Tuesday, October 22, 2024

Registration for the In-Person SCBWI Winter 2025 Conference is Now Open!

#SCBWIwinter25 will take place Friday Jan 31 - Sunday Feb 2, 2025, and will have industry panels, one-on-one manuscript and portfolio critiques, the popular Portfolio Showcase for illustrators, deep-dive creative labs taught by established authors, illustrators, editors and art directors, and two brand new programs that give participants unprecedented access to the children’s publishing industry: a Behind-the-Scenes Look at Delacorte Press, and an Evening at the Society of Illustrator’s Original Art Show!

Oh! Did I mention keynotes from Meg Medina, Sophie Blackall, and Peter Brown?

You can check out the full schedule (and register) here.

Illustrate, Translate, and Write On,
Lee

Saturday, August 3, 2024

Thank You for Joining Us for The SCBWI Summer 2024 Virtual Conference

Your Summer 2024 SCBWI Team Blog, clockwise from top left: Jaime Temairik, Don Tate, Jolie Stekly, Lee Wind, Justin Campbell, and Debbie Ridpath Ohi

On behalf of (alphabetical by first name order) Debbie Ridpath Ohi, Don Tate, Jaime Temairik, Jolie Stekly, Justin Campbell, and myself (Lee Wind),

Thank You!

Thank you for being part of this year's SCBWI Summer Conference—and yes, you are part of it even if you've just been checking out the posts here on the Official SCBWI Conference Blog!

We hope it's been informative and inspirational, and that you're fired up creatively to dive into your works in progress!

Save the date: The 2025 SCBWI In-Person Winter Conference will take place January 31-February 2, 2025. This Conference is an opportunity to meet IN PERSON with industry professionals and fellow children’s book creators! Traditionally held in New York City, this event features deep-dive creative labs, keynote addresses from kidlit icons, industry panels, one-on-one manuscript and portfolio consultations, and an in-person Portfolio Showcase. Registration will open in the fall of 2025. Hope to see you there!

Illustrate, Translate, and Write On,
Lee

Portfolio Showcase Awards & Wrap-Up

Congrats to the winners of the 2024 SCBWI Summer Conference Portfolio Showcase! This year, the Showcase featured 154 portfolios from illustrators around the globe.

Thanks to SCBWI Manager Of Design and Illustration TeMika Grooms for the following info.

JUDGES:

Sarah Dillard, Painted Words

Adriana Domínguez, Aevitas Creative

Gigi Lau, Tundra Books, Penguin Random House Canada

A few general comments from what the Judges considered:

• Unique voice and style.

• Range of diverse characters; body type and sizes

• Ability to find a place for the art in children's book publishing

• Distinct style

• An interest in seeing work that is less digital in feel

• Appropriate for kids publishing.

• Fresh styles.

THE WINNERS:

GOLD AWARD:

The Gold Award winner will receive:
- Two phone/virtual meetings with art directors/agents who will provide guidance and feedback on their portfolio
- Free admission to the next in-person New York Conference (room and airfare not included)
- A one year renewal of their SCBWI membership
- Two images from their portfolio will be showcased in the SCBWI booth at the 2025 Bologna Children’s Book Fair

Liz Brizzi - elisabethbrizzi.com
SCBWI Member page
Instagram

SILVER AWARD:

The Silver Award winner will receive:
- Two phone/virtual meetings with art directors/agents who will provide guidance and feedback on their portfolio
- A one year renewal of their SCBWI membership
- One image from your portfolio will be showcased in the SCBWI booth at the 2025 Bologna Children’s Book Fair

Cleonique Hilsaca - cleonique.com
SCBWI Member Page
Instagram

BRONZE AWARD:

The Bronze Award winners (2) will receive:
- One phone/virtual meeting with an art director or agent who will provide guidance and feedback on your portfolio
- One image from the winner’s portfolio will be showcased in the SCBWI booth at the 2025 Bologna Children’s Book Fair

Cara Ziruo Wang - carawang.com

Ginger Ngo - gingerngo.com
SCBWI Member Page

Congrats to all winners! Check out this post for information about winners of the Stephen Mooser Member Of The Year Award, General Scholarship Winners, BIPOC Scholarship Winners, and Student Illustrator Scholarship (SIS) Winners.

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Closing Remarks From Sarah Baker:

Sarah congratulated not only the winners in the Showcase, but everyone who entered. She encouraged us all to spread the word about the Portfolio Showcase, which is open to the public.

She gave heartfelt thanks to the faculty, Kim Turrisi, Laurie Miller, TeMika Grooms, and the whole SCBWI Staff ("we're a small but mighty team"), regional team members, all the RTs around the world, and attendees.

Replays of all the sessions will be up on the website in 5-7 days after editing. While replays are only accessible to those who registered, the Unbanning session replay will be open to the public ("so feel free to share!").

Sarah also reminded everyone to save the date for the 2025 Winter Conference in NYC: Jan. 31-Feb.2nd, 2025! Registration opens in October.

Awards: Stephen Mooser Member of The Year Award, Scholarship Winners

Stephen Mooser Member Of The Year Award

Avery Udagawa

Avery gave an inspiring acceptance speech in which she emphasized the importance of naming translators on/in books. Do read Avery's guest post on the ALSC Blog. An excerpt: "Philip Nel has argued that obscuring the race of books’ characters by whitewashing covers reflects, and perpetuates, white supremacy. Similarly, I would submit that omitting the author’s language and/or translator’s name—usually to hide that a book is a translation—amounts to English-washing that perpetuates English supremacy."

General Scholarship Winners

Upasna Kakroo

Miral Khalil

BIPOC Scholarship Winners

Isabella Chen

Johari Mitchell

Li Wang

Student Illustrator Scholarship (SIS) Winners

Cara Ziruo Wang

Elle Liu

Congrats to all winners!

Closing Keynote: Kate DiCamillo

All the hearts for Kate and Sarah!

Kate DiCamillo needs no introduction with this crowd! Kate's work is known for its warmth and wit and the profound themes of hope and resilience that resonate with readers of all ages. Beyond her remarkable writing Kate has served as a National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, inspiring countless young readers and writers along the way.

Her closing keynote was based off of her beautiful Children's MFA Hamline commencement speech from a few years ago which you might be able to find online and which made everybody cry, but be sure to check out the archived video in a few days from SCBWI because Kate set aside extra time at the end of her session to take a few questions that made us all cry again. Many of the questions that didn't get answered live were actually covered in an earlier SCBWI podcast you can check out here.

Kate closed the conference with: Let's do work that matters and let's not give up!

Breakout Session: School’s In: Writing for the Educational Market with Nikki Shannon Smith

Nikki Shannon Smith

Nikki Shannon Smith is an educator, presenter, and the award-winning author of over 20 children’s books. She has five titles in Capstone’s middle grade series, Girls Survive, and LENA AND THE BURNING OF GREENWOOD: A TULSA RACE MASSACRE SURVIVAL STORY won the 2023 Oklahoma Book Award. Her middle grade novel, STRANDED, is forthcoming from Scholastic in September.

Nikki believes writing for the educational market is a great way to learn, supplement your income, get books into young hands, build an audience, and… have fun doing what you love. But how does it all work? Her session discussed types of educational publishing, the pros and cons compared to trade, how to break into educational, as well as a great list of resources.

Nikki shares some of the challenges with breaking into the educational market, it's a lot like traditional trade publishing, but there are more steps and rules for educational as well as a fundamental difference in initial approach.

There are additional directions for the educational market: You're writing for a publishing company/ editor, but they are not beholden to just themselves. They're trying to sell to schools and libraries and a publisher has to enforce curriculum and style guidelines or write to state standards to make sure those books are applicable and appropriate for instruction.

The biggest difference to trade publishing is that educational publishers might be looking for you! They have databases of authors and illustrators, content creators and subject matter experts who are needed all the time. Nikki says breaking in through word of mouth and referrals can happen in the educational market, let people know what you know and help refer others when you can.

Nikki shares a list of pros and cons between educational and trade publishing as well comparisons of some of the bigger educational publishers and ways attendees can find additional resources on the educational publishing market.

Educational publishing is more than textbooks—it might be poetry books that incorporate SEL, graphic novels that might be low-reading level but high-interest, picturebooks that STEM, and more—and those could even be projects you ghost write or are based off of licensed IP.

Illustrated Notes from the SCBWI Summer Conference

Thanks to all the creators who shared their Illustrated Notes on Bluesky via the hashtag #scbwiNotes! Here's just a small selection...

From Amme Yabiku:

From Babi Wrobel:

From Stan Yan:

From Julia Karlinsky:

From Jessica Cooper:

From Joshua Chennault:

From Nicole Walker:

From Stan Yan:

From Cait Bonnar:

From Stan Yan:

From Nicole Walker:

2024 Portfolio Showcase: Some of my favs

Okay, I could spend all day hanging out with artwork—studying standout styles, admiring unique characterization, and relishing vibrant colors. But I don't have all day; I'm busy blogging the conference. I did spend some time perusing the 2024 portfolio showcase, and here are a few of my favorite portfolios. This isn't a contest here; it's just my personal opinion. I predict these artists and many others have bright futures in publishing. In no particular order:

Artwork by Linh My Nguyen

Terry Diefenbach

Cleonique Hilsaca

Farimah Khavarinezhad

Arlo Li

Sarah Wheeler

Ginger Ngo

Brandi Kim

Amme Yabiku

Kat Aymeloglu

Shannon Henley

Linh My Nguyen

Peishan Yu

Brizida Magro

Portfolio Showcase

PORTFOLIO SHOWCASE

Wow Wow Wow!

If you have not browsed the Portfolio Showcase, don't walk, RUN because WHAT AN INCREDIBLE group of artists! I was immediately floored by the level of skills, storytelling, and passion of the entrees!

From all over the world, artists showcased some of their best works, and no matter if you're an artist or not, you'll be inspired.

I thought I would share just a few of the many beautiful entries!

www.shannonhenleyillustrations.com/

Don't forget to check out all of the other submissions! You won't be disappointed! And for you illustrators out there, don't forget to upload your own pieces onto your SCBWI profiles!

Breakout 4: A Graphic Novel Workshop for Illustrators with Sharee Miller

Wow, Sharee Miller presented a super informational session on graphic novels! Of course, the presentation was very visual, as you might expect from a talented graphic novelist. I'll include just a few points here.

Sharee started her career in picture books; however, she soon got an idea for a graphic novel. CURLFRIENDS was soon born. It's a character-driven series about a group of Black girlfriends in middle school. There will be others in the series as other characters take on their own stories.

Where to begin?

Read. Read. Read. You'll need to understand the genre. There is no cookie-cutter way to create stories. See how others approach the genre. What kind of stories appeal to you? Character-driven, moment-in-time, historical?

Practice!

Create your own short comics. Build a language and shorthand for yourself.

Practice creating sequential art to show every stage—the action and reaction.

Share on social media to get feedback to be sure people are reading your comic how you want them to. Are they understanding you?

Look up scripts. Study them.

You can find scripts on the internet. Study the components then let your imagination run.

Storyboarding

Start sketching! Take your time, giving yourself time to think through the characters, their worlds, and their stories.

How do we start writing?

Think about scenes and plot points

Create an outline

Fill in the dialog once you land on the major plot points.

Think about scenes and plot points. What do you want in there?

Multiple plot lines?

You may want to include multiple plot points. You can use Post-its to map things out visually so that you can see the plots and where lines intersect. This is easier to manage than the longer form of writing.

Writing Resources

See these books:
Save the Cat

Heroes Journey

These books will get you to thinking about your longer story in smaller chunks.

They'l also help you to see the beats in your story, the rising and falling action. Maybe you'll want to tell a slice of life ora a day-in-the-life story.

Things to note in your script

Setting mood

Panels

Dialog/type

Direct dialog; who is talking?

Choose your tools

You can work digitally or traditionally. There's no one way to make a comic, and you don't have to make your book digitally.

Be sure to back things up!

Here are some popular programs to use:

Sample pages

Create enough to introduce the first moment of drama, enough to meet the character.

Include at least one page of what the final art would look like.

What can you expect to get paid?

$60k to $100k

When negotiating the contract, try to break up the payments so that you get income on signing, pencils, and various stages of creating the final art. You'll need an income stream because you'll be working for a while.

Timeline

At least a year or more. The timeline can be very long.

Don't crowd the page

Breakout Session: Illustrating Stories Digitally with Juanita Londoño

Illustrating Stories Digitally: From Concept to Final Artwork

with Juanita Londoño

About this Breakout Session:

In this workshop, participants will learn how to develop a final illustration using Procreate and how to use value, color, and composition.

During this session, Juanita worked on an original illustration for the webinar, since she doesn't usually record her process.

CONCEPT | CONTENT | COMPOSITION

"They occur simultaneously, but its a good idea to understand them separately"

"What the illustration is about"

Writing down what you like is a great way to keep track of your interests and subjects to draw. As you pare it down, start to brief on your own, or if for a commission, write what the concept is, defining ideas, limitations, and guidelines.

"What will be represented in the illustration"

This is the stage where you define what you want to have in your piece.

For this particular illustration, Juanita wanted to do something with fantasy and magic. Since she loves magical realism, she wanted to incorporate those elements into her piece.

"What if dragons existed amongst us, sort of like pigeons?"

With these ideas from the brainstorming, Juanita then created a mood board.

Her prefers to use Pinterest, where you can create folders to group together images for a mood board.

From there, she begins to draw her studies. Here she starts building her visual library, strengthening her memory, and honing her skills around any particular subject matter. This will help you understand what you're drawing so you can translate it into your illustration.

Here she did some studies of dragons that will be in the park.

Here she made studies of children, which would become the focal subjects along with the dragons.

"How the content will be arranged to tell the concept"

This is where you begin to explore composition to enhance the feeling of the sketch. Here you decide what composition you want the story to tell.

Composition Structures: Shape, Repetition, Balance/Hierarchy, Dimension, Focus, Contrast

Below are some examples:

Once you choose a composition, it's best to test it out with your concept. Here you want to work small. Thumbnail drawings allow you to stay loose and fast while you discern if the composition is compelling or tells the story you desire.

Then Juanita explored Value & Color

"The lightness or darkness of a color"

Juanita broke the value scale into 9 parts, going from the whitest white to the blackest black.

All hues fall within a range (1-3, 4-6, or 7-9) and different values can help your main point of interest stand out.

"Conveys mood, enhances storytelling, evokes emotions and guide the viewer's eye"

Juanita broke the color wheel down into three sections, Hue, Shades, and Tint, defining what PRIMARY, SECONDARY,and TERTIARY colors are and how they relate to one another. ,

After experimenting with many different values and hues, she whittled it down to a select few.

Once she decided on the best color palette, she showed us her painting process.

Later, Juanita walked us through a few Procreate features, the brushes she uses, and even how you can edit pre-existing brushes to get the results you want.

IN SUMMARY here are the steps we took to a complete illustration:

For those illustrators who LOVE the process, this is the webinar for you! Super informative and so helpful to see step-by-step decision-making. A must--by-watch for all of those starting out in Procreate but also, those who want to sharpen their skills!

JUANITA LONDONO GAVIRIA
Author, Illustrator

About
Hey there! I'm Juanita, a children's book illustrator from Colombia. I absolutely LOVE infusing my characters and environments with magic through vibrant colors, textured details, and deep emotions. My passion for storytelling and whimsy shines through in every piece I create. Growing up, I cherished bedtime stories and delighted in recreating the images from my favorite books with a pencil. Today, those beloved childhood stories continue to inspire my work. When I'm not illustrating or writing, you might find me dancing, singing, exploring astrology, or napping under the sun. ✨Let’s work together and create something magical!✨ juanitalondono.com