Hi Vendaval,

Thank you so much for the compliments! I'm really glad your brother loves A Practical Guide to Dragons! It was really fun to work on. Did you know there are more books in the series? In case you were curious, my favorite cookies to bake late at night are chocolate chip. They're the easiest to make when I have a chocolate craving at a strange time! Which are your favorite?

Hi Karen elf fan,

Thanks for writing, and thank you for the compliments, too!  It's great to hear you're drawing.  You have a very good eye; my drawings were very influenced by manga and anime, especially when I was in high school. Everything from animation to comic books to famous illustrators like Arthur Rackham inspired me to draw.  

Keep drawing! You will always be inspired by the art you like, and you will also notice a unique part of yourself showing up in your artwork.  It will always be there, sometimes even when you don't realize it, and it will grow and change over time.  That's part of what makes art so special.  Good luck!

Me TOO!

Hi Ella,

Thank you for the compliments!  I love the story, too.  It really sparked my imagination and I had a lot of fun coming up with ideas for the appearance and costumes of the characters.  It wasn't hard to get inspired because of the richness of the world Mr. Durbin created.

I'm so glad you like to draw, too.  Keep it up!

Hi Amy,

Thanks so much!  I'm glad you like her.

Dear Mayr,

Thank you!  It's cool that your brother plays Dungeons and Dragons.  Have you tried it?  I played a few games of D&D with friends when I was in college.  It was good to have the background information of how the game works when creating illustrations for it.  I always try to do images that will get players excited for the game, and hopefully help them come up with good ideas for acting out their characters.

I love "The Star Shard," too, and am always excited to see how the illustrations and story look together when they're printed in each new issue.

Thanks for writing and don't stay up too late!

Dear McLenn,

Thanks for your comments!  It really can be tricky to draw a boy with long hair and make sure he doesn't get confused for a girl.  I'm glad you liked the final choice.  I did, too!

Thank you very much for your compliments on A Practical Guide to Dragons!  It seems to be very popular.   I'm not sure which dragon poses are easier for me.  Hmmmm...
One thing about flying poses is that you can have the dragon doing almost anything; doing a backflip, diving fast, flapping its wings, gliding, etc.  That makes it fun.  I'm not sure which are more difficult for me.  I think for me it depends on what the dragon is doing, and, like you mentioned, what type of dragon it is.  One thing I can tell you that I do find very tricky to draw sometimes is the wings!  Figuring out how they fold can be a little confusing.

Just keep practicing!  I'm sure you can draw some excellent dragons! 

Dear Interested and Fantasy-tastic,

Thanks for writing and for your compliments!  You're right, I am lucky and happy to be illustrating for Cricket, and on an especially great story, too!  The art director, editor, and designer are wonderful to work with, and each time I correspond with them I am reminded of how much I enjoy the project.

In my experience, and I think it is often true for most publications, artists are contacted by art directors working for a publisher rather than the authors themselves.  The art director looks for an artist they think would make a good match for the tone of the story, someone they think will depict the characters and themes well.   It's a bonus when the author is pleased with the way your illustrations have turned out!

I found myself working on "The Star Shard" when I received a call from the art director about the project.  My first job for Cricket appeared in the November 2007 issue for the story "To Save a Kingdom."  It featured a full page image of a purple dragon.  Since much of my work is fantasy related, and because we had worked together before, the art director felt I would be a good match for "The Star Shard".  I was really excited when she described the story to me, and after I happily agreed to take on the project, she sent me a copy of the original manuscript.  It was so engrossing I flew through it!

Since I got a chance to read the story beforehand, I had all of the characters' descriptions at my disposal for coming up with their design.  I tried to put down on paper what I had imagined in my mind about the way each character looked, sounded and moved as I read the story.  Every reader will have their own interpretation of the characters and events in a story, so I tried to keep faithful to the text while exploring what I saw in my mind's eye.  It's always important to me when drawing characters to try to show their personality and attitude so that even a simple sketch conveys as much as possible about them.   I tried to pay special attention to the clothing each character wears as well.  I really loved the description of Loric's leaf-like boots! 

After having said all that, with Loric, I did a wide range of sketches for his face and hair before I decided on the one I liked best.  My goal was to try to capture his beautiful features, especially his luminous eyes and silvery hair. Since so many of the people in the book are enchanted by his looks, I wanted his facial features to look very different from those of the other characters.  I'm so pleased to hear that so many of you like the way I interpreted Loric's character!

Hi DolphinGirl13!

Thanks for your question!

I really enjoyed my time at art school.  Like any "regular" college, each school is very different and some schools have a special focus on certain majors more than others.  The most popular majors when I attended Ringling College of Art and Design were Computer Animation and Illustration.  Majors common to art school include Animation, Illustration, Fine Arts, Photography, Graphic Design, Sculpture, etc.  I didn't have the chance to try it, but now many schools, including Ringling, even offer majors  for video game art and design!

There are many different classes offered at art school, all tailored to your specific major.  At Ringling, every student's first year included the basics of drawing the human figure, color and design theory, and art history.  The other classes I took as the years went on were oil painting, figure painting, more figure drawing (very important!), children's book illustration, sculpture....the list of available classes goes on and on. 

Art school can be very exciting, but it is also a lot of hard work!  There are often many assignments to juggle all at once for each class.  I had a lot of late nights when I was in school!  Despite the fact the schedule can be very demanding, it's worth it if you want to make art your career.

The most important thing if you want to become an artist, whether you choose to go to an art school or to an art program at a traditional college, is to draw, draw, draw!  Practice and passion for your art will be the thing that will take you places.

If I didn't give you the answers you were looking for, or if you have any other specific questions about what art school is like, please don't hesitate to ask.  I would be happy to answer them!

Good luck with your art and writing!

Hi Anonymous!

You're right!  I hope I'm not spoiling anything by saying the preview for September's cover does show Cymbril!  I did paint the cover, and I'm really excited for its release and I hope all of the other "Star Shard" readers will be looking forward to it, too.

Thanks very much for your compliments!  I'm really happy to hear that you love art, and that you're interested in becoming an author and illustrator.  I think the most important piece of advice I can give to anyone interested in becoming an artist is to keep making art, and keep having fun doing it.  I think drawing is a very "use it or lose it" skill.  The more you draw, the more coordinated your hand and eye become together, and the more easily you are able to put the ideas floating around in your head down on paper.  It's a very good idea to not only draw from your imagination, but to draw from real life as well.  Take a sketchbook along with you wherever you go.  If you get an idea suddenly, you can draw it or write it down in your sketchbook.  Drawing people, animals, buildings and any other things you see from day to day in your sketchbook while you're out or at home is excellent practice, and a great way to build up a sort of library of images in your mind.  While it's good to practice everything, it's great to keep on drawing your favorite things.  My favorite things to draw are characters and creatures, and I love to doodle pictures of guinea pigs, so you will find a lot of those in my sketchbook. 

If you keep working hard and practicing, you will get where you want to be.   If you really enjoy making pictures, with whatever medium you choose it might not seem like "practice" at all.

Another great thing to do if you're interested in becoming an artist is also really fun--looking at the work of other artists!  Museums, books and local art galleries are a great way to discover what art and artists you like.  There's a lot to be learned by studying the work of other artists.  You might be inspired to find new ideas in your own artwork!

There are a lot of different paths an artist can take once they decide to make art their career.  Illustration can cross over into many different fields.  As my bio says above, I worked for a little over a year as a product designer in the art studio at The Franklin Mint.  There, I was designing collectibles, but there are also designers for every kind of product imaginable.  Nearly anything you see in a store was designed by an artist!  Illustrators can even work on movies and video games, doing things like designing creatures or drawing storyboards.  Very often, illustrators do what I do and illustrate for books and magazines.  Even within the publishing field, there is a wide range of work for illustrators, from children's picture book illustration to editorial illustration for magazines like Time.

I am a freelance illustrator, which means I work at home, where I have my own studio, and I do jobs for a number of different clients, including Cricket.  I get to make my own hours, which is good, because sometimes I feel like working really late into the night (or should I say into the early morning?) I tend to be a perfectionist, so it can be hard to tear myself away from one painting or drawing to move on to the next one.  Things can get very busy, so despite wanting to spend forever on each image it's always important to at least try to maintain a good schedule!

Good luck with your writing and your art!

Hi! 

Thanks so much!  I'm glad to hear you like my drawings! 

Let's see....well, I like almost anything with chocolate in it!  My favorites are chocolate chip, peanut butter, and a kind of cookie my Grammie used to make that she called "chocolate pixies."  My family still makes them around the holidays each year.  They're little chocolate cookies that taste almost like a cross between a cookie and a chocolate brownie, and they can be made with vanilla frosting on the top, or rolled with powdered sugar.  They're really good!  Now I'm hungry!

Dear Agnes,

I'm very sorry it took so long for me to write to you.  I've been away from home a lot this month and haven't been able to check the comments very often.

Thanks for writing!  Thank you very much for your complements, too! I am glad to hear you're drawing.  (And baking!)  I don't actually wake up to make the cookies that late--I am usually still awake that late!  A lot of other artists I know work late into the night.  Either we're all night owls, or we get so involved in our projects that we don't go to bed when we probably should.  Sometimes I like to bake, even late at night, to take a break.  Baking sweets to give other people, or even just to enjoy myself, is a great stress reliever for me.

Unfortunately, I have never been to Switzerland.  I have traveled all over the United States, but outside of the US, only to Canada and Japan.  I like traveling, though, and hope to add more countries to that list as the years go by.  I bet you're seeing a lot of interesting things and meeting many interesting people in Zurich.  It's excellent that you are finding a lot of things to draw there!  What is your dad a professor of?

Yes, I have heard of the name Agnes!  I am surprised other people aren't familiar with your name.  Although, it's cool to have a unique name!  These days, "Emily" has become very popular.  

Thanks again for writing.  I hope you like Part 4 of "The Star Shard" when it comes out in September.

Hello Char G.

Thank you so much!  One of the best things an artist can ever hear is that their work has inspired someone.  I'm very happy to hear from people who are on the same path of artistic discovery.  

It's also cool to hear that you're interested in drawing manga.  Manga and comics in general were a big influence on my work.  I still read them.  Sequential art, of which manga and comics are a part, is very unique because it tells a story like no other medium can.   There is something special happening with the combination of drawings and words and in the "time" passing between the panels that makes the story spring to life.  Have you ever read "Understanding Comics" by Scott McCloud?  It's a great book all about the art form, and is very fun to read, because it's told in comic form!

Keep working at it!  With time and dedication, you can reach your dreams with your artwork!

Best wishes!

Dear Aria,

Thanks so much to you (and your mom) for writing!  I am so glad you like "The Star Shard"!  Have you written to Mr. Durbin, the author, yet?  

 I'm so pleased to hear you love the pictures.  I have a lot of fun painting them, so I always hope that readers get the same enjoyment out of looking at them.  I'm glad you like Cymbril, and all of her dresses.  She has so many, I get to try new ideas with each one.  I like all of the Thunder Rake cats, too.

 I'm really happy you love our guinea pigs!  I love them very much, too.  We have five guinea pigs, and their names are Momiji, Patty, Cedric, Rufio, and Frances.  Momiji and Patty are our two girls.  They're roommates and they live separately from the boys.  Rufio and Frances are very best friends and love playing together.  Rufio is much bigger than Frances, who is a little small for his age.  It's very funny to see them together!  Cedric is a little grumpy and picky about his friends, so he lives alone right now until we can adopt the right friend for him.  My husband and I also work to help rescue homeless guinea pigs.  We volunteer with a local rescue and are foster guinea pig parents.  We take care of them until they can be adopted into a new, forever home.  Right now we have two foster guinea pigs named Nicky and Olivia.  Thanks for letting me talk about all of our little friends.  They're very special to us!

I would love to see your drawing of the cats!

Best wishes to you!

Emily

Dear Laura,

Thank you so much for writing!  It's so good to hear that you love drawing and painting.  It makes me happy to read so many responses from young people interested in art.

Illustrating stories is not too much different than drawing or painting something as a stand-alone image, or something that just popped into your head.  The most important thing to keep in mind is that the picture itself needs to help tell the story.  It's a good idea to try to tell a story with any picture you create, even if it's just a drawing of a character, standing alone.  It's always good to ask yourself questions like, "Who is this person?  What's her story?  How can I show her personality from the clothing she wears, or from the way she stands?  From the expression on her face?"

Sometimes, illustrations that accompany a story can even cast the story in a slightly different light.  For example, showing the moment right before or right after a scene takes place in the text, rather than the moment we might expect, gives the reader a different perspective.  A famous illustrator, N. C. Wyeth, who illustrated books like Treasure Island, often used unique compositions and painted unexpected moments in the story to show events in a new light, while still being faithful to the words.

While an artist always injects his or her own vision into the work (most often without even realizing it), we also have to be aware of the author's description of places and characters, and make sure that everything works together.  While I like working with my own ideas, too, I enjoy illustrating other people's ideas because I always get a picture in my head of what's being described as I read, and I like to see how it ends up when I put it down on paper.  And I have to admit, sometimes it's nice to have something to work off of, rather than depending on myself for ideas all the time.  It's really tough when I get "artist's block"!  

You seemed interested, so I'll tell you a little bit about my process.  After doing all of the sketches you mentioned, and the art director, designer, and editor pick one they like, I decide what size I want to paint the image.  I almost always paint at a larger size than the illustrations are printed in Cricket.  That way, I can get all the details I want into the image, even when they're going to print really small.  I always spend some time researching things I don't have a good mental image of, so I might go to the library and check out books to get inspiration, or browse through the file folders I have filled with photos I've collected online or clipped from magazines.  Often, if I need help drawing a pose, my husband or I will get into that pose and take photo reference.  I have plenty of embarrassing photos!  I usually create a finished drawing at the same size I will be painting. It takes at least several hours to finish the final drawing.  Sometimes it can take a whole day or more if the drawing is complicated or has a lot of characters.   Then, I use my printer to transfer the image onto the watercolor paper, and I start painting!  I use gouache, which is a type of watercolor that can be used both transparently, with washes of color, and opaquely, which means I can mix less water with the paint, and make thicker brushstrokes, covering up what's underneath.  In that way, gouache is similar to oil paint.  With all of those steps, it's hard to figure out how much time I really spend on each illustration, but once I get to the painting stage, it usually takes several days for each finished piece.  

Hmm...I'm not sure who my favorite character in "The Star Shard" is!  I like them all, but I think it might be Urrt!  I really enjoy drawing him, and I like the Armfolk's way of life and the storytelling songs they sing.  I also like Cymbril's independent spirit and struggle within herself about who she is, and her uncertainty