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.

 

New Contest + Misc. Catch Up

Lately my blog posts have seem limited to drawings I’ve done for contests. 

So before I share my latest contest entry, I’ll catch you all up to what else I’ve been doing.  And one of these days soon, I’d like to get back to my library book/vintage book of the week/month posts.  I really miss doing those.

So…

I continue to meet monthly with my amazing critique group buddies.  This past week I got to host.  They remind me I’m not the only one working hard to craft stories and drawings that few others get to see.  Their encouragement (plus critique) is invaluable. 

Most of us met each other in Joy Chu’s Illustrating Books for Children class.  A new session starts soon — April 5th.  I know a couple of us graduates are signing up again.   It’s no wonder when you get the chance for your work to be crafted (with loads of personal attention!) by a talented Art Director, hear stories about the artists she’s worked with, and possibly meet life-long critique buddies.  I highly recommend it. 

I’m currently on the tail end of a picture book mentorship program through my local San Diego SCBWI chapter.  My mentor has been writer/illustrator Andrea Zimmerman.  It’s been delightful to get my work constructively ripped to shreds. :)  No, really.  Of course it’s humbling,(“Why would someone want to read this rather than a Steig or Beatrix Potter?”) but she’s really pushed me to make my work stronger.  She has so much insight I always end up wanting to kick myself — “Now why didn’t I think of that?” 

My story is about a young squirrel who wants someone to read to her and the fox who wants to eat her.  There’s a cookbook and baking involved in the story, and speaking of baking….

Here’s my latest illustration for They Draw & Cook:

keep clicking on image to enlarge

As you can see, Kraft sponsored the contest.  You had to pick from among a selection of Kraft recipes.  I chose a wholesome tomato and egg dish called Sunrise Skillet.  My only qualm was with the canned diced tomatoes.  That’s a product I don’t use, but I reasoned that others could substitute fresh tomatoes like I would. 

So I bought a 2 lb. package of no pesticide Roma tomatoes, plopped them into a pot of boiling water for one minute, then transferred them to a bowl of cold water.  Their skins peeled off like magic.  Then I sliced them in half, scooped away their watery innards, and chopped them up. 

Doesn’t it looks just as good as the canned stuff?

The first time I made this dish, I removed it from the oven and realized I had forgotten to add the parmesan!  Ha!  This turned out to be in my favor, however, as when I added it and cooked it for another minute, I got to see what it looked like with the parmesan not truly baked in.  I think that made for a better illustration.  

This dish is pretty tasty.  I made it a second time,  adding a bit of dried basil and oregano and remembering the parmesan before placing it to the oven.  Good stuff.

You can find my illustration on They Draw & Cook here.  All 170+ submissions are here.  It’s still a mystery as to when the winners will be announced. 

In other news, April is National Poetry Month.  Librarian Travis Jonker of 100 Scope Notes has invited everyone to send him their book spine poems.  Lucky for me, I have a lot of books to play with.  Here’s one I’ve been toying with:

I sent two others for Travis’s April 2nd gallery.  If you want to take part, looky here.

Other than that, I’ve been playing with some recipes of my own.  You can see some of these on my home blog.  I also had some recent success with an unusual strawberry cake.  Will share that soon.

Happy cooking and happy drawing!

 

I Have Fun with Research & Chicken Licken Goes Multi-Cultural

This is my entry for the Tomie dePaola Illustrator Award, sponsored by SCBWI.  The winner will be announced January 2nd. 

This year Mr. dePaola chose text from Chicken Licken, and it’s a mouthful with no less than 6 speaking characters.

So they went along and went along until they met Turkey Lurkey.
“Good morning, Goosey Loosey, Ducky Daddles, Cocky Locky, Henny Penny,
and Chicken Licken,” said Turkey Lurkey, “where are you going?”
“Oh, Turkey Lurkey, the sky is falling and we are going to tell the King!” 
“How do you know the sky is falling?” asked Turkey Lurkey.
“Ducky Daddles told me,” said Goosey Loosey.
“Cocky Locky told me,” said Ducky Daddles.
“Henny Penny told me,” said Cocky Locky.
“Chicken Licken told me,” said Henny Penny 
“I saw it with my own eyes, I heard it with my own ears,
and a piece of it fell on my tail!” said Chicken Licken. 
“Then I will go with you,” said Turkey Lurkey, “and we will tell the King!”

It surprised me how much my finished piece resembles the first of my thumbnail sketches.

This is my full-size pencil sketch.

I’ve become enamored with folk-embroidery and costuming, so it was a real joy to create a cast of multi-cultural fowl, set in a time long ago.  

This image by the 19th century Russian painter Ivan Shishkin was the inspiration for my setting. 

Don’t we all wish we had a winding path, a stream, and a birch tree forest? 

There aren’t many birch forests down here in So. California, but I was happy to find out that they do exist in the Northeast, including Illinois, where this awesome Sauk Indian once lived. 

She’s in “transitional dress.”  She’s adopted the calico blouse of the new settlers, but covered it with silver brooches and ornamented her traditional wraparound skirt with silk ribbons.   The painter, George Catlin, was an untrained artist who dedicated his life to recording these vanishing Peoples.  Interesting article on him here.  

My research uncovered some colorful local wildlife, like this Yellow Bellied Sapsucker (a fun name to say),

and wildflowers.  Among them are these happy, daisy-like flowers called Bloodroot.

The red sap from the roots of this plant make a natural dye and has been used for some nice and not-so-nice medicinal purposes. 

So…

Turkey Lurkey is a Native American from the Sauk tribe.  She’s weeding with a scapula hoe, a traditional tool made from the shoulder bone of a bison.

Goosey Loosey is French-Canadian.  She’s returning from market with, among other things, a bottle of wine and some french bread.  She’s holding a parasol similar to the one Monet painted.

This is one of many images I looked at to figure out a traditional French costume. 

Henny Penny is collecting mushrooms.  She and Cocky Locky are Russian.  They are also falling in love.

Ducky Lucky is a Mandarin duck.  He’s a Chinese fisherman, inspired by Chinese Mudmen figurines.

Chicken Licken is a youngster who was riding his tricycle when a piece of the sky fell on him.

     AND

Foxy Loxy, who is overhearing their silly discourse, is Italian.  He’s thinking about making a meal of chicken cattatorre with the basket of tomatoes he’s carrying.

My pretty fowl, however, will foil Foxy Loxy’s dinner plans.  I envision a happy ending, culminating with a festive meal prepared with all the food they’ve grown and gathered (including Foxy Loxy’s tomatoes).  And Chicken Licken’s contribution?  Why, he’ll make a wondrous bouquet of wildflowers for their centerpiece.

See? he’s already started.  He’s holding the state flower of Illinois, the Violet.

The End.

 

Collecting Myself

I’m still collecting my thoughts (plus all my photos) about the Summer SCBWI Conference.

It was a place where I made new friendships and strengthened old connections.  It was a place where my brain was filled to the brim with different styles and approaches to writing and illustration.  It was a place where I was surrounded by people similarly passionate about what they do.  It was a place where authors and illustrators bared their souls with stories of their turbulent childhoods in hopes of explaining what shaped their writing and artwork and how looking into ourselves can shape our work too.  It was a place where I was reassured that what I’m doing is important and the way I’m doing it is right simply because it’s who I am.  It was an experience that was both draining and absolutely wonderful.   

So as I work to collect all the ideas and kernels of wisdom that touched me,  enjoy this write-up by the fabulous Art Director Joy Chu that features some of my classmates and myself about the work we produced in her Illustrating Picture Books class.  Classmate and artist Andrea Zuill went on to win a Mentorship Award in the Portfolio Showcase.  We’re all very proud of her.

 

Spring Entertainment #2

The weed grass made a fuzzy carpet of seed shoots in our backyard.  This little guy who came visiting rather liked it.

Oh, how he loved those seed shoots.

He ate,

and ate,

and ate

to his little heart’s delight.

(See the little pink tongue?)

He explored all around the house too, exciting the cats.

He even came to  join us for lunch.  Perhaps he smelled the cabbage we were munching.  Honest, it wasn’t all chips!

He was very curious.

But we didn’t offer him anything, so he dug himself a whole under the fence and left to see what the neighbors had.

Bye, bye, little cottontail.

 

Spring Entertainment

The girls and I were treated to a little springtime nature show this past week.

This beautiful morning dove,

kept fluttering in and out of our backyard.  What is he up to, we wondered. 

He would appear on the fence,

land on the hill, and start searching

and searching…

Aha!  He was collecting twigs! 

Off he would flutter, stick in his bill.

No less than 10 seconds later, he was back.

Searching,

and finding,

flying off, and returning.  After about an hour of this, the tuckered out little guy rested for a long time on this rock

and flew off for good.

 

Illustrator’s Day 2010 Los Angeles

My first real conference, oh boy! 

It was also my first portfolio viewing and private critique for my very rushed portfolio (as I only found out about the conference the week before!)  Grandpa and Daddy were nice enough to step up for kid duty for the seven days leading up to the event while I made a huge learning curve on Photoshop, managed to complete a few more drawings, acquired a very sore rear end, and overworked my hand to the point that my thumb was numb and tingly for two days straight.  But all the work was worth it! 

All the lecturers were wonderful, but my favorites were Dan Santat and Brian Floca.  Here’s me in the middle beaming like a fangirl in the presence of celebrities.  I of course got autographs in copies of their books!

Brain Floca on the right critiqued my portfolio.  He had kind praise for my drawings (what a boost) and kind criticism (though he felt he was coming down too harsh) for my dummy book The Butterfly Rolls.  The critique window was only 15 minutes of time, so he approached me later to talk again and make sure that he wasn’t too severe (now wasn’t that sweet?).  His criticism?  “Too clever for its own good,” “Acts like two stories that are having trouble meshing into one”, and “Why can’t we just see them making the biscuits?”  I had to laugh at that last one.  But he did say there was a lot of good in there to work with and that he was looking forward to seeing the revision.

 

The Power of Picture Books

Trying to reason with a child that is in the middle of a mental storm? — talk about your losing battles. 

“No!”  She won’t be persuaded to exit the car. 

“No!”  She won’t agree to come to the grocery store you’re parked in front of, walk to the nearby library or even stroll the fountains.  

My daughter wanted to go back home first.  “Home first, then library.”  It didn’t matter to her that we had just arrived (from home) and that little sister would hear nothing of being strapped back into her car seat after I had just released her.  I wasn’t going back, and she wasn’t coming. 

 

An Exercise in Conciseness

Good friends buy you books at the library Book Nook (even if they think you might already have them) and then drop them at your door.  Today we got The Mitten (had it), a selection of stories illustrated by James Marshall (got just about every Marshall) and one I had seen but never read.  The Mitten was the paperback big version — we had the little board book — so I thought at least it would be pleasant to see Jan Brett’s detailed illustrations a little bigger. 

Kids wanted to read it, so we did.  Then the surprise.  

 

Lecture by Bob Staake!

My first meeting with a real live successful picture book author!  Bob Staake was invited to speak at my local SCBWI meeting on Saturday.  Bob Staake, the fastest drawer in the west.  Bob Staake, a man of many hats – illustrator for magazine covers (The New Yorker, Time, Mad Magazine), greeting cards, posters, a designer of pop-up books and…the list goes on and on…teapots, for God’s sake! 

 

And Now for Something Totally Different

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!

 

Surprising Find

This little book was one among many that caught my eye at our weekly trip to the bookstore of our favorite library.  I noticed it was an old book and it had very pretty drawings of rabbits.  I wanted to buy it, but it almost didn’t make the cut, as I had only seven odd dollars with me and my children and I selected about $10 worth of books.  How glad I am that I kept it in my selection!

The story is about a bunny who has always dreamt of being one of the chosen 5 Easter bunnies that deliver all the eggs to the boys and girls on Easter.  Being only a short-legged country girl, she is laughed at by the strong, long-legged male bunnies.  And then, she finds herself grown and married with 21 babies.  When her babies become children, she teaches 2 to sweep, 2 to make the beds, 2 to cook and so forth.  In such a manner she teaches them to handle all the upkeep of the home.  When her little rabbits are “half grown up” one of the 5 Easter bunnies retires and there is a contest to see who will take their place.  Mother goes with her children, if only to watch.  ”Old, wise, and kind Grandfather bunny”, who will decide the replacement, is simply not impressed with all those big and long-legged ones.  For to be a chosen one, you also need to possess kindness and wisdom.  He notices Mother bunny and calls her forward.  He finds all those qualities in her and she becomes not only a chosen one, but the bravest one of all. 

If ever there was a book to represent the current stage of my life!  My little ones are not yet half-grown, but it is only now, after spending years nurturing three babies at home, that I can pursue my artistic dreams.  I only hope that a wise “Grandfather” will notice me.    

 

From a Boy’s Pencil

My five year old son created this story yesterday, titled What Can I be?  He dictated the story for me to write down (so he could copy the letters), then cut out his own pages and completed his 7-page work solely in pencil.  The full text:

Once upon a time there was a plant.  The plant said, “Why can’t I be something else?”

“I want to be, maybe, a trellis, or a house, or a wall, but maybe I might be a screen, or a lock for a cabinet, or I could be grapes.”

“No, I’ll be grass.” 

The end.  “Good bye.”

When I get to, “No, I’ll be grass.” I hear in my head, “And he was. And probably still is.”  That’s Jack Kent’s ending line from Just Only John, a story about a little boy who wishes he too were something else.  I also see this as a basis of a Leo Lionni story.  Or is that just me?