Vintage Chicken Little + Chicken Licken News

Recently found this gem of a golden book from 1960, illustrated by none other than Richard Scarry.  The story is by Vivienne Benstead. 

Foxy Loxy promises to show the birds the way to the castle.  As he walks with each one in turn, he eats them!  Here you need to imagine a picture of Foxy Loxy walking behind little chicken little while he shakes salt down on him.  Shocking fun, I say! 

The story ends with a fabulous,

And there was no one left to tell the King but Foxy Loxy himself.

But Foxy Loxy was much too full to move.

So the King never knew that the sky was falling.

…………………………………………………………..

And, in other news, the announcement for the winner of the Tomie dePaola Award for the Chicken Licken illustration was postponed until next Monday, the 9th. 

If you want to see some of the submissions, the illustrator Diandra Mae has set up a nifty blog to showcase them.  A little subversive perhaps, but I’m proud to have taken part.  There are many excellent drawings.  I would not want to be the one to have to choose the winner!  There are about 100 illustrations in there so far.  See them here.  

 

Mini Coloring Book

This 12-page coloring book (5.5″ x 4.25″) features 12 children’s book characters.

I made 27 of these for my son’s 1st grade class for his birthday treat.  I was pleased to see that the students didn’t seem to mind that they didn’t get blue, frosted cupcakes — they left the classroom all in smiles, flipping through the book and saying,

“I know that one, and I know that one!”

“I know that one too!”

I tried to pick book characters that most would be familiar with, like Peter and Benjamin,  

and Max.

And maybe (?) some less so, like Babar

and Frances.

It amazed me how hard it was to find coloring page images of some classics and well-loved series.  I dare you to find one for Danny and the Dinosaur or Frog and Toad.  Ditto for Frances, anything by James Marshall or William Steig (Shrek the movie doesn’t count), Henry and Mudge, Corduroy, or Harry (The Dirty Dog).

I made the one for Frances above and the one for Danny and The Dinosaur below.  I scanned a page from the book and removed all the color in Photoshop. 

   

I had to make a rough little dummy to figure out the page layouts, then printed them 2 to a page, front and back.  Here’s the first sheet,  both sides.  You’ll notice that the text and corresponding image don’t match up on any of these — that only occurs on the middle page where the stitches go. 

After printing, I sliced the 3 sheets in half (lengthwise) and bound the pages by stitching some yarn from the center Babar page.  The stitching probably took the longest of any step, but they do look more festive than staples. 

Next time I’ll try using more sturdy paper for the outside and a color image on the front.

 

Craft Distraction

I know.  I should be drawing furiously.  The big shebang is only a few weeks away!  *Gulp* 

But how can I resist when my little boy reminds me I promised to make him a little glove chipmunk? 

Ain’t he cute?  See more images of him on my home blog here.

 

Happy/Sad Endings & Late Spring Delights

Yesterday my son received an award for the most books read or read to (about 97% the latter) in his kindergarten class.  He listened to an astounding 1,909 books for the school year.  He was presented with a gift card to B & N and given this sweet book by Bernard Waber. 

All the kids that turned in their reading logs were rewarded with playtime at a nearby park.  I’m happy for my son, but how sad for the two little ones who didn’t get to go?  For the sake of my own peace of mind, I’ll assume their parents just didn’t have the time to record all those books they read, not that they actually didn’t read to them!  Ah, the poor dears… 

Keeping track of all we read was a task.  Did I read this to him or just his sisters?  Did Daddy fall asleep last night reading that or did he finish it?  We tried to stack all the “read books” in one place on the dining table to keep them apart from the books covering every other surface in our home.  But the pile would soon grow into three teetering towers before I would begin to jot down their names on the log.  By then the youngest in the house would have pilfered some away.  So, phew!  I’m glad I can read and think of nothing more than getting a refill in my snack bowl!    

Last night was the last night of my Children’s Book Illustration course taught by the master art director herself, Joy Chu.  I absolutely loved, loved, that class.  I’m sad it’s over. :(  But I’m pleased that I accomplished what I set out to do — complete a story and dummy book with my Pearl and Bear sock/glove animals.  And I was so very happy with the feedback Joy gave me to polish it further.  I’m starting to get nervous about taking some of these pages and turning them into finished art pieces for my portfolio, but that’s all good.  Here are a couple spreads from the middle of Pearl and Bear’s Night Out.

This is such a beautiful time of year.  Around my home, the gazanias have been showing off their stuff, the bougainvillea has finally come to life, the yard is aplenty with flower arrangement pickings,  the birds and bunnies keep visiting, and best of all, the apricots are ripening!  Such plentiful sweetness…

 

Sock Animal Distractions

I’ve created two new animals.  Hopefully they’ll figure into a new story I’m working on with my Pearl and Bear characters (the sock and glove cats). 

Here’s zebra, made of gloves. 

And monkey, made of socks.  I haven’t been able to think of good names for either of them yet.  I want monkey to be a girl and she doesn’t look particularly girlish yet — I thought maybe giving her a headscarf or dress might help.  But she’s just so cute naked…

See more pics of them here and here.

 

SCBWI San Diego: One-Day Conference with Editors & Agents 2011

I’m a little late in getting my thoughts together about my weekend, but this is where I was this past Saturday.  I think it was a fabulous little preview of what the international summer conference in LA will be like.  Great lectures, opportunities for the professionals to see your stuff, time to schmooze, and great OJ and brownies.  I love conferences. 

For a while I’ve been doing little sketches of the people who talk at the meetings I attend.  Apart from great sketching practice, it helps me remember who was talking when I go back and read my notes.  I share this one of the wonderful illustrator David Diaz (Caldecott winner for Smoky Night) only because halfway through it I got the cool feeling that I was drawing a figure from one of his books! 

Here’s my small sketch…

and for the fun comparison, here’s a portion of Diaz’s cover image for Sharing the Seasons.

  

Diaz did my portfolio review.  He was wonderfully kind and helpful and had some nice things to say about my work.  “Wow,” he said.  “Wow”, I thought, he said “Wow”!  He also gave me advice on the direction to go in preparing my portfolio for the LA conference, including encouraging me to develop a story with my Pearl and Bear characters so I could illustrate a few spreads  (ooo, what fun!). 

 

Diaz says he can see these little guys being made into a great e-application!  So I’ve been very much in story-creation mode since the conference ended. 

And where else to get inspiration on writing a great story than after hearing the professionals praise what works and rant about what doesn’t?  I found the First Pages Panel at the conference highly instructional.  The first page from a manuscript of a local SCBWI member’s story was read aloud in front of us and to a panel of 3 agents and 3 editors.  We listened while the panel followed along with a printed copy.  Then the editors and agents (especially the agents — surprisingly, they were the most critical ones) tore the writing apart!  That was fantastic.  

They critiqued word choice, rhythm, story arc, not showing enough restraint in scene description (the key difference between a picture book and a short story, they pointed out), kid appeal, wasting too much time on intro — agent Chris Richman amusingly called this the Scoobie Doo Syndrome (imagine your legs spinning round and round before you really get going), and character names and story lines too similar to what’s already out there (“not doing your research”).  You really got a feel for what to think about when critiquing your own writing.

I also got a preview of the Illustrating Books for Children course run by Joy Chu.  Doesn’t that sound like fun?

You heard a lot about voice making your manuscript stand out above the rest.  Editor Kim Griswell (Senior Editor, Highlights) said voice is the ability to “illuminate the ordinary”.  She believes everyone has it, you just need to uncover it, in part by being brave enough to reveal where you came from.  She advised writing from the specific place you grew up and about the things that shaped you.  She warned against writing about events you haven’t yourself endured (like writing about a loss if you haven’t experienced it) for fear of sounding false.  Write only the stories that you can tell, she said.  And give it emotion! 

Another repeated theme was about not following trends.  Keep in mind, they noted, that what you see today in the published world was created two years back.  So don’t start writing a vampire novel!  Likewise, make up your own slang, or you risk it going out of style, said our local Patricia Morris Buckly during the pre-conference.  HarperCollins Associate Editor Sarah Dotts-Barley reminded us to focus not on the market, but instead on writing our own great story.

I’ll end my post with this wonderful quote by E.B. White about writing for children that Dott’s-Barley read:

You have to write up, not down. Children are demanding. They are the most attentive, curious, eager, observant, sensitive, quick, and generally congenial readers on earth. They accept, almost without question, anything you present them with, as long as it is presented honestly, fearlessly, and clearly.  

Yep. 

For some more notes on the event, check out a nice outline summary from the two gals at Writing on the Sidewalk

and a nice post on the event by the agent Natalie Fischer.

 

New Yorker Contest Results Are In

I was very excited to see two of my faves in their top 12.  Check them out here.  It was a little disappointing that some others that I liked so much didn’t place.  With 600 submissions, shouldn’t they have done a top 20?

 

Craft Distractions

For days now I’ve been up to my ankles in scraps of paper while I’ve been making my son’s Valentine’s Day class cards.  My husband came home from work last night and came upon us casually sitting in the midst of all this debris reading a book.  I believe he uttered, “We need another parent.”  What’s the point of cleaning up while you in the middle of a project, right?

Here are the finished cards, frilly hearts that fold into their own envelope.  My son helped with the artwork.  I actually like his little flowers better than mine.  And yes, that’s a rose a la Charles Rennie Mackintosh, a longtime love of mine.

My other distraction was making this little guy out of gloves for a friend’s birthday. 

You can see more pics of these things on my craft blog.

 

Heidi Contest Winner Announced

No, it wasn’t me! 

For those curious about the winners of the Heidi Illustration Contest or the Tomie depaola Award 2011, SCBWI finally posted the drawings that Tomie depaola picked as the winner and three he felt worthy of commenting on.

Click here to view all Tomie’s favorites.

Here’s the link to my submission.

 

Life Drawing Is Moving

In light of my recent life drawing session (with the wonderful model in a full-frontal position), and the nature of this children’s illustration site, my life drawing sketches are moving.  In the future, you may link to them from “My Other Blogs” on the bottom, right hand side there——————>

or click now here.

 

The New and Improved Pearl and Bear

One came from gloves, one came from socks.  They’re best buds.

Don’t they just beg to have stories written about them?

This is my first foray into making glove animals.  They’re much easier to make (all stitching required is by hand).  They also turn out way cuter.

You may notice that Bear has had some improvements since his last unveiling; cranial and arm reduction, tummy tuck, nose and whisker replacement, and mouth removal.  I like him much better now.

If you’re interested in how I made them, you can find out more here.

 

The New Cat, “Bear”

I used to do a lot more cooking than I have been.  Well, I always do less in the warm months anyway.  The oven is our home’s heater in the winter and muffins and lasagna and the like are more welcome then.  But now that I’m spending every free minute illustrating/ writing / blogging/ book researching there’s even less time at the stove.  That was hit home the other night when I was preparing food in the kitchen and my three-year old called me to her. 

“Mommy can’t come.  She’s cooking dinner,” Daddy replied. 

“Mommy doesn’t cook,” she said incredulous and laughed, “Mommy just buys things.” 

Yep, not the Mommy I used to be…

And what have I been spending my entire weekend and today on?  A sock animal!  I finished it today while my youngest (who I knew was being more quiet than she should be) and the other 2 were occupied with PBS Kids on the computer in the other room.  Yes, my little one was not watching the computer but tattooing herself by drawing all over her arms and hands with a ballpoint pen she found on the desk.

Trust me, the time spent is worth it, and it is book related.  I thought why am I spending so much time drawing a licensed Beanie Baby when I could be drawing one of my own creations?  So move over Beanie Baby; meet the new and improved cat named Bear.  He may change a bit, I keep fiddling with his form and eyes, mouth, etc. — the smallest change has such an impact on his look!

 

I’m in print!

I submitted a drawing for my local Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrator’s newsletter.  It was a little thrill to see my artwork come back to me in printed form through the mail. 

 

 

Kitties at Play – 15 Minutes

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’ve Got a Website!

Yes, it’s still in its infancy.  But I conceive this site as a showcase for my drawings and children’s book ideas, and as a place to link to my many other homemade projects (everything from sock monkeys to my redwood arbor in my beloved garden).  As my garden grows, so shall my art portfolio – slowly, sometimes in explosive bursts, but always (hopefully) with beauty.