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The art show that took place at the NJSCBWI Conference continues with this evening illustration done by Lisa Falkenstern.

Ana Ochoa sent in this cute Happy Easter illustration to help me wish all of you a Happy Easter. Ana’s illustrations have been exhibited in many countries around the world. Her art is represented by Chris Tugeau and she was featured on January 11th 2014 on Illustrator Saturday. Click here to see her feature.

This Easter Parade illustration was sent in by Joanne Friar. She has been creating art for children’s books for over 18 years, researching history and nature from ancient civilizations to the Great Depression, from wetlands conservation to endangered species. Her books have won awards such as the CBC Notable Social Studies Book, the CBC Outstanding Science Book, and John Burroughs Nature Books for Young Readers. Joanne is represented by Christina Tugeau and was featured on Illustrator Saturday on March 10th, 2012 - Click here for the link.

You never know what is in those Easter Eggs, but Lisa Falkenstern used her imagination to show us in this illustration. Lisa has been a professional illustrator for more than thirty years. She’s illustrated The Busy Tree, published by Marshall Cavendish, and My VeryOwn Pirate Story, published by I See Me, written and illustrated A Dragon Moves. You can read about her new book, “Professor Whiskerton Presents Steampunk ABC”. Here is the link to Thursday’s Post about the book, which includes illustrations. Lisa was also featured on Illustrator Saturday on October 2, 2010. Here is the link to visit her feature.

This cute Bird in bunny pajamas was sent in by Jennifer Geldard from one of her series illustrations in watercolor, black fine-tip marker and white gel pen. She is a glass artist by trade, and new to the world of illustration. I’m still getting my bearings, and learning the business end of things, but she says, “painting is pure joy for me, and I’m enjoying every minute of my education.” Her website is www.glassgirl.com

Susan Detwiler is the Illustrator Coordinator MD/DE/WV SCBWI illustrator of several picture books including On The Move and One Wolf Howls. She is the author/illustrator of Fine Life For A Country Mouse, which will be published by Penguin in September. Susan was featured on Illustrator Saturday March 9, 2013. www.susandetwiler.com

Katia Bulbenko has been drawing ever since she can remember. After studying printmaking andpainting at Tyler School of Art, she pursued her interests in sculpture and silk painting, then worked as a freelance textile designer for many years, her specialty being “conversationals”—paintings of things like coffee cups and hats, mostly for pajamas ortable linens. In addition to spending her time teaching art to grades pre-k through 8 and creating beaded fiber pieces, Katia is an aspiring children’s book illustrator. Her favorite mediums are watercolor, colored pencil, and gouache. 

I want to thank everyone who sent in an illustration. I loved them all and will be using the rest with my posts in the next few weeks. Please keep sending me your illustrations. They add so much interest to this blog. 

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

When Lisa Falkenstern emailed me letting me know about her new book and book signing (it hit the book shelves on Tax Day), I asked if she would tell me how it came about. She said, “This book started a few years ago, when I was showing my editor, Margery Cuyler at Marshall Cavendish (now Two Lions), an idea for a picture book done in steampunk style.

Steampunk, often described as Victorian science fiction, is a genre I love. I had been collecting gears and clock parts for years with plans to use the pieces as still life props. The imagery of steampunk gears, metal machinery and steam engines is so rich and interesting to look at, I thought that the progression from still life to picture book would work well.

“Margery liked my idea, however she suggested an alphabet book. I did a rough dummy, and after the idea was approved, I started work on how I would present a steampunk alphabet. I decided that the individual letters should also be illustrated as though built with steampunk parts. That way they would be part of the workshop setting I was playing with.

Then my husband and I spent a large part of our vacation in the Outerbanks going through the dictionary, selecting which words to use. We had a long list and Margery helped make the final selections. Since the text of the book only featured a single sentence for each letter of the alphabet, I decided to illustrate a background plot in which the two mice are building something in their workshop. Each letter propels the story along until the mice reveal their masterpiece, with the letter ‘Z’, of course.

Once I had the whole concept, I started all the illustrations. I draw and paint from reference materials. First, I collected an immense amount of photographs as well as buying parts of lamps and other objects that worked as steampunk. Then I made models of the mice characters and a model of the steam engine.  My husband posed for the mice, which is funny, considering he is six feet, four inches!

I did the roughs of the letters first, and when finished, I added the mice and had them interact with the letters.  Then I did final drawings, and finished the book using oil paints.

And that was it!

SAVE APRIL 26TH AND 27TH – LISA’S HAVING A BOOK SIGNING AND EVERYONE IS INVITED!

The Huffington Post featured an interview yesterday on Ginger Heller and her new book, The Kid Who Beat Wall Street and Saved Africa.

Here is the link:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/heather-hummel/an-interview-with-ginger-heller_b_5070333.html

After I read the interview, I emailed Ginger to ask why she was calling her book a YA Novel. Here is her answer:

“I use the YA label only when it’s all that’s available. My book is really a “tween book” for ages 10-14. I have had some success with reluctant readers in 9th grade, (ages 14/15) if it’s presented right.”

My story, trading stocks and commodities on the internet, is a sophisticated one as are the issues with which I deal.

The fact that there is a “dictionary,” in the back of the book (I refer to it as my appendix A, 100 Words of Interest ) helps the reader easily look up some difficult words. The interesting part is that the definition of these words appear in the same grammatical form as they do in the book.

As for how did I get the interview, the writer knew of my book and thought it would be of interest.

Click here to take a look on Amazon. If you have a Kindle you can buy the book for $3.99 or if you are a Prime Member you can read the book for free.

Congratulations! Lisa and Ginger.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

Illustrators can now jump with both feet into digital publishing with the help of some free software and a contest launched by InteractBooks.com

“What better way to showcase all that our InteractBuilder e-book software can do on the iPad and iPhone than holding a contest to find the very best interactive book it can make?” asks the Interact Books website .

“And who better than you to produce this book by using your developer talent and our app software for the Mac and PC?”

A Youtube video doesn’t do the reading experience justice, but an actual iPad encounter with The Tortoise and the Hairpiece by Don Winn, illustrated by Toby Heflin and distributed on the Apple iTunes store demonstrates how the touch screen interactions and subtle animations of an interactive book (let’s call it an i-book) make for a whole new storytelling language.

I-books or interactive e-books aren’t quite the same as the e-books now making headlines for trouncing paperbacks in sales at Amazon.com.

They’re a new animal — maybe a new art form, and it may be months or even years before anyone knows where this fusion of interactivity and literacy is going, aesthetically or commercially speaking. Developers and a few publishers are delving into the format, but no leader for an interactive book-building engine or platform has emerged — yet.

In the meantime Austin, Texas based-InteractBooks wants to push the innovation timeline up a little by launching the first ever contest for an interactive children’s book. Entries must be built with their free InteractBuilder software.

First place prize – 16gb white or black WIFI iPad2, or $500.  lnteractBooks will  also publish your title and give you a three year membership in the InteractBuilder community (a $300 value)

• 2nd Place wins a 32gb iPodTouch or $200* and a two-year membership to the InteractBuilder community.
• 3rd Place yields a $100 Best Buy Gift Card and a one-year membership to the InteractBuilder community.

All runners up and anyone entering the contest with an InteractBuilder-approved book will have a free year’s membership in the InteractBooks builders community. 

The deadline is September 18 and the winner will be announced  October 1, which doesn’t give you much time.

That’s why the InteractBook folks are encouraging illustrators and authors to mull over the books they’ve already done, published or unpublished, with pictures and text ready to go — and see how they might adapt their story to this new media

Lisa Falkenstern is having a book launch and signing at the Clinton Book Shop on August 13th from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM for her new book, A DRAGON MOVES IN.  There will be refreshments along with some dragon theme cupcakes.  She will be happy to sign any books, and she will be doing a little drawings in each one.   If anyone wants a signed book, they have to pre-order it at the Clinton Book Shop at 908-735-8811.

If you can stop out to support Lisa and make sure you pre-order her book if you plan to attend.

Here’s the Kirkus Review:

A DRAGON MOVES IN
Author: Falkenstern, Lisa
Illustrator: Falkenstern, Lisa

Review Date: August 1, 2011
Publisher:Marshall Cavendish
Pages: 32
Price ( Hardcover ): $16.99
Price ( e-book ): $16.99
Publication Date: September 1, 2011
ISBN ( Hardcover ): 978-0-7614-5947-7
ISBN ( e-book ): 978-0-7614-5995-8
Category: Picture Books

It takes a lot of love—and imagination—to raise a dragon.

Rabbit and Hedgehog enjoy a nice spring picnic on a hillside below their house, while two mice and a frog patiently sit nearby, waiting for crumbs.   Suddenly, the rock that Rabbit is sitting on begins to rumble ominously.   It’s not an earthquake, it’s an egg about to hatch. Out comes a baby dragon! The picnic’s definitely over; Hedgehog and Rabbit take the tiny beast home.  While he’s small, the trio has a lot of fun, at tea parties, fairs and campouts and in the pumpkin patch. But as the little dragon begins to grow bigger and bigger, so do the problems of his adoptive parents in raising him. Dragon’s appetite is enormous, and so is his body, literally busting out of Rabbit and Hedgehog’s home at one point. There’s only one thing to do. Working together, the three of them build a big castle, all gray stone with several red-roofed turrets, for them to live in. And their dragon ward shows his appreciation by breathing a sky full of fireworks into the air. Falkerstern’s oils have depth and warmth, and, though her animals are anthropomorphized, they’re closer in authenticity to nature photos than cartoons.

Gentle country concoction, two parts Beatrix Potter and one part Cressida Cowell. (Picture book. 3-6) 

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

Art Show Teeming with Talent

By Leeza Hernandez, Illustrator Coordinator, NJ SCBWI

At the New Jersey SCBWI 2011 Annual Conference, more than 40 illustrators exhibited work in the Juried Art Show.

This is the second year that NJ SCBWI has offered the show to illustrators—in addition to the regular portfolio display—to help show off the variety of member talent to industry professionals during the conference. The show ran Saturday and Sunday and was accessible to all attending members for viewing.

The jury included editors, art directors and agents from this year’s faculty. They selected the winners based upon the following factors: Craft, Consistency, Concept, Impact, Marketability and Appropriateness.

First place went to Lisa Falkenstern (www.lisafalkenstern.com) for her Steampunk-style Humpty Dumpty piece. She left the conference prior to the announcement of the winners, so a friend called live from the amphitheater to break the news.

Falkenstern’s reaction was regret for not staying until the end, but also shock. “I entered my piece because I wanted to see the reaction to Steampunk from children’s book people,” Falkenstern said. “I was sure I wasn’t going to win—I just wanted to see  what people would say. To me it wasn’t a typical children’s [book] illustration.”  She added that she never wins anything so the shock was two-fold!

For winning the show, Falkenstern will visit two publishing houses to meet with art directors and editors and show her portfolio of work.

The two runner-up winners were Kelly Light www.kellylight.com  and Katia Wish www.katiawish.com , who each received a $50-off gift certificate for a future NJ SCBWI event.

Here is Kelly Lights winning entry:

Here is Katia Wish’s entry for the art show.

Honorable mention went to Kim Wood, who received a $25-off gift certificate for a future NJ SCBWI event.

When thinking about showing an illustrator’s work one member of the jury had this piece of advice: “There were many strong pieces and I found this a hard decision. In the end it was marketability that broke the ties, because in the end—even if all the other qualities are there—if it can’t find a place in the bookstores, it has no chance of success!”

There was no theme for the juried art show. IIlustrators were invited to submit one print of a piece of work that showed off their style in the best possible way.  NJ SCBWI will be featuring the juried art show, portfolio display and a special bonus exhibit at next years’ conference, so stay tuned for more details.

Leeza Hernandez is an illustrator/author and serves as the Illustrator Coordinator for New Jersey SCBWI. www.leezaworks.com

Thanks Leeza for sharing an inside view of the art show.

Talk t

New York illustrator Lisa Falkenstern is working on illustrations for her new children’s picture book.  But she and her editor are having trouble deciding on the perfect name for it.

Lisa's Baby Dragon

And so she’s asking readers of How To Be A Children’s Book Illustrator to help her out! Help her choose the best name. Because she knows that the title is the most important decision an author and or/her publisher probably will make on any given book. Titles rule.  Good titles sell the book. Blah or dumb titles seal their doom.

* * * * *

Lisa has staked out several firsts here.  It’s the first first picture book that she has authored.
It’s the first time that this blog has been asked for help by an artist colleague.  And it’s the first official reader poll that this blog has ever conducted.

How did the dragon story come about?

Lisa: Long story. I keep a file of images that give me ideas for illustrations. I had a photo of an antique silver eggcup that had chick feet sticking out of a realistically done egg. I liked that and when I got around to working on the idea, the chick became a dragon and lost the claws. It didn’t work. then I played around with the egg and it became an Easter egg. So now I had a portfolio piece.

At that time,  while attending a New Jersey SCBWI [Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators]  meeting, a friend and I were invited to join another writing group, the Hunterdon County Children’s Writers and Illustrators.  We did and it was my husband who suggested I turn that dragon painting into a story.  I did and when I showed up for a first meeting, to my everlasting shame,  I showed up with a story called The Easter Dragon. I worked on that and got a dummy ready for an SCBWI workshop. I showed it to an agent and he pointed out that it wasn’t an Easter story, it was a dragon and bunny story. I went back to work on it, took out Easter, added a hedgehog to the characters, showed it to the same agent and he wasn’t interested.

Not deterred,  I kept working on it and finally showed it to the publisher at Marshall Cavnedish at an SCBWI  conference who liked it, but had suggestions. About four revisions later, she liked it enough to buy it.

All that from a photo of an egg cup!

1 Comments on The title is everything!, last added: 6/2/2010

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Sean Ingvard Ashby said, on 6/2/2010 11:50:00 AM

You could always test your title with the “Lulu Titlescorer”. Enter your title and some info and wham-o, it tells you how likely that title is to be a best seller!

http://www.lulu.com/titlescorer/

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