Tiny Dummies

Who would have guessed that Caldecott Medal Winner Brian Selznick’s final pencil illustrations for his picture books were so small?

This  video emulates the silent film montages that are in the spirit of the book that won the American Library Association’s 2008 Caldecott Medal.

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Michele Ammon interviews  Selznick for a nifty Expanded Books video on “The Invention of Hugo Cabret.”  He explains his interesting reasons for working in such a small graphic style — with his original  images  one quarter of the size they appear in the finished book!

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In this video Niko plays Ludwig Van Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata on the piano as we see selected illustrations from the book unfolding some of Hugo Cabret’s  story.

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For anyone in the Austin area this Saturday(July 11), don’t forget author Chris Barton’s signing for his just released picture book, “The Day Glo Brothers”  (Charlesbridge, 2009)  at 1 p.m. at BookPeople on the second floor.

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Author Cynthia Leitich Smith interviews  Chris Barton on the publication of his picture book bio “The Day Go Brothers: The True Story of Bob and Joe Switzer’s Bright Ideas and Brand New Colors” (Charlesbridge, 2009)  illustrated by Tony Persiani. The book has been getting great reviews  and you can learn how to enter to win a free copy in the post in Cynthia’s  blog Cynsations.

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Mark Mitchell hosts the “How To Be A Children’s Book Illustrator” blog.
To enjoy some free watercolor lessons from his online course on how to illustrate a children’s book go here.

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Dogged Daily Drawing

Cartoonist,  comics artist-author, web designer  Erik Kuntz drew a dog every day for a year.

And now he can draw them out of his head quite easily.

I know this because I saw him do it with my own eyes a few weeks ago.  I was sitting across the table from him at Central Market Cafe at an Inklings critique session. He had his sketchbook out. (A lot of folks bring their sketchbooks to Inklings gatherings.)  He was doodling as he listened to the various conversations that were going on around the table.

Suddenly this friendly,  rough and ready four pawed canine fellow appeared on the page — and everyone stopped talking.

I was always  impressed by  Erik’s decision to create  regularly  (by drawing then posting to his website a dog every day so we could keep tabs on him.  And not the same dog, either.)

It was the sort of character building put-your-time-and-money-where-your- mouth-is goal that I’ve always aspired to.  (Alas, I’ve found that other peoples’ deadlines motivate me more than my own.)

Erik never missed a day– and no one ever told him to do it.

He talked with us a few weeks ago. 

Why a dog a day, Erik?

I came up with the idea in 2000.  I even designed a logo for it way back then. Somebody said  if  you do something everyday,  it’s not possible to get worse at it.  Some of the newer studies, like those quoted in Malcom Gladwell’s  book Outliers have suggested that genius is over-rated.  I read something about that in 2002. 

I thought I should force  something ;  I really should be drawing more. But I let my own personal insecurities  get in the way.

It did bother me for six years.  I kept thinking,  where would I be now in my skill if I’d put more effort into it years ago.

On January 1, 2008, I launched my web comic Hex Libris and I thought,  as as long as I’m doing this, I should start doing a dog a day at the same time.

Dog a Day wooden model conceived by Erik Kuntz

And why dogs?

People like dogs. It’s not like doing  a cat a day, because with cats you don’t get the huge difference — all the variations that you get with dogs.  Dogs are funnier than cats and have more personality.
I knew more ideas would come from them.

Plus I was working on a children’s book about a Dalmation, and I knew that the reason I wasn’t  drawing the way I wanted to was because it’s easier to just not work.

And so how did you proceed?

As best I could.  I tried to do them in one sitting.  Some of the pieces would take more than one day. Generally they took a couple of hours.  I didn’t intend for  them to take  me as long as they did.  Some days I wished I had more time  — and came away a little bit discouraged. But as I started to improve and become more proud of the stuff I was doing, I would ask myself, what do I need to put into this image to make it a piece I’m happy with?

I worked mainly with a Wacom tablet.  I discovered that the ‘happy accidents’  that you often get in watercolor –can happen in digital mediums, too.

Working digitally you could just go back and work it to death.
But I learned to just stop and post the piece. I discovered the freeing nature of just stopping when I was reasonably done and telling myself, ‘This is what I did today, and I’ll do another one tomorrow.’

I put them up on the web as I completed them to keep myself honest.  I never missed  one. But one day something happened to my webserver  and the dog that had been up went down.  And I heard from eight people.

Dog a Day ala Dr. Seuss

How did you give yourself ideas?

There were some days when I would sit down and just not know what I was going to do. Often I would begin by noodling around with the Wacom.  For the one dog I did in complementary colors, I just put on a sphere and started to form a dog out of this. I spent an hour and a half on that,  just finding the dog hiding in the raw thing.

Complementary Colors Dog

Some of the dogs I did with Bic pen or Sharpie marker on typing paper.  Sometimes I would scan these and repaint them digitally.

People would send me ideas.  Some people would send me photos of dogs and I did drawings.

Some days I would search the web for interesting dogs. Some days I would work completely from my imagination.  I would do these three minute-dogs, stopwatch running.

I’d start with a really loose gesture, with some fuzzy notion of an action or a composition. I’d work really rough and light with blue pencil on paper, or the blue digital pencil  on the computer.  I used to be one of those kinds of people that tried to get every line right and I was really slow and cramped in my drawing. I felt like there was some sort of freedom missing in it.

Now I know I can get away with a fast, loose gesture. I learned that I could draw the arm as an arc, and everybody would be fine with it and nobody knows…

Fu Dog a Day

And now,  the book: You’ve repackaged your drawings in a new format!

I was thinking initially of  a small run of books that would be a Christmas present for family and some friends.

I started with one print on demand publisher but had problems with their color. Later I  turned to CreateSpace, owned by Amazon. They were substantially cheaper but they didn’t have the high grade glossy paper. But now the book is available  through their store.

I’ve designed books in the past, but never an art book. I used Adobe InDesign, which is a great program.

You know,  the Dog a Day project was never meant to be anything commercial.  It was meant to improve my skills and yes it did.

The idea was to challenge yourself and accept that if it wasn’t very good, then at least you drew.

I’m still drawing every day. And, yeah,  I can draw dogs with my eyes closed — no peeking.

"Hex Libris" Dog a Day (Connie and Watson)

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You can order your personalized softcover copy of  “A Dog A Day”  at Erik’s webstore here.

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Erik is also the creator of what is probably the most charming comic created for the web, the kid-friendly Hex Libris . Since its launch on January 1, 2008, the series has been unfolding a narrative about Kirby,  caretaker of a magical library and his fictional friends. (They range from a Nancy Drew-like character and her big dog Watson — to Frankenstein’s very literate monster.) You can read our early interview with Erik about Hex Libris here .

Bat Girl Dog A Day

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The narrator in the “Dog a Day Project” video, of course, is Erik’s wife, brilliant actress, comedian writer Maggie Gallant. They met in London while both working on start-up team for America Online – UK .

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Author Cynthia Leitich Smith interviews author Chris Barton on the publication of his picture book bio “The Day Go Brothers: The True Story of Bogb and Joe Switzer’s Bright Ideas and Brand New Colors” (Charlesbridge, 2009)  illustrated by Tony Persiani. The book has been getting great reviews  and you can learn how to enter to win a free copy in the post in Cynthia’s  blog Cynsations.

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Mark Mitchell hosts the “How To Be A Children’s Book Illustrator” blog.
To enjoy some free watercolor lessons from his online course on how to illustrate a children’s book go here.

Shadow Dog a Day by Erik Kuntz

Paper Engineers!

Two members of our Inklings Picture Book critique group recently made a pilgrimage  to see the original pop-up art of Robert Sabuda and David Diaz in an exhibit “The Wizards of Pop-up.”  It was at the National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature in Abilene, Texas.

Austin author-illustrators Christy Stallop and Erik Kuntz basically spent the day with Sabuda, Caldecott Medalist Diaz, museum executive director Debbie Lillick and the Illustration Chair of the National Society of Childrens Books Authors and Illustrators, Priscilla Burris. They had dinner with Diaz .

Robert Sabuda and Matthew Reinhart are considered to be the  premier contemporary  pop-up book artists in the U.S.

Maurice Sendak tried his hand at 3-D moveable art with great results.  Mommy? released in 2006 by Michael di Capua Books/Scholastic was  a collaboration between him, author-playwright Arthur Yorinks and pop-up wizard Reinhart.

Erik and Christy’s field trip got me thinking how much I enjoyed pop-ups and  any kind of  “3-D” art as a kid.

Maybe because it broke the picture plane and added one more dimension of  ”make believe.”

I once owned a reprint of a Turn of the Century pop-up book. It was  about  a Victorian family’s visit to a  zoo. I don’t   remember the title or the artist.

As you turned each page  you saw the same family and a different cage of animals come to life. The animals stayed behind the bars,  thank goodness.  The book gave you a charming experience of visiting a zoo.

One issue of “Jack and Jill” magazine, I remember ( I was a proud 10 year old subscriber), had a sort of 3-D assemble-it-yourself Dinosaur Diorama.

It featured Pteranadons, Brontosauruses and maybe a T-Rex.
You placed them into a primeval forest stage-set. Its curved backdrop gave depth to a world of  volcanoes, ferns, and Jurassic beasts.
(Of course the best dinosaur is a 3-D dinosaur.)

After doing my part in the assembly, I felt as if I’d done the whole mural myself.  It wasn’t like I’d painted the dinosaurs. I’d  just punched them out of cardstock and inserted them into their places in the scene.
But I’d helped to contribute to the 3-D effect!

Pop up books have been around since the Middle Ages — for kids books, since the 1800s. Here is Robert Sabuda and Matthew Reinhart’s List of “Top 10 Pop-Up Books” , according to Amazon.com.

And speaking of 3-D papercraft, Kids Can Press has re-released the eminently kid-friendly The New Jumbo Book of Easy Crafts by Judy Ann Sadler. A redesign and smartly graphic illustrations by Caroline Price keep176 pages of step by step procedurals from feeling  burdensome.

 

Mark G. Mitchell hosts the How To Be A Children’s Book Illustrator blog.

“You’re supposed to kind of wear the book.” David Macaulay

Wear the book.  Be in the square. Make test books. Do it on tracing paper.

Author illustrator David Macaulay puts words to his latest process in this video shot by fellow author-illustrator Thatcher Hurd for the San Francisco Center for the Book’s recent exhibition,’Once Upon a Book.’

English born, an honors architecture  graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, David Macaulay has delighted the world with his books that look at the inner workings of things — from 16th century caravel sail ships, to grist mills, to  more complex machines like, well, the human body.

He won the Caldecott Medal in 1991  for his book Black and White, of which ALA Booklist said, “It’s a story. It’s a puzzle. It’s a game.”

He’s also received one of those MacArthur Fellowship “genius grants.”

Judging by this video, he also has one of the coolest art studios, anywhere.
I would love to work in there every day.

Thank you, Diandra Mae for sharing the fantastic video clip page from the SFCB site with our Wiggio Children’s Book Illustration Group!

Terrific “Toons”

“Graphic novels” for little bitty kids?

Comics for children age four and up?

"Just Pretend"

Not such a preposterous idea.  The intuitive narrative form of comics is a whole another kind of reading.

Searching words, pictures and panels for clues to events big and small in a story is a more active experience than watching video on a screen.

My “great books” education came from Classics Illustrated comics, which I loved.  Did they ruin my appetite for dinner?

Heck no, I read plenty of  real classics later. My readings of the actual Men Against the Sea, The Dark Frigate, King Solomon’s Mines, Frankenstein, David Copperfield, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and so many more  were only enhanced by my first reading their comic book counterparts.

(In many cases the comics reading was a richer experience than plowing through the actual classic texts. Maybe that says more about me than any literary works. However  that’s a story for another post.)

Thank you, Albert Kanter for the great contribution you made to kid culture with the Classic Illustrated series that ran for 30 years beginning in 1941.

On that note, Toon Books, produced by Raw Junior, LLC , endeavors to make comics readers of toddlers and tots.

"Just Pretend"

And who better to tease little ones with artful pictures and graphics into an early habit of  reading  than, well, another comic book publisher.

And, in this case, someone who is also a New Yorker magazine art director.

Françoise Mouly is a veteran of more than 800 New Yorker covers, a mom, and the co-founder and co-editor, with her husband cartoonist Art Spiegelman, of the avant garde comics anthology Raw Graphics. That’s where Spiegelman’s family account of the Holocaust,  Maus, A Survivor’s Tale, that later won the Pulitzer Prize, first appeared. It was the first comic book to call itself a graphic novel .

Mouly also designed and edited books for Pantheon and Penguin in the late 1980’s and early 1990s. She was helping her first grade son with his reading.  she discovered — to her dismay — “beginner reader” texts.

She substituted for their home reading sessions her giant collection of French comic books, and that worked like a charm. It got her thinking, and in 2000 she launched the RAW Junior division to  publish “literary comics” for kids of all ages.

She enlisted star writers, artists and cartoonists such as Maurice Sendak, David Sedaris, Jules Feiffer and Gahan Wilson.

In 2008 she started the Toon Books imprint. These were 6″ by 9″ hard cover “comics” that very young children could read on their own.

“Comics have always had a unique ability to draw young readers into a story through the drawings,” Mouly told an interviewer. “Visual narrative helps kids crack the code that allows literacy to flourish, teaching them how to read from left to right, from top to bottom.”

“Comics use a broad range of sophisticated devices for communication,” the Toon Books website quotes Barbara Tversky, professor of Psychology at Stanford University and a Toon Books advisor.

“They are similar to face-to-face interactions, in which meaning is derived not solely from words, but also from gestures, intonation, facial expressions and props,” Tversky says. “Comics are more than just illustrated books, but rather make use of a multi-modal language that blends words, pictures, facial expressions, panel-to-panel progression, color, sound effects and more to engage readers in a compelling narrative.”

"The Big No-No"

I like the Benny and Penny series by author illustrator Geoffrey Hayes, about sibling mice — a big brother and his little sister and do they ever ring true! In the latest title, The Big  No-No, released this Spring, Benny and Penny confront the “new kid” next door.

In Just Pretend, Penny threatens to disrupt Benny’s make believe pirate game (because she needs a hug).  But they somehow manage to play together. When Penny momentarily disappears in a game of hide and seek, Benny decides that pretending is better with his sister around than not.

Hayes has written and illustrated about 40 books, including early readers and a Margaret Wise Brown title, When the Wind Blew.

"The Big No-No!"

The Big No-No and  Just Pretend are gently rendered in colored pencil and beautifully orchestrated and paced. The pages are a joy to experience. The little dialogue balloons are so natural and unobtrusive. The books give you the feeling that you’re eavesdropping on the real conversations of real children.

You can read a fascinating interview with Hayes on the  Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast blog.

I haven’t yet  seen Stinky about a polka-dotted swamp monster whose turf gets invaded by a little boy. It’s creator is a 25 year old rising comics star Eleanor Davis,  a recent graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design. The American Library Association named Stinky its Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor Book for  this year.

"Stinky"

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Mark Mitchell hosts “How To Be A Children’s Book Illustrator.” To sample some free lessons from his online course on children’s book illustration, go here.

Drawing Lesson: “Snow Scene by Jon Gnagy”

Jon Gnagy was the first artist to draw pictures on television, and I was there! I mean, in front of the TV screen. I may not have been in school yet.
“We would both watch him and be spellbound,” my mother tells me.

Shadows and shading, the cube, the ball, the cylinder and the cone…
The lessons were simple, though dazzling as magic tricks for the millions of children who watched him.

Andy Warhol learned to draw from him, or so he said.

“Mr. Gnagy, who was self-taught, was an advertising art director in New York before offering weekly art courses on television in 1946. His NBC-TV program was called ”You Are An Artist.” He switched to CBS-TV in 1950,” reported the New York Times in his obituary.

He passed away on March 7, 1981 at the age of 74.

A plain-talking midwesterner, the son of Hungarian – Swiss Mennonites, Gnagy did attend some evening classes at the Kansas City Art Institute as a young man. He became a company art director who won prizes for his paintings and poster designs.

There’s a wonderful (2006) article about him at the Dali House blog by crackerjack  arts writer and journalist Paul Dorsey.

Gnagy was not paid anything for the 700 telecasts he did over 14 years at the CBS and NBC networks, Dorsey says.  His revenue came from royalties on the sales of millions of  his art sets, “The John Gnagy Learn to Draw Outfit.”

I finally became the proud owner of one of these, at the age of six or seven. The kit had gray pastels to go with the black (and white) pastels and charcoal. The gray pastels were for stuff  like shadows. That seemed terribly interesting and sophisticated to me.

Alas, I lacked the concentration to stay with most of his exercises. His subjects — barns in the woods and vegetable-filled baskets on toolshed tables — seemed a little overwhelming and hard.  (I’d never be as good as him.) But, oh, how the thought of those lessons tantalized.

Maybe I should find another Learn to Draw set.  (You can still buy them!)
Really buckle down this time.

Because it’s never too late to ponder the cube, the ball,  the cylinder and the cone –  ahh, and those marvelous snow shadows.

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Mark Mitchell, the host of “How To Be A Children’s Book Illustrator” is blogging tonight because he’s so behind in writing Session #12 of his course.

Karien Draws Dragons In Tolkien’s Original Land

Karien Naude taught herself to draw, paint and airbrush.

Her native language is the Afrikaans of the Dutch Protestants who settled in southwestern South Africa in the 17^th century.

“The wildlife and nature are breathtaking and I love to go camping and take all this splendor in,” she wrote me in an e-mail back in September.

“It’s good for the soul!  There are so many different cultures and the people are fantastic.  The only thing is we are behind in everything.  South Africa is still viewing art as a hobby. But it is changing. There are a lot of different animation programs now available. I’m part of a South African comics group Comicworx Studios, where we try to get the country involved with  comics. It’ s very hard work, but every year we can see some progress.

“We have become friends with a few Marvel (Comics) artists and that has given us a huge boost.  But my passion is still illustration.”

Fantasy artist Karen Naude of Johannesburg

She has far too many interests to mention in this small space.  But I will  say  they include the fairies,  trolls and wizards of the novels of Terry Pratchett and J.R.R. Tolkien (who also was born in South Africa, but moved to England when he was three.)

She also reads Anne Rice and Stephen King, Dean Koontz and J.K.Rowling.

She likes  horror movies, Tim Burton movies  and Harry Potter movies.
She’s crazy about music.  Her tastes range from Counting Crows to Jimi Hendrix to the operas of Richard Wagner.

To the Screeching Weasels.

She answered an online survey question back in the fall and landed in this online course on how to illustrate a children’s book. Originally spurred by a publisher’s contest, she’s been crafting a picture book based on a Zulu folk tale about a supernatural creature, the  Tokoloshe.

She’s completed the manuscript and has revised her thumbnail storyboard.  She’s now at the stage of transferring drawings to her watercolor paper. Dismayed by the retail prices of lightboxes in the art supply stores,  she built her own.

I’ll stop here, because Karien does a great job of speaking for herself — in her second language, English.

Karien, what sort of art study have you done?

I’m a self-taught artist with God given talents, and proud of it.  Ever since I can remember I have been drawing. Since kindergarten I’ve made the cutest drawings in my school books and always gotten a golden star from the teachers and I think that was when I realized I wanted to become an artist.   When I got older I started studying every book I could find about Renaissance artists and bought every art book that showed techniques on how to draw and paint.  I started out with pencil drawings and got pretty good in it, later I started experimenting with pastels and paints. I sold a few drawings and got praised by an Art Gallery in Melville but decided that it’s not for me and that I would rather do fantasy drawings and illustration work.  I have had no formal training or studies.

Can you describe a little about your life in South Africa? Have you ever lived anywhere else?  What is school and work like there?

I have been living in South Africa all my life and have not lived anywhere else.  I am planning to visit a friend, hopefully this year, in England, but I will always return to my roots.  South Africa is a beautiful country, the land and people.  I am currently living in a middle class suburban area and the schools in my area are very respectable and up to standard.  I am currently working in the central of Johannesburg town.  I work for a big law firm and we mainly work with properties.  South Africa has 11 official languages and the most difficult system when selling and buying houses. It is stressful and hard work, and because it’s hard to speak all of the languages, we use English to communicate. So Afrikaans people talk, read and use English, although we are very proud of our language. Afrikaans music is big here and even English people listen to it.

Are there any art museums around?

Yes there are two art museums that I know of in Pretoria and Cape Town but sadly non in Johannesburg where I live.  There are however thousand of art galleries that you can visit.  The well known Goodman Gallery is also in Rosebank, Johannesburg, and sometimes a real treat to visit as they have a variety of art exhibitions.

What other  artistic and/or literary interests do you have? (I know you really keep up with all kinds of music!)

I’m very passionate about air brushing and some have even told me I am very good.  I love reading (thanks to my mom) and got my own little library of books that I’ve bought over the years, mostly fiction.

Yes,  music plays a big role in my life.  I play the piano and I’m always listening to all kind of music on my MP3. You will always find me with my earphones on, on my way to work, and I can never draw or paint without music.  It inspires me and I get most of my ideas while listening to it.

What has brought you to the world of children’s stories and books?

When I go out I love to stop at the nearest book shops and flipping through children books or any book about illustrations.  A few years back I started reading Terry Pratchet’s books about Discworld and always admired the art work on the book covers.  Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell books and illustration work always brings a giggle to me.  One day on my way to work I started thinking of how much I enjoyed the books and illustration work and that I can do it as well.  I started doing research on Children’s books which brought me to your course, Make Your Splashes; Make your Marks!

Your interest in fairies, trolls and elves — how far back in your life does that go? What do you think pulls you to them?

It started with The Hobbit when I was in school and later the Lord of the Rings because the elves where mystical, the hobbits lovable and wizard’s warriors.  I also love Terry Pratchett’s books where you read about trolls, witches, wizards and all kinds of fantasy beings (with a twist).  I will always have a soft spot for them.

What are you working on now in your illustration?

I’ve just finished my Green fairy but I want to do a humorous illustration about my children (dogs) and what they do at home when I’m at work.

How is it going, developing the Tokoloshe story? You’ve been developing your thumbnail storyboard. Have you run into any roadblocks?

The Tokoloshe is my first story that I’ve written and I guess that’s my first roadblock! But every step I take and roadblock I get I learn a lot.  The thumbnail storyboard helps a lot and after my first one (which I wasn’t happy with) I noticed that I was repeating scenes and so I’ve changed it.

I started a second storyboard but a bit bigger and it works like a dream. I can see how my book’s layout would be and if I repeat scenes or if a scene doesn’t fit.  I won’t work without it.

Are you starting to develop any of the full drawings? What difficulties are you finding in this process of working a thumbnail “scribble sketch” up to a complete detailed drawing?

I must say its hard work and long hours. Without the thumbnail and little scribble sketches it would’ve taken me a lifetime to complete but working with the thumbnail it’s much easier and faster.  I’ve noticed that my scribble sketches are really working for me and it’s basically just putting it over and improving the sketch into a detailed drawing.   But it can also bee frustrating to do the detailed drawing as they sometimes takes to long.

Can you describe how you work? What is your creative process like?

First I must put my earphones on for some music. hehe.  I first start with the layout of the drawing in H2 pencil and it involves lot of cappuccino and erasing.  When I’m done I always ask my sister to have a look at my drawing and comment on it (she is like my personal editor) and then I start going over it with Faber Castell Ecco Pigment marker and erasing the pencil.  I will then start painting and when Im done and happy with it I will go over some lines again with the Faber Castell Ecco Pigment marker for more effect.

How did you pull off that cool cover for The Tokoloshe?

When I was writing the story I wanted to look at a picture of the tokoloshe so that it would not slip from my mind and I created the picture. After doing it I decided to make it into a cover just for the fun of it.  I was experimenting with paints and colors and I was happy at the time.  Now I see mistakes that I didn’t notice before and the Tokoloshe looks very stiff so I’m planning on giving him a make-over.

What challenges do you find  yourself repeatedly facing in your paintings or renderings?

Sometimes my pencil drawings are really good but after starting painting them they don’t turn out as what I was hoping for and they don’t look good to me.  When I render a piece I sometime mess it up and after spending so much time on the painting I spoiled everything and I have to throw it away and start again, which is upsetting.

What questions do you have about the  whole endeavor of  children’s book illustration?

When my story and illustrations are done how will I know what publisher to choose and how do I submit it?  How will I know if my work is even good enough?  If my work is submitted what is the time frame?  If it is accepted, what must I look out for in the contract (pitfalls)?

What children’s book publishing opportunities have you uncovered in South  Africa or the Afrikaans language?

I’ve read a lot of Afrikaans and English books and I’ve jotted down a few South African publishing companies.  There are some famous ones like Random House and Penguin Books, which have branches in South Africa which I’m looking at as well.

Who are your artist muses? Any favorite children’s authors?

People who inspire me are John Howe, Alan Lee, Paul Kidby, Josh Kirby, Paul Stewart, Chris Riddell, Terry Pratchet, J.K .Rowling, Tolkien and Don Seegmiller.

Karien’s art blog, which is on our blogroll , is: http://kariennaude.blogspot.com

We’ll  check in with her from time to time to see how she’s progressing on her dummy for “The Tokoloshe.”

Mark Mitchell, who interviewed Karien, hosts the “How Be a Children’s Book Illustrator” blog.

Karien likes to listens to music while she draws.

“Toast” Trumps

Could it have been the book trailer that led to the exciting  publishers’ auction for the picture book proposal Toast Friday?

Or was it just the exquisite digital and mixed media paintings by illustrator-author and animation concept artist Clint Young.

Young’s imagery for his story of Toast, a sweet pig on a quest for someone to love him has been causing jaws to drop wherever it’s been shown at gatherings and critique groups and Austin chapter meetings of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI.)

Agents and editors first noticed his portfolio at the annual regional conference of Austin SCBWI that was held last May at the University of Texas Club. There Young met Little, Brown and Company Editor Alvina Ling and agent Erin Murphy who both expressed a strong interest in the project.

Over the many months that the work sat at the offices of Little, Brown,  Toast portraits began to show up in Young’s art blog, as the former LucasFilm animation concept artist developed and redeveloped his notions  and story and talked about his attachment to his character.

Young’s agent Erin Murphy put the project up for auction last week and it wasn’t just publishers bidding, but a  film studio, The Weinstein Company.

In the end, Toast went under contract to Feiwel and Friends, an imprint of Macmillan. Liz Szabla will edit.

We’ll have the fun of covering this story as it unfolds in coming months since
Clint is a regular member of our Central Market Cafe Inklings, (picture book author-illustrator critique group.)

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Spherical Thinking

More from the amazing Dick Termes.  His one-man show, Thinking In the Round will be on display through the end of this in Rapid City, South Dakota.

What can children’s book illustrators learn from his work? I think, that we grasp artistic perspective most easily when we think in a round way.

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Austin illustrator and designer Marsha Riti  gave a great interview to children’s author and kid lit blogger Tara Lazar, recently (and I’m not just saying that because she mentions me there.) You can read about Marsha’s path into the world of illustration, and the art history that inspires her here. 

Marsha has a B.F.A. from the University of Texas at Austin and is active with both the Austin Society of Children’s Book Illustrators and its elite swat team of  picture book scribblers, The Inklings.

She also maintains what I would describe as an exemplary illustrator’s blog. I recommend that you check it out — for fun and also if you are looking for ways to do an art blog right. It’s on our blog roll and  right here.

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Tuesday night we conducted our first group conference call for the
Make Your Splashes; Make Your Marks! children’s book illustration course.
We looked at students’ work and just talked about it as if we were all sitting around in a studio classroom eating pizza — except we were at various points around the country — California, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Texas, as it happens. We had all four directions covered!

And you can be a part of this!  Technology has made distance-learning suddenly very, very easy. How easy? Find out for yourself by signing up for the  course — and join the  meetings. 

You can test drive  a huges section of the course content for free, while it’s still available,  by going  here. 

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And now back to our spherically scheduled programming.

Mark Mitchell hosts the How to be a Children’s Book Illustrator  blog.

“Outside the Box” (two cases)

We’re into some lessons  on linear perspective in the course.
It’s a big subject, of course, that has preoccupied the intellects of artists from Leonardo Da Vinci to David Hockney.  But no discussion on it today is complete without a mention of Dick Termes of  Spearfish, South Dakhota,  who has learned how to turn the world inside out.

I’m nuts about this artist and his website and his videos and creations.  His meticulous painting reminds me a little of the art of late great children’s illustrator Barbara Cooney.  Except his illustrations employ vanishing points to your left and  right, below and above,  in front of and behind you — all on the surface of a beach ball — or rather, a “Termesphere.”

The largest exhibit ever of these brain-bending orbs, Thinking in the Round is on display  at the Dahl Art Center in Rapid City South Dakota through May 31.

Meanwhile, in case you’ve ever wondered, refrigerators,  too can be exquisite vehicles of self-expression.

So can children’s  nonfiction. And when you combine the two, you can get something like
Chill: Discover the Cool and Creative Side of Your Fridge by Allan Peterkin (Kids Can Press, Toronto, Ontario. 2009)

With chapters named ”History”, “Theory”, “Practice”,  ”Business” and “Resources”, you know this is the definitive self help book on the subject of refrigerator art.  It even tells us how refrigerator magnets are made. Animator and children’s television program director Mike Sheill provides the zany, sometimes gross though appropriate (in a Sponge Bob sort of way) cartoon art — and endpapers that feature what else but refrigerator contents. Chill proves that you can make an entertaining children’s nonfiction book  of almost any topic, which is the attitutde kids take in seeing the world, anyway.