s interview as well as her beautiful illustrations.

What percentage of your illustration process relies on technology? At this point I’d say my illustrations rely about 90-100% on technology. I do thumbnails and concepts in a sketchbook then I move on to drawing in the computer. I LOVE watercolor. I used to do watercolor paintings and used the computer only for minor touchups. Then I had my son and the studio became his room. After that the only place for me to paint was on our dining table. It became so hard to keep on working a little bit on the dining table and then putting everything away for meal time. It also became apparent to me that leaving my work out with a toddler running around wasn’t the best combo either. So that’s when I made the decision to try to find a way to move totally to digital — but only if I was able to find a way for the process to be satisfying and to achieve the watercolor look that I wanted. It took a long time of studying and experimenting and I’m finally at a place where I’m happy with creating illustrations digitally.

What applications do you use? I use Adobe Photoshop CS5 to create my art.

What digital tool would you never want to do without? My Cintiq. That’s the best investment that I’ve ever made.

What is your favorite aspect of using technology in illustration? The best part of using technology to illustrate is it’s easier to take more risks and be bold with things like composition and color. It’s easy to move things around and to play with color so there’s no excuse for NOT doing some studies before going to final. This flexibility can also turn into a curse really quickly. You can noodle around and be indecisive very easily too.

What projects in the children’s market are you currently working on and how do you plan to incorporate technology? I’m currently making more illustrations and prepping for a SCBWI Illustrator’s day (eeek, it’s in a week!). I’m also revamping my website soon. The good thing about switching to a new style is it feels like a new beginning. The bad thing is I’m scrambling to replace all of my old watercolor only illustrations in my portfolio with new digital ones.

David Kirk’s children’s book career began when his hand-made toys were discovered by a book packager! In 1994 his first book, Miss Spider’s Tea Party, was published. It’s filled with Kirk’s characteristic brilliant colors, dynamic compositions and infinite details. Miss Spider went on to become not only a beloved series of books, but also a television series on Nick Jr., a CD-ROM game, not to mention countless toys and products. Kirk has created numerous other equally delightful picture books, such as the Nova the Robot series. The Girllustrators are honored that he took the time to answer our technology questions!

What percentage of your illustration process relies on technology? These days, I’m mostly using very old art techniques. Only in preparation do I use any modern technology. Even that’s fairly peripheral. I use Photoshop to enlarge drawings to a correct size and sometimes manipulate sizes of elements within a picture. I suppose another use of technology is finding pictures on the Internet. When I need to look at animals or flowers or any sort of image, I love to use Google image search for reference. I used to have to go to the library and spend lots of money on overdue books I would use for the pictures.

What applications do you use? Photoshop, Google.

What digital tool would you never want to do without? Again, when I make a painted book, I could live without any of the gadgets, but Photoshop is very helpful to move the design process forward.

What is your favorite aspect of using technology in illustration? I love being able to scan work and show it to people who need to see it immediately. I like not having to rely on Fedex or the mail.

What projects in the children’s market are you currently working on and how do you plan to incorporate technology? I’m currently working on a variety of painted children’s books in the style of my earlier painted work - Miss Spider’s Tea Party, for instance. I’m using only the technology I listed above. I could mention a few other things - I used lots of technology in books relating to the Miss Spider TV show on Nick. All that was Maya and assorted other 3D rendering programs. A lot of other new technology is being used on iPad apps relating to Miss Spider. That stuff is based on my books and stories from the TV show. It’s all technology, but there are other people using it and it’s not really my department!

Learn more about David Kirk’s books here.

Janee Trasler, author and illustrator of many books for children, says she thoroughly enjoys her job. And it definitely shows! Whether spending time with Janee in person, or reading one of her books, get ready to giggle!  Of her latest book, Caveman, A B.C. Story, Kirkus says -  “F stands for FUN here.” I couldn’t agree more! Her delightful characters painted in rich vibrant colors and their antics will have you rolling! Janee has written and illustrated books for Scholastic, Sterling, Little Brown & Company, Random House, Houghton Mifflin, and more. Her whimsical illustrations have also appeared in magazines, newspapers, billboards, cartoons, and products. Here’s what Janee has to say on using technology in her work.

What percentage of your illustration process relies on technology? 100% relies on technology. From thumbnails to finished art—I do everything on the computer.

What applications do you use? Corel Painter, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, and Flash.

What digital tool would you never want to do without? Wacom.

What is your favorite aspect of using technology in illustration? The undo command. It gives me the freedom to experiment with no fear. I also love that I can keep iterative versions along the way.

What projects in the children’s market are you currently working on and how do you plan to incorporate technology? I have two book dummies going right now. Both will be completed 100% on the computer. I’m also learning Action Script to improve my Flash skills.


Thank you, Janee!  To view more of Janee’s work check out her website and blog.

John Nez, a very busy Seattle-based illustrator, has worked on more than fifty children’s books. His illustrations sing with attitude, color, fun, and lots of textures. In addition to creating artwork for everything from board books to historical fiction, he writes and illustrates some of his own imaginative stories, including The Twelve Days of Christmas in Washington and Cromwell Dixon’s Sky-Cycle, a story of high-flying invention. John was nice enough to answer a few questions about using technology in his work.

What percentage of your illustration process relies on technology? About 80% of the work is digital. I usually do a very rough sketch with photoshop… then print that out and draw a finished drawing with real pencil on vellum. I like the texture of the real paper and the ability to flip the drawing around to any angle. Then I scan the finished drawing back into Photoshop and process it… adding color, texture, shadows and all the rest.

What applications do you use? Photoshop is my favorite. It even does vector art, so I rarely use Illustrator or anything else. I do use Indesign for making book dummies and I use Bridge for keeping track of everything. So the three applications that I always have on my dock are Photoshop, Indesign and Bridge. 

I’m now learning to make interactive ebook apps using a Photoshop extension called Kwiksher. It’s way cool. Since it has sound, animation and all kinds of cool effects. It’s like making a movie. Lights, sound & action. The question is whether or not it’s possible to actually make any money from ebooks.

What digital tool would you never want to do without? Photoshop.

What is your favorite aspect of using technology in illustration? Well, looking back on the past, how I used to have to go to the copy shop and print out 35 pages of 11x17 art and then package it up and Fedex it off to the publisher… sure seems like a lot of extra effort. (Though I did get out and about more then… which probably was a good thing) In the ‘good old days’ I’d often get the specs for jobs that were all wrong… inaccurate type placement, etc. Faxes were the worst… they’d stretch the image and leave out critical parts entirely. Now though, with a PDF everything is exactly in place and the right size and ready to go.

What projects in the children’s market are you currently working on and how do you plan to incorporate technology? I’m working on some book projects… and I’ll be using everything. Real paints, real paper, scanned images, photoshop, wacom and lots of my basic talents. Oh, and I forgot to add… it all begins with a pencil! The drawing is the main thing… above and beyond any other bells and whistles. It’s the drawing!

For more on John’s process, visit The Studio section of his website for some wonderful step by step demo’s.