I was thrilled to be interviewed by Emily KulKus of the Post Standard on Monday. Later that day Michelle Gabel dropped by to snap some fantastic photos. Emily and I spoke about my career as a children's illustrator for quite a while, and she wrote the most wonderful article about me and my Indestructibles® Books. I will past the body of the article from their digital archive here, and then attach a PDF file of the actual scanned newspaper article.
Syracuse artist and illustrator Jonas Sickler to sign, read new trio of children's books
Michelle Gabel / The Post-Standard. Illustrator Jonas Sickler, of Syracuse, sits with his son Oliver, 1, and one of his new children's books, which were released by Workman Publishing in February.
When Jonas Sickler is looking for inspiration for his illustrations, he sometimes turns to the trash. Or the closet. Or the candy jar. And he loves to meander in the padded aisles of the fabric store, seeking the sense that moves him as an artist: texture.
Sickler, who lives in Syracuse's Strathmore neighborhood with his wife and two young boys, is an illustrator who works with a unique palette. He seeks out patterns, prints and textures, scans them into his computer and then uses software to cut and create shapes from his personal encyclopedia of surfaces.
His work is typical of illustrations for children in that it's bright, cheery and happy. What sets it apart, however, are the colorful stripes and swirls, plaids and tweeds, zigzags and sprinkles that make his eyeglasses- and hat-wearing characters appear three dimensional. He calls his color schemes "quirky'' and said some of his scenes are constructed of 30 layers or more.
Sickler originally pitched a children's book idea to Workman Publishing, of New York City, in the summer of 2009. The publisher made a counteroffer, saying they were looking for a creative approach to nursery rhymes for the company's Indestructible series -- books that are "baby-proof" in that the youngest readers can chew, pull and suck on the books without hurting the books or themselves. The 12-page picture books are nontoxic and can be run through the washing machine or dishwasher.
Workman published three Indestructibles during the summer of 2010, and the latest trio was released in February.
"I never really was drawn to classic color schemes," Sickler said. "My colors are always a little quirky and odd. They look like they've been through the washer."
Michelle Gabel / The Post-Standard
Sickler, 34, said he has always been inspired by midcentury, vintage textile design, books and board games. But it wasn't until a professor at Syracuse University forced him to put down his watercolors and pick up a pair of scissors as part of an assignment to create art.
"I said I wasn't going to do cut paper, and it turned out to be the most fun I'd had," he said. "I just sat down with X-ACTO knives and drew the same way, but instead of pen and ink, I would cut it out of textured paper.
"It was really cool to see these little paper characters come to life."
Sickler said when he gets an idea for a project, he works the idea over and over in his head. That's how the concept of "Humpty Dumpty" came to be. "What in the world are you going to do with something that's been done a mi
Well, my two Pierre prints have officially sold out at the Land of Nod. As much as I loved having them in such a beautiful catalogue, I am happy to be able to sell them again myself. They will be available on my ETSY page now.
Once again, my illustrations are hanging in the cafe at Barnes and Noble in Dewitt to promote my book signing and 'Story Time For Little Ones' on Saturday March 26. So, if you are browsing the bookstore, or just lapping up a latte, check out the art on the wall. I will also be doing an interview with the Post Standard tomorrow to promote the event. I will post that article when it is published this week.
I will be hosting another "Story Time For Little Ones" at the end of the month to celebrate my latest release of Indestructibles® Books that began shipping in January. I will read my own versions of these new books, accompanied by extra large prints and fun multicultural music. I will stay for about 30 minutes after the story time for a book signing and to answer questions. The stories will be most enjoyed by children of ages 2-4, but as always, I welcome everyone!
Date: Saturday March 26
Time: 10:00 AM until 10:30
Place: Barnes and Noble on Erie Blvd in Dewitt
ohdeedoh recently featured one of my prints from the Land of Nod, as well as my books.
This is the image that they featured in an article about The Land of Nod. This was an exclusive print with them until it sold out last month. Now they can be found on my ETSY page.
Here is the wonderful feature they did on my books at ohdeedoh
My wife gave me this card for Father's Day last year, and I have had it on my fridge ever since. I love mid century illustration of all kinds. I also happen to be the worlds best optimist. I can't help laughing at the absurdity of the image, and also at myself, because I could totally be that guy! Almost.
Here is my new Self Addressed Stamped Post Card, or SASPC, which I will be including with all of my future mailers. I have been using the traditional SASE, but that requires the recipients of my mailers to compose a letter on the computer and then print it, or dig up a note card to put into my envelope. Using a SASPC instead of an envelope saves art directors much needed time. I like leaving room for comments, but I also include a simple checklist for those days when an art director is overwhelmed with work. I really wanted to jazz up this little card with some fancy artwork, but it was looking too cluttered. Simple is better.
As I have mentioned before- they are the busiest people on earth, and anything that you do to save them time while showing them your work will make them much happier. If you confound your clients, they are likely to just get frustrated and pass you by.
I spoke at the SCBWI Regional Conference On February 12. It is always so much fun to meet new Illustrators and Authors. My presentation focussed on self promotion for freelance Illustrators. As soon as I was invited to speak, I began writing blog entries which I used to create the presentation. Those entries can be found HERE, and they are a great source of information for new and emerging Illustrators to get the most out of your time spent on self promotion.
Currently I am in the studio putting together a presentation for school visits, and writing another book. I am VERY excited about how this story is turning out, and I can't wait to finish writing it, and begin working on the art!
Happy Valentines Day! ♥
The Land of Nod was featuring two of my original paintings as large canvass banners this summer as part of their camping bedroom set. They sold out of the RV camping print, so I am now able to sell it. You can still grab the Roasting Marshmallow print from The Land of Nod at a nice little discount!
This is the page featuring my painting from the Land of Nod summer 2010 catalogue. I think it looks excellent.
While I sit in my studio watching the snow fall, I came across this beautiful book called White Snow Bright Snow, written by Alvin Tresselt, and illustrated by Roger Duvoisin. I love the bold colors which are quite the opposite of what I would expect in a "winter" book. The shapes are so simple and well placed. It has a graphic design poster look to me. I absolutely LOVE the font too! Syracuse winters are beautiful, until March, then I just want it all to melt!
Inspiration can come from anywhere. Music, movies, vintage advertising and textile design; there are limitless sources from which we can gather ingredients to stew in our creative pots. I have always loved old children's books and cartoons, particularly those from the 1950's. My favorite illustrator/animator from the past must be Mary Blaire. There isn't much that came from her brush that I don't like. She used such vivid colors to portray things as simple as buildings and trees. Yet she does it in such a way that it looks completely natural to me.
This spread comes from Paul Bunyan. I think the patterns are brilliant, and the simple strokes used to create the tree lines are so perfect. Her use of different shapes of pine trees is great too, from the spade shapes to the zig zags to the crooked lightening bolts. It is a marvel for me to look at.
I also adore her use of color and shapes in this art from Peter Pan. Rather than using thick chunky trees, she separates each leaf so they have a rhythmic staccato feeling. I love the color of the sky too, the yellowish pale green is so different than the expected blue, or sunset red.
I stumbled across Abner Grabhoff on another illustrators blog (Lane Smith's Curious Pages). Abner Grabhoff created some fabulous images in the 50's and 60's. His work is about as simple and fun as it gets. He pushed colors to their extreme, and his characters took on matisse-like forms. Here are a few that I love.
You can't get more crazy than to make a black sun. I mean seriously? But he did it, and it works for me! I just love his insane colors, but I also love the mix of solid shapes, with simple line work. Stuff just gets all jumbled up sometimes too. Lines overlap, some elements are drawn over the top of other elements. I just love this stuff!
You can certainly see the influence of their work on my own. I have so many files of inspiring work to go through before I can post some more. I highly recommend for all illustrators to keep files of work they love, contemporary and vintage. You never know when you will need a little blast of creativity!
I finished the sketch for my entry to the 2011 Tomie dePaola Illustrator Award. The text for this years contest comes from the opening to Johanna Spyri’s classic Heidi. There are some amazing opportunities for imagery in the chosen excerpt. The text follows, accompanied by my sketch, which I will be painting in the next 2 weeks.
"From the pleasant town of Maienfeld a footpath leads up through shady green pastures to the foot of the high peaks that gaze down solemnly and majestically on the valley below. Anyone who sets out in the path will soon catch the keen fragrance of low mountain herbs and grasses, for the footpath rises straight and steep to the Alps.
One bright, sunny June morning, a tall, sturdy-looking young woman, evidently a native of the mountains, was climbing this narrow path. She led by the hand a little girl, whose cheeks glowed as if there were a ruddy flame under deep-tanned skin. And what wonder? In spite of the hot June sun, the child was bundled up as if she were to confront the sharpest frost. She could not have been five years old, but it was impossible to tell anything about her natural figure, for she wore two or three dresses, one over the other, and a big red cotton scarf around her neck; her feet were lost in heavy hobnailed shoes, and the little girl looked quite shapeless as she made her hot and laborious way up the mountain."
Tomie dePaola (pronounced Tommy da-POW-la) is best known for his books for children. He has been published for 40 years and has written and/or illustrated over 200 books, including Brava Strega Nona which I recently purchased as an incredible pop-up book with paper engineering by the master of paper himself, Matthew Reinhart. Tomie dePaola and his work have been recognized with the Caldecott Honor Award, the Newbery Honor Award and the New Hampshire Governor's Arts Award of Living Treasure.
He lives in New London, New Hampshire with his new Airedale dog, Brontë. Here is his website: http://www.tomie.com/main.html
I made these movies of my books using some cool Mac programs (GarageBand and iMovie). I am still amazed at how easy it was to put these "Picture Pages-style slide shows together and post them on facebook and YouTube. To create each movie, I started by dragging the background music into GarageBand, and playing with the songs a little. I often had to fade in and out and even remove sections of songs that were too loud. Then, I recorded myself reading the story that I wrote, pausing quietly between sentences for a few seconds. Next, I simply split my recorded voice (which looks like a sound wave, and is editable) into separate segments for each sentence and dragged the segments around so they matched up better with the music. When I was done with the audio, I exported it directly into iTunes.
The Next step was even more fun. I dragged the audio soundtrack into iMovie, and dragged my art in one by one. With iMovie, I was able to use various cropping effects (the Ken Burns Effect) and transitions, as well as control the time an image is displayed, and even edit sound and video quality.
The music for the Mary Had a Little Lamb movie is available on Amazon. The album is called Song of the Tribal Spirit and the artist is listed as Afrika. I loved listening to this album as I worked on the art for the books, and I am very happy to be able to share this movie, because I feel that it brings the book to life. Here is the text for my Mary Story.
This is the movie that I made from my book, "Humpty Dumpty". The story takes place at the Great Wall of China, which I thought would be a much more interesting setting than a castle with Kings and Knights. The music is from iTunes. The first song in the movie is called "The Fisherman's Song At Dusk," which comes from the album "Chinese Traditional Music" by Hong Ting. The second song I used is titled "Splendor Night Vision," and it comes from the album "Splendid Jubilant New Year - The Collection of Chinese Festival Music," by Xiao-Peng Jiang & The Chinese Orchestra of Shanghai Conservatory. I wanted traditional Chinese music for the soundtrack, rather tha
You may download the story for this book from the ABOUT INDESTRUCTIBLES page.
This is the movie that I made from my book, "Humpty Dumpty". The story takes place at the Great Wall of China, which I thought would be a much more interesting setting than a castle with Kings and Knights.
I wrote, illustrated and narrated the movie. The music is from iTunes. The first song in the movie is called "The Fisherman's Song At Dusk," which comes from the album "Chinese Traditional Music" by Hong Ting. The second song I used is titled "Splendor Night Vision," and it comes from the album "Splendid Jubilant New Year - The Collection of Chinese Festival Music," by Xiao-Peng Jiang & The Chinese Orchestra of Shanghai Conservatory. I wanted traditional Chinese music for the soundtrack, rather than new age music with an Asian feel. Enjoy the movie!
I made some movies of my books using some cool Mac programs (GarageBand and iMovie). I am still amazed at how easy it was to put these short films together and post them on facebook and YouTube. To create the movies, I started by dragging the background music into GarageBand. Then, I recorded myself reading the stories that I wrote for the books (pausing quietly between sentences for a few seconds). Next, I simply split my recorded voice (which looks like a sound wave, and is editable) into separate segments for each sentence and dragged the segments around so they matched up better with the music. I faded in and out to blend different songs together. When I was done with the audio, I exported it directly into iTunes.
The Next step was even more fun. I dragged the audio soundtrack into iMovie, and dragged my art in one by one. Using iMovie, I was able to use various cropping effects and transitions, as well as control the time an image is displayed, and even edit sound and video quality. The music for the Mary Had a Little Lamb movie was from iTunes. The album is called Song of the Tribal Spirit and the artist is listed as Afrika. I loved listening to this album as I worked on the art for the books, and I am very happy to be able to share this movie, because I feel that it brings the book to life.
You may download the story that I wrote from the ABOUT INDESTRUCTIBLES page.
I made this movie of my book using some cool Mac programs (GarageBand and iMovie). I am still amazed at how easy it was to put this short film together and post it on facebook and YouTube. To create the movie, I started by dragging the background music into GarageBand. Then, I recorded myself reading the story that I wrote, pausing quietly between sentences for a few seconds. Next, I simply split my recorded voice (which looks like a sound wave, and is editable) into separate segments for each sentence and dragged the segments around so they matched up better with the music. I faded in and out to blend different songs together. When I was done with the audio, I exported it directly into iTunes.
The Next step was even more fun. I dragged the audio soundtrack into iMovie, and dragged my art in one by one. Using iMovie, I was able to use various cropping effects and transitions, as well as control the time an image is displayed, and even edit sound and video quality. The music for the Mary Had a Little Lamb movie was from iTunes. The album is called Song of the Tribal Spirit and the artist is listed as Afrika. I loved listening to this album as I worked on the art for the books, and I am very happy to be able to share this movie, because I feel that it brings the book to life.
You may download the story that I wrote from the ABOUT INDESTRUCTIBLES page.
Here are some pumpkins that I carved over the last few years (starting with this years pumpkin, the skull). I hollow them out from behind, then score into the flesh with wood carving tools and spoons. I light them with a halogen lamp from behind. They take about 4 to 6 hours to complete.
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Here is my display at the 2011 Art on the Porches event in Syracuse. I always have a blast there. I sold many prints, and tons of Indestructibles books. Thanks to everyone who came to support me, and the other artists of Central New York! Now that I am done with this event, I hope I can begin to focus more on my book again (which has taken a sad seat on the back of my drawing table.)
Here are some sketches from my new book, titled "Do Not Open."
"We have what we like to call a high quality problem." That was what they said at Barnes and Noble when they sold out of all my books. Here I am a week later filling those orders. It was fun to be buried in my books!
My book signing and Story Time For Little Ones on March 26 at Barnes and Noble was a total success! They sold out of all the books they ordered (as well as the back-up supply that I brought) before I even began my reading. I signed the 60 books that were on hand, then Barnes and Noble began taking orders and names for piles more. I will return this Friday to sign each book that was ordered on Saturday. It was a record sellout for a book signing at the Syracuse Barnes and Noble.
Here I am fiddling with the music on my ipad before I start reading Mary Had A Little Lamb.
Happy Valentine's Day
