Dan Santat's opening keynote

Dan Santat is an award-winning New York Times best selling author/illustrator who has published over seventy books for kids. His titles include the 2015 Randolph Caldecott Medal winning book, The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend, the New York Times best-selling titles, Are We There Yet? and After the Fall: How Humpty Dumpty Got Back Up Again. He is also the recipient of the Silver Medal for outstanding illustration from the Society of Illustrators for Oh No! Or How My Science Project Destroyed the World. He has collaborated with many authors including Mo Willems, Dav Pilkey, Mac Barnett, Aaron Reynolds, Michael Buckley, Tom Angleberger, and Gennifer Choldenko. Dan is also the creator of the hit Disney animated series, The Replacements.


Dan starts out joking about how he has 45 minutes to change all our lives - that's the challenge of a keynote. So instead, he tells us a story about that has the room riveted, and laughing... a story that leads right into his real topic...

Do You Really Know Who You Are? (How Understanding Yourself Can Prepare You For Future Success)

Can you tell a story?

"You can't read a book about riding a bicycle, you have to ride a bicycle."

He speaks about how hard it is to be a judge of your own work, how pride can get in the way of listening, and how important it is to know your own strengths -- and your flaws.

He shares stories of his own journey, including attending his first SCBWI conference in 2002 and how his book dummy was picked up by Arthur A. Levine at the portfolio showcase and he was offered a two-book deal. So, no "tragic rejection story" - but then how his first book, The Guild of Geniuses, wasn't the success he'd hoped.

Then he dug deeper into why, and realized "I need to be better at writing for children."

What did he do? "I learned by working with others." He decided to illustrate other people's books for a while, and he learned from each project.

"If you can look at your earlier work and cringe a little - that means you've improved."

And he talks about 5-7 years in, how he realized he was in the mid-list. And the challenges of that. (Like the heartbreak of how quickly his books weren't re-stocked on bookstore shelves.)

Dan covers so much more, including the see-saw of commercial success and critical success, the challenge of expectation and how winning the Caldecott impacted his creative life, and much more!

He's funny, and humble, and tells us:

"It took me years to find out who I was and what I wanted to say."

And he urges us to do the same.



You can find out more about Dan at www.dantat.com

ALL HAIL THE WORLD'S BEST DAN AND CALDECOTT WINNER, DAN SANTAT! Keynote

Dan as Daenerys Targaryen, he is a fan of GoT

Lin says it is a wonderfully satisfying and emotional moment to introduce Dan Santat and I agree, he's the super best.

Dan came here in 2001, this Summer Conference is the first SCBWI conference he ever attended. He worried it was too expensive, but that worry was soon put to rest when his portfolio got noticed by editor Arthur Levine, and because of attending the conference,Dan got his first book contract.

In the many years of attending SCBWI events and conferences, Dan's noticed success stories of authors and illustrators, and some stories of people who are still finding there way. Dan says:

Your time will come, it's not a race to the top of the mountain, everyone finds their time. 

One way to ease your trek on the road to publication is to improve your taste: Do you know if you have good taste? Do you know if what you're writing is good? Dan reads us this Ira Glass quote:

Dan lists some of the stories and genres he likes, and thinks improving your work and taste is due to understanding why you like things, don't censor or bias yourself. Dan likes:

Batman and Akira comics. Movies and TV shows like Moneyball, Game of Thrones, Lost, and Breaking Bad. Podcasts like This American Life and Serial. From all of these he is learning story style and technique, observing different points of view. Immerse yourself in life and culture, take these references, says Dan, and come up with a unique spin on things.

You must do a critical review of your work. Dan reads us some 1 star and 5 star Goodreads reviews for Where the Wild Things Are (which has an overall rating of 4.2, by the way). Compare your opinions with others, there are crazy reviewers and there are good reviewers, the good reviews are useful pieces of critical information that can make your work better.

Study the fundamentals, but don't be rigid.

Learn by imitation, but don't become a clone. In art school, Dan copied Wyeth paintings in class because when you paint the strokes a master painter painted, your hands learn what your head doesn't quite understand yet. But be sure to make your art your own, Dan says, try to make work that is original to yourself once you begin to trust your inner instincts.

The exploration comes by doing: You have to make a lot of lousy paintings before you find one you want to put in your portfolio. Dan was working a full-time job when he decided he wanted to be published, so he started working from 10 pm to 3 am on his illustration work and after weeks and weeks of working like this and honing his craft, he'd made himself an illustration portfolio he could be proud of.

Form follows function. Dan shows us how good stories have things happening for a reason, you see it in everything from Back to the Future to his very own Beekle.

A few of Dan's final thoughts: Do what you love, and the work will find you. Don't think about the money, think about the craft, and working on your craft is the only way to improve. And don't give up!

Thanks, Danders!!!

Dan Santat Interviewed by Don Tate: The #LA15SCBWI Pre-Conference Interview

Check out this great interview between SCBWI Team Blog's Don Tate and Caldecott-Winning Author/Illustrator Dan Santat!

They discuss work habits and tools, diversity, and what getting that Caldecott really means to Dan.

We also find out more about Dan's role in the Illustrator's intensive and how he'll be offering two breakout workshops and giving a keynote!

We hope you can join us for #LA15SCBWI! Detailed conference information and registration here.

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee

Illustrators Intensive -Dan Santat -

Here's Dan eating a baked good and drawing in his sketchbook yesterday morning after signing a load of books at Books of Wonder. If you know Dan, you know he's always nanoseconds away from either completing final art for a project, doing a promotional something or other for one of his published books, or eating a baked good. Here he's doing two out of three (THAT WE CAN SEE.)

This morning, Dan's telling us how to market ourselves early on in our careers and on a limited budget.

#1 Utilize free image sites like Tumblr, or Flickr to get your work out there, including final art spreads that are sneak peeks at your soon-to-be-published picture books. Dan likens it to seeing a Cinnabon sign at the mall. The more you see the sign, the more you think you want to stuff your face with undercooked dough smothered in cream cheese icing... or a picture book. Also, art directors and editors like to look on Tumblr/Flickr, you're not only promoting your books, you're potentially reaching people who want to hire you.


#2 Build a network of peers Dan really enjoyed doing Illustration Friday and thinks commenting on other sites, and commenting on your own site's comments is a courteous and important thing to do every week.

#6 If you build it they will come, but you constantly have to show them the door Dan credits John Tesh as the website genius that makes Dan's website genius. Dan repeats themes on his website (like his clone photo series, he says each photo only takes about 20 minutes and is a good way to practice Photoshop.) Dan also has a special sketchbook that he sells original pages from on his Tumblr site

Dan's the king of viral marketing (which maybe most of us need approval for, but if you are as good as Dan, you can probably go for it!)

#10 You can do as much social networking that you want, but if your work isn't up to par, you aren't going to make it.

#11 is maybe the essence of Dan: Take what you have and do more with it, Dan says he's really not a good and helpful person that gives 150% in every flipping avenue, but he does. He practices what he preaches in dealing with family, friends, students, kids, librarians, booksellers, the media, cats.

#12-#15 Are some really juicy tips about how illustrators can use Facebook to get work!

#NY12SCBWI Pre-Conference Plate Design by Dan Santat and Peter Brown!

SCBWI Team Blogger and Illustrator Jaime Temairik has thought out of the box on this pre-conference interview, way out of the box, and it's genius!  She connects with former pair figure-skaters (author/illustrators) and #NY12SCBWI faculty Peter Brown and Dan Santat to get their balanced career diet info.

It's funny, and inspiring, and very thought-provoking.  After all, what would YOUR balanced career diet be?

It's not too late to register to see Dan and Peter / Peter and Dan yourself at the Lucky 13th Annual SCBWI Winter Conference in New York City, January 27-29, 2012!

We hope to see you there.

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee

All About The New Full Day Illustrator's Marketing Intensive on January 27, 2012

I got to sit down with Lin Oliver, SCBWI's Executive Director, and learn why the new Illustrator's Marketing Intensive coming up on the Friday before the full 2012 SCBWI Winter Conference isn't just going to be great - it's going to be essential.




You can register now for the Illustrator's Marketing Intensive and the whole Lucky 13th Annual SCBWI Winter Conference!

Hope to see you there.

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee

Spot Yourself! Autograph Party Photos Part 2

Author Jill S. Alexander and author/editorial director Diane Muldrow rock summer color

ARA for Western Washington Kim Baker is STILL full of vim and vigor after four days of conferencing

Author/illustrator Richard Jesse Watson, author Ann Whitford Paul and illustrator/author Jesse Joshua Watson are just like family. Wait, Richard and Jesse ARE family.

Our hero, SCBWI dude and debut author Aaron Hartzler, pop and locking in the LOBBY

Author and Utah RA Sydney Salter holds up titles from Gordon Korman and Carolyn Mackler

 Illustrator/Author/Graphic Novel Slayer Dan Santat and author Tammi Sauer are sad the conference is over. Don't worry, you guys, there's the winter conference in New York to look forward to!

That's better.