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In honor of the centennial of Mr. Pyle’s death in 1911, the museum will present the most ambitious exhibition of legendary illustrator’s work in many decades.
A lavish book has just been published, the first major book on Pyle since 1965. I wrote the opening chapter “Pyle as a Picturemaker” which explores in detail Mr. Pyle's working methods, including his approach to preliminary sketches, principles of composition, and use of models. Other essays examine his teaching, his students, his influence on Norman Rockwell, his interest in Swedenborgianism, and his development of the pirate archetype.
On the opening day, November 12, at 11:00 am (free with museum admission), I’ll present a lecture called “Composition: Pyle’s Way with Pictures.” In this visual presentation for both all audiences, I’ll focus on Pyle’s unique approach to the design of pictures, and how it relates to compositional thinking then and now. The lecture will be followed by a book signing.
I hope to meet you there if you can make it. There should be quite a few professional artists and illustrators in attendance, as well as art students, collectors, and fans of Golden Age illustration. The nearby Brandywine River Museum will have a related show on Pyle’s Teaching and N.C.Wyeth’s Treasure Island illustrations (through November 17).
The Pyle exhibit at the Delaware museum closes March 4. Next summer it continues at the Norman Rockwell Museum.
Looking forward to seeing you both, twice, that week. I also intend to buy the Pyle book. Jim, will you be available to sign it at Delaware? Or would it be better to order thru your store?
Hi, Les, I'll be doing a signing right after the lecture in Delaware on Nov. 12, so that's a good place to get it since you'll be there. Some of the authors of the other chapters will be there, too.
Natasha Anastasia Tarpley, illustrated by Adjoa J. Burrowes, Destiny’s Gift
Lee & Low Books, 2011.
Age: 5-11
Destiny’s Gift is a story about one particular bookstore – Wade’s Books – and of the fate generally of many small independent bookstores in North America. Mrs. Wade is the silver-haired, dreadlocked owner of Wade’s Books. Across the street from her store lives Destiny, a girl who visits the bookstore twice weekly. Destiny and Mrs. Wade have a special relationship; they both love words and books. However, one day Destiny discovers that Mrs. Wade can no longer afford to keep the store open. What can Destiny do to help Mrs. Wade? Will the bookstore stay open?
It’s hard not to read Destiny’s Gift without thinking about the metaphorical implications of the girl Destiny’s name on the situation of independent bookstores generally. What Destiny does for her local bookstore might be something others could do for bookstores in similar situations all over North America, but even then, such efforts, however heartfelt, may not be enough to save them. Destiny’s Gift thus ends on an ambiguous but realistic note. What is clear and heart-warming about the book is the special relationship the bookstore owner has with a young reader and writer. Adjoa Burrowes’ paper-cut style illustrations foreground this relationship nicely. And although the book speaks to a larger social topic on one hand, on the other, it speaks to the intimacy certain people have with books and reading. And ultimately, whatever the fate of bookstores might be, it is the pleasure of reading that unites the characters in Destiny’s Gift to act decisively.
Destiny’s Gift is a wonderful picture book that works its magic at several levels at once for both the parent and the child who reads it.
Sally Ito
November 2011
0 Comments on Week-end Book Review: Destiny’s Gift by Natasha Anastasia Tarpley, illustrated by Adjoa J. Burrowes as of 1/1/1900
Went on a vacation to Miami recently and did some snorkeling and sketching at a place called Black Rock. The name just appealed to the Pirates of the Caribbean fan in me. But it was the visiting sea turtles that really made my day!
1 Comments on Travel Sketch: Miami, last added: 11/5/2011
This has been making the rounds for a year, but I just caught up with it today. Being a nut for the 1966 Batman TV series (and a fan of the recent Chris Nolan movies) I just had to post it here on the Brew. Tip of the Bat-cowl to Ohio-based animator David Rose for a job well done.
Stripes and spots are definitely my favourite patterns so I was very happy to see the topic of stripes. I've decided to show two animals of very different scales who both rock their stripes!
9 Comments on Illustration Friday: Stripes!, last added: 11/7/2011
One day a year he is Santa Claus, but the other 364 days Dan Santat works as a children’s book writer and commercial illustrator. He is also the creator of Disney’s animated hit, “The Replacements.”
Dan has written and illustrated his own books and books by other writers. His new graphic novel, SIDEKICKS came out in July and he has another wonderful picture book coming out this month that is written by Jill Esbaum titled, Tom’s Tweet which is a slapstick funny story that pays homage to the selfless act known as parenting. All in all Dan has written and/or illustrated nineteen books.
He graduated with honors from the Art Center, College of Design and lives in Southern California with his wife, two kids, a rabbit, a bird, and one cat.
For all you writers and illustrators who have wondered, what is the best way to develop and present a graphic novel, you are going to love this post.
Dan takes you through his process on developing his new graphic novel about SUPERHERO PETS! Captain Amazing, superhero and savior of Metro City, is getting old. He’s out all hours battling arch-villains, catching thieves, and helping little old ladies cross the street. He doesn’t even have time for his house full of pets. He needs – a SIDEKICK!
Captain Amazing’s four pets agree. But each one of them thinks HE should get the sidekick spot – and a chance for one-on-one time with the Captain. Get ready for sibling rivalry royale as pets with superpowers duke it out for the one thing they all want – a super family.
It began with a simple painting. Back in art school I took a class where we had to do a series of paintings that revolved around a theme. At the time I thought I wanted to go into the animation field so I decided to work on my character design skills and flesh out simple ideas of animals doing silly things. Towards the last month of the course I painted an animal super hero, which I called The All-American Beaver. The idea of a super animal really intrigued me and so I decided to paint another superhero animal. The next week I followed up with a painting of a cat who could generate large amounts of static electricity with his fur which I properly named Static Cat. Even though the term had ended before I could explore more possibilities I was suddenly obsessed and wanted to create more.
As I was sketching the characters over and over again I really didn’t think of a solid storyline until I had sold the manuscript to my editor. All I knew for certain was that they were all starving for attention and wanted to compete for the affections of their owner to find out who would be the favorite house pet of the house. In my mind I originally thought that Fluffy would be the leader of the group. He was going to be this arrogant loudmouth who wanted to just be bossy and give orders to everyone so he could wear a costume and be famous. Roscoe was the young naive kind hearted softie with massive strength (Think Lennie from “Of Mice and Men”)
A word of
1 Comments on Illustrator Saturday – Dan Santat, last added: 11/5/2011
I previously posted about attending the Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony for John Lasseter earlier this week. The highlight of the event was 85-year old Don Rickles saying a few words about honoree Lasseter (If you look close at the image above you may spot me in the crowd). Rickles was in fine form as he cut down Lasseter (and his wardrobe), his wife (and her hat), Tom Hanks and Tim Allen (who weren’t there), as well as Walt Disney himself. Luckily someone recorded his bit and posted it on You Tube, because I don’t think this will be presented intact as bonus content on some future DVD – its a bit un-PC, but totally hilarious!
Note, in the background, actors Owen Wilson (in the suit and tie) and Emily Mortimer (in green top), and on stage behind Lasseter is Cheech Marin, Bonnie Hunt, Patton Oswalt and Randy Newman.
Last wednesday I went drawing at Whipsnade Zoo for the first time this year. It was very windy - the zoo is located on the Dunstable Downs and is quite exposed to the elements. I felt very out of practice and hadn't managed to find my fingerless gloves before I set off but I really enjoyed the day!
There was a new baby elephant (which I didn't manage to capture properly) but this elephant was foraging on a grassy bank near the enclosure fence.
The lemurs were not impressed with the weather at all and were all sheltering in their house.
The lions slept (as usual)!
0 Comments on A windy day at the zoo! as of 1/1/1900
On Tuesday, I set aside my story writing, because I had an invitation to visit St John's First School in Stafford.
I've been to Stafford before and it's not the most direct journey from here by train, so I set the alarm early again, and was away at 6.45am (don't you just hate getting up in the dark?). At least I got lots of train sketching done, as you can see...
St John's was a tiny school, only 70 children in total, so we divided them into 2 groups. I started with a chat to the 28 children in Y3 and Y4. For the first time, I used PowerPoint on the classroom's interactive whiteboard, which meant I could show all my illustrations, without having to lug so many books on the train.
The same group then did an illustration workshop, drawing characters. Children often use rubbers too much, so
0 Comments on New Ideas for Children's Workshops... as of 1/1/1900
“Don’t tell me what I want to hear. Tell me what is intolerable to bear alone that we must hide it in a story.” – Libba Bray
In all her guts, glory, humor, and wisdom the fabulous and charismatic Libba Bray spoke at the 2011 LA SCBWI Conference. During her keynote speech she shared the devastating story of writing a 560 page novel and having to throw it out and start over. If she wasn’t your hero before, she might be now. The following are her tips on how to write it all wrong and survive.
A little Backstory:
Libba wrote a 560 page novel all wrong…
It’s okay! Embrace the suck!
When she discovered the 560 page novel she wrote was all wrong she began to freak out and feared it wasn’t good enough.
She got a 12 page single spaced letter from her editor confirming that everything about it was wrong.
She did a 900 page revision of the book and only 100 pages of the original 560 were kept in that revision.
Find the real imbued with honesty, emotion, and truth. Her novel needed to be true to itself and it wasn’t.
Libba Bray’s Five Tools to Survive as a Writer:
1) Gather Your Tools for Survival
“The voice is in there, we just had to find the right tools to find it.”
Your book is in there!
Use playlists to help you find it.
Go to your local café to find a comfort zone.
Do you have a reward system? Find yours.
2) Avoid the Quicksand
Beware of your irrational fear telling you “no one wants to read this book.” Or “what if my ex-boyfriend read this and realizes he’s the base for the asshole in my story?”
Breathe deeply!
That thing you are writing is AWESOME! (That message was on a postcard that Holly Black sent out to her writing friends).
Be your own thing and not a trend.
You are safe in the writing cave. No voices are allowed in the cave (the negative voices telling you you’re not good enough).
Readers are not trends, they want a well written story told from your soul.
3) Perfect Wants to Vote You Off the Island
Perfect wants to vote you off the island, but better wants to make an alliance.
Lower your standards!
Realize that you can’t make a book that is perfect. Perfect = Failure.
You just have to make it better.
Do it in small steps. Make that little bit of dialog better, or change that metaphor.
Just what I needed to hear this morning as I struggle with revisions. Excellent advice. Thanks.
E. R. Stanton said, on 11/5/2011 8:12:00 AM
This is the first blog post I read this morning, and I’m glad I did. I am an illustrator/writer, so this wisdom is doubly meaningful! I am about to jump into some writing, and this makes the water look not quite so cold
Thanks so much!!
Laura C. said, on 11/5/2011 9:52:00 AM
Libba sure is dramatic, isn’t she?
gailshepherd@twitter.com said, on 11/5/2011 11:07:00 AM
I’m so looking forward to reading Going Bovine. Thanks for reminding me.
Joanna said, on 11/5/2011 11:30:00 AM
Thanks for this reminder. It stuck as much of a chord today as it did in August!
Shayda Bakhshi said, on 11/5/2011 12:10:00 PM
I’m bookmarking this forever.
kamla k. kapur said, on 11/5/2011 5:30:00 PM
This is great stuff. I have been dealing with the same issues in my Writing Warrior blog at http://www.kamlakkapur.com. So much of writing happens with the right attitude!
Julie said, on 11/7/2011 2:39:00 PM
Great post. Libba is awesome! I saw her at the 2010 NY conference. She is so funny and so “real.”
As I’ll be visiting Buenos Aires later this winter, I’ve been reading up on all things Argentinian (including re-watching The Motorcycle Diaries), so I was tickled when I stumbled upon this icon set of the iconic Che Guevara, designed by Jorge Alderete for an Argentinian type foundry named Sudtipos (who also created a lovely Calgary-inspired font named Calgary Script!).
To celebrate Picture Book Month, a picture book champion is being interviewed every day in November. My lucky day to talk about why I think picture books are important is TODAY (Saturday)! So click the logo to go have a read...
I definitely need to add to my black and white work and I thought this would be a good place to start. So here is Sophie on her way to an unusual gymkhana : )
This is Horatio, he likes boats... Schooners, clippers, steamers, and U's... it doesn't matter.. He just gets wild eyed crazy when he's out on the beach with his Boats.. I'm still working on my illustrator chops and applying bits of photoshop where I don't completely understand all of the illustrator functions for shading, gradation, and texture applications. Furthermore I've had a little Bob Staake on the brain with my drawings and recent re-introduction to Illustrator... I love shape based drawing so much..
Awesome interview! It's really fun to have them interviewing each other. So glad these two great talents are collaborating. I would really like to see the result of that Band of Bards. It should definitely happen.
One small act of love blooms into something bigger and more fabulous than you can ever imagined in this book on the epic journey about life, kindness, and giving. What a lovely example on how to start a small business about kids little stories.
“Don’t tell me what I want to hear. Tell me what is intolerable to bear alone that we must hide it in a story.” – Libba Bray
In all her guts, glory, humor, and wisdom the fabulous and charismatic Libba Bray spoke at the 2011 LA SCBWI Conference. During her keynote speech she shared the devastating story of writing a 560 page novel and having to throw it out and start over. If she wasn’t your hero before, she might be now. The following are her tips on how to write it all wrong and survive.
A little Backstory:
Libba wrote a 560 page novel all wrong…
It’s okay! Embrace the suck!
When she discovered the 560 page novel she wrote was all wrong she began to freak out and feared it wasn’t good enough.
She got a 12 page single spaced letter from her editor confirming that everything about it was wrong.
She did a 900 page revision of the book and only 100 pages of the original 560 were kept in that revision.
Find the real imbued with honesty, emotion, and truth. Her novel needed to be true to itself and it wasn’t.
Libba Bray’s Five Tools to Survive as a Writer:
1) Gather Your Tools for Survival
“The voice is in there, we just had to find the right tools to find it.”
Your book is in there!
Use playlists to help you find it.
Go to your local café to find a comfort zone.
Do you have a reward system? Find yours.
2) Avoid the Quicksand
Beware of your irrational fear telling you “no one wants to read this book.” Or “what if my ex-boyfriend read this and realizes he’s the base for the asshole in my story?”
Breathe deeply!
That thing you are writing is AWESOME! (That message was on a postcard that Holly Black sent out to her writing friends).
Be your own thing and not a trend.
You are safe in the writing cave. No voices are allowed in the cave (the negative voices telling you you’re not good enough).
Readers are not trends, they want a well written story told from your soul.
3) Perfect Wants to Vote You Off the Island
Perfect wants to vote you off the island, but better wants to make an alliance.
Lower your standards!
Realize that you can’t make a book that is perfect. Perfect = Failure.
You just have to make it better.
Do it in small steps. Make that little bit of dialog better, or change that metaphor.
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cant wait to attend this!
it will be a gurney week, because i'm also planning on attending the baltimore mica lecture thrusday along with lester from the woodstock workshop!
awesome!!!!
Hi, SV, it will be great to see you and Lester. I've added an updated link about the MICA (Baltimore) talk at the end of the post.
Looking forward to seeing you both, twice, that week. I also intend to buy the Pyle book. Jim, will you be available to sign it at Delaware? Or would it be better to order thru your store?
Hi, Les,
I'll be doing a signing right after the lecture in Delaware on Nov. 12, so that's a good place to get it since you'll be there. Some of the authors of the other chapters will be there, too.