DRAWING DAY 2009

This was drawn in my sketchbook on June 6th 2009 in honour of Drawing Day. If the world would take a day to sit down and draw the wars would all stop. Happy drawing!

The PBAA

The Picture Book Artists Association is wonderful group of children's book illustrators who provide me support and inspiration on a daily basis. Art work is of a cloistered sort, stuck away in a studio working desperately towards deadlines, both self-imposed and from our clients, we need contact with the world but not the distractions. Nothing could suit the bill better than email discussions from other professional illustrators with a lot of experience and expertise. I have met barely a handful of the people on this list but I feel that they are friends I can depend on. They are there for me every day, day in and day out, and they are always encouraging at my disappointments, and lavish with praise for my accomplishments. The title in this post is linked to the PBAA website. Go check out some wonderful art. The image above is a poster that was mailed to Art Directors at a variety of publishers recently.

Poetry Month

This image is from a rhyming counting book entitled THE HIMALAYAS: COUNT TO TEN AND BACK AGAIN that I wrote and am in the process of illustrating.
Speaking of poetry,every day in April, Gregory K. on his blog will be posting a previously unpublished poem by a different poet. There are some wonderful poets participating in this. Just check out this list of who's participating!

Arnold Adoff, Jaime Adoff, Rebecca Kai Dotlich, Douglas Florian, Betsy Franco, Kristine O'Connell George, Charles Ghigna, Nikki Giovanni, Joan Bransfield Graham, Nikki Grimes, Avis Harley, Mary Ann Hoberman, Lee Bennett Hopkins, X. J. Kennedy, Bruce Lansky, Julie Larios, J. Patrick Lewis, Pat Mora, Kenn Nesbitt, Linda Sue Park, Ann Whitford Paul, Gregory K. Pincus, Jack Prelutsky, Adam Rex, Jon Scieszka, Joyce Sidman, Marilyn Singer, April Halprin Wayland, Janet Wong, and Jane Yolen.

The poem a day launched on Tuesday, April 1, with former Children's Poet Laureate Jack Prelutsky's new “A Little Poem For Poetry Month.” It will end April 30th with “Books & Me” by Pat Mora to help celebrate El día de los niños/El día de los libros (Children's Day/Book Day). And every day in between will bring something new.
Check it out and if you get inspired, write it down.

Edward Lear

A fellow illustrator from the UK, John Shelley, commented on my recently posted sketches. He compared the whimsical line and subject matter to the work of Edward Lear (1812-1888), which of course in typical British fashion was rather complimentary. For those who are not familiar with Lear's work however I thought this an appropriate opportunity to explore his work a bit more deeply. Lear was an author and poet, a whimsical illustrator and a wonderful nature artist, sometimes compared to the great Audubon. I have linked the title of this post to a website dedicated to Edward Lear's nonsense poetry and cartoons.
The following is from THE OWL AND THE PUSSYCAT:
Pussy said to the Owl, 'You elegant fowl!
How charmingly sweet you sing!
O let us be married! too long we have tarried:
But what shall we do for a ring?'
They sailed away, for a year and a day,
To the land where the Bong-tree grows
And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood
With a ring at the end of his nose,
His nose,
His nose,
With a ring at the end of his nose.

His poetry is peppered with neologisms which tickles me to no end, it does it does, it tickles me frickles me free!

Doodle/sketch/final art

OK it is not all that easy but I am going to show you here how these seemingly harmless little doodles can make their way into final art. The little bird, "Clairy Canary" shown in the last post showed up recently on the cover of a book I recently illustrated THE KERALA COLLECTION: TALES FROM THE BANKS OF THE PERIYAR. I am posting the cover here. That's Clairy in blue on the top right.
Tomorrow the whole layout goes to press.
Exciting!
Next post I will show you the dust jacket design by my friend and colleague Jill Ronsley at Suneditwrite.com.

Scribble text and sketches

Pretty soon the text automatically starts to wrap around the doodles/sketches (and again on the back-side of the pages so that the ink doesn't show through on the scan for those of us who have OCD.) Strangely enough, I am finding that I actually listen to the lectures better when I am sketching. Drawing from the right side of the brain stimulates the left hemisphere to function better...my notes are better, my sketches are better and life is GOOD!

Sketchbooks

I have discovered over the years that I sketch much more freely in a sketchbook that I also write in. Somehow the combination of words and images frees me from the white paper syndrome and makes for looser and more interesting sketches. I have uploaded a few above to show the basis of what may be developed into a character.

The Cybils

You will see a new widget to the left on the Cybils. I first became aware of this award, the children's and young adult bloggers' literary awards, in 2006 when a book that I had illustrated The Mountain that Loved a Bird written by Alice McLerran was nominated for a Cybil. The award has grown in recognition since then. If you click on the widget link to the Cybil site you will see an assortment of wonderful books for children in the finalists and the winners for 2008.