We don’t purport to cover the waterfront here. But every once in a while it’s fun to do a roundup of items under the tag of children’s book illustration, which is another way of saying “string some things together that aren’t really related.”
Or lazy writing, in other words. But hey — it’s summertime in Central Texas.
So let me start with this image of a few of the Inklings basking in the July heat at the Central Market Cafe. The Inklings are a picture book critique group in the Austin, Texas Chapter of SCBWI (the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.)
We converge on our own one Sunday morning each month. There’s almost always a new face and anywhere from four to 12 familiar faces.
We’ll read each others stories aloud, or leaf through someone’s portfolio, or ponder a storyboard or two, or bring our latest book discoveries.
Mostly we all talk at the same time, everybody at once like the mice in Diane Stanley’s picture book The Conversation Club.
(Nobody seems to be talking too much here, though. We must not have had our second cups of coffee yet. Left to right are Louise Shelby, Amy Farrier, Torran Anderson, Salima Alikhn and Marsha Riti.)
A Glowing Afternoon
was enjoyed by picture book author Chris Barton and his many fans at his debut signing at BookPeople earlier this month.
The Day Glo Brothers: The True Story of Bob and Joe Switzer’s Bright Ideas and Brand New Colors (Charlesbridge Publishers 2009) is narrative science writing for kids at its best.
It’s illustrated in a smart & sassy 1950s cartoon style (with some nice day glo hues thrown in) by Tony Persiani.
The combination of crisp text that keeps you excitedly turning pages and the plentiful, high energy line-art that suits the narrative perfectly has garnered the book starred reviews in Kirkus, Publishers Weekly and School Library Journal.
Which is a little like lightning striking three times (in a good way.)
Through years of trial and error and a few happy accidents the Switzer brothers learned how certain resin and dye mixtures could result in an orange that was “oranger-than-orange.” They had found an interaction of certain chemicals with light wavelengths that we now take for granted as Day-Glo paint.
Their experiments began as an enhancement to one brother’s magic act and led to production of the paint on a massive scale in World War Two. (The colors were used for signaling and signage– and probably saved many, many lives!)
Reading this little known story is an unfolding experience of discovery.
Chris and a helper and a standing room only crowd at Austin’s BookPeople.
Photo by Donna Bowman Bratton
These days, some of the best information on children’s book illustration is
Found on the blogs
English Children’s picture book illustrator and author-illustrator Lynn Chapman shows us on her blog, An Illustrator’s Life For Me “before and after versions” of a double page spread — replete with her notes to herself for one book assignment.
She says she’s just mailed in final art for Bears on the Stairs by Julia Jarman to their editor at Anderson. Now she’s waiting to learn how many changes she’ll have to make.
Vancouver illustrator Kirsti Anne Wakelin gives us a generous glimpse into her line art on her blog My Secret Elephant. She talks about her tools, how she uses reference in her work.
Click on the tab that says “Illustration Process” for her posts showing progress reports on a book assignment she’s been working on all year.
James Gurney amazes…
He’s the creator of the Dinotopia books.
He also maintains one of the premier ” artist’s process” blogs with his daily Gurney Journey.
A lot of art instruction is shared here as he allows you to follow him at work over his drawing board with with photos and close-up videos
You can follow him with photos and close up videos of him at work. Below are some posts in which he lets us look over his shoulder as he completes a commissioned poster for an upcoming festival in France.
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Three (b)
Part Four
Part Six
Part Seven
Jumping Juxtapositions, Batman!
Mark Blevis interviews illustrator Raul Colón at the Jewish Libraries 2009 Convention. Click here for the podcast on the engaging blog hosted by him and Andrea Ross Just One More Book.
In a second interview Colón goes into more detail with Blevis about how he and his illustration students will find inspiration by bumping two unrelated things into each other, the way Stanley Kubrick bumped The Blue Danube Waltz into his shots of the massive spacecraft in 2001, A Space Odyssey.
Common sense or experience might have told us this, but now researchers have found that multi-tasking can reduce your performance level to that of someone who is inebriated. Check out the post on Lateral Action, a blog on creativity.
Did you eat, Stanley?
"Stanley's Beauty Contest" gives us the dog's point of view of one of those dog shows.
Stanley’s Beauty Contest by Linda Bailey (Kids Can Press, Toronto) is a funny romp (Stanley’s, of course and his new foo-fooed friends. He’s hungry because he missed breakfast.) through a Best of Show (read: many, many dogs) competition.
The scratchy/warm ‘n fuzzy textured illustrations are by Bill Slavin.
Several famous children’s book illustrators are included in the Publisher’s Weekly exerpt from Anita Sibley’s new book from Roaring Brook, Everything I Need to Know I Learned From a Children’s Book.
My favorite part of fondthe excerpt was Thatcher Hurd fondly talking about Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows (originally illustrated by Ernest Shepard.) Hurd refers to Mr. Toad as “surely the id personified.”
Ernest Shepard's brilliant version of Mr. Toad from "The Wind in the Willows"
Can’t contain yourself? Click on “Leave a comment” at the top of the post. Think of the box that opens as your op-ed page.
For some free lessons on using color with cunning in watercolor, click here.
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I found a character sketch in my sketchbook that I thought would work for this weeks 
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Fun! I had heard about Gurney's film but hadn't seen it yet. Thanks for posting it. Ah, I wish we could rewind time and do it all over again.
Eric Fortune is great! Wasn't it amazing to see so much original work? I was in so much awe at the skill of so many different artists.