Ella German

Well, I did it, I limited myself to coloring the cats within 15 minutes.  I don’t know if I like it though!

It’s really neat to see the progression of drawings, the image softening as you go down.  The middle one looks the most active, the last the most static.

I should try 5 minutes…

I gave myself 30 minutes.  Then I cheated and gave myself 15 minutes more to finish some highlights and background.  Still, quite a bit more “fresh” than the other one, no?  I really can’t decide which one I like better.  This one or this one? 

These are just too darn easy to draw realistic.  Though a lot of fun, I didn’t feel challenged in the least.  So I created the following scene to sketch — the kitties having some more complex fun and a human element as well.

I started loving the color rough, while I was working out the colors I wanted to work with.  That inspired me to go back and redo the two kitties.  There really is something nice about this one.  Hum, maybe I should give myself only 15 minutes next time…

While the eldest is at school, my 3-year old daughter chooses the subject, I do a sketch, and my daughter paints it.

This week it’s two of her Beenie Baby kitties at play.

Now here’s the confession.  I’ve secretly wanted to color in my coloring pages along with my daughter!  But watching the little ones paint left me with no time to do so.  Well, my littlest one napped while we did coloring pages yesterday, so I got my wish — sort of.  I copied my orange paper drawing through my ink jet printer onto yellow paper, which gave me a wonderful dark background to work upon with my colored pencils.  There I was, gleefully beginning to color when Daughter decided she was done painting for the day and wanted her cats back to play with — the very ones I was using as models! 

I had to wait until nighttime to pluck the kitties from her sleeping side to finish my drawing.  I intended a more loose style than some of my other finished drawings, but somehow it ended up all Jane Hissey.  Perhaps next time I need to set an egg timer to force myself to work quickly and finish quickly.  It’s just too easy to get carried away.  My goodness, stuffed animals are fun to color!

Daughter finished her painting today as well.  I think she was intimidated by the stripes and the 2 figures joined together.  She really gave up on the middle, but at least she had fun on the outer edges!

A Babar book in which he and his family gets sucked up into a rocket ship and are escorted to another planet to cavort with its friendly inhabitants?  Really?  I would surely have guessed that to be some spoof.  But no, it’s Babar Visits Another Planet, an original Laurent de Brunhoff, a Babar book that has somehow, until now, evaded my detection. 

The story has such a warm innocence about it.  The alien land they’re brought to is squishy, so the elephant-resembling beings resort to floating themselves and their homes with balloons and flying eggs.  Food is obtained through an automated machine that shoots or throws the food at you — Babar gets squirted in the face because he’s “not too good at this.”  It’s just lovely silliness illustrated in those gorgeous reds, greens and yellows that Jean de Brunhoff was such a master of. 

As in all the Babar books I’ve read, there is an unfortunate happening, in this case Arthur accidentally causes a flying egg to tear a hole through one of their floating balloons and there is a floating platform failure nearly averted.  The emergency evacuation angers the inhabitants and their hosts consider it best that Babar go back to earth. 

I’ve heard from some mothers that they avoid reading Babar books because they’re “so scary.”  I admit that even I sometimes change the words or omit some.  In a recent reading of Babar the King I omitted that Arthur ”kills” the snake that bites the Old Lady.  I thought it sufficient to state that he “furiously smashes his bugle on the snake’s back.”  I like that in spite of all the real, scary drama of fires and snakes and collapsing floating platforms, Babar and his family persevere, and become happy once again.  

It’s not often that I’m wowed by a new release.  But this one, which combines smarts, a child who emails, “historical tidbits” to inform children and engage parents, was a pleaser.  Its’ Imogene’s Last Stand (2009), by Candace Fleming.  At first glance, the very name Imogene and the pen and watercolor illustration immediately brought to my mind David Small.  How can the name Imogene belong to anyone but Small’s Imogene from Imogene’s Antlers?  Had the illustrator, Nancy Carpenter, varied her penwidth more there indeed would be much spooky similarity to Small’s distinctive drawing style.  Carpenter’s  illustrations, though, are as delightful to view as Small’s.

The other Candance Fleming books I’ve read (and enjoyed), Boxes for Katje and When Agnus Caws, also feature young female protagonists.   Fleming’s Imogene is an independent, strong little girl who stands up to the town and even the bulldozers that come to tear down her beloved historical museum.  She’s a real power girl.  The story’s happy ending is aided by the help of the President of the United States — you’ll be absolutely tickled by the president’s depiction (I’ll do my best not to give that away).  

After reading this book 2 times in a row this morning (at my 3-year old daughter’s request), I can attest that even the youngest ones can be entertained by this story.   My daughter is actually now chanting a line from the book, “Heck no, I won’t go!”  That quote may be my daughter’s favorite, but mine is the one attributed to Abraham Lincoln: “A great oak is only a little nut that held its ground.” 

This is my library pick of the week.

Today was library day.  My usual routine goes something like this.  We march into the library and I herd my brood straight to the library’s bookstore, The Booknook.  After settling the continual dispute of which of my 3 children will sit in the only 2 kiddie chairs there, I rummage through the children’s section while keeping a watchful eye on my two-year old who often seems compelled to smack the vertical blinds that are stacked next to the kiddie table.  I rejoice in my finds, soon cringe to discover that I don’t have enough change to pay for all of them, and settle for our favorites.

Then we visit the new acquisitions area, where I keep a watchful eye on my 2-year old, who now seems compelled to pull out the nearby DVDs and open them to finger the shiny disks inside and my other two who quickly grow impatient standing in front of a shelf with only a few books.  

From there it’s onward to the main children’s book area (where my oldest 2 are already heading), where I can relax my watch, to some degree, as the kids are all eager to run to the toys at the far corner of the room.  It’s here that my day today differed from my other visits. 

You see, on most days, I pull books out from the picture book stacks mostly at random.  I guess I grab whatever catches my eye.  Foremost, the illustrations have to be pleasing, the story can’t be too scary, nor can the illustrations.  I flip through the book to get the general feel of the story.  Sometimes I look for more books by an author or illustrator I’ve recently read and enjoyed.  But today was different.

Today I had a list.  And I’ve never before had a children’s books list.

On that list were 8 authors and titles that I’ve recently read about online.  I could spend all night, every night, just reading Jules’ amazing blog, Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast.  It’s such a wonderful site full of reviews, interviews, and whole spreads from the interior of children’s picture books.  You can even click on many book illustrations to enlarge.  Yum!  

What surprised me today was to realize that many of those books, the ones on my list, were ones that I had previously overlooked.  Glanced at, picked up – flipped through even — and then put back on the shelf.  Well today I was going to check them out anyway and read them.  All these books on my list were given stupendous praise, won awards — one even got a Caldecott.  I rejoined my random picking out books that looked nice after I finished searching for those titles.  

I located five of the books on my list.  And did I enjoy them once we arrived home, put the little one to nap, and devoured them properly, one after another?  Well..they were all acceptable reading material.  That sounds like I’m really dissing them.  I’m not.  By acceptable,  I mean they were pleasant to read aloud with the kids and they all had pleasant illustrations.  One was even the best retelling of Rumpelstiltskin I’ve probably ever read.  But do you know that feeling you get when someone praises something to the skies and then you try it out yourself?  Like, yeah, it’s good, but am I missing something?  Maybe if I hadn’t been expecting a masterpiece, I could have been less critical.  In any event, for better or worse, my favorite books that we brought home today were not the ones on my list!

While the eldest is at school, my 3-year old daughter chooses the subject, I do a sketch, and my daughter paints it.

This week, it’s Beenie Baby snake and little Piglet.

Since school began, my kids have been collecting brown glossy seeds from a carrot wood tree outside my son’s classroom.  Each week, we’d end up with at least 3 empty food containers (pilfered from the lunchbox) filled with these seeds.  We attempted turning them into beads by drilling a hole in each seed, but that failed.  The soft inside is surrounded by an air space and the outside is a very thin casing.  When I tried drilling, they’d simply explode.  I thought we’d try the snake’s pattern with them (here mixed with a bag of miscellaneous old soup beans). 

Here’s what my daughter did:

Big brother liked the snake drawing, so I did one for him too:

And his decoration (cute tree, isn’t it?):

Here’s my little piglet drawing…

and my daughter’s painting.  I absolutely love her signature mark – splashing color at the bottom of the page:

Lest you should think I’ve been idle, I’ve been working on another picture for my book Butterfly Rolls.  It’s a good chance to share my process as I can pause to scan my drawing as I work.  I’m also trying to build up my portfolio and, most importantly, get quicker at this style of drawing!

Here are my reference photos.  I always think it’s fun to see what the artist was looking at.

Here’s the rough sketch I did so I could work out the colors I wanted to use:

Then I lightly sketched the final picture and applied the marker basecoat.  This is always the scariest step for me, as I could easily slip up and ruin the drawing.  I actually did mess up on my first attempt — luckily it was not long after starting.  I always breathe a big sigh of relief after this step is done.

Phew.  Now for the colored pencil.  Check back soon!

While the eldest is at school, my 3-year old daughter chooses the subject, I do a sketch, and my daughter paints it.

This week’s coloring pages feature her duckies and bunny. 

My sketch…

and my daughter’s painting:

My sketch…

and her painting:

the mice will play!  While the eldest has been away at school, the girls and I have been painting.  Well they paint while I anxiously watch out for splatter on the walls, paint-loaded brushes getting too close to hair, and tipping over water jars.  The little one experiments with watercolor or a single acrylic color and gets to wear big brother’s apron.

I first do the sketch of one of my older girls’ ”animals” … 

and then she fills in with the paint.    It has become a custom coloring page that’s a whole lot more meaningful than a colored-in Thomas the Tank Engine!  I thought I’d turn my coloring sketches into a weekly feature on this blog. 

This week’s installment, The Purple Cat Beanie Baby, or as I like to call it, The Purple Cat-Bear Beanie Baby.

My sketch…

and my daughter’s painting:

She wanted to do a second coloring page later in the day.  I agreed, but I allowed only crayons and markers - this mommy only has the strength to supervise one painting a day.  After filling in some black spots, she stated she was just too tired to finish the coloring.  I thought the sketch was at least worthy of posting.

Leopard Beanie Baby: 

My three-year old daughter’s favorite book is the early reader Stitches by Harriet Ziefert and illustrated by Amy Aiken.  It’s about a little boy named Jon who falls off his bike and cuts his forehead.  His mother takes him to the doctor, and terrified, he receives stitches.  The book features two things my daughter is most fascinated by — blood and doctors.  It was only natural that we chose this image in which Jon is crying, “My head is bleeding!/ My head is bleeding!” to draw together to put up on her art wall.  Together we filled in the color with colored pencil.  I thought it was looking pretty good so I finished up the drawing myself — and then I was reluctant to hang it! (I knew what careless things sometimes happened to those taped up hangings).  It had been a year since I set aside work on my children’s book Butterfly Rolls, left in black and white pencil sketches.  The rich, vivid colors in Jon were very inspiring.  I needed to draw more color. 

I had the splendid idea that I’d draw all our favorite book characters and hang them (safely framed) in the bedroom.  It would be nice for them and a great drawing exercise for me. 

Here’s Brenda Clark’s Franklin, interpreted in colored pencil and ball point pen.

And Mercer Mayor’s Little Critter, again in colored pencil with ball point.

I had others I wanted to do.  But what I really wanted was to finish up my own book project.  Thanks to little Jon with his bleeding head, I was now ready to start my own full-colored drawings.

At least that’s what I was going for!  I restricted myself to a simple palette — a few markers, a couple of ball points, one black pen, one gel pen, and a few colored pencils.  I’ve recently fallen in love with my white gel pen, so this was a great exercise.  I’m disappointed that most of the gel pens I come across are in sparkly or pastel hues any fifth grade girl would gleefully chose for writing notes - ugh.  I really need to find more earthy tones.   

I started with a base of marker on white paper.

Then I started layering in the black and white pen and color correcting some areas with the colored pencils. 

The finished drawing.

I enjoyed coloring the faucet – it’s such a simple color scheme. 

I think the result is effective.  I may think otherwise tomorrow (such are the ways with the views of my own artwork — “That’s terrible,” I think.  “Let me do better…”)

And yes, that’s one of our cats, Sally.