HELLO. MY NAME IS JESS SMART SMILEY & I MAKE RAD PICTURES.

Despite what my name might suggest (and ponytail in this photo), I’m a guy. It’s always exciting to see my name come up on a website, and to see people leaving comments like “she makes the cutest drawings,” and “her characters are so fun!” That’s cool. I can live with being female on the internet.

I’ve been drawing and writing my own pictures and stories since I was a kid. It’s all I’ve ever wanted to do, and every single day of my life, as far as I can remember it, has been focused on making the work I want to put into the world.

MY GRAPHIC NOVEL

I finally finished my first graphic novel (came up with the story and characters, made a rough draft, and created the final artwork) in 2010, and sent it to my favorite comics publisher, Top Shelf Productions. They loved it, we worked out a contract, and now my first book, Upside Down: A Vampire Tale, is coming out in October from Top Shelf Productions.

The book is actually the first in a series and you can pre-order it via the Top Shelf site.

MAKING PICTURES ROCKS!

I’ve worked hard to be able to make pictures in a variety of styles and media, and have been fortunate enough to have my work published and used in books, magazines, websites, clothing labels, logos, business cards, flyers, mobile games, a library card, wedding invitations, christmas cards, anniversary presents, framed wall art, album artwork, coloring books, posters, packaging, temporary tattoos, animations, storyboards, and portraits.

For me, making pictures is a way of learning and exploring. A picture is a place, not an object.

WHAT I’M UP TO NOW

I’m currently working on a second all-ages graphic novel, a words-only novel (historical fiction), designs for a clothing label, album artwork (you’re gonna love it!), a board game, a slew of portraits, and two children’s books. I’m also traveling and giving school, library, and bookstore presentations on writing and drawing. (Phew! I think I got it all in there.)

GET IN TOUCH

I love taking on commissions, so if you have an idea for a project, let’s make it together! Contact me at jess.smiley(at)gmail.com  My online portfolio can be viewed at jess-smiley.com

What I would like to do, is to tell you something about the making of the illustrations. Several times I’ve noticed that some people don’t realize how an illustration is made and how much work is involved. One might think that I just take a sheet of white paper, draw some lines on it , add some colour and Bob’s your uncle! Or one might even think that all my drawings are made with only the use of a computer (and what could be easier than that?). Nothing of the sort, I can assure you. It may look as if my illustrations are done with much ease, but appearances can be deceptive.

To show you the process of how an illustration is made, I will use the first illustration of the book as an example.
First of all I make a very small and rough sketch, just to see for myself what the main elements of the picture will be and what kind of composition I would like to use. In this particular case the first sketch is the actual size of the illustration that is going to be used in the book.

The next sketch is still very rough, but this time I try to fill in some of the details. I haven’t figured out yet what the characters will look like. I give it a first attempt, but at this stage it’s not the most important thing. This sketch is mainly to figure out what the posture of Jen’s father will be. The first chapter of the book mentions the tattoo on his left upper arm. Of all the tattoos on Tattoe’s body, this is the only one that is set out in detail. It’s a significant tattoo, because it represents the bond between Tattoe, Jen and her mother who died when she was born. However, it’s also mentioned that Tattoe enthusiastically spreads his arms when he tells Jen of his camel rental plan. This is the most essential scene in this chapter, but with Tattoe’s arms spread out, the tattoo on his left upper arm is out of focus. So I’ll have to make a choice.

After making this rough sketch in which Tattoe’s tattoo is visible, I decide it’s better to choose for the other option, because I think the contrast between Tattoe’s keenness and Jen’s scepticism is ever so characteristic for this chapter.
I also decide to adjust the perspective of the table so it’s easier to distinguish the different objects on the breakfast table.

The basic construction is now good enough to be worked out in a more detailed sketch. With the use of a light box I make a mirrored image of the sketch. By doing so, I get a different view on what I’ve drawn. This way it’s easier to spot little slip ups, such as a limb that’s longer or shorter than the other one, or an unintentionallly askew face.
I read about this little trick in a book about the life and works of none other than the grandmaster of comics, Hergé. It was many, many years ago that I read this book, but I’ve been using this trick ever since. If a light box is not at hand, one can also hold the sketch before a mirror or even hold the sketch upside down to achieve the same effect.

I’m already quite pleased with the looks of Jen. Tattoe however, is not to my liking at all. So for the moment I put this sketch aside and draw my attention to his looks. In attempt to find a visual image suitable for Jen’s father, I make quite a few scribbles. Some of those scribbles look rather stupid, don’t they? But bare in mind that you’ve got to draw a lot of wrong lines in order to find the right ones. That’s what sketching is all about.

In this sketched search for the right features for Tattoe, I finally find the lines that meet with my approval. Now that I’ve got more or less figured out what I want the illustration to look like, I can make a final sketch in detail.

Before I start to ink, I transfer the sketch to paper with a very smooth surface. Ink runs out on paper which hasn’t got a smooth surface. Don’t like that at all! But a smooth surface only isn’t enough. You’ll also need a brush with a sharp point in order to get a nice sharp line. I prefer to work with brush and Indian ink. A brush no.2 or no.3 – preferably one made with marten hair – will do the the trick. But Indian ink is quite aggressive and the brush will only last a couple of drawings. By then it has lost too many hairs to draw another decent line. Sometimes I use a brush pen. The point of a brush pen always stays sharp. However, the ink of a brush pen doesn’t dry as quickly as Indian ink. It takes up to 24 hours to dry when used on a smooth surface! I always get smudges on my drawing whilst working with a brush pen, because my hand had accidentally touched an already inked part.
Of course all those smudges have to be retouched. I do a lot of retouching anyhow. Although I’m quite experienced with the use of brush and ink, my brush still slips every now and then. Like I wrote before, I like my lines sharp. So sloppy lines won’t do at all!
I used to touch up my lines with Schmincke Dekweiss, the only paint that does that job well enough in my experience. But my local art supply dealer doesn’t sell that brand anymore and ever since I make use of digital resources, it’s just as easy to do the retouching on my computer.

Now that the inking is done, the next step will be to make a scan of the line drawing. There’s still some work to be done before I can fill in the colours. I’ll have to touch up the lines and I’ll have to adjust Tattoe’s tattoos, because I don’t want black outlines there. The same goes for the cow and clouds on the milk carton. And of course I need a background. For the illustrations of this book I thought it would be nice to have a background with a rough edge. To achieve this effect I use watercolour paper with a very rough surface and a rather dry brush.
With this background and all the adjustments made, I can finally do the colouring of the illustration.

Although not bad for a first attempt, I’m not quite pleased with these colours. The dominant colour blue in this illustration gives it a rather cold feeling. That doesn’t seem right. A warm, domesticated feeling seems much more in place for this scene. So I add a little yellow to the colours to give this illustration a little more warmth.

There, that’s much better! This is how the illustration is published inKamelenkind. Well, it took a lot of steps to come to this end result, now didn’t it?
Some of you might have identified the – simplified – logo of the Ramones on Tattoe’s T-shirt. I don’t think that’s something that today’s children will immediately recognize, but I love to put such clues – or maybe a little homage might even be a better word – in an illustration if the oppurtunity arises. It’s not unthinkable at all that some of these youngsters will discover many years from now what the emblem on the T-shirt stands for. Call me a silly old fart if you like, but that thought certainly gives me a little bit of fun.

If you like the illustrations shown in this entry, you might like to know that I’ve made the illustrations for a second book, also part of De Gestreepte Boekjes series and also written by Emma van Andel. It’s called De Bezoekers van Zirk (Visitors from Zirk). I will tell you more about that book a next time.

Ben Chestnut is the CEO and co-founder of MailChimp.com, one of the most successful e-mail marketing companies around, with over 1.2 million users. They were recently featured in “Fast Company” for their non-traditional corporate culture and creative environment. In this Creative Mornings presentation, Ben talks about the history of the company and what he does as a manager to cultivate such a creative culture.

Rich Burlew has been self-publishing his “comedy-fantasy-adventure” webcomic The Order of the Stick (OOTS) since 2003. Over the last seven years, Rich has built up an incredible fan base, with over 23,500 fans on Facebook alone – and remember: this is entirely self-published, so Rich isn’t enjoying the benefits of a large publishing house marketing and printing and promoting his comic – he’s doing it all himself.

Below is Rich’s newest OOTS strip, #839: Finding Something, starring a hilarious cast of weapon-wielding stick figures:

Now, here’s where things get good.

One month ago, Rich launched a project on Kickstarter to raise funds for reprinting his older books – full-color collections of the webcomic that have long been out of print, due to his focus on creating new work. Rich launched his project with the goal of raising just shy of $58K, the largest amount of money I’ve seen asked for as part of a comics project on Kickstarter (Womanthology, a comics anthology featuring the works of over 140 industry-favorites female creators, only asked for $25K, half of what Rich, the self-published comics-maker is asking).

With 25 hours to go, Rich, the stick figure-drawing, self-published cartoonist asking for $58K, is sitting at $1,062,993. Look at that number again: that’s one million, sixty-two thousand, nine-hundred and ninety-three dollars. And he still has an entire day to go (Last night I watched his total climb $7,000 over the course of an hour).

Rich has sent out to the world a powerful message: watch           out for the passionate – we know what we want and we’re going to get it!

I love that a 29 year-old D&D-playing New Yorker can pursue his passion by making stick-figure webcomics, open up a project on Kickstarter, and make $1M over his funding goal.

I don’t know about you, but I have some work to do!

(Be sure to check out OOTS and see the Kickstarter project.)

If you were at LTUE this past weekend, or got the chance to hear James’ keynote address, then you know this is an incredible gift.

From James’ blog:

“As a grateful answer to the overwhelming responses I have gotten from my keynote address at the LTUE Symposium at Utah Valley University this past weekend, for the next twenty-four hours, I am offering the ebook trio – all formats in one zip file, pdf, epub, and mobi – of DRAWING OUT THE DRAGONS, the basis for my keynote address…

…for FREE. For the next twenty-four hours.

Simply fill in your name and email address, click the link below, and you’ll get the download link sent to you. That’s it. (And if you want to read more about the book itself, simply click on the link above.)

In return, all I ask is that you take on a challenge: I would like to give away ONE THOUSAND COPIES of this book in the next twenty-four hours. So please post links, email it to your friends and family; and if you were at the LTUE keynote, share your impressions of that event, and then tell them about the book.

It is, I feel, the most meaningful, most significant thing I have ever written. And I want to give it to as many people as possible.

Help me do something extraordinary today.”

OK GO does it again with their music video for “Needing/Getting.” Amazing!

To all of my friends who love the Bone comics from Jeff Smith, I recommend Eisner Award-winner Aaron Renier’s The Unsinkable Walker Bean. It’s incredible. Aaron’s ability to tell a story in the comics medium is astounding, and the same qualities that made it easy for me to fall in love with Spiral-Bound (Top Shelf Productions) are even better in his newest book.

Knowing that Aaron is hard at work finishing the second book in the Walker Bean series makes it all the more exciting to have seen a process post on his blog about creating a short comic for the new Adventure Time comics series!

How did he take his comic from rough draft to the final? How did he scan the watercolors? How is he so amazing? Aaron was great enough to have answered these questions (except the latter) on his blog. Check it out!