Mirka Hokkanen's avatar

Mirka Hokkanen

@mirkahokkanen.bsky.social

253 followers 122 following 170 posts

Kidlit author & illustrator, printmaker. Rockville, MD. MOSSY & TWEED (Holiday House), KITTY & CAT (Candlewick) books coming out Nov 2023, and LITTLE SEASONS (Odd Dot) series debuing 2024. Repped by Laurel Symonds. smart.bio/mirkahokkanen

Mirka Hokkanen's avatar Mirka Hokkanen @mirkahokkanen.bsky.social
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Having trouble drawing characters consistently in illustrations? I collected my best tips and tricks into part 2 of my Character Design class. Learn what proportional markers are and what the one exception to the rule I found. More info at mirkah.com/characterdesign2

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Mirka Hokkanen's avatar Mirka Hokkanen @mirkahokkanen.bsky.social
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Having trouble with designing characters for picture books? My new class, Character Design for Picture Books, is all about what makes for appealing and engaging picture book characters. Great for beginners just getting into picture books. mirkah.com/characterdesign for more info. #kidlit

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Mirka Hokkanen's avatar Mirka Hokkanen @mirkahokkanen.bsky.social
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Drawing Characters Consistently, Part 2 on #PB #characterdesign series. Learn my best tips for how I keep my characters consistent for a whole book project, and the one pose that is the anomaly. Check out mirkah.com/characterdesign2 for more info. :)

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Mirka Hokkanen's avatar Mirka Hokkanen @mirkahokkanen.bsky.social
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wow. that's crummy. :/ Bluesky is where it's at!

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Mirka Hokkanen's avatar Mirka Hokkanen @mirkahokkanen.bsky.social
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Character Design for Picture Books, pt 1. All about what makes for appealing and engaging picture book characters. Great for beginners just getting into picture books. mirkah.com/characterdesign for more info.

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Mirka Hokkanen's avatar Mirka Hokkanen @mirkahokkanen.bsky.social
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So many #kidlit news to share today! First up, I'm inviting everyone to enter my giveaway! Open now until July 16, I'm giving away a free 1-year membership to Skillshare. kingsumo.com/g/9fwhzn/div... I'm doing this giveaway to celebrate the two new classes that I just launched, I'll add them below

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Mirka Hokkanen's avatar Mirka Hokkanen @mirkahokkanen.bsky.social
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I'm chatting with Nancy Miller on her wonderful #kidlit podcast today. podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/nmi... #podcast #kidlitillustrator

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Mirka Hokkanen's avatar Mirka Hokkanen @mirkahokkanen.bsky.social
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Last day to enter my current giveaway! Www.mirkah.com/giveaway Win 3 of my published books! 🏖😊

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Mirka Hokkanen's avatar Mirka Hokkanen @mirkahokkanen.bsky.social
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I love numbers! I bet it'll be fun to do the same a year later.

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Mirka Hokkanen's avatar Mirka Hokkanen @mirkahokkanen.bsky.social
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I don't know if I feel it's weird, but have also wished before they'd have picture books first.

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Mirka Hokkanen's avatar Mirka Hokkanen @mirkahokkanen.bsky.social
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Registration for this character design webinar closes tomorrow afternoon. 😬

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Mirka Hokkanen's avatar Mirka Hokkanen @mirkahokkanen.bsky.social
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15 isn't very many rejections yet! Maybe ask a peer to see if there's anything that could be tweaked in query or first pages. And keep submitting.

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Mirka Hokkanen's avatar Mirka Hokkanen @mirkahokkanen.bsky.social
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#kidlit is where most action is for quick start.

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Mirka Hokkanen's avatar Mirka Hokkanen @mirkahokkanen.bsky.social
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Have you looked at @debbieohi.com posts? She has great directions on how to use bluesky, and she maintains a few great lists that I follow for kidlit content. I pin them to the tip of my screen so it's easy to toggle between feeds. There's a huge community here. Welcome!

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Mirka Hokkanen's avatar Mirka Hokkanen @mirkahokkanen.bsky.social
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Omg, me too! I thought I was the only weird one who would just buy them to keep for myself! You have some amazing ones in your collection😍❤️

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Mirka Hokkanen's avatar Mirka Hokkanen @mirkahokkanen.bsky.social
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Summer book giveaway! Giving away 3 books to one lucky winner. Shipping address must be in the US. Visit www.mirkah.com/giveaway to enter. A second giveaway, for a 1-yr membership to Skillshare begins on July 9th. That giveaway link is on the same page. #kidlit #giveaway #teachers #librarians

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Reposted by Mirka Hokkanen

Effie Seiberg 's avatar Effie Seiberg @effies.bsky.social
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Repeat it with me: A bad agent is worse than no agent. A bad agent is worse than no agent. A bad agent is worse than no agent.

1 replies 3 reposts 24 likes

Mirka Hokkanen's avatar Mirka Hokkanen @mirkahokkanen.bsky.social
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I'm teaching a 2-part webinar on character design for PBs. We'll go over techniques to character creation, mistakes I see, and how to draw characters consistently.
2nd class is a critique session for personal feedback as you put into practice what you learned
Scbwi.org/events/MDDEWVss4i24
#kidlit

1 replies 5 reposts 12 likes

Mirka Hokkanen's avatar Mirka Hokkanen @mirkahokkanen.bsky.social
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I can't think of anyone who is indigenous that fits the bill off the top of my head, but wanted to pass on the link for my agency look book. So many good illustrators there ktliterary.com/lookbook. I hope one day to get to illustrate MG myself too.

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Reposted by Mirka Hokkanen

Mallory Grigg's avatar Mallory Grigg @mallorygrigg.bsky.social
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Hi, #kidlit artists! I'm seeking a MG (ages 9-12) illustrator for a coming-of-age mystery story featuring friendship, adventure, and an elusive white wolf.

Would LOVE to find an Indigenous NA illustrator.

Respond here with images and a link to your folio. Please no DMs. Agents welcome to email.

37 replies 152 reposts 191 likes

Mirka Hokkanen's avatar Mirka Hokkanen @mirkahokkanen.bsky.social
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Thanks, I noticed after I posted I grabbed the wrong link, but can't edit it anymore.

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Mirka Hokkanen's avatar Mirka Hokkanen @mirkahokkanen.bsky.social
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Cool, we were looking at it with my son marveling at the color

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Mirka Hokkanen's avatar Mirka Hokkanen @mirkahokkanen.bsky.social
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Had a wonderful time at the Chesapeake Children's Book Festival yesterday. ❤️

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Reposted by Mirka Hokkanen

Brian LaRossa's avatar Brian LaRossa @brianlarossa.com
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If you’re not a podcast person, and prefer to read/skim your content, I took Jenn’s questions, and my answers, which I wrote ahead of time to prepare, and turned them into a textual Q&A. It doesn’t contain our tangents/laughter, but it does contain the main ideas/links. 💙❤️
medium.com/@brianlaross...

11 replies 15 reposts 40 likes

Reposted by Mirka Hokkanen

Katie Mazeika's avatar Katie Mazeika @kdmaz.bsky.social
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Illustrators: Squarespace allows AI bots to scrape your art unless you opt out!!!! Go to account settings, crawlers and deselect the permission for “artificial intelligence crawlers”

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Mirka Hokkanen's avatar Mirka Hokkanen @mirkahokkanen.bsky.social
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How interesting, haven't seen that before, but it's got a lot of literary star power behind it.

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Mirka Hokkanen's avatar Mirka Hokkanen @mirkahokkanen.bsky.social
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Hi Brian, I don't have finished illos more than a book wyrm, but we spend a lot of time reading about and drawing dragons as they're my oldest daughters favorite animal. And birds are related to lizards. I have an opinionated rooster. 😆

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Reposted by Mirka Hokkanen

Mirka Hokkanen's avatar Mirka Hokkanen @mirkahokkanen.bsky.social
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Reposting w/correct link: Heads up #kidlit crew, the National Book Festival is coming August 24th. Terrific lineup of authors and illustrators speaking (Leuyen Pham, Meg Medina, Oliver Jeffers to name a fraction). The event is free + free online replays after the event. www.loc.gov/events/2024-...

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Mirka Hokkanen's avatar Mirka Hokkanen @mirkahokkanen.bsky.social
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Thank you! I don't know how I managed the wrong link! I wish we could edit our posts.

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Mirka Hokkanen's avatar Mirka Hokkanen @mirkahokkanen.bsky.social
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Giving a heads up, the National Book Festival is coming up in August 12, they have a terrific lineup of authors and illustrators speaking (Leuyen Pham, Meg Medina, Oliver Jeffers to name a fraction). The event is free + free online replays after the event. #kidlit www.loc.gov/events/2023-...

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Mirka Hokkanen's avatar Mirka Hokkanen @mirkahokkanen.bsky.social
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Maybe eventually. While there are a lot of creators here, we need a large number of editors, ADs and agents to move here too.

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Mirka Hokkanen's avatar Mirka Hokkanen @mirkahokkanen.bsky.social
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Love the results of this study since it's right up my alley.

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Mirka Hokkanen's avatar Mirka Hokkanen @mirkahokkanen.bsky.social
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I don't know how long this opportunity is open for, but worth a gander if you're writing #STEAM and #STEM books.

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Mirka Hokkanen's avatar Mirka Hokkanen @mirkahokkanen.bsky.social
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If nothing else I start with bullet point for events and details I want to include in the book, and then start organizing and elaborating on those.

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Mirka Hokkanen's avatar Mirka Hokkanen @mirkahokkanen.bsky.social
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That's really interesting! Thanks for sharing

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Mirka Hokkanen's avatar Mirka Hokkanen @mirkahokkanen.bsky.social
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And forgot to say I work in both digital, and more traditional looking watercolors.

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