David Diaz Shared the Podium with Rubin Pfeffer about the future of publishing

Caldecott-Winning illustrator David Diaz spoke about perfect things that don't change over time. Like the chair. And a fork.

And how in music there have been 10 major format changes in 100 years.

He thinks that in books, we're right around where 8 tracks were.

But he doesn't see problems with this - he sees opportunities. In a world where publishing a picture book costs a publisher $100,000.- they're looking for something to sell enough copies to cover that risk. In a digital world where publishing a digital picture book costs five or ten thousand dollars - that's a much lower risk for the publisher.

"Opportunities will grow exponentially for us!"

And when a book comes out digitally, it already IS international, and the potential audience is enormous.

He cited how TV has changed where we went from 5 stations to hundreds in a few decades - and how each station is now targeted to a niche market.

We may not be sure exactly what the future will look like, but David says we need to

"hold on. Publishing will be HUGE. Bigger than it has ever been before!"

Priscilla Burris & David Diaz- Illustrator tips: Tools and Techniqes

To begin with, Priscilla Burris gave a shout out to Kelly Light's website, ripplesketches.blogspot.com. Artists donate pieces to the site, and people can buy the art and all of the proceeds go funding for cleaning up the Gulf Coast. Dan Santat donated a piece that will be up for sale tonight, so check it out!

Priscilla mentioned that it's important for us illustrators to attend sessions for writers, too, while we're here at the conference. When she asked the group how many of us consider ourselves writer/illustrators, most of the group raised their hands.

Priscilla gave a bit of her background, which included going to fashion design school, and mentioned that one of her passions is drawing facial expressions. She handed out worksheets which prompted the group to practice drawing facial expressions on faces in different angles, different ages, and even characters showing strong expressions, shown only from the back.

David Diaz talked about his art background, and he's tried many different mediums over the years--everything from pastel, to digital, and at this point he does a lot of painting, typically on masonite.

David did a great demo to show us his current process, which went from a masonite panel with a house paint background, to a face made with charcoal, sprayed with fixative, painted with acrylic paint, covered in clear gesso, dried with a hair dryer, lined with rapidograph ink and a brush, and then back to some drawing with charcoal.

Two very different artists with great tips for the group!

EVE BUNTING Highlights from "Creating an Extraordinary Picture Book" panel

EVE BUNTING: "Creating An Extraordinary Picture Book" with Eve Bunting, Melinda Long, Kadir Nelxon, Arthur Levine

Good morning! Welcome to Day 2 of the conference!

Arthur Levine of Scholastic is moderating an insightful panel with picture book authors Eve Bunting, Melinda Long and author/illustrator Kadir Nelson about what makes an "extraordinary" picture book.

To remind myself, I broke down the word "extraordinary" to these words: EXTRA ... ORDINARY. So to me, an "extraordinary" picture book goes BEYOND the "ordinary" and has something "extra" to it that makes it not only beyond ordinary but has that "extra" factor that makes it a future classic... and timeless.

The Extraordinary Eve Bunting spoke from her heart when asked what makes a picture book "extraordinary." She said "the heart" is what makes a picture book extraordinary. "I always ask myself when I finish writing a book - is it worth saying?" she told the audience. She stressed that if there is true "emotion" in your writing, that's what elevates your book beyond the ordinary.

When asked by Levine, "What makes YOUR book 'SMOKY NIGHT' (illustrated by David Diaz) extraordinary?", Eve gave this eloquent and moving answer:

"SMOKY NIGHT, illustrated by David Diaz, is 'extraordinary' because it won the Caldecott. The art was what won the Caldecott, but I also think the story was strong. It came from my emotions. I was in Los Angeles when the riots happened (in 1992). From our house, we could smell the smoke. I immediately thought of a child seeing the looting and hatred going on in Los Angeles, and if something jolts me in a way that it makes me ashamed or sorry or sad or happy, that's a book I want to do. So when I personally smelled that smoke and heard the noise and read about what was happening, I felt so much sadness and shame that people, as one famous person said, 'can't get along.' People should be able to get along no matter what their color or ethnicity. Unfortunately we will have more nights like the smoky night I was describing, so I believe this book was worth saying."

She added: "I need to have that jolt o emotion, that gets me going. I can't put it out of my mind, I think about it and it's a catharsis for me to put it down."

She also said that winning awards is not always the criteria for making an extraordinary book. "'Terrible Things' was published in 1980 but it's still published and still getting letters from kids who read it. I feel it's not always necessary that books win awards to be closest to your heart."

The panelists continued to discuss the craft of writing and illustrating their books and their own process to creating books. Keep reading for more blogs from our SCBWI TEAM BLOG to find out what the others had to say!

When asked if the authors had a special place to write, one author talked about longing for a "clean, well lighted space." Eve Bunting said: "I have a clean, well-lighted space now, but when I first started writing, I had an attic bedroom that no one used. It was dusty and dirty but it had a door and it was away from the children. I told them unless it was a fire or if they were hemorrhaging to leave me alone." (The audience laughed.) "I had a sign from a hotel that said 'Privacy Please' that I hung on the doorknob. But it didn't work. The kids would come to the bottom of the stairs, waving a sneaker and crying, 'I lost a shoe!' But now that they've flown the coop, now I have a clean, well-lighted space that's now my own."

Another fantastic panel at the SCBWI National Conference, and this blog was to provide with you with a taste of some of the jewels of wisdom offered by Eve Bunting. Again, I highly recommend joining SCBWI and attending the conference (full-time or part-time) because what we are blogging about only covers the tip of the iceberg. Imagine what else you will discover when you come to our next conference!

Posted by Paula Yoo