Let’s talk about COMPOSITION! Yeah!

Have you ever noticed that some compositions feel awkward, while others just seem to flow? There are many strategies for creating interesting and easy-to-read compositions. In order to keep from writing a super long, rambling post, I’ll stick to discussing only one method for today. When a composition really isn’t working, sometimes I like to turn to math: the Golden Ratio.

The Golden Ratio is a geometric relationship that you probably learned about in high school, where the ratio of two quantities to each other is the same as the larger quantity’s ratio to the sum of the two quantities. That can sound a bit confusing when you write it out in English words, but it’s actually incredibly simple when you see it drawn. I’ll refer you to this informative Ted Talk about Fibonacci numbers. If you create a sequence of boxes using the Golden ratio, you get a spiral:

Image via the Wikimedia Commons

The Golden Ratio/Golden Spiral is ubiquitous in nature: it shows up in sunflowers, shells, the shape of your ears, the proportions of your body, and the form of galaxies and hurricanes. I could go on and on. The Golden Spiral also happens be a handy tool for creating interesting compositions. Sometimes all it takes are a few tweaks–moving something to the left, lining a few key elements up, to take your composition from “meh” to “aah.” This isn’t a new concept. Artists have been using the golden ratio pretty much ever since it was discovered.

As much fun as I have playing with the composition of my illustrations, I also have to remember that each image is NOT a work of art in and of itself. The book needed to work as a whole, so it was also important to find harmony between the pages as well. This is where my editor and art director were invaluable, never losing sight of the project in its entirety, and keeping me from getting too attached to compositions that were not quite right for the flow of the story. (And also making sure I kept enough space for the text to be placed.) I made several physical dummy books myself so that I could experience the page turn and see the images together in sequence.

If you have another favorite method for finding interesting compositions, I want to hear! Let me know in the comments.

Coming up next: The Devil’s in the Details

Other posts in the series:

• Part 1 – Getting Started
• Part 2 – Finding Harmony
• Part 3 – Devil’s in the Details
• Part 4 – Adding the Magic
• Part 5 – Painting with Guts

The countdown begins for publication of The Story I’ll Tell, set for release on November first. In celebration, I thought it might be fun to do a series of posts about the process of making the illustrations.

So, without further ado, I’ll start from the beginning.

Once upon a time, I woke up as usual, had my coffee breakfast, and got to work when—ping!— an email arrived in my inbox. (It didn’t actually go “ping,” but that seems like a nice idea.) It was from an editor asking if I might be interested in working on a picture book. It sounded promising! Emails were exchanged, manuscripts sent and read, deadlines were set, and contracts negotiated and signed.  After the whirlwind of activity and excitement settled, it was time to sit down, put pencil to paper, and do what might be the most important part of illustrating a picture book: getting started.

With The Story I’ll Tell, I was fortunate to have a lovely manuscript. Ideas jumped up in my mind, begging for attention. I started sketching and writing down notes, and created a folder where I collected evocative images from magazines and the Internet. Where did the characters live? What culture were they from? What kind of world did I want the reader to step into? These were some of the many questions that had to be explored.

After the initial brainstorming, it was time to start planning out the book with thumbnails. Some pages were clear in my mind while others were harder to pin down. After seemingly endless rounds of sketches, I sent in a complete set…

…and soon after, received my first round of detailed feedback from my editor and art director. Lots of feedback. For the uninitiated, it can be difficult to adjust to so many notes and suggestions. But at every round of revision, my art director and editor pushed me to make the book into something far better than I could have ever achieved alone, and I’m so glad they did.

Some pages didn’t change much at all:

…while other pages changed quite a lot:

This isn't even close to all the variations of this page.

By the end of the initial planning phase, I had drawn hundreds of thumbnails. The vast majority ended up in the reject pile. In the case above we ended up changing the text slightly in order to change the setting of the illustration. Once we had the basic concept down, it was time to start working out all the details.

Coming in part two: Finding a harmonious composition.

Other posts in the series:

• Part 1 – Getting Started
• Part 2 – Finding Harmony
• Part 3 – Devil’s in the Details
• Part 4 – Adding the Magic
• Part 5 – Painting with Guts

The countdown begins for publication of The Story I’ll Tell, set for release on November first. In celebration, I thought it might be fun to do a series of posts about the process of making the illustrations.

So, without further ado, I’ll start from the beginning.

Once upon a time, I woke up as usual, had my coffee breakfast, and got to work when—ping!— an email arrived in my inbox. (It didn’t actually go “ping,” but that seems like a nice idea.) It was from an editor asking if I might be interested in working on a picture book. It sounded promising! Emails were exchanged, manuscripts sent and read, deadlines were set, and contracts negotiated and signed.  After the whirlwind of activity and excitement settled, it was time to sit down, put pencil to paper, and do what might be the most important part of illustrating a picture book: getting started.

With The Story I’ll Tell, I was fortunate to have a lovely manuscript. Ideas jumped up in my mind, begging for attention. I started sketching and writing down notes, and created a folder where I collected evocative images from magazines and the Internet. Where did the characters live? What culture were they from? What kind of world did I want the reader to step into? These were some of the many questions that had to be explored.

After the initial brainstorming, it was time to start planning out the book with thumbnails. Some pages were clear in my mind while others were harder to pin down. After seemingly endless rounds of sketches, I sent in a complete set…

…and soon after, received my first round of detailed feedback from my editor and art director. Lots of feedback. For the uninitiated, it can be difficult to adjust to so many notes and suggestions. But at every round of revision, my art director and editor pushed me to make the book into something far better than I could have ever achieved alone, and I’m so glad they did.

Some pages didn’t change much at all:

…while other pages changed quite a lot:

This isn't even close to all the variations of this page.

By the end of the initial planning phase, I had drawn hundreds of thumbnails. The vast majority ended up in the reject pile. In the case above we ended up changing the text slightly in order to change the setting of the illustration. Once we had the basic concept down, it was time to start working out all the details.

Coming in part two: Finding a harmonious composition.

Other posts in the series:

• Part 1 – Getting Started
• Part 2 – Finding Harmony
• Part 3 – Devil’s in the Details
• Part 4 – Adding the Magic
• Part 5 – Painting with Guts

I’m happy to announce that The Story I’ll Tell is well on its way to becoming a real, physical book this autumn. I can now share the cover with you (design by Stephanie Bart-Horvath.) And without further ado:

Ta-da! What do you think?

I’ve decided to kick off the countdown to publication with a series of posts about my process and the different steps along the way, from ideas and thumbnails all the way up to final art. There will be some giveaways and freebies as well, so stay tuned for more.

In other news,my  friend and fellow illustrator Alice Ratterree is celebrating the release of a middle-grade book, Lilliput. The cover art is just gorgeous. Congratulations, Alice!

Nancy Tupper Ling (the author of the Story I’ll Tell) has another book to celebrate: Double Happiness was just released and I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy.

Does anyone else have any exciting news to share? I’d love to hear about it in the comments!

The art for The Story I’ll Tell is finally done (!) and now in the hands Lee & Low books. It was an exhausting April because I insisted on re-painting several pages that I had already finished in order to improve them. (Changes, in watercolor world, often mean re-doing the whole thing.) Eventually, though, I had to call it quits and just send it off.

Apparently the kitten wishes to be shipped as well.

I can’t wait to see how it will look when it’s all done. So far I’ve seen a preview of the jacket design and couldn’t be more excited to share it with you. Soon… soon.

Even though I don’t have any art to show you now, I do have some fun photos!

First off, the studio. Here’s where the magic happens. I only have the one desk, so I move the drawing board and put the computer there if I’m scanning stuff or doing things online. The board on the wall (far left) is blank now, but it usually holds the book’s latest thumbnails so I can see the whole project at a glance. I update the bulletin boards often for inspiration and reference. The large format scanner is a brand new addition. I feel so professional! (Compare to my studio setup five years ago, which involved a travel watercolor set, a folding camping table, and a hand-me-down PowerBook from 2002. And no scanner whatsoever–I took photos of my paintings back then with a crappy old digital camera.)

The studio, looking tidier than usual.

Sometimes I think that thumbnail drawings are the most important part of the process. They don’t look like much and most of them end up in the reject pile, but that’s where it all starts. I love to draw these while sitting at a cafe.

Too many to fit in the frame.

I make my own dummies at various stages of the process to see how it’s flowing with the page turn.

The cat finds the dummies amusing.

More info about the project should be available soon. I’ll keep ya posted.

I’m working on a new project with Arik & Amelia Cardenas, who have come up with a fun and interactive book/activity concept to get kids thinking about giving back at Christmas time. They’ve just launched their Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for book printing etc. Check out their project page to hear an audio version of the story, read by someone with a really awesome voice that sounds like Dumbledore, and of course take a look at the cover painted by yours truly. If you donate $10 you can even snag yourself a copy!

Happy Halloween, everyone! Here’s hoping you all have a safe and spooky weekend, and utterly binge on candy.

By Nancy Tupper Ling
Lee and Low Books
Coming Fall 2015

THE STORY I'LL TELL is a gentle and moving origin story, where a mother weaves together fantastical stories and tall tales to tell how her baby came to her. Each story contains a little kernel of truth, piecing together the baby's journey across a wide ocean and into her new mother's arms. This gorgeous story of adoption and parental love is heartwarming in the truest sense of the word, and sure to become a classic.

More information coming soon!

The Story I’ll Tell

 

By Joan Schoettler
Shens Books
Publication Date: May 2011
ISBN: 9781885008404

When Ji-su's mother is chosen by the emperor to be a seamstress in his court, Ji-su vows to learn to sew the beautiful Korean bojagi, or wrapping cloths, just as well so that she will also be summoned to the palace and be reunited with her mother.

Winner of the 2012-2013 Asian/Pacific American Libraries Association (APALA) Award for Literature in the Picture Book Category.

Look Inside

Buy on Indiebound

Read more about the books I've Illustrated.

Over the years I have encountered a few creatures dwelling in my mind that can impede growth. Fortunately, these critters can be trained and kept in check. Below are my field notes from my experiences with the three most common species.

The Ego (Vanus Fragilis)

Habitat: Your mind
Diet: Flattery and attention
Habits: Strictly solitary

The Ego is a sensitive soul. It craves reassurance and takes failure quite personally. Desperate to convince itself that it is valuable, the Ego and will avoid situations where failure might occur. “Don’t enter the contest, don’t send the manuscript!” the Ego will plead, because it’s easier to say I didn’t try than I didn’t succeed.

Unfortunately for the Ego, failure is a necessary part of growth. We learn the most when we push ourselves out of our comfort zones and try new things. The best way to succeed is to increase our failure rate, and the best way to learn is to face our failures head on and look at what worked, what didn’t, and why.

Tips for Tempering an Ego:

• Avoid overfeeding. Egos gorge themselves on attention.
• Cultivate gratitude.
• Remember: The Ego is not you—it just lives in your mind.
• Set up a nice little Ego-cage in the back of your mind where it can stay out of the way.
• Stay away from junk foods like flattery, which lead to a bloated and irritable Ego.

The Critic (Incuso Virosa)

Habitat: Your Mind
Diet: Negativity
Habits: Venomous. Often nocturnal, brings up worries at bedtime.

A wild Critic can lash out at your work (or life in general) with potent venom. “You aren’t talented enough,” the Critic will whisper in your ear. “Look at this other person’s work. It’s so much better.” The Critic will dredge up your mistakes and mockingly parade them before your eyes at your moment of greatest weakness.

As terrible as it sounds, A Critic can be helpful if it is trained to come out only when needed. The Critic is handy when deciding which thumbnail composition is better and why, or editing that manuscript in the second draft. But if it starts telling you that everything you make is garbage or that you’re not nearly as good as so-and-so, it’s time to go back in the kennel.

Tips for Coping with a Critic:

• Use a muzzle to keep it from biting
• Feed it as little negativity as possible.
• Don’t let the Critic’s words become your own.
• It’s okay to tell it to settle down. (Yes, out loud. Try it, I dare you!)
• Critics shy away from laughter and fun. Remember fun?
• Surround yourself with positive, encouraging people.

The Sloth (Choloepus Languidus)

Habitat: Your Mind
Diet: Inactivity
Habits: None

The sloth really wants you to succeed. It does. But it would rather not give up its Netflix marathons and surfing Facebook on its phone.

The Sloth is the creature that will tell you that your first thumbnail is good enough. Why bother trying other compositions? It will discourage you from taking those figure drawing classes you need, because that sounds like a lot of work after all. If you have a feeling that you need to work on your craft but you never seem to get around to doing it, you might be contending with one of these creatures.

Not to worry! Sloths can be trained. When properly employed, a Sloth can stop you from becoming a perfectionist, particularly on the projects that just aren’t worth the time. If you’re getting paid a pittance for an illustration, it probably isn’t time to make the Mona Lisa. All it takes to train a Sloth is a little bit of priority shifting and the adoption of some new habits.

Tips for Training a Sloth:

• Track your time and identify distractions.
• If online distraction is a problem, you can use LeechBlock (Firefox) or StayFocused (Chrome) to limit the sites you can visit during specific times.
• Put your phone out of reach and turn off notifications.
• Force yourself to work on a project for just 20 minutes. Chances are good that the Sloth will slink away as you start to have fun with the project.
• Work at a consistent time. Find a schedule that works for you.

In a Nutshell:

If you have a Critic, Ego or Sloth, don’t beat yourself up over it. It’s normal! Identify the species that is impeding your growth the most, and take a small step this week to help tackle it.

—-

This post was also published on the Kidlit Artists blog.

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It’s the last day of May, and time for another favorites post! Without further ado:

1. My friends have new books, just released or about to be! Arree Chung’s book, “Ninja!” , Brian Won’s “Hooray for Hat,” and the new edition of Judy Blume’s classic novels, illustrated by the lovely Debbie Ohi!
2. The happy realization that I know so many talented people that I can hardly keep track of what they all are doing.
3. Reading this, which I’m sure you read in high school, but somehow I missed out on a few classics. Also crying at the end of this. (I weep easily.)
4. This red scooter, and the owner who didn’t move it halfway through the drawing session:
   
5. Plein-air painting with my mom!
6. NationSwell, a source of inspiring news stories.
7. This umbrella. (It’s been a rainy spring)
   

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To all the mothers out there of every species, have a wonderful day!

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1. An intriguing novel or two
2. This inspiring talk on creativity (an oldie but still a goodie)
3. This kid dressed up with fairy wings playing with a hula hoop in the park:
   
4. My friend Eliza’s new picture book, The Grudge Keeper.
5. This gorgeous picture book.
6. Watching this classic film.
   
7. Tulip glory!
   

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The bulbs are sprouting, the birds are chirping, and all neighborhood geese and ducks have paired up. It can only mean one thing: it’s spring! Soon the farmer’s market will be back in full swing, the bike paths will be packed with cyclists and moms pushing prams, and the world will transform once again from brown to green. Spring always reminds me of being a kid, perhaps this is because it’s the season for fun things like my birthday, Easter (sometimes both on the same day), poking around in the garden, and finally getting to go around barefoot again.

In case that’s not enough to get excited about, I’m happy to finally be able to share some sweet news: I’ll be working with the great folks at Lee and Low Books to illustrate a new picture book! Woohoo! I can’t divulge too many details at the moment, but I promise to keep you posted on the progress.And now just for fun, a little drawing to celebrate spring.

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appy Valentine’s Day, dear readers!

Now, to be honest, I don’t typically do much to celebrate this holiday. Like many people, I find the day somewhat over-commercialized and lacking real emotional significance, unless you consider “making single people feel conspicuous” to be emotional significance. (Trust me, I’ve been there.) Regardless of the cheese factor of the day, I had a lot of fun creating this illustration to celebrate.

This illustration was made for a Mocavo.com promotion, but it is also a tribute to the days when people sent real love letters to each other in the mail and put a lot of thought into what they wrote. Was it slow? Perhaps. But it was possibly more romantic than texting. How nice would it be to get a real, heartfelt letter next time you pick up your mail? My mail seems to consist mostly of bills, promotional catalogs from every store I’ve ever bought something from (as well as every store someone else bought be something from,) and irresistible offers for new credit cards. I’m guessing your mail is similar. It’s really not very inspiring.

So, if you want to revive the tradition of writing letters, join me in skipping the flowers and heart-shaped chocolate boxes this year –sorry, Hallmark–and instead write a real letter to someone. It can be anyone: if you don’t have a sweetheart, your best friend, your grandpa or Aunt Sally will do. I’m sure they would be delighted to hear from you! Plus, it only costs you a stamp and a little bit of your time.

P.S. For any design nerds out there, the fonts are Mostra Nova  and Gotham.

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The lettering for this state illustration was meant as a little nod to Kentucky Whiskey and the wonderful labels that the bottles often have.

When the pose of a horse is frozen it can lose much of its sense of speed, and some of the leg positions can look downright awkward. I wonder if the awkwardness is partially because there is such a history of depicting the legs extended, a pose that indicates movement but is actually impossible. John Frederick Herring’s horse here looks like it’s about ready to do a belly flop. Come to think of it, the dogs are doing it too:

John Frederick Herring – Foxhunting: Encouraging Hounds – 1839

The illustration used on the Caldecott Medal itself is another great example of the pose.

Muybridge set the story straight with his groudbreaking stop-motion photography. When I look at these in sequence, I see the speed of the gallop, but individually speaking, which frame says “speed” the most? I would personally have to vote for frames 2 and 3.

Edward Muybridge – Photos taken between 1878 and 1887

 Frederic Remington was truly the master of horses in action, and he got the legs right to boot. Look at how much movement and action is in this painting, titled “Stampede.” You can really feel the panic.

Frederic Remington (1861-1909) – The Stampede

Granted, in my Kentucky state illustration a panicked mood was the last thing the design team wanted, but it would be fun to try an illustration with more emotion and action next time!

Illustration References:

1. Horse racing photo by Softeis, Copyright 2005. Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Horse-racing-5.jpg . Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License
2. This illustration was created for Mocavo, inc, which holds all rights to the image and has generously allowed me to post for non-commercial promotional purposes only.

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For anyone drawing from the imagination, the right reference material can be a great help. And happily, these days the whole world of reference material is right at our fingertips, provided that we have an internet connection and some vague idea of how to search. In addition to this invaluable resource, we can add our own personal reference photographs, sketches, magazine clippings and books to come up with one heck of a reference library.

But how do you organize all this digital information? As your collection grows it become increasingly tedious to skim through. Using folders is a good start, but sometimes an image is interesting for multiple reasons: it might be a great reference for a person riding a bicycle, and also for a desert, and a lion jumping. Do you put it in the “Bicycles” folder? Or the “Animals” one? Or would this go in another category altogether, under “Vintage Advertisement”?

What we need, my friends, is a database. That way we can search “Lion” or “man riding bicycle” or “chasing” or even “Raleigh advertisement” and the image will come up for the right reason. There are various programs out there that can handle this task, but for this I use Adobe Bridge.

1. Decide on Your Keyword Structure

Start the process by determining to the best of your ability the keywords you’ll be using to tag your pictures. You’ll want to do this first so that you don’t have to go back and re-tag. The last thing you want is to tag dozens with “pine tree,” “oak tree” and “palm tree,” just to decide later that you’d rather have a larger keyword of “tree” with sub-tags “oak,” “pine” and “palm.” If you change your mind about the keyword structure, you’ll have to go back and re-tag all those images.

The structure of your keywords is entirely up to you, and should be something that makes sense and is appropriate for your needs. Ideally you’ll want to be able to tag your images quickly, and a logical structure will help. Brainstorm, writing down everything that comes to mind. Think about which qualities of an image will be useful to you. Is it the lighting? If so, maybe you need a “lighting” tag category. Or maybe you’re a news photographer and need to tag every location. Write it all down.

2. Add Your Keywords to Bridge

Once you’ve narrowed down your top-level tag categories, you can go ahead and add them to Bridge. If you don’t see the “Keywords” window, look under “Window” in the menu bar and click on it to show the Keywords window.

Here are the top-level keyword categories I use. Remember, yours don’t have to be anything like this.

Under the top-level categories are sub-categories. Here are my “Animals” keywords, organized into something that makes sense to me. Feel free to add tags as you go. Don’t try to think of every kind of animal in one sitting. (There’s no point in adding a “giraffes” tag until you actually have a picture of a giraffe.)

3. Tagging Your Images

Now that you have a tag structure in place, you can easily tag images as you add them to your library. If you have a glut of images to go through, don’t feel overwhelmed. I like to do just a few a day to keep chipping away. I keep the un-tagged ones in a separate folder (my holding pen) and after tagging them I move them to their final folder destination. Keep at it, and before long you’ll find that you’re staring to have a useful database.

It’s better to over-tag than under-tag, so go ahead and be generous. Tag everything you think might be useful in the future. In order to tag an image or group of images, highlight them and then click the boxes of the tags you want to add. To remove the tag, click the box a second time.

Note that some of these boxes have a dash instead of a check. That means that not all of the selected images are tagged with that Keyword. In this case, this is because one selected image is a mule deer, not a mule.

4. Searching the Database

Finally: searching! This is what it’s all about. The quick search in the top-right corner of the screen is okay, but the full search is much more effective for finding exactly what you need. You can search any folder and practically any criteria you can think of. The best way to learn about searching is to experiment. Try looking for something obscure? Did it work? If not, you might need to add a different sort of tag. As you use your database, you’ll get ideas for how to improve it.

One last note: There are many images out there on the internet that already have tags. These are someone else’s tags, which will keep their original keyword structure. If you open one of these images in Bridge, it will add all of the other person’s keyword boxes to your structure, thus totally bogging it down with clutter. (You could end up with six different “dog” tags in different places. Ugh.) You can’t actually delete a keyword until there are no images tagged with it (you can try, but be aware that it will come back as soon as you click on the offending image again.) In a nutshell, the permanent solution is to un-tag the offending image, delete the foreign keyword boxes, and then re-tag the image with your own keywords. There may be a better, less tedious way to fix this problem–you might be able to use a metadata-stripping program to remove the data before you upload the image to your library or something–but I haven’t tried this yet. If you have a good solution, please leave it in the comments!

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Happy New Year, dear readers! May this year bring wonderful things to you all. This year I resolve to not make any New Year Resolutions, because I never manage to keep them anyway, and they fall by the wayside in about mid-February. I am hoping that if I just call them “goals” it won’t seem weird when I inevitably have to start them back up in March.

Maybe I’m over-thinking this.

Anyway, enjoy this festive New Year lettering! I hand-drew this with pencil on hot-pressed paper and painted it with watercolor for extra pizazz. Unfortunately I had a *little* too much coffee beforehand and it turned out to be a challenge to draw the little details with shaking hands. Maybe I’ll make a resolution goal to drink less coffee. But that one probably wouldn’t last a week, so why bother?

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Next in the series of state illustrations comes Indiana, which of course had to include the Indy 500 as well as some corn. The state flower is the peony. For some reason I assumed that states would have native species for state symbols, but as it turns out that is not the case at all. And mysteriously, Indiana is known as the “Hoosier State,” and no one seems to be able to agree on the reason.

References and notes:

1. Race car reference: Joe Dawson winning the 1912 Indianapolis 500 race, by Bain News Service (publisher.) May 30, 1912. Public domain by copyright expiration.
2. There was also a collector’s stamp to celebrate the centennial year of the race which was created with the same reference image I used: http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/23/commemorative-indy-500-stamp-available-at-post-offices/?_r=0
3. This work was created for Mocavo, inc, which holds all rights to the image and has generously allowed me to post for non-commercial promotional purposes only.

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