There are no available registration dates at this time.

NOTE: This course will be held in a live, online format using the Zoom Platform.
Class meets Tuesdays for nine sessions, 10am-1pm & 2pm-5pm ET + One-on-one crits by appointment

Attention illustrators! Spend two months committed to taking your picture book from idea to a print-ready book that can be uploaded to the self-publishing platform of your choice. The workshop objective is to write and illustrate a well-constructed, compelling and delightful children’s picture book that is ready to self-publish. Emphasis will be on visual storytelling for children and best practices for developing a self-published book. Through weekly prompts/assignments, participants will be encouraged to stay on track for completion of the book within the two-month timeframe, however the instructor will design the content of meetings and handouts so that participants have the knowledge and tools to complete their book project at any time. This is an intensive, guided online learning experience; in addition to group and individual instruction, the instructor will share readings, resources, and visual inspirations and invite at least one guest author/illustrator to a group meeting.

This course will encompass picture book manuscript writing, thumbnail sketches/storyboarding, creation of an industry-standard ‘dummy book,’ development of final art, book layout in InDesign and formatting for self-publishing platforms (Lulu, Print Ninja, etc).

Requirements:

This workshop is designed for illustrators working traditionally or digitally in the medium of their choice, with some experience and/or a strong interest in writing for children and a desire to self-publish. Participants should come prepared with a picture book idea, and if possible, a manuscript rough draft or rough thumbnails.

Participants must have a way to photograph or scan their work and email/upload images for sharing with the class, and must have Adobe InDesign* software access and proficiency.  *We will not be teaching Adobe InDesign, rather we will be taking your knowledge of the program and applying it to how to create a production file to the specifications of your online publisher. There is an Adobe Indesign class available in January, as well as a 2-Day Intro to Indesign class

 

All images:  ©Lucky Platt, Header image: ©Gideon Baeza

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Instructor: Lucky Platt

Author-illustrator Lucky Platt creates books for children in her lakeside rural Maine studio. She works in a range of traditional art mediums, and her stories explore themes of resilience, healing, positive self expression and inclusion. She has presented art and writing workshops for children and adults through the Maine Crafts Association, Schoodic Arts for All, the Maine Arts Commission and Rockland Public Library, and has shown her artwork in galleries and non-traditional/unexpected art spaces in Maine and New York. In early 2020, she left her work as an arts administrator to devote all of her time to writing and illustrating. She has created two self-published picture books on commission; Imagine a Wolf (Page Street Kids, January 2021) is her debut picture book for the trade market. Lucky is a two-time recipient of an Individual Artist Project Grant from the Maine Arts Commission (2016, 2020), a two-time recipient of an Anderson Ranch Art Center scholarship (2019, 2020), and a recipient of an Ox-Bow Artists’Residency scholarship for printmaking (2004). She studied painting, drawing and printmaking at Vassar College, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and Complutense City University of Madrid, and has enriched her craft with workshops at the Maine Women Writers’Collection, Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Farnsworth Art Museum and Haystack Mountain School of Crafts among others.