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Today, I mailed out more than 100 flyers (front, back) to Austin area librarians, advertising my school/library program. Beyond my website, this is the first time I’ve marketed directly to librarians.
I began by downloading promotional materials of other authors and illustrators. Once I had a taste of the competition, I wrote, designed, and then had the flyers printed and folded at Kinkos.
An author friend of mine gave me a list he’d already compiled of local librarians. Only thing I had to do was to confirm his list with the AISD website, just in case some librarians had moved. I also sent flyers to private school, some of my best and most reliable customers.
The most exciting thing about this flyer was making a last minute revision. Normally, I’m not thrilled about stopping the presses to make a change. But in this case, my newest book, Ron’s Big Mission, has been selected by the Junior Library Guild. I think that’s good enough news to throw away a few flyers to make that addition.
This year, I adjusted my pricing down a bit. I’m charging $600 for a full day (three presentations). Four hundred for a half day (two presentations). And all that is negotiable. Some of my colleagues have said I should charge more, that the going rate for an author/illustrator visit is at least $1,000.00, and that’s low. But I’ve been doing school visits for about 10 years now, and at that price, I’d have not visited many school, if any at all — com’mon.
Typically, I visit about 6 to 7 schools per year, and I also speak at maybe one or two conferences. But with a slowdown in educational work, and two trade books that won’t provide any income for well over a year, I could use a boost from school visits.
Wish me luck!
Be sure to check out an interview with illustrator Duane Smith, conducted by Don Tate, both Tugeau 2 artists. The interview can be found at The Brown Bookshelf, and is about Duane’s new book, Seven Miles to Freedom: The Robert Smalls Story.
Over the past year, I’ve mistakenly referred to Corrine Naden’s and my book, Ron’s Big Mission, as Ron’s Mission, Little Ron’s Big Mission, and Little Ron on a Big Mission. It’s not entirely my fault because the title did change several times.
But to make matters worse, until recently, I’d also posted that the book would publish with Dial. And to make matters worse than that, I addressed emails to my editor as Ron. His name is Steve. He was patient with me.
I’ve got it straight now. The book that I illustrated is called Ron’s Big Mission. It’s edited by Steve. And it will publish with Dutton later this year . . . um, I think. Possibly early next.
Anyway, I received 1st color proofs and they look great! Dutton did a fantastic job. I’d used a rougher than normal watercolor paper, so I was worried about the reproduction. My 140-pound watercolor paper turned out to be 300-pound extra rough, but I didn’t realize it until half way through the project. I continued to paint, and I just hoped everything would turn out OK.
I have no idea what kind of scanning process Dutton used, but the rough paper texture is gone. I couldn’t be happier.
I’m about to admit something very embarrassing here. Recently, I’ve been feeling nostalgic. Maybe because I’m in my mid-40s, and I haven’t been home in awhile, but I’ve been thinking a lot about my childhood. So I downloaded a bunch of music last night, stuff that was popular when I was a kid.
I grew up in the 70s and 80, and mostly listened to funk, soul and R&B music. But in Des Moines, during that time period, that kind of music wasn’t played on the radio stations. We had a record player at home (and an 8-track and later a cassette player), but for the most part, we were stuck with mainstream popular music, music that I really didn’t care for. Or so I thought. Here’s what I downloaded last night, and what I listened to all day, misty-eyed and homesick:
Barry Manilow
Pains me to admit, but I loved this music. Reminds me of when I used to go camping with my grandparents in their RV trailer. Those were the days. I miss my grandma.
The Bee Gees
This music brings back the days when I used to go to the Metro Disco, a teenage disco club. Must have been about 7th grade, such an awkward time. Even though I didn’t like to dance, I loved going to The Metro. Mostly to hang out on the sidelines with my friends and make fun of the serious disco dancers, John Travolta wannabe types.
Barry and Andy Gibb
Again, this music reminds me of the times I spent with my grandparents. My mom raised my brothers and I, but she was my grandma’s baby girl. So, we spent a lot of time with my grandparents.
Elton John
Painful music, painful time. Takes me back to my little league baseball days. I hated little league baseball. It was one of those things that, as a boy, I was supposed to do, that I didn’t want to do, but I did it because . . . well, I don’t know if there was any getting out of it. Many a day, my three brothers and I, and my mom, crammed into her old, beat up, VW bug and headed to the ballpark. Elton John on the radio.
Barbra Streisand
This music takes me back to the time when my parents split up. My mom didn’t work, she stayed at home and took care of us kids and our home. So when she and my dad split up, she had to learn a skill and get a job. She went to school and learned basic clerical work — short-hand, filing, how to take dictation. I was so proud of her.
I even downloaded some Celine Dion, which has noting to do with my childhood, but, shhh, I’ve already given you enough fodder to last a lifetime of jokes.
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Edit to original post: The wife just caught me listening to my newly downloaded music, Barry Manilow’s Mandy. She had a good laugh. Apparently when she was growing up, her family actually had records for their record player, so they didn’t have to listen to the radio. She won’t admit to listening to Barry Manilow, but I’m sure she did. Curious she knows all the lyrics.
It’s taken me awhile to get used to this technique — transparent color layers over greyscale images — but it’s growing on me. These paintings have depth, more so than any of my previous works. They possess a 3-dimensional, jewel-like quality. It’s like I could reach right into this painting, grab a plate off the table, and sit it down on the counter behind Ron. This happened by accident. Believe me, I didn’t plan it that way.
On the downside, finishing this book is going to take longer than what I’d anticipated — at least another month, which will take me into mid May. Having spent so much time on the underpaintings, establishing values and form, I figured it would take no more than one day to color each image. That. Nada. Gonna. Happen.
If I had it to do over, I’d use acrylic paint instead of oil. I love oil painting. No other medium can touch it’s luminous quality. But acrylics dry almost immediately, where oil paint takes it’s time. Even though I’m using alkyds — fast drying oil paint — I still have to wait at least a day for the paint to dry before I can paint over it again. Grrr.
OK, gotta go.
P.S. About the bald head. It’s an accident. I cut my own hair, and last week in a hurry, I forgot to clip on the little plastic accessory that prevents the clippers from going too low. Took a bite out my ‘fro the size of an apple. So, I had to cut it all off.
On the upside, the wife says it’s very sexy attractive, so I’ve decided to keep it.
Today I begin the second phase of illustrating Ron, a picture book for Dutton. In the first phase, I worked completely monochromatic, using Payne’s Gray watercolor. The second phase will involve overlaying transparent oil colors, and then topping off with opaque highlights.
Actually, I began the second phase last week, but realized I wasn’t ready. My images were too heavy on the middle tones, with not enough contrast. So I sealed the watercolor base and worked out the contrast issues with Titanium White and Mars Black acrylic paint.
I spent the weekend adding subtle details, correcting some inconsistencies, and then, with a clothes iron, I ironed the paintings flat. Even with the heavier paper, my paintings were warped. I had planned to take a few more days to refine the underpaintings, honestly, I’d only be procrastinating. As I said before, this is a new technique for me, so I’m very nervous. At this point, there’s no turning back. There’s not enough time to start over and return to my more familiar technique, where I create a very loose Burnt Sienna underpainting (to use as a guide only), and then paint over it with opaque acrylics.
Today I take the plunge. I’ll try to post some in-progress shots as I work. I’ll be buried for the next month, or so. I’ll try to post some in-progress shots later.
Side note: The book, on my table, peeking in from the left, it’s Probuditi by Chris Van Allsburg. Inspiration. Chris is a master at creating monochromatic images.
Recently, my wife and I were watching CNN. They were discussing the so-called recession. I turned to my wife and asked, “What recession? Other than the high price of gas, I haven’t noticed any downturn in our family economy.”
My wife cut her eyes at me and said, “You haven’t noticed a downturn because I handle the family finances. We are in a recession.”
I still wasn’t convinced. Long as I got a roof over my head, food on the table, and shoes on my feet, I don’t complain. But today I went to the art supply store to restock my supply of oil paint. Now I’m complaining!
A normal tube of oil paint costs in the neighborhood $8.99, depending upon the color and brand. And I buy the cheap stuff. The prices are now about $3.00 more. The old prices were scratched out and the new, more expensive, prices were scribbled in with a Sharpie. A sales associate saw the expression on my face and asked if I needed any help. I said, “Yes, you could help me to mark these prices back to where they should be. Why are they so expensive?”
“The cost of oil is $107.00 per barrel,” he said. “More expensive oil, more expensive oil paint.”
Ouch! I never considered that. I guess we are in a recession.
