Thursday 16 March 2017

Plum Pudding Illustration Agency

Any interactive book - novelty 
Activity books
Picture Books

Other products
Puzzles
Plays - Set design
‘Hug in a box’ - Book and cuddly toy

Export of books
America and Europe are biggest markets

Trade Market
£1.99 - Value
>>>>> Quality mass market
£20.00 - Gift
All equally in demand

Value
Generic characters - bright bold - stickers books novelty
Quality/Mass market
Work into drawings a bit more and show off their signature style. Sweet/ cute - arty but safe
Trade/Gift
Artists are pushing boundaries - more labor intensive in the creating of the artwork.

The ins and outs of being a freelance illustrator
Freelance - freedom to fit work around family/other work
You need to be organised: plan ahead with payments
Work from home or share a studio?

Keep with the trends

Look up Kate Pankhurst

Trade Fairs
Bologna Children’s book fair
Frankfurter Buchmesse
Bookexpo America
Surtex
The London Book Fair

It’s important to pace your story well
  • Average attention span of a 5 - 6 year old is ten to fifteen minutes
  • Picture books: 32pp including end papers
  • How do you make your story stand out?
  • Clever composition: Don’t be afraid of white space
  • More impact if you have a mixture of full colour, busy spreads followed bu a spot illustration cut to white.

Look up ‘Ella, Who?’ Illustrated by Sara Sanchez

What is the point in an agent?
  • Find work, support, negotiate, give guidance, deal with the contracts and markets…
  • Another platform for you and your illustrations to gain exposure
  • Develop your work so it fits with the current markets

Developing Paula Bowles’ work
Originally quite muted colours, really sweet, quite traditional
At the minute the market is asking for more vibrant, bold, punchy colours
Have to adapt to the current market

Submitting your work
  • 10-20 jpegs or pdf
  • Research companies: The Writers’ And Artists’ Yearbook lists lots of publishers and agencies: check the submission guidelines on each companies website
  • Consistency: Character studies - different poses/emotions
  • Mixture of children and animals
  • Mixture of full full and spot arts
  • Keep different styles separate 
  • When working digitally always 300dpi and CMYK

Look up Mar Ferrero

Look up Xavier Bonet


No comments:

Post a Comment