Lee's new Kickstarter launches today!

It’s go time! Lee is launching his new Kickstarter TODAY!

His latest project is a beautifully illustrated tarot deck created with Grace Selene, the writer behind the popular The Moon Tarot newsletters. Lee is illustrating the deck and Grace is writing the accompanying guidebook.

The tarot deck is called The Drifting Moon Tarot, and it’s been years in the making! As a storyteller, Lee has always wanted to do his own take on the stories of the tarot.

“I like to make images that take you back to the magical feeling you had when you were a kid. Images that make you slow down and smile. With that in mind, I started creating the Drifting Moon Tarot from scratch. I wanted to really investigate what the cards mean and how I can show that meaning in a new and unexpected way.”

— Lee White

But it wasn’t until he crossed paths with Grace that the project came to life. If you’re a podcast listener, you’ve probably heard updates about it over the last 15 months. And now it’s finally here!

This is Lee’s second Kickstarter. His first was a fancy art book detailing the process behind some of his most loved illustrations.

The campaign launches TODAY, so be sure to check it out first thing to take advantage of the early bird pricing!

How to do a big project! (hint: spreadsheets! wtf?!)

Hi everyone,

I thought I might start adding to my blog again and give you guys an inside look at some of the things I’m working.on. I’ll be posting a lot of process work as well as some video links and other goodies along the way. I’ll be doing these kinds of posts on the first of the month every month from now on.

So let’s jump right in!

The topic I’ll be exploring first is: How to manage a big project! We all have big aspirations when it comes to big projects. Things like children’s books, graphic novels, board games, etc. are all SUPER FUN! But, they can become overwhelming QUICK! Just staying organized and moving the project forward is tricky. Many people get about halfway and just give up because they haven’t planned it out well enough. It’s sort of funny that art school has so many classes on how to paint and draw, but really nothing on how to finish a big project! So I’m going to give you some tips and tricks here that you can hopefully use right away!

I’ll be using my Tarot Deck project as my example.

Project: The Wandering Moon Tarot

This Project consists of doing 22 different cards (called The Major Arcana). I’ll be doing the rest of the deck at a later date. Starting this project was tricky for me because I didn’t know anything about tarot decks, so I needed a way to get me on track and organize the information into something I could work with. Since these cards don’t have a main character or story like I’m used to illustrating, setting this project up right was very important.

So what’s the big secret to organizing a project? I’m going to give you a little tip that will change your life. That tip is:

Spread sheets! YAY! (WAIT WHAT?!)

Now I know what you are thinking. Why is he talking about a spread sheet?! I’m an artist for crying out loud! Not a CPA! But hear me out. The key to doing a BIG PROJECT is to have all the information available for you to see ALL AT ONCE. This is the key! And I’m going to show you how to do it (or at least how I did it!). I have a few tips that I think will show exactly why this method is so helpful!

Before I show you my version, I thought I’d mention that a lot of people (illustrators included) use a basic color coded spread sheet as a scheduler that shows how many pages have been done and what stage each image is at. This is somewhat effective, but the way I do it is more helpful to illustrator specifically (Making a better project!). This basic method can look something like this (this is from my online illustration school. It’s how we keep track of where a class is in production). :

This method works reasonably well in that you can list the things you need to accomplish and color code the different stages you might be at. For illustrators you may have the Sketch stage be one color and color studies be another, etc. Here’s an example of that (used with permission of Jake Parker):. He fills in the boxes with different colors and then pastes the finished sketches on the page.

This method works great, but I wanted something that added in the early stages of the work so it can help the overall project move forward. I call my method the VISUAL SPREADSHEET which stores much more data that we can use to make our projects better. Here are the categories that I am using for my Tarot deck (I’m building my spreadsheets in Microsoft Onenote, but Excel or Numbers works fine too):

This happens to be for a Tarot deck, but you could use this format for almost anything. The big difference between this method and the other one I showed above will become clear as you see it populated. The biggest thing that I want to emphasize here is that you fill the boxes with IMAGES and not just colors or text. This is MASSIVELY IMPORTANT when working on a big project. Here’s what a row might look like for my project:

As you can see, I have categories for the what the MEANING I’m trying to convey, This helps me make sure I know that the overall feel for each page should be. For a picture book, I’d list what I want the viewer to feel when looking at that page. Then a space for keywords which is what i really use for brain storming my sketches, etc. I have a category for any icons or symbols that might be important to the image. Next in line I have a place for references (in this case I add the basic tarot card from the base set that most people who use tarot decks are familiar with). Then I have thumbnail sketches, Rough sketches, Final Sketch, and the finished painting. For this particular card I went from the rough sketch right to the finished painting because I could already see what it was going to look like in my head. If it’s a tricky image, I will do a final sketch to make sure I understand how it’s all going to come together. Here’s the finished card if you want to see. Note: My post on Nov. 1 will show a ton of the development of this project):

The real benefit from working this way comes once you get into the project and have a lot of information in the spread sheet. Being able to see all the stages of the project really helps you decide which image to use. NOTE: I typically work up the thumbnail sketches and rough sketch stage for ALL the images first so I can see them all next to each other. Then I can make changes if one is too similar to another or whatever problem might arise. The hard part about doing a BIG PROJECT is all the images need to work as a group. In a picture book this is massively important. The whole is dependent on all the parts working together. And by seeing all the parts together, it can help inform WHICH ROUGH SKETCH TO PICK? (this is a very difficult thing to do the bigger a project gets). Below you will see what it looks like when I have many of the tables populated: I know you can’t make out most of this information because it’s too small on the screen, but what I want to emphasize about this method is that I can see the PROCESS of each card in relation to the whole. I continually adjust the rough sketches as the project moves along.

Here’s a little closer look at what the rough sketches look like. I zoom in like this and can scroll through the whole project to see all the options from all the thumbnails I’ve done! : )

I know It’s a little bit different way of working, but it sure does keep it all organized. I love looking through the rough sketches when I get stuck on a new image I need to do. Sometimes I can rework a sketch that I have already done and fit it to the new thing I need to do! So if you have never tried organizing a project this way, I encourage you to give it a try.

Thanks for taking the time to look at this info and I hope you found it helpful in some way. : )

For all you cat lovers out there!

Snow day. Art by Lee White.

Post by Lisa

Here’s a new image Lee did for all the cat lovers out there. Apparently it is loosely based on his wife (that would be me), although in reality my days do not look like this at all 😂

We always seem to have cats around, and they often end up in Lee’s work. Right now we just have two little kitties, the third one is there in spirit.

Bearing Gifts

Art by Lee White.

Post by Lisa

It’s starting to feel a lot like Christmas around here! Lee did this fun little illustration to get in the spirit of things ❄️😄 We’ll be turning this one into a greeting card, available soon!

Fantastic Beasts fan art!

Illustration by Lee White!

Post By Lisa

Here’s a fun little promo Lee did for his agency, themed around the new Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald movie.

His work is included in this lovely little collection of fantastic art. So fun to see how different artists approach the story 😀

Spring has sprung!

Illustration by Lee White.

Post by Lisa

Here's a fun little illustration Lee did for the Bright Agency. Feels like spring around here!

Lights! Camera! Action!

Post by Lisa

Lee is gonna be on TV tonight!

OPB will be airing a segment about Lee on it's Emmy-winning show Oregon Art Beat. The show, which is in its 19th season, profiles artists throughout the Pacific Northwest 😀🌲☔️

The crew spent some time with Lee last fall, following him around with cameras and asking him all kinds of probing questions. Kind of nerve-wracking, especially when you are used to working all alone in a studio all day!

Special thanks to Jacob Pander and crew, who made it all happen 👍 And thanks to Oregon Art Beat for producing such a fun show, it's so interesting to learn about all the talented folks living here in the PNW 😄

The episode will air tonight on OPB at 8pm PST. Or watch it right here!

Fun little watercolor sketch!

Post by Lisa

Here's a quick little painting Lee did before dinner last night. It looks so sweet and peaceful, but the painting process was anything but 😄

Dinner was running late and our little one was cranky, so there were lots of tears and whining. Lee was trying to paint at the dinner table, but with constant interruptions from the little one. It was total chaos, yet somehow the painting seems so serene! Real life 😉

Book Birthday!

Illustration from picture book "Kate, Who Tamed The Wind."

Post by Lisa

Today is the book birthday for Kate, Who Tamed The Wind! Welcome to the world!

It's a fun book about a little girl who befriends a neighbor and figures out an ingenious way to temper the winds atop the steep hill where he lived. Written by amazing kidlit writer Liz Garton Scanlon.

Here's some art from the book:

Fresh batch of books!

Post by Lisa

Just got a big box of Lee's latest picture book, Kate, Who Tamed The Wind!

It's all about a little girl who befriends a neighbor and figures out an ingenious way to temper the winds atop the steep hill where he lived. Written by amazing kidlit writer Liz Garton Scanlon.

The story reminds me a bit of when we lived in Corbett, where gale force winds routinely buffeted the surrounding hills. We lived in a little house tucked down in a protected hully gully, but there were parts of town where the winds could get up past 100 mph!

Anyway, it's a lovely story, especially for all the tree lovers out there 😀 It's due out Feb. 6!

New work!

Hello there! New illustration from a book Lee is working on 😀

Here's a sneak peek of an illustration from a story Lee is writing. It's about a very unusual friendship 😉

Shipping deadlines and promos!

We're in the final stretch!

If you want to make it in time for Christmas, be sure to get your orders in by Monday, December 18! (In the US, that is. Outside the US, sorry, it's probably too late!)

We'll be shipping priority mail with the USPS, but keep in mind that it gets kind of crazy this time of year, so there's always a chance the package won't make it within the 2-3 day turnaround for priority mail.

You can still get free shipping in the US, just use promo code FREESHIPPING at check out

We are doing our best to get orders out as soon as possible 😀