Raúl Colón's Workshop on The Dream of Visual Storytelling: Tools and Procedures

Raúl Colón was born in New York City, studied art in Puerto Rico, and is the award-winning illustrator of over thirty books for children. Raúl has received a Golden Kite Award, a Pura Belpré Award, and both a gold and silver medal in the Original Art show. Some of his most beloved titles include Draw!, Gabito, Baseball Is, God Bless Our Troops, and Sugar Cane: A Carribbean Rapunzel.

Sharing art from his portfolio and tool box, Raúl talks color and line, technique, undertone, visual feel, layering translucent layers of watercolor and adding color pencil on top. Some highlights:

It's not really about inspiration. "a lot of times you just do the work and it comes out."

He speaks highly of "Making Color Sing" by Jeane Dobie

Shows us a tool he uses to make his scratch lines

And passes around a finished piece that we could see close-up...

The illustrators in the room are rapt!

#LA17SCBWI Illustrator Events

There are many events at #LA17SCBWI designed specifically for illustrators. Come out of your shell, and don't miss these social opportunities:


Illustrators Social
Friday, July 7, 7:30 – 8:30pm (after the member booksale)
JW Marriott Live, Room: Diamond 4

Portfolio Showcase and Reception
Saturday, July 8, 5:00 – 7:00pm (right before the Gala)
JW Marriott Live, Room: Plaza I-III

Golden Kite Luncheon & Awards Presentation
Sunday, July 9, 12:00 - 2:30pm
Room: Platinum Ballroom

Illustrators' Intensive -- Conference ADD ON
Monday, July 10, 8:00am - 5:00pm
Schedule details: https://www.scbwi.org/event-46th-annual-summer-conference-in-los-angeles-la17/illustrator-intensive/


And, here's a key of the workshops specifically designed for illustrators at #LA17SCBWI:

Friday, July 7, 2017

9:00 - 9:45am

Keynote: Vanessa Brantley Newton
Room: Platinum Ballroom

11:30am - 12:30pm

Leuyen Pham: One Artist, Different Styles
Room: Platinum Ballroom

Raúl Colón: The Dream of Visual Storytelling: Tools and Procedures
Room: Diamond 6


4:15pm - 5:15pm

Sean Qualls: Texture Technique Demonstration
Room: Diamond 8

Vanessa Brantley Newton: Creating Joyful Characters
Room: Platinum Ballroom


Saturday, July 8, 2017

11:30am - 12:30pm

Lucy Ruth Cummins: Stealing Best Practices of Working Illustrators (That I Steal, Too)
Room: Platinum Ballroom

Rubin Pfeffer: Smart Dummies: From Picture Book Concept to Manuscrupt to Dummy
Room: Diamond 3

3:15 - 4:15 PM

Javaka Steptoe: Anatomy of a Caldecott-Winning Book
Room: Diamond 6

Alexandra Penfold: Picture Book Writing Skills for Illustrators
Room: Diamond 4


Sunday, July 9, 2017

9:00 - 10:15am

Keynote: Picture Book Panel
Room: Platinum Ballroom

11:00am - 12:00pm

Vanessa Brantley Newton: Digital Art, Best Practices
Room: Diamond 5

Lucy Ruth Cummins: Self Promotion: Selling Yourself to Art Directors Easily and Cheaply
Room: Diamond 4

2:45 - 3:45pm

Raúl Colón: How To Make a Living as a Professional Illustrator
Room: Diamond 10

Stacy Innerst: School Visits as an Illustrator
Room: Diamond 1

Leuyen Pham: Creating Middle Grade Art
Room: Diamond 5


There's plenty for illustrators to learn at other workshops as well, but these are illustrator-focused events. Don't forget, you can only attend one session per time block, so choose carefully, take notes, and have fun! For the full conference schedule, visit: https://www.scbwi.org/event-46th-annual-summer-conference-in-los-angeles-la17/schedule/


If you're reading from home, don't forget to participate in the monthly Draw This! challenge. This month, the theme is "Celebrate" with submissions due July 20th.

Raúl Colón: The Art Of The Picture Book Panel

Raúl Colón

Inspired by Kate's incredible keynote on The Spectacular Power of Failure, Arthur's first question for the panel is about failure. What mistakes have the illustrators made? And it yielded a ton of great advice and insights!

Raúl Colón shared how:

Sometimes he's asked to do the cover first, but he prefers to wait until the end of the process of illustrating the book before doing the cover, because "you learn as you're going, and you get better at it."

Biggest mistake he ever made?

Raúl tells the story of drawing a poster for broadway - he had a problem with one of the hands, and after it was approved and printed and out there in the world, he got a call that there was a problem - the hand he'd had trouble with had six fingers! Raúl laughed at it now, saying it was like the stamp with the upside-down planes. A collector's item! When he was moving the hand around, he forgot to erase one finger.

He says 'you'll make mistakes, but because you sketch, you sketch, you do color studies sometimes, you've done enough work, do at least one piece, you'll figure out how colors work in combination, then you'll be able to do the project start to finish. You'll get a lot of experience and know what you have to do - and that helps.'

About trends they are seeing, Raúl speaks about marketing and how it's impacting the stories submitted to him to consider. He shares he's done a lot of biographies, and he's looking to get into more open and fun, cartoony-style work.

Raúl also talks about being professional, choosing projects that you'll be interested in from beginning to end, adding a visual story to the textual story, his take in the great authors-including-illustration-notes-in-their-picture-book-manuscripts debate, how he visually develops characters, and more...

It's a great panel.

You can see inside some of the picture books Raúl has illustrated here. A few titles:

You can see more of Raúl's artwork here.

Raúl's bio:

New York City has been Raul's loyal patron, from illustrated New Yorker covers to an MTA mural at the 191st. St. subway station to work in the New York Times.
Along with all this 'grown up' work, Raul Colón is a most prolific and popular children's book illustrator, happy that his time is always committed to publishers for years hence. In recent years he is pleased that his work has been recognized with The David Usher Greenwich Workshop Award from The Society of Illustrators as well as SI Gold and Silver Medals; honors from Communication Arts and 3x3; two Pura Belpre Awards; twice included in the NY Public Library's 100 titles for Reading and Sharing; and twice recipient of The Tomas Rivera Mexican American Children's Award. Raul lives north of New York City with his beautiful wife, Edith, who can often be spotted as the model for his characters.

The Art of the Picture Book Panel begins!

Lin introduces the picture book panel, from Left to Right, Moderator Arthur A. Levin, Shadra Strickland, Oliver Jeffers, Marla Frazee, Raúl Colón and Peter Brown.