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John Kanzler grew up in Norwalk Connecticut in a house formerly of William Steig’s and currently lives on a small farm in Greenfield Massachusetts with my wife Diane and his daughter Lorelei. They have several sheep and a llama or two. I have been drawing on things as far back as I can remember and is completely a self taught artist. Most recent titles include CHRISTMAS PUPS (Albert Whitman & Co.), LITTLE LUCY (Random House) and PRICELESS GIFTS (August House). When not doing any of the above, I generally pursue a crazy range of interests, from astronomy to paleontology.
Question: Have you seen your style change since you started?
Okay, you are asking me to go back and look at twenty years’ work now. Afterwards I am either going to feel amazingly hip and current, or simply unchanging, obsolete and depressed!
In essence, I would say no, I am still me and my art reflects that. Years ago I would not have agreed. I exposed myself to lots more influences and allowed them to rub off. Now, I am my own main influence and happily so. On the surface (that is to say, technically), I certainly evolved over time. I think I generally keep an idealized version of what “my” art should look like, with respect to color sense, painterliness, etc. I will always love nice visible brushstrokes and drybrushing, whether painted traditionally or digitally. I always look at characters through Norman Rockwell glasses…So there is that consistency that I always strove for. Overall, perhaps my palette has toned down a bit.
Publisher: Albert Whitman & Company (August 1, 2011) QUESTION: Tells us about the materials you use, paper, paint, brushes, pencils, etc.
Currently, I am working on a mac (an older G5 1.8MHz dual-processor, upgraded RAM and lots of external storage…until I win the lottery) running Painter and Photoshop mainly. I use a large Wacom Intuos 3 tablet instead of a mouse. When I switched full-time into digital painting, I had waited until I was sure I was emulating my acrylic painting style fully to my satisfaction. I accomplished that by customizing many of my digital brushes, and creating custom painting textures from scans of actual gessoed boards. I felt that this was a critical process that has helped to keep my art distinctive.
•Pub. Date: July 2011 – Publisher: Random House Children’s Books
QUESTION: Did you ever try to mix mediums?Early on, I tried lots of combinations of pencil, ink, paint and paper. Paper texture was really a player in my stable of tools. I had started in colored pencil and usually combined watercolor or acrylics into that. Finally I moved wholly over to paint and stayed with acrylics.
Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers (March 23, 2004)
QUESTION: How did you get your first picture book contract? When was that?It is hard to remember. Early on, I had done readers and work for some smaller educational publishers and packagers. Gradually, the scope of these projects increased, mostly because of doing my best on each job I ever received, and having an agent going to bat for me on a daily
2 Comments on Illustrator Saturday – John Kanzler, last added: 7/26/2011
Wonderful, wonderful art. Thanks for the post. I love illustrator Saturday.
:Donna Marie said, on 7/26/2011 7:47:00 PM
This work is truly beautiful and SO expressive! And I LOVE the photos you took for reference art Thanks for sharing it with us, John, and Kathy for all the hard work you do to bring us these WONderful “Illustrator Saturdays!”
Donna
Since 1978 Doug Cushman has illustrated over 125 children’s books, thirty or so of which he wrote as well. Among his many honors he has gained a place on the New York Times Children’s Best Sellers list and on the 2003 Children’s Literature Choice list. He has received a National Cartoonist’s Society Reuben Award for Book Illustration, the 2004 Christopher Award for his book illustrations, the 2007 Maryland Blue Crab Award and a California Young Reader’s Medal. He is a fan of mystery novels and enjoys cooking, traveling, eating and absorbing French culture and good wine—even designing a label for a Burgundy wine maker– in his new home in Paris, France.
Picture books (and we’re talking about picture books mainly, right?) are a different breed of writing than any other, save for the graphic novel. Pictures and words MUST join forces and complement each other. One should never be more important than the other. I’ve seen too many picture books (so called) that are no more than an artist’s gallery and ego of “look how wonderful I am” with just the bare skeleton of a bad story. N the flip side, no matter hiw good the illustrator is he/she can never save a bad story. The illustrator’s job is to interpret the author’s intent but also to add a different level of meaning to the author’s words. As a writer/illustrator I may wear two hats but the idea is the same, I have to understand what I’m saying with the words before I draw my pictures. Having said that, my drawing sometimes may change my words—I discover that what I REALLY meant to say as I draw the pictures.
When I start a new book, I may have a germ of an idea; let’s say a mystery involving a stolen radish. That might be all I have. First I need a detective. Even before writing a word, I usually begin to draw a character or a series of characters. In any good book, whether a picture book, YAs or adult novel, the characters move the story along.
Next I decide where I should put my story, Victorian London, Paris, a farmyard, desert, wherever (of course this may be reversed, I might choose a neat setting for a story THEN figure out what happens and with whom. Nothing in my process is orderly). I’ll begin to do some research on the setting and begin some little studies in my sketchbook drawing houses, landscapes, objects or whatever, throwing my characters into the settings and seeing what happens. Along with all this drawing I’ll write out some snatches of dialogue that might be fun, a couple scenes or a repeating phrase or joke.
At this point I’ll lay out a blank dummy of 32 pages and begin cutting and pasting—literally—my sketches and w
2 Comments on Illustrator Saturday – Doug Cushman, last added: 4/10/2011
Hey Kathy, looks like you’ve found an another amazing illustrator. This morning my son sat on my lap and we looked at the pictures together. He loved them and we went to Doug Cushman’s website and downloaded a maze after we were finished. His books are next, they look right up Charles’ alley—skeletons and detectives
Coffee time!
Thanks for introducing us to Doug Cushman’s work.
Best,
Mimi
Leeza said, on 4/10/2011 7:06:00 PM
Doug’s work is so cool. In fact all the illustrators featured on this blog are awesome. Thanks for continuing to help inspire, kathy. Illustrator Saturdays rule.
When you purchase an item from MY STORE, 10% of your purchase price will be donated to my favorite animal charities; Last Chance Animal Rescue and Horses Haven, both in lower MI. Which charity the donation goes to, will depend on the item purchased and I will love you forever from the bottom of my little black heart. ...and even if you don't purchase anything from me, you can go to their site and make a donation! They deserve a chance too!
Have a seat in the sun with a sippy and browse through the pages of my website
Nicole Tadgell was born in Detroit, Michigan. Frequent moves only increased her natural shyness, especially because she was sometimes the only black kid in the class or even the whole grade. Feeling different drew Nicole further into her own created worlds on paper, art was both fun and an escape.
While studying studio art at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts, Nicole recalled how much fun it was to draw her own stories – illustrating children’s books could be the right path. “I knew I always wanted to be an artist,” Nicole says. “But it wasn’t until after college when I realized there was a lack of books with kids who looked like me.” Her growth as an artist included becoming comfortable with herself, her shyness, being the new kid, and being black.
Encouraged to develop her art in a more realistic direction, Nicole created a portfolio showing lively characters with an authenticity that was uniquely hers.
Today, Nicole has over fifteen books and numerous educational pieces published. “I love working on children’s books,” Nicole says. “Sometimes I pretend I’m the kid in the book, and do the things they do in the story to really get a feel for each book.” Nicole also visits schools, gives lectures and conducts workshops. Children enjoy her lively powerpoint slide show as well as getting up close to the sights and smells of Tanzania. Teens and adults enjoy hearing about successful careers in the arts, as well as Nicole’s unique perspective on the creative process with her interactive workshops.
“Since I was little, I’ve always wanted to do a historical book — well, let’s face it…meaning, I’d get to draw waving prairie grass and sunbonnets, because I was such a Laura Ingalls Wilder fan! But when Albert Whitman contacted me about doing a book that took place during the Depression, I still got all excited. My Dad grew up in a 1920s-style bungalow in Detroit, so I based the interior scenes from memory, as well as from dozens of research photos. Research! I always do lots of research, and this one took a lot more than I’ve done before with the possible exception of Fatuma’s New Cloth. My older sister is very detail-oriented, so I ran a lot of things by her, as well as my history-loving husband. My in-laws (born in 1928 and 1933) helped quite a bit, too.
4 Comments on Illustrator Saturday – Nicole Tadgell, last added: 4/4/2011
Thank you so much for this post. Just beautiful and fascinating. What a talented and inspiring woman. As a writer who can’t draw a lick, it’s great to see the illustrating process.
kathytemean said, on 4/2/2011 10:50:00 PM
Rosi,
The pleasure is mine. There is so much talent out there and Nicole is definitely one of them. Thank you for dropping by and leaving a comment.
Kathy
MelissaPEA said, on 4/3/2011 5:21:00 PM
Beautiful art. My daughter, an aspiring artist, enjoyed seeing the illustrations through the process. Thanks for sharing this.
kathytemean said, on 4/3/2011 10:02:00 PM
Melissa,
You should look at the other illustrator Saturday illustrator, too. They all share their process – some down to the type of paper they use. Tell your daughter to practice her drawing everyday. The more time she spend, the better she will get and maybe one day we’ll be showing off her artwork.
I thought it was appropriate for this weeks Illustration Friday.When you purchase an item from MY STORE, 10% of your purchase price will be donated to my favorite animal charities; Last Chance Animal Rescueand Horses Haven, both in lower MI. Which charity the donation goes to, will depend on the item purchased and I will love you forever from the bottom of my little black heart. ...and even if you don't purchase anything from me, you can go to their site and make a donation! They deserve a chance too! Enjoy the sunshine while browsing through the pages of my website ArtQwerks
5 Comments on IF ~ Cultivate, last added: 3/23/2011
A little too "heat seeking" for me but these sweaters suit these kids just fine...
When you purchase an item from MY STORE, 10% of your purchase price will be donated to my favorite animal charities; Last Chance Animal Rescue and Horses Haven, both in lower MI. Which charity the donation goes to, will depend on the item purchased and I will love you forever from the bottom of my little black heart. ...and even if you don't purchase anything from me, PLEASE go to their site and make a donation! These animals deserve a chance!Snuggle up by the fireplace, with a warm mug of something and browse through the pages of my website
While still promoting Beautiful Oops, I have been swamped with the quickly approaching deadline for my next book. Would You Rather Be a Princess or a Dragon? It's due on the 18th of this month.
While I was patting myself on the back for figuring out a way to add textures to my paintings in Photoshop, I was unaware as to the tedious process of making each image work. I paint the pictures in acrylic and scan each one in to the computer. Now, I have become a slave to the computer. The artwork is very loose and freeing and after I scan the art I am finding the digital process is much more precise and time consuming.
That said, I still love the 'look' of the artwork. I'm attempting to create images that don't look like they are computer generated and I am attempting that with the use of a computer. Good trick!
I'm hoping that there is a learning curve and that the next time around, I'll be a bit speedier! Back to work!
0 Comments on One book opens.... Another needs finishing! as of 1/1/1900
This is an double page spread illustration I created, in it's original form, used for a project I completed last year.
click on picture to enlarge
When you purchase an item from MY STORE, 10% of your purchase price will be donated to my favorite animal charities; Last Chance Animal Rescue and Horses Haven, both in lower MI. Which charity the donation goes to, will depend on the item purchased and I will love you forever from the bottom of my little black heart. ...and even if you don't purchase anything from me, you can go to their site and make a donation! These animals deserve a chance!
Have a seat in the sun with a sippy and browse through the pages of my website ArtQwerks
2 Comments on IF ~ Star Gazing, last added: 8/18/2010
Nice one Donna! looks like a place I've been. ...and wish i were there right now ;o) Love your couple too! As usual....excellent! Hey thanks for the email!
We love having company drop by, and guest bloggers are no exception. Illustrator Will Terry joins us to talk about digital painting, Photoshop, and hitting the undo button. (And no, we did not ask him to put in a good word for us — though we thank him for the shout-out.)
When I was a boy attending elementary school in Maryland my teachers used to say, “stop day dreaming, sit up straight, pay attention, and stop drawing!” That was a time in my life when I thought drawing was bad. Were my teachers right? Would I really amount to nothing if I kept drawing all the time? How could something so fun cause so many of my teachers to freak out? I started to hide my drawings under my desk. I’d pretend to really be into the lesson so I could throw them off the scent of my almost finished fire dragon. I even remember one of them saying, “you’ll never earn a living drawing goofy characters.” Over thirty years later, 2000 freelance jobs, and 20 children’s books I think I’ve finally proved to myself that it’s possible to dream big, work hard, and find success and happiness drawing goofy pictures.
I began my illustration career in 1992 and at that time I used acrylic paint on paper to create all of my images. I found my style through much frustration with the medium. Half or more of the paintings I started were disastrous but 4-5 years later I had figured out how to turn most of my drawings in to successful paintings. For the next 14 years I was on auto-pilot with my acrylic paintings and I didn’t want to be bothered with the constant bombardment from friends, colleagues, students, and my audience to use the computer for my work rather than paintbrush and paper. The overwhelming chorus was, “Why don’t you paint on the computer?” or “When are you going to switch over to photoshop?” Don’t get me wrong — I knew there were many advantages to working digitally, but hey, I’m an old dog and those guys were wanting me to learn a new trick. My reply was always the same, “show me how to copy my style/texture and I would love to make the switch” — even though I was terrified of having to learn how to use photoshop. Saying this always put a halt to the conversation because nobody could show me how to mimic my style and this tactic worked until one of my former students took on the challenge.
Jed Henry said, “I don’t really think it will be too hard to get it right.” I was polite to his face but inside I was thinking, “MWAAA HAA HAA…yeah, sure.” And then he proceeded to show me exactly how I could get “my look.” It was almost scary how he had me pegged – figured out – deconstructed. So I started playing with my wacom tablet and photoshop and was amazed at all of the benefits working digitally provided. Here they are in order of importance:
1. Zoom: I can get a better finished piece because I can now zoom into my painting and work on the smallest of details. This might seem like a small detail (yuck yuck) but if you’ve ever tried to paint an expression on a face the size of a penny you’ll understand how significant it is. I used to avoid showing characters in the middle ground and if they were in the background I’d try to make them so small that their head was too sma
0 Comments on Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks as of 1/1/1900
When you purchase an item from MY STORE, 10% of your purchase price will be donated to my favorite animal charities; Last Chance Animal Rescue and Horses Haven, both in lower MI. Which charity the donation goes to, will depend on the item purchased and I will love you forever from the bottom of my little black heart. ...and even if you don't purchase anything from me, you can go to their site and make a donation! They deserve a chance too!
Have a seat in the sun with a sippy and browse through the pages of my website ArtQwerks
When you purchase an item from MY STORE, 10% of your purchase price will be donated to my favorite animal charities;
Last Chance Animal Rescue and Horses Haven, both in lower MI. Which charity the donation goes to, will depend on the item purchased and I will love you forever from the bottom of my little black heart. ...and even if you don't purchase anything from me, you can go to their site and make a donation! They deserve a chance too!
Have a seat in the sun with a sippy and browse through the pages of my website
When you purchase an item from MY STORE, 10% of your purchase price will be donated to my favorite animal charities; Last Chance Animal Rescue and Horses Haven, both in lower MI. Which charity the donation goes to, will depend on the item purchased and I will love you forever from the bottom of my little black heart. ...and even if you don't purchase anything from me, you can go to their site and make a donation! They deserve a chance too!
Have a seat in the sun with a sippy and browse through the pages of my website ArtQwerks
Hey Donna! When I saw your name next to the thumb on IF, I just couldn't wait to see what you came up with. This guy is great! I love the "guilty" expression and the way you put ba sheen on his coat! Great one Donna!
...but please do not feel obligated to follow the rules in order to accept this award, it does take some time to complete. Just copy and paste the award into your blog without all the hubub if you'd like because after all...you deserve it!
1. Thank the person who gave this to you.
2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
3. Link to the person who nominated you.
4. Tell up to six outrageous lies about yourself, and at least one outrageous truth.
5. Nominate seven "Creative Writers" who might have fun coming up with outrageous lies.
6. Post links to the seven blogs you nominate.
7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know you nominated them.
The following are MY Outrageous Lies:
1. In my previous life I was born in a puppy mill.
2. As I grew older I was kept in a cage day after day and was only used to help the owner make more puppies.
3. I watched helplessly as my owner lined his pockets with money and didn't buy me the food, or give me the care I needed to stay healthy. He never took me out to go to the bathroom. I grew so thin and my paws became splayed from clinging to the floor of the cage.
4. I was sometimes packed in my cage with many other dogs where we could barely move and we all cried together.
5. Other times, for many days in a row, I
3 Comments on Blogger Award, last added: 4/28/2010
This the beginning of the story of our horse Twister (the bay) and Karen (the chestnut) together. Twister lost his companion Buddy in the fall of 2008. Our neighbors asked us if we would adopt their horse Karen, when Buddy passed, but due to a combination of broken hearts and other circumstances we've been dragging our feet about taking on another horse. Spring has come early to Michgan this year and brought the perfect mixture of warm weather, outdoor play, great friends, good choices and a new partner for Twister to love. We have decided to adopt Karen from our neighbors that offered her and as you can see, they are so happy together! Many thanks to Doni, Tim, Rianna, Sierra, Gerry, Magic and that big wet rug Sassy for making this possible, for giving the gift of renewed companionship and the gift of Karen's love...to Twister...who we so desperately adore
...life is good.
When you purchase an item from MY STORE, 10% of your purchase price will be donated to my favorite animal charities; Last Chance Animal Rescue and Horses Haven, both in lower MI. Which charity the donation goes to, will depend on the item purchased and I will love you forever from the bottom of my little black heart. ...and even if you don't purchase anything from me, you can go to their site and make a donation! They deserve a chance too!
Have a seat in the sun with a sippy and browse through the pages of my website ArtQwerks
1 Comments on Twister and Karen, last added: 4/10/2010
When you purchase an item from MY STORE, 10% of your purchase price will be donated to my favorite animal charities; Last Chance Animal Rescue and Horses Haven, both in lower MI. Which charity the donation goes to, will depend on the item purchased and I will love you forever from the bottom of my little black heart. ...and even if you don't purchase anything from me, you can go to their site and make a donation! They deserve a chance too!
Grab a cup of coffee and take a long luxurious gander at my website ArtQwerks
2 Comments on EBSQ Featured Artist!, last added: 3/15/2010
The Janice Charach Gallery asked artists throughout the world to decorate plain, wooden chamsahs. Each chamsah begins the same, but through the careful hands of the artist is revealed to be a singular, masterful creation of great beauty. The result is a reflection of life itself: our commonality as human beings, and our extraordinary uniqueness as individuals.
When you purchase an item from my store, 10% of your purchase price will be donated to my favorite animal charities; Last Chance Animal Rescue and Horses Haven, both in lower MI. Which charity the donation goes to, will depend on the item purchased and I will love you forever from the bottom of my little black heart. They deserve a chance too.
Grab a cup of coffee and take a long luxurious gander at my websiteArtQwerks
0 Comments on Under the Watchful Eye as of 1/1/1900
These two have a love for the holidays and for each other that cannot be undone.
OH OK!!!!! I've been away for a week or so, so I'm playing catch up by posting fairly early (for me anyway) for the current Illustration Friday. I'm somewhat discombobulated with the time, as I'm sure we ALL are during this hectic holiday season, so instead of using this illustration that was supposed to be for Entangled two weeks ago (or last week, or whenever it was), I'm now using it for Undone THIS week. It works if you hold your head right. I'll just consider this a Christmas present to myself because there's so much to do, what with all the holiday busy-ness between now and next week.
Merry Christmas Everyone!
When you purchase an item from
ArtQwerksStore(I know of a great book that would make an awesome present for some adorable someone on your list), 10% of your purchase price will be donated to my favorite animal charities; Last Chance Animal Rescue and Horses Haven, both in lower MI. Which charity the donation goes to, will depend on the item purchased and I will love you forever from the bottom of my little black heart. They deserve a chance too.
Grab a cup of coffee and take a long luxurious gander at my website
Thanks very much for the comment on my blog - really made me laugh - and this post, too, tells me something of the, erm, discombobulation you must be going through!
I like the Children's Illustrators' blog, too. I used to be one of them.
In 2008 Ballet Manila staged a three-part production inspired by some of Lola Basyang’s tales. Penned by Severino Reyes, Lola Basyang’s granny figure is one of the most beloved characters in Filipino literature. The three stories chosen for the ballet were published by Anvil Publishing, retold by Christine S. Bellen and illustrated by Frances Alcaraz.
The “Tatlong Kuwento ni Lola Basyang” ballets were the first theatrical adaptation of the books that stayed faithful to the source. The director of Ballet Manila, Lisa Macuja-Elizalde, and her production team chose three books from the 15 books in the series. All three books happened to be illustrated by me and since dance is also very a visual art, they asked if I would be involved in the process.
To help promote the ballets, we held a forum and exhibit at the Ateneo De Manila University. The speakers at the forum discussed the visual process of translating the books into ballets. I talked about the process of illustrating the books. Macuja-Elizalde, who was also one of the choreographers, discussed the considerations of translating the works into ballets and Jonathan Janolo, the production designer, discussed the challenges involved in staging the ballets.
For “Mahiwagang Biyulin,” the choreographer wanted a gigantic version of the book to be the background, so I recreated the book without the characters. At the finale, all three book covers appeared on stage along with some pages from inside the book.
Comparing these photos, from “Kapatid ng Tatlong Marya” (The Brother of the Tree Marias) and “Mahywagang Biyulin” (The Enchanted Violin), with the ones shown on Frances’ gallery, we see how beautifully her illustrations came to life on stage! Thanks for sharing these images and words with us, Frances, and congratulations on your and Ballet Manila’s fantastic work!
I'm working now on the next book under contract with Boyds Mills Press, Job Site. Hopefully, it can be released for their Fall 2010 catalog, but there are no promises on a schedule until they have it in hand (May 1, 2010 is my deadline).
Because this is a detailed story about a construction site with a lot of machinery, and beca
use I am all about odd angles and perspectives, I have to get the
perspective right. I was struggling with this particular frame. Where does the horizon go? Do both the crane and tower have the same vanishing points?
Enter, the blogosphere. I actually found a great soul who blogs about art, art lessons and even perspective: Julie Duell. I asked for help. She was more than happy, and posted th
ese thoughts for me. Very helpful. I will maintain a permanent link for Julie on the right.
Log in
for online lessons.
3 Comments on Helllp! Perspective!, last added: 9/10/2009
New Picture Book for Author/Illustrator Nathan Clement
For the few of you who are reading, I'm remiss in announcing that July 20, my editor from Boyds Mills Press emailed me to say they want to publish another book idea I proposed:
"We'd love to publish Job Site, and propose that we do it under the terms of
the previous contract. I'll give you a call either later today or tomorrow.
I'm very excited about this. I think it will be a strong follow-up to Drive.
This is an idea that he himself suggested: "why not a book about a bulldozer." I took it and made it a book about construction equipment on a job site. Hence my title will be Job Site. This week, my main tech editor was at our house: my brother-in-law, Bob, who is a heavy equipment operator. Really, he's a crane operator. Since I don't seem to write about topics I actually know about, a tech editor is important. He had me reorder my storyboard to make a little more sense of what happens when on a job site.
My deadline is set for May 2010. I can only hope it will be in the Fall Catalog, but they don't commit to those things until they have project in hand.
This will follow the art medium (digital) and style of Drive.
1 Comments on A New Picture Book Contract Awarded, last added: 8/21/2009
If you’re in Evansville, Indiana on July 25th, come out and meet Kristi Valiant, illustrator of Cora Cooks Pancit! She’ll be autographing books at Barnes & Noble (624 South Green River Rd) at 2:00pm. Kristi says she’ll be bringing her red apron and some pancit for everyone to taste.
Cora Cooks Pancit! is a lovely story about a Filipino girl who cooks her favorite noodle dish with her mother. However author Dorina Lazo Gilmore notes that it is not just about cooking pancit and neither is it a book just for the Filipino audience. “It is about celebrating the family. It is about cooking with your parents.”
Here’s a review of the book from publisher Shen’s Books:
Cora Cooks Pancit! tells the story of Cora who loves being in the kitchen, but always gets stuck doing the kid jobs like licking the spoon. One day, however, when her older sisters and brother head out, Cora finally gets the chance to be Mama’s assistant chef. And of all the delicious Filipino dishes that dance through Cora’s head, she and Mama decide to make pancit, her favorite noodle dish.
With Mama’s help, Cora does the grown-up jobs like shredding the chicken and soaking the noodles (perhaps Mama won’t notice if she takes a nibble of chicken or sloshes a little water on the floor). Cora even gets to stir the noodles in the pot—carefully– while Mama supervises. When dinner is finally served, her siblings find out that Cora did all their grown-up tasks, and Cora waits anxiously to see what everyone thinks of her cooking.
Dorina Lazo Gilmore’s text delightfully captures the warmth between mother and daughter as they share a piece of their Filipino heritage. With bright and charming illustrations by Kristi Valiant, Cora’s family comes alive as Cora herself becomes the family’s newest little chef.
To read a great interview with author Dorina Lazo Gilmore, visit Tarie’s blog Into the Wardrobe.
0 Comments on Meet Kristi Valiant, Illustrator of Cora Cooks Pancit! as of 7/23/2009 10:57:00 AM
New #illustration. Peek at each stage in the process. Here you see #thumbnails of the #illustration idea.
I always say that no one can understand my thumbnails but me. That's OK because they're intended to help me work out my picture design and placement of elements. If an art director wants to see thumbnails, then I'll do cleaner, crisper thumbnails for him/her.
Next stage will be the under drawing. This will be an oil painting, so the drawing will be done to size (5.5"X8.5"�such as a book cover), then enlarged 200% in order to make painting it easier.
The narrative behind this is a girl briskly making her way out of a topiary garden full of odd characters and apparently also full of activity. I have some notes on my sketch in the upper right. While sketching, I had to decide what to include. What makes a good topiary? Flamingo, ostrich, urn, dolphin, dinosaur. I settled on the flamingo, ostrich, urn and way in the background, up high, will be an Egyptian, walking just like Egyptians always do.
Here's a help: the girl is in the lower right corner hustling out of the picture to the right. We, the viewers, are kind of low, looking up at her—that gives us a good underneath view of the topiaries. The ostrich (neck and head only) comes in from the left and is trying to nab her by the skirt.
That's all for now. Update on Old King Cole. I thought he'd be done and posted by tomorrow, but some of the small foreground detail is still wet, and it needs to dry so that I can finalize highlights and sharpen some edges.
Sorry for my cryptic opening and the pound signs (#). My blog is fed into my Twitter, and I want it to stay within 140 characters and contain good search term potential. The #s are supposed to help with that.
2 Comments on Alone in the Topiary Garden:, last added: 6/25/2009
My process. It's a good thing to do the original artwork at least 50% larger than it will finally appear. That way, when it's scanned, it picks up the detail better and when it's reduced down, everything seems to sharpen up too. Plus, it helps the artist work on the smaller detail.
While developing my portfolio for children's illustration, I have drawn Rikki Tikki Tavi.
This is the first of three panels I plan to do. I haven't drawn in charcoal for many years and decided to get back into it to create a noir atmosphere and because it's so quick to get coverage in large areas, and easy to build up dark darks.
I haven't just drawn a full picture in a long time. I normally draw enough for a template for my digital work. As I drew, I relearned a lot of things. Trying to cast highlights back into shadow areas, which means to leave areas light or white. Going back and erasing out to get those highlights, or drawing back in with white pencil is just not as clean. Also, I had to get used to using one of those paper smudging stumps again in order to blend small detail areas. I think I was in junior high last time I fiddled with one of those.
One thing I'd like to overcome is the amount of sparkly white texture you can see throughout the dark areas. This was done on cold press 300 illustration board, medium texture, and I wonder if I went with the lighter texture, if it would still grab the charcoal as well.
The next pieces in this series will be Rikki first encountering the cobra Nag, in the garden under the tailor-bird's nest, and the deadly fight scene in the bathroom. We'll see.
The next posting should be the color piece I'm nearly done with for Old King Cole.
5 Comments on Rikki Panel 1 Finished, last added: 6/15/2009
Wow! You really are good, you know. I am always amazed and super impressed with illustrators! I've done enough drawing and painting to know how good I am not!
Boyds Mills Editor Larry Rosler calls to check on story book process.
Whilst working on final details for panel 1 of my illustration for Rikki Tikki Tavi (see posts below), the phone rang. My new editor was ringing me up to see about progress on my next story idea. I gave him a synopsis and he continues to like my idea.
Now, I'm not going to spill the beans on this until it's really under contract. At that time, I'll share some of the drawing stages and art, if the publisher permits.
But, I have to say, that's it's great having an editor call me up to check on me. Most of us wait a lot of years to have that happen, and I certainly don't take it lightly, and told him so!
Here's a peek at the line art for the illustration Rikki Tikki Tavi. I left the original art at Kinko's—of all things. I have to use their large format scanner to bring it down in size for these postings. I think the father's arm looks too wooden. But, that whole area will be almost totally in shadow—will try to fix, though. The final will be in charcoal.
2 Comments on Rikki Line Art, last added: 4/17/2009
John Kanzler grew up in Norwalk Connecticut in a house formerly of William Steig’s and currently lives on a small farm in Greenfield Massachusetts with my wife Diane and his daughter Lorelei. They have several sheep and a llama or two. I have been drawing on things as far back as I can remember and is completely a self taught artist. Most recent titles include CHRISTMAS PUPS (Albert Whitman & Co.), LITTLE LUCY (Random House) and PRICELESS GIFTS (August House). When not doing any of the above, I generally pursue a crazy range of interests, from astronomy to paleontology.
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Nicole Tadgell was born in Detroit, Michigan. Frequent moves only increased her natural shyness, especially because she was sometimes the only black kid in the class or even the whole grade. Feeling different drew Nicole further into her own created worlds on paper, art was both fun and an escape.
4 Comments on Illustrator Saturday – Nicole Tadgell, last added: 4/4/2011
When I was a boy attending elementary school in Maryland my teachers used to say, “stop day dreaming, sit up straight, pay attention, and stop drawing!” That was a time in my life when I thought drawing was bad. Were my teachers right? Would I really amount to nothing if I kept drawing all the time? How could something so fun cause so many of my teachers to freak out? I started to hide my drawings under my desk. I’d pretend to really be into the lesson so I could throw them off the scent of my almost finished fire dragon. I even remember one of them saying, “you’ll never earn a living drawing goofy characters.” Over thirty years later, 2000 freelance jobs, and 20 children’s books I think I’ve finally proved to myself that it’s possible to dream big, work hard, and find success and happiness drawing goofy pictures.
Wonderful, wonderful art. Thanks for the post. I love illustrator Saturday.
This work is truly beautiful and SO expressive! And I LOVE the photos you took for reference art
Thanks for sharing it with us, John, and Kathy for all the hard work you do to bring us these WONderful “Illustrator Saturdays!”
Donna