An Artist in Retrospect

I’m sure a number of people think Racing Pajamas is my first book. In some respects this is correct. Yet a few weeks ago, I realized… *pause for effect and grammatically incorrect use of ellipses*

…I’ve been creating books my entire life.

Not just writing stories. Not just drawing pictures. Actually making books.

Certainly there were the fill-in-the-blank “About Me” books from kindergarten. (The teacher gave everyone blank, white books and had pasted sentences like “My name is … My hair is … My eyes are … I like to …” The students finished the sentences and drew the pictures and covers.) In first grade, my class received such white books again, this time completely blank; I wrote and illustrated a trip to the zoo.

Then there was the Eastbury Elementary publishing center. Every year it printed an anthology of student writings (poetry, narratives, etc.), and every student had a contribution. But the really special thing was that we could get our own stories bound individually. Now and then, the teacher would send students, usually two at a time, to the publishing center with a story we each had written. We chose a binding/cover pattern, a title font (which was printed on a white sticker), and a “This book belongs to” sticker. Later, we received our books, each paragraph on its own white page, waiting for our illustrations.

Now for a special treat–here’s mine from second grade: The Wolf Named Acorn.

It’s great fun for me to read this again (and chuckle at the childlike things I came up with, like red wolves hunting zebras and antelope). It’s also neat to note my artistic decisions and development even then. For instance, look for these as you read:

  • A wolf ear poking out from somewhere on almost every page
  • Aerial perspective (bird’s-eye view)
  • The Protestant birthday cake (orange on St. Patrick’s Day–for some reason, this one really tickles me.)

What else do you notice? Leave a comment–I’d love to know what you see, too!

Pand-update

I think we’re due for an update.

In a prior post, I mentioned my panda project but little more than that. Let’s change that. Pandagrams is a series of small ink images featuring–that’s right–pandas in various situations, many of which involve puns (beyond “panda-monium”).

Here’s a sneak peek (test sketches) for Pandaikon. Both hearken somewhat to Japanese sumi-e (ink painting). Daikon is a large, white Japanese radish.

pandag-1a pandag-1b

This past week, I wrote and revised a short story for submission to a youth fiction contest. From start to finish, the events, characters, and scenes came to me very quickly. Sometimes we must write to discover the next thing, but I must say it was quite nice to know exactly where I was going the whole time.

I’m also plugging away on illustration commissions. I’m aiming to have the paintings for Do You Have a Pebble in Your Pocket? (the goat book) finished by the end of the month. As for my latest commission, The Littlest Sheep, I’ve completed several thumbnail sketches of the story spreads and will soon correspond with the author about them.

4th (update) of July

What an occasion–my fourth post this month! (Normally I update 3 times a month).This weekend I’ll attend a little haiku conference/festival and hopefully sell a few books & network with writers and publishers (not exclusively haikuists).

“Haiku?” you say, “I thought you wrote children’s books!” Yes, those, and many other things. I dabble in crafting haiku, senryu, and other short poetry. Haiku and senryu, as you may know, are genres of Japanese poetry. Subject-wise, haiku generally deal with nature and senryu with people. Both are comprised of 17 syllables (3 lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables in English, although Japanese poets generally write each poem in a single vertical line). There are freer forms that do not hold to the 17 syllables, such as this cheesy little one by me:

rule of law

parallel parking

before the courthouse

As for ongoing projects, the little farm boy and his goats are coming along–met with the author yesterday to deliver a progress report. I am pleased to say she’s pleased with the illustrations. Finishing Alice is on hold ’til I return next week. Thumbnails for Cartage are in the works, John Churchmouse methinks will soon resume, and some new ideas beg for attention.

Matane! (That’s a Japanese equivalent to “See you later!”)

Paints, Pebbles, and Progress

Here’s a smattering of updates for your perusing pleasure:

Alice Moran painting: Slowly but surely, she’s coming along. Finished underpainting & non-churned water (more or less), started background details (city & sky). Remember all those remarks about dormitory lighting when I was working on the M. Moran? My latest location isn’t any better. Here’s a snapshot of the mildly methodical madness from a few days ago:

amoran_p1
The mildly methodical madness goes like so:

  1. Lay down a colored wash
  2. Get those big blocks of color painted (water & sky)
  3. Apply detailed layers from background to foreground
  4. The intervene-whenever-you’d-like step: when done for the day, say “Gosh, look at all those leftover bits of mixed paint on the palette,” and use them somewhere before they dry out.

Do You Have a Pebble in Your Pocket?: Finished revisions & started transferring images to canvas paper. That means I’ll be able to start painting tomorrow or Saturday.

Seagull & Spoon: I revised the story a few days ago and have since relegated it to the backburner whilst I figure out a title and just what to do with this quirky turkey.

Cartage: Continuing to develop designs. Last night I spent the better part of an hour researching and sketching shopping cart designs for a high-speed chase scene down the deli meat aisle. (There’s not actually a chase scene, but there is a rollicking ride on a shopping cart.)

Hopping Happenings

It’s hard to believe we’re already more than halfway through June! Things are hop-pening as I bounce between many projects every day. Here’s the latest.

Do You Have a Pebble in Your Pocket?: Met with the author last week to review rough drafts. No major compositional changes are needed–hooray! The author also explained her vision for the artwork, which was helpful as I finalize the spreads before painting. Consequently, I borrowed some field guides from the library to research what plants, animals, etc., I could incorporate. Learning about regional wildlife is fun, too.

Alice Moran: After a lot of sketching and rethinking the composition, I’m ready to start painting.

Cartage: My graphic short story project (“graphic” as in “graphic novel,” and “visual,” not “gory”). If you’re wondering what a graphic short story is, good question! It doesn’t actually exist as a genre yet. I came up with the idea 2 1/2 years ago and recently resumed figuring out just how it works. Last month, I submitted Cartage (text only) to a short story contest; in the meanwhile, I decided to move the art part along–currently designing characters and learning to draw a Mojave Wrangler. It doesn’t look like this. =)

Splugger

Other Story Endeavors: Completed a rough draft of a children’s book about a seagull and a spoon, which has turned into a bit of an odd bird (the book, not the spoon–the seagull is already an odd bird). It could either end up demonstratively quirky for elder children or significantly reduced for younger ones. Or both. We’ll see where, if, and when it goes. For those of you who are familiar with the event that sparked this story, yes, the spoon is plastic and orange.

Additionally, I’m working on plot outline for a new script and revisiting some John Churchmouse; once some other projects are nearer completion, it’ll be his turn again to hop on the scene.

Hop, hop, and away!