Lots going on!

So, I was reprimanded by one of my new teammates for not updating my blog with new and current information... Remember my last blog post about my excitement over the roller derby draft? Yup, that's me below- I was drafted by the Break Neck Betties! And I got to play in our season Championship bout!

( Here I am receiving a gentle reminder from my teammate Scrappy to stick with her.)

(thanks to Masonite Burn Photography and Continuum Photography for the pictures)

AND, WE WON!!! Break Neck Betties are the Season 6 Champions! Pretty crazy for my first-ever bout. I have a lot to learn and a lot of work to do during our off-season. To remind myself of the ferociousness I want to show on the track, I did some illustration visualization:

I will look at this illustration whilst doing my biceps curls and drinking my protein shakes.

In other news, today I did something fun: I volunteered at the Oregon Special Olympics! It may come as a surprise to you, but I am a big fan of the Olympics.

Since I am not a bajilionaire and may never achieve my dream of attending an Olympic Opening Ceremony* (*although, dreams DO come true- see paragraph 1)-- I figured the next best thing would be to volunteer at my local Special Olympics!

I have a special knack for making exciting things look boring in photographs. But above is the nail-biting bocce competition. My job, however, was keeping score in the softball competition. I got to update the big electronic scoreboard! I bet you're jealous.

The summer state games take place in July- I'm hoping to go back! And if you're looking for a fun volunteer experience, I highly recommend.

Lastly, my week-long children's book intensive course starts tomorrow at Pacific Northwest College of Art! I have been busily preparing my notes:

This week should be a lot of fun. We're having highly acclaimed guest speakers each day... Who??? you ask? Check back later this week for my Guest Speaker Roundup!

Draft Day!

Why yes, it is time again for another roller derby post! For those of you keeping tabs, my derby career is coming along. I've talked about my failed tryout attempts in the past- and finally, in January I made the Fresh Meat team! The beauty of derby, however, is there's always a new goal to reach. Next goal: get drafted to a home team. And guess what- today is draft day!

I think these pieces adequately express my feelings about this! I am doggedly determined to get drafted tonight...

... all the while knowing it's a pretty slim chance. I can't talk enough about the benefits derby has given me. It has been great having something really hard & scary to strive for that is completely non-career related. And the lessons of getting knocked down a billion times, and still getting up- and of facing bitter rejection, only to shake it off and try again... there may be SOME VERY SMALL similarities to making a living as a children's book illustrator.

And if you haven't done so already, check out your local roller derby league to see a bout! Chances are there's a team near you- it's the fastest growing sport in the nation!

Ok, and here's a picture of me on the track. That's me, Winnie the Pow!

(Photo courtesy of Timothy Murray. See some more of his Fresh Meat action shots here!)

Basketball diaries

I do a spot of work from time to time for the fantastic New York Road Runners Foundation. They support running programs in schools across the country-- and they're super fun to work with. I can credit NYRRF for getting me interested in running again- I used to volunteer as a race-day "running buddy", and I HAD to train so my 6th grade buddy wouldn't run me into the ground.

(click for a larger view)

Anyhooo, here's a quick drawing I did for their latest newsletter. Funny, I've always hated basketball, both watching (those squeaky shoes!) and playing (hey, how about getting out of my grill, other team?). And yet I overcame these objections to do this illustration, because I am a true professional.

Ramona dooooodles

My good pal Martha came to Portland this week to speak at the Oregon SCBWI conference. You can tell we are booky because the highlights of our tour included Klickitat Street, the Ramona, Ribsy & Henry statues in Grant Park, Powell's, and the central library. Martha will show you some nice pictures if you head over to the Greenwillow blog. Anyway, our journey into The World of Beverly Cleary inspired some Ramona scribblins!

(that's Picky-picky, the cat. BTW, "Picky-picky" was the answer to one of the questions at the Children's Book Council Trivia Night a few years back. Unfortunately, that answer was not enough to win me a coveted Golden Bunny award).

Second Helping of Scribblins

More scribblins? Yes please!

Maybe it's obvious, since I'm an illustrator and all- but I am a very visual learner. What this means when I'm developing a story is that I often don't understand something until I draw it. For example, I didn't really know what my character's apartment building was like, until I drew it.

The very act of drawing opens up her world to me. My mind wanders as I'm doodling- who are her upstairs neighbors? Who lives next door? Where is the laundry room? Will the neighbors mind if she roller skates in the house? Maybe writers do this sort of exercise in a "writey" sort of way. Me, I can look at this doodle & remember the feelings I was having and the world I'm trying to create.

Similarly, drawing her (ex) best friend helped illuminate her character to me. I knew she was very pretty, a little bit plump and a lot bit vulnerable... but drawing her makes me feel her character more than writing those things.

(click for a larger view)

In my picture book classes at Pacific Northwest College of Art, we often talk about what comes first, the pictures or the words. From interviews I've heard, Maurice Sendak wrote his text before illustrating anything. I tend to come at it the opposite way- I think in pictures first, and add the text to support what I've drawn. Maybe it's unwise to go against the ways of The Great One, but I think every author and illustrator needs to find the system that works for them.

Scribblins

Doesn't "scribblins" sound like some sort of delicious meat by-product? Like a runner-up to scrapple, or something.

After attending a family wedding a few weeks ago, it was brought to my attention that some members of the dynasty read my blog (hi, Aunt Esther!) This made me feel double guilty for not updating in a timely manner these days. I'm in that weird twilight- no, dawn I guess- of working on a new project and not having much to show for it. I am very jealous of illustrators who manage to keep beautiful sketchbooks. My sketches- particularly at this stage of things- look like the ramblings of a lunatic.

It's also difficult to share things at this point... the project is so new, like a little baby puppy, and it needs those early weeks (months?) of incubation before I send it blinking into the harsh light of the world.

That's how I've been spending my time recently... What are YOU working on?

Bye Bye Boomer

Well, the months of swine hibernation are over- Olympig is hoofing its way to New York as we speak!

Lots of people ask me how I deliver my art to my publisher. The answer is pretty easy- I pack it up, and I ship it! Well, I guess a LITTLE more goes into it. I cover each piece with tissue paper (as seen above), and if I have any comments for the art director I'll write those on a sticky note. I also make sure to number each page, to generally note where the crop marks are, and to write my name & contact info on the back of each page.

It seems crazy that this little stack of paper took up so much of my time and attention over the past few months!
As I am a nervous nellie who usually goes back inside at least once before leaving the house- to make sure the oven is turned off, the back door is locked, etc.- you can imagine that it is pretty hard for me to FINALLY admit that everything is done and it's time to wrap things up. Also as a nervous nellie, I wrapped the package in 3 layers of plastic (I DO live in Oregon- what if the package gets rained on?)- then some bubble wrap, and then in a final outer packaging.

One other thing you might notice in the picture above- I included a CD of digital images of all of the pieces. This isn't totally necessary- the publisher will send the original art to China (most likely) to be scanned. However, before doing so the book designer will usually create low-resolution scans (called "fpo"- "for placement only" scans) to make a working copy of the book (called a mechanical) to use in-house for text editing, etc. Since I had already scanned all of the pieces for my own use, I decided to send those files along- to save my publisher some time. And I know it takes a long time, because at Greenwillow I was often the one who created all of the fpo scans for our picture books.

Then a cute little envelope drawing...

... a hefty chunk of change dropped at FedEx, and he's on his way. *Sigh*. I'll admit to feeling some pangs of postpartum depression- my studio looks so empty now. In the coming months I'll talk about what happens between now and the book's actual publication date... but for now, I think I'll sit for a while, staring at the empty walls and remembering The Way Things Were.

100 Words for Sad

Guess what? Wikipedia just told me that Inuit languages DO NOT, in fact, have 100 words for snow! This is a shame, as I've always liked the idea that you could know something so well that you have 100 words to describe it. Well, I'm still going to use this idea for my blog post, because one shouldn't let truth get in the way of a good story (which, according to Wikipedia, is not a quote from Mark Twain).

It turns out, one of the very hardest paintings in Olympig ended up being this one:

I was kind of surprised when my first- and then a second- attempt at the painting ended up looking awful! I had been excited to paint this one, and I thought it would be pretty easy. After all, I find pictures of people crying to be generally amusing.

But something wasn't working in the paintings. He looked TOO sad, and it wasn't coming across as funny at all. My art director, and some participants in my PNCA class liked his hands up closer to his eyes, so I mucked around with that a bit:

But it just wasn't working. So I sat back to think for a bit. What KIND of crying did I want to portray? With his hands up near his eyes, it suggests Boomer is kind of ashamed of his crying, wants to hide himself a bit- that he's kind of in control of himself. This is not the kind of crying I wanted. I wanted the kind of crying where you're so miserable you don't care who sees it- your arms go limp, your head goes back, and there's nothing to do but cry.

Once I brought a different body language to the sketch, I immediately liked it better.

This ended up being the sketch I used for the final painting. I tried to use every detail I could- his ears, his nostrils, his lips, his chin(s), his shoulders- to portray the quivering, wretched mess he is at this moment.

When you're working in a medium that relies so heavily on pictures to tell the story, it can take a lot of work to be sure you've captured the subtle and nuanced shade of emotion you want to get across. Just as writers labor over choosing exactly the right word, illustrators have to be sure they've chosen exactly the right expression.

Marla Frazee is a master at this. In the illustration below, from her book ROLLER COASTER, she manages to portray every character as excited- but a slightly different kind of excited, depending on the character. The little girl is excited, but still not quite sure if she likes the ride. Her dad is excited, but also nervous about how his daughter is feeling. The elderly couple have been on this ride before (or one like it), and they're having a grand old time. The two macho guys are excited, but have realized the roller coaster is scarier than they anticipated... and so on. Subtle, subtle nuances in their expressions that tell a complete story- despite the very sparse text.

Big Hot Mess paintings

... and why I think they're a good thing!

So, as I'm nearing the end of my Olympig painting journey, I've realized something. I've been painting the book pretty much in sequence, and guess what- all of the hard pages are at the end!! I've had ample time to ponder this. I believe it's because Boomer's story starts out pretty simply- he thinks he just needs to practice hard & he will win a medal- and the paintings are pretty simple to reflect this. As he becomes more frustrated, confused and dramatic, the paintings also become more frustrated, confused and dramatic until they culminate in a Big Hot Mess.

It's kind of scary, and pretty challenging to me to paint these Big Hot Mess paintings. They're not neat and tidy. For much of the process they do just look like a BIG MESS and I get nervous when I remember they actually have to go into a book!

But you know what? When I finally finish these tricky paintings, the messy ones are the ones I like the best. They may not be as slick as some of the cleaner, simpler paintings, but I feel like going through that messy journey gave them some heart.

As you may recall, I also teach children's book illustration at Pacific Northwest College of Art, and we're about halfway through the current course. This past week we talked about one of my favorite subjects: character. I feel like many picture books are written under the pretense that the characters must be "nice" or "good" because they're in a book for children. But really, the characters I love the most are the ones that we're allowed to see at their very worst. The authors and illustrators were not afraid to show us these characters at their messy, pathetic, rock-bottom WORST. Some examples:

Pigeon losing it. Not too classy, Pigeon.

Lilly's mean picture of Mr. Slinger. We've been told how very much Lilly loves Mr. Slinger, and so this picture, and the anger behind it, really does show Lilly at a low point.

Kitten's not necessarily mean or losing her temper here, but she is at a pretty pathetic low point. All she wanted was a bowl of milk- and now she is wet and sad and tired and hungry.

I love these characters- especially Pigeon and Lilly- precisely because we're allowed to follow them into their rabbit holes of bad behavior. They're not perfect because they're in a book for kids. Instead, they have messy, embarrassing, cringe-worthy pathetic breakdowns because they're supposed to be like REAL KIDS. What is WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE, one of the most beloved books of all time, but a deep exploration of Max's bad behavior? And the fact that these characters emerge intact on the other side- and still loved by their parents- makes them all the more comforting and lovable to us.

My point? I guess it would be- Long live Big Hot Messes!

The Man. The Music. The Muse.

I was perusing my favorite news source this morning (Facebook), and learned an astonishing fact.

FACT: Today is Neil Diamond's 70th birthday!

I found this highly serendipitous, as I have been wanting to write a Neil Diamond post forever! AND, JUST LAST NIGHT my husband suggested I dress as Neil next Halloween! (this was coupled with his brainstorm of a movie idea: The Prince and the Lauper, starring Prince and Cyndi Lauper. This is the kind of quality news item you'll see if you're friends with ME on Facebook).

What does this have to do with children's books, you ask?? PLENTY. You see, Neil Diamond is- in a tradition reaching back to the very beginnings of human creation- my muse.

As I was plotting out the climactic event in Olympig, I knew I wanted the illustrations for those scenes to be big. Show-stopping. There would be spotlights. There would be drama. There would be sequins- oh, there would be sequins. And who better to look to for inspiration than Neil Diamond?

Which leads me into an actual, real topic worthy of a blog post on an illustration site: using photo references for inspiration. I love gathering me some reference photos- in this case, to get ideas about dramatic lighting.

Besides Neil, an obvious source of inspiration for me was the Beijing opening ceremonies. I've mentioned before that color is something that I have to work at. Working from the photos on my (as Martha Stewart might call it) "Inspiration Wall", I can borrow color schemes I like.

Besides lots and lots of photo references, I also keep physical references around when I can. I've mentioned before how I make clay models of my characters.

For Olympig, since he wears a sequined outfit in his grand finale, I thought it important to have some sequins on hand to see how they look in various lights. So I bought a pair of sequin shorts purely for the purposes of artistic study. Solely for that reason and for no other reason whatsoever.

The end result? This is the color study I came up with for the next-to-grand-finale page.

I'm showing the color study and not the final piece here, because it's at an awkward stage just at the moment. More like a bad Lisa Frank Trapper Keeper than the Majesty of Neil Diamond.

But you know what? I'm not worried. With Neil by my side, everything will turn out alright in the end. Happy Birthday, Neil!