Serendipity played a huge part in my getting the contract to illustrate Fiona Ingram’s début book The Secret of the Sacred Scarab. Fiona had visions of a website to go with the book that she was writing. Having visited about 10 different website developers with her ideas and scaring the heck out of them, she finally found Howl at the Moon Design. Why did she scare the heck out of a bunch of tech heads? Because what she wanted could not be produced from a web template. It was highly creative and they just could not do it.

Having established that we could do it, Fiona then came into the office for a meeting, bringing all the paraphernalia to be photographed or scanned for the website. At the meeting, she mentioned that she was looking for a local illustrator who could produce black and white illustrations for the book. She wanted a Hardy Boys feel for it and, while she already had the cover created by an artist in Cape Town – he was wrapped up in other projects and she really wanted someone local.

Adrian suggested that his sister could draw and that she had done the painting in the office. (at this point imagine a massive painting of Clint Eastwood as The Outlaw Josey Wales, rendered about 25 years ago in a moment of “I need canvas and paint” to decorate a fundraising barn dance event – urgh!). Fiona asked for a meeting, probably thinking Adrian would make a phone call and it would happen another day, only to have him call me into his office and pose the question.

Sheer panic set in the moment I said yes to Fiona’s request. Questions like “what if I suck at this? What if I can’t get it the way she wants it? Why the hell can’t it have been a cartoon assignment?- it would be a lot easier than realism.” danced through my head. As you may have gathered from earlier posts – I feel rusty – I had not been in a life drawing class for eons and the realistic drawing I had done since had been quick sketches or landscapes…. eeek!

Like anything huge, the only way to tackle this problem was in small sequential chunks. Fiona was not keen to let me read the entire manuscript. This was her first baby and she was somewhat protective. She had, however, decided which pieces of the plot needed to be illustrated and she gave me excerpts from the text that described the action. She sent me descriptions of the characters and photos of her two nephews on whom she had based the two main protagonists. Oh yeah, she also sent me sketches she had done of how she thought the pictures needed to look. This was hilarious (sorry Fi!) and scary, because then I started worrying that she would hold me to the layout she imagined and they really didn’t do it for me!

Okay – tiny chunks:

1. got the text, description and sketches

2. got holiday snaps of the nephews – no expressions or actions except holiday snap poses – how was I going to render them in action without making them look totally malformed? Idea! My son looks vaguely like Adam, my nephew looks vaguely like Justin…. Okay guys – guess what you’re doing for me today? Modelling for all the scenarios in the book! Get out the camera.

3. move away from the concept of the flat action and think depth! Pen and ink gives you a marvellous opportunity to add serious shadows and drama!

4. rough sketches to scale for Fiona. Scan them and email them.

5. tweak – luckily Fiona was happy with my interpretation and only a few minor tweaks were needed.

2 Comments on Illustrating a children’s book, last added: 1/20/2010

How do I make a statement?

By drawing. I needed to express how far I would go to change the allergy policy at the school my children attended. I needed to start the meeting with a smile and I needed to dissipate any ill feelings I had created by ranting on email about some near misses.

Squirrels were perfect because the allergy is to nuts. I sketch, I scan, I play with colour in Photoshop.

I make a product which can be viewed here.

I wonder what nutty idea will pop into my head next?

Last night I attended the re-launch of  The Cheese Gourmet and Cheese Cafe in Linden.

What I found most fascinating were the stories attached to some of the people involved in this wonderfully welcoming neighbourhood shrine to good food. People who had other lives until they decided to follow their bliss into the world of taste.

Owners Jo and Brian Dick, after running a food orientated corporate gift service from home and from the Irene market,  decided it was time to open a cheese shop dedicated to selling hand-made cheese  from small producers all over the country. With the disbanding of the Dairy Board (remember that parastatal arbiter of all things cheddar and gouda?) farms started getting more creative with their cheese making and these were the people who needed an outlet.

Initially a cheese shop that stocked Japanese foods (yup – the crazy combination got them noticed), the Cheese Gourmet expanded to stock locally produced chutneys, relishes, fudge, and sausages. The next expansion saw them opening the Cheese Cafe,  which serves all these wonderful products on artisan breads. Needing a bit of elbow room, when the corner shop became available, they jumped at the chance and have now got plenty of room for both sides of the business to expand.

The Foodies featured:

Peter James-Smith, a retired radio journalist produces delicious home-made sausages.

Prof. Mark Solms, a world-renowned neuroscientist recently returned to South Africa – Solms-Delta wines were served last night and were very drinkable. I was particularly impressed by the Solms-Astor Cape Jazz Shiraz even though my tastes usually run to dry sparkling wines – this one was fun! They are not available at the Cheese Cafe (yet) but can be bought down the road at the nearest bottle store!

I got into a very interesting conversation with Brian about the cheeses served at the event. One of them was particularly addictive – a hard mature cheese that just sang to my palate. He told me it was called The Witzenberger and was produced on a farm called Kimilili. Kimilili is owned by an ex-Wall Street banker of Swiss decent who looked for and found his “farm in Africa” (say this with a Danish accent, please) and learned how to make cheese from researching the processes on the internet!

We also talked about the ex-attorney, Wayne Rademeyer, who flew 24 water buffalo out from Australia (on Qantas) and established Buffalo Ridge Farm, where he produces buffalo mozzarella. The best mozzarella on the market – a far cry from the hard blocks of waxy cheese that passes for mozzarella in most supermarkets.

These are just a few of the fascinating stories behind locally produced good food. It almost makes one want to start planning an alternative life where you can slough off the rat race, find your little piece of heaven and start producing food that people with go gaga for!

The Cheese Gourmet and Cheese Cafe are now on the corner of 7th Street and 3rd Ave, Linden, Johannesburg.

The flying cow? Originally drawn in Photoshop for the label on a body butter jar! I figured it would do well to illustrate my flight of fancy into the world of cheese.

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You know what it’s like with kids. You give one a scoop of ice cream, you have to give them all a scoop of ice cream. And that scoop of ice cream better be measured down to the last melting droplet, or someone’s going to complain that someone else has more!

So I don’t get the ice cream moans anymore, because I’m very, very good at “death stares if you whine”. But I recently got hit with a new one…

We were once again waiting. But instead of the car, we had retired to a local steakhouse to feed the bottomless pits I call daughters and wait for my son to finish performing in his school’s major theatre production. I get hit with this one: “You drew my brother while you were waiting last time, and my sister while you were on the train, but you haven’t drawn me!”

No death stares necessary – how often do I get a willing victim for the sketch book? Once again, the lighting was terrible for drawing – nowadays, eating establishments don’t really want you to notice how much the burger has shrunk while the price has expanded. However, the moody, multi directional lighting gave my victim huge pupils and multiple light spots in her eyes – it made the eyes quite attractive focal points for the sketch.

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I admit to having growling moments in the car, at school, at the TV, all over the place because of one thing! Radio DJ’s (the RAW team at Highveld in particular), news reporters, copy writers of adverts (the Garnier people), headmasters, teachers, and even my children (shock horror!!) using the word “amount” when they should use the word “number”.

It’s a little thing and it probably puts me in the category of pedantic language user, but once you know the difference, the incorrect use of the term SCREAMS at you. I had to sit through a thank you speech on Saturday, in which an educator talked about the “amount” of people she needed to thank. But this is a person who is in the communication and education business, and she does not know the difference. It’s scary!

I started squirming and muttering “Number, number,  number of people.”  Yes, the parents around me were subtly trying to edge their chairs away from mine, convinced I was about to stand up and give way to a full-blown attack of Tourette’s Syndrome.

Than I considered how I would graphically explain the difference. And here it is, scribbled after my muttering attack, refined today.

By using the Dinner Theory -  the difference between peas and mashed potatoes. Peas can be counted individually (if you really wanted to count them), but with mashed potato you can’t count the individual molecules. So number of peas and amount of mashed potato. Fewer peas, less mashed potato if you aren’t hungry. More peas and mashed potatoes if you are famished!

Does this explain it?

So people, like peas, are measured in numbers. Even though, at the latest count, there are 6,794,431,308 people in the world we can all still be counted! I think that using the term “amount” when referring to people is not only incorrect, it’s insulting – it negates the individual completely.

The only time that this would be accurate would be it this happened:

So next time you are planning to talk about the “amount” of people you would like to thank… consider the poor person in your audience who is about to start muttering and acting like a New York bag lady.

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58. Waiting in the dark

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By: howlingdesign, on 10/29/2009
Blog: Life, the universe and doodling (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Drawing someone drawing...

I send a lot of time waiting. Waiting for inspiration to hit, waiting for a client to approve a design, waiting for jobs to be printed and most of all, waiting for my children to finish whatever activity they have signed up for.

I am not an organisation queen. I do not rush my children from regimented sports experts to ballet to tutoring. You have to be a career mother to cope with that. We have a general rule. Anything extra during the week has to be offered at school. They take me at my word and so I end up waiting…

As I mentioned in the comments a few posts ago…my drawing skills feel rusty. Unlike bicycle riding, this is just not something you can leave for a while and come back to and be able to perform. There is a lot of hard work and frustration in getting back into the habit of drawing.  As an art student I was told that Henry Moore the sculptor made it a habit to draw something every day. I don’t think it really sank in then. After all, we were drawing and painting and sculpting every day anyway.

The problem is, life has a tendency to lead you down paths that you never imagined you would take. The idealistic arty farty student type becomes a frenzied designer in an ad agency at the beginning of the Mac revolution , a communications officer at a university, a corporate wife to an executive who is moved around the world, a mother feeding all the hungry little mouths. Drawing tends to take a back seat to all the other aspects of life clamouring for attention.

Having received the commission to illustrate a children’s book and survived to tell the tale (which I will be telling soon), I vowed to keep practicing. While I have not yet reached the goal of one drawing a day, I do use the waiting time…

So here is the latest Waiting drawing. Waiting for my daughters to finish singing in a choir performance. My son and I were stuck in the car on the dark school grounds with the wind howling around the vehicle and the rain beating down on us. It was quite cosy… both of us drawing and chatting. The challenges were the lighting (car lighting sucks!)  and trying to make his eyes (which were in the shadows) look like they were open and alive.

Oh yes, he was drawing King Kong which hopefully was not a metaphorical portrait of me!

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59. Halloween

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By: howlingdesign, on 10/14/2009
Blog: Life, the universe and doodling (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Why ride a broomstick?

looking a bit stupid with this sweet club!

A few years back, my eldest child was involved in a Halloween fundraiser for the Junior Thespians Club at school. So I came up with a few “Gruesome Gram” designs. Drawn with felt tip pens, scanned in and printed onto card. Slots for the lollipops were hand cut but were an integral part of the card design… The witch is still my favourite… probably speaks to the bwitch in me.

Halloween in America is a big deal. Parades at school are organised. Teachers take part in the festivities. And then of course there is the neighbourhood trick-or-treating! It’s actually a lot of fun. The sense of cameraderie amoungst the groups of adults as they follow their howling offspring from doorstep to door step is great. We had a rule that the kids stuck together and had at least one adult chaperone with the group, so the risk of them disappearing into the night was minimised, because, of course, it was too lame to go before it got dark! The children have the thrill of ringing doorbells of strangers (without running away and being pests) and of course there is the candy!

In northern New Jersey, the weather is beautiful – not hot or cold, but crisp! You don’t have to cook a gargantuan meal or buy everyone gifts or wonder when the shops will be closing for the holidays. You just have to stock up on candy and carve a pumpkin or two. Some people go all out with their decorations. Our neighbour, Chuck was particularly proud of his life sized witch who “flew” outside his house (attached to a cable between house and tree). Until it got abducted by local teens on a short witch-napping spree (it was returned). The next year he had a man-sized werewolf  guarding the door and was much put out when pranksters added a pair of plastic spectacles and a sign “Hairy Potter”. After a bit of a rant, he saw the funny side, and then he found out that we had been the pranksters!

Of course there were town rules that stated that those over 16 were not allowed to trick or treat, in order to cut down on the potential tricking. Although I like this idea of tricky treating!

I have had more negative reactions to Halloween since returning to South Africa. It is not as commercialised, and there seems to be some real fear from some people that it is an occult occasion. Hog wash! There are days like this in every culture.

We are getting more trick-or-treaters in our neighbourhood every year, but let’s face it, in the time it takes the average Jo’burger to unlock all the security gates to hand out the candy, the shine has gone off the moment! For a fun and different, dress-up-and-get-candy experience, try a treat at the zoo! You arrive on the designated day and time, all dressed up with parents and a picnic in tow. And the zoo staff does the rest… Oh yes, don’t forget to bring

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60. Let lying dogs sleep

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By: howlingdesign, on 10/1/2009
Blog: Life, the universe and doodling (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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61. Dictionaries rock!

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By: howlingdesign, on 9/25/2009
Blog: Life, the universe and doodling (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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I was  brought up in a household where reading is as essential as eating and breathing. Every room has bookshelves packed to capacity. Only the very blah books are passed on; all the good ones are kept because “I might want to read it again”.

“How do you spell…?”, was answered with, “Go and look it up in the dictionary.”  Words became very important; delving into a dictionary brought a bunch of wonderful words to my attention. Discovering more about the English language can also create huge frustrations. I make my children squirm at school evenings when the educators who are in charge to teaching them refer to: “the amount of children who….” And I growl, “Number, you idiot, the NUMBER of children; you can’t measure them in pints!”

I was considering joining a Facebook group called:  If You Can’t Differentiate Between “Your” and “You’re” You Deserve To Die. Then I noticed the excessive number of capital letters in the name of the group. Which means the people who started it can’t punctuate!

Punctuation is as important as grammar and can change the meaning of sentences completely. Don’t believe me? Talk to the two Canadian companies who might make or lose $2 million on the position of a comma. Yesterday was National Punctuation Day in the US. Do we feast on language till our colons protest?

Want to explore more? There is a great blog devoted to unneccesary quotation marks and the National Post (Canada) has a whole raft of readable articles about language. By the way, if I use words or grammar incorrectly in this blog, feel free to let me know! Or send it to this blogger. I’m no professor, just a lover of language.

Homophones (words that sound the same, but are spelled differently) are probably the most misused words ever! Whether and weather; there and their; hangar and hanger; the list is endless.

Sometimes a homophonic error is just too delicious not to be advertised. A restaurateur client asked us to layout and print his recently updated menu. He’d been in the food business for decades and had, according to the prevailing fashion, added all sorts of currently cool items to the menu. Pity he didn’t reach for his dictionary. He managed to offend a lot of patrons before realising that the dessert on offer should have been served with a fruit coulis, not a fruit coolie.

A doodle

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62. On the train

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By: howlingdesign, on 9/23/2009
Blog: Life, the universe and doodling (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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We took a train trip to the Cherry Festival in Ficksburg. It was a great way to get there and the accommodation was sorted.  If you love cherries and fresh green asparagus then this is the place to be in November of each year. You also have to be an afficianado of the most horrendous kitch.

I think the best,  was the planters made from old clothing. Imagine a pair of kids jeans that had been petrified with resin, standing up, full of soil, with an alarmingly phallic cactus growing out of it. I think I cracked a rib trying not to laugh out loud. The rest of the stall section of the festival featured equally heart stopping paraphenalia. Worse than these.

It was a long train ride home… but I soothed my overstimulated senses with a bit of sketching!

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63. Debbie in Greece

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By: howlingdesign, on 9/17/2009
Blog: Life, the universe and doodling (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Coloured pencil – portrait of a friend…

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64. Whales & water

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By: howlingdesign, on 9/16/2009
Blog: Life, the universe and doodling (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Watercolour paints and coloured pencil – commissioned by a friend of my aunt. It was a birth gift for her grandson. Hope he likes octopi.

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