I decided to attend this year's Guild of Natural Science Illustrator's conference in Bar Harbor, ME. Wasn't at all sure I should plunk down the money to attend but I felt a need to surround myself with colleagues from an earlier period of my career. So glad I did.
I've been contemplating the notion of getting back to that earlier period of work; illustrating for books. I sometimes miss the slow, careful renderings of plants and animals. Although I've had some terrific illustration projects over the years, I don't feel I've reached the pinnacle of my work in that area yet. So, I thought it would be good to come back to the group, network and see if it's even feasible for me to step back into that arena. Is it worth the investment of time and money (neither of which I have a lot, by the way)? After two days I'm leaning towards it not being a good idea. But, because I'm compelled to do things the hard way, I am not convinced yet that I won't put forth a small investment into finding maybe just the right project. Although the industry is heavy on digital art (something I saw coming twenty years ago but decided not to follow), I believe there is still some publishing houses using beautifully hand-drawn art. They may be far and few between but by putting my message out there to the universe it's possible we'll find each other.
More work to come....
