Corrupted files and SCBWI

Sometimes, things just don’t go the way you want them to. And sometimes things seem to do this maliciously.

Take yesterday and this morning for example. Fresh from returning from a fantastic couple of days at the Western Washington SCBWI conference in Belleview, I had a clearer vision on what I wanted to do with my children’s artwork, and a much better idea of what the editors and agents are looking for (more on this later).

So, after work, I spent somewhere in the neighborhood of 9 hours repainting one of the dinosaur pictures that I submitted for the conference retreat. I wanted to give it a much more painted feeling, ad a lot of detail and really let the viewer in. The previous version was more or less line art with a color wash. I wanted to take it to full painting, which is something that I had been playing around with anyway, but hadn’t really committed to. Well, I was committed.

From 2 till 11:30 p.m. I painted away, refining and playing experiment and really being pleased with what I had. By the time I was done, bleary eyed, aching and stumbling from sitting in front of my laptop for so long a stretch with only a couple of breaks here and there, I was very pleased. I figured that if I could get another session in like that, I’d be done with the piece in two sittings. And I mean really done – something to be proud of done.

I saved the pic, shut down the computer and went gratefully to bed with visions of printing a spot section at full resolution in the morning to see how well it looked printed vs. on the computer. I anticipated excellent results.

Now. I work in Corel Painter XI. For those of you in the know, I don’t use layers. I paint digitally pretty much the same way I paint traditional – the process is essentially the same, and on one layer.

Morning. Coffee cup firmly in hand and gritty eyes propped open, I started the computer, launched Painter and loaded the pic.

I could only stare. Nine hours lost. I was too shocked and disappointed to be mad, though I should have been. I’m still not sure what happened exactly. (Warning: Geekspeak ahead). The only thing that I can figure is that I was saving the file a .rif file, which is native to Painter and allows for keeping your digital watercolors “wet” between sessions, something that can not be done with any other file format. I typically just save my files as .psd’s, and don’t worry about saving “wet” paint – it’s all “wet” anyway if you use the blenders correctly. You can see what happens when things go, terribly wrong with digital artwork.

So, back to the drawing board…. The hours this morning before work were spent repainting the picture from the line art. Fortunately, I did come up with a couple of things that worked well yesterday and was able to bring them forward to today. The picture won’t be the same, but it will still be good. My arm hurts from carpel tunnel, and I still have a long, long way to go on just this one piece. And there’s thirty-one to go…

The Illustrator’s Retreat and SCBWI Conference.

Um. Wow. I’m not even really sure where to begin with this. First, it was incredible. I attended one about three or four years ago and just did not come away with the same feeling. This year was just fantastic. Every one I met there was incredibly nice.

I started off at the Illustrator’s Retreat on Friday, which started bright and early at 8:30 a.m. for registration at the Overlake Golf and Country Club in Medina. We spent the first half of the day with Paul O. Zelinsky, Caldecott Medal Winning artist. He is an incredibly nice man, and a fantastic artist. After lunch I was in for the Portfolio Critique with Stephanie Bart-Horvath, Art Director, HarperCollins and literary agent Scott Treimel of S©ott Treimel NY.

What can I say about it?

How about “Ouch!” By the end of the end of the day I was ready to either slit my wrists when I got back to the hotel or get drunk. It was rough. Brutal is a more accurate description – but that is actually a good thing. I would not have taken as much away from that had they been nice. I’m very glad that the two of them were as honest and forthright as they were. Both Stephanie and Scott gave me a lot to think about in regards to how I am approaching the digital work, and what needs to be done in order to make it really shine.

The actual conference itself on Saturday was awesome. I don’t want to give you a blow by blow description of everything that went on, but it was well worth it. I had a lot of questions and concerns answered and learned a ton – much of which I am still digesting.

So, for now, back to the art!