Illustrator Workshop Update

The Midsouth Region was supremely fortunate to have Laurent Linn, Art director for Simon & Schuster, come to Nashville for a day long workshop in June.  

Here's how it worked:

The goal was to create a finished picture book illustration by going through a speeded-up version of the basic process an illustrator and art director go through when creating art for a picture book.

Laurent assigned a manuscript, and the artists worked up character sketches and a full page spread from anywhere in the book. He critiqued the sketches via email, and our illustrators followed his suggestions.

The day of the workshop, each artist brought the original illustration, after having sent jpegs so we could project the images on screen.

Using a handy-dandy timer, Laurent spoke for 15 minutes about each piece, telling us what worked, and what needed attention, and kept up an ongoing dialogue with the artist on display. He was honest and extremely kind, and with every critique EVERYBODY learned some new nugget about what goes into making a spectacular illustration.

It was a fabulous day for our Midsouth Illustrators!

Here are some of the finals:

Mary Uhles

Meridth Gimbel

Danaye Shiplett

Steven Knudson

Kris Sexton

Cheryl Mendenhall

Wanda Johnson

Rebecca Rae Mudd