Wisdom Wednesday

Good evening folks! Today I'm gonna talk about a couple of other blogs that keep my ears occupied on those long nights slaving away at my desk! LOL! First up is a blog that I have been enjoying for quite some time.

Big Illustration Party Time!
Hosted by Kevin Cross and Joshua Kemble. A funny and insightful couple of guys who speak about the trials and tribulations of being a freelance artist. They talk about the things they've done right and the things they wish they'd done better. They interview other artists within the industry and get insight into their processes and wisdom. I highly recommend giving these guys a try! They don't speak specifically about children's books but what they say about the freelance illustration industry applies to us just the same.

Also of note, Joshua Kemble's wife Mai is a published Children's Book Illustrator and SCBWI member. He talks about her and some of the things she does every now and then on the show as well. I may have to write them and see if they can get her to do an interview for us Children's Illustrators out there! Her blog is located here! :)

My second feature is LibriVox. Librivox is a group of volunteers who do audio recordings of public domain literature. Thanks to them I have enjoyed all the Wizard Of Oz novels and in anticipation of Tim Burton's new Alice in Wonderland movie, Alice in Wonderland. They have tons of literature there for free and it is an easy way to re-read classics while getting your work done at the same time. I have seen Aesop's Fables, Grimm's Fairy Tales, and Mother Goose rhymes available.

Be aware that these are volunteers recording these stories. So the quality or professionalism of some will be very different from one recording to the next. But I have never encountered one that was completely unbearable. There are a number of Children's Stories and I plan on listening to one entitled Japanese Fairy Tales fairly soon. I get a lot of great ideas for illustrations from these older stories! And the idea of doing Japanese art style inspired Illustrations is intriguing to me!

Enjoy!!
-Wilson