I'm Just Sayin'

Hey everyone, I know, I know, I know, there is nothing worse than a blog that gets no love for months. I apologize, I got slammed with work and also finishing both my MG and my YA, really working hard at both in revision workshops and classes, and of course the writing. So it won't happen again. I promise. I came across this article today and I think it's great so I am sharing it here. http://www.shauntan.net/images/essay%20Advice%20for%20New%20Illustrators.html

Andreas Deja's Book on Disney Animation Yay! How cool is this? Andreas was my first supervising animator at Disney on Hercules. When I met him I was clueless about who anyone was in the industry, I just thought he was the hilarious guy I met in my friend Jacquie's cubicle when I was getting my drawings looked at. LOL.. He was an amazing friend to me when my mom was dying. He is one of the best people I have ever met. http://www.cartoonbrew.com/books/focal-press-to-publish-andreas-dejas-book-on-disney-animation-techniques-103487.html

Hey everyone! Happy Thursday. How are you? I am doing great. I wanted to share something with you all because I think that it's important if you want to make a living as an artist. When I say artist, I don't just mean someone who draws or paints, I mean any creative. As you know I make my living as an illustrator AND a writer. For illustration slash "artist" I work in many areas. That is how I make a living. People always ask me for advice on how to do this, what's the trick, secret, etc? Well the truth is, IF YOU REALLY WANT THE TRUTH, and most people don't, is that making your living as an artist is HARD. Do you hear me? It's hard. It's one of those careers that has a lot of rejection and sometimes months where you don't have any work coming in.  I started my art career in animation. I worked 80-100 hours a week and put in 110% giving it my all on 10 films back to back to back... and I thought, "well I'll always have w...

Okay anyone who went to highschool or who lives in the real world, read  Thirteen Reasons Why -I am planning to blog about this book on both my blogs-But I will say this, unless you were homeschooled, this is the shit that goes on in high school and sadly even as adults. Not everyone commits suicide, but what people do and say does impact others period. I honestly believe this book should be require d reading in the 9th grade (maybe 10th) starting now. I'll post the blog links when I get to them, I am being more thoughtful about them than my usual ramblings because of the subject matter-so it's just a question of time. And I know this book is a few years old, I didn't read it for a lot of reasons, mostly because when I read the title I said to my friend in the bookstore "shit this is about a girl who kills herself, I think I need to wait"....so I waited. I kept picking it up at Barnes and Noble and carrying it around and then ultimately putting it back. It...

Okay so the saddest news went around the globe yesterday and we all learned that our beloved Robin Williams took his own life. It's beyond tragic, but the first thing that popped into my head wasn't anything nasty like, "suicide is selfish" or "why would he do that, he had everything?" Just some of the posts I have seen on social media in the last day. The first thing that popped into my head was, "this is so sad, I wish he could have found a way to make the pain stop." I also know that the "funny" people are often the saddest. Humor is a way of coping with all the shit that happens in life. I have a motto, that which does not kill me, makes me funnier , and while that is meant humorous, it's really the truth. Some of you know and I have been so worried about sharing this information, but now I figure screw it, if it helps one person than it's worth any ridicule I may get. I drove to San Francisco in 2009 twice to jump off ...

Omg it's the last day of July! Things are getting really busy for me and I am very excited about all of them. The first thing happening starting tomorrow is the SCBWI summer conference in Los Angeles, which is SOLD OUT! If you don't know, the SCBWI is the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. I do both, professionally. I have illustrated about 18 books now and written a few picture books for a mobile app company I worked for in 2012/2013 called FarFaria. I am currently pitching my early chapter book series entitled Uli Driscoll in Trouble, and will have a dummy at the conference attached to my portfolio. I am currently taking a revision workshop to finally get Ryuan - my then YA, now MG series into better shape. After a few rejections I took a closer look.  https://vimeo.com/ondemand/reviseyournovelinamonth At the conference I am splitting my time between writing workshops and illustrator workshops, I am also in the portfolio showcase-and even t...

So I am writing this post not to hurt anyone's feelings or come off as negative, but lately I have really been bugged by the way some of my "friends" have spoken to me about my work. I am not sure if it's jealousy behind it, or just ignorance for having any manners, but I have heard things like this. "What you do isn't real art, it's cartoons" "I do support you, I just don't like cartoons" "You aren't really an artist, you scribble cartoons" "I didn't know you could draw, I thought you played around with cartoons" And this could go on forever. Oddly enough these statements are not coming from "fine artists" (which is a whole nother kettle of fish) but from people who also work in ANIMATION! I am not kidding. Another friend of mine went on and on about how stupid she thinks kids books are and who would pay for that? So I am writing this today to ask each and every one of you to support each...