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Remember this piece? I wrote about it
here. I feel like anyone who bought this print at The Calgary Expo has now had ample opportunity to decipher it, and so it's time to post the answer.
'I speak a language with two characters. To understand me, you have to ask what time it is.'
That's the riddle written at the bottom of the image. The language with only two characters is binary, which is made up of 1's and 0's. What time is it? If you write down the times on the clocks from left to right, top to bottom, keeping in mind that you only want 1's and 0's, you get this:
01:11
10:01
01:11
10:01
01:10
00:11
That last one is a bit tricky to figure out, since '00' doesn't show up on an analogue clock, but since 12:11 has a '2' and there are no 2's in binary, 00 is the alternative way to think about that time.
011110010111100101100011 translated from
binary into english is yyc, which is the
airport code for Calgary. The hidden message in the image is 'Calgary'.
Last Tuesday I was thrilled to participate in Smorgasbook, an event put on by the
Young Alberta Book Society. I presented both Bye, Bye, Butterflies! and Charlie's Dirt Day to local teachers and librarians. It was my first time doing an even like that but it won't be my last. I had a wonderful time meeting and chatting with the teachers and librarians, as well as with the other participating authors. Alberta has some really great literary talent. I left the event feeling so inspired and eager to read middle grade and young adult novels. I'm really excited to be part of this community and hope to do more events in the future.
Thanks to everyone who bought my books for their schools and libraries, and to everyone who has made inquiries since. It felt great to get so much positive feed back :)
The fourth and final print in my Horror Collection is my take on H.P. Lovecraft's character, Cthulhu. You can see the rest of this series
HERE and
HERE.
They will all be available at the Calgary Expo, which starts today :)
My portrait of Edward Gorey is the third print from my 'Horror Collection,' which I'll be selling this weekend at the Calgary Expo. You can see the first 2 portraits
HERE.
I'm a big fan of Edward Gorey and own several of his illustrated books. I didn't realize it until this morning, but today is actually the 15th anniversary of his death.
I also managed to finish a 4th portrait for this series, which I'll unveil tomorrow :)
Two more new prints for the Calgary Expo. I think they'd look cute in white frames, hanging side by side.
Here are the finished portraits of H.P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe. Both prints will be available at the Calgary Expo.
This was my submission for the Calgary Expo's art book. The theme was 'Adventures in Time' and my very smart husband came up with the idea of doing an image with a hidden message. We decided to use clocks because of the 'time' part of the theme and the 'adventure' was in solving the riddle and deciphering the code. I was pretty excited about the piece because it's a departure from my usual work. And I love collaborating with my husband. He's very creative and has unique ideas.
Sadly, my submission didn't make the cut and won't be in the Calgary Expo Art Book, but I worked really hard on it and I think it's a cool piece. I also thought it would look interesting hanging on a wall so I'm having some prints made that will be available to purchase at the Calgary Expo. I'm hoping that some of the expo attendees will appreciate the thought and subtleties in this image.
For anyone who's wondering about the riddle, I'm going to wait until after the expo to reveal the answer so that anyone who purchases the print has a chance to figure it out.
I'll be at the Calgary expo again this year, at table D 07 in the small press section. I'll be selling the same prints, buttons and books as I have in the past, plus some new additions. I've added stickers, a limited run of canvas bags and some new prints to our inventory. I've also brought in a lot of copies of Charlie's Dirt Day for anyone who would like to pick one up and get it signed :)
We're excited once again to be right next to fellow picture book illustrator
Mike Boldt, forming the unofficial children's book section. My friend and amazing comic artist/writer,
Aaron Navrady, will also be just around the corner from my table and I highly suggest that people stop to check out his beautiful, history-inspired work.
See you at the expo!
This review of Charlie's Dirt Day was in the March 7th edition of the Calgary Herald.
At the beginning of February, my family and I went on a little trip down south to Arizona. It was the first real trip that we've taken since moving back to Canada from Europe four years ago. Arizona wasn't even a place I was very interested in visiting, but there was a conference there that my husband wanted to attend so we decided to turn it into our first family vacation as a threesome. It also coincided with the ten year anniversary of when my husband and I started dating.
It had been quite cold in Calgary before we left so the break from that alone was welcomed. The weather was actually perfect down there. Hot, but not so hot that we were always sweaty and tired. We spent most of our time just walking around Phoenix and Scottsdale exploring the neighbourhoods and enjoying south-western cuisine.
While my husband was at the conference, Félix and I went swimming (his first time), checked out some galleries, went for walks and hung out in parks. I drew in my sketchbook while he napped in the stroller. It wasn't the most exciting vacation, but it was so enjoyable and relaxing to just get away and be with my family without thinking about all the stuff on my to-do list.
I hadn't anticipated that our plane would fly right over the Grand Canyon, but it did and I got the most perfect arial view. Such an unexpected treat. It's so cool how the desert just splits open. From the sky, it looked like a wound in the earth, and it was so much bigger and more amazing than I imagined. I was really impressed. It was also really neat to see how the landscapes changed. We flew over several terrains that were all really different from one another. I even saw the line where the snow started once we got closer to home.
I wanted to share these 2 illustrator interviews that I recently read and enjoyed.
The first one was with Carson Ellis on the blog, Picturebook Makers. Her first picture book that she's both written and illustrated, Home, is coming out this month. The entire post was really inspiring, but I especially found myself relating to what she said about "contributing something worthwhile to an already massive heap of brilliant books." As someone who aspires to one day write my own books, I think about that a lot.
The other interview was with
Chris Silas Neal on Inky Goodness. Again, I really enjoyed the entire post, but it's what he said about his upcoming picture book, Everyone, that really inspired me:
"Everyone is a book about a boy and his feelings. Through visual metaphors I describe how expressing our feelings affects our surroundings and how the world reflects those feelings back at us. When you are sad, it may feel like you’re the only one who has ever been sad, but we learn that you are not alone. The world feels it too. So when you are happy, it makes the world happy."
What a great and unique idea! I can't wait to read it and see how he turned a concept like that into a book for children.
I'm a little late on this post. I initially wasn't going to bother with it because I couldn't think of a lot of things to include. I usually focus my energy on building my illustration business, but in 2014 most of my energy went into growing a baby and then caring for him. Although extremely satisfying, it made for a short list :)
I have been thinking about this for the past month and a half though, and this is what I've come up with. The good stuff from 2014:
• illustrated my second trade picture book
• celebrated 7 years of marriage to my husband
• went on one little vacation to the Rocky mountains
• painted our house dark grey with creamy white trim
• planted an awesome vegetable garden
• had at least 6 visits with my mom who lives 9 hours away
• helped my husband start his own business
• learned how to be a bookkeeper
• perfected my thai red curry
• experienced being pregnant
• experienced giving birth
• became a mother - definitely the big highlight from this year and along with it came good stuff like baby snuggles, baby smiles and baby laughter
A final sneak peek inside the finished pages of Charlie's Dirt Day...
This image is one of my favourites. It was really fun to work on and until it was completely finished I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out.
I hope you've enjoyed the preview of the book as well as some of my process over the last few weeks. If you want to see more, you'll have to
buy the book :)
This is the last sketch that I'll be sharing from my new children's book, Charlie's Dirt Day. Stay tuned to see how the final art turned out; I'll be sharing that illustration tomorrow.
If you've missed any of my previous process posts from this book, you can find them all under the hashtag #CharliesDirtDay.
Here's another finished spread from my upcoming picture book.
This scene takes place a year after the rest of the story as the characters are heading to the next annual Dirt Day. The same characters who attended the previous year have decided to come back, but because so much time has passed, I included some small changes in their appearance, such as the hair on their heads and facial hair. The two little girls who met at Dirt Day last year became friends and are going together this year.
You can see from my sketches below that I had to alter my original layout in order to be able to fit in everything I wanted to include plus have enough room for all the text. The final sketch features some of the things that Charlie wants to grow in his garden.
Another look at a finished spread from my new children's book.
For this sketch, I tried to make the composition more interesting by playing with the foreground. I liked the idea of bringing the viewer into the scene on the left side of the spread with a close up of a bowl of freshly picked tomatoes while Charlie and Mr. Martino made a sauce in the background on the right side. Whenever possible, I like to integrate the text with the image and the bowl provided the perfect opportunity for that.
Because Charlie is so short, my initial plan had been to have him standing on a stool, stirring the pot of sauce. However, my publisher pointed out that it wasn't the safest place to put a little boy, something I hadn't considered when I was coming up with ideas for the spread. I reworked the drawing to instead show Charlie offering Mr. Martino tomatoes from the bowl.
Here's another peek at some of the final art from my next book.
The Character of Charlie was based on a sketch I had done when I was traveling through Europe. At one point, my husband and I were living in Paris and I was drawing more than I ever have in all my life. I did a lot of sketches of children at that time and there was one in particular that I really liked but had never been able to use in a project. When I read the manuscript for
Bye, Bye, Butterflies! a few years ago, that sketch immediately came to mind for the character of Charlie.
Both of the Charlie books that I've illustrated were written by Andrew Larsen and his stories were based on experiences that he had with his son. Knowing this, when I designed the character of Charlie's dad for
Bye, Bye, Butterflies! I based it on a photo that I had seen of Andrew.
The older man in this illustration is Mr. Martino and he comes entirely from my imagination. For that character, I liked the idea of an older man with an eclectic sense of style.
When designing an illustration for a picture book, you need to leave room for the text. This double page spread had quite a bit of text to work around. In my initial thumbnail, I had envisioned the older man on the right side filling most of the page, however, I ended up needing to adjust him quite a bit to make even more room for text in the space behind him.
This illustration is probably my favourite one from Charlie's Dirt Day because I included lots of personal touches. Several of the characters in this spread made appearances in my first picture book, Bye, Bye Butterflies, such as the lady in the yellow cardigan on the left, the little boy pulling the wagon and the little girl in the right corner with the green ribbon in her hair. I thought it would be nice for the children who were familiar with the other book to make those connections.
In Bye, Bye Butterflies, the lady in the yellow cardigan appeared on the opening spread. I used the pattern in her shirt to reference an upcoming event in that book. Her shirt had butterflies on it. In Charlie's Dirt Day, I used the pattern in her dress in the same way.
The little boy pulling the wagon is actually based on my husband. He used to work for Apple as an iPhone technician and wore a dark blue shirt with an apple on it. I lightened the shirt and substituted a different kind of fruit. I'd also like to draw your attention to the words on the side of the wagon. My husband's name is Dario.
There is a mom in a green dress, a dad in a green hat and a little girl in a red dress at the top left. They're based on my friends, Kelci Hind and Colin Leach and their daughter, Juniper. Kelci and Colin own
The Silk Road Spice Merchant and have been extremely supportive of my illustrative career and my previous book.
The woman in the red dress in the top right is based on my friend, illustrator
Karen Klassen.
This image is one that I had in my mind from the very beginning, and you can see from the initial thumb nail sketch below that it didn't change much. Because of all of the characters that I wanted to include, this spread was quite intimidating for me. I ended up spending a lot of time on it in order to fit in everything in a way that worked.
When dealing with a double page spread, it's really important to pay attention to the gutter, that's the part of the image where the page folds. You don't want to have anything important, like someone's face, crossing that line. The part of the illustration that goes through the gutter can get lost once the book is bound.
In the end, I had quite a lot of fun with this spread and as a result, it's probably my favourite illustration from the book. I'll share the final art tomorrow, along with some of the personal things that I snuck into the image.
Follow my hashtag, #CharliesDirtDay.
To kick things off, I'd like to share my initial thumb nail sketches and storyboards for my soon-to-be-released children's book, Charlie's Dirt Day, written by Andrew Larsen and published by Fitzhenry & Whiteside.
The first thing I did when I got the manuscript was read it over many times, making notes in the margins and jotting down ideas and images that came to mind. Once I had a good feel for the story, I started to think about pacing, how the story would unfold, and began the process of breaking up the text. I found it helpful to cut up the actual manuscript so that it was easier to move around the blocks of text.
Once I was satisfied, I started making little thumbnail drawings to explore different ways of illustrating each page. Having the entire book laid out on one piece of paper made it easy to see how the illustrations related to each other. I worked on the thumbnails until I felt like there was enough variety to keep the spreads interesting.
There's quite a lot of work that goes into the planning of a picture book before the drawing of larger and more detailed sketches can begin.
Follow my hashtag, #CharliesDirtDay.
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