HeyJaredDrawing a Blank
A weekly deep dive about making books for kids, from author-illustrator Jacob Souva. Practical tips and encouragement for illustrators, authors, and makers. Inspiration for getting better at this together.
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 12
- Latest publication
- Sep 25, 2026
- Audience
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- Earliest in this view
- Jul 8, 2026
Latest issues
Championing Our Kidlit Failures (Gulp) (opens the original)
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The ALDI’s weird aisle™ is entirely pumpkin spice except for that one package of weird Ramen. It’s like cheesy Gordita spicy fish ramen or something. It will probably be borg-ed into pumpkin spice by this time next week. Fall is a great time to be alive.Here are 5 things from the studio this week:1. SOME ART MAKINGI’ve been reluctantly pushing into my weaknesses as an illustrator, which means finding a way to render humans in a way that vibes with my style and ethos better. That may sound weird
Should You Make Your Art With a Computer? (opens the original)
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<img alt="" class="sizing-normal" height="1140" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!xL44!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F572daaf8-0b1a-4381-96bf-a1507aa772c2_2000x1566.
Supremacy of Story (opens the original)
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School is back in session which means a quieter studio and a chance to tweak how I do things. There’s more time to play and more time to write. It’s glorious. (And I miss the boys, as always).Here’s five things from the studio:1. SOME ART MAKING<a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Z5JL!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff52e41ae-4712-4e95-88a7-8b707bd3840d_2000x1545.
Uninteresting Books for Kids (opens the original)
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<img alt="" class="sizing-normal" height="969" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!keT7!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Feaa65ba6-a536-44a4-a10b-bfbd8ad8d8ef_2000x1331.h
Getting Gritty (opens the original)
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The boys are both playing varsity soccer, so this week began the dreaded “two-a-days” which is sports-ball parlance for “two trainings a day” or in Dad parlance “3 hours a day with no one asking if they can make 14 bagel pizzas.” The result is a more structured schedule around the house and a natural opportunity to shift how I use my studio time. The current problem around here is volume. As in I need to make more art and write more stories. I’ve prioritized sketchbook time,1 writing time, and r
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