How to Get Published

A blog reader recently posed this question, and agreed to let me answer it here:

“I have a book that I'm thinking about publishing. My friends and I worked on the book before I graduated and it's not 100% complete by any means, but I already have a mock up version of the book done and was wondering how I would approach publishers and pitch them the idea. Which publishers should I be looking at? Anybody that I should talk to in particular for something like this?”

This question comes up a lot. Let me offer a few quick answers and some links for more information.

1. I assume you mean an illustrated book. If it’s a short picture book, write the whole manuscript. Prepare a detailed dummy or storyboard, and a half dozen sample pieces of art. If it’s a longer book, like an illustrated novel, you can submit a sample chapter, an outline, and sample artwork. Make sure it’s really good. Join a local writer’s group to get feedback. Also, in your case, before you go any farther, work out on paper your business relationship with your collaborators.

2. Do some research about the publishers who have already published books similar to the one you’re conceiving. Start your approach there. Get the Writer’s Market books and check publisher’s websites for submission guidelines.

3. Usually you should send a very well-written query letter to see if a publisher wants to review your materials. Try to target your query letter to a specific editor, and find out what that editor is likely to buy. You can often find out editor's names in the dedications or acknowledgments of published books.

4. If you get a positive reply, then you can submit your idea. Follow the publisher's guidelines closely. You don’t necessarily need an agent, but you’ll need advice or help on how to negotiate the contract at least.

I recommend joining a local chapter of SCBWI, the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. They’re a helpful group who can answer any question that may come up about the submission process. The Author’s Guild is another helpful professional organization, but they only allow members who have published books or who have a contract in hand.

One other request: please don’t send ideas to me to look at. I honestly don’t have time, nor do I have any connections that can help you. But I wish you good luck! Never give up.
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SCBWI website with frequently asked questions about getting a book published.
Another SCBWI page on query letters.
Authors Guild website.

Walter Wick at Work

Last Saturday we visited the Hartford, Connecticut studio of Walter Wick, the photographer and children's book author who has produced the “I Spy” and “Can You See What I See” books, sales of which have totaled over 19 million copies.

He is a master model builder, creating layered scenes of found or created objects that he carefully lights and photographs. Readers of his books enjoy looking for hidden objects in the complicated sets. Many of his books involve clever progressions from one spread to the next.

Read about the making of this "Puss in Boots" photo-illustration here, showing the contribution of his collaborative team of artists.

He has a beautiful workshop where he translates his storyboards into wood, foam, or cardboard sculptures. Some of his miniature worlds are so complicated that he calls upon sculpting assistants to help him with the workload.

Here's a cool video called "Balancing Act" showing the building (and unbuilding) of a teetering stack of toys.

Some of the rough bases for models were made from blue insulation foam hot-glued (low-temp) together and cut with a band saw or electric carving knife. This is a timesaving method that we illustrators can use for building reference maquettes. The foam bases can be surfaced with gesso and modeling paste.

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Walter Wick's official website has lots of behind-the-scenes features that show more of his methods.

Maintenance Man

The Eyes Have It

Check out this abstract painting. It's full of energy and bravura. Brushstrokes are dancing with wild abandon.

By contrast, look at this detail of a portrait. It's very closely observed and controlled, right down to the structures of bone and flesh around the eyes and even the tiny highlights in the eyes.

Perhaps you've guessed it already: they're passages from the same painting. It's a portrait by Valentin Serov of his friend and mentor Ilya Repin. The first image in this post is the outer edges of the piece spliced together and turned sideways.

From the point of view of visual perception, Serov conveys the hierarchy of attention that we apply when we gaze at another person's face. We lock onto the eyes, the window to the soul, and nothing else matters as much--at least we don't tend to spend as much time looking at other parts of the portrait.

Eye tracking heatmaps of the face demonstrate this uneven distribution of our gaze. New studies show that the heatmap may vary slightly depending on whether we're looking at an angry or happy face.

From another point of view, Serov was absorbing new ideas in painting, and combining them with his realist training. The painting dates from 1892 when modern currents were sweeping through all of Europe.

Am I suggesting that all portraits should be painted in this way? Not at all! Painters like Holbein and Vermeer show the beauty and the power of an evenly distributed sense of finish. And no one should copy this manner as a technical trick. But it's worth considering this way of thinking, depending on whether the spirit moves you.

And it's important for anyone painting portraits to keep in mind that no matter what you do with the rest of the painting, the eyes will get the attention, and they had better be right!
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Related GJ post: "Stroke Module," with another portrait by Serov.
Heatmap of face from Institute Pompeu Fabra
Wikipedia on Serov.

Wayback Machine

Blog reader Gene Snyder has shared a great link for old art texts online. He says:

I'm a big geek when it comes to art books. I can't get enough of them, especially old ones that were written while the artists or techniques that they are talking about were alive and in full swing. There's a site at www.archive.org that has a HUGE collection of books that go way back. Here's a small list of some books that I've collected from the site so far:

- "Treatise on Painting - Leonardo da Vinci", Translated by John Riguad, 1877.
- "The Painter in Oil", by Daniel Burleigh Parkhurst, 1898. (Neat thing about this book is Parkhurst was student of William Bouguereau).
- "Our American Artists", by S.G.W. Benjamin, 1879. (Has some great biographies of artists).
- "Asher B. Durand - A Memorial Address", by Daniel Huntington, 1887.
- "Velasquez", by R.A.M. Stevenson, 1906. (Goes into pretty good detail about Velasquez's technique).
Thanks, Gene!

To which I'd add:
"Aims and Ideals of Art" by George Clausen.
"The life of an artist, an autobiography" - Breton, Jules, 1827-1906
"The Science of Painting" - Jehan-Georges Vibert
"The Classic Point of View: Six Lectures on Painting." Kenyon Cox
"Cyclopedia of painters and paintings (Volume 1)" - Champlin, John Denison, 1834-1915
"Pictorial composition and the critical judgment of pictures" - Poore, Henry Rankin, 1859-1940

There's a complete annotated bibliography in the back of Imaginative Realism.
Visit Gene's website and blog.

The Giant of Nantes

Sketching the Mechanical Elephant

Here's a colored pencil sketch of the Sultan's Elephant, drawn a few days ago from observation in Nantes, France. (Click on the image for a big enlargement.)

I took a picture (left) after starting the sketch to show you one way to begin a small drawing like this (about 3x5 inches). The first step was to draw the basic outlines in graphite pencil.

Then I lightly rubbed the surface with a few browns and grays in water-soluble colored pencil. Since there was no delicate detail yet, I could smudge those colors around with a water brush, keeping the white highlights on the tusk and the forehead as untouched white paper.

After that dried, I went back to define the details with a black colored pencil. The whole sketch took about 45 minutes, and I had to finish because the thing started walking.

Enchantment Symposium Tomorrow

Tomorrow the Joseloff Gallery of the University of Hartford in Connecticut will open the exhibition "Enchantment Then and Now: Drawing Connections."

The exhibition includes Briton Riviere (above), J.L. Gerome, William Bouguereau, Howard Pyle, NC Wyeth, Graydon Parrish, Walton Ford, and a selection of other contemporary painters whose work addresses the theme of enchantment, narrative, and romanticism.


Above: Howard Pyle, "Why Seek Ye the Living in the Place of the Dead?," 1905.

There will also be a panel discussion tomorrow, Friday, Nov. 6th, 1:30-3:00 p.m moderated by former Dahesh Museum director and current editor of Fine Art Connoisseur Peter Trippi. The panel includes Alison Moritsugu, Graydon Parrish, Patricia Watwood, the Director of the Dahesh Museum of Art, David Farmer, and me. The opening reception will be Friday from 5-7.
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Review of the exhibtion in the Hartford Courant.

Preview all the art in the exhibition at the Joseloff Gallery's Flickr Page.
Information about the symposium and the opening reception on Friday.

Soviet War Art

Here’s a interesting gallery of Soviet war art, showing how great is the cost of war, and how universal the eye of the artist.

Link to Soviet War Paintings.
Thanks, k-tron

BoingBoinged

Thanks to Mark Frauenfelder for mentioning Imaginative Realism on BoingBoing. It was a treat to meet the man behind so many fascinating posts. He's a good artist and a good dad, and he has a bemused, rumpled, curious air about him, something like a friendly mad scientist.

I did a sketch in his book of a giant frog at a laptop, with the line "To Post is To Exist."
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More about how to get Imaginative Realism, signed and doodled in by me!

Reviews on John Fleskes' Blog and on Drawn! and on the Spectrum blog.