The Regional Chapters of SCBWI have a tradition of offering online webinars. The prices for these webinars are extremely low. I thought that I would share with you the SCBWI Webinars that I’ll attend in April. Get Your April Off to a Good Start with Frances Gilbert What’s Your Picture Book Hook? Date/Time Date(s) –…
Author: jackikellum
Take A Peak into Edith Holden’s Journals – Reflections on March
Before March completely dissolves into April, I want to share a few pages from journals that were kept by Edith Holden, who wrote both The Nature Notes of an Edwardian Lady and The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady. I have had both of these books in my library for years. I especially like the…
The Importance of Writing in a Journal
This spring, I vow to reestablish the important practice of observing nature closely and of recording what I see, smell and hear in a journal. Much of writing is about recreating sensory details, and I am convinced that learning to be more in the moment and observing what I sense in the moment will help…
How to Draw Bowtie Bunny in Ballet Slippers
Last week, we drew an egg. Bowtie Bunny is just an egg with ears, arms, feet, and, a tail. If you haven’t drawn the egg, click on this link and do so. We’ll start this drawing at the end of that tutorial: https://x55.68c.myftpupload.com/how-to-draw-an-egg-jacki-kellum-draw-the-bowties/ Once you have reached the spot where you have an egg with…
Tons of Free and Nearly Free Programs for Children’s Writers & Illustrators – What’s Ahead?
It is true that within every dark cloud there is a silver lining, and several organizations have stepped forward during the Coronavirus pandemic to add a touch of a silver lining by providing free and nearly free programs for the people who are writing and illustrating for children. For years, the Society of Children’s Book…
How to Draw An Egg – Jacki Kellum Free Drawing Class
Eggs have important to human survival for as long as I know. I don’t know who were the first people who learned to cook eggs, but somewhere along the way, mankind realized that the little oval things that birds lay were edible, and ever since then, eggs have been important for human survival. Centuries ago,…
Everyone Needs A Secret Garden – Words about My Garden
Not long ago, I visited The Cloisters in New York City. By definition, a cloister is an open hallway that surrounds a protected garden. It is a natural walkway where monks and nuns might retreat into nature and still have a degree of protection from the elements, like wind, rain, snow, sun–and other people, too….
Learning to Paint and to Write by Intuition
When I am painting and when I am writing, I consider it a great day when something within myself takes over and essentially completes my project for me. This gentle urging is intuition. It is the spark that helped Michelangelo release his sculptures from a piece of rock, and it is my writer’s voice and…
Learn to See with Your Spirit and Not Merely with Your Eyes
I often write about the importance of an artist’s or a writer’s or a thinker’s truly “seeing,” as opposed to merely looking.’ Even flies can look. Looking is nothing more than image recognition Seeing is a deeper thing. It has to do with perceiving and with the imagination and with empathy and feeling. Seeing things as they truly…
How to Make A Picture in Photoshop with the Custom Tools – Kids Do Photoshop Lesson 2
Before I show you how to create a new picture with photoshop, I’d like to tell you something about myself .My name is Jacki Kellum, and I write and illustrate picture books. I am excited that one of my picture books will be published soon. Before now, I have used watercolor paint to create my…