I love that I got to go see this exhibit. The Story Maker’s Art was on display at the Mark K. Wheeler Gallery at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale. Not only was there an exhibit, the illustrators came to the school for a panel discussion. It was great to be back at my old school again and be able to still pass for a student. Yep, I was talking to someone at the show and was asked when I would graduate. Always a plus considering I graduated over ten years ago.

The best part of the show was hearing from talented artists in the children’s book industry and listening to their advice to aspiring artists. No surprise was the advice that if you can write and illustrate your own childrens book you wouldn’t need to share an advance with artist and author. The thing that did surprise me was to hear an illustrator share that out of 50 books maybe about twelve have earned out their advance. As someone just starting out it’s good to hear from others who have been doing the process for a long time and gain some perspective.