SCBWI Traveling Sketch Book

Wow!  It's May and I'm just getting around to posting this piece of art I made back in March.  Well, I think you are going to like this even though it's a bit late. 

 

So here is the story....I belong to the Society of Children's Books Writers and Illustrators and we have a local chapter for those in New York state.  Back in the fall, the leaders of the local chapter (WestCenNYSCBWI) decided to start a sketchtravel, which is a traveling sketchbook that moves from illustrator to illustrator.  I signed up to participate and wound up being the last person on the list to add a sketch before the book went off to our annual spring conference.  That means I got to see all of the art before anyone else did, not even the organizers of the sketch travel got to see it before me.  How did I get so lucky?  

When I received our traveling sketchbook it was like receiving gold in the mail!  I was so excited to see the contributions of everyone and wondered what I would contribute.  When I opened the sketchbook I was blown away!  The most amazing art was in there and each piece has it's own personality.  There was no theme to follow, just sketch whatever your heart desired.  It was very inspirational to see the work and the mediums people chose to work in. 

 

Here I am receiving the sketchbook in the mail.

To start I made a little video of the whole book for you to see, then I'll post some of the art individually, and lastly my contribution.

Now, here are a few pieces from the sketchbook that just blew me away...

And my contribution.....

When I painted this it had snowed again for what felt like the thousandth time.  I was dreaming of spring and wishing it would hurry up and come.  I thought of all the creatures that were sleeping the winter away and wishing I could do the same:) 

Below you can see how the painting came together... I started with references and then made a sketch the size of the book.  You can't imagine how nervous I was painting in this book that had so many wonderful pieces of art in it.  I transferred my sketch into the book ever so carefully and then put tracing paper between the pages to prevent bleed through.  I put a piece of plastic underneath it to keep the cover clean and I even moved my water to the other side of my work surface so I wouldn't spill it.  Could you imagine...  

Starting with a watercolor wash for the sky, I then moved to acrylics for the majority of the painting.  I added in details with colored pencil and pen and ink.  

 

I hope you enjoyed seeing the WestCenNY SCBWI Sketchtravel.  I would be honored to participate in a project like this again.  It was truly magical:)

TTFN! 

What I have been doing lately?

Cory and the 7th Story Update

Back in December I previewed for you a new project that I am working on called Cory and the 7th Story.  I shared with you the characters, some environment studies and even the character's little homes.  Since then I have been working on the story board and roughing out the pages.   I am at the color roughs stage and hoping to have these finished by the end of the month (Yikes, that's only a few days away!)  I thought you might like to see the characters I introduced you to in a few scenes with a little narration from the story.

Cory is a little raccoon who loves to read stories.  

He loves all kinds of stories, but mostly he loves stories that end with "happily ever after".  Cory lives in the old village, along the clear stream, near the edge of the deep forest, within the broad meadow with his woodland friends.  

Normally the old village is a happy place.  But recently, Cory's friends don't seem so happy.  Some seem scared, like rabbit, and try to run away.

  Others seem conniving and try to drive others away.

Still others seem to fight all the time...

This makes Cory very sad and he doesn't know what to do.  Why are his friends not happy?

That is till a poet came to town one day.  The poet was a creature that no one had ever  seen before and she seemed to have magical words.  

The poet shared a story that no one had ever heard before...the animals were amazed.  And then.....

Well, what do you think?  Wanna read it?  Keep coming back, I'll have more to share and maybe even a surprise from the story!

TTFN

Sneak peak of a new project I'm working on!

Cory and the 7th Story

I have another picture book in the works that I am super excited about!   I have been working on it for about three months now fleshing out the characters, environment, and flat plan.  I thought you might like to see a few things I have created.  These are all just sketches and ideas, but if you are like me, that's the art that I love to see:)

Logos and characters and environment oh my!

When I begin a picture book project I need to think through some of the building blocks of what will become the picture book.  This requires research and studies and lots of little messy drawings.  But if I take the time to think through this stuff up front, the rest of the picture book process goes much more smoothly.

Visual Logos:

Imagery, such as small vignettes that act as visual logos is a nice way for me to think about the essence of the story, and they become good little pieces of art to represent the project.  I created two such pieces of art and above is the one I like the most.   It's just a pen drawing on layout bond with prisma color marker at this point.  I love prima color marker because you can lay down color quickly and get a sense of what final art might look like.  But at the same time I often find the colors are too saturated.  I guess I haven't figured out the best way to work with them yet, but I keep trying:)  I will eventually paint it in oil

Characters:

Characters of the story is the next thing I need to think about.  I try to push myself to think about variety of shape and size (something I learned while at the Academy).  I had a good friend of mine tell me that you should be able to recognize a character by it's shadow.  Meaning their shape is so distinctive that you would know if anywhere! I think that is a great way of thinking about it!  I haven't perfected that yet, but I do keep that in mind as I develop my characters.  Below is the character line up I created.  There are a lot of characters!  I love the variety of animals I got to work with and imagining their environment was even more fun!

Environment:

The next thing I had to think of was the environment where these little guys live.  I focused in on these words from the manuscript....Cory lived in the old village, along the clear stream, near the edge of the deep forest, within the broad meadow.  I created a little painting of what this might look like, you can see it below.

Then I had to come up with all of the houses that these animals would live in.  That was even more fun!  I drive through a small ski village on my way to work.  As I was driving through I noticed all these cozy little homes that people rent out during the ski season.  They made for the best visual reference for the homes I imagined my characters living in.  One day on my way to work, I took time out to stop and walk through the village.  I brought my camera and took all kinds of photo reference of the homes to give me ideas to work with.  Then I went back to my drawing table and come up with houses for each of my characters.  You can see a sample of them below.

  

Now for the fun part....

See if you can guess which animal lives in which house!

I hope you enjoyed learning about Cory and the 7th Story.  I will have more to post about it in the coming months as I work through the pages and introduce you to my wonderful authors!  You are going to love this story!!!!

TTFN

Melancholy Art

Thinking of Nicole...

Anticipating snow....

They are calling for snow this weekend in my part of the country. We have avoided it up to now which is pretty amazing seeing as it's already November 17th!  We usually have at least a dusting by Halloween, but this year we have had beautiful sunny days and cold nights.  A perfect fall really.  So with snow on the radar, I thought I'd post my newly completed family of foxes.  I need help with a title for this painting. Maybe something with snow and snuggle?  Or family retreat?  I can't decide so please give me your ideas - I would love to hear them!  Just put them in the comments section below.   

Thanks and enjoy! 

Foxes in Limbo

Thought I'd share with you a new composition for my next picture book called, "The Fox Went Out on a Chilly Night".  I have been working on this book for a while now and have just returned to it now that I have Clover and the Shooting Star launched. 

This artwork is done in a style that my friend and colleague MJ-K calls "in limbo".  In other words it is silhouetted or without a background, just a white ground.  I have been told that my artwork is stronger when I work this way, so I thought I'd give it a try with this piece.  What do you think?

This is just a color study for a finished painting that will be much larger.  In addition to the color study I also do a value study as you can see below.  The value study actually comes first and then the color study, but I wanted to put the color study at the top because it i more eye catching:)

  

I like the fun rhythm that the little foxes bring to the piece.  There are 10 little foxes so I have to be careful to draw each one anytime the text of the story refers to them.  I know that when I read to my children we would always take the time to count the characters any time the text referenced the number of them, so for all the future moms who may read my book, I have to give them something to count!  What do you think of this piece of art?  Do you like the "in limbo"?  Have I placed the foxes in a way that invites counting?  Any suggestions for improvement before I go ahead and lay it out to paint it?  Post your thoughts in the comments section below.  And thanks for your help!

Clover and the Shooting Star - Completed

Clover and the Shooting Star is done.  This hand painted, hand assembled book is in honor of my niece Nichole Diane Miller-Harris.  I am sending the original to her parents this week so they can read it to their grandchildren as a way to remember Aunt Nicole.  I know this book is only a minuscule membrane of Nicole but I'm hoping it will bring some measure of comfort.  

My sister-in-law was with her granddaughter shopping for souvenirs.  When Cara couldn't decide which one to get my sister-in law asked her,  "if you could have anything you want, what would you get?" She held my hand, looked up at me and said, "I would get Aunt Nicole back."

You can see I put a dedication to Nicole on the back cover.

I won't show you the last page so when you have your own copy you can have the "big reveal" experience yourself:)  I will let you know that I shared a draft of the book with Nicole's family at her memorial.  They loved it.   And I loved that they all sat in bed together and read it as a family.

I made digital copies of the pages and I am in the process of getting reproductions of the book for other family members and friends who would like one.  This is a board book, so that is how I would like to have it reproduced, as a board book.  Luckily there is a local printer who can do board books!  As soon as I get all the files transferred over to the printer and a test copy made, I'll be able to make additional copies for all who would like to request one!  

I'll keep you posted! 

Art Trading Cards

A few weeks ago at our monthly art meeting with the East Aurora Art Society we did an activity where we created and traded art cards.  We each created one and then exchanged them with each other at the end of the night.  This little exercise was so much fun that I continued to create art trading cards.  I think I am obsessed!  And I realized it's a great way to try out new techniques or characters without taking much time and with low commitment to the project.  If it doesn't turn out, just throw it away....it's only a 2.5" x 3.5" piece of cardstock!  I thought I'd share a few of my favorites with you here.  Which one is your favorite?  Let me know in the comments below.

Enjoy!

Letters from Father Christmas

Today I want to share with you a treasure that my sister introduced me to.  It's a book called Letters From Father Christmas and it's written by J.R.R.Tolkien. Yes, the same Tolkien who wrote The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and The Silmarillion.  But what you need to know about this book is that is was never written for the general public.  These are letters that J.R.R. Tolkien wrote to his own children, John, Michael, Christopher and Priscilla, from Father Christmas for them to find on Christmas morning!  They start in 1920 and go through to 1943 and they contain the stories, tales and hilarious antics that happen at the North Pole in preparation for Christmas.  The letters are written by Tolkien in a shaky handwriting and are accompanied by the most endearing illustrations.  They are all done in ink, and I am assuming given the time in history that these were written, it is fountain pen ink.  He has them so beautifully detailed and they compliment his letters perfectly.  He truly was a storyteller, both in writing and in picture.

Here is Father Christmas and his house.  Can you imagine receiving a letter from Father Christmas when you are 3 years old and he includes a hand drawn picture of him and his house?  It must have been so magical for his children.

He also hand lettered each envelope and created his own stamps for them.  Here is a sample of some of the stamps.

I wanted to share one of the stories with you to give you a taste of how wonderful this book is.  This letter was written to John, Michael, and Christopher in 1925.  

Cliff House, Top of the World, Near the North Pole

Christmas 1925

My dear boys,

I am dreadfully busy this year - it makes my hand more shaky than ever when I think of it - and not very rich; in fact awful things have been happening and some of the presents got spoilt, and I haven't got the North Polar bear to help me, and I have had to move houses just before Christmas, so you can imagine what a state everything is in, and you will see why I have a new address, and why I can only write one letter between you both. 

It all happened like this:  one very windy day last November my hood blew off and went and stuck on top of the North Pole.  I told him not to, but the North Polar Bear climbed up to the thin top to get it down - and he did.  The pole broke in the middle and fell on the roof of my house, and the North Polar Bear fell through the hole it made into the dining room with my hood over his nose, and all the snow fell off the roof into the house and melted and put out all the fires and ran down into the cellars, where I was collecting this year's presents, and the North Polar Bear's leg got broken.

He is well again now, but I was so cross with him that he says he won't try to help me again - I expect his temper is hurt, and will be mended by next Christmas.

I send you a picture of the accident and of my new house on the cliff above the North Pole (with beautiful cellars in the cliffs).  If John can't read my old shaking writing (one thousand nine hundred and twenty-five years old) he must get his father to.  When is Michael going to learn to read, and write his own letters to me?  Lots of love to you both and Christopher, whose name is rather like mine.

That's all:  Good Bye

Father Christmas

PS:  

Father Christmas was in a great hurry - told me to put in one of his magic wishing crackers.  As you pull, wish and see if it doesn't come true.  Excuse thick writing I have a fat paw.  I help Father Christmas with his packing: I live with him.  I'm the

GREAT (Polar) BEAR

The Great Polar Bear slipped in a little note this year as well:)  Here is the picture that was included with the letter and the actual letter:

Isn't this wonderful?  That Polar Bear is always making some sort of mischief for Father Christmas, but his heart is in the right place:)  The sad thing about this book is that to the best of my knowledge it is no longer in print.  You need to find a used copy on the internet or in an old bookstore (where the best books are always found anyways, right?).  I was lucky enough to get my copy from my college.  They were reducing their children's book collection and this book was among them!  I immediately asked if I could buy it, so now I have my own copy.  I highly recommend that if you can find a copy - buy it - you will love it! 

I hope you enjoyed reading this post.  I'll try to share another story from the book with you tomorrow for Christmas Eve!

Merry Christmas everyone!