The Inside Scoop on Illustrators' Day 2019

Illustrator Coordinator TeMika Grooms is here with all the info on Illustrators' Day:

Join the Children's Book Illustration Community for our day dedicated to The Art of Storytelling.

We will dive into developing craft and the business to building a career as an illustrator in a competitive market. There are many paths to publication. We want you to be a strong visual storyteller no matter what path you choose.


 Keeping your work fresh as you grow your voice is important for illustrators.We'll kick off the day with Mark Braught, Award-Winning Illustrator and Educator. He will break down creating Self-Promotional Pieces Outside Your Client Projects. This insightful presentation will explore the difficult process of creating an illustration for yourself, why it’s important to keep this in your practice and how to approach this daunting challenge.


Maria Middleton, Art Director for Candlewick Press, will challenge us in Quick on the Draw! Hands on Workshop & Critique, a hands-on craft workshop, because illustrators need to work fast in this ever-changing industry. Bring your pens, pencils and sketch pads to gain valuable feedback from Art Director Maria Middleton as she takes you through a hands-on activity and brief review of your work.

She will follow the craft session with a mentorship review that challenged mentees to act as author-illustrators and discover new characters for their work. The Drawing on Discovery Mentorship Review will take a close look at the process of discovering the magical, terrible, wonderful, and shocking world of characters for your next story. The art director will provide a live review of Picture Book spreads and Middle Grade covers created in the Illustration Mentorship. This is a great session for any author-illustrator seeking to learn more about the art of storytelling.


Kevin Lewis, Agent for the Erin Murphy Literary Agency, will delve into the Things Art School Will Never Teach You: Publishing Insights for Illustrators (Especially Those Who Endeavor to Write). This session will give valuable hints from experience as an editor to Loren Long, Tony DiTerlizzi, LeUyen Pham, Kadir Nelson, Cynthia Rylant, Matt Cordell, Brian Pinkney, Antionette Portis, and Dav Pilkey, as an author, and as a picture book fanatic.



We will also announce the 2019 Liz Conrad Award Winner in honor of Illustrator Liz Conrad. Make sure you bring your portfolios to showcase you work during the Portfolio Show and experience the fast-paced Quick Fire Portfolio Review! We’ll round out the day with a faculty panel, with the addition of Monica Odom, Agent for Liza Dawson Associates, as they give us final thoughts on how to position ourselves for success in the kids lit market.




Thanks, TeMika! There's still room for YOU at Illustrators' Day, March 15th in Decatur, GA--click here to register today!

Springmingle'19 in Atlanta: Two Reasons Why

Hi, this is Randall Bonser, Conference Cooordinator of Springmingle 2019 in Atlanta. I’ve been to so many SCBWI Southern Breeze conferences in Georgia and Alabama, it is easy to take for granted how much you can learn at our conferences, and what great opportunities they present for making connections. Let me remind you (or let you know for the first time) of the two best reasons for attending Springmingle in Atlanta on March 15-16, 2019:

Reason One: Spring

Reason Two: Mingle



Spring 

The theme for our 2019 conference is Spring to Success with Springmingle'19, meaning, whether you are a seasoned pro or just starting out, we want to help you MOVE FORWARD IN YOUR CRAFT. We’re offering several valuable intensives and workshops to help you improve your writing. We normally offer only one writing intensive on the Friday of the conference; this year we’re offering THREE writing intensives:

 • Picture Book
 • Middle Grade/Young Adult
• Pro Track (for our PALs)

In addition, we will be offering our Illustrators' Day at the same time. These intensives are deep dives into improving your writing and illustrating skills, with discussions on plot, character, setting, and other essentials for writing a good book. The instructors are a mix of seasoned veteran writers/illustrators, editors, and agents.

On Saturday, a variety of workshops will not only help you improve your craft, but also delve into the business side of writing with successful writers and artists, as well as the agents and editors to whom you will have the opportunity to submit something after the conference. In Springmingles past, we didn’t have the variety of workshops we will be making available this year, because we didn’t have space. This year, we will also be using several classrooms at Decatur Presbyterian Church next door to our usual library location, which allows us to expand our workshops.

Mingle

At last year’s WIK conference in Birmingham, I celebrated ten years of being a part of my critique group, which we lovingly call Decatur Chill. That’s because ten years ago at Springmingle 2008, I met several aspiring individuals who seemed like quality people and serious writers, so we decided to start meeting to critique each other’s work and hold each other accountable. Ten years later, our core is still around, and we have added to it as people moved away from the community.

Long story short: writing conferences, especially local ones, are great places to meet like-minded people, as well as agents and editors who are looking for talented authors. Springmingle 2019 is a unique chance to connect with your tribe and form valuable relationships. Discussions in intensives, workshops, lunches, breaktimes, after-conference beverages, and walks to and from the hotel can often lead to fruitful contacts. Our end-of-conference Gala, once again hosted by the dynamic group called Middle Grade Mafia, will be a fun way to meet folks and corner unsuspecting editors (don’t tell them I said that).

So there you go – two great reasons to attend Springmingle 2019 in Decatur/Atlanta, Georgia, on March 15 and 16th. We also have an exciting event planned for Friday night, March 15, which we can’t publicize, because we won’t be able to confirm the speaker until closer to the event. So save the date and make plans to join us on March 15 for an intensive, and on March 16 for a day of workshops, pitch sessions (oh, did I forget to tell you we will have a pitch session for the attending editors and agents – oops, my bad), first pages review, motivational messages, good food, Kidlit fun, and great new connections.

Come back to the blog or check out the Southern Breeze website on January 5th when registration opens for Springmingle'19!

Did You Hear The One About the Illustration Mentorship?

This year, our Illustration Mentorship SOLD OUT IN ONE DAY! We are very happy to have Maria Middleton (Art Director with Candlewick) on board with us this year.

If you missed it - no worries - there is still so much more! The 2019 Springmingle Brochure will be uploaded soon with wonderful art from within our region (you'll see soon!). In the meantime, here's what you can expect:

Maria Middleton will be discussing the mentorship project so you would benefit from seeing how she interacts with artists and could develop your own artwork to compare with what others did even if you did not register for the mentorship program. Maria will also be conducting a hands-on drawing activity with feedback at her second session.

Lori Nichols will discuss paths to publication and how she pursued her career.

Kevin Lewis (agent/former editor for Disney/Hyperion) will talk about the things art school doesn't teach about the business of art.

And don't forget….. The Liz Conrad Award will be judged by Anne Moore Armstrong with the Bright Agency. This is a great opportunity to have an illustration agent see your work. After all, it's not always winning, but showing up that matters. Submissions for the Liz Conrad Award are open now. 

EARLY REGISTRATION HAS ITS BENEFITS! The first 25 to sign up for ID and elect to participate in the "Quickfire" portfolio review will get feedback on their portfolios from the ID faculty, plus agent Monica Odom. Registering for ID also makes you eligible to book a consultation with an agent and a private portfolio review with a faculty member and to display your portfolio for the Springmingle and Illustrators' Day faculty to see.

Registration for those wanting to participate in the mentorship opened December 1st and has already sold out so the next opportunity to register and book a session with an agent will be when early-bird registration opens  on January 5th.

 See you there!

 The Southern Breeze Conference Team

Shining Brightly with Southern Breeze's Illustrators!

Take a room full of illustrators and add a handful of amazing industry professionals and you've got a winning combination at Illustrators' Day! And a few illustrators won even more!

I'll let Temika Grooms, Illustrator Coordinator for Southern Breeze, tell you more:

Claire Easton of Painted Words, Inc. joined us to round out our faculty and serve as a judge for the Liz Conrad Award. In honor of Liz Conrad, Claire selected three artists who demonstrate exceptional potential within their craft and provided written and verbal feedback during the conference. This year we had 13 applicants. Each applicant submitted a letter with a bio and information about their work along with images for review. The following were awardees for 2018:

Honorable Mention – Shannon Day

Runner Up – Melissa Schultz-Jones

Winner – Laura Moss

They were each provided with a certificate to commemorate the award. The winner will be able to attend next year’s conference for free!

AND there was another winner at ID 2018! The Illustrator’s Portfolio Show was held on Saturday and twenty-one portfolios were on display all day during the conference for viewing.  Faculty judged the portfolios to choose a winner. The winner, Lori Nichols, was awarded with a Michael’s Gift Card at the end of the day.

The theme for this year's program was Ignite Your Illustration Career and we're pretty sure all of our Southern Breeze illustrators will continue to shine brightly!

EVERYONE A WINNER AT WIK'18: Pat Cummings Talks Tips (And Pastries)!

Hey Illustrators, we haven't forgotten you! And so we caught up with Pat Cummings, author and illustrator, who's presenting a couple of brilliant break-outs, plus an illustrator's dream of an intensive: Illustrators Matchbox. We asked her the same questions we put to Linda Sue Park, and here's what she had to say!


Southern Breeze: Any tips for writers or illustrators who might be a little shy about saying hello?

Pat Cummings: The children's book community is, hands down, the friendliest one I've encountered. Everyone in attendance is guaranteed to have something in common with anyone they talk with, including the speakers. 

I once sat one seat away from Madeleine L'Engle throughout the first half of a play, not daring to speak to her. In between us was my husband, Chuku, who works in a totally different field and had no clue who she was. After I went out for the intermission, I returned to my seat to find them laughing and chatting like old friends. He introduced us, clearly surprised and delighted to report, "Pat, Madeleine does children's books, too!" She was lovely. The only thing that made me nervous talking to her had been MY hesitation. One thing I LOVE about SCBWI conferences is meeting fellow writers and illustrators. So do say hello.


SB: What is the last great book you read?

PC: I finished two recently that are truly worth recommending. A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles and Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond. Both books were informative, compelling and left a strong impression.


SB: Who is a writer or artist you'd like to have coffee with and why?

PC: I think I'd choose Haruki Murakami for coffee and Philip Pullman for pastries (got to have a pastries option).

I first got interested in Murakami when I read several reviews of his books that raved about them but  couldn't explain or relate their plots. I like a mystery. In fact, he does do something magical in his stories. He can set up a mystery, wind you down to the last few pages, when your brain is screaming, 'Pull up! Pull up!', and then, rather than crash, the ending glides smoothly into a satisfying conclusion that doesn't rely on a neatly tied up resolution. Not sure how he does it every time. But his fiction books are, to me, adult fairy tales. 

Having spent part of my childhood in Okinawa and Germany, getting a healthy does of ghost and fairy tales, I'm drawn to stories with otherworldly elements. Pullman, on the other hand, is just pure fun. His delicious, engaging fables make me suspect that he's lively and entertaining and someone who appreciates good pastries.


SB: How about industry news? Is there anything new/surprising/exciting that you'd like to comment on?

PC: I like the nonfiction trend that is going on. Because any topic that you find fascinating, you can use as the foundation for a book. I also see that heavily illustrated books have become very popular (thank you Brian Selznick for some genre-bending standouts that I think increased their popularity).


And thank you to Breezer Sherri Dillard who interviewed both Linda Sue Park and Pat Cummings as well as a couple of our wik'18 agents and editors. Those interviews are available in the members-only Tradewinds at the Southern Breeze website. Join SCBWI today and you'll get ALL the inside information from Tradewinds, plus much more!

How much more? Come to wik'18 and meet our authors and illustrators, plus all the speakers. We can't wait to show you how you'll be a winner in SCBWI!


                          REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN! CLICK :::HERE:::TO REGISTER!

Extended Deadline for Illustrators!

Good news for illustrators!

You still have time to apply for the Liz Conrad Award! The deadline has been extended to January 15th so get out your pens, your brushes, your creativity, and get to work! Not sure what the Liz Conrad Award is? Read on...

Southern Breezer, Liz Conrad, created many wonderful books for children. In her honor, our chapter has established a merit-based award for illustrators. Now that we have only one conference per year, this is the only award available to illustrators.

The award will be given to one promising illustrator, and provides free attendance at our Illustrator's Day/Illustrator's Intensive, as well as free tuition for the annual conference. Entry for this contest is FREE! Find out more information and get your application here.

Also, there are a few openings left in the Illustrator Mentorship with Nicki Carmack available at wik'18. You can find all the details about this wonderful illustrator opportunity here. But don't delay because the deadline for the first stage of this mentorship is also January 15th!

There's no time like now to ignite your illustration career, so come join us and create today!

A SEASON OF GIVING WITH WIK’18 - FREE QUICKFIRE PORTFOLIO REVIEWS

On the eighth--or is it the ninth day of wik'18 registration?

To tell you the truth, I've sort of lost count. But I know exactly what's up next in our count of terrific gifts at wik'18:

FREE QUICKFIRE PORTFOLIO REVIEWS!

Yes, we're having Illustrators' Day in Birmingham, and yes, it's new to this conference. But it's still the same great experience you've always loved!

Just like always, there will be a full day of speakers focused on illustrated books for young readers. Coretta Scott King Award winner, Pat Cummings, will show you how to fire up the emotional impact of your work. Deborah Shine, editor at Star Bright Books, will reveal how independent publishers find illustrators and work with them to create beautiful diverse books. Nicki Carmack will share the work done in the illustration mentorship as well as reveal how to create a more dynamic finished product. Claire Easton, agent at Painted Words, will join the rest of the faculty for the twenty-five FREE QUICKFIRE PORTFOLIO REVIEWS, plus a Question and Answer session.

So in case you've lost count, too, let's count down our wik'18 Season of Giving:

FREE Quickfire Portfolio Reviews!

Six Inspiring Intensives!

Four Awesome Agents!

Two Terrific Editors!

And an Early Bird Discount for registration!

It's all there, waiting for you! But spaces in some activities fill up fast, so don't wait to register. And don't forget about the special surprise gift you can win by commenting on this post.

Though everyone's a winner at wik'18!

#SpringMingle - Look, Illustrators, It's Jim Hoover! - #SBreeze17

Look, Illustrators. It's Jim Hoover!

Want your illustrating to soar? Then fly to sign up for Springmingle and catch a session with one of our super artsy speakers!

Jim Hoover is an Associate Art Director at Viking Children’s Books, and he’s been publishing books for over fifteen years. He’s designed and directed the art behind hundreds of picture books and he’s illustrated for DreamWorks as well as for many novel jackets and interior art. Now, he’s coming to Springmingle for Illustrator’s Day!

Visual Story Telling in Two Spreads 

Great picture books are a harmonious marriage of words and picture. A story’s magic happens when these two components work in tandem. For this assignment, please pick a text to work up two spreads for. The story can be something you are actively working on, or an idea you have been hoping to get the time to draft into a more fleshed out story. Or you can do two spreads from a classic story or fairytale you’ve always loved. The spreads don’t need to be consecutive, but think about how to best present this portion of your picture book to your audience—which in this case, is an art director. At the end of the assignment, you will have two pieces for your portfolio which means that your audience will also be editors and agents. How can you hook your audience with two spreads from a picture book?

Sketches will be submitted to Jim via email and are due no later than February 10. Jim will then give you feed back via email for you to incorporate into your final pieces of art—which will be discussed as a group in person the day of the session.

Please note: There is limited enrollment and an additional fee for those participating in the Illustration Project. The preliminary and final work will be presented and discussed at Illustrator’s Day.

Hoover will also present two sessions on Saturday, including “Marrying Text and Pictures to Tell a Great Story” and “All About the Cover!” For his cover session, he’d like you to do a picture book cover, especially if you attend on Friday (two spreads AND a cover! You are practically there!) You can bring a few thumbnails and discuss—if you want feedback on direction, or a final piece of finished art. If you bring a finished piece of art, please do bring a few thumbnails as well—it’s like math—he wants to see your process. Show the work!

A ton of feedback for our illustrators from Jim Hoover! But you can’t get it unless you join us in Decatur, March 10th-12th at Springmingle, the only conference in Southern Breeze for 2017!

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN! Click  :::HERE::: to log in and register.

~See you in March~

#SpringMingle - Illustrator's Day - #SBreeze17

Illustrator's Day

SCBWI Illustrators and Writers across the Southern Breeze region will gather in Decatur, Georgia for the love of children’s literature on March 10-12, 2017.  Our region boasts of many talented and awarded illustrators and authors.  Join us for Illustrator’s Day and Spring Mingle weekend to learn new skills and network with art directors, editors and agents. 

In case you haven’t heard, Illustrator’s Day is a day geared towards the craft and professional development of visual storytellers of all levels.  The day always includes valuable interactions through informative sessions, critiques and industry connections.  This year has special opportunities you will not want to miss!

Michael Joosten, Editor for Random House, will present a session titled,Lovers of Covers:  All You Need to Know About Creating a Memorable Book Cover.  Because we do often make our book choices because of their covers, attendees will learn about what publishers, art directors, editors, sellers and buyers are looking for in a stellar cover. 

Jim Hoover, Associate Art Director at Viking Children’s Books, will also challenge us to make magic with pictures and words through the Illustration Project: Visual Story Telling in Two Spreads.  Figure out how to hook your audience and present dynamic visual storytelling in only two spreads.  Who is your audience?  The Art director, editors and agents who will provide valuable feedback during the unveiling at Illustrators Day 2017.  What a way to be seen! For more information on the project please visit: http://southern-breeze.scbwi.org/jim-hoover . A limited number of participants will be accepted. Register Early!

And the icing on the cake is that this year, Loraine Joyner, retired Art Director of Peachtree Publishers, will be judging our annual Liz Conrad Scholarship.  The scholarship opened on December 1^st  and will be awarded to one budding illustrator in the children's book field to attend our Illustrators' Day and Springmingle Annual Conference in Atlanta. Loraine has also graciously decided to offer a free mentorship to the winner! Don’t miss this opportunity.  Details can be found at http://southernbreezewriters.blogspot.com/p/scholarship.html.  Deadline is January 15, 2017.

Many Illustrator Day attendees choose to extend the weekend by joining in on Spring Mingle.  The weekend will feature keynotes, breakout sessions, many critique opportunities to encourage skill development and a Saturday night gala to let your hair down.  (Who said book nerds weren’t cool, right?).  Tell a librarian, a teacher and your friends. We’ll see you soon for the big Spring Mingle in Decatur!

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN for SCBWI Members! 

Click  :::HERE::: to log in and register.

~See you in March~

2015 Illustrators' Day Wrap-Up by Elizabeth Dulemba

Photos by Vania Stoyanova of VLC Productions.

Elizabeth Dulemba wrote a fantastic post on Southern Breeze's #SpringMingle15 2015 Illustrators' Day Wrap-up. 

"This past Friday, I attended the SCBWI Southern Breeze Illustrators' Day - for the first time as simply an attendee. I stepped down from the position of Illustrator Coordinator this past summer, handing the reigns over to the extremely capable Prescott Hill. He took on an enormous task and I have to say..."  

 Click ~HERE~  to see what else e had to say!


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