How I Became a Facebook Meme

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I created this illustration back in 2011 for a contest called "Frame My Future," which was put on by a diploma frame company. That's why I included a huge picture frame on the wall. The winner was chosen by popular vote and the prize was $1,000 scholarship. (I did not win.)

The scene is a fairly accurate depiction of my 2011 workspace - except for the cat, which I added just for fun. I've lost the original reference photos I used for this drawing, but I do have some similar photos so that you can see that it is definitely me:

This illustration has since been turned into a Facebook meme.

As you can see, my illustration was cropped, a texture was added, and a quote purportedly by Albert Einstein was placed on top. I don't know who created this image, but it kind of "went viral" on Facebook over a year ago and was shared thousands of times by thousands of people, and continues to do so. But as you can see, there is no indication that I made the original illustration.

When I originally posted this illustration online, I didn't include any watermarks, because I was young and stupid. I now watermark all my work - although that doesn't completely protect them from people cropped off. Today's moral of the story: watermark all your work with your name and website.

I'm not angry about it, and I'm happy that so many people enjoy this illustration. (Although kind of surprised, since it's one of my oldest illustrations and I never thought it was that good.) It's just a bummer to see how much publicity this piece is getting online when none of it is benefiting my illustration business. Imagine if this had happened while the scholarship contest was going on - I definitely would have won! When this meme pops up now and then on Facebook, I try to add a link to my Deviantart page, and people seem grateful to know who made it.

If you would like to order a print of this illustration, you can do so at my INPRNT shop.

Regarding copyright and the internet: On one thread, people started debating whether I'm right to ask for credit for my own work, and whether content put on the internet is "copywrite" or "copywright." (FYI, it's copyright, people.) People automatically own the copyright to what they create. Filing for copyright with the US government grants additional legal protections. Just because someone posts something online, that doesn't mean that it's "public domain" or that they've given up their copyright. If you share an artist's work online, ask their permission first and/or credit them somewhere with a link back to their website. Most artists are fine with that.

My Brother's Story book cover

I've been holding onto this blog post for six months now! Back in June, author Allen Johnson Jr. contacted me about creating illustrations for his series of middle-grade novels for boys called Blackwater Novels. The series is set in the south in the 1930's, and draws heavily on Allen's own childhood experiences. The first book, My Brother's Story, is about Johnny who discovers that he has a long-lost twin. Johnny runs away to find him, gets lost in a Georgia swamp, and is rescued by a Linc, a black man who lives alone in the labyrinth-like swamp.

Allen asked me to illustrate one of these memorable swamp scenes for the cover. He wanted to include Johnny, Linc, Linc's dog Hooter, and Linc's treehouse-like cabin in the background. When doing research, I found a great Flickr stream with photographs from southern swamps during the 1930's.

I sent Allen these three roughs.

He chose the third one. After several rounds of revisions I added color to the rough. Allen emphasized that he wanted a classic, nostalgic look. He had never worked with a digital artist before, and was a little worried that the cover would look too digital. So I went with a lot of golden light and a canvas texture on top. I was thinking of how period movies often have shafts of light streaming through dusty windows.

Here's the final. I think it captures the warm, adventurous spirit of the book - and completely relieved Allen's fears about looking too digital!

Here is the finished product! Inside the book there are twenty-one black-and-white chapter illustrations.

If you would like to order a copy of My Brother's Story, visit the Blackwater Novels website. Both hardback and e-book versions are available. (I do not receive any royalties from sales of the book.)

Teens value a good book cover

"For teens at my library, covers sell--they sell big time. A perfect example of this would be the L. J. Smith's Night World series. I still had the covers from the late 90s. There was nothing wrong with these paperbacks, they had some minor self wear, but the still looked very good and hardly circulated. I had a teen come in and ask me for the Night World books and I showed her to that series. At first she insisted that those weren't the books, the ones she was looking for were much newer. When I finally convinced her that they were indeed the same books, just with older covers, she refused to check them out. On a whim, I went out and purchased the new covers. Unlike the original nine books, these had been combined into 3 larger volumes...those three books are flying off the shelves and have holds on them. The old ones sit there sad and lonely. Even if we offer them as an alternative to waiting for the new ones, teens prefer to wait for the good covers...it has proven to me just how much covers matter to the teens coming into the library. It is sad, but I can tell how well an new book will circulate based on its cover."

-Melissa, a teen librarian at a public library

Style: Consistency vs. Versatility

It's very important, especially in freelance illustration, to have a unique and recognizable style. Sometimes, however, advice on developing a personal style can be confusing or contradictory. After reading many, many blog posts about style and listened to many speakers talk about style, here's the core of what I think most people are trying to say:

Consistency in style, versatility in content.

Your style must be consistent, especially when you are just starting out. Art directors want to be able to know exactly what they're going to get from you. If you don't have a long track record of professional work, your portfolio needs to be as solid as a rock. It needs to say, "I'm a master at what I do." If your portfolio has a few pieces that are kind of graphic, a few that are realistic, a few that are cartoony, no art director will hire you. Art directors don't want someone who can do a little of everything, they want someone who can do one thing really, really well.

Artists often say, "But I don't want to pin myself down! I enjoy lots of different styles and mediums!" In that case, choose your most marketable style and most proficient medium and develop a portfolio with it. You don't have the give up on your other styles forever, just enjoy them in your free time while pushing one particular style as your brand. If an art director does seem interested in something a little different, you can possibly bring those other styles out.

That doesn't mean you should draw one thing over and over again. You should show a good range of content in your illustrations. As Lauren Panepinto said, art directors don't have much imagination: they will hire you to draw the kinds of things you put in your portfolio. "If you don't have horses in your portfolio, I'm not hiring you to do a horse," she said. If your portfolio only contains dragons, dragons, dragons, that's the only thing you will be hired to draw. Good luck making a living off of dragon commissions.

So if you do character designs, don't just draw young attractive people. Draw old people, fat people, children, various ethnicities. If you do children's books, draw contemporary children, historical children, fantasy children, and children of various ethnicities and body types and expressions. Draw all kinds of animals. But all of these things should have a consistent style.

Consistency in style, versatility in content is the goal.

More Tentacles

Illustrator Cam Kendell is running a community art blog called "More Tentacles," where artists can contribute any sort of tentacle-related artwork. (all G-rated, though.) I contributed my Island of the Blue Dolphins piece to the blog.

If you'd like to send in your own tentacle drawings for the More Tentacles blog, visit the blog to find out how to submit.

Valentine's Oil Slimes

Last night I got out my watercolors and made this Valentine's Day card for my husband Jasson. In case you're wondering, the black skull things are Oil Slimes, one of the main monsters from our video game Crea. They look like this:

On the back I wrote a nice message, which of course I am not going to post online.

Watercolor is really, really hard. Every time I attempt it I gain a new respect for artists who work in watercolor. Here were my first two attempts at this painting:

Introducing Lady Hummingbird

Her wings are controlled by an unknown remote source. They take her to a destination unknown, where she is met by someone who is expecting her. She is told to kill whoever meets her at her next destination...what destination? What, she wonders, could possibly compel me to do such a thing? Her wings take flight again...where am I going, and what will I find there?

Last year I drew some sketches of a mysterious character I named Lady Hummingbird. "I need to come up with a story for her," I wrote in my blog post. My Dad responded with the paragraph above, and I thought it was pretty intriguing.

I decided to do a painting of this character. Dragging my basket of costumes down from the closet (so far it contains a long skirt, a sari, a corset, a cape, and a sword), I pulled out my long-neglected yukata. I dragged my husband away from FFXIII-2 and had him take some quick photo references. (He's gotten used to me appearing in strange costumes and handing him a camera.)

What's that, light switch? You want me to be an inter-dimensional assassin?

Using the photo reference was very helpful for getting the folds of the kimono and the hands right, and the reflection of the fingers on the blade of the sword was a nice surprise I wouldn't have thought of on my own.

The Snow-Bound Artist

I haven't updated this blog in a while because I've just moved from California to Oregon. It's been a pretty busy trip and I don't have internet at my apartment yet, which is almost like not having oxygen at my apartment. But by far the biggest shock has been the weather.

When I left California, it looked like this:

(That is not a joke, I took that photo a few weeks ago.)

When I arrived in Oregon, it looked like this:

It's been quite an adjustment. Since arriving, I've mostly just stayed inside my apartment because it's too slippery outside to drive or bike anywhere. Apparently we arrived in Oregon right at the beginning of one of the worst winter storms they've had in years. Hooray!