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Viewing: Blog Posts Tagged with: how I work, Most Recent at Top [Help]
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1. WIP Screenshots while working on Book Club

 Near Done  Pulling in more blue and less muddy colors. Working out the light issues.   Light value study that I used in the piece. Started with a Pencil drawing.

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2. The Next Big Thing Blog Tag

Hi guys,  the Next Big Thing is a global blog tour, started in Australia, to showcase authors and illustrators and their current work. I was tagged for The Next Big Thing Blog Tag by the very talented author/illustrator, Peggy Collins.

I thought, as an interesting twist, I would share my tag with Lisa Dalrymple, the author of  Skink on the Brink, illustrated by ME, since it is due out at the end of this month-YAY!! We are super excited!




1) What is the working title of your next book?  Skink on the Brink
 

2) Where did the idea come from for the book? How did you come up with the final character illustrations for the book?

I love words and language and try to play around in everything I write. I wanted to write a story and cast in it an animal we don’t see so often in picture books. As soon as I heard the name Skink, I knew that was it. I mean just listen to it: skink. It made me laugh just to say it, so I knew I had found my little guy.

          After reading Lisa's manuscript I left it to float around inside my head for a bit. This foot tapping, singing skink had such a great personality that the ideas practically flew out of my head down through my pencil. I really enjoyed capturing all the emotions Stewie went through on his journey of self discovery. I sometimes made faces in a  hand mirror to get just the right expression, when sculpting my plasticine Stewie.
 

3) In what genre does your book fall?

It’s a children’s picture book, subtly educational.


4) What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?


Kermit the Frog should definitely play Stewie. He may be more amphibian than reptilian but he more than makes up for that when he starts singing, “It’s not easy being blue-I mean grey-no wait red.”


5) What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

          This is Stewie the Skink’s story about self-esteem and change, as Stewie grows up, his shockingly bright blue tail fades to gray and he has to discover just who he is when he can no longer call himself “Stewie the Blue.” 

6) Who is publishing your book? Fitzhenry & Whiteside publishers in Toronto.
7) How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript? How long did the illustrations take to complete? 


I researched for a couple of months before writing.  The first draft probably took me about a week, but that was soon followed up with about 18 months of subsequent drafts and revisions before I considered submitting it.
The roughs, rom initial thumbnails to tight rough sketches took a few months, and then the really fun final artwork created in plasticine, took approximately 4.5 months to complete. Each illustrations took anywhere from 20-40 hours, depending on complexity.

8) What other books would you compare this story to within your genre? 
         Well, seeing as it is the fourth in the Tell Me More Series of picture books by Fitzhenry and Whiteside, there are certain similarities between it and Kazaak, Tooter’s Stinky Wishand Bye-Bye Butterflies. Each story has its own unique qualities but includes an educational component and two pages of backmatter that extend the informational elements of the story.
9) Who or what inspired you to write this book? What inspired our illustrations for this book?

         The Carolinian population of the Common Five-lined Skink is Endangered in Canada – an Endangered Species of lizard in my own backyard (or at least where I camp out) that I had never heard of! I knew I wanted to know more. The more I researched, the more I heard a little voice singing in my ear, “I’m a skink on the brink of extinction, I think.” There was no turning back.

        Due to the cross curricular component of this book, as it is part of the Tell-Me-More Storybook series,  I wanted to ensure that the habitat of the five-lined skink, including vegetation, predators and other animals found in their habitat, was accurate, so I really did  my homework. Ontario has such a great variety of animals friends and foes to choose from that it was often hard to choose who to include in my illustrations- just look at my big stack of reference photos!


 
10) What else about the book might pique the reader's interest?

         Stewie’s story is a familiar one to all Common Five-lined Skinks. The juveniles of this species do have incredibly bright blue tails, the colour of which fades as they reach sexual maturity. Mature males also develop bright orange or red jaws and chin, particularly during breeding season. It’s no wonder Stewie is having an identity crisis!

Also, like other lizards, skinks can shed, or autotomize, their tails when they’re attacked. I had no idea that the tail actually keeps moving in order to confuse the predator so the lizard can escape.  (It grows back at a rate of about 6mm a week.)
Hopefully, after kids read this book, they will be inspired to go outside, go on a nature walk or go camping. Who knows ,they might even recognize a few of Stewie's habitat friends or, if they are very lucky, they might even see Stewie himself. :)

Up next week : Illustrator Jan Dolby

And author Joyce Grant
 

 

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3. How I Work: Aesop's Ark Cover Sketches

A few of the early thoughts for the cover to Aesop's Ark.   Early Ark Sketches    The center was designed to be a drip. The dove and raven frame the title.  The exterior story design was inspired by the Bayeux Tapestry

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4. Quick Sketch: Pirate Girl

I've started doing some quick character sketches for warm up and fun.

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5. Guess what time it is? It's final artwork time!!


Yup, that's right, it is final artwork time!!! I'm so excited to get started on the plasticine art. Can you tell? It has been so quiet on the blog lately and I didn't even even get a chance to make a July desktop calendar- so sorry everyone, but we made a last minute dash to the cottage.

So this is what is going on over here. I've been mixing and kneading lots of plasticine. It's a great way to keep the arms toned ;) I also keep track of my ratios on a sheet of paper, a sort of mixing chart, so if I run out of a colour I can refer back to it and make it again.

I'm SOOO excited to get cracking on the plasticine art...I think I already said that, oh well. I still feel like I need to pinch myself most mornings because I feel so incredibly lucky and honoured to be working on this picture book project. The story is such a perfect fit. And I have had such a wonderful time bringing Stewie the skink to life in my sketches from Lisa Dalrymple's fab manuscript. I still have a few revisions awaiting approval, that might need further tweaking. It has been a great learning experience to go through my sketches with my editor, Christie Harkin. She gives great constructive feedback, and our brainstorming sessions always leave me feeling energized with tons of great ideas. She totally rocks!!
For those of you who follow me on FB, you may have noticed a bunch of Stewie(the real Stewie) pics that I shared yesterday from Lisa's recent trip to Pinery Park. She shot some fabulous photos of him. And it turns out, after lots of searching with the naturalist outdoors, Stewie surprised them all by hiding under a desk in their office. Stewie found Lisa! That silly Stewie :)

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6. What I have been up to...

I taught a plasticine workshop in late February for the Nursery School CO-OP  organization in my area. My children had attended one of these schools, and I still keep in touch with the lovely ladies that teach and run the school. I had gone into their classroom to do a workshop with the JK kiddos, and they were kind enough to welcome me back to give a workshop to all the teachers in the organization. Turns out I am WAY more nervous talking to a group of adults then a bunch of kids-ekk!
Anyway, while I was there, I was asked if I might be interested in designing and donating a plasticine illustration to their annual fundraising Gala. Well, I was honoured and excited to get started. This nursery school is simply outstanding. Not only are the  teachers phenomenal, they're so patient, caring and nurturing.  I was continually amazed at the imaginative and interactive ways they would introduce new curriculum to the students- BRAVO!!!
 

So my illustration idea began when I saw this adorable photo posted on Facebook by Alma Fullerton, a CANSCAIP and SCBWI CanEast friend. Oh my gosh, how scrumptious is this little mousy?!! Well lots of us thought so, by the comments left on her page. But my editor, Christie Harkin, tagged me and said she thought this would look great in plasticine. " Ooooh yes, it most certainly would!! I love a challenge" I said to myself- yes I do talk to myself aloud quite often ;)

So I got sketching, and I  tried not to copy, but rather be inspired by this gleeful expression:


And of course, my little mousy has boots! Surprise, surprise, I love boots ;)
I composed a scene around this little fella, and once I was satisfied, after playing around with the composition, I got to work on rendering the sketch in plasticine. The really fun part. Here are some WIP pics with my iphone:

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7. How I Work: Chewbacca

Some of my preliminary work on the young Chewbacca Graphic novel.The project started with research and working on the design of the wookies.I did a full rotation drawing on Chewbacca and front/back notes on the others.After reading the script I did notes directly on the script then went to the rough stage (above).PencilsInksI did a few color studies of various panels before coloring the whole

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8. Follow a thought: Idea Evolution

!Happy Fourth of July All!I started with an idea for a ghost fox for one project.As I sketched the fox several times I realized I probably had 2 ideas running.(second round of sketches on the ghost fox)I decided to focus on the cute fox and develop it some more and while I explored various options (shorter nose, body, etc), I drew this:(1st version of LiL Fox)And a few sketches later I realized I

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9. What I'm working on...

I have been working on a new plasticine illustration piece inspired by the glorious fall colours we are so lucky to enjoy here in Ontario Canada. I wanted to do a piece that depicted the beautiful red/orange colour palette of our fall foliage in a rural setting. Just like something you'd encounter on a drive along a country road up north.  So far I have the background and middleground started. It will be a surprise what fun, playful ideas I have for the foreground. You will have to pop by again in a few days to see it completed and find out!
I have posted a series of images below to show my process- Enjoy!










I promise to have lots of action and movement in the foreground, so please do pop by again to see the finished illustration!!

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10. How I work: With Photoshop Layers

Here are 2 screen caps of my layer pallete in Photoshop on my working file of Jewel from Treasures. For the Bella Sara assignments we are asked to work on levels for production reasons. The left one is my normal layer settings and the right one is for the pencil layer.Jennifer-*click on for close up*

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