Saturday was the annual San Francisco/South Bay SCBWI Annual conference and I was fortunate to have a chance to critique and comment on participants' portfolios. It was a super day and included talks by the wonderfully talented Melissa Sweet, melissasweet.net, Isabel Warren-Lynch from Random House, Melissa Manlove and Kristine Brogno from Chronicle Books. All were full of great information about publishing, writing and illustration. I wrote lots of notes, looked at some amazing portfolios and enjoyed a picture perfect San Francisco Day.
This is what I took away from the day:
Storytelling is everything. Your illustrations should intrigue the reader and make them want to know more about the characters and the action.
Think about the emotions of your characters. A happy character is less interesting. illustrate a character that is between emotions... happy to sad, confused to angry.
Show a range of emotions.
Details are great if they enhance the story, don't let them obscure what is happening.
I have illustrated a fair number of books, but it is always a good thing to be reminded of what makes a great book.
I think the above tips are going to appear on my studio walls!
