in the interest of time, I am revising this Info for Illustrators page instead of re-writing it from scratch (which is truly needed). I hope to find a realistic way to fund this project. If I do, I would like to offer the coloring pages for free which will change much of what has been written below. Until I get a better plan formulated and the funds begin to come in for it, I will leave this up with a few recent adaptations thrown in.

I have set up this page exclusively for the illustrators who are working on Bible quilt coloring pages and appliqué quilt patterns. I hope it will help us to develop a sense of community with one another. It would be nice if I could find a way  to make it more interactive. For now please use the comments section to respond to me and/or to each other. I also hope this “page” will make it easier to identify which projects are available and which are taken. I will list them near the bottom.

I also want to use this page to clarify questions about how I am trying to develop, promote, and market this project, as well as entertain questions the illustrators have about the process and plans for payment.

My primary goal is to see children with Bible quilts that will inspire them to ask to hear Bible stories and to ask questions about them. All else is steps to accomplish this goal.

My first Bible storybook has hand appliquéd quilt blocks for illustrations. These are very difficult to do, and I quickly acknowledge that there will be few Bible quilts made in this way. I would love to one day be able to offer a printed and manufactured Bible quilt, but so far my brain hasn’t wrapped itself around all the obstacles, though it is still in the back of my mind as something I want to do.

In the mean time, I keep looking for alternate approaches to encourage families to get or make Bible quilts an easier way. There are different approaches to making Bible quilts in the categories on this blog. Many of them use the coloring book approach to make the quilts.

I tried to make a crayon-colored Bible quilt with my grandchildren using purchased coloring books, but the pictures were different sizes and some were in portrait position while others were horizontal. Also I found it difficult to find single pictures to represent a story. My quilt ended up much too large and difficult to put together due to the size and multiple shapes of the pictures.

When I try to draw my eraser takes a beating and it takes me hours to come up with a sketch that is still quite amateurish at best. So I am looking for Christian artists to draw coloring book pages. Perhaps some of the illustrations will be suitable for my Bible storybook appliqué pictures.

I do not have funds to carry out this project. I am a retired 66 year old elementary school librarian who retired pre-maturely with little financial reserves. I withdrew enough from my 401(K) to print 2,000 copies of The Creation believing I would be able to finance a second book as these copies are sold. Without money for publicity, more than 1,500 copies are in boxes under the beds in my home.

I am currently able to offer two sets of coloring book pages, The Creation and The First Christmas, as PDF downloads through Etsy. I switched to Etsy in mid August, 2013 and have begun to receive orders through them. My earlier attempts at marketing them were painfully disheartening.

Since I’m not in a position to buy illustrations, the illustrators own the copyrights on their own illustrations, but the coloring books are marketed under my business name, Honeycomb Adventures Press, LLC. I expect all illustrators to sign statements that their work has not been previously copyrighted, or if it has been, that they own the copyright.

I can make no claims about anyone earning a lot of money with these coloring pages. But I believe that with minimal investment in materials for creating coloring pages – at least in comparison to painting supplies – we should at least earn more than we spend putting the project together. We will all be operating in faith that God will bless our efforts and reward us along with the children who will ultimately receive Bible quilts. I encourage you all to use whatever influence you have to help draw attention to the Bible quilts project as well.

Each artist will be given the option to have a contributing artist page and bio to promote themselves as artists

Guidelines for artists:

Research your stories well, and send me pencil sketches before you work on final copies. I can’t emphasize this enough. I am a bit picky over content so it would be a shame to spend too much time on a drawing that might need to be re-drawn because of something I feel is out of character for the story or time frame. I don’t think it will take a long time to understand what I am looking for, but expect to find a few bumps along the way.

I prefer realism to cutesy pictures. I know that isn’t the norm for publishing for children today, but I fear cutesy illustrations may be one of the reasons youth and young adults have begun thinking of the Bible as folk-tales and fairy-tales.

I am fairly well-read in the scriptures and have purchased a strong library of Bible reference books to help assure accuracy. My husband is also well read in Bible and has earned the Master of Divinity Degree from Asbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky.

I must be clear up front that at present that I have no funds available for advances on art work, even for a finished product. I have looked for ways to find funding for illustrations so that they can be offered for free on my blog but as of this date I have been unsuccessful at raising funds.

Until I find other resources, writers and illustrators are “in the boat” together trying to earn something from their efforts, and the income will be divided between those who worked on the project in proportion to the amount of work each put into it.

Depending on the project there are four potential categories for payment in our projects, though all four may or may not be included in all projects. It may be necessary to size up any single project ahead of time to determine exact percentages to be given to each contributor.

• Writer (applies more to Bible storybooks than to coloring books)
• Illustrator (coloring books) or sketch designer for quilt blocks (storybooks) – I would be willing to consider upfront payment for usable sketches to help me create my appliqued illustrations more quickly for my storybooks.
• Funding for printing – (Storybooks only) The person who finances the  printing of storybooks is entitled to interest on his/her financial investment in the form of a higher percentage of the profit.
• Layout designer – it takes much time to layout books, especially storybooks or quilting books, and the software was quite expensive, so I expect this to be included when “dividing the pie (profits).” Straight coloring books will require very little layout so the illustrator will get the lion’s share of the profit.

All coloring books must use the same layout size and proportions. With uniform coloring pages people can buy multiple coloring books and mix and match to choose the pictures they want for their quilts.

Please tell me what you would like to see in a contract and I will do everything I know to do to work it out. Please ask any questions you have about the project. And please communicate with me often so I don’t have to guess if you are still interested and working on the project with me.

 

Suggested Topics for Coloring Books or Bible Storybooks:

Some of the ideas I have been considering for my Bible storybooks are listed below. Or someone could also simply make a longer general collection of pictures that would be for Bible quilts only. And I would not try to use them all in a storybook with appliquéd pictures.

• Abraham and Sarah
• Jacob
• Joseph
• Moses (I have written an alphabet book around Moses. I don’t want to try to illustrate it with appliquéd quilt blocks as it would take too long and would be too expensive to print. But we might make this into a coloring book.)
• David (I have started writing a book Young David – before he becomes king.)

Are you on Facebook?I just set up a private/locked Facebook group that will allow us to communicate as a group. It will be a place to check in on who is working on what projects. It is located at  https://www.facebook.com/groups/IllustratorsHAP/

If you are on Facebook and haven’t already “friended” me, please do. My Facebook URL is www.facebook.com/janice.green1

 

Note: There are blog posts tagged onto the end of this page. I don’t know why they are there and haven’t figured out how to remove them. They are part of the blog, not part of this page. When I figure it out I will correct the problem. Otherwise, this is the end of the section for illustrators.