Most people who know me, have probably heard of my brothers, Patrick and Morgan. Patrick is an ER doc in the air force and will be deployed next week. Here's an article about the beachfront resort in Jolo, where he'll be residing...
http://outside.away.com/outside/destinations/200702/jolo-philippines-1.html
In the meantime I'm dog sitting Pat's cocker spaniel, Mateo, a welcomed edition to the Kono clan. (Mateo is the star of PASSOVER by Roni Schotter a book I illustrated a couple years back)
Monday, April 23, 2007
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Cal State Visit
I spoke to Illustration students at Cal State Fullerton yesterday. It was at the invitation of my friend Mac McCool. Mac is a wonderful illustrator of comics and is branching into graphic novels and children's illustration. Check out his site at http://www.macmccool.com/
Mac introduced me to several of his students who are particularly interested in Picture Books. Their work shows wonderful potential and their enthusiasm was inspiring. I'm truly impressed by the University's program which emphasises work ethic and professionalism. I can see why their graduates are doing well.
The talk went OK. I was asked to speak about how I got into children's books. I described the various avenues for getting your work in front of artdirectors (postcards, websites, networking). Many questions dealt withhaving an agent and the differences between the various sectors of thechildren¹s publishing business (libraries, trade, and educational). I don¹tknow that I stressed enough -- though I mentioned -- persistence, beingwilling to try new things, and taking rejection and criticism as challengesto improve one¹s art. However, I emphasized being professional, meetingdeadlines, and following up on contacts. I guess I rambled a bit aboutbeing lucky. (Probably not what a group of college kids needs to hear). I believe I have been lucky of course.. but being lucky never completes assignments!
Mac introduced me to several of his students who are particularly interested in Picture Books. Their work shows wonderful potential and their enthusiasm was inspiring. I'm truly impressed by the University's program which emphasises work ethic and professionalism. I can see why their graduates are doing well.
The talk went OK. I was asked to speak about how I got into children's books. I described the various avenues for getting your work in front of artdirectors (postcards, websites, networking). Many questions dealt withhaving an agent and the differences between the various sectors of thechildren¹s publishing business (libraries, trade, and educational). I don¹tknow that I stressed enough -- though I mentioned -- persistence, beingwilling to try new things, and taking rejection and criticism as challengesto improve one¹s art. However, I emphasized being professional, meetingdeadlines, and following up on contacts. I guess I rambled a bit aboutbeing lucky. (Probably not what a group of college kids needs to hear). I believe I have been lucky of course.. but being lucky never completes assignments!
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
David Ezra Steins book project
David Ezra Stein (whom I met while taking Tomie de Paolo's master class last summer) has put up a great "how to" on his site that explains how to make your own book. It's very similar to how I construct my book dummys and looks like a fun project for crafty folk of all ages. Check it out: http://www.davidezra.com and click on "try this"
SCBWI Kite Tales article
Mary Peterson (http://www.marypeterson.com/) asked me to write something for the Illustrator's perspective of Kite Tales, the SCBWI newsletter for the tri-regions of Southern California. My article: "O.K... Now What? How to Begin Illustrating a Book" can be found on page 8. http://scbwisocal.org/kitetales/KTSpring07.pdf
the begining
OK... I've finally caved to the suggestions of my friends and colleagues and ta da here it is the official erin eitter kono blog. The goal is to share info about my work, my friends' work, and interesting tidbits of whatever. My guess is it'll be pretty sporadic. That's me... not particularly consistent. We'll call it an artistic brain. But I figure this will be way easier to update than my long neglected website... so here we go! Yay!
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