It has been a while since I've posted. I have a ton going on which is all good, so I've not been around here much. Today, this is something I have to share!

Every month SCBWI hosts a drawing challenge #SCBWIDrawThis with a prompt word. For May the prompt words was #Alone. I thought long and hard on the concept of alone, trying to visualize what would epitomize this word. This idea struck me the morning the illustration was due. I almost didn't finish it having self-doubt take over about half way through. If you watch my video on YouTube, you'll see I started with a girl that was just not working, but the idea wouldn't let me go. So, I finished it late that night and submitted it with minutes to spare. See the full gallery of participants here.

I present to you: Alone

How often did you sit alone as a child on a teeter totter waiting, wishing, hoping someone would join you?

IF: Vote

Yes, I should have posted this yesterday, but I was busy actually leaving my studio -- in the rain -- to go vote. I was at first concerned that there was no line. I even took a book with me in case. I was concerned the rain had scared people away, but when I asked, the woman assured me that they had been busy all morning and they were just having an afternoon lull. So it was perfect timing for me.

Thanks to Illustration Friday for the kick in the seat of the pants to actually create this piece of art. I painted this using Procreate with my iPad Pro and mostly my finger to paint with details added using the Apple Pencil.

Did you vote? Do you think it's important to raise our children to be involved in politics and the decisions being made in our country?

©2018 Traci Van Wagoner

The Girl with Ruby Pink Walls

Character Art from Inktober Sketches

©2017 Traci Van Wagoner

This girl spoke to me from my Inktober sketches and begged me to paint her. I combined the two sketches you see on the left to create the final character I painted. She wants to go on an adventure like the girl and dog in my Balloon Lift Off series, which you see posters of on her wall. Her ruby pink walls were inspired by last week's colour_collective prompt. I painted most of this on my iPad Pro with Procreate, and finished it in Photoshop since the iPad was required elsewhere.

©2017 Traci Van Wagoner, all rights reserved

I had originally titled this, Running Away, but I'm not so sure she's running away versus running TO an adventure.

What do you think?

Her pen and ink counterpart in my Inktober series is on an adventure now. I'll be sharing my first week's drawings soon of Around the World in 31 days with Georgia and her Dragon, Swift, so be sure to check back.

Thanks ever so much for stopping by!

Balloon Lift Off 7: Castle in the Clouds

Up, up, up into the wild blue yonder to the castle in the clouds. The red balloons keep flying. Hold on little girl, hold on! Keep up, puppy, the best you can.

I hope my painting and this adventure will uplift your spirits in troubling times. Keep on dreaming.

©2017 Traci Van Wagoner, all rights reserved

Illustration Friday: Shoes

I painted these shoes for Illustration Friday's prompt, which is "Shoes", in honor of my favorite pair of shoes and, well, they're orange and sunny and fun, so there's that too. Oh, and a dog, because you know dogs are awesome!

What are your favorite pair of shoes? And/or are you a cat lover or a dog lover?

©2017 Traci Van Wagoner, all rights reserved

Balloon Lift Off 5: Wild

Happy Saturday! I've been on another Balloon Lift Off paint play adventure with the red balloons, the girl, and the dog. This one grew into WILD the #scbwidrawthis prompt for August. It started with a bunch of trees, some hills, the balloons, girl, the dog, then one cave popped up with a mama bear outside and her cubs inside, then more caves, more bears, and what to do bears love? Honey. So, in came a bear eating honey from a beehive, and more beehives, and bees. So, yep, wild. And I'm left wondering how the dog will get through all those bears and bees to follow his girl.

I hope you're enjoying this wild journey! If you have suggestions of where you'd like to see this balloon adventure go, feel free to comment with your ideas.

Wild, ©2017 Traci Van Wagoner

Balloon Lift Off 4: The Lighthouse

I usually post my paint play inspired by Colour Collective earlier, but I'm a bit late this week since I have a tight deadline with sketches to finish for a book for Pelican Publishing (more on that later).

I stole a few minutes (okay, more than just a few) from my sketching time to paint another adventure with the the red balloons using Cordovan as the color inspiration to post to #colour_collective on twitter. I'm trying to keep a logical storytelling sequence to this series, so I also used the teal ocean color from last week and have the girl being swept in from the ocean this time.

Did she travel across the entire sea? I shrug. Perhaps. I was going to paint her in the middle of the ocean with the dog on a boat (which you can see a peek at the dog in a boat possibility with the time-lapse video on instagram), or passing a Cordovan colored pirate ship, but this is what came out when I put finger to iPad with Procreate. I go where the wind takes me, so to speak.

The first image is what I posted for #colour_collective, and the second one is because I felt I needed to push the lighting a bit more, so I spent a bit more time with it. Which one do you like better?

©2017 Traci Van Wagoner, all rights reserved

©2017 Traci Van Wagoner, all rights reserved

Don’t Fret, Fred, Your Day Will Come (hopefully sooner, since it’s already later)

Fred from Don't Fret, Fred Version 1

I’m happy to say that Fred is finally ready (again) and has ventured out into the wide world all shiny and new.

I revised and polished the manuscript, sketched out the dummy and completed (or should I say, redid and reillustrated) three samples spreads and it is now out into the world for consideration by agents and editors. Whoopee! And to tickle your curiosity, it is being seriously considered somewhere. To be named later if it comes through.

Don’t Fret, Fred is a wild romp of a tale in which Fred discovers that exciting things can happen when you look up from your e-things and use your imagination.

 This story has pretty much always been about that. Even though the journey has meandered to and fro, the heart of the story, the bare bones of a bored kid, Gram knitting and telling a wild yarn which spins out of control and Fred having bring them home has remained the same. Gramps has always been like, here we go again. The happenings, the specific interactions has changed, but the core has remained the same.

This picture book has gone through three major revisions (not to mention the many, many edits, and fussing with words, paragraphs, spreads.) I sent out the manuscript alone many years ago. I got personal rejections with editors who liked the humor but felt there wasn't enough there to pass the last hurdle to acquire it. After a pile of rejections, I put it in a drawer where it sat with all those rejection letters for a looooooooooong time.

Until…

My nephew stirred interest again when he casually said one day, "don't fret, Fred." He remembered the fun repeating line from my book from when I read it to him years before. That gave me heart. I pulled it back out, reworked it with my husband and business partner and my wonderful crit buddies (where would I be without their invaluable input?), and I hammered away at it till I got something I was happy with again.

So, good to go, I created a dummy book and finished sample illustrations.

Fred had his debut showing at the SCBWI Winter Conference in NY, I also sent it out to to editors, agents, and hit the twitter pitch parties. I received some interest here and there, but I wasn't quite happy yet and neither was anyone who saw it. Something niggled at me, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. In one of the twitter parties, I saw someone was interested in a book with yarn bombing and -- boom! -- the seed of an idea was planted. Then taking a walk in my neighborhood (on what we call the chicken walk) I came across this:

Yarn bomb on my dog walk

And the idea clicked. That’s what I needed! Gram is a yarn bomber. I went back to work.

Edit. Revise. Redraw. Sketch. Paint.

New Fred sketch adding yarn bombing

A new manuscript, dummy book and sample illustrations were born now with a yarn bombing gram. You see her behind the scenes yarn bombing all the places they land, which in the end gives Fred an idea to help bring them home. I think this has tied it all together with humor, surprise, and a bucket load of imagination

Okay, I was done. Sent out some more and received a smattering of interest. Then I received a great comment on twitter from Guiseppe Castellano which basically said (I can’t find the actual comment), “fun, but strange there are purple outlines.”

This was something that had been niggling at me, but I’d ignored for many reasons. It was an illustration style I liked and had developed for various reasons which I won’t go into here. I came to a conclusion that I needed and should and wanted to redo the final illustrations yet again. I wanted to loosen up and have fun just painting and breaking free from a conception of what my style was or should be. So I did, and I had a ton of fun. And this is what happened.

©2017 Traci Van Wagoner, all rights reserved

There you have it, the basic progression of this book. It's been a long road, and now I hope I'm at a point where others will enjoy it too and someone will be willing to take it on. One can hope.

And here's my query schpill:

Don't Fret, Fred by Traci Van Wagoner

Cut off from the electronic world, Fred is worried a day with Gram and Gramps in the boonies will be boring. Boy, was he wrong. While balling Gram’s yarn (yawn!), he asks her for a story. Crazy and out-of-this-world things begin to happen, spinning them up into a wild yarn of an adventure bigger than all of them. Fred will have to use his rusty imagination to get them back home before they are lost in space.

Dummy book available upon request.



I would love to hear what you think of Fred and his yarn bombing Gram. And please feel free to share any pictures or stories you have of yarn bombing in your neighborhood.


If you'd like to see more of my illustration process, click here to see the making of The Mermaid's Gift by Claudia McAdam, published by Pelican Publishing.

Thanks ever so much for sharing in my journey.

Balloon Lift Off 2: Up, Up and Away

I had so much fun with the red balloon painting I did last week for #colour_collective and had a big positive response to it,  I decided to do another painting in continuation of the balloon lift off story.

Up, up and away she goes! Where she lands, nobody knows!

I shared an earlier (not quite done) version of this piece on twitter and instagram since I had other work to finish and wanted to get it up on time to share with the rest of the @colour_collective community. I've noticed that the art I create on the iPad is brighter than when I share it online. So I brightened it up and added a lighter sky and more highlights to this version. Color consistency in our digital world is tricky.

Stay tuned, I may just share more of this girl's (and her puppy's) journey. In fact, I'd love to hear your suggestions and thoughts on where she might land and what she sees along the way. Enjoy the balloon ride.

©2017 Traci Van Wagoner, Up, Up and Away

Balloon Lift Off

Happy Friday! Inspiration struck early this week for this week's colour_collective with the prompt color Portland Orange. Balloons! High in the sky with a kid holding on and being lifted into the blue.  This is about how it unfolded for me as I painted this in Procreate. I started with a dark blue background, then with a big, blocky brush I splotted on orange, red balloons in a new layer. Some green below, some lighter blue, a swath of sidewalk, a girl holding onto the balloons, then, of course 'cause there's always gotta be a dog, her pup standing beside her all concerned. Mostly I painted this with my finger, but the Apple Pencil came in handy with adding the final details, which is what was missing in my paint play before on the old iPad with no pencil.

I had a ton of fun painting this. I hope it brings you some joy viewing it. Have a great weekend filled with balloons and good times!

©2017 Traci Van Wagoner, all rights reserved

Summer Nights and Ice Cream

I had a ton of fun this week painting this piece with inspiration from colour_collective, Pantone 292 C. For my b-day I got a new iPad (just in time too since my old iPad 2 went kaflooey), so this week my paint play has been more involved and I got a bit more detailed as I played with the Apple Pencil vs. finger painting. I still used my finger to paint a lot of this, but with the pencil I was able to get more detailed and target my brush strokes more accurately, not to mention the pressure sensitivity. Some of the brushes and for certain parts of the painting, I still much preferred the direct approach of painting with my finger. It's been a fun experimenting. Much more experimentation to come. I hope you enjoy my process.

© 2017 Traci Van Wagoner

Sprout

The prompt for Illustration Friday this week is Sprout which fits perfectly with one of my picture book projects I'm writing and illustrating. This is one of the scenes I'm playing with using Procreate. I approached this project very different from other projects. Instead of starting with a fully written story and then pencil sketches, this picture book started while paint playing with my old iPad, my finger, Procreate, and an idea. I created a variety of color scenes of a girl planting a seed while it's still snowing, then waiting, waiting, until...

©2017 Traci Van Wagoner, all rights reserved

Ugga Mugga Love

The world needs love, lots of Ugga Mugga love. I painted this on Mother's Day thinking of my Mom who is so far away. This also works for Illustration Friday's theme this week, Mother. Go give your mother a kiss today! Aren't ugga mugga kisses the best?

Ugga Mugga by Traci Van Wagoner ©2017

Girl in Pink

Sorry I haven't posted here in a while. I've been busy finishing the illustrations for Rest in Peace RaShawn, which is now available (see Books), as well as finishing some new dog toy designs, and game designs and illustrations. It's good to be busy doing creative work.

On top of client work, I've been having fun paint playing both in Photoshop and on my old iPad with Procreate (which I LOVE).  Lately, I've dived into the @colour_collective challenges each week. I love playing with color and this gives me a jumping off point each week and encourages me to expand my color palette. I have to admit that many of the colors I would not have picked, so it has expanded my art world. This cautious girl and her cat were in my to-do-someday sketch file from past projects, both personal and work related, which spoke to me when I saw the color for this week, Mountbatten Pink. I painted this in Photoshop using my wonderful Cintiq. Enjoy!

Girl in Pink © 2017 Van Wagoner

Spring Dreams

One night while vegging out to some TV,  I was paint playing on my old iPad with Procreate and my fancy-pants paint brush finger, and with one magical swipe, I discovered a whole bunch more fun and different brushes. Yay! So I set about playing with them, experimenting, doodling, dreaming, and this is what came about, Spring Dreams. My flowery painting also has a snail among other fun bugs, so it fits with Illustration Friday's prompt this week, Snail.

Happy Spring!

©2017 Traci Van Wagoner, Spring Dreams

Heroic

I think people who stand up to bullies, to those who hate, to the greedy, to the power-hungry are heroic. This is my paint play for Illustration Friday's topic this week (yeah, a bit late) Heroic. Stand up for the little guys, stand up for yourself and what you believe in. Be bold and brave people. I dare you.

© 2017 Traci Van Wagoner

Stomp

I had some fun playing with Procreate on my old iPad painting with my finger and created this for Illustration Friday Stomp. I'm enjoying working on a looser style of art, plus I have to admit that last week I found a bunch of new brushes I hadn't played with before in the program. Have some fun today!

© 2017 Traci Van Wagoner

Once Upon a Crepé Paper Ball

'Twas the day before Christmas and all through the house, Dad is busy hiding a gift for each one of us in the green thing, closets, corners, cubbies, nooks and crannies.

The sun begins to set and our breath turns frosty, it's time to head for home. We gather together from our activities of the day -- ice skating, sleigh riding, tubing, and last minute shopping -- all out of the house so Dad can do his thing.


Christmas lights on, turkey in the oven, and a crackling fire in the wooden stove, we sit in a circle all ten of us, Mom, Dad, three older brothers, one older sister, and three younger sisters. Excitement hangs heavy in the air. Sitting in front of Dad is a colorful crepé paper ball that holds, oh, so many possibilities.

We settle down into an excited silence, and with a twinkle in his eye, Dad begins. We start with a prayer, helping us all to remember that Christmas is about more than just gifts and shopping and decorations. The evening's party is a birthday celebration for Christ after all. And the rolling begins!

Dad gives the ball a nudge to his right and the evening festivities are on! Interspersed in the wound crepé paper are notes with Dad's silly rhymes. As each person rolls the ball in front of them, they hold their breath hoping to see a note fall out. If you get a note when the ball is in front of you, you get to read Dad's silly rhyme.

Each person gets two notes that apply to them.

One note instructs one of us to show off our talents with singing, playing the guitar, playing the piano, telling a story, or reading a story. The other note, we need to figure out what Dad's rhyming clues mean and search the house for our hidden present. With gusto we each get our turn to open the first present of the holiday. Who cares that it's always pajamas? Our Christmas pjs. Everything is right with the world. With a silly rhyme and a twinkle in his eye Dad turns the evening into a magical adventure.

Family Christmas Sing Along while Waiting for Papa to Come Home

 
The last note of the evening is for Mom. We settle into a comfortable family snuggle with Christmas lights sparkling and our hearts filled with the joy of family and the Christmas spirit, and Mom takes us back. Back to Bethlehem on a cold winter night when there was no room at the inn. She reads the Christmas Story from the Bible and brings a tear or two around the room with her tender reading. My dear Mom who embodies everything that is good in this world.

Once the ball has been unwound, a pile of crepe´ paper lay in front of us, and a paper maché ball is revealed. All the notes have been read, presents opened, songs sang, stories told,
thanks given, now we get to bust open the paper maché ball filled with little toys and candies. Yeah!

Then we move to the kitchen for snacks and eggnog mixed in a the big punch bowl with 7-up which we drink in our own personalized Santa mugs. Cheers!


Before it's too late and before Santa can come, we put on our new jammies and Mom tucks us into bed while Dad is off doing, who knows what? ;)

As our tired eyes close, we listen to a record with a reading of The Night Before Christmas and fall asleep to sugar plum fairies dancing in our heads.

***

The Santa Mug illustration leads me to another Christmas tradition -- drawing on brown paper packages. That will be the next in my series of posts about Christmas traditions. Come back next week for more holiday fun.

In the meantime, I'd love to hear about your holiday traditions. Do you have something special you do for yourself or do with family or friends every year for the holidays? It's a great time to reconnect, even with a traditional Christmas card.

Thanks ever so much for stopping by. I would love to learn about your holiday traditions. Please feel free to share in the comments below.

***

A special thanks goes out to Paperless Post who offered some inspiration and a nudge for me to create this post and helped me to dive into the spirit of Christmas with their Christmas cards.https://www.paperlesspost.com/lp/christmas-cards

 ________

Some of my favorite Christmas books (okay I'm biased because I illustrated them) but as it turns out, they are both about Christmas traditions. Check them out and let me know what you think. I hope both will become traditional Christmas reads in your home.

 

You can get cards and much more with my Christmas Sing Along art and other fun holiday art in my Zazzle Holiday Store. 

Hiring an Illustrator

Over the last year I have had a large increase in the number of people asking me to illustrate their children's books. To help save me some time in responding to so many requests (most of which  I never hear another peep about), I'm posting some basic things to think about and what to expect from an illustrator.

I hope this will be helpful to both the authors seeking to hire an illustrator and illustrators working with self-published authors. It is a finely tuned dance between the two and in order to create the best book possible it requires a lot of work on both sides. Hiring an illustrator is a BIG step and there are many things you need to consider and have in mind before approaching an illustrator.

Things to consider when looking for an outstanding illustrator

Questions, Queries, Posers:
Before an illustrator can quote a price and gauge their interest in your project, there are several questions I have found most needed and helpful to get the project started:

• How did you find me or my company, Imagine That! Design? (This can help me to know what work you have seen and what style of art with which you might be most interested.)

• Is this your first children’s book?

• Do you have a complete manuscript? Or are you still writing?

• Has your manuscript been professionally edited?

• How many pages will your book be? (Please include the cover, back cover, copyright page and title page in that number).

• What age range is your book intended for?

• Do you have a budget in mind for this artwork? Keep in mind that it takes several months to a year to complete the illustrations for a full book, and illustrators need to be reasonably compensated for that time.

• What rights are you interested in purchasing from me?

• Are you publishing traditional print or ebooks? Or are you going to try to sell your books to a publisher? (If you are looking for a publisher, you do not need to hire an illustrator. If your manuscript is acquired by a traditional publisher, they will choose the illustrator.)

• Do you have an estimated date that you would want the artwork completed by?
 
• Do you have a printer?

• What outlets will you be using to sell the book?

• How do you plan on publishing and marketing the book?

• Will you be hiring a designer as well, or will it be necessary for me to perform those duties? My partner is a designer and has designed several books. This would be a separate fee from the illustrations.

Remember, publishing is a business

Before we can agree to take on any project, we would need to review the manuscript of your story to gauge our interest in working on the book. You can send an NDA if you feel you need to. After years of working with clients in the publishing industry, these are the things we found most important to mention:

What we need to begin:
The final size, a template from your printer, how it will be printed, what kind of cover it has, and what text will be on each page or spread. All these things determine the price and the design of the text and art for an optimum reading experience.

Timing :
It will will take from four to eight months to complete the illustrations for a full book depending on the total amount of illustrations needed, the number of pages, the complexity and number of characters for each spread as well as our current work load.

Payments :
We break the payments into thirds: one third up front to get started with character development, one third upon delivery of final sketches, and the final third at delivery of the final art.
Kill fee: We also have a kill fee of 25%  in case the project is cancelled after we have invested much or our time.

Revision Limit:
We will provide one or two rounds of revisions on sketches and light revisions on finals. Any further revisions needed, we will an additional charge.

Copyrights:
It is unlikely that you will need or ever use all rights to the art we create for your book. We will grant you the appropriate usage and terms needed to use the illustrations for 1st North American Print rights for an agreed upon timeframe. If you still wish to buy all copyrights, be prepared to pay an appropriate amount for them. This can add up.

Contracts...Yes :
There will be one. We use a simple contract outlining rights. We can use one of our own or you can provide one, but keep in mind that what we have outlined above must be clear.
 

Thank you for your interest.

If after reading this, you are still a go for bringing your story to life, please contact me with as much information as possible and we'll get the process started. I have not given any pricing here since there is so many variables. I will be happy to provide an estimate once we have as many as possible of the above questions answered and have established an interest in taking on the project.

I hope you have found this helpful. Please feel free to ask any questions, or share your experiences as an author or an illustrator in the comments below.


Traci

Live. Laugh. Learn.

Some helpful links from a few other illustrators who have posted on this subject:

Self-Published Authors: 10 Tips on How to Email an Illustrator 

by Kelley McMorris

 

10 Things to Know When Working With an Illustrator

Marlo Garnsworthy, Wordy Bird Studio

 

Illustrating Self-Published Books 

By Elizabeth O. Dulemba 

(As seen in the Nov./Dec. 2009 SCBWI Bulletin) 

 

For the self-publisher

by Wendy Martin

 

Exposure vs. Exploitation

Muddy Colors, A Fantasy Art Collective

 -By Greg Ruth

 

The Kindness of Strangers

by Steven Petruccio

Coming Soon!

The Mermaid's Gift
Written by Claudia Cangilla McAdam
Illustrated by Traci Van Wagoner
Publisher: Pelican Publishing Company
ISBN: 978-1455621088

Available for preorder at:
Barnes and Noble
Pelican Publishing
Amazon


Book Trailer