art smarts

A Q-and-A with Art Directors
By Agy Wilson

Recently, I had the opportunity to ask Ron McCutchan (CRICKET, senior art director) and Suzanne Beck (art director, BABYBUG and LADYBUG) of the Carus group, some of those burning questions (the good kind of burn, I might add) that illustrators would like to know. I share the answers with Kidmagwriters, this month. Happy creating all!

KMW: With all the submissions you receive, what really grabs your attention? What are the most common mistake(s) illustrators make?
Art Directors: I like to see work that makes me imagine a story -- interesting juxtapositions, action. The biggest mistake we get is submissions that aren't at all appropriate to CRICKET (we don't use mass-market, cartoony styles or the hyped photorealism that's used in advertising) and samples that are all the same thing: stiff portraits of kids, or scenes all from just one story, featuring the same characters and setting. We also get a lot of submissions that are not consistent -- two or three excellent illustrations and two or three that are not at all of the same quality. We generally don't work with such an artists because we wouldn't know what we'd get (and past experience has shown that the work we DO get in most often is of the lesser quality rather than the better).

KMW: Does networking (meeting with the artist in person or recommends from other illustrators hold any weight? Or is it solely based on the artwork?
Art Directors: It's pretty much based on the artwork alone. We're so far out from Chicago that we don't see many artists face to face (and it's a little uncomfortable on those occasions when people DO come -- it's such a long distance that one feels bad spending just 10 or 15 minutes reviewing a portfolio, but that's all the time it takes and, frankly, all the time we really have, if that.)

KMW: Do the Art Directors make the choice of illustrator for assignment? Or the editor or a combination?
Art Directors: The art director makes a short list of possible artists and the final choice is made in conjunction with the editor.

KMW: Is the industry using more digital work (what's the balance against traditional)? Will the trend shift more to digital, in your opinion?
Art Directors: We certainly are, though it's probably only 10 to 20% (more for CICADA). I don't think we'll ever go to digital only. The traditional media still offer "happy accidents" and qualities that still aren't matched by computers, but the gap is narrowing and even our "traditional" artists are utilizing digital for editing and color correction.

KMW: How specific should one's portfolio be? For instance if someone has cats and kids in the imagery, does the AD extrapolate that the artist is capable of dogs and kids? Or should there be examples of EVERYTHING the artist enjoys/is capable of rendering?
Art Directors: It's the editors who we find sometimes have difficulty extrapolating, but generally, if a portfolio includes a range of ages for kids and some animals (small furries and maybe one or two larger species) that should be sufficient.

KMW: Traditional wisdom has magazines being a great leapfrog into the world of book publishing. Do you find that to be true? For instance, working with your (wonderful) magazine, would that help breaking into the trade market, and how?
Art Directors: We still occasionally get calls from publishers about artists that have been seen in the magazines (and have heard some stories about non-book clients getting in touch with our artists as well). But the trade book world does seem to be getting more conservative and less willing to take a risk on "new" artists.

KMW: What's the best way to get noticed -- mailer, website, sourcebook, combinations? Do you like or dislike being emailed samples? How often should samples be submitted? Do you prefer postcards or "packets" as sample work?
Art Directors: Mailers are the best way. We dislike getting cold e-mails from artists we don't know. Once a year, or maybe once every 6 months is plenty often. We prefer to get a packet (5-8 samples) for a first submission (with a self-addressed stamped envelope, of course), so we have some idea of the artist's range. After that, a postcard is fine as an update.

KMW: How many new illustrators do you use as opposed to established illustrators? Is already being established (having publication in magazines and/or the trade market) a positive or negative in getting hired? About what percentage of work submitted do you consider up to par to your publishing standards?
Art Directors: Probably about 10% of our assignments go to first time artists. Having publication in magazines probably helps. Having a LOT of books probably hinders, in that we often figure that an artist won't have the time or won't accept our budgets. We get upwards of 80 art submissions a month, and will put 4-8 on file, so it's around 5-10%. (This also includes artists whose work we think IS of quality but who are working in styles that aren't suitable for our magazines--really slick mass-market styles or highly cartoon-y styles).

KMW: Is Carus still a work-for-hire, or is the contract negotiable?
Art Directors: We're still work-for-hire.

KMW: If someone submits work to one Art Director at Carus, is it shared among the other Art Directors (BABYBUG vs. SPIDER, for instance)?
Art Directors: Both the art directors in Peru share a file and all samples route between us. However, we don't see what comes into the MUSE office in Chicago or the COBBLESTONE office in Peterborough.

KMW: If you wouldn't mind, could you demystify the process of choosing, assigning and working with an illustrator?
Art Directors: I'm not sure there's a mystery to this--but it IS highly subjective. When we put together an artist list, we keep in mind the story (not only specifically what happens in the story, but the genre), the other stories and poems in the issue (if we have several stories in the same vein, we'll try to select artists with contrasting styles or who work in different media), what other stories and poems we've published recently (we wouldn't want to assign the same artist every baseball story or every Japanese story we do within a year or two). Sometimes I'll throw in someone completely against type, just to keep things fresh and keep myself from typecasting.

After an artist is chosen, we generally call them or e-mail them to see if they are available, and then we will mail them (or sometime e-mail them) the layout and contract. Our layouts are in the text type in which the story will be printed (the display type is chosen after we see the art) with spaces indicated for the illustrations. The layouts are somewhat negotiable, though, so an artist may ask about moving art around or wrapping text around a section of illustration that may extend into the type area. We require sketches, which are routed to the pertinent editors for comments, and we also route the final artwork to the same editors for approval.

Unless there's something specific that an author or editor has indicated as being necessary to the text, we generally allow the artist a lot of leeway in terms of interpretation and direction (though sometimes there will be some redefinition/redirection at the sketch stage if things have gone in an inappropriate direction).

KMW:There you have it. Now if you're still a-burning, you might want to break out the aloe. Otherwise get cracking, there's art to be made!

Agy Wilson is a founding member of Yellapalooza, a crit group for writers/illustrators. You can find some of her work in CWIM 2004, KidCornerNews, and Mistletoe Madness, Blooming Tree Press, 2004. Currently she is working on a couple of her own projects, fending for her furred and feathered friends, two children and husband in Windham, Maine.

This page last updated on 01 November 2004