SCBWI Winter Conference Recap

Hey there everyone,

It has been a crazy, whirlwind, head-spinning sort of week and weekend. The head-spinning may have resulted from the all too dangerous combination of conference-overload and cold medicine. Yep, I got sick just in time for conference weekend. No worries, though. I powered through and came home with a journal full of inspiration.

My illustrator friends are scattered across the country, so SCBWI conferences have become a lovely sort of reunion. Two of my dear illustrator friends even bunked at my tiny apartment in Brooklyn.

 Pictured here with fellow Mentee, Maple Lam. (Photo courtesy of Debbie Ohi.)

The first day of the conference was the Illustrator Intensive, and it started with an amazing presentation by Shaun Tan. He told us, "You know an idea is great when it starts to tell you what to do."

He showed some of his incredible drawings, 

and he even signed a book for me!

Floyd Cooper not only gave a talk but did a piece right in front of us!

David Ezra Stein talked about his inner artist and inner critic. (Inner artist pictured below.)

The Brothers Hilts talked about their recently published book, The Insomniacs. Check it out, it's amazing. I loved what they had to say about books as a whole: "The book as object is the art. That's what's going to be in 1,000 tiny hands and seen by 1,000 tiny eyeballs."

After and between all of the amazing talks there was time to hang with illustrator and Mentor, David Diaz and my fellow Mentees.

(Photo courtesy of Debbie Ohi.)

I also got to hang out with the amazing gals from my Critique Group, Brooke Boynton-Hughes and Jessixa Bagley. 

Finally, at the end of the day, we browsed the Portfolio Showcase. There were over 200 portfolios! 

(Photo courtesy of Debbie Ohi.)

The next two days of conference were chock-full and jam-packed with workshops and lectures, and Mo Willems took off his shoe.

A major highlight of the weekend was the Illustrator Social on Saturday night. Tomie dePaola came as a surprise guest to chat and hang out with us. 

Another amazing moment was the announcement of the Portfolio Showcase winners. Among them were two friends.

Jessixa won runner-up!

 (Photo courtesy of Maple Lam.)

And fellow Mentee Andrea Offerman won the grand prize!

(Photo courtesy of Maple Lam.)

The Mentees spent loads of time hanging out together...

 (Photo courtesy of Debbie Ohi.)

especially in the hotel lobby.

 (Photo courtesy of Debbie Ohi.)

And later in Debbie's hotel room,

 (Photo courtesy of Debbie Ohi.)

we checked out Debbie's potato

(Photo courtesy of Maple Lam.)

and napped.

 (Photo courtesy of Debbie Ohi.)

It was an inspiring and exhausting entirely excellent weekend. Many thanks to Lin Oliver, Stephen Mooser, and the amazing staff at SCBWI.

Stay tuned for two additional upcoming conference-related posts, Mentee Monday and journal doodles.