Rockstar Elizabeth Parisi, Executive Art Director for Scholastic trade hard covers
Some of the attendees
Kelly Dupen and Cammen Lowstuter
Frank Hansen (who was in the Portfolio Show last night and coincidentally, was one of my faves I tweeted about yesterday) and Kate Barsotti
Elizabeth's slide show mapped out the different stages of several picture books from manuscript to thumbnail to sketch dummy to printed book. BUT! Not all illustrators go through every stage:
Bell Hooks and Chris Raschka's HAPPY TO BE NAPPY, for example, went from a striking color thumbnail dummy straight to finished art. The editor of that book keeps Raschka's color thumbnail up in his office like a piece of framed art -- it is such a good example already of the energetic illustration and lovely page design that Raschka is known for. Elizabeth says though thumbnails, the dummy's color palette, rhythm, and sensibility are all there and all of this energy carries through to the final art.
Let whatever you submit, whether dummy or art sample, be as finished as it needs to be to reflect all of the things you believe your dream, finished book would have so you may catch the eye of that art director or editor.
