Thursday, December 15, 2016

100 Animals


I started a new daily sketchbook project! Well, I'm actually only going to do 5 a week so I have a bit of time still to do other important things. This year I'm creating 100 animals- any media, any style, any animal, anything at all! Here is a link to the page on my website where I'll add the sketchbook pages. I'll be posting them daily on Instagram and Facebook but only occasional updates on my blog. Below are the first seven:








Sunday, December 4, 2016

Our Home


The latest installment of the Our Home picture book dummy was ready for a photo shoot yesterday. It's really exciting to hold a little book in my hands even if it still has a long way to go. And this book has already come a long way! This photo has 5 revisions of Our Home and the most recent one is no longer anything like the first one was.

Our Home is about our beautiful planet and how all of us share this world with the plants and animals  that also live here.


I'll be making finished linocuts of the interior spreads and submitting my book to agents and editors soon. But I'm going to make this book even if it doesn't get published traditionally. I'm so excited to create a finished book after so many sketch dummies!


Above is the completed cover for my latest version. Below I'm going to share some of my favorite finished spreads and drawings from earlier versions of the book. These pieces haven't made it into the new Our Home, but I still like them. They travel back in time to the bottom image from 2011.














Thursday, November 17, 2016

Owl and Pussycat Cover

In my previous post I talked about Lilla Rogers' Illustrating Children's Books online class. Our final assignment was to create a cover for our chosen text. So here is my cover for The Owl and The Pussycat by Edward Lear.


I really learned a lot about covers. Everyone talks about how hard they are, but with a few guidelines I feel so much more comfortable. The main points I got are:

1. Make it a simple, clear read of the characters and the text.
2. Feature the main characters on the front interacting in an interesting way.
3. Try to encapsulate the essence of the story for the cover.
4. Hand lettering adds a special touch if you can do it.
5. Try to make it warm and inviting.

That's it! It's not really so complicated. In fact, I when I hear "hard" I think it has to be complicated. But simplifying is really the key for me. And in fact I've already started on the cover for Our Home, the latest version of my picture book dummy. It's a little more complicated that this cover I did above, but hopefully it still has the other main points covered.

Lilla and Zoe Tucker are presenting another of these Children's Book classes in January and here is a competition to win 2 spots in the class! You have to do an illustration which is outlined in the directions that is due Dec. 2. It's a great class and I recommend it!

Sunday, October 30, 2016

Lilla Rogers' Illustrating Children's Books Class


I haven't been posting here much although I'm still trying to have at least a couple of new posts a month. I've been sharing photos every day on Instagram though, and I'd love it if you said hi to me over there!

I'm taking Lilla Rogers' Illustrating Children's Books class online right now. Lilla and her co-teacher, art director Zoe Tucker are so fabulous! They gave us 3 very different texts to choose from and we are using the story we picked to develop a picture book presentation that could be submitted to publishers or agents.

I picked The Owl and the Pussycat by Edward Lear which I LOVE. It's full of wacky silliness, stars, the ocean, animals, trees, and music, in other words, most of my favorite things to draw. We spent the first 3 weeks doing character development. I was pretty impatient to get to the story, do a storyboard and some final art.



The first week we designed our characters. Lilla didn't want any environment around them but I gave the Owl and Pussycat some squares and stars to give them somewhere to sing and dance. Then I did the Turkey Who Lives on the Hill and the Piggy-wig on my own so I could think about there they lived.


The next week we did emotion studies with no bodies, only heads! This was almost painful for me, I wanted to draw the story so badly. My only accomplishment was that I did it and turned it in.

The 3rd week we did two sheets of poses for our main characters. Again, I DESPERATELY wanted to do the story. But I spent some time thinking about the details in my characters and if they would scale up and down for close-ups and distance. I decided to simplify Owl's colors. I tried to do fully painted sheets but they didn't look good at all. So I went with these lightly painted sketches. I felt like a bit of a confused looser at this point because so many of the artists in class are mind-blowingly great and were turning in gorgeous assignments. For me these two weeks of just doing the characters over and over again were hard, but I did work some things out and have a chance to think about the details of the environment and my style.


In the 4th week we finally got to do a full page spread! The two adventurers have just arrived at the land were the Bong Tree grows. I had so much fun doing this! I decided to use minimal black lines, which is a big step for a relief printmaker who uses lots of black. I used stamps and stamp pads, I added color with a brayer, and kept the watercolor to a minimum.


Here is a little video of me adding color to the ocean with a brayer.

This week I also finally did a sketchy storyboard which helped me feel rooted in the story. Next week we are doing the cover. Covers are so hard for me, so I'm looking forward to hear Lilla and Zoe's tips!

Friday, October 7, 2016

Pamphlet Stitch for a Sketchbook


A while ago I shared a photo on facebook of the sketchbook that I made for my daughter. She completely filled it with paintings! I thought I'd make her another one with better paper and using one of  her own paintings for the cover. A couple people were interested in how to make one themselves, so here's a little how-to post. 

This type of simple book sewing is called a pamphlet stitch. It has a paper cover not hard boards. You don't need many tools and it's fun and rewarding to make even for someone that's never sewn a book.

Some supplies to gather: linen thread (or embroidery floss), an X-acto knife, a ruler, a large needle, a pin tool (or  you can use a needle but it's harder) a bone folder (or something hard to help fold the paper like a scissors handle) scissors, pencil, a cutting mat or piece of paperboard to cut on, a stack of paper (4-8 sheets), and a cover paper which is a little sturdier.

Cut the paper and cover to the same size. First it's best to find the grain of the paper. Pick a sheet up and fold it gently over itself in a u shape. Feel how resistant it is. Then fold it in the other direction. Whichever way it folds easiest is how you will want to fold the book pages. If you fold against the grain the paper may crack a bit and not fold nicely. I actually did this on purpose for my cover because I didn't have a big enough painting to fold it with the grain. It the close-ups you can see a little cracking along the spine of my cover.

When you have everything cut to the same size, line them all up neatly and fold them over all at once. Don't fold each sheet individually or they won't stack together. Your interior pages will stick out but don't worry about that, just try to line the cover edge up the best you can. Use a bone folder or something else to help crease the fold more sharply.

With your cutting mat or paperboard under the book, line your ruler up with the edge of the cover. Press down hard and use the X-acto to trim away the extra paper sticking out of the book.

Next, take a scrap of paper exactly the height of your book and fold it in half lengthwise. Use your ruler to mark the middle and a spot about 3/4" away from each end. If your book is taller, you can add two other marks centered between those. The book in these photos has 5 holes. The other orange book has 3 holes.

Line your paper scrap up inside the book and use your pin tool or maybe a needle (and pliers?) to poke the holes. Always make a hole from inside the book to outside. Try and have the pin tool come out right on the fold of the spine. The best way to do this is line your book up exactly on the edge of the table with the spine closest to your torso. When you poke the hole, angle the pin down a bit. It will come out of the book pointing at an angle toward the floor, but it's ok because the edge of the book is lined up with the table and you won't gouge the table.

In this photo my pin tool is sticking out of the fold. Do this for every hole you marked. Then cut a piece of thread or embroidery floss three times the length of your book.


Here is the sewing pattern for 3 holes or 5 holes. You always start inside the book. Start with your needle and thread inside at the center hole and feed it through to the outside. Make a figure-eight pattern with your needle and thread through the holes. 

Keep the thread snug but don't pull it too tight, you can tear the paper. Leave a 3 inch tail of thread inside the book at your starting hole.

When you come to the next hole but it already has a thread coming out of it, just go into the hole by carefully trying to guide the needle alongside the existing thread without going through the fibers.

When you've gone through all of the holes and arrived back at the center it's time to tie a knot. First guide your needle under the thread above the center hole. This will keep your knot centered in the book.  

Tie a square knot and trim the thread leaving about 1/4 inch tails.


Now my daughter has a brand new painting book! This is a great way to make a small soft-cover sketchbook for kids or adults. And I've even guided a class of 6-10 year olds in sewing their own books. The pages were already cut, folded and had holes punched, but each child was able to do the sewing themselves.

If you are making one of these books and have a problem, comment below and I'll try to help. If you've never made a book, you might want to make a test one out of materials that aren't too precious first. And you are now on the road to the addictive world of bookbinding!

Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Porcupine and Armadillo's Schedule


These two friends have quite the busy schedule!

 On sunny Sundays Porcupine and Armadillo sit in the shade and sip sarsaparilla.

 Every Monday of the month, Porcupine and Armadillo make marmalade and marshmallow muffins.  

 At two o’clock each Tuesday, Porcupine and Armadillo tidy their tiny trailer. 

 On warm Wednesdays, Porcupine and Armadillo whistle while wandering through the willows. 

 Every Third Thursday at 3:00, Porcupine and Armadillo meet for tea under the tulip tree. 

 On the first Friday of February, Porcupine and Armadillo dance the foxtrot with friends. 

Every second Saturday Porcupine and Armadillo watch the sunset from Snapdragon Summit.

Saturday, September 24, 2016

RMC SCBWI Conference


Last weekend was the regional conference for the Rocky Mountain Chapter SCBWI in Denver. I had a great time! It's wonderful to see friends that I mostly spend time with online. This year was our chapter's 40th anniversary, so we were very happy to have the SCBWI founders Lin Oliver and Steve Mooser there to speak and help celebrate the anniversary.


For the portfolio display, I had postcards printed by Moo with an image on each side.





And my portfolio was printed by Blurb. It turned out nicely!

There were great speeches and breakout sessions, but other than seeing and spending time with my good friends, my favorite part of the conference was Judy Schachner and her gorgeous character bibles!




For every picture book she creates, Judy makes a book full of collage, sketches, painting, thoughts, and bits of story. This helps her get to know the characters and storyline. The one she brought was for a new story about Sarah Bella. It's one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen!! In the pictures above she is showing some spreads to my friend Dow Phumiruk at the Illustrator's Intensive.


And then we got to make mixed media illustrations ourselves- Dow and I are working furiously in the photo above. Our art was based to this funny prompt that Judy brought:

"Jane AkiKahaleauki herself was sitting in the shade of a tree, sharing a Pepsi with a month-old wild goat called Hoku. "I give him soda and ice cream, but he doesn't like beer," she observed. "I want to teach him to talk."


Here's how mine turned out!



This was everyone in the workshop. The pieces we made were all so different! Thank you so much for the awesome inspiration, Judy!!