Monster App Artwork & Illustrations in Color

Posted on August 4, 2016 by Will Terry

Monster App Artwork in Color

I am drained from working til 3 am so many nights in a row on this piece and even later last night. I thought I was done but when I looked at it again the next morning I realized there were quite a few more tweaks needed – I stopped having fun with it there for awhile. – Three hours at least and I think that’s when I was finally done. ..again! Success usually depends on what you do in your spare time.
I had to include several versions with various assets on different layers because there would be animations in this app. I wanted to have animation but didn’t know how to do it or set up for it but hoped that someone would come into my life to help me. Well, it happened – I teamed up with a Disney animator and he is going to be teaching me and working with me to make this project happen! Kind of the, “If you build it they will come” model.

Don’t want any unnecessary animations

I am not interested in programming superfluous animations in my e-book. One thing I’m constantly seeing in e-books and apps is animation and/or sounds that don’t move the story forward – in fact I’m guilty of that in my Monkey & Croc ipad app. On this one I wanted to create a story/interactive e-book that couldn’t exist in physical book format. Part of an on going exploration of this technology. It’s fun to think about the future and how I’ll feel about all of this ten years down the road, lessons learned, bumps, bruises, and hopefully a few smiles….ok, a lot of smiles! bedroom without monster or child for app

bedroom without monster or child but with cat for app

bedroom with monster without child for app

Is Your ART, work, when your having fun?

Posted on July 25, 2016 by Will Terry

So you do art work, can you call it work, when your having fun?

Because I’m “working” late and often responding to things on Facebook my friends, family, and students know I “work” late. Sometimes I get accused of being a workahalic, (I am addicted to workahal) but is it really work if I’m having this much fun? I love drawing. I love illustrating ideas – but most of all I love the satisfaction I get when I see how children and parents respond to my work. The ability to communicate with pictures is basically a part of who I am. I can’t imagine what life would be like without being able to create narrative images. I don’t want to know what it would be like….I think you know it’s not work when you’re doing something you would do regardless of the monetary compensation.

The Money is Irrelevant

So “working” on this monster app isn’t work at all – it’s therapy. I don’t feel any stress or anguish over it and that in and of it’s self is my payment. When I’m finished and it is formatted for Ipad / Iphone and perhaps the new kindle fire, the money I make, or don’t make is a distant by-product of my passion. I’m not going to be a phony and tell you I don’t want it to make money but the money is irrelevant to my joy and happiness in the creation process. I’m not going to worry about editing “this or that” in or out to please a certain demographic. All I’m going to do is make an app / ebook that I would want to buy and use with my kids – again, I’m going to be selfish.

Don’t forget, we teach workahal, I mean art and illustration and painting and stuff at FolioAcademy.com.

Did I mention, Art should be fun? I am having FUN

Posted on July 18, 2016 by Will Terry

Did I mention how much fun I am having?

So anyway – working on this project is way more fun than getting hit by a car, twice. Wait, have I mentioned that I’ve been hit by a car? Twice? Well two different cars both while I was riding a bike? – not the same bike different bikes…and different cars – different years – and different drivers… I don’t think they knew each other… both times it was my fault. I did however learn two big lessons –

1) I am stupid

2) I want to be in the car the next time I get hit.

3) I don’t want there to be a next time.

Author’s not: There are three kinds of people, those who can count and those who can’t.

But wait – this is supposed to be about illustration, e-books, writing, apps, formatting, tablets, e-readers, illustratin, art wor doing, etc.

The story is about a monster

I am still working on the E-boo/ Monster app. In case you haven’t figured it out yet, the story is about a monster that keeps steeling the household pets, and the boy just doesn’t notice.

The sketches are for an iPad / iPhone App

Ok, Status: All of these monster sketches are for an ipad / iphone app that I am making. It has a story, is interactive, in color, animal friendly, eco friendly, kid friendly, and car friendly…. It will have friends. but you know what? SPOILER ALERT! It might not be really successful. But will I learn something. Yes. Am I enjoying the precess? Yes. Does the little voice try to get me down? yes. Do I let it? NO! And HEY! Maybe it will be a HUGE success. Feel free to cross your fingers for me.

And have fun, do some artwork.

Ebooks & Apps and Being a Selfish Artist

Posted on July 11, 2016 by Will Terry

Ebooks, apps, and selfishness

Ebooks, Apps and Selfishness? Really? but we were always taught to be charitable, giving, and unselfish. Ok – I needed a provocative title but I’m going to defend it. How many times have you as an illustrator, graphic designer, author, artist, or creator allowed yourself to create under the umbrella of a studio, publisher, client, friend, spouse, parent etc.? In other words how often do you create for someone else? How often do you allow the parameters of the assignment dictate choice? How often are your choices influenced by what you think “they” want and not what you want? We all do it – even if you’re a gallery artist chances are you create “in step” with the body of work the gallery owner has accepted. Right?

Technology has give the POWER back to the artist

My message in this blog post is that the invention of computers, tablets, e-readers and the internet have given power back to the artist. It’s an amazing time my fellow artists. I now give you permission to be selfish – and it’s a good thing when it comes to your art. Never before in the history of the world have artists been given the ability to get their work to their audience so inexpensively. Because it’s so cheap it means we can do it on our own so we don’t necessarily need someone putting restrictions on our content. I’m not saying that it’s not good to get opinions from other professionals but now we can do what we want – the environment for complete creativity is autonomy. I’m embracing ebooks, apps, and whatever else develops in the future.

So be selfish – Have fun, your best art has yet to be created – what’s hiding in there?

Successful Artists have FUN while They Create

Posted on July 5, 2016 by Will Terry

Have FUN while you create your artwork for more success

I am a successful artist, Why? Because I enjoy what I do.

“Learn to love work and you will love life.” ~L Carl Andreason. “Find a way to make money doing what you love, and you will love work.” ~G. Ken Nuttall

Successful artist having a blast

I am having a blast working on this little project – I’m not sleeping much lately because I’m busy doing real stuff too, but I am having fun, or at least, that’s what I keep telling myself. As I get older I realize that we only have a short window to make it happen – whatever “it” is. I love the challenge of developing good instruction for my college classes, pleasing my freelance clients, pleasing myself on personal projects and my continued involvement on the day to day workings of Folio Academy.

I found a programmer and animator to help me see this picture book become an app, and see this vision through – I’m having so much fun – at work!!!

I am calling this project, “Monster App”

Get Over it, You’re Just Another Artist

Posted on July 1, 2016 by Will Terry

Get Over it, You’re Just Another Artist

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Just Another ARTIST???!!! What kind of a statement is that?

Didn’t you “used to think” you were amazing amazing artist?

Remember back when you were in junior high and you started making really bad copies of spider man or (insert cool character or album cover here) and because it sort of resembled what you were going for you thought you were an amazing artist? Your friends who had quit trying to draw were now propping you up – “awww WICKED”…”dude that is totally bad”. Fast forward to high school and you were determined to draw in art class amongst the stoners. It didn’t take long for you to get their attention: “Dude that’s bad ass…. (I guess you’re allowed to say ass in high school) draw Eddie from Iron Maiden on my Jacket.”

Your head was completely filled with hot gasses and arrogance as you headed off to college. Even though your teachers bathed you in beautiful images from working professionals you weren’t that impressed. Caught up in the grandeur of your graduating portfolio you excitedly started marketing your work. When assignments didn’t actually flood in you got the first twinge of insecurity but you shrugged it off. After a few years of struggling to keep freelancing you gained a partial attitude overhaul. Humility was still in short supply but you started giving a few nods to other artists. Five years in and you put yourself near the top shelf of illustration talent. Seven years and you still grossly overestimated your skills. Ten years – the internet was bringing more and more amazing artists to your attention. Fifteen years you realized you’re just another set of hands. Eighteen years you start to feel lucky to be an illustrator. Twenty years and you know you’re lucky! Being able to do what you do while there are so many artists much more talented and capable than you roaming this little rock. Fear sets in when you realize…you might not be keeping up. Embarrassing, but this was me.
Become a “WHOLE” artist:
Work hard
Have heroes
Open mind
Listen
Engage

Status Update on Monster app

Monster App still on schedule (there’s no schedule so I’m right on time) Tee hee.

Illustrating a Picture Book: an e-book & an App

Posted on June 20, 2016 by Will Terry

Sketch for my MONSTER book

Here I am, working on a new picture e-book and I thought I’d post one of the sketches – it’s a bit rough but they all start out rough and I’d like to post some work in progress as I get going on it. This will be another e-book that I will finish down the road. I say down the road because I know this one is going to take much longer than the other ones I’ve produced in the past. I’ve decided to gamble more time in order to produce a final product that I feel is worthy of long term recognition. Illustrating children’s books is still probably the funnest thing on earth next to sneezing nine times in a row (my personal best) and when I’m working on one like this -time seems to move x ten. Yes I have allergies and I am allergic to whatever we have going on around here.

E-Book (Indie) VS Physical Books; Writing and Illustrating E-Books

Posted on April 29, 2016 by Wayne

Indie books, E-Book and Physical Books, Which is better?

Since I’m a lover of both the physical and the e-book – I don’t have a favorite, but I think it’s always good to analyze them things for their advantages and disadvantages. So I have compiled a list of pros and cons below.

Pros & Cons for the consumer as well as the author/illustrator

I decided to list both pros and cons from the consumer point of view as well as the author and artist/illustrator point of view. As if I were to be working with a traditional publisher vs indie publishing an e-book. So if you like to purchase books, Illustrate or write children’s books, this list is for you. If I miss some points please help me by adding your insights as I know I’ll have a different list than some of you. So here we go…

Physical Books, Pros:

Having a tangible artifact; to hold and curl up with on a rainy day.
Larger format for illustrations; A nice illustration to look at, and more fun to paint.
Better legibility in strong light; Like out in the daylight.
Gift-ability; A tangible, 3-D present to give.
Developing a physical library; Looks good on a shelf.
Guaranteed advance against royalties; Cash is king.
Eligible for Caldecott and other medals; Like that’s going to happen to me.
Inclusion in school & public libraries; More sales and fame.
Can be signed; The fans love this, and it’s a pat on the back.
More prestigious; It’s a real book.
Edited by professionals; Fewer typos
Marketed by professionals; People that know what they are doing

Physical Books, Cons

Expensive to purchase
Expensive to print and to publish
Can get damaged and or lost
Hard to see in dim light
Heavy & unwieldy
Less Eco friendly
Limited to multiples of 4 page counts
Travel to purchase & wait for delivery
Can go out of print

E-Book, Pros:

Inexpensive to purchase
Inexpensive to publish
Disaster Proof; you download from your account
Reading in the dark
Light weight; Easy to carry thousands of titles; Moving day is a lot easier.
Eco friendly
Search-able
Adjustable font size
Interactivity
Unlimited page counts
Publishing freedom & autonomy
Update-able
Instant delivery
Quicker to market & royalties
Never goes out of print

E-Book, Cons;

No physical artifact
Comparatively small viewing area
Hard to view in strong light
Not as gift-able
Less pride of ownership
No guarantee of earnings
Not eligible for most book awards
Can’t be checked out at the library
Can’t be signed
Less prestigious
Self edited
Self programmed
Self marketed

Is the E-Book Better, or the Physical Book?

There you have it, a list of pros and cons but no definite right answer. I can only surmise, that both have their pros and both have their cons. E-Books are better for some occasions or personalities and real books are better for others. Like I said, I love them both. I do think it is cool that anyone can publish now with the invention of the e-book. See the process in a previous blog. You may also want to check out the blog where in my friend Kari Brimhall shares the how to create and publish your own e-book. See 4/22/16.

Free How to Create Your Own E-Books? E-Book Over Achievers

Posted on April 22, 2016 by Will Terry

Any one can create “your own e-books”

17 of Kari and Von Brimhall's e-books Some close friends of mine, Von and Kari Brimhall have gone completely nuts on e-books! They are two of my very best friends from college and have always been into art and design. We had a conversation about producing e-books and they opened the flood gates on their creativity. Together they created 39 – YES! – 39 e-books in about 4 months but I’ll let them tell you more about that below. Von is a computer geek and has a great full time gig working for the chain saw company, Stihl, and Kari is a home schooler, storyteller, and artist and they have a gaggle of successful kids.

How to create and publish your own e-books

Before you read their letter you have to check out the amazing tutorial Von has made for anyone to download and make their own ebooks – he’s made it available for free right here – click to download. If programing your own e-books sounds scary you have to check out Von’s step by step tutorial – he makes it really easy for you.

Von and Kari are proving that if you have ideas, motivation, and hard work you can realize your dreams in this new medium. Have a look at their titles and read a little about their new journey.

Confessions of the e-Book dudes

We’ve been friends with Will Terry for years and avid fans of his art! When he posted his two awesome video series How to Illustrate Children’s Books and Digital Painting in Photoshop, we signed right up! Both my husband and I like to draw and paint, and I love to write. Just watching the video courses on Folio Academy’s website, opened our eyes to all kinds of possibilities.

Self Publishing our E-Books was fun and easy

We instantly pulled out a story that I had told for years to our children when they were young… and Von started drawing and painting–digitally! We couldn’t believe how fun and easy it was. Thus, our first eBook was born! Freddie Frog is Hungry was so exciting to share with friends that we decided to take the plunge and upload it to Barnes and Noble.com.

With e-books there are no boxes of inventory in the garage

This is not my first book, I have self published and still have copies of a fabulous book in the garage…just waiting for a market. Having Barnes and Noble sell our books is great. They take care of the money end of things and I take care of the marketing. Writing eBooks is very nice–the expense of self-publishing and printing, then marketing and working out prices, taxes, mailing to customers, and buying all the supplies that go with it, etc. is a thing of the past. With eBooks, you don’t have boxes in the garage of unsold books.

E-books available at a PC near you

All of our Nook E-Books are available for sale on Barnes and Noble.com. We currently have 39 eBooks for sale and hopefully more on the way! Our target demographic is 0-6 years old so these are all books that parents would be reading to and with their children. Besides being clever, our eBooks have an educational slant to them. They include learning basic colors, numbers, animals, seasons, the alphabet, etc.

We’re not selling large volumes like Will Terry yet, but we’re working on it. If you would like to see what our eBooks are like you can download a free a PDF version of our eBook ‘Who Says Moo?’ right here. If you are interested in how we make our eBooks, you http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifcan download a detailed PDF tutorial that my husband wrote at http://vonlogan.com/sunshine/indesign.html . It describes how to create illustrated children’s eBooks using Adobe InDesign.

Hope you enjoy it and go on to create your own fabulous eBooks. ~Kari Brimhall

Ebook; from Idea to Publish to Prosper, I Hope

Posted on April 8, 2016 by Will Terry

Ebook: Think, Write, Paint, Publish.

I released another ebook on Barnes and noble.com! My other books were really encouraging. And I wasn’t sleeping anyway. So behold, Pollywog to Frog.

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Two Things I really like about Ebooks

1) I love to draw fun simple little characters

2) I like to be able to pay my bills.

Publishing my own ebooks in my “spare” time allows me to do both. I carry my sketch book everywhere and so if I’m not writing I’m sketching and vice versa. Pollywog to Frog was written in the few hours I have in-between the two college classes I was teaching and the digital paintings were done in-between assignments. And oh yeah, an ebook costs so little to publish. Now anyone can compete with the big publishers.

ebook graphic, a little polliwog, Flippy floppy little sprout,

ebook graphic, a little tad-pole, All his arms and legs pop out.

Ebooks: How to make money as an artist.

One of the best things we can do as artists and business people is develop passive streams of income. The ability to earn money while you’re sleeping, playing, or working on other projects is a really cool thing. I’m already working on my next ebook.

If you can’t write an ebook, find someone who can

If any of you feel comfortable illustrating but not writing and would want to work on producing an ebook, ask around, everyone knows someone who wants to write a children’s book. Find a friend or relative, (Can relatives be friends?) to work with. If that doesn’t work, I have a professional well known author who would love you to take one of his manuscripts and turn it into an ebook. And my buddy, also known as my brother in law is probably still available to take the finished jpeg files and produce the epub files necessary to publish your work. Just email me off list if you’re interested: willterryart@gmail.com

Stay tuned for some Shameless Marketing below

5 ebooks that I recommend

So my three little claims to ebook fame are: Monkey & Croc, Tickle Bugs and Pollywog to Frog. none of which have made the New Your Times best seller list. A young friend of mine, OK, Wayne’s daughter, has written two ebooks. I Love Chickens Eggs and Baby Chicks and When I Grow Up, I Want to be a Frog, and she is just a little girl. I think I told you this in my last post, but Hey! I want to encourage you.

PS Learn how to draw and paint, and other fun art skills at FolioAcademy.com.