By: Sally Murphy,
on 9/19/2011
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By: Kathleen Rietz,
on 3/7/2008
©Kathleen Rietz
I did this one a while ago, but it fits the theme so well and that ladybug was always such a jokester! I thought I might revisit this garden today..
By: Kathleen Rietz,
on 3/7/2008
©Kathleen Rietz
It's been great working in my sketchbook this week and posting what I am doing. Sometimes I think I get caught up in making finished art for my portfolio in between paying jobs, and do not focus enough on the importance of developing my characters and making mistakes in order to learn from them. I struggle with finding my style and sticking with it. But I notice that when I sketch in my sketchbook, my characters are a lot looser and more fun, and actually pretty consistent. So I suppose I learned something this week. So this here is Millie and her Chihuahua, Bo-Bo. Happy Friday.
By: Kathleen Rietz,
on 3/6/2008
©Kathleen Rietz
As you can see from my blog, I have been focusing on my sketchbook a lot lately. I am really trying to develop my style of people and children and animals, and try to convey more emotion in my work. I think really good children's book illustrations are the ones which find a way to adhere you to the characters on an emotional level....maybe it is a scene which jogs a memory from your own childhood, or reminds you of the kids you have now. Or maybe it evokes a memory of a carefree day, a day at the park with your grandparents, your nerves on your first day of school, a childhood crush, winning a spelling bee, or maybe floating on a vacation lake on an innertube on a warm day and looking at shapes in the clouds overhead. This is a sketch I began last night. There is a lot missing, and I want to add more, but wanted to post it before I do. My hope is to fill my sketchbook with lots of these sketches and then work on some finished color illustrations based on some of my sketches.
Sometimes I find that toddlers and infants in my illustrations end up looking like dolls instead of children. Does this look like a person to you, or too much like a doll? I know it is hard to see in this drawing, but the baby is grasping the mother's thumb, as babies like to do. I just don't thnk it reads very well.
I plan on adding an older child to the right side of the composition, and maybe a kitten curled up next to the mother. There is still a lot I want to do and right now I am just doodling and planning.
By: Kathleen Rietz,
on 3/5/2008
By: Kathleen Rietz,
on 3/4/2008
©Kathleen Rietz
By: Kathleen Rietz,
on 3/2/2008
©Kathleen Rietz
Some of you who commented on my earlier post of this sketch (below) suggested I try adding some color. So I did, digitally. I sort of like the soft sepia tones of the original, though. But then again, the color perks it up and brings your eye right to the puppy, I think... What do you think? Do you like it better in color? Or sepia? Why?
By: Kathleen Rietz,
on 3/1/2008
©Kathleen Rietz
I am sort of on this little sketching kick lately...sketching boys and their dogs. If you have ever had a new puppy, you know how ready they are to leap up and nip your nose at any moment.
See the color version HERE and let me know which you like better..
By: Phil M,
on 2/26/2008
By: Kathleen Rietz,
on 2/20/2008
Longing for carefree days dappled in sunlight and warm breezes...
©Kathleen Rietz
Just a little sketchbook drawing I thought I would share.
By: Zari,
on 2/7/2008
BEAST SCALE: 1 beast, ¾ beast, ½ beast (though ears don’t count, the kid’s got attitude…and that counts too!)
By: Jennifer Thermes,
on 2/7/2008
It was a full moon around here a few weeks ago. This was what it looked like from my front door-- eerie and beautiful at the same time.
By: Jarrett J. Krosoczka,
on 2/2/2008
Here is a selection from a sketchbook dated 2001. I think the majority of these were drawn at the Diesel Cafe in Somerville, MA.
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By: janee,
on 2/1/2008
A random page from one of hundreds of sketchbooks. The rare thing about this page, for me, is that it doesn't contain any shopping lists, phone numbers, or to-do lists. :-P
By: patrice,
on 1/31/2008
Birds and bugs. Little bits for a picture book I'm currently illustrating. I realized I've never really drawn bugs before. Not really a bug person - creepy crawly icky. And here in Texas, most of them are too big too! Shudder.......
Read the rest of this post
By: Kathy Weller,
on 1/30/2008
By: roz,
on 1/29/2008
By: Zarifi Haidar Marin,
on 1/28/2008
Don’t you love fairytales? And what if there is a fairy with tail? This cute female dragon doesn’t want to be the mean one of the story…she is cute, lovely, and have wings…so why can’t she be the fairy?
By: Laura,
on 1/28/2008
By: Jarrett J. Krosoczka,
on 1/26/2008
Here are some random sketchbook pages from 2006.
I bought a moleskin shortly after I spied my friend Amanda's at a market I was working last summer. It's been such a treasure. It's exactly the right size and weight (can be carried with me at all times for creative moments that come out of the blue), is flexible and so so soft!
No matter what situation I'm in and no matter how hectic my schedule, if I find the time to sketch during my day it brings me great peace. While this is not always the case with client work, where there is always pressure to create something better and more lively, sketching for myself has been a very effective way to test different styles and techniques and an even better way to just clear my head of nonesense.
I like to go back into my sketchbook months afterwards and add colour to the cross hatching I first did with my pen in front of the tv. For some reason I don't like just sitting and watching tv... I enjoy doing something creative while I do this. Perhaps it lessens the guilt factor of being a movie nutt.
* Just a reminder: There's only 6 days left until I draw for those two free calendars and secret prize...
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By: Ruth McNally Barshaw,
on 1/23/2008
Life has changed a lot for me in the past month.
The biggest change: I'm not working day and night on the second Ellie book anymore (although I do have copy edits due in a few days). Now I'm working day and night on a picturebook about a drama queen. I've been writing and rewriting and drawing and redrawing this book since April when the idea first hit me.
My agent saw it a couple times, loved it, asked if I wanted to tweak the cover art, and I took it back and tightened the writing, redrew the whole thing, showed it to a famous author during a conference portfolio review...
She loved it too, made a few little suggestions, and I took it back to my cave, tightened the writing again, started to redraw the whole thing again, and am trying to finish before jetting off to NYC for the SCBWI Conference there in a couple weeks.
My agent wrote a few days ago, asking if I take on these punishing tight deadlines/long work hours on purpose, since they seem self-induced.
I suppose I do. For one thing, I'm deadline-oriented. Nothing like a deadline to scare the bejeebers out of me and make me achieve something I think I can't do.
For another, I most certainly have A.D.D. (Took a test and found out the only indicator I *don't* have is I am not male) Having so many distractions makes it tough to stick to a task unless it's critical.
Here's another thing that's hard for me: Staying loose under pressure. It only took about 5 redrawings of the first page of this third book, to get me back to the normal, loose line I so easily produce in my on-the-spot sketches. I think that's because it's a different genre than the Ellie books -- I'm more uptight about it.
Which reminds me - here are more sketches from my trip to Santa Fe:
If all goes well in the next couple weeks, I'll finish the Marcella book *and* be in another airport, sketching planes.
By: Jarrett J. Krosoczka,
on 1/12/2008
Here's a sampling of the sketches made for the deer characters in Punk Farm on Tour. I imagined the deer would be into emo culture and listen to bands like Dashboard Confessional...
By: Jarrett J. Krosoczka,
on 1/5/2008
I've been meaning to post pages from my sketchbooks since I started this blog. Every time I would go to post something, I would stop myself because I didn't want to publish pictures of characters from new projects that weren't ready to be shown. So as one of my New Year's resolutions, I'll intermittently post pages from my sketchbook on a new feature I'm calling "Sketchbook Saturday". I'm hoping to post every Saturday, but we'll see how good I am about that.
For the first few Saturdays, I'll be posting some of the preparatory sketches I created for the background characters in Punk Farm on Tour. I visited nature labs and poured over dozens of photos and drew the animals initially as they actually existed. Then, I allowed the characters to develop on their own and Punk farm-ized versions of those animals manifested.
Today, I bring you - Punk Farm's moose fans. I imagined the moose would be a rough and tough hippy type. Take note of the tribal tattoos, I imagine these guys listen to a lot of Rusted Root.
By: Zarifi Haidar Marin,
on 12/27/2007
Sally, I suspect it says more about your verse than about the verse novel per se, but one of the things I love about both Pearl and Toppling is that after reading them, I find I think in verse for a while! It's a really lovely after-effect, especially for a non-poet like myself.
Sally, as a teacher-librarian (from Tasmania), can I just tell you I have just finished reading Toppling to a grade 6 class and they and I cried. Kids wailed at me, "But did he die? We have to know! How can we get her to write a sequel?" Would you please write to 5/6 Ellerton at Lindisfarne North Primary School in Hobart? They would be thrilled!<br /><br />Kind regards,<br />Vicki
Thanks for this discussion - I have been interested in this form.<br />But have not read much to date.<br />I was referred to Ellen Hopkins Burned.