I just attended an SCBWI conference in Hillsboro, Oregon and I thought I'd share a few things I learned. I attended a panel hosted by David Hohn, an artist based in Portland. He went into detail on his illustration process, from brainstorming to the finished piece. It's making me think there's a better way for me to create illustrations, which means experimentation.

David likes to start with  divergent thinking, that is unfiltered word mapping of what he's going to draw. An example he used was from Treasure Island, where the words he jotted down for Long John Silver included the obvious like "pirate," but also more outside the box words like "gangster."

Another big thing he talked about was getting the tones down before coloring. This is something I'm going to try for and see where it takes me.

The conference covered other topics too like what sort of books agents and editors are looking for, book banning, AI in the publishing world, how to write stories, and making the sort of books we want to see. I would have liked to go to more panels, but alas, I couldn't be in two places at once. SCBWI conferences often have too many good things to choose from!

And while I was in Hillsboro, I took the opportunity to eat at Jollibee since I don't get to do that every day. The spicy chicken sandwiches and ube pies are delicious!

I included my six page Treasure comic in my portfolio at the conference. It's still in a rough stage, but I've decided to post it as-is on my website. I plan to do more work on it, but for now I'll direct you to this link to read it.