Or the Serendipity of Screwdrivers and Studies
The other day, having at last been unable to deny that the computer chair was a wee bit wobbly, I laid it on its side and went off to the basement in search of a screwdriver.
In the basement, I did a load of washing, checked out the wine cellar, mixed a bit of rapid cement for a hole in the wall, put a bit of plaster somewhere else, fixed a picture frame, topped up the water in the heating system, noticed the ivy was invading one basement window so went out to subdue its enthusiasm, pulled up some weeds, adjusted a few stones on the patio, transferred a few old roof tiles to the basement and then came back upstairs to the studio where I nearly wiped out over that office chair.
Totally forgot to get the screwdriver.
Well, in 1979, I went off for a year to study abroad…
What it was I was looking for, I can’t for the life of me remember.
THE SMALL PICTURE
Speaking of pictures, one of the more satisfying sides to illustrating is getting copies of the books with your covers. I have recently embarked on a utopian, world-wide and prbably foolhardy campaign to get at least one copy of every cover I have ever had published, which makes me realize how lax I have been in the past about illustrator’s copies. (If I am successful, this is going to pose serious storage problems, but theoretical hurdles need not be leapt except in thought…)
Most editors are more than happy to send proofs, many even send THREE copies of everything, which is the cake, the icing AND the candles lit for any illustrator.
However, some expect you to buy your copies (I was recently offered three paperbacks for just under £40.00 – admittedly it included postage – but that did seem a bit steep, so I ended up purchasing them for a grand total of £18.00 from amazon.co.uk…)
Others just ignore your pleas. I have been chasing the third volume in a series for over a year until I finally gave up pursuing the editor in question and turned to one of his colleagues, who very kindly sent me the paperback, with a little note saying that the hardback and the trade paperback weren’t available any longer. Oh well, there’s always used-book sites.
Nor are you always notified when foreign rights are sold, so while this does lead to impromptu discoveries in airport bookshops, it does not nourish your archives reguarly.
But editors are a busy lot, and it is admittedly very hard to keep up with illustrators’ copies.
Conscious of these inherent difficulties, I am hereby making a spontaneous job offer to every editor plagued by grumbling illustrators (like me) badgering them for copies.
Hire me. I’m efficient, have stupendous and infallible visual memory (my Dad and I used to have huge rows when I remarked with all the subtlety youth can muster that he’d borrowed that Louis L’amour western for a second or third time – I remembered each and every cover. That’s how I choose Discworld novels in airports, by the way – the day they change the cover art, I’ll probably unwittingly buy them all again.) What’s more, I LIKE illustrators, I can identify with their modest aspirations, their joys and sorrows and lean ambitions, I can SEE their gleeful wee countenances when they receive little packages from editors. (Boy, talk about client empathy.)
See, I’d do a GREAT job. I’d make sure books appeared in mailboxes before they arrived in bookshops, I’d oversee pitilessly sturdy wrapping and packages , suffer no bent corners or scuffed spines, I’d use nice big sturdy envelopes for proofs (no folding them never no never ever) and make sure every edition was included. I’d remind foreign editors to post copies of sub-rights covers, heck I could even make sure the EDITORS themselves have archived copies.
So, if you want to hire me up, just write via the site, I’m open to all serious offers.
THE SMALLER PICTURES
Unlike the stables of Augias (there’s also a difference of content… or at least so I hope), I have actually gotten to the end of the herculean task of linking up the printed matter on the sit to the original artwork, and am now linking the originals up to the printed matter.
THE SMALLEST PICTURE
Newsletters may be scarce for a while, I fear. Still unable to hold a pencil and brush to my satisfaction, and slowed by the painful nuisance of it all. Thus, will be concentrating on artwork and all those texts I have promised fo various books and articles, and rather less here. When my webmaster Dominique returns from vacation, (he who holds the ring of arcane and priceless keys that allow me to put pictures in the newsletter) there will at least be something to see, if not to read.
