Vote for two Austin SCBWI illustrators in the International Third Annual ABCBookCompetition

Okay, guys, Austin SCBWI illustrators Christy Stallop and I are contenders in the ABC Book competition and so you need to go on-line and vote for us. Everybody can go on line and cast one vote per day through the end of the month -- and the winning author-illustrator team gets their book published.

The authors will already be notorious around the world by the time the winning book is announced because of all this Internet campaigning that's been going on all month. Famous like "Lynne and Tessa" of the Google International Music Video Idol (lip synching) competition. (Hey, whatever happened to them, anyway? They were good.)

As for the illustrators, Austin-SCBWI is already represented in this contest like no other SCBWI chapter anywhere in the galaxy. What a showing -- but now we need your votes.

So here's what you do, go to

http://www.abcbookcompetition.org/third_comp/LilTexVisitsTheAlamo.htm

and read the story by my two authors Karen Perry and Casey Wise of Houston, Lil Tex

Visits the Alamo. Click above the story where it says "See Sample Art" if you want to see my picture, then go back to the story page, and below the story, click on the colorful big word VOTE, and follow the next couple of prompts.

Could it be any simpler?

The next day go to

http://www.abcbookcompetition.org/third%5Fcomp/JunkfoodJack.htm

and read the story by Christy's author, Heidi McIntyre, Junk Food Jack, see Christy's illustration, and click on VOTE.

Each day thereafter, rinse and repeat until September 30.

The winners will receive a world cruise and a $10,000 website and they
don't even have to share the website or go on the cruise together --- wait, no, nevermind that's that other contest....

They (we) get their book published and get hundreds of free copies of their book. Not too shabby.

Here are those links again:

http://www.abcbookcompetition.org/third_comp/LilTexVisitsTheAlamo.htm
on "A" days and

http://www.abcbookcompetition.org/third%5Fcomp/JunkfoodJack.htm
on "B" days


Let's put Austin SCBWI on the Internet map!

Who were all those people huddled around their laptops at Central Market Cafe Sunday morning?

Thank you, Martin for a super run through on Photoshop, starting with your superb inked sketch.
Photoshop just does so much. It's more painterly than painting! There is so much to learn. But you broke the ice -- especially for those of us who have not used it for our artwork before. I think everyone, even the more experienced Photoshop users, learned something.

Hey, I think Theresa took the best notes of anyone . I didn't know she was taking notes that whole time. Thank you for your post, Theresa and also posting your class notes in the comments.

For more study, don't forget Photoshop Classroom in a Book, mentioned by Sarah and Amy -- and make sure the book you find at Half Price Books or Amazon.com is pertinent to your version of the software, they said.

Thank you, Meg for bringing the power strip.

Martin's Spamarama Pig is now showing up in my dreams. Sometimes he's funny and clowning around and sometimes he's a little scary. I want to texture him so that he sort of fades into the background. But that means I have to add another layer. Maybe I can just drop a fill bucket over his head...

Martin's Photoshop Presentation

Thanks Martin, for your great Photoshop presentation. We all learned a lot, especially about layers. My favorite demo on layers was using the polygon lasso for selecting so that you can color the ink drawing on a separate layer. Does that ever save a lot of work. I tried it out and it really works.

My notes are in the Comments. Anyone else who wants to post their notes, feel free.

Once again thanks Martin for sharing your knowledge on Photoshop, and we all loved your Spam Pig illustration!

BTW our meetings are 2nd Sunday of the month, as per unanimous vote.

Hi all!

What a great idea this is.......
I have good news! I just signed on with an agency. Kid Shannon. This is a big step for me but it feels good to have someone else helping with the marketing. Trying to get a major publisher to pay attention is really hard these days. Having an agent will help.
I'm looking forward to working with you all and seeing what everybody is working on.
I've been writing a lot lately and need to share.

Ciao!
Mary

yay!

I managed to join!! don't look at my blog--it's embarrassing. I'll fix it soon.

Test(y)

I've had SO much trouble getting registered on the blog, I'm just testing to see if I finally got it this time. If you can see this that's good...but ignore it.

Hello fellow inklings and all visitors to our blog!

Photoshop Demo 26 August

Inklings,
You are invited to:
Photoshop Demonstration presented by Martin Thomas
Learn more about Photoshop!
Sunday August 26
10 am at Central Market (upstairs)

August 12 meeting minutes (sort of)

Minutes from 8-12 meeting (such as they are):
The Inklings meeting today defined the purpose of the group:
1. Picture books and all their elements--manuscript, character studies, illustrations, dummies, etc.
2. Q & A about publishing biz in general.
3. Bring in your projects to show to the group and get some feedback.

We looked at several picture book WIP's and gave our ideas to the authors.

Welcome Inklings!

On Sunday July 22, several writer/illustrators in Austin, Texas met and formed a new group: Inklings. Currently there are eight of us: Mark, Amy, Frances, Torran, Martin, Sarah, Louise, and Theresa (please correct me if I misspelled your name). We plan to meet in person once a month and critique each other's writing and illustration.

Our next meeting will be Sunday August 12 at 10 am at Central Market. Bring something for the group to see: a couple new illos, or a manuscript, etc. The meeting will probably last around 2--3 hours.

Re. this blog, feel free to post some of your illustrations, also links to websites.