Tilley in 2013

My entry for this year’s New Yorker Eustace Tilley Contest, titled a Dandy Daddy.

I placed Tilley in the nursery.  I transformed the Dandy’s traditional cane into a vacuum, his blue shirt into a baby wrap carrier, and his top hat into a nursery shelf.  Tilley Jr. is playing with the quizzing glass and reaching out for a puzzle butterfly.  I took inspiration for the rug and wallpaper from the spots and antenna from Rea Irvin’s original butterfly.

The twelve finalists are selected next Monday,  the 14th.

 

 

Tomie dePaola Award 2013 Entry

This year’s Winter SCBWI contest is in black and white!  The guidelines: Illustrate any excerpt from Tom Sawyer, Little Women or The Yearling.  Whoa, I thought.   But black and white, yeah!  I needed to be forced to get it done or I would never get around to putting some B&W in my portfolio.

The first two books were easy get from the library, but I had trouble finding The Yearling, the book I had never read.  Then I stumbled upon this gem at a second-hand book sale.

Hands down, this edition wins the award for ugliest book cover of all time.   Open it up, though, and it’s filled with the original pen and ink drawings by Edward Shenton.  Gorgeous little pen and ink drawings.

I fell in love with this book.  The hardest part of all was choosing a passage for the contest.  It’s such an emotionally engaging story with many dramatic scenes – struggles with snake bites, fights with bears, and general survival in the backwoods — but also touching moments between the boy and his fawn (and family) as he grows up and finds his place.

I think it was my research into the Southern Floridian flora and fauna that pointed me to the passage to draw.  It’s something perhaps a little less poignant or touching, but still reflects the world of The Yearling.

Elegant long leaf pine trees and swaths of saw palmettos…such a cool landscape.  I just needed to throw in a bunch of cute little black bear cubs (which could not be better suited to B&W).

The winner is to be announced by January 9th.  I hope to see all the entries in the gallery of submissions soon.

 

Blown Covers – Halloween

Trick or Treat!

My Blown Covers entry for Halloween.  As a parent shopping for Halloween costumes for little girls, I marvel at how risqué the costumes are.  Little witch or call girl?  Sadly, sometimes you gotta wonder.

Winners and gallery are here.

Have a happy and safe Halloween!

 

Blown Covers – Autumn

I’m doing a bit of catch-up.  This was entered for last month’s contest.

Autumn makes me think of gloomy skies, corn and pumpkins.  But it also makes me think of decorating with those tacky dollar store scarecrows that (yes, I admit), have adored the front of my home.  That made me think of how funny one of those would look in a Manhattan high rise.

So…

On a cold and grey Autumn day, a young girl returns home from school.  There is an endless view of rooftops from her home, but no Autumn foliage to hint at the season.  It’s warm inside, so she removes her shoes and socks.  Then she proudly sets her school-made creation on top of the Noguchi coffee table, between the Mies van der Rohe Barcelona chairs.  Tho dog, accustomed to neutral colors and clean lines, can’t help but react with fear.

Notice that the legs of the coffee table kind of make the legs to the scarecrow?  That’s a Brancusi Endless Column sculpture in the background.  I’ve had a sentimental fondness for Brancusi ever since I studied his work in college.  His birds have always been a favorite.

See the winners and gallery here.  Don’t miss all the glorious entries by Klaas Verplancke.

 

Childhood Treasure

First day walking home from school, and the treasures we find!

My daughters noticed this little guy,

along with a trove of bottlecaps, beads, and broken zipper.  The shark cap and rare blue bead were exciting finds.  Not pictured is the wild artichoke seed that, sadly, fell out of my pocket.

My son found a duck made of Eucalyptus bark,

and I found a Duck Rabbit.  My rabbit doesn’t just sniff, it sings!

What a great day to read Duck! Rabbit! written by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld.

Wait.  Listen.  Did you hear that?

I hear duck sounds.

That’s funny.  I distinctly

heard rabbit sounds.

And what is a child to do with a collection of beads and bottle caps, besides making temporary dioramas like this one,

filling them in various toys to cart around the house, and lining them up along the couch?

Here’s a favorite book of ours that offers up some gentle and playful solutions:  The Button Box, written by Margarette S. Reid, illustrated by Sarah Chamberlain.

Swirl them, sort them, pretend play with them and use some for sock puppet eyes.  I love that, in the end, all the unattached buttons go back in the box.

 

Blown Covers – Global Warming

These were drawn a whole month ago, but I’m just getting around to posting them.  I guess everything’s a bit slower since Blown Covers changed from a weekly format to monthly…

My first idea was the obligatory penguin on ice shot.  And there were so many penguin and polar bear images that there was a separate slideshow created just  for them!  Here’s my attempt at upping the drama.

Leopard seals are one of the Emperor Penguin’s prime predators.  They’re cute, but quite vicious.  They kill by grabbing onto the penguins feet and smashing the penguins bodies repeatedly on the water.  And moving on…

My next image shows a gondola/taxi riding down a street in Harlem.  I had time to finish the sketch, but not the color.  Really some gorgeous and colorful buildings in that neighborhood.  I think it makes an apropos street  for a future New York a la Venice.

I think owing to the longer time-frame for the entries (we get about 5 days now to send in an image), there was an excellent batch of winners this round, plus many fine ones in the slideshows.  I really admire Vincent Des Jardins’ entries.  And he placed twice!

 

What, an earlier MORE SPAGHETTI, I SAY! ?

This early reader by Rita Golden Gelman has been a favorite in our family.  More Spaghetti, I Say! (1993) is a silly, laugh out-loud story, with superb rhyme and with fun, positively exuberant illustrations.

“Play with me, Minnie.

Play with me, please.

We can stand on our heads.

We can hang by our knees.”

“Oh, no.

I can’t play.

I can’t play with you, Freddy.

Not now.

Can’t you see?

I am eating spaghetti.”

I did a double take when I came across this earlier edition from 1987 which notes an original copyright from 1977.  Same story, but…

pictures by Jack Kent!  The Kent of Just Only John, Joey Runs Away, There’s No Such Thing as a Dragon?  I love his books.  But…well…take a look and compare a page from both editions.

Here’s the first page by Kent:

And here’s Gerberg’s.

Gerberg expands the image to a double spread and shows Minnie with her back to us.  There’s only a hint of what’s in the bowl in her lap, saving the big surprise for the next page.  The last image in his edition beautifully harks back to this one.

There are subtle improvements on every page, with the text layout and image variation.  Really, it’s a night and day improvement.  I guess even the greats have their disappointments.

The Gelman and Gerberg pairing is awesome.  Check out another of theirs, Stop Those Painters! (1989).

Painters painting grass and trees.

Painters painting birds and bees.

Stop those painters.

Please! Please! Please!

Similarly silly and fantastic.

Now just who is Mort Gerberg?  Well, turns out he’s been a contributor to the The New Yorker since 1965!  Wow, I even remember some of these cartoons.  Ha, maybe I just couldn’t read his signature!  I love this guy.

And Rita Golden Gelman?  What an unusual life.  Since 1987 she’s had no permanent home, travelling the world as a “modern day nomad.”  She also sponsors an organization called Let’s Get Global that encourages graduating high school kids to explore other countries before going off to college.