What I have learned from my mentorship with E.B. Lewis

E.B. Lewis is an award-winning "artistrator" and a fabulous teacher.
He's tough on me.
And my work has grown immensely since I started working with him 8 months ago.

I've been a working (bills-paying, portfolio-schlepping, ink-slinging) illustrator for more than 30 years. I made the transition from advertising, editorial, and cartooning in 2002, when I decided to try my luck at children's books.
I studied picturebooks in depth but sold my first highly-illustrated middle grade novel in 2005 while I was still getting champagne rejections for my picturebooks.
The novel turned into the Ellie McDoodle series with Bloomsbury, available in 8 languages, sold around the world. I'm happy with it. And now I'm back to working on picturebooks.

My first picturebook was written by Denise Brennan-Nelson for Sleeping Bear Press, and it's due out Sept 1, 2015. My art deadlines for it were tight, and I'd never worked in watercolor before, so I hired E.B. Lewis as my Visual Mentor last August.

Here's an example of my work before starting my mentorship with E.B.:
(I'm embarrassed to post it here)

Here's my work after starting my mentorship with E.B.:

He didn't direct me on this. I learned a lot in our weekly meetings and decided to redraw the image to see if I could apply what I'd been hearing.

Here's a detail from a spread from the book I illustrated for Sleeping Bear Press:

It's in watercolor. I'm a painter. I never knew that til I started working with E.B.

Looking back, I've always felt isolated as an illustrator. Rarely met another one in person. Ever since getting online in 1996 I have been a bit envious of other areas where illustrators get together regularly for meetups and to share ideas. 

As Illustrator Coordinator for SCBWI-Michigan I have wanted to foster that sense of community, and present skills-building workshops. Michigan's a gigantic state and it's difficult to create an event that works for everyone.

I think this Hook of the Book conference will do it. It will be amazing. In one day illustrators will learn skills that it's taken me many months to figure out.

E.B. will be tough on some of us, but we will g r o w.

And Matt Faulkner and Leslie Helakoski are packing some pretty cool surprises into their presentations that day, too. 

Check out the conference website here: 

http://michigan.scbwi.org/2015/01/21/registration-now-open-for-the-illustrator-day-may-16/

Register now! Rates go up on April 15.

Got questions? Contact Conference Coordinator Charlie at cjbarshaw523@aol.com

-- Ruth McNally Barshaw