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I'm playing with tiny paper people lately.
It seems easier to figure out than real Halloween costumes.
I keep hoping the wildebeests will agree to dress up like book characters.
Easy characters.
Like Baghead by Jarrett J. Krosoczka
That sounds reasonable, right?
Grocery bag?
A costume that doubles as a trick-or-treat bag!
Okay I'm mostly kidding.
The tiny guys are my way of getting ready for a virtual boo party
with Puddle Jump Collective.
Coming soon!
Do you have any easy costume ideas to share?
By:
Faith Pray,
on 9/23/2016
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SACRED DIRT
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How do you feel about failure?
This summer, we made chalk paint with cornstarch, food coloring, and water.
Summery delight!
See our driveway canvas?
Little did we know that a thunderstorm brewed two hours away.
All our chalky wonders washed away overnight.
It's that resonance of art and failure that makes us strong, right?
Do you ever wonder if we can learn as much from our flops
- our sloppy first drafts, our rejections, our imperfections -
as from our neat and tidy successes?
I have this thing. This fear of ruining a brand new notebook or sketchbook.
I figure if I'm constantly working at something, then naturally, I'll keep improving.
And when I look at my old notebooks stuffed with terrible first drafts and awkward brainstorms,
I get panicky. What if this first page represents who I am through that entire notebook or sketchbook? Can't it at least start out perfect?
Talk about writer's block, eh?
So, I solved it.
It's my secret to hurdling the fear of failure. (in a notebook.)
I just skip the first page.
Then I'm set. I have a one-page cushion keeping me from a first-page flop.
(Really, it means that the second page becomes the first page, but shhh.)
But really, don't we gain something in being brave with each feeble offering of ourselves?
In truth, even if I jump right into the first page of a notebook and ink it up with a scratchy failure,
actually my "failure" teaches me something, and that becomes growth.
And if that's true, then maybe "failure" isn't so much of a failure.
Maybe the effort of trying something stretches and grows our skills.
And actually, that is beauty right there: being brave.
So, go out and be brave, my friends!
Ruin some second pages.
Scribble your heart out.
Make sloppy chalk paint that gets rained on overnight.
Get all muddy and splash around in those glorious flops.
Chalky books!
Journey by Aaron Becker
Quest by Aaron BeckerChalk by Bill Thomson
Art & Max by David Wiesner
The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds
Harold's Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson
Here's an illustration of a pig for a recent project.
It's always fun painting a pig.
It's here! It's here! It's here!
Puddle Jump Collective : 13 children's book author / illustrators combining forces to showcase art, discuss craft, collaborate, and contribute to the kidlit world.
We'll blog, share projects, and splash often.
I'm honored to be one of the lucky 13.
This rain-loving girl skipped to the front of the line
for the our very first project -
a collaborative Puddle Parade.
Author/illustrator
Lorian Dean is next up
to combine my rainy girl with an entirely new character and set up,
which she will post, and tag another illustrator to follow suit.
I can't wait to see what transpires.
I hope you'll join us as we journey into the big pond.
Jump!
They say some people match their dogs.
I wish I had a dog so I could know what I look like.
I so often enjoy looking behind the camera at the world.
For an upcoming project, I was asked to make a kid portrait of myself.
A selfie? A sketchie? A skelphie?
I approached it the same way I approach a new character.
Sketch a zillion bundle of possibles,
then hone in on who that character is.
So.. who am I?
What do I look like anyway?
What do I feel like?
What would I look like if I combined me now
with some of my favorite things from childhood?
Books. Overalls. Sunshine. Rain.
Puddle boots.
This is the girl I settled on. Bookish. Hopeful. Happy.
Not afraid to get messy.
Here's to finding your happy self this week, my friends.
Hi Everyone!
Baby Bear is asking for your help voting for his book, Achoo! Why Pollen Counts. You see, he can't vote himself - but you can! EVERY vote counts.
Achoo! Why Pollen Counts is a 2015 Foreword Review INDIEFAB Finalist. You vote for the Readers' Choice by saying, Achoo! is my #INDIEFABFAVE in the comment section here: https://indiefab.forewordreviews.com/books/achoo-why-pollen-counts/
You can use you Facebook account, or create a Foreword Review account to leave your comment. It is very simple - and would mean the absolute World to Baby Bear and all his forest friends! Please also help spread the word and help me make this go viral. Voting ends May 20, 2016.
A HEARTFELT THANK YOU from: Baby Bear, Valerie Vole, Momma Bear, Sandy Spiderling, Zoe Zebra Butterfly, Honey Bee, Lili Ladybug, Sammy Snow Owl, and Shennen.
www.achoowhypollencounts.com
It's National Library Week.
How glad I am for libraries this week and always.
How rich it is to have a place to borrow books,
to load up on research, art, music, words, and stories!
How glad I am for the staff at my library,
gracious souls who do not even sniff
when the wildebeests and I emerge
with a mountain of books to take home.
How patient they are with the noise and flamboyance
of kid-ruckus and story hour,
even when small bears and dragons and pirates
weave and wail beyond their story circles.
How perfectly like a matchmaker
is our children's librarian,
always hunting down treasure
to help her patrons fall in love with reading.
Happy Library Week!
Our latest librarian-found treasures:
When Mischief Came To Town by Katrina Nannestad
Hector and Hummingbird by Nicholas John Frith
Tea Party In the Woods by Akiko Miyakoshi
Detective Gordon: the First Case by Ulf Nilsson
Love that Dog by Sharon Creech
This cover painting was just right for the theme of Bunnies and gardening, which seem like a most logical combination for a springtime illustration.
by John Nez
And it's time for Mr. Bear to finally say 'Bear is finished!'
I like these step by step progressions so if you scroll through the arrows on the images you can see how each image changes.
And of course with photoshop there are many, many changes to be accomplished.
When in doubt, make french toast!
By:
John Nez,
on 6/7/2015
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And of course everyone is waiting for the latest 'bear update' - well here it is. As you can see if you scroll down through a little, the figure began in a swirl of vague forms driven by the gesture. But now it's coming right along... taking care not to lose the spontaneity of the rough sketch.
My secret sauce will add some rough splashy color to increase the spontaneity.
I think I fell for the socks on this one. I had to get out my 'french toast brush' to correctly render the breakfast. It was interesting working from the rough sketch to a rough finish - with lots of fun on the way getting there.
And this child reminded me of my own child way back when... at the start when life was all wonderful.
Basically my working method is simple - I sketch & draw & draw & sketch until the tabletop is covered with sketches. Then the sketches are scanned into Photoshop... and when the pile of papers on my desk looks like it's becoming a fire hazard I tidy all the sketches into a corner by the cupboard, and keep on drawing. It's actually quite effective. Bridge keeps track of everything else.
In today's chapter of the 'Busy Drawers For Fun Club' I'm drawing a farm. This is about as close as I'm going to get to illustrating a scene from Charlotte's Web - so I quite enjoyed it. The girl reminded me of Fern. I just wished the script called for Wilbur - since I do love drawing pigs. In fact my nickname as a stout young lad was 'Pig'.
Out of the swirling chaos forms appear - sifted out from dozens of other choices. Soon enough the favorite choice gets made - or the current favorite I might say.
Draw, draw away idle dreamer of bears! I think this bear may have stolen my heart away, but I shouldn't tell him that.
I made this little movie of a rough drawing I'm working on... just for fun. The rough drawing is always so much fun, because it's all a discovery. Invention, artistry, problem solving - an excellent diversion when one finds oneself imprisoned in a quiet distant room.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W71_6biMnSY&feature=youtu.beIt's not much of a movie actually, but I was in a hurry and it was fun - my two excuses. Maybe I'll make a better one some time. I think it might require 30 minutes to do an in depth drawing demonstration - so one does what one can.
I don't want to think about the file size of a 30 minute .mov file - or how long it'd take to render!
By:
John Nez,
on 5/11/2015
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Life as a freelancer is chaotic and unpredictable. So I decided if I ever gave a SCBWI talk on how to prepare for a career as a children's book illustrator I would advise developing three basic skills.
1) practice your expertise in Photoshop
2) practice your expertise at 'Whack-a-Mole'
3) practice your expertise at playing 'Publisher Poker' - which is the fine art of trying to juggle deadlines and art directors without losing your mind or going broke.
By:
John Nez,
on 5/7/2015
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For my birthday I treated myself to a trip to the new Starbucks Emporium - where people go to feel famous while sipping a cup of coffee. (at least that's my guess).
Between the 250 decibel ethno-jazz (can't hear yourself think) and the 6 story coffee factory with walkways and ladders it is quite an experience and not a quiet contemplative one at that.
It's more like a Starbucks gone Vegas experience. The whole idea is modeled after 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'. Funny, but I don't remember the smell of coffee while I was there.
And I wouldn't know the meaning of what 'happy birthday' meant. I always get a pensive sadness that creeps into the occasion - like a frozen chill of defeated expectation. Sigh... c'est la vie.
Opening the pages from my past we find old magazine spreads...
and old book plans and dreams...
and even a self portrait of me at age 8 1/2. I added the Pierrot costume, which seems just about right for this serious little fellow.
It was fun having a bunch of my fictional illustration buddies drop by the studio. So I captured the event on film... lol!
Back in the BC stone age, (before computers) I used to make my promotion cards with cut & paste. And with press-type. I hated how press-type would start curling up and the letters started to crack and fall apart. And how I'd run out of zeros and use an O instead.
It was really like doing surgery - precision cut & paste with dexterous hand skills required. I remember the gooey glue-brush and rolling up the leftovers into little sticky balls. lol!
And after all that how amazing it seemed to do computer lettering. Freedom from all the limitations of real press-type letters and freedom to do anything.
Here's a collection of some spiffy new art I've painted up recently.
Once every blue moon I like to do an 'art piece' like this. I just can't help it - so it's easier to give in than resist. This was inspired by a scene from a BBC - PBS production - it's dark and somber instead of my usual cartoony dish of happy nursery fodder. I guess the fun part of making 'art' is one can just let go and be messy. This was all done with the wacom in photoshop.
And then add a paper bag and mix in Shakespeare and a cat and you're done.
The evolution of Shakespeare into a cat. I'm not sure why this is important, but I felt compelled to finish drawing it out. I think Ben Johnson had a closer relationship with his cat. I read that he had a servant to keep it's bowl stocked with fresh vittles.
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The tiny guys are my way of getting ready for a virtual boo party
