SCBWI-NYC Illustrators Intensive: Dan Yaccarino

Takeaways from Debbie Ridpath Ohi

The first Keynote speaker at the SCBWI Winter Conference in New York was Dan Yaccarino. I had already seen Dan speak at the LA conference last year (I think it was last year), so was looking forward to seeing his presentation.

Dan Yaccarino is a NYC artist who work has been featured in books, television, magazines and newspapers worldwide. He's written and illustrated over three dozen children's books, created and produced two animated series for kids, illustrated for hundreds of magazines.

Dan showed us clips from his past and current projects as well as entertaining us with some visual puns (I love his sense of humor). Here are some of my takeaways from his talk as well as interesting info from the Q&A section:

- Focus on STORY and CHARACTER. Don't worry about digital technology changes -- it's all still about good story and compelling characters. The medium is secondary.

- On a "good day," Dan says that half his time is spent illustrating: about 4-5 hours. The rest of the day is spent doing writing, promotion or other projects. He tends to write in the morning, illustrating in the afternoon.

- Have a website is better than having just a portfolio. It's important for illustrators to have a website! A website can include multimedia, something a regular print portfolio can't.

You can find more info about Dan Yaccarino at:

http://www.danyaccarino.com/ys/

Visit to the Frankfurt Book Fair - by Andrea Offermann

The following is a report from Andrea, who attended the Frankfurt Book Fair in October. Apologies to Andrea for the delay in posting this! -- Debbie

Visit to the Frankfurt Bookfair

by Andrea Offermann

Photo by FlickrDelusions on Flickr

I went to the Frankfurt Bookfair in October, which is a huge event every year. Imagine a major airport filled with people and you have an idea of how big the fair is. I have never visited more than 3 of the 8 hangar sized halls filled with booths from publishers, and I usually stay 3 of the 5 days. Publishers from all over the world are there, presenting their new books and making licensing deals. It’s considered the biggest bookfair in the world, and I have no problem believing it.

Photo by FlickrDelusions on Flickr

For an illustrator, the fair is interesting in that many European publishers will take time to look at your portfolio at the fair, the German publishers even have official review dates and times. The German illustration organization, of which I am a member, offers seminars on how to start your career, present a good portfolio, and specific areas such as schoolbook illustration or comics. And of course seeing all the new books is very interesting to get an idea of what is interesting for publishers right now.

Photo by undazeduomo on Flickr

One hangar focuses specifically on childrens books and comic books. Seminars, discussions and reading hours with authors and illustrators complete the experience. This year, Kitty Crowther, renowned illustrator from Belgium and the 2010 ALMA award winner, was interviewed there, I was so inspired by her work and approach to her art and storytelling.

The Ebook was everywhere, though I got the impression that in Europe publishers are mostly still discussing and figuring out what to do with it (who knows though, they might just be careful with sharing information…). The first children’s books for Ebook were presented, but mostly it was a subject for the seminars. Apart from the possibilities, royalty for Ebook was also a subject for discussion, authors as well as illustrators seemed worried that royalty is cut very small by publishers. 

Overall the bookfair is a really inspiring and also a bit overwhelming experience. If any of you should ever happen to be close by in October, you should drop by and take a look!