Tomorrow, I’ll begin moving to my new, 125-year-old house in the Ozark Mountains. Yesterday, I was wandering around in my new front yard, and I paused for a moment beside the huge, old tree, where the daffodils are blooming, I knelt low, and I couldn’t help but notice that my big, old tree has a…
Category: Jacki Kellum Picture Books
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…
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…
Celebrating the Cow that Jumped Over the Moon – How A Children’s Poem Influenced My Adult Art
No doubt, the cow that jumped over the moon has inspired many poets, artists, and illustrators. I cannot begin to name the ways that The Cow Jumped Over the Moon has contributed to the artist and the writer that I still strive to become, and I want to challenge everyone to consider how very marvelous…
The Value of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators – SCBWI Conferences
If you are serious about wanting to write and/or illustrate children’s books, you absolutely must join SCBWI or the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. The SCBWI is an enormous and well-built organization that serves writing communities around the world, but unlike many huge organizations, it also has well-structured regional organizations that offer teaching…
While Visions of Sugarplums Dance in My Head – A Few Words about the Process of Getting A Picture Book Published
A miraculous thing happened. One of the big 4 publishers will be publishing my debut picture book soon–well, not really so soon, but that is what this post is about. Actually, the deal is still a bit of a mystery, but I am happy to say that I won’t be illustrating my first book. That…
Twitter Ptch Events: The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly: Are Twitter Pitch Events Important for Picture Book Writers?
OK, Folks, in the past two weeks, I have participated in two Twitter pitch events for my picture books, and I want to report my honest opinion about whether or not I believe that Twitter is important for picture book writers and illustrators. Two weeks ago, I pitched in PBpitch, and although my overall success…