SCRIBBLE SKETCH by Stephen Aitken

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

2011-12-16T21:33:00.002+03:00

Although these two Rockhopper Penguins may not like the change of seasons that much, since it is getting hotter every year for them, they are jolly fellows and would like to send out their MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR greetings to everyone and their families!!!

Earth Has a Fever

2011-09-03T23:33:00.003+03:00

Earth Has a Fever

Well it took an email from a school in NY state asking for a Skype-an-author visit to alert me to the fact, but my Pre-K to 2 climate change series for ABDO's Magic Wagon Books is out!

Earth Has a Fever is a 4-book set that I wrote and illustrated over the past couple of years. The titles look great, though I have not yet received my 10 sets so have not been able to inspect the final printing. Of course, I did have time to look over the proofs before they went to print. If you are interested in purchasing the series for your school library, or for your own children, these books provide basic knowledge of what effects climate change is having on animals, insects, plants, ecosystems, oceans and people all over the world. Follow this link to the ABDO catalog and get your own set.

The mountain stirs once again

2011-07-16T02:23:00.000+03:00

The Mountain that Loved a Bird is a wonderful book written by Alice McLerran. Alice and I have been good friends since we worked together on the international edition 6 or 7 years ago. The book has now been published in Chinese, Turkish, Lebanese, 12 different languages in India as well as English. But Simon and Schuster no longer hold the rights for the book in North America and Alice and I are intending this new edition to be the definitive edition for the United States and Canada. I am developing several new illustrations for this edition and Alice has been active in reformatting existing images for the new layout and creating a design that will appeal to readers of all ages. Keep tuned into this space for updates on the process that has already started.

A unique breed

2011-07-16T00:41:00.002+03:00

I think that those who write and illustrate their own work are some of the most fortunate in the publishing industry, but they are a unique and rare breed. It is not easy to find a supportive group for both of these creative talents.
Most authors join crit groups, where other writers can share in the task of commenting and critiquing on each other's books and articles. An inspiring chemistry that also provides skilled and valuable critiques is not easy to find - I have been in a number of them. My current group is very valuable to me and we have managed to maintain a core of writers for over 2 years now, people who have never met each other in 'real' life. We live all over North America, thousands of miles apart.
Many illustrators can join list serves where the business of book illustration is discussed, with tips, publisher updates, and camaraderie in a business where many people work in isolated settings.
But to have those who both write and illustrate in one place is a rare occasion indeed. The Manic Network is just such a place, run by dedicated SCBWI member Michelle Munger. She was kind enough to conduct an interview with me recently which I always appreciate. Check it out.

Surviving the Heat

2011-04-28T19:35:00.000+03:00

It has been a long time since my last post, and I have been doing anything but hibernating. I recently completed the last book in the Grade 3 Level series Earth has a Fever for ABDO Publisher's Magic Wagon Books imprint. These will be in US schools in the fall of this year. I will be posting links to those books as soon as they are printed and available online. In the meantime I will be offering sample images on this blog and describing the process through which these images were created and the research that went into finalizing the text for this series. In the meantime a 5-book series for Grades 6-12 for Marshall Cavendish Benchmark entitled Climate Crisis will also be going to print. This series is a more in-depth look at the causes and ramifications of climate change for all living species on our planet. These books are illustrated with full-colour photographs. The image above is a view from space of the formation of hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico.

Hibernation? Humbug!

2010-12-05T16:21:00.001+03:00

OK, now some people say that this fellow looks like me. I'm not going to comment on that. But one thing we DO have in common is that Spanish brown bears like this mother from the Cordilleran mountains are no longer hibernating at all. The mountain winters are getting warm enough that she and her cubs can find food (berries and nuts) and snuggle up to stay warm through the whole winter.

Me? Well I have enough work that, though I am hunkering down with my laptop and iMac in the one warm room in my studio - I'm not sleeping for the next 4 months. I have 4 books to write and illustrate before the end of April 2011. They're coming out in the fall so there is now wiggle room, no snuggle time for me either!

So no hibernating here either mamma bear!

Dive in and draw draw draw!

2010-09-07T09:36:00.007+03:00

'An artist is only as big as his mind'. This stroke of genius came from the lips of Jack Shadbolt. Interestingly, though many perceive art as a non-cognitive process the quality of what I draw is permeated by my own understanding. The more I 'know' an object the better I can draw it, and ironically the more it becomes mine. Let's face it, I can't shut off my knowing any more than I can walk around with my eyes closed, and I've got some bruised shins to prove that I'm not very good at that. Short of lapsing into a prolonged slumber and never waking up again, the solution I have come to is draw draw draw! I wanted to share the following items that I read on the teeteringbulb blog. I am recording these for me to re-read again and again, but I thought you might find them useful too:
• You learn to draw by drawing.
• People that are better than you are just better than you because they’ve had more practice.
• Draw VERBS, not nouns. – Walt Stanchfield
• Turn everything you paint to greyscale (digitally). If it looks like a grey soup, you messed up.
• If you’re not sure what good values look like, look at screen stills from B/W movies, like Citizen Kane.
• You learn to draw by drawing.
• 50 bad illustrations might yield one good one. You learn to draw by drawing.
• Sometimes you gotta draw it 6 or 7 times.
• Use sharp edges for only important things, practice hierarchy and contrast. Have a focal point.
• If you’re going to give someone a jewel, don’t surround it with shiny things. – Paul Hudson
• Saturate your eyes and brain with work that is better than what you can do. Then put it all away and start working.
• Progress, not Perfection.
• Schedule time to utterly fail. – Iain McCaig
• Take reference, it’s easier that way. Don’t make stuff up if you don’t have to. If it doesn’t exist, figure out how to take a picture of it anyway. Use cardboard, clay, macaroni… doesn’t matter.
• Doubt can only be removed by ACTION. – Goethe
• Use the best materials you can possibly afford. You’re already fighting a battle. Don’t fight the materials. Find pencils/brushes/paper that feel good.
• Does it work in greyscale? Does it work at postage-stamp size? Does it work reversed? Upside down?
• Do what you love, other people will love it too.

Ocean Life

2010-08-05T19:00:00.004+03:00

While researching the impact of climate change on ocean life for a title I am writing for Marshall Cavendish Benchmark I have to admit that I was shocked. I thought I knew a lot about climate change but the magnitude of the effects on one of the biggest regulators of Earth's climate, the OCEAN, is something that everyone should be aware of. Along with sea level rises, which are occurring largely due to the thermal expansion properties of water (with help from land ice melt), one of the great threats is ocean acidification which has a harmful effect on the ability of shelled organisms to make their calcium shells. Sea horses, oysters, crabs, lobsters and a host of others are developing with thinner, more vulnerable shells.
The image to the left is a clip of an illustration I created for the first title in another series that I am writing and illustrating for ABDO Publishing on the same topic. The marine animals are all talking about climate change.

Non-fiction

2010-03-18T19:18:00.006+03:00

Did you know that 80% of the books in a children's library are non-fiction titles? Kids, especially boys, love non-fiction. And interestingly, a League of Conservation Voters study found that most people receive their information about the environment from materials that their children bring home from school. So, adults love non-fiction too. I'd like to point you to an excellent blog about Interesting Non-fiction for Kids (INK) run by a group of non-fiction writers some of whom are also illustrators. Loreen Leedy, one of the posting author/illustrators featured some of the coral reef illustrations from a previous post on my blog:
http://inkrethink.blogspot.com/search/label/2010%20titles
Scroll down the page to see Loreen's post,but it is ALL interesting at the INK blog.

They don't call it Painter for nothing

2010-03-14T08:36:00.005+03:00

I recently completed an assignment to paint some spring backyard birds for a Canadian children's magazine. The images were drawn and painted using Corel's Painter 11 and I thought that some folks might find the process interesting. I took screen shots as I was going from the pencil to final colour art.
The pencil drawing was completed using the 'real pencil' tool now found in Painter 11, and this one was set at 6B. The color work made use of the 'oils' media, using flat glazing brushes, fine detail camel hairs and a variety of blending brushes.
The final art is included here as well. Click on any of the images, which are posted in reverse order (so start with the pencil drawing at the bottom and work your way to the top to final art) to see a larger version.

On the lighter side - what is art?

2010-03-04T19:34:00.002+03:00

You've gotta love these creature comfort guys discussing the nature of art. Click on this link for a good laugh.

Rainforests of the Sea

2010-01-17T20:12:00.002+03:00

These sketches show the diversity of form and shape found in coral reefs but they can't do justice to the color palette encountered by poking your nose (or goggles) between these staghorns. It is a pity to think that warming waters are endangering these vital ecosystems. Corals have a very limited temperature range within which the xooanthellae, the algae that live in the coral casing and provide nutrients to the coral polyps, can live. When the algae die-off, the coral is not far behind. To make matters worse, the excess man-made CO2 in our atmosphere enters the ocean through absorption by phytoplanktonic photosynthesis. It is this CO2 that is acidifying the ocean waters and making carbonic acid that weakens shellfish and the coral structures. The beautiful array of marine life that live in the reefs are in danger of losing their homes if fossil fuel emissions are not reduced and CO2 levels in the atmosphere brought back to 350 ppm.

On a Lighter Note - Dolphins

2010-01-12T18:42:00.005+03:00

Everyone loves dolphins. Why? Because they have a perpetual smile on their faces - seemingly. But don't be fooled by these beaked Cetaceans, they are fierce hunters. They corral unsuspecting plankton feeders, driving them into smaller and smaller schools until they can pick them off one at a time. One of the ways they encircle them is with a smoke screen of bubbles. How sweet is that!
The baby dolphins are smart too, hitching a ride on the back of mom or dad, makes for easy swimming in this bubbly underworld.

Hammerheads and Great Whites

2010-01-09T15:19:00.007+03:00

Predators abound in the ocean waters.
In fact, eating and being eaten seems to be normal, daily life for those living below sea level in the waters of our warming and acidifying oceans. The worst threat is the one who is not seen at all, the tiniest and the subtlest, a molecule with a simple chemical make-up - a carbon atom with 2 oxygen attached attached - the dreaded CO2 molecule!!!
Carbon dioxide aside, I wouldn't want to run into either of the two species depicted in the sketch sheet above, the great white shark or the weird but fierce hammerhead, at least not without my speedo flippers on. I just hope they don't run out of food down there anytime soon.

The Predator Channel

2009-12-13T21:34:00.004+03:00

It is fascinating to see how nature designs its beasts, or how these marine species have adapted to their circumstances in nature. The anatomical adaptations that sharks have evolved are all about speed of movement...and teeth! Check out these black-tipped reef sharks and blue sharks - not the kind of characters you'd want to run into in a back street lagoon.

Bigger than a city bus

2009-12-05T12:54:00.003+03:00

The Blue Whale is the biggest animal on earth, weighing up to 150 tons and it eats only krill, which are shrimp-like creatures less than half an inch long. Mind you this gentle giant can eat several million of them in one day so if you are a krill you might want to take note of this. Also notice on the attached sketch sheet, the endangered Right Whale, dwindling in numbers in recent years. Many Right Whales are injured in the North Atlantic and elsewhere by passing ships. Despite humane cries to end the slaughter of many endangered species of whales, the hunt still goes on. When will humanity learn that the balance of life in our precious oceans is a delicate one - upon which we are conducting a dangerous experiment, in the very test tube where we are living.

Whale of a time

2009-11-28T20:53:00.002+03:00

The ocean is inextricably linked to climate change: currents influence continental temperature ranges; evaporation of water vapor forms clouds leading to rain, sleet and snow; oxygen output of phytoplankton is astounding outperforming the forests on the land surface; absorption of atmospheric carbon dioxide keeps this greenhouse gas in check and much much more. I have been deep into the deep blue and loving every breathless minute of it. You might say I am having a whale of a time.

Illustrating underwater

2009-11-15T19:52:00.005+03:00

I have just signed two contracts, both for a series of books on climate change. Watch this space for the next year and a half for information and illustrations of the impact of climate change on animals (both on the land and in the sea), plants, insects, and people. The first titles are on the climate change fever in the oceans. The ocean waters are warming as well as acidifying, changing coral reefs, and affecting all marine creatures including whales, dolphins, fish, marine plants, crabs, molluscs and of course the faceful, in your face Maori Wrasse fish (see illustration on this post).

Ludwig Bemelmans

2009-10-20T08:16:00.003+03:00

Remember the Madeline books? They were written by Ludwig Bemelmans (1898-1962) who only started writing children's books later in his life. He was a European gourmet and restaurateur. The Madeline books were first published in 1939 and they all began with the same lines (a stroke of genius in itself). "In an old house in Paris, that was covered in vines, lived twelve little girls, in two straight lines. The smallest one was Madeline." According to my sources the books were written out of love for his daughter but this creative genius didn't stop; the books have spun off into plays and movies. It is said of Bemelmans that he felt his art, like food, was to be enjoyed in the making and the eating. As Robert Genn so eloquently puts it in his newsletter "Passion is the coal that becomes the greater part of talent. The locomotive is unstoppable when powered by love."
Bemelmans also became a serious painter and showed in both public and commercial galleries. Check out some of his work at:

http://clicks.robertgenn.com/attention-focus.php

Partly Cloudy

2009-10-09T23:18:00.000+03:00

A great new movie trailer from Pixar called Partly Cloudy. Charming.

Himalayan Studio upgrade

2009-09-23T09:44:00.017+03:00

Well, finally I finished the renovation on my studio. I created an additional workspace for my laptop as well as a traditional painting station. Now I can actually store all of my gadgets, wires, paints, paper and finished work in the cupboards that were added. You can see the flat files on the right underneath the imac, my Cintiq 1200, laptop with additional 19" Samsung monitor, and (something which I am very happy with - a bulletin board). I could not find cork anywhere here in the Himalayas so I made a board out of masonite backing, dense foam underpadding and a canvas cover. It works like a charm. The sink in the corner is indispensable. I don't think I could ever work in a studio without one anymore...keeps the cadmium out of my food too. The north light is excellent, and you can see a glimpse up the valley towards Rhotang pass into Lahaul Spiti, at about 1300 ft asl. My studio sits at about 4500 ft asl. Hope you enjoy the studio. If you would like to take the tour via video click here

Sketches with Pilot fineliner

2009-09-03T12:33:00.003+03:00

I love this pen. Though it has no ability to express the pressure applied by my hand the pen itself is so light that it almost doesn't exist. My hand is free to move on a whim. I am exploring the use of the scratch pen in Painter 11 and will post some work when I feel it worthy of viewing. This image is from a sketch done at a meeting I recently attended, pure whimsy, no intent. I do like her rather delicate, albeit quirky, way of being. Her name is Philomena.

The brush app

2009-07-19T18:30:00.002+03:00

I downloaded the brush application for my ipod touch yesterday and since then have been busy finger painting. I am posting an illustration in mid-stage to give an idea of the process while working in this application. There are no layers so the sense of depth has to be achieved through perspective, lighting and the use of transparency in the digital paint.I will post the final illustration as soon as it is completed. The portability of this medium should allow for some great travel illustrations. This one is a trip through my imagination.

DRAWING DAY 2009

2009-06-08T08:16:00.003+03:00

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

2009-04-21T08:20:00.003+03:00

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

2009-04-02T19:19:00.008+03:00

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

2009-03-24T15:19:00.006+03:00

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

2009-03-15T18:50:00.005+03:00

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

2009-03-15T18:37:00.003+03:00

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

2009-03-13T21:50:00.007+03:00

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

2009-02-18T22:15:00.004+03:00

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.

Consolidating a style

2009-01-27T20:41:00.002+03:00

This is the second in this series for a religious publisher. The colour palette and illustration style has been consolidated. Again inking was done with a crowquill pen nib, flat oils and airbrush for the colour. I have however discovered a new pen in Painter X through the generous sharing of a colleague Maurie Manning, the Scratch tool. Feels like a real pen nib.

Painter X

2009-01-24T20:45:00.004+03:00

The more I experiment with Painter X the more I love this program. I often have to do a double-take to realize that I am sitting in front of my Cintiq tablet and not standing in front of my easel. The accompanying biblical illustration was created using the crow quill pen tool, flat oil brushes, blender brushes and an assortment of others. The image was created entirely in Painter from sketch to final art.

2009 -The Year of Writing

2008-12-30T09:49:00.004+03:00

To find out childrens’ favourite books there is no resource better than the International Reading Associations Children’s Choices Project (http://www.reading.org/Library/Retrieve.cfm?D=10.1598/RT.62.2.8&F=RT-62-2-CChoices.html)
What Is the Children's Choices Project?
Each year 12,500 school children from different regions of the United States read and vote on the newly published children's and young adults' trade books that they like best. The Children's Choices for 2008 list is the 34th in a series that first appeared as “Classroom Choices” in the November 1975 issue of The Reading Teacher (RT), a peer-reviewed journal for preschool, primary, and elementary levels published eight times a year by the International Reading Association (IRA). This list is designed for use not only by teachers, librarians, administrators, and booksellers, but also by parents, grandparents, caregivers, and everyone who wishes to encourage young people to read for pleasure.
Children's Choices is a project of a joint committee supported by IRA and The Children's Book Council (CBC). IRA is a nonprofit educational organization whose members include classroom and reading teachers, school administrators and supervisors, parents, college/university faculty, and others who are dedicated to improving reading instruction and promoting literacy worldwide.
The CBC is the nonprofit professional association of U.S. publishers and packagers of books for young people. It encourages childhood literacy through sponsorship of national initiatives including the annual observance of Children's Book Week and the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature program, as well as cooperative work with other professional associations.
In 1969, IRA and CBC formed a liaison committee to explore areas of mutual interest to reading teachers and publishers. Among the committee's initial charges was the development of a core selection of trade books for the classroom. This list of Children's Choices has remained an important activity of the committee, which each year produces this child-selected bibliography identifying titles that can be used successfully in reading programs, can be related to the classroom curricula, and are known to engage children.
How Are Books Selected and Annotated?
More than 500 books were evaluated by children for Children's Choices for 2008. The books to be tested were selected by publishers from the books they published in 2007 and were sent to five review teams located in different regions of the United States. Each team consisted of a children's literature specialist plus one or more classroom teachers, who in turn worked with other classroom teachers, school librarians, and more than 2,000 children. Throughout the school year the books were in classrooms, being read to or by children.
Children's votes were tabulated in March, and the top 94 titles for 2008 were announced at the annual International Reading Association Convention in May. The review teams provided an annotation for each title on the list.

MERRY CHRISTMAS !!!!

2008-12-24T21:17:00.006+03:00

This rendition of White Christmas was recorded by Clyde McPhatter and the Drifters in 1953. It was #2 on the charts in 1954. Animation is by Joshua Held in 2002. I love the minimalist line and movement in the characters, reminds me a bit of Quentin Blake's style of illustration. The sync between the vocals and the movement is exquisite. Hope this brings some more merry to your Christmas.

Refining the process

2008-12-14T21:47:00.008+03:00

I recently had an assignment with an educational publisher to illustrate a native American tale - how the heron gained the right to all the fish in the rivers. The pencil work was done on the Wacom Cintiq tablet and then, once approved by the Art Director and Editorial Committee, printed directly onto 90 lb hot-pressed Arches watercolour paper on an HP 2600 colour laser printer. Winsor and Newton watercolours were applied directly onto the linework and then scanned back into the computer for touch up, additions and finishing on the Cintiq tablet.

Going WAY back!

2008-07-07T06:02:00.006+03:00

Ah yes, those were the days! Researching the traditional tales for The Kerala Collection has resulted in some interesting images that tell the tale of the mythical King Bali. A great, benevolent and popular King he none the less ended up irritating the gods due to his enormous prosperity and insatiable appetite for more kingdoms. The gods feared that theirs would be the next on his list of places to conquer. Consequently they approached Lord Vishnu for his help in reigning in the great King. Utimately Vishnu complied and came up with a clever scheme to put Bali in his place.

It's finally OUT!

2008-04-04T12:30:00.004+03:00

The illustrations completed nearly two years ago for Pokiri Parrot and the Needle-nosed Ojha have finally been published by Katha, and they did a great job of it. The colour reproduction is great, the book design, paper and binding are excellent. My only complaint as that due to the decision that the story is told visually as a set of postcards from the heroine to the narrator, some of the spreads that were highly detailed are shown as quite small images on the page. However it's always great to see the finished book after all that work.

In Varanasi

2008-02-20T20:20:00.003+03:00

Moving along Mudpie and Bananaleaf fulfill a lifelong dream to visit Varanasi also known as Benares or the traditional name of Kasi . But those storm clouds brewing up are giving Mudpie the shivers. What if it rains? What will happen to him?

Kerala India

2007-10-20T21:20:00.001+03:00

I am fortunate. A self-publishing author has contracted me to do a book of folk-tales from her native Kerala, a beautiful and fascinating area along the southwest coast of India. The first story in the collection is about the beach friendship that develops between Bananaleaf and Mudpie. In the image shown here Bananaleaf encounters her own mortality on the way to Varanasi when a windstorm blows in. She fears that she will be blown away forever and starts to bid farewell to her friend mudpie, who- though short and stout - comes up with a brilliant solution to the difficult situation. Stay tuned for more details and images.

From Fairies to Dinos

2007-09-26T22:24:00.000+03:00

So then it was on to the Jurassic, Triassic, Quaternary eras. Had fun with the backgrounds and the colours. Who knows what the hell the colors were of these beasts anyway. I don't think carbon dating and archeology can track that kind of ephemeral phenomena. I'm posting my personal favourite, the Plateosaurus. I went back to traditional paint for this. The dinos themselves are painted in watercolour on hot pressed Arches paper, after printing directly the line work via my Canon Pixma 3000 inkjet. The backgrounds were painted in watercolour on rough Arches 300 gsm so they have that grainy look...works for the mossy trees in this one. Stay tuned for a new book on the foltkales of Kerala. I'll be working most of that on Arches 300 gsm cold-pressed, my favourite surface of all time.
Man do I want to change the above into a fiction piece, with a warrior child riding on the back of the Plateosaurus and two huge eyes of a Tyrannosaurus peering through those trees on the horizon. Stay tuned in I may do it yet.

More Fairy Tales

2007-09-26T22:08:00.000+03:00

I know it has been a while since I posted. What is it about blogs that make you feel guilty? Perhaps it is the informal nature of the relationship, sort of like not bothering to call a buddy to see how his day went or how his sick mother is feeling. But let's be realistic, this blog is as much for me as it is for you. It's a diary of sorts, a creative history, a series of musings, reflections, hopes and aspirations. It's a chance to speculate, to ruminate, to exacerbate...OK I see where this is going.
It IS fascinating to see the evolution of the art over the past few years. Since the Christian Hans Andersen Tinderbox tale I completed illustrations for The Tortoise and the Hare of which I am posting one of my favourites. Somehow it reminds me of myself...though I rarely lie down in the daytime. This book was done entirely digital on the Wacom tablet, in oils.

Digital sketch pad

2007-06-23T06:43:00.000+03:00

Since I have been away from my studio in the Himalayas for the past 6 weeks I have been sketching digitally. On a Wacom 9X12 inch tablet it is possible to simulate a good sized sketch pad with various media. I am posting a drawing done for Santillana USA, a sketch for "What the Trees Have Seen" a book about Savannah Georgia. That's the drawing on the right. This particular drawing was not used in the final book. Also posted on the left is a sketch for The Tinderbox, a Hans Christian Anderson tale to be included in an anthology by a UK publisher. This was created entirely digitally using the 2B pencil tool in Painter 10. Can you tell the difference? The digitally generated image has no smudge marks you might note...but of course they could be added digitally.

India has been good to me

2007-03-12T15:57:00.000+03:00

I fell in love with India in the late 1970s after being introduced to Indian thought and philosophy from a Psychology Prof in my first year at Architecture school in Ottawa. In 1979 I came on my first trip, met many friends, saw a lot of the country and finally met the meditation/yoga teacher that I was seeking. I have made at least a dozen trips since then…throughout maintaining a career as a free-lance illustrator…and a meditator.
India has been good to me, wonderful people and culture. We in the western world have much to learn from such ancient wisdom. Our society is so young and, in many ways, so naïve. One day I came home and these fellows (below) were working the street outside my studio. The charmer with the Beem (gourd-flute) was excellent (it is very difficult to play) and they were gathering quite a crowd alongside the highway. They stayed long enough for me to do a quick sketch that later developed into this painting. It is the cover image for a book I co-wrote called The Cobra's Gift which is currently seeking a publishing house.

Studio work

2007-03-11T10:25:00.000+03:00

Here are some pics of the view towards the north from my studio window
during Monsoon season.

Going to press

2007-01-29T21:49:00.000+03:00

Well it is always nice to see your work finally going to press, a small nibble of eternity perhaps but satisfying none-the-less. The Mountain that Loved a Bird has gone to press in China by the Hunan Juvenile and Children's Publishing House. I developed a new cover for this edition I hope will replace the cover for other editions around the world. The Chinese title actually says The Promise of Joy an adaptation of the original title. Also Katha books in New Delhi told me the Pokiri Parrot and the Magic Pearl is supposed to go to press some time in February. I'm looking forward to seeing that in print as well. They produce beautiful books from their quaint little office on Sri Aurobindu Marg in Delhi. It feels like a Tamil Nadu ashram. I visited in 2005 and it took me a while to figure out why they were all looking at me strangely when I walked in speaking Hindi ...they all spoke Tamil. Fortunately they also speak English!

Hired hand

2007-01-29T21:25:00.000+03:00

Well it HAS been a long time since my last post but I have been one busy little 'hired hand'. In the fall I was working on a science project for SRA McGraw Hill that ate up a few months of my life. That and a stint as an artist for the testing program of the Center for Applied Linguistics in Washington left me with only a few hours of sleep per night. The "holiday" season saw me doing two readers for SRA McGraw Hill (The Pond & They Landed One Night), a reader for Zaner Bloser (The Rat Race) and a picture book for Santillana USA on the history of Savannah Georgia entitled What the Trees Have Seen (in progress).

It's amazing when you think of it, a writer has an idea, an editor helps to smooth it out, an art director puts together some art specs and out of nowhere sketches appear and work there way into final art with the help of all of the above. Where does all of this come from? Is there an end to it? Is there a beginning? Or does creativity just go on and on? Or did it ever begin at all?
I'll leave you with this. I'm going to work on the Himalayan Counting Book which is on its way to Bologna Italy to the Children's Book Festival, if I ever finish it that is.

Drawer Geeks

2006-06-03T05:58:00.001+03:00

Creativity seeks constant inspiration to feed its insatiable appetite. One of the methods I use is the brilliance of friends and colleagues. I am a member of a great organization, the Picture Book Artist's Association which is not only a web-site of some fabulous children's picture book art but also an informative list serv that discusses all aspects of creating books for children, from agents to art directories to publishers, editors and art directors.
However, drawing, sketching and doodling is vital to any artist's career, the more the better. An informal group that have recently joined is Drawer Geeks.
The many cartoonists, animators and illustrators in this contingent meet together biweekly on a particular theme. To see the innovative ways that each artist handles the subject is awesome. I've posted a few of my own. Ever seen this cat on the right while browsing through the rain forest?
Or what about the other fellow. Ever walk into one of these on your midnight rambles?

Well you can see 'em all at drawer geeks!

Flying back home

2006-04-23T20:31:00.000+03:00

I am in the final stages of illustrating Pokiri Parrot and the Magic Pearl. Reorganizing the page layout and reviewing the book in Adobe InDesign gives me a good sense of how the book will fit together and flow from one page to the next. I am pasting in some of the final illustrations. Also I have joined a very creative group of artists. Check it out at :
http://www.drawergeeks.com/

Flying with the temple bull

2006-03-04T21:54:00.000+03:00

Deadlines can be fun too. Realizing that I have much more work than I have available time has meant less time wasted in sleep, more coffee filtering through the bodum and alot more time spent in front of my watercolour table. And you know what? I'm having fun.
I'm posting some of the recent images completed for Pokiri Parrot. The fish-eye scene is a curvilinear 1-pt. perspective...and no, that is not a fish flying away in the distance. It is the Terrible Ojha and he has taken off once again with Pokiri Parrot. Well, the good news is that the temple bull comes to the rescue, at least by providing transportation to Rajkumari who will take any excuse to fly through the air!

Year of the Birds

2006-02-19T08:45:00.000+03:00

OK, so Pokiri Parrot has once again taken over my life, both on my watercolour table and the Wacom tablet.
After leaving the Himalayas where the Terrible Ojha has scooped Pokiri out of the snow and carried him to off the Sundarbans, Bhima the eagle comes to help Rajkumari with a magic Guava fruit. Where will RK end up next?
Stay tuned to this blog for an exciting new trip in the next few days...if you can pull yourself away from Torino!

Side-tracked by Religious Fervour

2006-01-08T09:16:00.000+03:00

Although I had promised to work on Pokiri Parrot and the Magic Pearl I was side-tracked by requests for more black and white samples from my agent and a bid for an assignment with a religious publisher in Minnesota. To allay any guilt I may be feeling due to Pokiri procrastination I am posting some of the religious images...in keeping with this holiday season. May all of our guilts and procrastinations be so easily diverted in the forthcoming year.

Best!

Full Circle

2005-12-27T21:34:00.000+03:00

Well it has been a while since my last post. My agent, Janet DeCarlo, in Dover Plains NY (www.storybookartsinc.com) has been keeping me burning the mid-night oil. I've done a cover for a tarot book, and a book for Sundance Publishers on Native American Legends, through a production company in Chicago called Quarasan. You can see a few of the images for the latter with this post.
Now I am back to Pokiri Parrot as I promised the publisher final sketches by the end of the year. The committee-based decisions slowed down approval of the sketches and have pushed this deadline well into the new year. I've decided to work on it between other projects when I have the time and hope to have it done by the end of April.
In the meantime The Mountain that Loved a Bird is about to go to press in India and in Turkey. The Rajhiv Ghandi Foundation will be funding an Urdu version to send to Kashmir. All good news. We are still hunting for a Spanish publisher. Lectorum has committed to distributing it in the US.
Also Sonu & the Metal Elephant has finally been published by Scholastic India as wll as The Ice Berries both stories that I co-wrote with Sylvia Sikundar. The latter appears in an anthology entitled The Puffin Book of Bedtime Stories and they did a wonderful job with the production, The soft cover has an appealing pillow-like feel to it.
More on Pokiri soon. I promise! Today I did a photo shoot with Neerja a young model who will play Rajkumari in this exciting new book. She was adorable and proved to be the perfect character dressed in her choli.

Flying in colour

2005-10-30T07:48:00.000+03:00

That wicked Ojha, look what he's done!
The background to this image was done in traditional watercolour, with a few digital tweaks to pull it together. The original character sketch was done with a 2B pencil on 'real' archival paper. The final colour was then added to the character using the airbrush tool in Painter 9. The layers were then combined in Photoshop CS2, adding swish lines etc. Good thing too, with all of the editorial changes that are taking place on this assignment.
You can't beat the digital media for flexibility. In fact I bring the sketches into the background first before the final renderings on the character so that I can see how they flow in the entire piece.
The background here is the Quitab Minar, an historic site in New Delhi. Interesting that this piece was being painted while bombs were going off in the markets of Delhi...and the editor thought that the character was a bit too Moghul looking.

Movement in art

2005-10-22T22:17:00.000+03:00

I remember the first time I saw Emily Carr's painting of an enormous pine tree in the National Gallery of Canada. I was so inpsired by the movement in that painting, seen from underneath with a few swirling movements of oil on paper that capture the essence of the growth of the tree as if your soul is being swept up through the branches, whirling and twirling to the crown. Ever since I have been fascinated by movement in art from Maurice Duschamps, Nude descending a staircase, in its attempt to capture movement in multiple frames on one canvas to children's book art which requires the capture of movement in images that also tell a story. Above is the horrible Ojha swooping down from the Quitab Minar in New Delhi to capture Pokiri Parrot and whisk him away to lands unseen.

Flight Patterns

2005-10-18T21:38:00.000+03:00

I think that one's art is a growth inside one. I do not think one can explain growth. It is silent and subtle. One does not keep digging up a plant to see how it grows. (Emily Carr)

Hanging out with Ojha, I feel like I am getting to know him...in all his evil bird-eating ways. In contrast to that, Rajkumari has become younger, more cherubic and all-round cute.

Starting to FLY!

2005-10-15T07:10:00.000+03:00

Well I have finally started to nail down this character and I'm seeing him in my dreams...the rotten SOB - killing all those birds. Ironic that at the same time I am doing a special issue for Biodiversity Journal on Conservation of the World's Birds.
So, here is Ojha as he scoops up Pokiri the parrot. There will be several of these scenes. Due to the wonders of digital technology I can plunk him into the background that has already been completed. First I'll print him directly onto watercolour paper, paint him up, rescan the image, tweak him around in Photoshop, add him into the background, some more tweaks and then drop the whole image into InDesign CS2 so I can see how that page works with the rest of the book.
More on this process later.

Bad is close

2005-10-12T22:27:00.000+03:00

Well finally the sketch of Ojha has been approved....and isn't it interesting how close to home inspiration can be found. I used myself and my talon-like fingers, honed by years of clasping onto my pencil, to model for the bird-thieving Ojha. Click on the images for a closer view.
A poem, The Bird-man of Rajasthan, also rose out of the ashes!

BIRD-MAN OF RAJASTHAN

The Bird-man of Rajasthan,
A side-bag for his prey,
Flies on velcro vulture-wings,
For a thieving get away.

With hungry sunken cheeks,
And large gaping jaws,
Gnarled boney fingers,
With nails as long as claws.

Swooping in a lightning flash,
With a screeching reaching cry,
He’ll catch you in his clasping claws,
And squeeze you till you die!

In flowing robes of stealth,
A soaring silent sight,
All gentle winged creatures,
Scatter out of fright.

Bad is Good!

2005-10-09T08:21:00.000+03:00

This response to "How bad is bad?" from Anastasia Suen when I posted on my CW-biz list serv:
"I say, make him mean, so that we can really rejoice when he is
defeated! [I'm assuming the good guys win in this one!]
:-) Anastasia "

Yes, the good girl wins in the end and the evil Ojha is carried away by the eagles...serves him right!

And another response:
"I agree with Anastasia. Avoid the mischievous look if possible. Completely
evil is good. There is a good book out about how children learn good vs
evil by books - "Dragons on the Landscape" Michael Brown.

I remember a children's book - Diamond in the Window - Jane Langton - that
had a very scary page with an evil jack-in-the-box picture. I could not
turn the page and look at that creature - but I loved the anticipation and I
would read and re-read the story. I knew it was evil. That made the
children's victory all the more meaningful in the storyline."
Thanks Mary! ...and I'm going to check out that book.
The above images of some of natures's other nasties were done a few years back for an E-book, "The Hobyhas", published by a Swiss publisher.

How bad is bad !

2005-10-09T07:55:00.000+03:00

OK my editor agreed that my colour illustrations of Ojha looked like a "typical" tantric magician but did not look EVIL enough. The revisions called for larger wings, longer claws, perhaps a bag of dead birds slung from the shoulder that explains how Ojha gets his flying power from winged prey. I have shown my first sketch with editoral notes gleaned from my conversation with the editor. Problem is, Ojha is starting to look more like me all the time...I'm not going to read too much into this and you had better not either.

Developing the character

2005-10-02T20:39:00.000+03:00

So then there were the different views of the same character. Since I work digitally to a great extent, I create my characters separately, usually in watercolour (in this case with some coloured pencil for highlights) and then add the character to the background which may be created in the same medium or not. Here are more images of the same character. I'll show later how these are then placed into the backgrounds which will make up the final page image. The placement of text will be addressed at a later date.

Cultural characters

2005-09-22T22:37:00.000+03:00

Characters can vary wildly from one culture to another. The wicked character in one culture may look like an average Joe in another and what is considered a hero for a North American may have entirely different connotations in another culture. My editor wanted a tantric magician...not quite the skulls hanging around the neck look but maybe a mala of human teeth or teeth of some kind. But I still wanted it to be kid-friendly. I still remember promising to take my neighbours 7 year old out for Halloween when I was a teenager. I showed up with my friends, dressed as goblins for the occasion and poor little Scottie would not, under any circumstances, leave the house with us. No way! Since then I've thought to always have a little bit of a twinkle, even in my evil characters so as not to scare the jeebies out of my readers. Here's what I came up with for Ojha the wicked. This guy is definitely a tantric and that's what the editor ordered.

The Creative Process

2005-09-22T22:20:00.000+03:00

The Creative Process

Well, the editor thought that my first attempts at Ojha made him look like a rich Rajasthani landlord so I had to go back to the drawing board on this. Working to cultural sensibilities that are not native to you requires sensitivity and "listening". I went in search of a black tantric magician. My first attempts are posted with this message.
Steve

Getting started

2005-09-21T21:57:00.000+03:00

Probably one of the most difficult things about my creative process over the years has been getting started. I've come to see that essentially my brain works visually. My sketches lead me into the characters in my world, my eyes see details in the world around me. This blog will contain lots of sketches, thumbnails, doodles ... any visual cues that keep the creative process moving along. I'm currently working on a book for an Indian publisher KATHA , called Pokiri Parrot and the Magic Pearl. One of the main characters is the terrible Ojha. Editorial specs describe him as a "tantric magician, larger than life". Unfortunately, the first few sketches were before this message arrived, but it allows you to see the transitions that took place as the character developed to his final flying fearsomeness.