Maike_illu
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maikeillu.bsky.social
Maike_illu
@maikeillu.bsky.social
Freelance kidlit illustrator, repped by the Bright Agency
www.maikeplenzke.com
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Hi #KidLitArtPostcard day!
I'm a freelance illustrator for Middle grade books and covers!😊🌻
Portfolio: www.maikeplenzke.com
Rep'd by Alex Gehringer at Bright.
It's wild to me that you have to pay that much money per year for MAYA and you can't even export playblasts as anything other than avi with outdated codecs and can't import reference as a video file in windows. Blender still has some annoying things, but at least you can do that easily.🙃
October 26, 2025 at 7:01 PM
Happy book birthday to Broken Dolls! I was honored to draw the jacket illustration for Ally's third book and because AD David pretty much gives me free rein I took the chance to also illustrate Ally's author pic again, hehe. 👻
September 30, 2025 at 3:40 PM
Reposted by Maike_illu
"A.i." doesn't empower anyone. It strips them of belief in themselves and the power of their own minds and hands and abilities and stories.

EVERY KID CAN DRAW. EVERY KID CAN TELL STORIES AND MAKE COMICS.

Fuck "A.i." for telling kids lies and making them less-than.
August 7, 2025 at 5:46 PM
Reposted by Maike_illu
Loved this Kirkus Review of Broken Dolls “The climax gives young readers a blood-free taste of body horror, and a final stinger keeps the chills alive.”

www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews...
BROKEN DOLLS | Kirkus Reviews
Grieving sisters are hunted by haunted dolls.
www.kirkusreviews.com
July 20, 2025 at 6:17 PM
Reposted by Maike_illu
If you’re looking for a very talented and professional illustrator/colorist check out Adrian‘s portfolio! Comes highly recommended!
Anyway, if you hear about any illustration/comics/art jobs, please let me know. Here's my portfolio: illustratoren-organisation.de/portfolio/ad...
Adrian vom Baur - Illustratoren Organisation e.V.
illustratoren-organisation.de
July 22, 2025 at 10:28 AM
Reposted by Maike_illu
work for hire is fucking insidious, maybe one of the worst "industry norms" we have. If you're getting treated like disney owns your ass they should have to pay your medical bills and recognize unions too
The "work for hire"/freelance set-up of comics work is not great for most creators, in terms of long-term benefit. This is one reason (among others) to actively support creator-owned comics when you can, alongside the work you may enjoy from Marvel/DC/etc.
Watching comic writers/artists beg for money for medical bills, while their creations reap billions, has been quite eye-opening.
July 17, 2025 at 5:53 PM
Reposted by Maike_illu
If you're a traditionally-published middle grade author with a MG book being published between now and December 2025 that has LGBTQIA+ representation, please tell me about it! I'm making a 2025 masterlist and want to make sure I'm not leaving anything or anyone out! 💖 #BookSky #MGLit #KidLit
July 3, 2025 at 4:06 PM
I went through my folders of personal art (most of it I don't share anymore) but I found this one I liked. A little b&w illu I did in my free time of a scene in The Whisperwicks 1, which I illustrated the french book cover for.
July 8, 2025 at 4:33 PM
Reposted by Maike_illu
Folks, when you are hiring an artist for a commercial project try not to think about the cost as a total price but break it down into weekly pay for potentially a month or two. All of a sudden their quote of 2K or whatever aint much for 6 weeks of work.

We all got bills to pay unfortunately.
July 3, 2025 at 12:09 PM
Reposted by Maike_illu
IT'S JUNETEENTH! There is still so much fucking work to do in this country to clean up the blood it was built on and so many reparations owed.

One of the small ways we can help is actively seeking out, hiring, supporting and buying from Black artists.

bsky.app/starter-pack...
June 19, 2025 at 6:05 PM
Reposted by Maike_illu
Good morning friends. This kid is spot on 👏🏼💙
June 11, 2025 at 10:11 AM
Reposted by Maike_illu
As a heads up:

A story in three parts. Watch out for this from topetegu dot Bluesky dot social. No doubt they got hacked. It’s a known scam.
May 17, 2025 at 8:34 PM
Reposted by Maike_illu
Respectfully. If I see any generative AI in a videogame even if it's just one asset, well acclaimed or just getting kickstarted, then unfortunately no, they're not getting my time or my money.

Solidarity with creatives means maintaining that integrity no matter what.

Our work is not a freeforall
May 14, 2025 at 3:09 AM
Reposted by Maike_illu
IT'S DONE!
Do you use CSP or Photoshop?
If you use CSP here's the thing!
If you use Photoshop, Let me know I'll send you the File
April 4, 2025 at 1:25 PM
Reposted by Maike_illu
Scam "literary agency" Envision Literary Agency is impersonating Penguin Random House with fake publishing offers, via the email below, using the fake email address acquisitions@penguinrandomhouse-prh.com 🧵1/8
April 5, 2025 at 11:49 PM
Reposted by Maike_illu
IF YOU FOUND YOUR NOVEL IN THE LIBGEN DATABASE, YOU MAY BE A CLASS MEMBER FOR THE KADREY ET AL V. META PLATFORMS CLASS ACTION

Law firms you can contact if you're a potential class member:

Joseph Saveri Law Firm, LLP (415) 500-6800
Mathew Butterick (323) 968-2632 mb@buttericklaw.com
March 20, 2025 at 7:29 PM
Incredibly important video right now:
History Professor Answers Dictator Questions | Tech Support | WIRED
YouTube video by WIRED
www.youtube.com
March 19, 2025 at 12:54 PM
Reposted by Maike_illu
Trump’s trying to gut funding for libraries: you can fight back with ALA.

The President's executive order to dismantle the Institute of Museum & Library Services would be deeply harmful. We need to speak out.

Take action NOW: tell Congress to protect library funding.
bit.ly/ProtectLibraryFunding
March 17, 2025 at 9:04 PM
Reposted by Maike_illu
Google joins the call to gut our legal protections, pushing for a world where Big Tech gets to profit from all your innovations & works for free, and that theft is ok’d by law.

No joke IF they get this, the US will likely face irreparable harm as pivotal creative economies crash.
March 14, 2025 at 8:54 PM
I call it "the valley of suck", but swamp of despair is also a pretty good name for it. 😂
the swamp of despair (from 2018)
March 11, 2025 at 6:15 PM
Reposted by Maike_illu
pinterest is a platform for collecting and saving OTHER people's images. just awesome to think about how many people have saved my art on their pinterest boards and i have no say or consent on how that will be used to train ai even if i *did* have an account and disabled these settings :)
Pinterest updated their terms of use and they're going to use all of the content you saved to train their AI.
Go to options > your privacy rights > disable GenAI
Please do it 🫠
March 7, 2025 at 12:14 PM
Reposted by Maike_illu
My first #KidLitArtPostcard day! ☺️
I’m Kristen, and I enjoy creating vibrant illustrations that inspire people to dream, hope, and imagine a better, kinder world. Here’s a spread from my debut picture book, 'Can We Give the Police Departments to the Grandmothers.’ ⭐️

See more at kristenuroda.com
March 6, 2025 at 5:11 PM
Reposted by Maike_illu
Hey #kidlitartpostcard !
My name's Alexandria, I'm an illustrator currently looking for work/representation!
website: alexneonakis.com/childrensbooks
March 6, 2025 at 7:13 PM
Reposted by Maike_illu
better late than never #kidlitartpostcard! 👋🐛 www.meghunt.com
March 7, 2025 at 12:26 AM