Every summer for the last ten summers I have had the great fortune of working with some really cool people on the Vacation Bible School curriculum from Lifeway. The themes for each VBS product is a closely guarded secret until it is released with much fanfare mid-summer. This year Lifeway has created a video blog get the hype going. Here's one of the funnier entries:
The theme is being released shortly and I will start posting some illustrations from the books I've worked on. Here's a hint about the theme.... I'm getting paid to draw horses! how cool is that!
stay tuned....
Monday, June 29, 2009
Friday, June 26, 2009
Recently overheard between Babysitter Becky and the Small Fry on a day when a pesky fly had invaded the kitchen:
Becky: "Hey Fry, where is the fly swatter?"
Small Fry: "Miss Becky, we don't give flies water"
Becky: "Hey Fry, where is the fly swatter?"
Small Fry: "Miss Becky, we don't give flies water"
Monday, June 8, 2009
Illustration Friday - Craving
This is an illo I created a long time ago. I still love the concept though the execution is a little dated. One of these days I may get around to re-doing it.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Has anybody noticed....
....that eyes are really freakin' hard?!
really! I just spent an hour drawing and redrawing the same set of eyes on three different characters in a book I just started. Geez louise I'd like to know how to EASILY draw the eyes of a kid turned at a three quarter angle and looking up or down. They always end up looking cross-eyed or like one of 'em should have a lazy eye patch! Anybody else out there have this problem?? what's your secret? Anyone else have a different thing that's really hard to draw? I sure hope I'm not the only illustrator who's being hung up on one annoying detail that drives my detail oriented compulsive perfectionist mindset to distraction. I've been both complimented on my eyes and advised to make them more expressive without making them bugged out. After I solve this problem I think I'll move on to something easy like settling the peace in the Middle East.
Here are the offending eyes as they were just scanned in for the art director:
really! I just spent an hour drawing and redrawing the same set of eyes on three different characters in a book I just started. Geez louise I'd like to know how to EASILY draw the eyes of a kid turned at a three quarter angle and looking up or down. They always end up looking cross-eyed or like one of 'em should have a lazy eye patch! Anybody else out there have this problem?? what's your secret? Anyone else have a different thing that's really hard to draw? I sure hope I'm not the only illustrator who's being hung up on one annoying detail that drives my detail oriented compulsive perfectionist mindset to distraction. I've been both complimented on my eyes and advised to make them more expressive without making them bugged out. After I solve this problem I think I'll move on to something easy like settling the peace in the Middle East.
Here are the offending eyes as they were just scanned in for the art director:
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Picture Book Reading Challenge Results
The real winner of my Picture Book reading Challenge was Small Fry. This week the weather finally turned warm, with the sun sifting down through the branches of the giant oak tree in our backyard, we rocked on the hammock and worked our way through about 40 picture books. Small Fry had his favorites that he asked for every night but when I'd ask "do you want Bubble Bath Pirates again or a NEW book?", the answer was always a new book! a new book!
To see the idea behind the Picture Book Reading Challenge and the original lists I pulled books from click here. I checked out our library limit of 25, plus chose several from Small Fry's and my own library. From those 40 books I piled up 4 in my Love It pile:
Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin: I was mildly amused by this book until the very last page. I thought it would just a typical "look we compromised and got along" lesson with cute illustrations .... until we see that the ducks really are not a neutral party.
Small Sister by Jessica Meserve: I just love this book (maybe because I am a little sister), I found it a couple of years ago at an SCBWI conference. The language is really spare, just one sentence on each page. Meserve's great story and images really capture what it feels like to seize power, both positively and negatively, as a little kid.
Duck on a Bike by David Shannon: The pay off of this book is the fabulous illustration at the end when all the barnyard animals get a shot at what just duck as gotten to enjoy. Just like Small Sister, I think this book perfectly taps into feeling of wishing you had someone else's toy and what you do when you finally get to play with it. There's no moral story here, just full on shenanigans.
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst and Ray Cruz : This was the only classic on my Love It list and an anomaly because it doesn't have a twist at the end that was characteristic of my other faves. I love the language in this book. I really empathized with Alexander. On each page I kept hoping that his day would get better.
I also chose two runner ups. These two books I wanted to put in a pile labeled "I don't love it, but I really like it and maybe in time we can be more than friends."
Duck for President by Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin
The Rain Came Down by David Shannon
In both of the these books my favorite things are the illustrations. Lewin's parody of Duck in the pose of Nixon in the "weight of the world" photograph is really something. Shannon's image of a city street just after the rain stops is equally transporting. These illustrations do the heavy lifting in conveying the emotion of the story.
As a picture book creator what I learned from the PBR Challenge is that I really love books with a twist at the end and with a story that makes me say "oh yeah, i remember feeling that way." I also discovered that my own drawings directly benefitted from reading several books right before sitting down at the drawing table. The few nights I was able to sketch for myself after putting Small Fry to bed, my sketches were more dramatic, more vibrant and the basset hounds and alligators of the book I am working on jumped faster off the end of my pencil than they usually do.
The books that did not make it into my Love It Pile were still good. One similar problem that I had with them was a less than developed ending. I can imagine this is incredibly hard to do when you only have 32 pages to work with. With my own story ideas I have kicked around, creating a developed ending that matches the story is the hardest part for me.
While its a cardinal no-no as a picture book professional to say "well my kid really loved this story, " I did find it interesting which books the Small Fry liked. His number one favorite was Bubble Bath Pirates by Jarrett Krosoczka, a story of bubbles, pirates and chocolate fudge ice cream why wouldn't a 3 year old boy love it? His other favorite was Granite Baby by Lynne Bertrand and Kevin Hawkes. I thought this was an odd choice since the book is kind of long but he was fascinated by the fact that these giant sisters could carve a stone dog. No matter where you are in the picture book world it is a great thing to see a child transfixed by a book. I think that as long as there is sun in the trees and a hammock, we will take the Picture Book Reading Challenge again and again.
To see some of the PBR Challenge readers visit these blogs:
Taking Flight
Kristi Valiant
To see the idea behind the Picture Book Reading Challenge and the original lists I pulled books from click here. I checked out our library limit of 25, plus chose several from Small Fry's and my own library. From those 40 books I piled up 4 in my Love It pile:
Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin: I was mildly amused by this book until the very last page. I thought it would just a typical "look we compromised and got along" lesson with cute illustrations .... until we see that the ducks really are not a neutral party.
Small Sister by Jessica Meserve: I just love this book (maybe because I am a little sister), I found it a couple of years ago at an SCBWI conference. The language is really spare, just one sentence on each page. Meserve's great story and images really capture what it feels like to seize power, both positively and negatively, as a little kid.
Duck on a Bike by David Shannon: The pay off of this book is the fabulous illustration at the end when all the barnyard animals get a shot at what just duck as gotten to enjoy. Just like Small Sister, I think this book perfectly taps into feeling of wishing you had someone else's toy and what you do when you finally get to play with it. There's no moral story here, just full on shenanigans.
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst and Ray Cruz : This was the only classic on my Love It list and an anomaly because it doesn't have a twist at the end that was characteristic of my other faves. I love the language in this book. I really empathized with Alexander. On each page I kept hoping that his day would get better.
I also chose two runner ups. These two books I wanted to put in a pile labeled "I don't love it, but I really like it and maybe in time we can be more than friends."
Duck for President by Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin
The Rain Came Down by David Shannon
In both of the these books my favorite things are the illustrations. Lewin's parody of Duck in the pose of Nixon in the "weight of the world" photograph is really something. Shannon's image of a city street just after the rain stops is equally transporting. These illustrations do the heavy lifting in conveying the emotion of the story.
As a picture book creator what I learned from the PBR Challenge is that I really love books with a twist at the end and with a story that makes me say "oh yeah, i remember feeling that way." I also discovered that my own drawings directly benefitted from reading several books right before sitting down at the drawing table. The few nights I was able to sketch for myself after putting Small Fry to bed, my sketches were more dramatic, more vibrant and the basset hounds and alligators of the book I am working on jumped faster off the end of my pencil than they usually do.
The books that did not make it into my Love It Pile were still good. One similar problem that I had with them was a less than developed ending. I can imagine this is incredibly hard to do when you only have 32 pages to work with. With my own story ideas I have kicked around, creating a developed ending that matches the story is the hardest part for me.
While its a cardinal no-no as a picture book professional to say "well my kid really loved this story, " I did find it interesting which books the Small Fry liked. His number one favorite was Bubble Bath Pirates by Jarrett Krosoczka, a story of bubbles, pirates and chocolate fudge ice cream why wouldn't a 3 year old boy love it? His other favorite was Granite Baby by Lynne Bertrand and Kevin Hawkes. I thought this was an odd choice since the book is kind of long but he was fascinated by the fact that these giant sisters could carve a stone dog. No matter where you are in the picture book world it is a great thing to see a child transfixed by a book. I think that as long as there is sun in the trees and a hammock, we will take the Picture Book Reading Challenge again and again.
To see some of the PBR Challenge readers visit these blogs:
Taking Flight
Kristi Valiant
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Picture Book Reading Challenge!
This week I'm taking on the Picture Book Reading Challenge as originally posted by Kristi Valiant here. The idea is to read as many books as you can, in one sitting, and then divide them into piles of ones that you are not that crazy about, ones that are OK and one that you LOVE. When Kristi originally did the challenge she was surprised to find that out of 60 books, there were only six that she loved. After reading her experience several children's book folk decided to do it as well and blog about our reading lists and the books we loved on April 30th.
if you are a kid lit creator (or even if you're not) and want to join us come on down! There is no specific list of books we are following although at the bottom I've written suggested lists to get you started. I pulled my own pile of books from these lists plus am adding several out of my own library as well as a bunch that just looked interesting as I was combing the library shelves last night.
If you are a creator of children's books then the real gem behind this idea is that it will help you decide which pile your own work belongs in - just as an acquisitions editor would - and then make improvements.
Here's some lists to get you started, see you on the 30th with the results of my Picture Book Reading Challenge!
Start with Fuse#8 countdown of the top 100 Picture Books
Then check these out:
New York Public Library's 100 best list
Amazon Best Books of 2008
A couple of random public library lists that are quite good here and here
if you are a kid lit creator (or even if you're not) and want to join us come on down! There is no specific list of books we are following although at the bottom I've written suggested lists to get you started. I pulled my own pile of books from these lists plus am adding several out of my own library as well as a bunch that just looked interesting as I was combing the library shelves last night.
If you are a creator of children's books then the real gem behind this idea is that it will help you decide which pile your own work belongs in - just as an acquisitions editor would - and then make improvements.
Here's some lists to get you started, see you on the 30th with the results of my Picture Book Reading Challenge!
Start with Fuse#8 countdown of the top 100 Picture Books
Then check these out:
New York Public Library's 100 best list
Amazon Best Books of 2008
A couple of random public library lists that are quite good here and here
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Featured on Illustrophile
This week I'll be the featured artist on the blog Illustrophile. Check out my feature here. I'm happy to be among the company of several other pretty cool artists in their archives.
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