SCBWI Conference with Giuseppe Castellano

I'm going to be perfectly frank with all of you reading this blog post. Last weekend at the Utah/Southern Idaho SCBWI Conference, I got more out of it than probably any conference I've been to.

I love Conferences. I love going to them, and I love planning them. I always learn something whatever conference I go to.

But the things that were taught by Giuseppe Castellano, Will Terry, and Jake Parker exceeded my expectations. I'm going to make a blog post about each one of them and highlight the item or items that stood out most to me. I'll also explain why it had an impact on me.

First off can I just say that Giuseppe is a real down to earth kind of guy? (Thank you for coming to our conference and sharing your insight and wisdom with us.) He's also very straightforward with his critiques, not apologizing for anything he says, but that is what we as artists, what I as an artist need.

Giuseppe talked about getting yourself organized (having an easily navigable website), using social media to have an online presences, and sending out postcards. But then he said that none of that really matters (seems contradictory, right?) More important than any of that stuff is your art work. If your art work isn't good none of that other stuff matters.

There was one thing he said that made my heart rejoice. He talked about going ahead and doing different styles. (Though he hates the term 'styles').

I, along with most people whoever went to art school, heard over and over again that you need pick a style and be consistent with it. And if you did decide to use more than one style, you would need a portfolio for each style and a separate website for each. I also heard that it would be best to have a pseudonym‎ for each style.

All throughout school and into my professional career I have felt that my inclination to try out different styles was a weakness. But it has also been immensely satisfying to try different styles. I figured that eventually I'd settle into one style or another and that I would eventually be content with that. (So far I haven't done either of those things.)

So bellow I'm going to share some of the various styles I've tried. They are kind of all over the place.

So, looking at these, I can understand why art directors and teachers suggested sticking to one style. No one would think they were from the same artist.

Some of these styles I haven't tried in years. And I'm fine with that. I didn't post on here all the kinds I've tried out either. There are some styles that I still want to try out. I think I get the satisfaction just from experimenting.

As I experiment I learn which processes I enjoy the most. I have found myself gravitating toward certain styles. The thing that I have found for me is that I love lines. It is likely that most of the stuff you see from me from here on out will have a lot of lines.

Then again I just might try something new.