Yay, It's OKAY to Be CARTOONY and ME!

OMG guys, I was just at the SCBWI Houston conference and I am happy to say that I have beeing feeling so insecure (you may not know that I actually am insecure about my work, even if I appear confident due to years as a professional artist) about my "cartoony" style for children's books. Even though I have done many, I still get the "your style won't work for children's books" comments etc, from more "artsy" folks in the industry. Well I received AMAZING comments in my portfolio which was on display. I always get good comments, and at every conference, including New York and Los Angeles, I have gotten calls about work from them, but I am ALWAYS NERVOUS-because of the aforementioned cartoony-ness of my work. So it was great to talk with a fellow cartoony illustrator, who is doing really well in children's books with her debut book, that just came out this past year, and I had a critique session with, who has a similar background to me and know that it's okay and I can be myself. YAY!

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It's Been Awhile---Catching Up With Me

So much to say and how to say it... so I'll just start with. Wow, what a year it's been. I mean, could anyone have predicted all the shite that has hit us in 2020? NO way! I'm grateful for so much though, and one of them is the freedom to be able to have blogs (yes I have many) and the freedom to say whatever I want ---this is important. I'm grateful that I live where I do and even though I'm not rich, I am healthy and live a good life. I do what I can to help others, I also have a loving husband and a Westie who I adore. As many of you know that aside from blogging sporadically on here I'm a writer and an artist AND I work one on one with both artists and writers to help them in their careers. I've been doing this since 2006 (artists) 2010 (writers). The past few years I've focused on coaching writers as I became the queen of writing conferences and people were always hitting me up for free advice. I even started a YouTube channel CHECK IT OUT Thi...

And It Continues-This One Paid $.50 (cents) Per Drawing!

And it continues.. what is wrong with people? "54 simple illustrations needed. Small files for web use only, either 300 x 300px square or 460 x 300px rectangle.Will provide font, sample finished product and detailed instruction sheet. Paying $0.50 per .JPG " yeah that's 50 cents!! I saw another one yesterday from New York area that is paying $4 per hour, isn't that illegal in this country, guess not.. I don't understand, a couple days ago I was approached to do someone's book. I gave him a fair price, meaning I quotes less than a day's wage per page and he replied back with insults saying he knows for a fact that illustrators get $5 per page, yes 5 bucks.. he is insane. What is worse is that he wanted fully rendered like hand painted work that would take more than a day. This happens all the time. I don't understand why the value of an artist isn't valued anymore. Look we can draw and you can't so pay us a fair wage!! I don'...

Box Office Frog at $150 Million

"The movie cost a reported $150 million" this is from an article about the Princess and The Frog. The thing that gets me is that Disney used an ultra small staff here in the Burbank studio, so small in fact that many of us, 100 or more, give or take, weren't even offered positions on the film and rather most of the work was shipped overseas or across the country to small independent studios for the explanation of, "to keep the costs down". The costs were not kept down at $150 million and that is a shame because they are setting it up to be a box office failure and thus putting the nail into the coffin of 2D films. The article by Julia Boorstin also said that the reason 2D films weren't making money was this, "hand-drawn animation tends to appeal primarily to kids while Pixar movies draw all ages." I would like to smack her because this is simply not true. Story is what appeals to all ages, and it has nothing to do with the medium. It makes me sad t...

I'm Just Sayin'

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